Trained in the late 1970s as a yoga and meditation teacher, in the Tantrik Yoga tradition, Ananda Marga, he has been a lifelong student of yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, and the world’s contemplative and mystical spiritual traditions.

His dissertation at the University of Michigan became his book, Whitman’s Ecstatic Union (Routledge UP), which explores the poetry of Walt Whitman within the context of religious experience and mystical discourse in nineteenth-century American religion.

Sowder is the founder of Amrita Yoga, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring and teaching the practices of yoga and other wisdom traditions. Amrita Yoga offers regular yoga and meditation evenings and teaches yoga, meditation, and poetry writing at retreats, and in schools, jails, and prisons.   

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