An assumption underlying the many books on meditation is that it is good for you! The uniqueness of "Why Meditation Works" is that it explains why. It is both a manual of meditation from the perspective of physical techniques and results and a study of the evidence that meditation relieves stress, enhances mental abilities, particularly concentration, and assists the body in its capacity for healing. James Baltzell is currently Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Minnesota, but spent many years running a practice combining alternative therapies with mainstream general medicine. At this ground-breaking Healing Centre he ran meditation classes for the White Eagle Lodge and, along with his wife, served on the Council of the yoga teacher-training school, Heart Yoga, based in Hampshire, where he developed its teaching of physiology and anatomy. As a practitioner of yoga for nearly three decades, James Blatzell gives a sound teaching of meditation in this book as well as a refreshingly clear medical perspective.