Research on the relaxation response: our current guide
What this page said
The mission statement described a non-profit scientific and educational organisation working in research, teaching and clinical application of mind/body medicine. It listed six ways it did this, from a health and wellness center for patients with stress-related illness to a training center for professionals, an affiliate program for other institutions, an education initiative for schools and a corporate health center.
The history section began in the late 1960s, when Herbert Benson, MD noticed elevated blood pressure among his patients and went back to Harvard Medical School to test whether stress was the cause. It described experiments in which squirrel monkeys were trained to raise or lower their blood pressure, and the request from practitioners of Transcendental Meditation that he study their physiology. Benson and a collaborator measured metabolism and blood pressure during meditation, work that led to the relaxation response and, in 1975, to his book of that name.
Key points from the original
- Six listed activities: care, research, professional training, affiliates, school education and corporate health.
- The origin story starts with stress and blood pressure research at Harvard Medical School in the late 1960s.
- Studies of meditators led to the definition of the relaxation response.