I am historian of American religion with a background in American Studies and literature. My research focuses on Asian, metaphysical, and marginal religions in modern America. I am currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and writing a dissertation on the early history of yoga in the United States from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century.

I have published several articles in academic journals, and I edited and introduced a new and definitive edition of the metaphysical classic The Kybalion for Tarcher/Penguin in 2011. I have also written over two dozen articles for popular audiences in such venues as Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Yoga Journal, Air & Space Smithsonian, the Indian news site Scroll.in, and Tides, the magazine of the South Asian American Digital Archive. My writing has been translated into Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Turkish.