Let me start on a rather unfortunate note. and that is that it's well-established that half of our Half of our community well over half of our community will die of some form of heart disease or another. It's not so disturbing that we're going to die of a specific disease because after all we have to die of something but what is problematic is the fact that these diseases are affecting people at younger and younger ages. For example the late dr. Samuel Levine who was a prominent Boston cardiologist pointed out that in families. He had treated for several Generations that Sons were developing their heart attacks and strokes and angina pectoris. That is the pain of heart disease had an average age of about 13 1/2 years younger than their fathers had the velop there's We're seeing this in a rather Mark fashion in the hospitals where interns residents Physicians just starting their Medical Careers are no longer surprised to see a man and even a woman in their thirties developing a heart attack or stroke. Whereas 5 to 10 years ago. Such An Occurrence would be so rare that we would consider reporting it in the medical literature. To repeat myself to become so common as to be considered almost the natural course of things. This is very disturbing. now What underlies heart attacks and strokes myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accidents? Apparently the most important factor his high blood pressure the higher your blood pressure the more rapidly atherosclerosis develops the lower your blood pressure the more slowly it develops. Well, this just forces the question a bit what in turn causes high blood pressure now it's here that we get into some problems because over 95% of cases of high blood pressure are due to unknown cause and by definition this is called essential hypertension. Raise the mic. Can you hear me now? Where in the back is good? Okay, just to repeat then 20 about 95% of cases of essential hypertension. You wonder sometimes if speakers experience any lapses or stress themselves? Indeed. Sometimes they do. at any rate 95% of cases of hypertension are due to unknown cause now it's our belief and that of many others now that an essential component of the in the development of such hypertension is stress, and that's what I would like to speak to the rest of the morning namely Define how stress can be translated into a bodily illness hypertension, which is not only causing the death of most Americans, but Is causing this death at younger and younger ages and is therefore apparently a major health problem. Stress has been very difficult to quantify extremely difficult to quantify. How do you measure what is a meaning meaningful psychological event to a person that's stressful for a person was one person stress is another person's pleasure. And this is very very difficult and has impart impeded progress in this field, but you can measure you can measure how blood pressure relates to stressful circumstances and it's been noted in the number of epidemiologic studies that situations which require behavioral adjustment and I'll go on to Define that lead to higher blood pressures. For example people living in the countryside have lower blood pressures and people living in the city take the people from the countryside from rural areas move them into urban areas blood pressures will increase Students before a test have higher blood pressures than students not before test. When do you think accountants have their highest blood pressures? Well, they're coming down now, but about 2 weeks ago. They were peeking out at their highest blood pressures soldiers going into battle, as you would expect have very high blood pressure compared to soldiers who are not in battle in the besieged city of Leningrad, and I've often wondered who measure these blood pressures but in that City, They had higher blood pressures when the Germans were around compared to blood pressures after the Germans had left and Circumstance after circumstance has shown that situations that are difficult are associated with higher blood pressures. This is not only been shown in man, but it's also been showing in animal experiments for example overcrowding of rats will lead to higher blood pressure. And then there is a very classic experiment showing that behavioral adjustment Kenly to not only two hypertension but to very severe problem and I hope not too many of you associate with this particular experiment it was done in the Russia and it was done in baboon families now a baboon family. That's not the reason I'm hoping you're not associating with it as it sits for another reason. Baboon families are customer customarily characterized of one male and a harem of females and the experimenters had such families develop and then they would take the mail. The one mail from his cage is Harem a female put him in and adjacent cage where he could watch and replace him with a new mail. That's what I'm hoping. You're not associated with. What happened was predictable within six weeks the original now now watching developed hypertension and within a matter of the Year. These poor males were dying of heart attacks and strokes. Now that was a very very stressful circumstances. You can create some other mildly stressful circumstances and we did this working with yet other types of monkeys having them work under time schedules pressing a key in order to get a reward or avoid a shock and you can train them to control their own blood pressure and in turn have them go on and develop hypertension by creating an environment which could be interpreted as stressful. The way the stressful events are translated into blood pressure is as follows. We have within us and 1/8 bodily response call the fight or flight response. It was first described by Walter B Cannon at the Harvard Medical School around the turn of the century and it's a response that's been argued to be useful in preparing for running are for fighting. When an animal is faced with a dangerous situation or a situation which requires behavioral adjustment the animal reacts by activating this brain's response which pours out adrenaline and noradrenaline epinephrine norepinephrine and leads to increased blood pressure increased heart rate and increased rate of metabolism markedly increased muscle blood flow all of which could be argued prepare an animal for running or for fighting. When faced with a difficult circumstance, we elicit this response. Naturally, it's inborn. It's had tremendous evolutionary significance those of our ancestors who had this live long enough to have progeny We Are The Offspring of these progeny we have this response within us. This was beautifully shown by a check investigator. Dr. Ian Broad and his associates. He took medical students and instrumented them so that they could measure these various things muscle blood flow metabolism blood pressure and what have you and took their resting measurements, then they were told we want you to do a very simple mental thing. We're going to give you a four digit number. 7946 from that we want you to subtract 17 you're going to get an answer and from that subtract 17 and go as quickly as you can. Don't be bothered by this metronome, which will be going in the background. Click. Click. Click North should you be bothered they were told by their fellow medical students who were standing around them giving them encouragement and the encouragement took the form. You could well expect good Lord. I did better than that. Move it quick. Click click. Well, what transpired was that within two to three seconds after they said go Was a marked elicitation of the entire and an entire full-blown fight or flight response blood pressure increase blood flow increased respiratory rate rate went up heart rate increased with what doing a mental problem under time pressure. The sort of thing. Most of us are faced with Staley. Now it's been shown in other animal experiments that if you elicit the real the fight-or-flight response repeatedly, if you bring a fourth time and time and time again, and you can do this electrically by stimulating ultimately what were transient elevations in blood pressure will become permanent. And therein lies the model named Lee. We have this fight or flight response within us when is brought forth excessively ultimately high blood pressure can in so now our modern society is placing inordinate stress is upon us. Making us face situations which require behavioral adjustment and which in turn elicits the fight-or-flight response naturally. If unabated we will ultimately develop hypertension and I think this is reflected in the statistics namely some it's estimated between 23 and 46 million adult Americans suffer from one form of hypertension or another this depends on how you define the level of blood pressure. So I think we're seeing this. What can we do about this. I despair about our ability to change society and to change the amount of stress as we're being subjected to but fortunately we can not adjust but we can protect ourselves against these dresses by performing a certain behavioral actions, which will elicit a response which is exactly opposite to the fight-or-flight response. This opposite response is what we've called the relaxation response. The way we came about it was when I was working with the monkeys along with doctors heard Morris and Kelleher. We I was approached by some young people who practice Transcendental Meditation this was almost 10 years ago, and they asked would you please study us? We think we can effectively control our blood pressure because we practice Transcendental Meditation. Would you please see what's happening in us when we go through the meditative exercise. I was put off by these people, but fortunately they persisted and as a result along with doctors Robert Keith Wallace and Archie Wilson, we were able to define the physiology of what happens during Transcendental Meditation. I point out at this time that there's nothing unique and I'll develop this later about TM, but I'd like to show you the data which we first found with using Transcendental Meditation as a model and let's see if we can get the projector to work. Okay, I think we'll need these front lights out. If we can what we did was bring in some that's perfect. Thank you. Can you see that from the back? Yes. No. Yes. We are. I had people who are practicing Transcendental Meditation come and sit quietly. We instrumented them so we could make these various measurement and then divided the we then divided the experiment into three segments name Leah premeditation All Phase a meditational phase and a post meditational phase here. We measure oxygen consumption. You can see that soon after the onset of practicing meditation. There was a mark precipitous drop in oxygen consumption. That is body metabolism. This normally does not occur. It only occurs to a lesser extent during sleep as I'll show you and during other states. This was rather unique we see you in the next life that this change in oxygen consumption that is metabolism is reflected in another metabolic change that is in the amount of carbon dioxide being produced. And this essentially means that this isn't manipulative people can't do this by holding their breath or by breathing more rapidly. It would be reflected in the changes in carbon dioxide. In the next slide will see that there is a change in the amount of air moved that is the minute ventilation and that to drop significantly during this practice next slide, please. The rate of breathing also drop significantly here about 3 to 4 breaths per minute in the next slide. The amount of oxygen in the blood the arterial saturation of blood does not change at all. Your tissues are being supplied with a sufficient amount of oxygen to meet their needs. Okay, then the next slide, please. We wondered whether or not we might be looking at a hybrid Tori type response. In other words during hibernation animals characteristically drop their body temperature and we wondered whether or not what we were looking at was Hitler to undescribed sort of hibernation that Youmans were able to do. I always ask this a how many of you think bears hibernate have a show of hands. you've learned Frank they don't and the reason I ask this is my continuing admiration and awe of to physiologist who established this fact because armed only with rectal thermometers, they Enter the caves of bears in mid-winter and made appropriate measurements and they establish definitively that there's rectal temperature does not decrease during hibernation. And therefore that bears are asleep. They continue these experiments until they so rudely awoke one there who was understandably irate being awoken from her sleep and a chase the Two Brothers From The Cave at which point they felt their debt. The science was paid and reported their results at any rate bears bears don't hibernate nor do Youmans under much less hazardous circumstances. We measured the rectal temperature in people meditating and there's no change in rectal temperature therefore. It's not a hybrid Tori response. The next slide please. Arterial blood lactate high blood lactate have been associated with anxiety very importantly with anxiety and with high blood pressure. You can see that during the practice of meditation. There's a mark precipitous drop drop decrease in arterial blood lactate next by please. Now this is not sleep the physiologic changes that occur during the relaxation response are very different from those of sleep here oxygen consumption is compared the oxygen consumption during sleep is compared to that during the relaxation response and you can see that the time course is different to hear. This is ours that there is a slow Progressive decrease in oxygen consumption during sleep and the relaxation response within 3 to 5 minutes the changes in Sioux and then return to Baseline value. Other physiologic changes show. It's different from sleep. The brain wave changes are different are the metabolic changes are different. It's not sleep. It's not a substitute from sleep or sleep. It's different from sleep. Okay, we can have this lights off at this point, please. It made little sense to us that Transcendental Meditation would be the only way of eliciting such an innate response. If it indeed was the opposite to the fight-or-flight response. It would be like saying there's only one way to perspire or only one way that leads to an increased heart rate. So what we did was go back and look at the look for the basic elements that made up Transcendental Meditation. And what were they there was a you would sit there were four basic elements. You would sit in a comfortable posture you close your eyes, you would have a repetitive sound or word and most importantly when other thoughts would appear in your Consciousness. You passively disregard them and come back the repetition. We then spent several years reading through the secular and lay literature and religious literature to see if examples of these instructions existed what we found was that in virtually every cultural of man exactly the same instructions propped up. The earliest example came from the Hindu literature from the upon a show where the following was described in the sixth Century BC sit quietly pay attention to your breathing on each out breath repeat this word or phrase from The Vedas and sooner Union with God will be achieved. In Judaism similar instructions were written about in the second century BC at the time of the second temple in a philosophical school of thought called metabolism. They are people were instructed to sit in the fetal type posture rocking back and forth repeating the name of the magic seal over and over again and Christianity prayer dating back to Christ himself involved and were passed on by word of mouth and we're finally written about in The 14th Century in the Greek Orthodox Church in a school of thought called hesychasm. And these were the instructions sit quietly by yourself pay attention to your breathing. I need shout breath repeat silently to yourself Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me when other thoughts appear in your Consciousness disregard them and come back to the repetition. This particular prayer has survived to Modern days and is currently called the Jesus prayer or the prayer of the heart into Tallis ism. Back in the 11th century in England and Anonymous monk wrote The Following experiment instruction. He wrote These particularly for busy man were preoccupied. He said sit quietly by yourself pay attention to your breathing think of God, each time you breathe out when other thoughts come into your Consciousness simply say no and come back to the repetition. How this was in a book called The Cloud of Unknowing over and over and over again, for example in the in the 15th century and Judaism in a mystical tradition call. Kabbalism a rabbi aboulafia wrote this sit quietly by yourself breathe in and out on each out breath repeat the components that make up God's name. I don't know and sooner Union with God will be achieved in mohammedanism exactly the same instruction and Sufism in a process called a thicker where the repeated word would be here all out or a phrase from the Quran. In Zen Buddhism same instructions counting to 10 in magical numbers and exactly the same in Shintoism taoism Confucianism, the more primitive so-called primitive shamanistic religion exactly the same. Outside of religious traditions for example in New England throw in Emerson would achieve the same state by fix gazing at light shimmering off of leaves in England Wordsworth describe this in his poem tintern Abbey where he described achieving this state by watching light flow of air off of water, which is on a waterfall Tennyson liked himself a great deal and used to sit quietly repeating his own name over and over again Tennyson Tennyson, Tennyson to achieve this state but with virtually the same instructions, if this be the case, we should be able to repeat what we had found with Transcendental Meditation in physiologic term by borrowing very heavily from Zen Buddhism. So instructed people to sit quietly to pay attention to their breathing. I need you out breath to visualize in their mind. So I want and then to and count to ten and then back again to one. We used very bright Harvard tops bu students in this experiment and the experiment was a complete flop. It didn't work at all. The reason was is that the students would lose count panic and that would be the end of the experiment. So we said, all right, let's simplify it and will stay with the number one. So the instructions simply became sit quietly paying attention to your breathing I need you out of breath visualize in your mind's eye or say silently to yourself the number one when other thoughts come in your Consciousness disregard them and come back to the number one now without those instructions we found exactly the same changed or virtually the same physiologic changes that we had noted with Transcendental Meditation from there. We took religious people who prayed regularly for example a Catholic person who would say the prayer of the heart measured his or her changes and we found exactly the same physiologic changes we would take it. It doesn't it what we found was it doesn't matter what the repetitive sound or word or phrase you use provided that it was something that you were comfortable with I would add quickly that this is In no way a mechanistic explanation of prayer or a religion rather. It's a reaffirmation of what religious people have been telling us for centuries namely that prayer is good for you. All we've done is attach some numbers to this to document that what people have been saying for many many years is indeed the case. Well our next step was to then test the hypothesis by seeing whether or not we could take people with hypertension and have them elicit the relaxation response twice-daily using whatever technique they felt most comfortable with to see whether or not their blood pressure decrease as we'll see you in the next life we could turn that on. Here in an experiment with blood pressure. We measure blood pressure before. People regularly elicited the relaxation response and compared it to blood pressure after people regularly elicited it and you can see that there was a significantly statistically significant decrease in both systolic and diastolic that is the highest and lowest components of blood pressure when the pressures before regularly eliciting. The response were compared to after it's important to recognize that the blood pressures. So measured were measured during periods of the day when the people were not actively sitting quietly. In other words. There was a carry-over effect into other periods of the day. Next slide we see virtually the same changes in blood pressure in a group of people who are already being treated for their hypertension. These experiments have been repeated Now by at least eight other Laboratories and it's our belief now that mild moderate labile hypertension can perhaps be treated by use of the relaxation response alone that people with more severe hypertension in which medication is required that it can also be treated but the amount of medication can be decreased. It's important for all of you to recognize. In fact very important for you to recognize that if you have hypertension or if indeed you have any illness and feel that the relaxation response is an appropriate thing for you to do that you do so only under the care and supervision of your position. For example, if you do have high blood pressure How would how do you know how effective the relaxation response is in the lowering and how do you know how to appropriately adjust your medications or how many medications you need? It has to be a physician or a health professional as part of the equation. Well from here we felt that what we were looking at was a reaction which was characterized by decrease sympathetic nervous system activity and that the relaxation response should work in other states where too much adrenaline norepinephrine was around 1 set state is extra heart beats in people who have had a heart attack and in the next slide will see that when you compare the number of extra heartbeats or PVCs premature ventricular contractions before and after regular eliciting the relaxation response and this was done 48 hours before the people would elicit the relaxation response for 4 to 5 weeks come back for another 48 hours. There was a decrease in eight of the eleven people. So eliciting a response these were in people who were otherwise therapeutic failures in controlling their extra hard. Buy medication not only did these changes occur during waking hours. But in the next slide we can see that the changes also occurred during sleeping hours. Okay, we can have the slides off and if there's no need to turn the lights on we could leave it down now. we've subsequently done other experiments where we've shown you can effectively treat anxiety and anxiety neuroses with The relaxation response and a number of other disease States now, what are the side effects of such an intervention? They're essentially those of Prayer. If you think praying twice a day is dangerous, so is the relaxation response? Okay. It's it's really that simple you sit quietly for 10 to 20 minutes twice daily and go through the exercise and if you wish I'll show you how to do it towards the end of the talk. Now if you are on medications, you should check with your physician because we found that for example, we've noted that a number of diabetic people have to decrease the amount of insulin that they're taking. So it's very very important that you check with your physician when you start doing this so your medications can be appropriately adjusted. Okay, let's assume then that we're correct in what we're saying namely that stress lead to the fight or flight response the fight-or-flight response lead to major health problems as well as equally important problems in terms of anxiety and other things and that you can alleviate these environmentally induced effects of stress on the body by regularly eliciting the relaxation response. And that Society has thrown out the traditional ways of eliciting. The relaxation response namely is no longer acceptable to pray once or twice daily. This isn't part of our society yet. This type of behavior is the very thing that we need. How do we go about reinstituting reintroducing the relaxation response into our society so that we could effectively deal with the rather severe manifestations of stress. It's our belief that the only way this will go in America is if industry if business takes the lead and puts time aside while at work for people to take 10 to 20 minutes and have what we've call relaxation response breaks instead of coffee breaks. now In Wilmington, Massachusetts, the there's a company that Converse rubber company and we tested relaxation response response breaks there this the work that I'll be showing you now is are the results of dr. Ruane Peter's doctoral thesis and we work very closely in this work will soon be published in the next slide. Let me show you this study design. We could have the next light please. What we did was the people saw the value of relaxation response breaks and their management association sponsor this there were a number of volunteers. There were also some people who are non volunteers. We took the volunteers and split them into three equal groups group a was the relaxation response group. They would sit quietly once daily or twice daily at work using their own time at work in a roommate available by the converse Rubber Company where they could just go in at their coffee break or their lunch break or what or before or after work and sit quietly using the instructions to elicit the relaxation response. Groupie did exactly the same thing. They went into the room once or twice daily and equal number of times, but they didn't use the instructions. They simply sat quietly and thought about whatever they wish to think about even relaxing thoughts but they didn't use Specific Instructions Group C did nothing. They were one control group and Group D did nothing either now, we we had date we accumulated data during a baseline. Of 4 weeks. Then the people started doing eyes of the relaxation response or sitting quietly or just carrying on Now we made a number of measurements both objective namely blood pressure and subjective namely a number of questionnaires which the people responded to and compare the various groups in the next slide see some of the results. These are the changes in blood pressure, even though these the blood pressure in these people were relatively normal to begin with only in group a that is the relaxation response group where there are significant decreases in blood pressure. This is important because regardless of your blood pressure the lower it is the healthier you are. Okay. So even though these people were within the so-called normal range their blood pressure was lowered further. This is not dangerous. In fact, it's very healthy the lower your blood pressure provided. There are no symptoms and they're rarely are they healthy. Are you are So both systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased only in the relaxation response group in the next slide. We measured symptoms how people felt is your stomach upset. Do you have headaches? Are you bothered by sweating of your palms by not being able to sleep much by undue anxiety manifested in symptoms here again. We see exactly the same changes only within the relaxation response group where their significant decreases and symptoms next slide. We looked also at something which for want of a better term we call the sociability satisfaction. Index. Are you happy? Are you satisfied with your work? How do you think your work is doing? What do you think of your job how you getting along with other people around you that sort of thing again only significant changes within the our relaxation response group Next slide. We also looked at a happiness unhappiness index in which people were asked. Okay, do you feel happy or less happier as a result of doing this again the same results the largest changes were in those who regularly elicited the relaxation response. Next light I think that's the last okay now. We were working here with a managerial group and it's frightfully difficult to measure performance in a managerial group as those of you and Industry know we work closely with the Harvard Business School and coming up with what they consider and we considered to be perhaps the best index of performance. Which happens to be do you think you're performing optimally better than you did it has to be a self-assessment and you can see that the difference is again, we're striking only within the relaxation response group were there statistically significant increases in performance felt, they were functioning better and at more optimal levels. Okay, we could have this wise off therefore I think there are distinct advantages not only for the individual but also for the industry for industry and business in general in adopting relaxation response breaks. First of all, I think we'll be DeLand from my point of view most importantly will be improving the health of individuals and learning how to not learning how but actually coping with and dealing with the excessive amount of stress. We're being exposed to from a business point of view with healthier individuals insurance benefits will be less more directly. There will be fewer illness days taken by employees employees will be happier and performance will increase these can be measured by businesses and can pay off in dollars. So I think whether you look at it from a health point of view, which is the way I would look like to look at it and do look at it or from a business point of view. We both stand to gain from this and I think that within our society we should think very long and hard about instituting such brakes. Subsequent to this study. There is now a major study going on at PPG Industries in Pittsburgh where we're testing whether once-a-day brakes are as efficient as twice a day breaks and there are 300 senior Executives now involved in that particular study. We may soon be starting at other major American Industries. Well in summary then we're living in a very complex society. The more complex society becomes the more stress. We have to cope with the stress leads to Dyer health problems and all sorts of psychological upsets week. Unfortunately, we have within us fortunately a capacity to deal with these ill effects of stress. We need only to put aside time once or twice daily for 10 to 20 minutes to elicit an innate response, which will effectively counteract these harmful effects of stress. Thank you very much. Can you use biofeedback to get into this my question is why you don't need it. Why do you have to hook up to a machine when you can do this just by following very simple instructions. This is much simpler, and I'm not sure whether or not the machines may get in the way because you've got to disregard other thoughts when they come in and the biofeedback may be having you concentrate on things that you shouldn't be concentrating on. Would it be like a form of self-hypnosis as I pointed out? There are many many different techniques called prayer self-hypnosis all sorts of things that lead to this relaxation response. The relaxation response is comment whatever technique you use results in the same changes if your suggested stay in self hypnosis is relaxation. It will lead to this. It's just another way of doing the same thing, but you are not out of control. Nor and it's very different from other forms of hypnosis where other things are suggested you see if you suggest I want to stop smoking heaven knows what's happening to your physiology. It's only one relaxation is suggested that these changes and soap. You'd be able to do this in three to four minutes. It's that easy. You can learn this from a printed sheet. I'd like to make it more complex because somehow people believe that a good things have to be complex, but it's really quite simple. What a morning and afternoon nap is good question. Do the same thing. I don't know but I don't think so because the physiology of sleep is different from the physiology of this. I really don't know whether you would get decrease blood pressure nor does anyone from a nap in the morning in the evening one thing about a nap in the morning in the evening a camp program that into fall asleep. You just can't fall asleep on cue. Where is with these various techniques you can do them at any time. Is 10th. Okay is 10 minutes better than 20 minutes as good. Okay. I know I always reminded with that question of the time when I spoke before the Harvard Business School alumni group and one of the alumni. Said asked. Well, you say 10 to 20 minutes. What's the shortest amount of time I could do this and still got results at which point is wife hit him with her elbow and said damage on that your problem. We don't know. An indirect response to your question. We don't know where testing this now at PPG Industries. We're trying to find out there's some indication that once a day maybe enough for 10 to 20 minutes as opposed to twice a day 10 to 20 minutes. We're testing this one of the groups is doing it once a day another group is doing it twice a day and we're seeing whether there was also different. I know you have to go at least three to five minutes to get the metabolic changes. I've seen whether or not you get the carryover effect how much time you need for that. I don't know we're sticking with 10 to 20 minutes because historically from religions People Prayed for 10 to 20 minutes in the morning and pretend to 20 minutes in the evening. So we're borrowing very heavily from a you know, thousands of years of experience in this. We'll see What does it make any difference where they have eaten before usually people? Find that the subjective feelings of relaxation. I'm much better if you don't do it on a full stomach. I don't think there's anything dangerous about it. But most people do this before meals, for example, ideal times to do this or upon Awakening in the morning or late in the afternoon. It's especially good for Homemakers in the late afternoon. When Homemakers are faced with that frightful time of day when you have to sort of pull everything together make dinner be pleasant for a whole evening when you really don't feel like being helped. That's a good time for the businessman mid-morning mid-afternoon a good time not to do it. We found not that it's dangerous but is immediately before you go to sleep because you no longer tired it would appear and you stay up. Incidentally use the same instructions lying down and it's a beautiful way to fall asleep. Then though you're asleep in the physiologic changes of those of sleep. I think the various postures of sitting kneeling squatting standing swaying sitting cross-legged evolved over the centuries to keep you from falling asleep. But if you lie down and use the same instructions, it's a good way to fall asleep. And as I like to say, it's very little different from counting sheep provided cheap aren't meaningful to you counting sheep or an absolutely beautiful way to fall asleep. teaching and involving children This is Messi from a number of reasons. I I can't see any danger in it. In fact, we've work with groups of hyperactive children and found this moderately successful. How do you teach a hyperactive children to do this first get them walking in a circle give them a nickel if they can walk more slowly another nickel if they can decrease the size of the circle yet another nickel if they can sit down then tap their foot in each time. They're left left foot tap. Say the number one and wean them into it. It's been affected but I hesitate to study or to argue for institution in schools because you get into this whole division of religion and state business a lot of people even though this isn't prayer and that prayer is just one way of doing this might be you this as an intrusion and it gets awfully messy. I don't see any danger in it. But I wonder about the large-scale institution of it in our particular country it certainly done around the world in other cultures and and other. Well, I think it goes back to prayer. If you would have your children do an exercise or pray once or twice daily and not consider that dangerous then the same type of physiologic changes would occur from this and then I would leave the decision up to you. Yes. Increase in intelligence very difficult thing to measure. I know some of the organizations claim that as a result of practicing a specific technique. Your capacity for for learning is increased. One thing that does happen, you less anxious and insofar as anxiety contributes to preventing you learn then perhaps it helps out in that sphere but intelligence itself is almost impossible to measure. I don't know what intelligence is and how you separated from talent in that whole argument another point though. There is a great deal of drinking and smoking activity drinking especially in this country now, especially in the business World, which is quite worrisome too many people in so far as drinking and smoke the drinking and smoking behaviors are brought about by anxieties drinking and smoking will be decreased to that extent and we have noted and done some studies to see that that that has shown that people who regularly elicit the relaxation response smokeless drink last and generally take fewer drugs than they were using or taking prior to regularly eliciting the response. I don't think it's any chance happenstance that religious people are drinking smoked less. I think it may be all tied in to this very real physiologic response. Yes, sir. Well, I think you why do you need a repetitive word that's divorced from every day occurrence is okay. It has to be a special type of prayer if it's prayer because you can't be praying dear Lord make my sick child better. That isn't going to do it that's going to throw you right back into the problem. That's bothering you you need a repetitive sound a word or phrase which is beyond your everyday life. And that's why something of neutral emotional or of higher spiritual content is necessary. That's why I would like the number one as opposed to something like pencil would be more important it is to see if it can lead to associative thinking or throw you back into your problem. At least. That's our hypothesis. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Doing it with music. A lot of people work out different ways. There's nothing major point. I'm trying to get across and thank you for your question is that there are many different ways of doing it. You just pick one which is comfortable for you many musicians feel they elicit the response when they get into a particular musical work and just float float along with enough people doing mathematical problems often achieve the same state by getting into that sort of floating feeling many women who knit & crochet have feelings which are very much akin to those of the relaxation response and probably are listening it people who jog For example have a repetitive Cadence over and over again, which acts effectively as the repetitive stimulus and Come Away with the same subjective feelings with me. So choose your own technique. I think you know Perhaps a beetle tune would be inappropriate to have his background music yet something which is more soothing might be but that depends upon your own inclination. Beautiful why is compliance decrease? Thank you when it's so good for you. Well, there are several reasons. First of all, you have to be an inordinately Program person Define 10 to 20 minutes twice a day and do it regularly there so many things infringing on our time. But even if you find this very desirable there are lots of things that draw you away from it. You have to be almost compulsive about it. That's why I think industry in America so important 50% of our people spend 50% well over 50% of their time at the at on the job on the job in some form or another therefore. It has to be institutionalized and made a bit easier for people because very few people have the conviction to do this regularly. These are healthy people with people offer example of hypertension. I found better compliance in my own practice with these type of techniques that I have with taking medications because medications very often have side effects that are unpleasant and when you can do the same thing same thing with something pleasurable choice is easy, but with healthy people is very difficult. If you already feel pretty good in our just feel stressed, for example, okay? Yes. Oh, okay. 2 questions first of all, am I addressing this to Black audiences at all where there is a great deal of hypertension indeed I am very much. So I personally do not believe there's a difference between black and white hypertension as many do brother feel that if white people were subjected to the same environmental stresses that black people were subjected to are subjected to that similar amounts of hypertension would be present in this has been shown Are you sending question if everyone's relaxing who's going to do anything about the inherent stresses I darn good question. However, wouldn't it be better to? Deal with the stresses and to try and change the system. If you were in more control of yourself, then if you weren't namely by taking 10 to 20 minutes, which isn't going to turn you into a vegetable and have you become what me worry about things but rather have you deal more effectively with or have you perhaps by doing away with some of your anxieties become more effective and watch your doing?