Aleister Crowley was among early European adherents of various Indian practices classed as “yoga,” seeing it in some instances as a power sources to juice up certain techniques of Western ceremonial magick as regularized and updated by the Heremetic Society of the Golden Dawn under MacGregor Mathers. Among the books he’d recommended for study was Swami Vivekananda’s “Raja Yoga” which spells out techniques for pranayama, mantrayama and such. In 1937 he published his own book on the subject “Eight Lectures On Yoga.”
As noted in Wikipedia: “In the 20th century, hatha yoga, particularly asanas (the physical postures), became popular throughout the world as physical exercises, and is now colloquially termed ‘yoga’.”
A few years ago, NPR interviewed New York Times science writer and long-time yoga practitioner William Broad about his book ” The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards” and discussed the myths and realities of the practices of this one limb out of the eight comprising classical yoga practice.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146697650/the-science-of-yoga-the-risks-and-the-rewards
