Meares was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Melbourne University. During World War II, he was a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps. In 1946 he began private practice as a psychiatrist in Melbourne and was a foundation Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry. Meares was also President of the International Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. In 1973, he started using hypnosis and meditation in his practice to manage pain, treat psychoneurotic and psychosomatic illnesses and facilitate mental relaxation amongst his patients. Meares had success in treating cancer patients, schizophrenics and people with other mental disorders. His belief in healing the body through the mind using innovative techniques was opposed by the Australian Medical Association, but won acceptance within large sections of the medical profession before his death. Meares wrote technical psychiatric texts such as The Medical Interview (1957) and popular psychological self help books including Relief Without Drugs (1967), From The Quiet Place: Mental Ataraxis: Thoughts on Meditation (1976), Cancer: Another Way (1977) and Dialogue on Meditation (1979). Some of his works were translated into at least seven languages.
