The True Path ― Western Science and the Quest for Yoga

In The True Path, Duke psychiatrist Roy J. Mathew draws on his own extensive knowledge of neuroscience as he looks at the centuries-old Indian idea that spirituality is a state of mind-a higher form of consciousness. Mathew shows how the latest brain research demonstrates that activities such as prayer, music, art, nature, intuitive knowledge, altruism, and meditation stimulate the non-dominant hemisphere of the brain. Spirituality is intimately connected to this area of the brain and must be accessed-according to Indian philosophy-by removing the "sheaths" of everyday life. With scientific evidence that this "pure consciousness" truly exists, Mathew shows readers how to use meditation, yoga, and other traditional methods of contemplation to achieve this spiritual state of mind.

Roy J. Mathew, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Radiology at Duke University, was born in southern India. He is an internationally recognized researcher in neuroscience and Clinical Director of the Duke Addictions Program and the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center in Butner, North Carolina. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.