I am new to meditation and would like to know peoples opinions about the most effective method, bearing in mind I believe in cutting to the basis of a subject and am not interested in religion as such.

hi Mouat,

There are many kinds of meditation techniques but the most practised one is sitting in the lotus form and calm your mind and say any mantra or word like Om,lOve...

You can start with visualization meditation as it helps you to concentrate on thethe visualization and for get about other thougths gradually.

after that, you can proceed with trataka meditation.Well it depends on you which one you find yourself most comfortable.

I am placing alink where I found some nice meditation tips.You can google about meditation tips also if you want some other explanation.

http://www.meditationiseasy.com/mCorner/what_is_not_meditation.htm

The technique I find most effective which I think is called silent mantra meditation is to sit down in a relaxed posture, close your eyes and repeat the word 'om' out loud every 2 seconds or so, continue this for around 5 minutes making the word quieter until you stop saying it out loud, however continue to chant it and hear it in your mind. After another few minutes stop chanting it in your mind and you should be thoughtless. I can stay in this state for around a minute or so. When you come around and open your eyes your mind will feel remarkably stilled and you will be relaxed.

Meditation can be by the book or like a soothing, relaxing resting of the body.  
Me for example, do my Kundiline setting up in my pc chair as my room is darken but I have to prop up my arms on my desk.  It has a left side extension, so I can twirl my chair around the the corner of it and use both sections to rest my arms.  When I just want to lay down and do..say a mind meditation via Kelly Howell mp3, I will lay down.  I find I can let myself go into any area that she takes me to.  
Its up to you, we are all different.  We don't have to follow any book to "do it right!"

Barbara

thanks for the link for that site. I want to try meditaion. so i hope i do it correctly. unless there really isn't a wrong way of doing it.  any tips would be great. thanks!