---
title: History and Mission (archived)
url: https://mbmi.org/archive/about/history-and-mission
description: The institute's account of its mission and history, archived from mbmi.org: Herbert Benson's early blood pressure research, the first meditation studies and growth.
original_author: Mind/Body Medical Institute (later Benson-Henry Institute)
archived_at: https://web.archive.org/web/20090918210557/http://www.mbmi.org/about/history.asp
---
# History and Mission (archived)

This page told the institute's origin story: how a cardiologist's interest in stress and blood pressure grew into a clinical and research organisation for mind/body medicine.

- Original author: Mind/Body Medical Institute (later Benson-Henry Institute)
- Original URL: http://www.mbmi.org/about/history.asp
- Captured: 2005-12-21 to 2009-09-18 (27 snapshots)
- Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20090918210557/http://www.mbmi.org/about/history.asp
- Current guide: https://mbmi.org/relaxation-response/research

## 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.

This is a historical record, not medical advice.