Book summary “The relaxation response”: summary

Introduction

You live in a culture driven by constant urgency, facing endless demands that trigger chronic worry and physical tension. This relentless pressure activates your fight-or-flight response, raising your blood pressure and wearing down your health over time.

Herbert Benson discovered that you possess an inborn physiological mechanism to counteract this damage. The relaxation response halts stress, lowers your metabolism, and restores physical balance.

This book explains how to elicit this state and combine it with your personal belief system. You will explore laboratory experiments, Himalayan expeditions, and clinical treatments.

• How does your body naturally counteract the fight-or-flight response?
• What happens to your metabolism and brain waves during deep meditation?
• How do your personal beliefs enhance physical healing?

1. Mechanisms of the Relaxation Response

The Power of Perception

Your physical responses and bodily reactions are heavily driven by what your mind perceives to be real. Interpretations of reality influence your personal powers and overall well-being. Your body responds physically to mental states, demonstrating that internal perception dictates physiological outcomes.

During screenings of the film Lawrence of Arabia, audiences in air-conditioned theaters experienced a veritable epidemic of thirst and demanded drinks at intermissions because they identified with the hot, dry desert scenes on screen.

Defining the Relaxation Response

The Relaxation Response is an inborn physiological capability of the body that counteracts stress by reducing metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and brain wave activity.

By entering this peaceful condition, you can break free from unproductive repetitive mental loops known as worry cycles that impair health and cause anxiety. Herbert Benson published The Relaxation Response in 1975, followed by The Mind/Body Effect in 1979.

You can elicit this physiological state by following four simple steps:

• Find a quiet environment
• Consciously relax the body's muscles
• Focus for ten to twenty minutes on a mental device, such as the word one or a brief prayer
• Assume a passive attitude toward intrusive thoughts

The Faith Factor is created by combining a basic Relaxation-Response technique with an individual's deepest personal religious or philosophical convictions.

Herbert Benson serves as a bridge between traditional faith, meditative practices, and scientific observation. When used effectively alongside modern medicine, the Faith Factor helps alleviate a wide range of physical and mental problems without replacing medical care. Up to 80 percent of angina pain can be relieved by positive belief.

2. Frontiers of Scientific Research

Scientific research into dreams, pseudocyesis, and the placebo effect demonstrates how deep mental states and beliefs directly generate physical changes in the body.

Dreams and Pseudocyesis

During sleep and dreaming, the brain perceives dream content as actual reality, triggering physical reactions and medical crises in the body. Monitoring equipment reveals that physiological changes mirror dream activity.

Dr. J. B. Nowlin and his associates used EKG and monitoring equipment to show that nocturnal angina pectoris attacks during REM sleep were associated with dreams involving strenuous physical activity, fear, anger, or frustration. Dr. R. H. Armstrong also found significant increases in gastric acid secretion during periods of dreaming in duodenal ulcer patients. Most deaths and disturbances frequently occur around 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning.

Pseudocyesis, or false pregnancy, demonstrates how strong psychological factors and deep beliefs can alter hormonal systems and generate physical signs of pregnancy.

Patients develop symptoms such as suppressed menstruation, abdominal enlargement, breast changes, milk secretion, and sensations of fetal movement due to underlying psychological desires, fears, or depression involving the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. In 300 b.c., Hippocrates reported twelve cases of women with suppressed menses and swollen matrices imagining pregnancy.

In the sixteenth century, Mary Tudor recurrently experienced false pregnancy with symptoms lasting 9 months and culminating in two episodes of false labor. In modern studies, 9 of 27 patients were told they were pregnant by 16 of 40 examining physicians. Brain cells form complex networks utilizing electrical impulses, neurotransmitters, and simultaneous parallel processing. Once pathways are wired, triggers like odors, thoughts, or memories can elicit physical reactions like nausea or relief without the physical presence of the original stimulus.

The Placebo Effect in Medicine

The placebo effect occurs when your trust and faith in a physician's assurances or in a nonmedicated treatment reroutes brain circuits to produce genuine physiological healing. A doctor's comforting manner or the mere knowledge that medication is available can activate mental circuits that alleviate symptoms and eliminate tension without active pharmacological intervention.

Modern medicine notes that 75 percent of doctor visits are for conditions that get better by themselves without specific medical treatments. Only 25 percent of illnesses diagnosed by modern medicine respond to specific medical treatments.

Modern theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, and theological concepts converge on the idea of a fundamental, unified reality where all things are interconnected. Physicists examining subatomic particles and Bell's theorem suggest that the universe operates as an undivided whole. Theologians and meditative traditions argue that human consciousness and faith can tap into this underlying universal energy field to produce extraordinary physical feats.

In 1964, physicist J. S. Bell formulated Bell's mathematical theorem on subatomic connectedness. Tibetan Buddhists claim and have been reported to generate body heat during meditation to melt surrounding snow and defy gravity, demonstrating a profound mental harmony with the deepest structures of reality through states like samadhi or satori.

3. Beyond the Relaxation Response in the Himalayas

Scientific expeditions to Upper Dharmsala in the Indian Himalayas measure advanced meditative practices like gTum-mo Yoga to evaluate extreme mind-body control over body temperature.

Herbert Benson organized a research team to travel to Upper Dharmsala in the Indian Himalayas to scientifically measure claims of supernormal abilities among Tibetan Buddhist monks, such as raising skin temperatures and levitation. The author met with the Dalai Lama in 1979 at Harvard University's Dana-Palmer House to secure permission for the scientific study of Tibetan monks. Tibetan exiles settled in Upper Dharmsala on a plateau at an elevation of 7000 feet.

When the Dalai Lama requested that the author pay attention to Tibetan medicine, specifically the belief of the doctor, the belief of the patient, and their karma, the author recognized these as identical to the Western placebo effect. The author laughed during his meeting with the Dalai Lama when he realized that Tibetan medicine's core components mirrored the Western concept of the placebo effect.

The Road to Upper Dharmsala

The research team gathered specialized instruments, including disk thermistors, flexible rectal thermometers, and a mini weather station, supplied by the U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine to measure skin and core temperatures while controlling for environmental factors. The expedition party carried twenty pieces of luggage filled with delicate monitoring gear. Dr. Ralph Goldman provided thermistors and a mini weather station to monitor air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and radiant heat during the experiments.

Literally translated as fierce woman, gTum-mo is a meditative practice where practitioners believe they burn away false perceptions of reality by directing internal winds to generate heat and melt generative fluids, producing states of bliss. The author interviewed the Venerable G.J., a fifty-nine-year-old Geshe who practiced gTum-mo Yoga for fifteen minutes daily.

Testing gTum-mo Yoga

The researchers implemented a three-stage protocol consisting of a control period before meditation, a meditative period during the practice, and a recovery period after meditation ceased, measuring body temperatures every five minutes. The team measured skin temperatures on the abdomen, lower back, chest, forearm, fingernail beds, toenail beds, and forehead during the three experimental stages.

To replicate these measurements in future personal studies, you can follow this protocol:

• Record baseline body temperatures during a control stage before meditation begins.
• Monitor physiological measurements continuously while the subject induces the meditative state.
• Track measurements through a recovery stage as the subject emerges from meditation.

Measurements of the first monk showed that while his core body temperature remained completely stable, his finger temperature rose by over 9 degrees Fahrenheit and his toe temperature increased by nearly 13 degrees Fahrenheit. During the study of the Venerable G.J., finger temperature increased by more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit and toe temperature rose nearly 13 degrees Fahrenheit above the control period during a fifty-five-minute meditation and thirty-minute recovery.

The research team tested a second monk named the Venerable J.T. at forty-six years old. His finger temperature increased by 13 degrees Fahrenheit and his toe temperature rose by about 7 degrees Fahrenheit during an eighty-five-minute meditation session.

Initial outdoor testing of the third monk failed because direct sunlight caused radiant-heat effects that warmed his body, requiring a subsequent evening test in a cool hotel room to isolate the true meditative effect. The team retested the Venerable L.T. at fifty years old in a cool hotel room in the evening, observing a 6.4-degree increase in finger temperature and a 15-degree increase in toe temperature during a forty-minute meditation stage.

By demonstrating that mental discipline can dilate skin blood vessels and increase peripheral temperature, the study opens horizons for applying mind-body techniques to medical problems previously treated only through physical means. The author concluded that the ability to increase extremity temperature through the fierce woman technique could help people suffering from excessive coldness in their hands and feet.

4. Practical Applications and the Faith Factor

Combining the Relaxation Response with a personal belief system creates the Faith Factor, which serves as a powerful therapeutic tool for managing chronic physical and mental problems.

You can activate this inner capacity by selecting a short, personally meaningful focus word or phrase rooted in your belief system and repeating it passively during breathing. A 59-year-old salesman used a Catholic prayer to control hyperventilation by stopping an attack with a deep breath and reciting his prayer.

• Pick a brief phrase or word that reflects your basic belief system, maximum of six or seven words.
• Choose a comfortable position that prevents you from dozing off.
• Close your eyes easily and naturally.
• Relax your muscles progressively from your feet up to your head.
• Become aware of your breathing, and start using your faith-rooted focus word on the out-breath.
• Maintain a passive attitude, gently disregarding intrusive thoughts with an "Oh, well" mindset.
• Continue for a set period of time of ten to twenty minutes without using an abrupt alarm.
• Practice the technique twice daily, preferably on an empty stomach.

Working with Your Doctor

Your medical health always requires direct professional evaluation before you rely on mental techniques alone. You should never play games with your health and must consult a medical expert when experiencing persistent illness or unexplained pain.

• If you feel ill, don't hesitate to go to the doctor.
• Try to find out from your doctor what's causing the problem.
• Evaluate whether you are in the 75 percent who don't require specific treatment or the 25 percent who need a particular therapy.

Finding a warm, supportive, and trust-inspiring physician significantly increases the likelihood of a successful healing process. You should actively seek out practitioners whose interpersonal style aligns with your own.

• Be assertive and aggressive in picking the doctor who is right for you and on your wavelength.
• Shop around if the first physician doesn't seem quite right, and find one whose style supports your own.

You should carefully evaluate the necessity of drug prescriptions and avoid automatically expecting a pill after every medical visit. In 1979, the federal government considered 169 million prescriptions worth $1.1 billion to be ineffective, and 600 plus drugs on the US market were found to be no more effective than a placebo.

• Don't expect a prescription from your visit with a doctor.
• If drugs or surgery are prescribed, find out why by probing gently to see if they are intended to treat the illness or your worries.
• Ask questions such as: Do I really need this medicine? Are there nondrug approaches I might use? Might I get along with less of it or take it for a shorter period?

Healing Specific Ailments

Regular elicitation of the Relaxation Response diminishes anxiety and hyperventilation attacks. A 59-year-old salesman who suffered from severe hyperventilation learned to abort his attacks by saying "John, cool it!", taking a deep breath, and reciting his prayer as he exhaled.

• Maintain regular practice of the basic Relaxation-Response technique daily.
• When feeling an attack coming on, say "stop" or a personal cue to yourself.
• Take a deep breath and hold it briefly.
• Breathe out very slowly and say silently your normal focus word, phrase, or prayer.
• Repeat the focus word only once or twice.

The Faith Factor serves as an effective treatment for chronic migraines and tension headaches by reducing sympathetic nervous system activity. Within two weeks, a 12-year-old boy experienced lessened headache intensity using the Jesus Prayer twice a day.

• Identify a personally meaningful focus word or prayer such as "Shalom" or the Jesus Prayer.
• Practice the meditation technique twice daily for ten to twenty minutes.
• Upon feeling the first twinges of a headache, sit down quietly and use the prayer to melt away the pain.

Chronic back pain aggravated by emotional distress and hopelessness can be managed effectively by combining the Relaxation Response with self-reliance. A 32-year-old middle manager suffering from severe low-back pain used the number "one" combined with his belief in his own abilities, moving from hopelessness to a normal life within twelve weeks.

• Elicit the Relaxation Response through regular deep breathing using a neutral focus word like "one".
• Acknowledge that you can elicit the response even with the pain still present.
• Maintain a regular routine to reduce fear and lethargy associated with physical pain.

Hypertension and cuff neurosis can be successfully treated by integrating the Relaxation Response into physical exercise. A 44-year-old lawyer suffering from cuff neurosis with blood pressure readings of 180 over 110 used his belief in jogging by focusing on a "one-two" cadence, bringing his blood pressure down to 120 over 80 within twelve weeks.

• Keep taking prescribed medication while adding a technique to elicit the Relaxation Response.
• Incorporate a rhythmic mental device such as a "one-two" cadence during aerobic exercise like jogging.
• Allow the physician to gradually reduce medication as blood pressure lowers.

Chronic insomnia can be overcome by modifying the standard practice into a bedtime routine that shifts awareness systematically. An insomniac shifts from repeating a focus word like "peace" to concentrating on the rhythmic expansion of the abdomen and then focusing sequentially on the feeling in each toe and limb.

• Lie comfortably in bed and close your eyes.
• Relax all your muscles progressively from your feet to your abdomen, head, and shoulders.
• Breathe slowly and naturally, repeating your focus word or phrase on the exhale.
• Slowly shift attention to your abdomen, noticing the rhythmic expansion and contraction.
• Direct your attention sequentially to the feelings in your right big toe, second toe, third toe, and so on up the right leg, then repeat for the left leg.
• Maintain a passive attitude, dismissing intrusive thoughts with "Oh, well" and returning to breathing.

Aerobic endurance exercises like jogging, walking, and swimming can be combined seamlessly with the Relaxation Response. A high-ranking U.S. Army Catholic chaplain recited the Jesus Prayer in rhythm with his daily running exercises.

• Obtain physician's advice if over forty or suffering from a physical ailment.
• Condition your body so you can exercise without excessive shortness of breath or muscle fatigue.
• Perform usual warm-up exercises.
• Keep your eyes open to monitor your surroundings during exercise.
• Become aware of your breathing or movement cadence, using words like "in" and "out", "right" and "left", or a short faith phrase.
• Maintain a passive attitude, gently dismissing disruptive thoughts with "Oh, well."

5. Outer Limits of Mind and Healing

Historical healing traditions, distant healing experiments, and advanced meditative feats point toward expansive future horizons in mind-body medicine.

Combining the Relaxation Response with personal convictions creates the Faith Factor, offering distinct advantages over ordinary relaxation. The Faith Factor provides two key benefits: it encourages individuals to persist regularly with their Relaxation-Response program, and it merges the physiological benefits of the Relaxation Response with the psychological power of the placebo effect.

Categories of Healing

Various ancient and historical traditions have long attributed healing to universal forces or royal touch. Ancient cultures used specific names for healing energies, such as Ka in Egypt, Mana in Hawaii, Chi in China, and Prana in India. Additionally, historical rulers were widely believed to possess healing powers through their touch, a practice that persisted for centuries.

Edward I touched 73 people on April 4, 1277, and 288 people that same Easter; later, French King Louis XVI touched 2,400 people during his coronation in 1774.

Benson categorizes faith-healing practices into three distinct categories based on self-will, the presence of a healer, or distant effects:

• self-willed healings;
• healings dependent on a healer's presence;
• healings occurring without the subject's will or healer's presence, such as in plants and animals.

Spiritual healers often elicit the Relaxation Response to achieve mental abandonment and attunement with the subject. Healers across traditions report entering an altered state of consciousness by abandoning active mental concentration. This passive attitude allows them to blend in and form a unified connection with the patient and spiritual forces.

Distant Healing Experiments

Controlled experiments on mice suggested that a healer's touch could significantly accelerate physical wound healing. Dr. Bernard Grad conducted controlled tests where mice with surgical skin wounds were exposed to a purported healer named Mr. E, to artificial heat, or to no treatment. The group exposed to Mr. E showed significantly smaller wound areas.

In Grad's experiment with 300 mice divided into open and closed paper bag cages, wounds on animals in open bags exposed to Mr. E were significantly smaller on days fifteen and sixteen.

Distant healing experiments involving barley seeds watered with treated saline showed enhanced growth under double-blind conditions. Dr. Grad had Mr. E hold beakers or bottles of saline solution between his hands. When this treated saline was used in double-blind procedures to water barley seeds, the resulting plants frequently showed enhanced growth compared to controls.

To replicate these findings in laboratory settings, you can follow these experimental steps:

• plant 20 barley seeds in each of 24 pots;
• hold open beakers of saline solution between hands for 15 minutes;
• support each beaker with the left hand from below and suspend the right hand 3 to 4 centimeters over the surface;
• water the divided pots with coded treated and untreated saline without knowing which is which.

Witnessing advanced meditative practices in the Himalayas demonstrated remarkable athletic feats rather than literal levitation. Benson observed monks performing lung gom-pa, an advanced meditative practice involving deep breathing, chanting, and jumping into the air while folding into a cross-legged position. The observation revealed a strenuous athletic performance rather than floating or hovering.

Open-minded scientific exploration of mind-body phenomena can expand medical horizons and bridge science with spiritual reality. Benson argues that refusing to investigate phenomena outside known scientific channels limits human understanding. Future inquiries should examine the placebo effect, faith-healing, and religious shrines to deepen our knowledge of the mind-body connection.

Conclusion

You can harness your inborn physiological capacity to counteract stress and heal physical problems by combining the Relaxation Response with your personal beliefs.

The core concepts of this book fit together as a unified system of mind-body health. Physical well-being relies on balancing the destructive fight-or-flight response with the restorative power of deep physiological rest. When you integrate daily mental discipline with your personal value system, you activate the Faith Factor to maximize healing outcomes.

1. Set aside ten to twenty minutes twice daily to practice eliciting the Relaxation Response.
2. Select a mental device such as a soothing word, sound, or prayer to focus your attention.
3. Adopt a passive attitude and dismiss distracting thoughts by returning gently to your focus.
4. Practice your technique in a quiet environment while sitting comfortably with minimal muscle tension.
5. Combine your daily practice with your personal belief system to strengthen your physical and emotional resilience.

10 Key Ideas

1. Internal mental perceptions and interpretations directly dictate bodily reactions and physiological outcomes.
2. The Relaxation Response is an inborn physiological capability that counteracts stress by reducing metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and brain wave activity.
3. The placebo effect occurs when trust and faith in a treatment reroute brain circuits to produce genuine physical healing without active pharmacological intervention.
4. Strong psychological factors and deep beliefs can alter hormonal systems to generate physical signs of false pregnancy known as pseudocyesis.
5. Scientific expeditions to Upper Dharmsala measured advanced meditative practices like gTum-mo Yoga to evaluate extreme mind-body control over body temperature.
6. Combining the Relaxation Response with a personal belief system creates the Faith Factor, which serves as a powerful therapeutic tool for managing chronic physical and mental problems.
7. Medical health requires direct professional evaluation, and patients should carefully probe the necessity of drug prescriptions rather than automatically expecting a pill.
8. Regular elicitation of the Relaxation Response diminishes anxiety, hyperventilation attacks, migraines, tension headaches, and chronic pain.
9. Controlled laboratory experiments suggest that a healer's touch and focused intention can accelerate physical wound healing and enhance the growth of barley seeds.
10. Open-minded scientific exploration of mind-body phenomena can expand medical horizons and bridge scientific observation with human belief and spiritual reality.