-by-stefanie-syman.html&media=http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/imgs/hed/art12249widea.jpg&description=The+Subtle+Body%3A+The+Story+of+Yoga+in+America+%28Farrar%2C+Straus+and+Giroux%29%2C+by+Stefanie+Syman "Pin It")
As recently as the 1970s, yoga was still seen as
an exotic eccentricity in many parts of the United States. Since then it has
become a pervasive and popular exercise regimen if nothing else—a means of
maintaining physical health even for those who disconnect it from its spiritual
dimension. Stefanie Syman’s readable and solidly researched account traces
yoga’s arrival in America
to Emerson, Thoreau and the Transcendentalists of the 19th century. Its growth
spread from the efforts of several Indian masters who understood how to trim
ancient theology to modern needs and desires. By the ’70s many teachers found
there was much money in divorcing yoga entirely from its religious roots,
claiming that the physical exercises were sufficient to transform the
practitioner into a healthier person.
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