Herbert Benson
Herbert Benson | |
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Born |
Herbert Benson (April 24, 1935 – February 3, 2022) was an American medical doctor,
Started in 1998,
Benson coined relaxation response (and wrote a book by the same title) as a scientific term for the reversion of the physical stress response that can be elicited by meditation, and he used it to describe the ability of the body to stimulate relaxation of muscle and organs.[7]
Biography
Benson was born on April 24, 1935, in
Benson became founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Harvard Medical School in 1988. He founded the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2006,[11] where he became its director.[1]
Benson died from heart disease and kidney failure at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, on February 3, 2022, at the age of 86.[8]
Notable projects
Mind body medicine
In the 1960s at Harvard Medical School,[12] Benson pioneered mind-body research, focusing on stress and the relaxation response in medicine. In his research, the mind and body are one system, in which meditation can play a significant role in reducing stress responses. He continued to pioneer medical research into bodymind questions. He introduced the term relaxation response as a scientific alternative for meditation. According to him, relaxation response is the ability of the body to induce decreased activity of muscle and organs. It is an opposite reaction to the fight-or-flight response.[7] With Robert Keith Wallace, he observed that Transcendental Meditation reduced metabolism, rate of breathing, heart rate, and brain activity.[1][13]
Intercessory prayer
In 1998, Benson started a research project on the efficacy of prayer among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, was explicit that its objective was not to prove or disprove the existence of God.[4] This "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP)" became popularly known as the "Great Prayer Experiment"[14] and was described as "the most intense investigation ever undertaken of whether prayer can help to heal illness."[15] The trial attempted to differentiate among outcomes in three groups of patients: (1) those uncertain of whether they were being prayed for, who were; (2) those uncertain of whether they were being prayed for, who were not; and (3) those being prayed for who were certain of it. The conclusion, published in 2006, was that intercessory prayer has no beneficial effect on CABG patients.[5][16][17] Indeed, certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was actually associated with a higher incidence of complications.
Personal life
Benson married Marilyn Benson, and they had two children, Jennifer and Gregory.[10]
Awards and honours
- Mosby Scholarship Award of Harvard Medical School in 1961
- Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology2007
- Medical Foundation Fellowship during 1967–1969
- Fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 1976
- Medical Self-Care Award for 1976
- Honorary President, Chinese Society of Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback in 1988
- Distinguished Alumnus Award of Wesleyan University in 1992
- DPS (honorary) from Cedar Crest College in 2000
- Hans Selye Award of 2000
- National Samaritan Award from The Samaritan Institute in 2002
- Mani Bhaumik Award from The Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA, California, in 2009
Publications
- ISBN 978-0-688-02955-5
- The Mind/Body Effect: How behavioral medicine can show you the way to better health, 1979. ISBN 978-0-671-24143-8
- Beyond the Relaxation Response, 1984
- Your Maximum Mind, 1987
- 'Contributor' - MindScience: An East-West Dialogue ISBN 978-0-86171-066-9
- The Wellness Book, 1992
- Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief, 1996. ISBN 978-0-7881-5775-2
- The Relaxation Response - Updated and Expanded (25th Anniversary Edition), 2000
- The Breakout Principle, 2003
- Mind Over Menopause, 2004
- Mind Your Heart, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7432-3702-4
- The Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure, 2006. ISBN 978-0-07-144801-7
- Relaxation Revolution, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4391-4865-5
References
- ^ a b c "Dr. Herbert Benson". Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ "Dr. Herbert Benson". The Legacy of Wisdon Project. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ "2000 Hans Selye Award". The American Institute of Stress. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ PMID 11923793.
- ^ PMID 16569567.
- ^ "Dr Herbert Benson: Prayer Has a Therapeutic Effect". VISUAL MEDITATION. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ a b Mitchell, Marilyn (29 March 2013). "Dr. Herbert Benson's Relaxation Response". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ a b Marquard, Bryan (6 February 2022). "Dr. Herbert Benson, who documented and promoted meditation's health benefits, dies at 86". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ Benson, Herbert (2011). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Massachusetts General Hospital. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ a b "Benson, Herbert, 1935- . Papers, 1960–2003: A Finding Aid". Oasis: Harvard University Library. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 26 August 2004. Archived from the original on 2014-07-03. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ "About the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine". Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ Massachusetts General Hospital, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, https://www.bensonhenryinstitute.org/about/mission-and-history
- ^ Emory, Margaret (15 December 2011). "Dr. Herbert Benson on the Mind/Body Connection". BrainWorld. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ Gamble, Dave (30 June 2013). "Scientific Studies of Prayer – the good, the bad, and the really really ugly". Skeptical Science. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- S2CID 12540423.
- ^ "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP)". John Templeton Foundation. Archived from the original on 16 June 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ Cromie, William J. (6 April 2006). "Prayers don't help heart surgery patients". Harvard University Gazette. President and Fellows of Harvard College. Archived from the original on 2014-04-30. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
Additional sources
- Benson, Herbert (1976). Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response. RelaxationResponse.org. From The Relaxation Response. HarperTorch.
- Benson, Herbert; Lehmann, John W.; Malhotra, M. S.; Goldman, Ralph F.; Hopkins, Jeffrey; Epstein, Mark D. (1982). "Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga" (PDF). Nature. 295 (5846): 234–236. S2CID 4272584. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-07-07.
- Benson, Herbert (1998). Staying Healthy in a Stressful World. PBS Body & Soul with Gail Harris. PBS Online: Beacon Productions.
- Carey, Benedict (2006). Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer. Mar 31. New York Times
- Kiesling, Stephen, and T. George Harris (1989). The prayer war - Herbert Benson's research on health benefits of prayer. Oct. Psychology Today.
External links
- Benson-Henry Institute for Mind and Body at The Massachusetts General Hospital
- Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response at the Wayback Machine (archived February 15, 2005)
- Spirituality emerges as point of debate in mind-body movement
- Inner Calm: Benson explains relaxation techniques on Humankind public radio
- The Herbert Benson Papers at The Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
- "Meditation changes temperatures" – An article on the Harvard study about Meditation controlling body temperatures.