cover image The True Path: Western Science and the Quest for Yoga

The True Path: Western Science and the Quest for Yoga

Roy J. Mathew, M.D.. Basic Books, $25 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-7382-0458-1

In a ""modest attempt to bridge the chasm between science and philosophy,"" Roy J. Mathew, a Syrian Christian from southern India and a professor of psychiatry and associate professor of radiology at Duke University, presents The True Path: Western Science and the Quest for Yoga. Mathew, the clinical director of the Duke Addictions Program, recounts stories involving death or drug addiction and recovery, and transformative spiritual experience, known in India as yoga. He draws on his extensive neuroscience research to explore such matters as ""[w]hether a meditative trance is neurally mediated."" This balanced, readable take on the neuroscientific underpinnings of spirituality will appeal to scientists, philosophers, religious folk, addicts and addiction workers of every stripe. Illus.