MIT on Meditation: Since the dawn of mankind, meditation has been as essential to human behavior as eating and speaking. It is such an ancient technique in fact; that many believe, man’s primordial need to focus attention inwardly, “may have contributed to the final phases of human biological” evolution and is intimately bound to the physical progress of our ancestors.
Meditation is so widespread culturally and religiously, that it is a global behavior. Its incarnations are found among the traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism, to name a few.