It all adds up to what a friend recently called the "hostile New Age takeover of yoga." "New Age" culture being those scented-candle shrines to self-worship, the love-oneself lit of The Secret, the "applied kinesiology"-type medical and metaphysical quackery used to support a vast array of alternative-this or alternative-that magical-thinking workshops and spa weekends. At its best, it's harmless mental self-massage. At its worst, it's the kind of thinking that blames cancer victims for their disease because they didn't "manifest" enough positive vibes.

"She put her thumb on my forehead, right on the third eye, and literally I felt something I'd never felt before," Mr. Yee remembered. "It was almost like: 'Who are you? What just happened?' That was the turning point. There was something between us that was unavoidable."