Followers of the early-20th-century "New Age" philosophy of New Thought believed they could learn the secrets of mind over matter.
In "Hatha Yoga" (AKA "The Yogi Philosophy of Physical Well-Being") written in 1904 using the pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka, one of their most influential teachers and enormously popular writer and editor William Walker Atkinson revealed to them the teachings of Hatha Yoga, a complete manual of the Great Oriental Yogi System of physical well-being, health, strength and vigour.
This work preaches a sane, normal, simple theory of physical health, and tells how to put the theory into practice. It teaches that the Body is the Temple of the Soul, and should be kept clean and in good order. Its purpose, the instruction and mankind to conform to the standard of that healthy man or woman.
