The emerging new scientific model provides for the influence of the mind on the brain and body, of the nonmaterial on the material. Says Pert, who is chief of the section on brain biochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health: "I'm no longer interested in studying merely the brain. I'm ready now to study the mind. And I think it's now possible to do”.

Pert sees the "body as the outward manifestation of the mind" and body and brain as inseparable. Evidence of that inseparability comes from the discovery that a number of the chemical messengers in the body are the same as the ones in the brain. Among these "communication molecules" are neuropeptides that regulate our moods and emotions. Because some can be found in the intestines as well as in the limbic system our "feeling brain". Pert says, "the emotions are not just in the brain, they're in the body." Having a "gut feeling" about something, then, is more than just a figure of speech.

Out of the new knowledge the heady revolution has generated comes the recognition that the brain, nervous system, immune system and endocrine system may be so closely linked that they constitute a single regulatory network in the body. How we view something in our environment and the way we react trigger activity in the hypothalamus and limbic area of the brain, leading to the release of hormones, which then influence the white blood cells of our immune systems and affect our vulnerability to disease. White cells, as well as brain cells and nerve fibers, may release stress chemicals when we view something as a threat. And, be, cause the body seems regulated by a single interlinking network, the immune system influences the nervous system just as the nervous system affects the immune system.

Direct effects on even the molecular level may occur if we chronically cope poorly and are highly distressed. Recent research suggests that in addition to impairment of our immune system, another important defense against cancer our DNA repair may be compromised.

But most of medicine continues to pretend that mind and body are separate and that the pathways by which attitudes and moods physically affect our organs and tissue are really imaginary. We are told that too much is being made of the psyche's influence on health and that simple "physical” explanations will be found to account for the major disorders, as if mind and brain have no physical reality.