for "information molecules" (or neuropeptides) were myriad as stars
　　　　  scattered through the bodily firmament have launched the branch of
　　　　  medicine known as psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), which is busy
　　　　  codifying a self-evident truth: Mind and body have their hands so
　　　　  deep in each other's pockets it's hard to tell whose car keys are
　　　　  whose.
　　　　  So-called messenger molecules are suddenly turning up everywhere--in
　　　　  the brain (particularly in the centers governing emotion),
　　　　  throughout the immune system, and in organs from gut to gland. Our
　　　　  thoughts and feelings are mediated by neuropeptides; diseases
　　　　  secrete neuropeptides; neuropeptides may be crucial to the healing
　　　　  response. What Pert proved once and for all is that brain, nervous
　　　　  system, and immune system, far from being incommunicado, are at this
　　　　  very second hunched elbow-to-elbow at the espresso bar of the
　　　　  Chatterbox Cafe, animatedly sharing your most intimate particulars.
　　　　  I met Pert four years ago when she was in town to speak at a healing
　　　　  conference. I was already well apprised of the mind-body factor,
　　　　  having suffered a hellacious bout with cancer that was accompanied
　　　　  by altered states more colorful that any I'd encountered in a
　　　　  lifetime of Buddhist meditation. Pert was just beginning to venture
　　　　  forth from the autoclaved precincts of official research to more
　　　　  new-age venues, trying out the PNI gospel on an audience more
　　　　  receptive than most of her colleagues. In her flowing orange
　　　　  floral-print dress, slinging her pointer over her shoulder with
　　　　  precision rifle-drill panache, her words ricocheting in breathless
　　　　  spurts, she was like some hip diva of science. The next day,
　　　　  recognizing a kindred glimmer, we decided to play hooky from that
　　　　  afternoon's lectures for a picnic lunch in the mountains.
　　　　  Though she may tone it down at phlegmier scientific gatherings, Pert
　　　　  at ease seems on the verge of autoelectrocution from a surfeit of
　　　　  cranial wattage. "Emotions exist in two realms," she told me between
　　　　  exclamations about the view from a dizzying curve that sent gravel
　　　　  rattling into our wheel rims. "One is the mind. The other is the
　　　　  realm of living matter. Of course, science expects you to dutifully
　　　　  exclude the soul. But I can't. The whole thing's vibrating back and
　　　　  forth. We're actually talking about music."
　　　　  She hazarded that each neuropeptide--the list of which has burgeoned
　　　　  from five just a few years ago to over five dozen--may "evoke a
　　　　  unique 'tone' that is equivalent to a mood state." I pictured mind