Beyond the Relaxation Response: How to Harness the Healing Power of Your Personal Beliefs

I found this book to be very helpful in assisting me to deal with the after effects of a stroke and seizures.

I had read the first book on the relaxation response, but it just didn't "do it" for me. It taught me the basics but I already knew the basics. If you don't know the basics you really should read it first. This book was awesome. I have so deepened my meditation. He encourages you to tap into your own belief system and that made such a tremendous difference in my meditation experience. I would recommend this book to anyone wanted to learn the art of meditation.

Quite simply Herbert Benson, through the Relaxation Response and Beyond the Relaxation Response, put meditation on the map for the medical profession and for interested laymen who weren't adepts of some guru, yogi, maharishi or other spiritual master. This he did by providing an easy to follow, non-religious based program for eliciting a meditative state AND by validating the results through science. Yes, the book is a little dated now. But, if the content seems familliar, it's beacause there are so many imitators. If you liked these books, you may also benefit from John Kabbat-Zinn's "Full Catastrophe Living" .

A good, simple read that's also entertaining. The book discusses the possible effects of adding faith to the relaxation response. It would appear that the original 'relaxation response', while good, has an even more profound impact if coupled with a persons personal belief system. In brief: a good, useful book with easily accessible information.

Originally I read this book as a text that I chose as part of a book review assignment I had for a psychology class I was in. For some reason this book really grabbed my interest right away since he was writing about something I knew very little about.The author describes various accounts of myths and stories of some of the amazing feats that Asian Buddhists have acheived in the past. They do things such as leaping (almost flying) great distances upon rocks, and also being able to increase their body temperatures during meditation. It's said that pious monks can be tested by wearing garments that were drenched in ice cold water, and within a short matter of time the garments would be completely dry. He decided to research these things first hand by performing experiments on their meditation techneques. He even provides the actual experimental results and conclusions from all of the various temperature readings he performed. It's interesting to hear about his interactions and impressions on the Dali Lama as well.For a more practical usage, this book is great for anyone who wants to learn some realistic and effective step-by-step relaxation and meditation techneques.Overall, his research is very well organized and stated enthusiastically in an informative manner. This book is valuable in terms of the cultural analysis, the scientific evidence, the psychological studies made, and the practical exercises described within.