Here Comes the Yogiman 97
the boys were overcome with the spirit of nonviolence and took pity on the poor
lizards, who had likely not enjoyed being hung upside down. It is unclear whether
the sādhaka who recommended this method was the same one who so perturbed
Yogananda’s brother.
Aspiring tāntrika or otherwise, Yogananda definitely had a flair for the super-
natural. Satyananda again recounts:
Direct encounters with ascended beings, the radiant and divine appear-
ances of supernatural power- endowed realized beings, the arrival of the
spirit of a dead person in the midst of mesmerized people and speaking
with that spirit, and ordinary sightings of ghosts and such were things that
he [Yogananda] believed in, and pursued with concentrated means in situ-
ations and occasions.^15This “pursuit” on Yogananda’s part manifested particularly in his experimen-
tation with what might be best identified as a form of Mesmerism. During
roughly the same time period as his tantric explorations, Yogananda practiced
a form of mental control and at other times engaged in full- blown mediumistic
possession.
It is not clear where Yogananda acquired these techniques or whether they
were based on native Indian or imported Western practices. Yogis are traditionally
quite capable of controlling the minds of others. However, Western Mesmerism
was also existent in India at the time.^16 Satyananda, who witnessed Yogananda
perform the feat on multiple occasions, refers to it as sammohan vidya or hyp-
notism.^17 Yogananda would induce a trance state in his subjects— usually young
boys— through gaze, manual contact, or occasionally by sheer application of will.
Satyananda claims that his friend never took any lessons on the subject, implying
that this was somewhat of a natural ability. As Yogananda’s practice had no appar-
ent ritual complexity, it is possible that he acquired the skill simply from observ-
ing others. It is equally likely that he had tutors of whose existence his friend was
not aware. Yogananda’s younger brother was a favorite subject on which he prac-
ticed his exercises of mental power:
I well remember the first time he [Yogananda] asked my help. Our young-
est uncle had lived for some time in our house and had been afflicted with
a chronic illness. One day Mejda [Yogananda] called me to his prayer
room and asked me to sit in a cross- legged posture facing him. Slowly he
passed his hand over my head and body. I felt a soothing, relaxing sensa-
tion spread through every cell. We talked for a few minutes about trivial
matters, then Mejda asked me about our uncle’s health. “Uncle’s condition