Hi again, Millie. I appreciate your response. Since I have a long-standing interest in psychology and human nature in general, I not only read the review you linked to but also went to Amazon are read several reviews on her book (5 stars and 1 stars) and then went to YouTube and listened to two of Candace Pert's talks. It appears that she did some ground-breaking research on peptides and receptors on the cells in regard to the body's way of communicating between various body parts including the brain. Then it appears that she went beyond the science into speculation of what it all meant in spiritual terms.
MillieNeon wrote:At its best, Molecules of Emotion is a lucid explanation of new research on the way peptides work to connect all aspects of body and mind in a network of shared information.
MillieNeon wrote:And those hormones affect not only the brain, but every aspect of body and mind; many memories are stored throughout the body, as changes in the structure of receptors at the cellular level. "The body," Pert concludes, "is the unconscious mind!"
For centuries thinking people have understood that the body/brain/mind are interconnected (although the mechanisms were not understood) and that is certainly true.
But there is no evidence (to my knowledge) that "information is shared" or "memories are stored ... throughout the body." Actually the evidence is contrary. When people suffer strokes or brain damage they may loose certain memories and skills. When various other parts of the body are damaged or even removed, memories are not affected.
It has long been understood that positive thinking can affect the course of some diseases, but again it was not known how. It appears that Pert's work (along with her colleagues) has discovered something of the how of that, which could be very helpful.
MillieNeon wrote:For example, it's through the emotion-modulating peptides that an embarrassing thought can cause blood vessels to dilate and turn a face beet red.
But for embarrassment to occur requires an outside event to which the person reacts according to her/his thoughts/beliefs. Two different people subjected to the same event may react in very different ways -- one may become embarrassed, the other not at all. The brain/mind still leads in that regard.
In her later years it appears that Pert tried to connect her scientific work to spiritual beliefs along the line of Depak Chopra. Speculation.