15. Meditation a vital addiction recovery tool

By Tom O'Connell

The 11th Step of AA's Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions encourages recovering alcoholics to use "prayer and meditation" to improve their "conscious contact with God as we understood Him..." Although prayer is one of the most common human activities,  meditation is less popular. To many people it seems more mystical and strange. 

Put simply, "prayer" is an attitude of asking, and "meditation" is an attitude of listening. Just sitting. Without distractions. Being quiet. Noticing each breath. Letting thoughts come and go. Listening to a prayer word or a number. That's all. And a spiritual communion happens. Lightness replaces heaviness. And all seems better with the world.

When the pioneers of Twelve Step recovery back in 1935 began to promote meditation, they borrowed the idea from the "quiet times" suggested by the Oxford movement. But the Oxford movement didn't invent meditation. In ancient times, Jews practiced it, and so did Hindus and Buddhists. Taoists practiced it, and so did followers of Confucius. It had a place in Shintoism and Islam. And the early Christians practiced it. Now it's making a comeback in our restless, agitated, endlessly hurrying, stressful culture.

One of the most outspoken missionaries of meditation today is Herbert Benson, M.D., who is affiliated with Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is a cardiologist whose mission is to make meditation a standard healing procedure.

Benson, the author of "The Relaxation Response," regularly presents his views at the annual Cape Cod Institute in Eastham, coordinated by Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This year he told his audience of healthcare professionals, "Sixty to ninety percent of visits to doctors are in the mind-body stress level." Citing a Mass. General Hospital study in which patients were treated warmly and sympathetically, he said they needed only half the usual amount of medication

For healing, he emphasized the importance of "the patient's belief" in the therapist or physician, the "healer's belief" in the remedy, and "the belief engendered between the two." And a key remedy he is offering today is the relaxation response, or meditation.

Dr. Benson says meditation "breaks the train of everyday thought," and that promotes healing. Meditation helps us turn off our pain, whether physical or mental.

As for the religious angle, which can't be escaped when one discusses meditation, Benson isn't bashful. He insists, "We're wired to believe, wired for God...there hasn't been one culture that hasn't believed in something beyond."

So he promotes spiritual healing, and through his Mind/Body Medical Institute he teaches his "relaxation response" to health practitioners around this nation. The meditation method is now being taught in 60 percent of medical schools, he reports.

Is he universally applauded for his work? No. He gets criticism from "scientists" who find it hard to believe in the faith factor and spiritual practices that defy accurate measurement and mainly rely on people's testimony. But Benson persists with his mission.

Also, he's aware of the value that Twelve Step recovery program members place in the power of prayer and meditation as healing tools. And in his own way he is carrying the message that it's important to "Let go and let God." How to do it? Just sit. Close your eyes. Be quiet. Relax. Breathe calmly. Let thoughts come and go. Just be. Mmm. Nice.

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