114 Biography of a Yogisee promises of “Prayer Vibrations” and “Divine Healing by Holy Ghost Christ
Power and Yogi Method” among the listed attractions (fig. 3.2).
Yogananda’s lecture announcements frequently represented him as imparting
the secrets of “Miracle- Working Yogis of a Land of Mystery,” occasionally declar-
ing that these would be accompanied by “Amazing Demonstrations of Recharging
the Body Batteries.” While the actual “recharging” may have been effected by a
combination of meditation and prāṇāyāma, these techniques do not make for a
very convincing demonstration. On the other hand, it seems that sending six men
flying across a stage would adequately prove that one’s body batteries were, so to
speak, fully charged.
Outside of his own performances, it appears that Yogananda would occasion-
ally bring in external talent in the form of a colorful cast of collaborators. The
most long- lived of these associations was with Yogi Hamid Bey, who later, sans his
Yogi title, went on to found the Coptic Fellowship. His biography, as propagated
by the organization, claims that Bey hailed from Eg ypt, where he spent his child-
hood and early youth studying with a master at a Coptic Christian temple. After
Figure 3.2 Yogananda’s lecture advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, October
13, 1925