Aug/Sept 2002

Deep Sustainability
Roar Ramesh Bjonnes

Community Owned Enterprise
Ron Phillips

Police State Measures Will Not Make Us Safe
Kayla M. Starr, MPH

Can Democracy Survive Endless War?
Edited by Eli Pariser

A Popular Revolt This November
Ted Glick

Turning the Trolls to Stone: Strategy for the Global Justice Movement
Starhawk

Navigating the Tides of Change
David LaChapelle

Dispelling the Myths About Smallpox
Michael Framson

Observations Of A Medical Revolutionary
Doug Falkner

The Emergence of Mind-Body Medicine
Robert Newman

A Childhood Stolen and Redeemed
John Darling

Healing Hints
Peter Moore, MFCC, CGP

Flax Seed
Rebecca Wood

The Yearly Round
Richard Moeschl

The Movie Mystic: "Beautiful Mind"
Stephen Simon

BACK TO TOP

The Emergence of Mind/Body Medicine

By Robert Newman

Late in the twentieth century, a new field of medical science emerged: mind/body medicine. Some of the methods are old, coming from our heritage in ancient wisdom. Meditation is central to mind/body medical practices. Its methods come to us from centuries through which their effectiveness was proved. The research into these methods and their biological results has been expanding steadily. More than 15,000 books and research papers have been published on the evidence of mind/body science within the past twenty years.

The presence in Western culture of venerable Buddhist meditation traditions and Hindu yogic science gives credibility and authority to meditation methods used in the medical establishment. In the alternative medicine research center at the National Institutes of Health, meditation is the most proven of “alternative” medical methods. Meditation is the medical art most used as a complement to various allopathic, hard medicine therapies.

The general public is usually interested in new medical developments, and the public interest in mind/body medicine has been unparalleled. Books by Deepak Chopra, M.D., Herbert Benson, M.D., Larry Dossey, M.D. and Sogyal Rinpoche have been near or at the top of the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list. The landmark TV series “Healing and the Mind” since it was first broadcast by PBS in 1993 has been rebroadcast numerous times to nationwide audiences. In different parts of that program, groups of people were seen meditating in hospitals in America and in China.

Probably no one person has done more to give respect and credibility to meditation as an important medical method than Herbert Benson, M.D. From his visible position at the Harvard Medical School, beginning in 1970-71, Dr. Benson has published important research on the biological benefits of meditation and has generated language (i.e. “relaxation re-sponse”) to enable the medical establishment and the general public to accept and begin to use meditation.

By now meditation is seen as a perfect non-invasive medicine for stress, and stress is seen to be a major factor in more than 80% of medical complaints. In his important book “Timeless Healing” (1996), Benson defines a new medical paradigm. With a great concern for practicality and reducing run-away medical costs, he places self-care as the first medical option. Education and training in self-care methods, of which meditation may be the most important, is seen to be the basis of a better health care system. In allopathic medicine, the doctor has the power. The patient is focused on what the doctor says and prescribes. In mind/body medicine the focus is on the fact that the patient is the healer and self-applied practices are the medicines. In short, mind/body medicine offers vital ways to help people help themselves, which is healthier and more empowering than hoping that someone will do it for you.

Mind/body medical methods cost little compared to conventional medical costs. As we’ve heard, more and more people have been turning to alternative medicines. Over 85% of doctors surveyed believe that mind/body medicine should and will be a part of medical school training. More and more health care professionals are practicing meditation for the sake of their own health. Statistics show that doctors and nurses live shorter than average lives. A health care administrative concern that there are various stress-related health problems among health care providers has helped mind/body methods emerge as a necessary health care option.

The words medicine and meditation clearly have a common basis. It can be said that medicine is the practice of curing or reducing the symptoms of health problems. Meditation goes deeper. It brings those who practice it into the unconditioned state, free of conditions. In the shift of function practiced in meditation, the immune system is enhanced as the person moves closer to the life force, the genius behind the internal healing system.

In taking a closer look at specific methods of mind/body medicine, their applications and their proven benefits, in this brief article we can only touch upon some of the highlights.

Beginning in the 1930’s at the Harvard Medical School, and later at the University of Chicago, Edmond Jacobson, M.D., developed numerous neuromuscular exercises, in general called “progressive relaxation,” which proved to have important medical value. Medical value was demon-strated for neurological conditions, cardiovascular problems, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and various other appli-cations. Some of the methods were prac-ticed reclining; other methods were practiced in sitting posture. They were self-care methods that sometimes cured significant medical problems that allopathic medicine had failed to cure.

In childbirth medicine, Fernand Lamaze, M.D., was inspired by witnessing a child-birth in Russia in 1949 where a woman gave birth naturally, without drugs or anesthesia, experiencing much joy with little pain. Lamaze developed a natural childbirth program, with mind-control features borrowed from Russian doctors, that became well-known in Europe and America in the 1950’s and 60’s, a sign of growing interest in mind/body medicine.

In general medicine the most important and influential training program in mind/body medicine was and continues to be the program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center (UMMC) under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. Since its inception in 1979 more than 15,000 people have been through the UMMC program, generating a large body of research information. Ongoing UMMC research has revealed the biological importance of meditation in cases of extreme anxiety, in pain management, in cancer care, and in various other valuable medical applications. UMMC research has proved that meditation produces high levels of melatonin, a vital hormone secreted by the pineal gland, which is located immediately adjacent to the brain. Sometimes associated with the crown chakra, the pineal gland becomes inactive in many people while they’re young, and is usually inactive in older people. But meditators, including older meditators, show elevated melatonin levels related to meditation practice. Melatonin is a remarkable antioxidant that strongly enhances immune function, and it is generally important for vitality and intelligence.

The UMMC trainings are generally 8-week programs with one 3-hour group training session a week, and a required one-hour a day minimum personal meditation practice. People are referred to the program by their doctors, often with medical insurance coverage, to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including cancer, AIDS, and cardiovascular disease. There are three main practices in the UMMC program: sitting meditation; a reclining 45-minute body-scan progressive relaxation proce-dure; and movement yoga.

In general, the large body of research evidence concerning medicine meditation has revealed that with regard to stress, the basis of so much health disorder, meditation brings elevated adrenaline and cortisol levels back to normal, to restore the normal function of the immune system. Besides protecting normal hormonal balance, meditation enhances immune function in several ways. Meditation has been shown to benefit people with many different disease conditions. But there are individuals and conditions, like schizophrenia, which may not benefit from meditation.

In 1991, Drs. John Sutton and Craig Spaniol of NASA and myself incorporated the World Health Foundation (d.b.a. Medigrace) for research and development of methods in mind/body medicine. In 1995 Medigrace relocated from New York City to Ashland, Oregon. From 1997 to the present Medigrace has presented more than 60 trainings in the medical centers and hospitals of Oregon. The trainings are for medical professionals and the general public. They are called Medical Uses of Meditation (MUOM). People learn three complementary medicine meditation practices, providing the basis of health recovery and disease prevention: (1) Sitting Into New Body. Based on Vajrayana Buddhist practice, this sitting meditation method offers visualization-enhanced deep breathing and is the basis of a self-healing daily practice; (2) The Practice of New Body. Based on progressive relaxation medicine, this 45 minute reclining practice brings people into the unconditioned state, the basis of recovery and new health; (3) Reversal of Suffering. This is a famous healing method from ancient wisdom that most people can do effectively. It’s a breathing method with which people learn to practice the healing of others and the healing of themselves.

After the first two MUOM trainings were offered at Providence Medford Medical Center in 1997, Asante (the largest health care provider in Southern Oregon) requested that a series of programs be presented at the Smullin Education Center of The Rogue Valley Medical Center (RVMC) in Medford, for the benefit of their patients and their doctors and nurses. Asante’s perception was that their medical professionals were working under elevated levels of stress, which impacted their health and the quality of health care provided.

In 1998, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene requested a series of trainings for the general public and for their medical professionals. In October, 1998, an MUOM training was offered at the new facility of the Willamette Valley Cancer Center, filling the community room. The Eugene Register-Guard newspaper gave front page cover-age to the event under the title: “Meditation Easing Into Mainstream.” The Medigrace cancer care programs have been an ongoing success. A nurse, herself recovering from cancer, commented, “The Practice of New Body has not only helped me, but I’ve given copies of the audioguide to friends with serious health problems.”

In 1999, after years of research and development, Medigrace began an advanced natural childbirth pilot program in Southern Oregon hospitals and medical centers: Calm Birth. In February, 1999, the Calm Birth program was presented for the combined OB/GYN departments of RVMC and Providence MC. This was a milestone in terms of offering new medical options in southern Oregon. On April 13, 1999, the Ashland Daily Tidings ran a feature story entitled “The Miracle of a Calm Birth,” reporting on the immediate impact the program was having on local childbirth medicine. In an era in which the World Health Organization has drawn worldwide attention to the serious health problems resulting from the over-medicalization of childbirth, the Calm Birth program found growing support. In December, 2001, Whitney Wolf, director of the Calm Birth program, presented the Medigrace chilbirth methods at an international congress of childbirth educators in San Francisco.

Mind/body medicine has indeed emerged as a medical option for the 21st century.

Robert Newman has taught at the University of Colorado, the City University of New York, and Naropa University. He is the president and founder of Medigrace and the author of Disciples of the Buddha: Living Images of Meditation which was published in 2001. His latest book Calm Birth: Advanced Natural Childbirth Methods, co-authored with Whitney Wolf, is being prepared for publication in 2003. For more information on the Medigrace programs and methods, please visit www.Medigrace.org.