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Spirituality

Videoconference experts will discuss
the beneficial effect of religious belief
on patient health.

SUSAN TAWIL

Special to the Jewish News

rayer helps. That has always been the view of
traditional Jewish thought; lately, there is
increasing scientific evidence to confirm that
belief
On Tuesday, Nov. 21, Ohr Somayach of Detroit
and Jerusalem Vision, the programming arm of inter-
national Ohr Somayach, will present a videoconference
exploring this issue.
"The Impact of Prayer on Health and Healing" will
be held in Handleman Hall of the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield, with a dessert buffet pre-
ceding the program. The event will honor Ohr
Somayach's Tree of Life Award recipients, Brenda and
Howard Rosenberg of Bloomfield Hills. She is a pho-
tographer and former fashion executive; he is a local
attorney
"We felt the best way to accept this honor was to
help put together a program with an important mes-
sage," says Brenda Rosenberg. "The power of prayer
and healing has really changed our lives."
Featured speakers that evening include Dr. Herbert
Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical
Institute at Harvard (Mass.) Medical School; Rabbi
Dovid Gottlieb, Ph.D. of Ohr Somayach Jerusalem in
Israel; and Steven J. Keteyian, Ph.D., of the Henry
Ford Heart
and Vascular
Institute in
411
Detroit.
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Through the
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upcoming forum
ence format,
explores prayer's
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Dr. Herbert Benson

physiology at Wayne State
University Medical School
in Detroit, and clinical
professor of exercise sci-
ence at Oakland
University's School of
Health Sciences in
Rochester Hills. His
Howard and Brenda Rosenberg
research interest focuses
on the effect of physical
activity on cardiac health.
Benson is a pioneer in the
field of psychosomatic research, especially in regard to
countering the harmful effects of stress. He has pub-
lished many books and articles on the mind/body
health relationship, the best known being his break-
through book, The Relaxation Response, published in
1975. Besides his work at Harvard's Mind/Body
Medical Institute, which he founded in 1988, Benson
is chief of behavioral medicine at Boston's Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center.

Applying Biofeedback

Steven J. Keteyian

Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb

Detroit, where both Rabbi Gottlieb and Keteyian will
speak and field questions.

At The Podium

Before taking his position as senior lecturer at Ohr
Somayach of Jerusalem, Rabbi Gottlieb was a professor
of mathematical logic at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore. He is an internationally known lecturer and
author of several books on Jewish ethics and philoso-
phy. He will present the traditional Jewish view of
prayer and healing at the videoconference.
Keteyian is known for his weekly Health and Fitness
column in The Detroit News. He serves as program
director of preventive cardiology at the Ford Heart and
Vascular Institute. Keteyian is also associate professor of

Benson began his work helping patients to lower their
high blood pressure through biofeedback techniques.
Through the meditative "Relaxation Response" system
he developed, he found that patients could not only
their lower blood pressure levels, but also reverse heart
disease and increase general health and well being.
In the past few years, Benson has taken his research
a step further. He's investigated the additional benefi-
cial effect of religious belief on patient health. With
what he terms "the Faith Factor," he found that faith
coupled with the Relaxation Response was far more
effective in evoking stress reduction and wellness than
using just the relaxation practice alone.
"I am not interested in promoting one religious or
philosophical system over another," says Benson. "Nor
do I intend to comment in any way on the truth or fal-
sity of any religious system. Rather, I'm most con-
cerned with the scientifically observable phenomena
and forces that accompany faith."
The doctor is not a "New Age" quack: rather, he

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