The Relaxation Response

The Relaxation Response documents a reproducible physiological state, marked by reduced heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and metabolism, that mental practice can reliably elicit. Its central claim is that this state, the body's counterbalance to the fight-or-flight response, can be triggered by simple secular techniques and produces real, measurable bodily change.

Benson, a cardiologist, derived the finding from studies of meditation practitioners and stripped the technique of religious content, showing that a repeated word or phrase combined with a passive attitude suffices. Using mainstream physiological measurement, he demonstrated benefits for hypertension, anxiety, chronic pain, and stress-related disorders, and helped establish mind-body medicine as a credible clinical field.

Within the mind-power archive the book is a rigorous reference point for the claim that the mind affects the body, well-evidenced for stress physiology and to be distinguished carefully from contested claims that the mind affects matter at a distance.