Five stars if you've looked into the awful, awful "science" behind meditation and asked yourself "where the heck is the good research?"

Most research into the objective effects of meditation is staggeringly bad and it is the mission of Goleman and Davidson to summarize the real science while explaining why most research fails the modern scientific standard. The authors do a brilliant job of meta-research on meditation with just enough history peppered with anecdotes to keep this book a book (as opposed to a very long research paper).

The bibliography and notes of this book is a treasure trove unto itself. Very highly recommended as a starting point in searching out the papers and articles that underpin what has become widely accepted — that meditation is beneficial and worthwhile — but barely understood.