Biography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga

82 Biography of a Yogi

Thus, in Vivekananda’s perspective, through perfectly scientific methods the Yogi
becomes a superman capable to manipulating all forms of matter. Prāṇa is defined
as force in its most fundamental sense, being responsible for the manifestation of
electricity, magnetism, and the nerve force that catalyzes all forms of movement
in the body and mind.
For the Yogi who has realized the unity of all matter, the movement does not
have to stop there. By tapping into the universal etheric substance, the Yogi can
manipulate any manifestation of it that he chooses:

Similarly, we can send electricity to any part of the world, but we have to

send it by means of wires. Nature can send a vast mass of electricity without

any wires at all. Why cannot we do the same? We can send mental electric-

ity. What we call mind is very much the same as electricity. It is clear that

this nerve fluid has some amount of electricity, because it is polarised, and

it answers all electrical directions. We can only send our electricity through

these nerve channels. Why not send the mental electricity without this aid?

The Yogis say it is perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you can

do that, you will work all over the universe. You will be able to work with

any body anywhere, without the help of the nervous system.^67

This scientization of yoga, and by extension of the Yogi, accomplishes two things.
First, it brings Western rationalist legitimacy to the Yogi, who had previously been
seen as a figure veiled in superstition and mystical exoticism. Second, it serves to
universalize the status of the Yogi and the accessibility of his power.
Blavatsky had paved the way for this move by populating her Theosophical
narrative with a non- sectarian pantheon of Mahatmas. However, whereas the
Mahatmas are already perfected beings whose methods were accessible only by
way of the occult, the Yogi is a human figure whose ascent to superhuman status
is openly framed in terms of a series of psycho- somatic exercises. Moreover, this
methodolog y relies on analogies to empirically verifiable processes such as elec-
tromagnetism and human anatomy. The Yogi simply has to manipulate these nat-
ural forces by applying his energized will to the all- pervading etheric medium of
conductivity— a notion that was already quite familiar to Vivekananda’s Western
audiences from the relatively recent heyday of Mesmerism.

Ether and Light in the Quantum Age

Vivekananda’s— and Tesla’s— assertions are all the more interesting because
they were written in a time of crisis within the scientific study of ether. By the