Here Comes the Yogiman 113
Mrs. Lewis in a state of turmoil— which seemed to be just what we wanted;
but in spite of all those things, that wonderful reverence and devotion was
never tainted in the least bit; and the Master was our Master in spite of the
close relationship.^52Lewis attributes great charisma and spiritual gravitas to Yogananda. Where he
addresses specific superhuman abilities that his teacher has exhibited, they gener-
ally have to do with healing.
Yogananda was also known to engage in some markedly more ostentatious
displays of power, at times blurring the line between demonstrations of men-
tal control or magnetism and stage magic. Charlton describes a lecture that
Yogananda delivered in Oakland, where his talk focused on the importance of
bodily control:
He interrupted his talk to ask if there was a doctor in the audience. A man
stood up and Swamiji asked him to come on the stage. He requested the
doctor, “Take my pulse and tell me what you feel.” The doctor felt his
wrist, looking perplexed at first and then amazed. “There is no pulse,”
he answered. Swamiji then told him to take the pulse on the other wrist.
The doctor’s facial expression turned from amazement to incredulity. He
said, “Swami Yogananda, this is impossible. Your pulse is pounding at an
incredible speed.” He quickly tried the other side again and said, “This side
is normal.” He came down from the stage into the audience shaking his
head and mumbling, “Impossible, impossible.”^53Later on in the same lecture Yogananda sent six men catapulting across the stage
with a mere straightening of his body and a flick of his stomach.^54 Without mak-
ing any claims concerning the authenticity of Yogananda’s superpowers, it should
be noted that the first phenomenon involving his pulse is consistent with a very
common stage trick performed by placing a ball, lemon, or other small spherical
object under the armpit so as to cut off the circulation to one arm. The latter
demonstration has a similar performative history, though it tends less towards
stage magic and more toward iron- man acts. Other demonstrations drew even
more explicitly on physical culture and especially on the more visually impres-
sive elements of haṭha yogic āsana practice. As early as 1923, after demonstrating
a version of the stomach- flicking act using a large sofa, Yogananda “squatted on
the floor, and in an instant had his toes curled up in his lap... . To show how
far such techniques may be carried, Yogananda proceeded to curl himself into a
ball, and raise his body on his two hands.”^55 While Yogananda’s lectures were not
generally advertised as exhibitions of superhuman power, it is not uncommon to