num_pages: 18
description: This chapter examines evidence for the emergence of a discourse of authenticity in the fields of yoga studies and Western esotericism. The focus is on post-Orientalist academic analyses of modern yoga and occult authors that appeal, intentionally or not, to a reader’s cultural sense of authenticity. I argue that what often results is a one-sided framing of Orientalism that overlooks colonial-era Indian authors who themselves used theories of Western scientists and philosophers to interpret teachings of yoga. I suggest as a solution that scholars instead remain more open to considering historical flows of ideas between local and translocal contexts.
language: English
title: “Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels”: Western Esotericism, Yoga, and the Discourse of Authenticity
publisher: Brill