Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga

Authors
Herbert Benson, John W. Lehmann, M. S. Malhotra, Ralph F. Goldman, Jeffrey Hopkins, Mark D. Epstein
Publication
Nature
295, 234-236
Abstract

Since meditative practices are associated with changes that are consistent with decreased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, it is conceivable that measurable body temperature changes accompany advanced meditative states. With the help of H.H. the Dalai Lama, we have investigated such a possibility on three practitioners of the advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditational practice known as g Tum-mo (heat) yoga living in Upper Dharamsala, India. We report here that in a study performed there in February 1981, we found that these subjects exhibited the capacity to increase the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 8.3°C.

Related Listings
Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcript...
Authors
Manoj K. Bhasin, Jeffery A. Dusek, Bei-Hung Chang, Marie G. Joseph, John W. Denninger, Gregory L. Fricchione, Herbert Benson, Towia A. Libermann
Journal
PLOS ONE
The relaxation response (RR) is the counterpart of the stress response. Millennia-old practices evoking the RR include meditation, yoga and repetitive prayer. Although RR elicitation is an effective therapeutic intervention that counteracts the adverse clinical effects of stress in disorders including hypertension, anxiety, insomnia and aging, the underlying molecular mechanisms that explain these clinical benefits remain undetermined. To assess rapid time-dependent (temporal) genomic […]
Alleviation of premenstrual syndrome symptoms w...
Authors
I L Goodale, A D Domar, H Benson
Journal
Obstet Gynecol
·
During a 5-month study, we examined the effects of the relaxation response on premenstrual syndrome in 46 women who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a charting group, a reading group, and a relaxation response group. The relaxation response group showed significantly greater improvement than the charting and the reading groups on physical symptoms (P less than .025 for both comparisons). There was a significant group-by-severity effect for charting versus relaxation resp […]
Health Outcomes and a New Index of Spiritual Ex...
Authors
Jared D. Kass, Richard Friedman, Jane Leserman, Patricia C. Zuttermeister, Herbert Benson
Journal
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
·
Clinical observations suggesting a relationship between spiritual experiences, life purpose and satisfaction, and improvements in physical health led to the development of an Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT). Data from 83 medical outpatients showed the INSPIRIT to have a strong degree of internal reliability and concurrent validity. Multiple regression analyses showed the INSPIRIT to be associated with: (1) increased life purpose and satisfaction, a health-promoting attit […]