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It is a rare privilege to read a book about a highly complex area of scientific research and the political complexities of the scientific community, to be gripped by it as one would a Le Carre thriller and to feel to so moved by the spiritual unfolding of the author as she was changed by her discoveries. Candace Pert achieves all of this in Molecules of Emotion.

This book describes her personal and professional journey as a neuroscientist, who uniquely, finds herself crossing many of the divides into immunology, biochemistry, behavioural psychology, pharmacology, philosophy and spirituality, with brief forays into AIDS and cancer research. She clearly ruffled many feathers with the breadth of her vision, not only as a woman in a man's world, but as scientist who is highly gifted and willing to think laterally - beyond prevailing paradigms. She leads us gently through many complicated concepts, drawing on her hard-won research, to present a picture of the absolute interconnectedness of mind and body or, as she terms it, bodymind - the implications of which will set the hearts aflutter of all practitioners involved in holistic health or mind/body medicine.

This book spans 27 years of Pert's life from her days as a postgraduate student until the present day. It traces her initial research into neuropeptides in the early 1970s and the subsequent discovery of the opiate receptor, which proved that the body has an inbuilt mechanism to receive and use substances such as opium and morphine. She says, "We knew that the brain receptor didn't exist to serve as a binding mechanism for external plant extracts such as morphine and opium. No, the only reason it made any sense for an opiate receptor to be in the brain in the first place was if the body produced some kind of substance, an organic chemical that fits the tiny keyhole itself - a natural opiate." This finding launched her into the world of big-time science and for a ten-year period she was among the top 130 most cited scientists in the world.

Her descriptions of the cut-throat world of research science are shocking to the uninitiated; she pulls no punches about her experience and her own part in the game. The unfairness of her treatment when she was excluded from the prestigious Lasker Award and a subsequent Nobel nomination, was the source of tremendous suffering and learning, ultimately forcing her to alter her own values. This, combined with the slow acceptance of her work in the wider scientific community, would leave many lesser mortals embittered. However, she emerges as mature and exceedingly generous: "Truly original, boundary breaking ideas are rarely welcomed at first, no matter who proposes them. Protecting the prevailing paradigm, science moves slowly, because it doesn't want to make mistakes. Consequently genuinely new and important ideas are often subjected to nitpickingly intense scrutiny, if not downright rejection and revulsion, and getting them published becomes a Sisyphean labour." It has taken ten years for research in psychoneuroimmunology, PNI, by Pert and her colleagues, to begin to gain acceptance. Even though it is scientifically sound and capable of being applied therapeutically, sadly it is unlikely to be accepted for many years to come.

Pert was quick to adopt the term "bodymind" when her research led her to believe that we can no longer separate the two. She also overturned the perception that the emotional brain is confined to the classical locations of amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus, when she discovered there are high concentrations of neuropeptide receptors in other anatomical locations, concluding, "Neuropeptides and their receptors thus join the brain, glands and immune system in a network of communication between the brain and body, probably representing the biochemical substrate of emotion."

As her work progressed, Pert underwent many changes in her perception of how the world works. This evolution of her own consciousness led her not only to changes in her lifestyle but to further clarify her work and be able to state with confidence that neuropeptides and their receptors could be considered the "biochemicals of emotion" and that the bodymind is in an exquisite information feedback loop. She demonstrates that patterns of thought set up patterns of emotion, which set up patterns of physiological response, which are endlessly replicated, unless at any given point an new pattern is established. This clarification has provided a welcome confirmation for practitioners of relaxation, imagery, hypnotherapy, meditation and so on, who teach people ways of altering the body chemistry, to reduce stress or augment healing, through the use of the mind. Even though they know the benefits of these approaches and are in no doubt of their validity, it is always heartening to see science, experience and what is often called intuition, uphold each other.

It clearly takes courage, a deep intuitive conviction and enormous tenacity to be a scientist who is able to think beyond the confines of current scientific thinking and to be at the forefront of an emerging paradigm. And to be able to write about it so fluently, in a way that is understandable to non-scientists, is enviable. The mix of scientific fact, personal experience and historical perspective works well; her refreshing honesty and openness touch the heart; together they satisfy the mind and the feelings. Pert is demonstrating in her writing what she has learned through science and the personal transformation it has brought her. She is "walking her talk". It is rather fitting in a book about the profound and far-reaching effect of the mind and emotions, that the reader is left feeling uplifted, positive and hopeful about the future, not only of PNI but humanity itself. Molecules of Emotion is an inspirational book and highly recommended.

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