Yogis Without Borders 85
this specific reason, Yogananda used to perform daily “broadcasts” of his vibra-
tions between the hours of seven and eleven in the morning and encouraged his
devotees to “tune in.”^73
In this context, Yogananda relies on a the older model of ether as a medium of
electromagnetic propagation when he specifies that “in telepathy the fine vibra-
tions of thoughts in one person’s mind are transmitted through the subtle vibra-
tions of astral ether and then through the grosser earthly ether, creating electrical
waves which, in turn, translate themselves into thought waves in the mind of the
other person.”^74 Here the dual terminolog y of the “astral ether” is consistent with
his larger claims regarding the nature of subtle materiality. However, the notion
of the “grosser earthly ether” appears to be in direct contradiction to statements
such as:
Even the hypothetical ether, held as the interplanetary medium of light in
the undulatory theory, can be discarded on the Einsteinian grounds that
the geometrical properties of space render the theory of ether unnecessary.
Under either hypothesis, light remains the most subtle, the freest from
material dependence, of any natural manifestation.^75Generally speaking, for Yogananda, light itself, rather than the “gross” material
ether, becomes the subtlest aspect of materiality. Thus, when the term “ether”
appears in his work, it is generally describing something slightly different than
the luminiferous ether referred to by his predecessors. The notion of light as a
unique universal constant becomes the ground of subtle materiality. Due to its
dual nature as both a particle (gross matter) and a wave (energ y), light becomes
identified with the “astral ether” insofar as it serves as the bridge between matter
and spirit.
The Sanskrit akāśa is markedly absent from Yogananda’s language, though
this may be mostly due to his preference for English terminolog y. On the few
occasions that the term appears in his work, he identifies it with ether as well as
with the Theosophical concept of the Akashic Records, which he defines as “audi-
ble sounds vibrating from the ether.”^76 Moreover, even though ether itself does
make a number of appearances, Yogananda generally prefers to rely on a familiar
Theosophical synonym— the “astral.” As previously noted, the latter term derives
from Neo- Platonism and its Hermetic and European occult evolutes. However, it
is popularized by Theosophy as equivalent to the aspects of subtle materiality that
are commonly referred to as “astral body” and “astral plane,” and thus becomes a
common staple of metaphysical parlance. In Yogananda’s case, however, it is likely
that the term “astral” is preferred over its common synonym, “ether,” largely due
to its even stronger light- based connotations.