The Relaxation Response

 Anne (and Jean) in a recent post started a discussion of the

 The Relaxation Response Updated and Expanded

The original book was published in 1975, the updated version published in 2000 gives some of the background to Herbert Benson's interest. As a cardiologist he was concerned that his medications were lowering his patient's blood pressure too much causing them to complain of faithing and dizziness. He also noticed that their blood pressures were higher in his office than at home.  The notion that mental stress rather than some physical condition was the cause of high blood pressure was not widely accepted at the time. Bensen turned to basic research to with monkeys to begin to establish they could control their blood pressure if given rewards which were signaled by colored lights. 

The Transcendent Meditation (TM) people claimed to be able to reduce their blood pressure. Initially he was reluctant to study them because of their countercultural status. Finally, he quietly with another researcher on the West coast began to study them. Interesting, their reductions in blood pressure in each individual session were relatively small, but that was because their repeated practice of TM had lowered their resting blood pressures.  

Much of his research then focused on the minimal conditions that are necessary to elicit the response and how these were met by a variety of procedures in addition to TM. They are summarized well in this one- page handout

One Page Relaxation Response Instructions

In a 1985 book Bensons takes the offensive by placing the Relaxation Response in the context of self-help and faith traditions rather than just proposing it as an adjunct to medical care. 

Beyond the Relaxation Response

"I've come to understand that this simple technique combined with the person's deepest beliefs can create other internal environments which that can help individuals to reach enhanced states of health and well-being."

In the Summer of 1972, I was selected to attend the SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE

ON PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, at the MASSACHUSETTS MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, BOSTON, JUNE 19-AUGUST 11, 1972. The eight-week summer institute was conducted under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Biological Bases of Social Behavior, with support granted to the Council by the National Institute of Mental Health. Here is the SSRC website which has buried in its archive all the information about the summer institute which is copied below. 

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL

"The purpose of the institute was to provide about 20 selected social scientists with intensive training in the concepts and techniques of psychophysiological research, starting from basic information about physiology, electronics, and laboratory techniques, and relating these fundamentals to theoretical concepts in biology and the social and behavioral sciences. 

Applications were encouraged from advanced predoctoral and recent postdoctoral students in psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other social and behavioral sciences.  All participants will be expected to attend the entire eight-week program. Stipends will be available in the amount of $720 for predoctoral trainees and $880 for postdoctoral. Travel expenses will be reimbursed up to an equivalent of roundtrip economy airline fare.

The director of the institute will be David Shapiro, Senior Associate in Psychiatry (Psychology), Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and the codirector will be Bernard

Tursky, Professor of Political Science, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Other members of the teaching staff will be drawn from the faculties of Harvard University and of other universities. There will be guest lecturers for special topics. The program. of the institute will consist of seminars, laboratory training, lectures, and demonstrations. 

Members of the committee met on April 27 with members of the teaching faculty of the forthcoming Summer Training Institute on Psychophysiology for Social Scientists to 

select 12 predoctoral and 6 postdoctoral students as participants. About 100 applications were received."

One of the guest lecturers was Herbert Benson. I remember the auditorium but not much about what he said. I do remember the faculty and student discussion (not with Benson) which took place at lunch in the cafeteria. The whole issue of Transcendental Meditation was controversial at the time. I said that I had no doubt that it was a general phenomenon. I told them that the regular Vespers service at Saint John's University before dinner in the cafeteria was at least the equivalent of a cocktail or glass of wine. 

They were a little stunned, partly because at this time in academia people rarely discussed their own religion, and partly because I had acquired the reputation for being one of the more technical people in the group. I had already built a psychophysiology laboratory on my campus. This was before the age of small computers so much of the programing was done by electrical connections to create a logical sequence.  When we were challenged to do this, I held back. The leading faculty member in this area encouraged to come forward, which I promptly did efficiently wiring the whole board. When I turned, he said "OK you already understand this, in fact your solution is more elegant than the one that I was thinking about."

In graduate school, students and faculty never discussed their religious affiliation, although I saw several at the Newman Center. My dissertation advisor was a former Episcopal priest and one of my fellow students was a former Methodist minister. Both concealed their identities for several years before they were found out. My dissertation advisor left the ministry because he was required by his pastor to visit parish members and inquire into their lives. My colleague left the Methodist ministry because the local congregation board ran the church but its members rarely attended services!  The American Psychological Association called its religion section Psychologist Interested in Religious Issues (PIRI) much of it devoted to negative things about religion like authoritarianism and prejudice.

Of course, in the intervening decades, both sociology and psychology have changed their attitudes toward religion. Sociologist now admit that religion is not going away, and psychologists now admit that religion and spirituality can have helpful contributions to life.

My interest in psychophysiology began in graduate school and remained while I was in academia. I attended the annual meetings of the Society of Psychophysiological Research in 1974 Salt Lake City, UT 1975 Toronto, ON, Canada and 1976 San Diego, CA.  Most of the faculty that I had met in Boston were leading participants in those meetings held in very fine hotels; they liked to dine in fine restaurants. 

SOCIETY FOR PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 

"Founded in 1960, the Society for Psychophysiological Research is an international scientific society with worldwide membership. Our purpose is to foster research on the interrelationships between the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior. To promote this purpose, the society publishes scientific literature, including the journal Psychophysiology, and holds annual meetings for presentation and discussion of original theory and research, instrumentation and methodology, and new directions and standards in the field."

My interest in psychophysiology likely contributed to the end of my academic career. While before graduate school I wanted to teach in a liberal arts college, perhaps even a Catholic one, my extensive research involvement disqualified me from consideration. Many faculty members with little or no publication records made very clear they did not want a bright young researcher on their campus. On Catholic campuses I was too religious for both the laity and the religious. I always thought that with my interdisciplinary degree in psychology and sociology and postdoctoral in psychophysiology and in lifelong interest in liturgy, scripture, and spirituality that I would make the perfect Catholic liberal arts faculty member. All that just intimidated everyone.

My research in psychophysiology limited my appeal even to places like Ball State University which was just beginning to get research oriented. Their faculty was about evenly divided by age. Faculty votes always went either Yes yes yes....no, no, no OR No no, no ,,,yes, yes,yes. The department was run by an older chairman, but the assistant chair was a  young guy (a native of Muncie) who liked me at the job interview. The chairman liked me too because I told that I was enjoying my vacation at the family cabin on the lake and would just continue to do that if I did not find a job.  He introduced me to the Dean as this beach bum whom he wanted to put to work! Ball State would have had to invest in a laboratory for me, or hope that I could write a grant while having a heavy teaching load. 

Technology has had a strong influence on my career life. While it likely ended my academic career, computerization of the mental health system facilitated my ability to use all my research skills for its benefit.