The use of Meditation for healing is not new. Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. It has been rooted in the traditions of the world's great religions. In fact, practically all religious groups practice meditation in one form or another. The value of Meditation to alleviate suffering and promote healing has been known and practiced for thousands of years.

Of the religions that use meditation, perhaps Buddhism, practiced widely in eastern and central Asia, is the best known. To Buddhists, the practice of meditation is essential for the cultivation of wisdom and compassion and for understanding reality. Buddhists believe that our ordinary consciousness is both limited and limiting. Meditation makes it possible to live life to the full spectrum of our conscious and unconscious possibilities.

In spite of its rich history and traditions, it is only during the past three decades that scientific study has focused on the clinical effects of meditation on health. During the 1960s, reports reached the West of yogis and meditation masters in India who could perform extraordinary feats of bodily control and altered states of consciousness. These reports captured the interest of Western researchers studying self-regulation and the possibility of voluntary control over the autonomic nervous system. At the same time, new refinements in scientific instrumentation made it possible to duplicate and substantiate some of these reports at medical research institutes. Health care professionals who were often dissatisfied with the side effects of drug treatments for stress-related disorders embraced meditation as a valuable tool for stress reduction, and today both patients and physicians enjoy the health benefits of regular meditation practice.

Meditation can help most people feel less anxious and more in control. The awareness that meditation brings can also be a source of personal insight and self-understanding.

By simple definition, meditation is engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature. To elaborate further, meditation is an attempt to concentrate mind on a single form or an idea or an aspect of divinity at the exclusion of all other forms, thoughts, and ideas. The mind is focused inwards, and this effort of concentration acts as a stimulus to gain access to knowledge of 'object of meditation'. The aspirant makes an attempt to minimize perceptions through senses - inputs through special senses like touch, sight, hearing, etc. - by detaching mind from sense organs in the brain. This helps in controlling restlessness of mind, in favor of inner contemplation. The mind, as if, is made still. Meditation may be, therefore, taken as a 'passive' activity! But is it really so?

Tremendous changes observed in the human brain and nervous system during mediation run contrary to this belief of 'passivity' attached to meditation. Unprecedented progress and research in neurobiology, investigative neurology, and study of neurotransmitters in the last two decades has given a great fillip to the study of neuro-physiology of Meditation and Yoga. Altered State of Consciousness can be brought about by hypnosis, drugs (e. g. LSD), sleep, etc., but here we are trying to study a state specific science of altered consciousness brought about by meditation alone.

Some of the proven health conditions that are benefited by meditation are as follows;

++ Drug Addiction
++ Prolonging Life Expectancy
++ Stress Control
++ Pain Management
++ Cancer and Other Chronic Illness
++ Heart disease.
++ High blood pressure.
++ Infertility
++ Psoriasis
++ Respiratory crises
++ Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), Tension Headaches
++ Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcers, and Insomnia
++ Fibromyalgia

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