Wacky (and Dangerous) Problem with 97 Taurus

Here's the quick rundown of the problem: touch the brake, tach drops, ABS and some other dash lights come on, then car 'restarts' and continues on. Sometimes re-occurs on same trip with more severity, other times goes away for weeks.

Long Version: This has been an intermittent problem for the past few months. Now it has evolved to the point where the problem happens without touching the brake. It also started out as rain-related but has now happened when dry. It also generally occurs during city driving, but the other day happened while doing 75mph on cruise control and without touching any pedals or buttons. During that episode the car knew that cruise was still on but since the tach was down to zero it red-lined the motor to get back up to speed even though I was already going over 70mph. The worst event happened last week when all dash lights came on, high beams blinked on and off, tach & speedo dropped. This lasted about 2 seconds then came back to normal. About one minute later it all happened again for about 10 seconds, but the car resumed to normal operation after I touched the accelerator--the problem has not happened since (about 8 days). At the time the car had been rained on but the streets were dry by the time I drove it.

During these episodes the car has stalled completely only once and that was in a parking lot--otherwise it always has continued to run after the wacky behavior.

Is replacing the TRS/NSS the best place to start for these symptoms? Also, where are the ground points to check?

Thanks for any info.

Chas.