| It is elicited by using two steps. The first is a repetition, which could be a word, a sound, a prayer, a phrase or even a repetitive movement. The second step is, when other thoughts came to mind, you disregard them and come back to the repetition. This would bring forth the same physiologic changes that were brought about by the practice of Transcendental Meditation. The importance of this was that, again, for millennia people have been bringing forth a response opposite to the stress response, that has therapeutic value in disorders caused or exacerbated by stress.
We recognized the importance of this immediately. We recognized that what we were doing was putting numbers on what people had been doing for thousands of years, be it through yoga, meditation, repetitive prayer, tai chi, qigong, jogging, knitting, crocheting. it didn’t matter. There was one response brought forth by scores of techniques that have a scientific definition for the first time.
Most meditation techniques originally developed in religious or spiritual traditions. One of the groundbreaking aspects of your relaxation response work was that you sought to retain the essence of such traditional methods while removing the religious, sectarian, and culture-specific overlays, and thus you were able to use the relaxation response as a therapy in health care settings for people of all backgrounds. How important was it to go that route at that point?
I thought it was fundamental, because if it were only Eastern meditation many people of different belief systems wouldn’t pay attention to it. What we were doing was giving the explanation that our own culture, all cultures have the same capacity to bring forth this response in people. And the important feature there was that people, patients, subjects, be given the choice of a technique that they believed in. It could be religious, it could be secular. It could be sitting quietly, it could be during movement. It didn’t matter. There was one common response. So it opened the door for people of all beliefs to take advantage of this. There is no “relaxation response” technique. We teach them all and adapt them by taking into account the beliefs and culture of the patient, to make it more universal.
Were there complaints from people who felt that you had overly compromised the essence of the traditional meditation techniques and that something crucial was lost in translation?
The main criticisms were coming from specific techniques, the practitioners of which felt that theirs was superior to others. Generally, though, we’ve found people of all traditions saying, “Isn’t it wonderful that we can choose our own.” It’s the ones that say “mine is better and different” with which we had the main problems initially, and still to this day.
Aside from the physiological effects of the relaxation response, have you also found psychological benefits? Can meditation or relaxation response can be incorporated into psychotherapy?
Without question. The conditions in which the relaxation response is found to be effective include anxiety, mild and moderate depression, and excessive anger and hostility. They are all effectively treated by regularly evoking the relaxation response. It’s very important to note that health and well being is akin to a three-legged stool. One leg is pharmaceuticals. The second leg is surgery and other procedures. There has to be a third leg and that leg is self-care. And within that self-care leg we have the relaxation response, nutrition, exercise, the beliefs of the patient, socialization, and also cognitive restructuring. So you see, when we say that the relaxation response is effective in many mental disorders, it does not preclude, nor is it meant to preclude, the simultaneous use of appropriate medications or surgeries.
Is the nervous system the primary means through which the effects of relaxation response are mediated?
It seems to start with the breaking of the train of everyday thought, as I just pointed out. So it would appear that as a fundamental entry point, it is the nervous system. But the breaking of the train of everyday thought needn’t be a mental effect; it could be a physical effect brought about by, say, jogging. Or knitting or crocheting. Are you with me? Ultimately it’s mediated through and by the nervous system.
If the relaxation response could be manufactured as a pill, it would probably be considered malpractice not to prescribe it. Do you find that non-pharmaceutical, non-surgical approaches are held to a higher standard? |
