meh. The idea to study the effects of meditation is great. But there is no real takeaway from the book. Lots of meditation styles are mentioned and it is not clear what each one is. each chapter touches one aspect that meditation could affect but they mention a bunch of studies and so it loses clarity.

This is the book about meditation for those who want the real talk first, and the folklore, philosophy and grand tour later. Brainwaves were discovered in the 1920s. Up until then, we have relied on descriptions of language to explain changes in state of the mind. Then a little less than a century ago, we began to see the electrical waves of the brain, and it was inevitable that the slow mapping of this miracle of nature would lead us here, to discussing neuroplasticity, or how one might be able...

Epirical look on meditation  and its effect on well being

Two giants of science journalism and neuroscience research, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson, collaborate to separate fact from folklore about the benefits of mediation in this important, factually intensive, and readable book. Their research has been guided by the idea that: “Some of what you know about meditation may be wrong. But what is true about meditation you may not know.”Fair warning to hippies and new age practitioners; this is a well-researched book about science. In 1970 Dan trave...

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I loved Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, so I thought this one would be equally good. This book about meditation is very informative. But it is not as much about meditation as about research on meditation. Let me explain.Goleman emphasizes that although there has been a ton of research investigations into the benefits (or non-benefits) of meditation, most scientific studies are frighteningly deficient. Resea...

After taking a course about meditation and science I was interested in reading about more scientific evidence on the usefulness of meditation. This book cites many studies and points out studies that were done without rigorous application of the scientific method whose results may be suspect. Balanced and well written.

While exceedingly well-researched and well-written, I came away somewhat disappointed.The topic of meditation and what it does in and to the brain is fascinating (being a long-term meditator), but I'm more interested in understanding the results of the latest research than in the processes being used by researchers to get to the results. The authors spend the bulk of the book describing the techniques and evolution of studying meditation (both in their own careers and of others in the field) in

“Altered Traits – Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body” by Daniel Goleman (Author of the Bestselling Books on Emotional Intelligence/Psychologist) & Richard Davidson (Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry/Director and Founder of Centre for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)“Science operates within a web of culture-bound assumptions that limit our view of what is possible, most powerfully for the behavioural sciences. Modern psychology had...

Even though we evolved from Homo erectus more than 1.8 million years ago, our radar system for existential threats is still overactive and keeps sounding false alarms for flight and fight - causing distress to self and others. Look at President Trump: all the power, wealth, beautiful women - but the man is always pissed off. Distresses the whole world.And look at Dalai Lama. Who would you rather be? This book is about how meditation and compassion have made Dalai Lama's brain different from Dona...

It was a challenge to stay focus because I just wanted to read about what the titled promised without all the filler.

This book was really timely for me, as, against my better judgment, I was getting a bit frustrated with my progress. Good to know there's hard scientific evidence that progress in meditation roughly follows a dose-response curve (i.e. the more you do it, the better you get). It was instructive to know that different types of meditation have different benefits (and effects on the brain) and reassuring to learn that altered traits take a long time to set in, but they DO set in—it just takes time.

As I recently started to learn more about meditation, I was curious about any research on the subject. A friend recommended this book, and it's a good overview of some of the evidence of the benefits meditation can provide. I was very skeptical going in given how often the idea of meditation is intermingled with that of the spiritual, crossing over the line of credulity for me. The authors do a good job of separating the two, focusing more on good science and falsifiable predictions. For example...

This book has been sold under the title listed above as well as the less prosaic title, “Altered Traits.” The switch may represent a lack of confidence that the coined term “altered traits” would catch on, and / or a desire to market the book as broadly as possible. “Altered Traits” is a play on the more well-known term “altered states [of consciousness.]” The idea being that meditation (as well as many other activities from consuming psychoactive drugs to having a shamanistic drum rave) create

Boring

The core message of Altered Traits is important: meditation (especially the type known as Mindfulness-Based Stressreduction) can help you, but beware of the hype. Richie Davidson runs the gold standard lab for studying the neuroscience of meditation (at my home institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and he's absolutely rigorous in his approach to the claims made for meditation as a cure for more or less everything. One of the valuable things about Altered Traits is its breakdown of wh...

There’s some good information here, about the scientific examination of various types of meditation and the results. Some of their personal adventures doing research are entertaining, and they honestly criticize mistakes they made as young researchers. But while many important scientific principles are spelled out, the authors also continually bring up tiny un-replicated studies with a few dozen participants as if the results are meaningful. Kind of inconsistent. The whole thing was also a littl...

As a neuroscientist and meditator, I had a great pleasure reading about personal and scientific journeys of Dan and Richie as well as the development of contemplative neuroscience whose pioneers they were. They present current scientific understanding and evaluate research on the topic of meditation through the rigorous scientific lense. Very well written, with personal stories and insights, vast scientific knowledge and expertise, the book is immensely inspiring to plunge into meditation. Above...

Interesting subject matter but the writing is a bit bland.

TLDR; Great review of meditation research, but don't expect a 'how-to' type self help bookThis book fully delivers on the promise that its title claims; an explanation of the current scientific understanding of meditation. The most satisfying part about the book is that it holds meditation research to the same high bar as the rest of medicine/biology and does a great job at piercing through the hype generated by poorly designed studies. This is to be expected given that one of the authors (Richi...

A well earned 4 stars. If you're interested in the science and benefits of meditation, and want to know more then this book is a no-brainer. It's quite detailed about what we know, about how meditation works in the brain even up to a neuroscience level, and the history of the meditation science in general. Great reference material full with interesting discoveries, I would say the actual content does outshine the slower parts of the book. If you want to learn how to meditate then this still can