Term: Atkinson, William Walker

(Yogi Ramacharaka) American businessman, author, and occultist, 1862–1932. Self-help ideas learned from the New Thought movement helped him recover from a breakdown, and in 1900 he decided to put his talents to work in this field…He began publishing two series of books, one on New Thought under his own name, and one on yoga under the pen name of Yogi Ramacharaka.

Both he and his books soon became fixtures in the occult community of the time. In 1907 he was contacted by the young Paul Foster Case and the two entered into a long correspondence, eventually co-writing (with an unidentified third person) The Kybalion…He was involved with one of the successor orders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

His series of books on yoga (including The Hindu Yogi Science of Breath, Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy, Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga, and Hatha Yoga) played an important part in introducing Americans to Hindu spiritual traditions.

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