Herbert Benson | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 24, 1935 Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 3, 2022 (aged 86) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard Medical School |
| Known for | Great Prayer Experiment Benson-Henry Institute The Relaxation Response |
| Spouse | Marilyn Benson |
| Children | 2, Jennifer and Gregory |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine, physiology |
| Institutions | Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Andover Newton Theological School |
Herbert Benson (April 24, 1935 – February 3, 2022) was an American medical doctor, cardiologist, and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. He was a professor of mind/body medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) at MGH. He was a founding trustee of The American Institute of Stress. He contributed more than 190 scientific publications and 12 books.[1] More than five million copies of his books have been printed in different languages.[2][3]
Started in 1998,[4] Benson became the leader of the so-called "Great Prayer Experiment," or technically the "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP)." The result published in 2006 concluded that intercessory prayer has no beneficial effect on patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery.[5] He, however, continued to believe that prayer has positive health benefits.[6]
Benson coined relaxation response (and wrote a book by the same title) as a scientific term for the reversion of the physical stress response that can be elicited by meditation, and he used it to describe the ability of the body to stimulate relaxation of muscle and organs.[7]