Herbert Benson

Benson was born on April 24, 1935, in Yonkers, New York.[8] He graduated with B.A. in biology from Wesleyan University in 1957. He entered a medical course at Harvard Medical School and earned his MD degree in 1961. He continued postdoctoral programs at King County Hospital, Seattle; University Hospital, University of Washington, Seattle; National Heart Institute, Bethesda; University of Puerto Rico; and Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Boston City Hospital. In 1969 he was appointed instructor in physiology and later instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was promoted to assistant professor of medicine the next year. From 1972 he became associate professor. He was appointed associate professor at the Beth Israel Hospital in 1977, the post he held until 1987. Then he returned to the medical faculty at Harvard. With the establishment of Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard in 1992, he became associate professor, and then full professor. He was a practicing physician at Beth Israel Hospital from 1974. Between 1990 and 1997 he was lecturer in medicine and religion at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre.[9][10]

Benson became founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Harvard Medical School in 1988. He founded the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2006,[11] where he became its director.[1]

Benson died from heart disease and kidney failure at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, on February 3, 2022, at the age of 86.[8]

Benson married Marilyn Benson, and they had two children, Jennifer and Gregory.[10]

• Mosby Scholarship Award of Harvard Medical School in 1961
• DHL (honorary) from Becker College in 1997, from Lasell College in 2002, and from Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology 2007
• Medical Foundation Fellowship during 1967–1969
• Fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 1976
• Medical Self-Care Award for 1976
• Honorary President, Chinese Society of Behavioral Medicine and Biofeedback in 1988
• Distinguished Alumnus Award of Wesleyan University in 1992
• DPS (honorary) from Cedar Crest College in 2000
• Hans Selye Award of 2000
• National Samaritan Award from The Samaritan Institute in 2002
• Mani Bhaumik Award from The Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA, California, in 2009

• The Relaxation Response, 1975. ISBN 978-0-688-02955-5
• The Mind/Body Effect: How behavioral medicine can show you the way to better health, 1979. ISBN 978-0-671-24143-8
• Beyond the Relaxation Response, 1984
• Your Maximum Mind, 1987
• 'Contributor' - MindScience: An East-West Dialogue Daniel Goleman and Robert A. F. Thurman Editors, Wisdom Publications, 1991. ISBN 978-0-86171-066-9
• The Wellness Book, 1992
• Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief, 1996. ISBN 978-0-7881-5775-2
• The Relaxation Response - Updated and Expanded (25th Anniversary Edition), 2000
• The Breakout Principle, 2003
• Mind Over Menopause, 2004
• Mind Your Heart, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7432-3702-4
• The Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure, 2006. ISBN 978-0-07-144801-7
• Relaxation Revolution, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4391-4865-5

• Benson-Henry Institute for Mind and Body at The Massachuseets General Hospital
• Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response at the Wayback Machine (archived February 15, 2005)
• Spirituality emerges as point of debate in mind-body movement
• Inner Calm: Benson explains relaxation techniques on Humankind public radio
• The Herbert Benson Papers at The Center for the History of Medicine at the Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.
• "Meditation changes temperatures" – An article on the Harvard study about Meditation controlling body temperatures.