Quotes from Herbert Benson

There's something called the physiology of forgiveness. Being unable to forgive other people's faults is harmful to one's health.

If you are anxious, you can't learn. It's like dropping seeds on concrete. With a quiet mind, people take things in.

The relaxation response is a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress... and the opposite of the fight or flight response.

We can either change the complexities of life ... or develop ways that enable us to cope more effectively.

Dr. Jean Martin Charcot, a famous nineteenth-century French neurologist, once stated that "the best inspirer of hope is the best physician." The success of the shaman in many primitive societies has been attributed primarily to psychological factors rather than to the intrinsic value of the therapies themselves.

However, it appears that medicine in the Western world, which was once an integration of both science and art, has shifted to an emphasis on science at the expense of art.

Therapies we can purchase and caregivers we can consult, whether available through conventional or unconventional medicine, are still far more impressive to us than our own hearts and minds, lungs and hopes, muscles and beliefs, even though they sustain us day in and day out.

Dr. Arthur K. Shapiro of the Payne-Whitney Psychiatric Clinic at New York Hospital has adopted a broader view of the placebo. He describes the placebo as any treatment (or any part of a treatment) which does not have a specific action on the patient's symptoms or disease but which nonetheless may have an effect upon the patient.

The placebo effect, or the effect of nonspecific factors of treatment, was not studied further because there was no profit in it.

Sir William Osler, the first Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School and a unique teacher and clinician, said: "One of the first duties of the physician is to educate… [people] not to take medicine." You should not assume a physician is inadequate if he does not give a prescription at the end of your visit.

Regular elicitation of the Relaxation Response can prevent, and compensate for, the damage incurred by frequent nervous reactions that pulse through our hearts and bodies.

One way to know whether hibernation is occurring is to measure the body's rectal temperature. During hibernation this temperature decreases. Meditators, it appears, do not hibernate. Their rectal temperatures do not decrease during the practice of meditation.

Commercial interests capitalize upon people's expectations of perpetual health. The exploitation of these expectations creates a market for products which are not only useless and costly but also carry risks. The perception of pain in one's joints, muscles or head has become a target of many different pills.

man gained direct knowledge of God by losing all awareness of himself. Referring to his title, the author depicts a passive attitude as the way "to cover," or forget, all distractions: "Try to cover these thoughts with a thick cloud of forgetting as though they never existed neither for you nor for any other man. And if they continue to arise, continue to put them down.

He goes on to discuss the element of "dwelling upon" and advises that his readers can develop "special ways, tricks, private techniques, and spiritual devices" in order to achieve contemplation. One means is the use of a single syllable such as "God" or "love":

kneeling, swaying, or sitting in a cross-legged position are believed to have evolved to prevent falling asleep. You should be comfortable and relaxed.

If you wish to acquire recollection by practicing this holy exercise, remember to make use of a very brief means of ridding yourself of various distracting thoughts. This is that you say "No" to them when they come to you during prayer.

You will know that the Lord will come and enter your soul if the doors, which are your senses, are closed…But you will answer that it would be wrong to say "no" to God and he alone is expected. But God comes in some other way of which you know nothing.

Sit down alone and in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently, and imagine yourself looking into your own heart. As you breathe out, say "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Say it, moving your lips gently, or simply say it in your mind. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be calm, be patient and repeat the process very frequently.

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me." Let this be its constant occupation, never to be abandoned. For this work, by keeping the mind free from dreaming, renders it unassailable to suggestions of the enemy and leads it to Divine desire and love….

emblem. The meditator would place his head between his knees and whisper hymns and repeat the name of a magic emblem. Repetition of the magic emblem was used as the object to dwell upon and would chase away distractions and cause the "demons and hostile angels to flight." A state of ecstasy was reached, which Gershom G. Scholem, a scholar of Jewish mysticism, has described as "an attitude of deep self-oblivion.

Latham was aware of this potential when he said: "Among the perils of disease we must not refuse to reckon the errors of physicians.

Dr. William J. Mayo, one of the founders of Minnesota's Mayo Clinic, remarked: "One meets with many men who have been fine students, and have stood high in their classes, who have great knowledge of medicine but very little wisdom in application. They have mastered the science, and have failed in the understanding of the human being.