Meditation
Classic and Contemporary Perspectives
Deane Shapiro & Roger Walsh (Eds.)
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This is a more academic book which collects the best early research studies on meditation into a single volume that received “The Outstanding Academic Book of the Year Award.”
Many claim that meditation is effective in the treatment of many ailments associated with stress and high blood pressure, and in the management of pain. While there are many popular books on meditation, few embrace the science as well as the art of meditation. In this volume, Shapiro and Walsh fill this need by assembling a complete collection of scholarly articles – “Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives.” From an academic rather than a popular vantage, the volume takes the claims and counterclaims about meditation to a deeper analytical level by including studies from clinical psychology and psychiatry, neuroscience, psychophysiology, and biochemistry. Each selection is a contribution to the field, either as a classic of research, or by being methodologically elegant, heuristically interesting, or creative. Original articles cover such topics as the effects of meditation in the treatment of stress, hypertension, and addictions; the comparison of meditation with other self-regulation strategies; the adverse effects of meditation; and meditation-induced altered states of consciousness.Concluding with a major bibliography of related works, “Meditation” offers the reader a valuable overview of the state and possible future directions of meditation research. Today, in the popular media and elsewhere, debate continues: Is meditation an effective technique for spiritual and physical healing, or is it quackery? “Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives” weighs in on this debate by presenting what continues to be the most complete collection of scholarly articles ever amassed on the subject of meditation.
Roger Walsh is professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as professor in the religious studies program at the University of California at Irvine.