“Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body. Conversely physicians treat the body with no regard to the mind or emotions. But the body and mind are not separate, and we can’t treat one without the other.”
– Dr. Candace Pert (1946-2013)
June 26th marks the birthday of pharmacologist and research scientist Dr. Candace Pert, whose work greatly enriched our understanding of mind-body medicine. Her groundbreaking book, “Molecules of Emotion: The Scientific Basis Behind Mind-Body Medicine,” describes her experience as a neuroscience researcher at the National Institute of Health (NIH). It was at the NIH that she discovered the presence of neuropeptides such as endorphins dispersed throughout the entire body, informational substances which communicate to organ systems, and influence human perception of emotions and thoughts. The presence of these neuropeptides and their receptors throughout the body is understood to be scientific evidence that there is no separation between body and mind. Neuropeptides are quite literally the ‘molecules of emotion.’ Pert is widely regarded as the mother of psychoneuroimmunology, a field of study that explores the physiological connections between thought, emotion, and the nervous and immune systems.
Dr. Pert had a very rich career marked with many honors and accomplishments, including the discovery of the opiate receptor as a graduate student in the 1980s. As a woman scientist, she broke gender barriers by becoming the Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry, Clinical Neuroscience Branch, at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1983. At the time of her death in 2013, Dr. Pert was the Chief Scientific Officer of Rapid Pharmaceuticals, a company she co-founded that continues her research on peptides for neurological and immune disorders, including the development of an AIDS vaccine.
Candace Pert is featured in the 2004 film “What the Bleep Do We Know,” a metaphysical documentary exploring the connections between neuroscience and quantum physics. She published several books as well as numerous scientific papers, and recorded a meditation for alleviating stress and balancing the chakras or ‘segments’ of the body-mind. Her work was at many times controversial, pushing boundaries within the often dogmatic domain of science to allow for the possibility of spirituality and mysticism.
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