Herbert Benson

Herbert Benson (* 1935 in Yonkers, New York ) is an American doctor , cardiologist and founder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston . He teaches Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) at MGH. He is a founding curator of the American Institute of Stress.

Benson coined the scientific term Benson meditation (relaxation response) - he also wrote a book with the same title - and used the term to describe the body's ability to stimulate relaxation of muscles and organs.

biography

Benson graduated from Wesleyan University with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1957 and began a medical degree at Harvard Medical School, where he was awarded his professional doctorate (MD) in 1961 . He also subsequently attended post-doctoral courses at King County Hospital , Seattle; the University Hospital, University of Washington , Seattle; the National Heart Institute, Bethesda; the University of Puerto Rico ; and the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Boston City Hospital.

In 1969 he became a lecturer in physiology, in the following year assistant professor of medicine and in 1972 associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1977 he was appointed associate professor at Beth Israel Hospital (NY). He held this post until 1987. He then returned to Harvard University Medical School. With the creation of the Mind / Body Institute at Harvard University in 1992, he became an associate professor again, then a full professor.

He has been a practicing physician at Beth Israel Hospital since 1974. Between 1990 and 1997 he taught medicine and religion at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Center.

Benson became the founding chairman of the Mind / Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School in 1988. He founded the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2006 and became its director.

In 1988 he became head of the study on the therapeutic effect of prayers (English. Study of the Therapeutic Effects of intercessory Prayer - STEP or Great Prayer Experiment called). As a result, published in 2006, it was concluded that intercession has no beneficial effect on patients after coronary bypass surgery. However, he continues to believe in the positive effects of prayer on recovery.

Benson is married to Marilyn Benson and they have two children, Jennifer and Gregory.

Special projects

Mind-Body Medicine

In the 1960s, during his time at Harvard Medical School, he did pioneering work in mind-body research. The focus was on stress and the so-called Benson meditation (relaxation response). In his research, mind and body are viewed as a unit, so meditation can play a significant role in stress responses. He continued to research the medical relationship between mind and body. Benson introduced the word relaxation response as an alternative scientific term for meditation. He believes that relaxation response has the ability to re-stimulate decreased muscle and organ activity in the body. It is contrary to the fight-or-flight response. Together with Keith Wallace, he observed that Benson meditation reduced metabolism, respiratory rate, pulse and brain activity.

Intercession Study

Benson began a research project in 1988 aimed at the effectiveness of prayers in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery . The project was funded by the John Templeton Foundation and was in no way intended as proof of God or refutation. This "study of the therapeutic effects of intercession" became widely known as "the great prayer experiment" and has been described as "the most intensive study of all time into whether prayer can cure diseases". Three groups of patients were distinguished in the experiment:

• those who have been prayed for but who have been left in the dark,
• those who were not prayed for and also left in the dark and eventually
• those who were sure they were being prayed for.

The result was published in 2006 and showed that intercessional prayers had no healing effect on patients with coronary artery bypass. In fact, there was a higher frequency of complications when there was certainty that it was the subject of an intercessory prayer.

honors and awards

• 1961 Mosby Scholarship at Harvard Medical School
• 1967–1969 Medical Foundation Fellowship
• 1976 Fellow from the American College of Cardiology
• 1976 Medical Self-Care Award
• 1988 Honorary President, Chinese Society of Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback
• 1992 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Wesleyan University
• 1997 Doctor of Humane Letters from Becker College, honorary
• 2000 Honorary Doctor of Professional Studies from Cedar Crest College
• 2000 Hans Selye Award
• 2002 Doctor of Humane Letters from Lasell College
• 2002 National Samaritan Award from The Samaritan Institute
• 2007 Doctor of Humane Letters from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
• 2009 Mani Bhaumik Award from The Cousins ​​Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles

Publications

Benson published more than 190 scientific publications and 12 books. More than 5 million copies of his books have been printed in multiple languages.

• The Relaxation Response , 1975. 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 Daniel Goleman and Robert AF Thurman Editors, Wisdom Publications, 1991. ISBN 978-0-86171-066-9
• The Wellness Book , 1992 German edition: The great wellness book, 1995
• Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief , 1996. ISBN 978-0-7881-5775-2 German edition: Healing through faith, 1997 ISBN 978-3-4531-4671-6
• 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
• Benson, Herbert (1976). Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response. RelaxationResponse.org. From The Relaxation Response. HarperTorch.
• Herbert Benson, John W. Lehmann, MS Malhotra, Ralph F. Goldman, Jeffrey Hopkins, Mark D. Epstein: Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. In: Nature . 295, No. 5846, 1982, pp. 234-236. doi : 10.1038 / 295234a0 . PMID 7035966 .
• 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 .

Web links

• Benson-Henry Institute for Mind and Body home page
• Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response
• The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine
• Spirituality emerges as a point of debate in the mind-body movement
• Inner Calm: Benson explains relaxation techniques on Humankind public radio
• The Herbert Benson Papers can be found here: The Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
• "Meditation changes temperatures" - An article about the Harvard study on meditation to control body temperature

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dr. Herbert Benson's Relaxation Response . In: Psychology Today , Sussex Publishers, LLC, March 29, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
2. ^ Herbert Benson: Curriculum Vitae . Massachusetts General Hospital. 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Benson, Herbert, 1935-. Papers, 1960-2003: A Finding Aid . President and Fellows of Harvard College. August 26, 2004. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
4. ^ About the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine . Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Dr. Herbert Benson . Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Jeffery A. Dusek, Jane B. Sherwood, Richard Friedman, Patricia Myers, Charles F. Bethea, Sidney Levitsky, Peter C. Hill, Manoj K. Jain, Stephen L. Kopecky, Paul S. Mueller, Peter Lam, Herbert Benson, Patricia L. Hibberd: Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP): Study design and research methods . In: American Heart Journal . 143, No. 4, 2002, pp. 577-584. doi : 10.1067 / mhj.2002.122172 . PMID 11923793 .
7. ^ ^{A b} Herbert Benson, Jeffery A. Dusek, Jane B. Sherwood, Peter Lam, Charles F. Bethea, William Carpenter, Sidney Levitsky, Peter C. Hill, Donald W. Clem, Manoj K. Jain, David Drumel, Stephen L Kopecky, Paul S. Mueller, Dean Marek, Sue Rollins, Patricia L. Hibberd: Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer . In: American Heart Journal . 151, No. 4, 2006, pp. 934-942. doi : 10.1016 / y.ahj.2005.05.028 . PMID 16569567 .
8. ^ Dr Herbert Benson: Prayer Has a Therapeutic Effect . VISUAL MEDITATION. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
9. ↑ Massachusetts General Hospital, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, https://www.bensonhenryinstitute.org/mission-history/
10. ↑ Dr. Herbert Benson on the Mind / Body Connection . In: BrainWorld , December 15, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
11. ^ Dave Gamble: Scientific Studies of Prayer - the good, the bad, and the really really ugly . June 30, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
12. ^ G. Weissmann: NIH funding: not a prayer . In: The FASEB Journal . 20, No. 9, 2006, pp. 1278-1280. doi : 10.1096 / fj.06-0701ufm . PMID 16816099 .
13. ^ Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) . John Templeton Foundation. Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2014. 
14. ↑ Prayers don't help heart surgery patients . In: Harvard University Gazette , President and Fellows of Harvard College, April 6, 2006. Archived from the original on April 30, 2014 Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 12, 2014.  
15. ↑ Dr. Herbert Benson . Retrieved July 12, 2014.
16. ↑ 2000 Hans Selye Award . The American Institute of Stress. Retrieved July 12, 2014.