It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder, Herbert Benson, MD, Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute of Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Mind Body Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

A pioneer of mind body medicine, Dr. Benson defined the relaxation response, the physiological counterpart of the fight-or-flight response. Throughout a career spanning five decades, he researched the efficacy of the relaxation response in counteracting the harmful effects of stress.  His research extended from the laboratory, to the clinic, to Asian field expeditions and served as a bridge between medicine and spirituality, East and West, mind body, belief and science.

“Herb was a visionary, and a father of mind body medicine. He believed that humans have a great capacity for healing, and that self-care techniques, along with medication and medical procedures, can form ‘the three-legged stool’ of an ideal healthcare model,” said Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, Director of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI). “Early on, when some others scoffed at his work in this area, he persevered and history has proven him to be prescient; as we live through this pandemic for example, we find that self-care and stress management and resilience are tools and skills that we need to survive and thrive.”

Dr. Benson was the author or co-author of more than 190 scientific publications and 12 books, including The Relaxation Response (1975), a New York Times bestseller that sold more than 6 million copies and was translated into multiple languages.  The small, red paperback was read far and wide and influenced generations of trainees and researchers; many of whom became leaders in the field, Dr. Fricchione said.

Born April 24, 1935, in Yonkers, NY, Dr. Benson was a graduate of Wesleyan University and Harvard Medical School. As a young cardiologist, Dr. Benson and his colleagues established a scientific basis for the mind body connection by studying the effect of stress and relaxation on blood pressure; he was one of the first people to establish the physiologic underpinning of the mind body connection.

In the very room at Harvard Medical School where the “fight or flight,” or stress response, was delineated by Walter B. Cannon in the early 1900s, Dr. Benson and colleagues described its opposite. Specifically, they found that meditation reduced metabolism, rate of breathing and heart rate, and modulated brain activity. Dr. Benson labeled these changes the “relaxation response.”

Dr. Benson explained two basic steps to elicit the relaxation response: 1) the repetition of a sound, word, phrase, prayer, or movement, and 2) the passive setting aside of intruding thoughts and with a return to repetition. These 2 steps break the train of everyday thinking.

He also found that a person could bring about the relaxation response using any number of meditative techniques, such as repetitive prayer, qigong, tai chi, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, belly breathing, even activities like knitting.

In 1979, Dr. Benson met the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, during a visit to Harvard University.  The two forged a decades-long friendship, which led to several expeditions to northern India where many Tibetan monks live in exile.  During visits to remote monasteries in the 1980s, Benson and his team were among the first researchers allowed to study the ancient meditative traditions of monks living in the Himalayan Mountains.

Although a best-selling author with the opportunity to become a celebrity doctor, Dr. Benson was committed to science and evidence-based medicine.  He was courageous in researching the mind body relationship at a time when many in academic medical circles expressed skepticism.  New research technologies in epigenetics, neuroimmunology, transcriptomics and MRI and PET scanning have demonstrated that Dr. Benson was ahead of his time regarding the bidirectional effects of mind on body and body on mind.

“In our family Dr. Benson was affectionately referred to as ‘Dada’ which translates to big brother or grandfather. He always had that presence at the Institute – he was your big brother or grandfather, looking out for you,” said Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH, BHI’s Medical Director. “His life in many ways was about living a life of courage – fighting – he firmly believed that the path to integrating wisdom traditions or practices into modern medicine was through understanding the science and in that way, he believed in all of us. I firmly believe that my own career reflects that conviction.”

In 1978, Dr. Benson developed the first Harvard Medical School CME course in behavioral medicine. In 1995, he delivered the first Harvard Medical School CME courses in mind body medicine and in spirituality and healing in medicine.

“Fulfillment is so closely aligned with being of service. For those of us whose clinical practice has been shaped by Dr. Benson, we owe a debt of gratitude. His pioneering work paved the way for integration of a holistic and self-care approach in medicine. It feels as if a little piece of us died with him, given the vital role he’s played in deepening the service of healing professions,” said Peg Baim, MS, NP of BHI. “If the measure of one’s life is viewed from the magnitude of benefit brought to others, Dr. Benson’s life was immense. Through the years, inspired by his research and writings, legions of healthcare professionals have been drawn to mind body medicine and countless more patients have ‘remembered wellness’ thanks to the generosity of his spirit and his dedication to the science and wonder of mind body interactions.”

He testified several times before the U.S. House and Senate, and was instrumental in appropriating millions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mind body and behavioral medicine research. He was a founding trustee of The American Institute of Stress and received numerous awards, accolades and honorary degrees during his distinguished career. This paved the way for many other scientists to work in mind body medicine.

In 1969, he began his academic career at Harvard Medical School; he was on the staff of the Deaconess Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center before becoming the founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute. He remained in that position until 2006, when it was integrated into Massachusetts General Hospital as the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine thanks to the support of the hospital and philanthropist and businessman John Henry. Dr. Benson remained active as Director Emeritus of BHI until his death.

“Herb was renowned for the warmth of his personality and his optimism. I will always remember fondly riding in elevators with him as he proceeded to make friends with everyone over the course of a few floors. He had the healer’s touch,” Dr. Fricchione said.

Dr. Benson was immensely proud of his family; he leaves behind his wife, Marilyn Wilcher Benson, founder of BHI’s Resilient Youth Program; son Dr. Gregory Benson of New Jersey; and daughter, Jennifer Benson-Bufferd of Illinois; and four grandchildren.  Arrangements have not been finalized, but a celebration of life will be planned at MGH at a later date.