Immune System Activation

Selby ( Finding Each Other ; The Holis tic Guide to Massage ) purports to serve a serious remedial purpose for grave maladies (cancer and AIDS) in this holistic treatment plan that leans heavily for its credibility on the immune system without seeming to understand or value its physiological workings. Asserting that stress and anxiety reduction, good nutrition, carefree lifestyle, meditation and spiritual healing are good for you (``we need to take an honest look at our own relationship with the ongoing present moment''), the author gives no proof that any of the above exert a clear and beneficial effect on the immune system. His dearth of facts is half-hidden by dropped names (``Nobel Prize-winner Rita Levi-Montalcini''; Hans Selye) that lend an unwarranted authority to what is, at best, a hodgepodge of flummery and, at worst, an empty promise to people afflicted with conditions beyond the reach of today's medicine. (Feb.)