An inductively powered gas discharge lamp (10) including both a power coil (14) and a healing coils (16) associated with each filament. The heating coils enable the filaments to he preheated before the starting voltage is applied through the power coils. The inductive power coils and the inductive heater coils are contained within the lamp envelope, allowing the lamp to be entirely sealed. A method of dimming the lamp also is disclosed. The lamp is dimmed by both decreasing the power applied to the power coils and increasing the power applied to the heating coils so as to prevent the are from extinguishing under lower voltage conditions.