The Subtle Body

Syman begins The Subtle Body by describing in turn the precursors of American yoga, namely Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau. She notes that Emerson's 1856 poem Brahma concisely introduced Hindu nondualism, repudiating "sacraments, supernaturalism, biblical authority, and ... Christianity". Thoreau, she states, tried to practice yoga, and was seen by some as "the first American Yogi", but by others as "a misanthropic hermit". However, Syman identifies the dramatic From there, she presents the showman Pierre Bernard and his relative Theos Bernard, including sections detailing Pierre confusing yoga with tantric sex, complete with "lust, mummery, and black magic", and of Theos telling a carefully fictionalised account of his experiences with Hatha Yoga in India and Tibet. The book then includes stories about a variety of straighter advocates of yoga. Syman tells the story of Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of American president Woodrow Wilson, writing how she "turn[ed] Hindu" after she "found peace" in Sri Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry. A Hollywood connection is then explored, featuring Prabhavananda, who translated the Bhagavad Gita; Aldous Huxley; Alan Watts; and Indra Devi. The books explains how Devi came to America, unknown, having learnt yoga directly from Krishnamacharya, and how she had grown up in pre-revolutionary Russia, escaping to Berlin and going to India with her diplomat husband. It also tells of the times that Devi taught many celebrity pupils, including Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson; in a review, Sarah Schrank notes that Syman is interested in how "American fans, often rich and female", made suitable environments for yoga to spread, "shaping celebrity gurus in the process". It then tells how they were followed, towards the end of the 1960s, by Indian gurus of postural yoga, such as B. K. S. Iyengar, founder of the precise Iyengar Yoga, and Vishnudevananda, founder of the more overtly spiritual Sivananda Yoga, along with Swami Satchidananda, giving the story of how the Swami made the crowds chant "Hari Om, Rama Rama" at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The book ends with an account of the gurus of more energetic forms of yoga, in particular Bikram Choudhury and Pattabhi Jois. ==Publication==

The Subtle Body was published as a hardback book by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in New York in 2010. The book is illustrated with 25 monochrome plates, including portraits of many of the people described. Other illustrations are of the chakras from Arthur Avalon in 1919; a circus program from 1929 showing yoga-like contortions; the Hollywood Vedanta Temple; a naked woman in Laghuvajrasana, a back bend, at the Esalen Institute in 1972; and the Sri Ganesha Temple in Ashtanga Yoga New York in 2009. ==Reception==

Several critics gave The Subtle Body positive reviews, praising its wide range and readability. The scholar of Eastern religions Thomas Forsthoefel almost entirely agreed with Powers in his review of the book for Nova Religio, in which he called it "a compelling account of the complex social and philosophical interface" The readability has been noted by academics, too: the historian Sarah Schrank, writing in American Studies, calls Subtle Body "highly readable" as it traces the various "transmutations" of yoga in America. Bob Weisenberg, writing in Elephant Journal, states that the book "reads like a thriller" , a major figure in the book, These are covered variously in other parts of the book. Almost entirely disagreeing with Kakytani, Claire Dederer, writing in Slate, calls the book an "exhaustive historical survey". She notes that Syman writes of Devi that to her, yoga refers only to the asanas, calling this "a turning point ... from esoteric pursuit to health-giving practice available to all." In Dederer's view, Syman "does a wonderful job of showing how yoga, like a virus, has kept evolving in order to survive", but all the same Dederer wonders if Syman wasn't trying too hard. Similarly, Tara Katir, writing in Hinduism Today, states that Subtle Body "proceeds systematically", and is "engaging, if at times a bit gossipy." ==See also==