Om

Meditation involves sitting quietly and focusing upon breathing or an image, sometimes while thinking or saying an innocuous word such as "om." Sara Lazar of the Harvard Medical school used MRI to study the effects meditating may have upon the brain. She found a thickening of the pars of the brain involved with memory and attention, areas that shrink with age.
In another study, Bruce O’Hara of the University of Kentucky found that 40 minutes of meditation did better on attention tests compared with their own performance after reading for 40 minutes. In another study, Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin found meditation produced a jump in brain waves associated with vigilance and attention.
Research has show that meditation works, but it also shows that it works irrespective of any religious connections. All you have to do sit quietly, empty the mind, and focus on something meaningless so the mind does not begin thinking about the thing. All the religious beliefs are superfluous. As usual, people exploit a natural phenomenon and confuse the issue. Use your brain; do not let others use it.