Swami: Encounters with Modern Mystics

Doug Boyd

I confess to be a "junky" when it comes to books written by people who have spent time with masters, saints, yogis, swamis, and gyanis. I am fascinated by the experiences these seekers encounter and by the stories about the various luminaries they meet. This book did not disappoint me at all.

The first one-third of the book describes the months in 1970 when the author served as Swami Rama's personal assistant while the Swami was being studied by the doctors and researchers at the Menninger Foundation in Kansas City. The Institute people were interested in studying the Swami's physiology and brain wave functioning as he did such Yogic feats as stopping his heart, experiencing various states of consciousness, and altering body temperature etc. What makes this section of the book most interesting is that the author, Boyd, is not a devotee and is quite objective in his observations and judgments. It is really most fascinating to learn so many intimate details about a highly evolved Yogi who had been a Shankaracharya and then founded the very successful worldwide organization, The Himalayan Institute. Swami Rama was both very highly educated in Western institutions of higher learning, and an accomplished Yogi who had visited virtually all the major saints and yogis of the mid-twentieth century.

Boyd later goes to India with a group from the Institute who take all their paraphernalia with them to study other Yogi's. They spend time in and around Rishikesh and their meetings and explorations are very interesting.

Finally, Boyd goes back to India by himself, eventually returning to Hardwar and then Rishikesh. He is accompanied by Hridiya Sing, who acts as his guide and translator. Boyd spends some "quality time" with a number of interesting Swami's. Perhaps most interesting is the time spent with Tat Walla Baba. What sets this book apart from most of the other books I have read by "seekers" visiting holy men in India is that Boyd is not really a seeker. Instead he is an "observer". This puts a different spin on his experiences and the view one gets of the various holy men. Boyd unlike virtually all the other seekers I have read is really not looking for enlightenment or personal evolution. Instead he is trying to figure out how to make the world a better place on a more exoteric level.

The book covers very interesting ground and is well written. I rate it a "must read".

Review by Len Oppenheim.