118 Biography of a YogiJudging by his list of “stage” talents, Ostoja was something of a second Bey.
Indeed, the lectures given by Yogananda alongside Ostoja’s demonstrations were
virtually identical to those presented with the support of Bey— the most memo-
rable of these being titled “What Happens Ten Minutes After Death,” which pre-
sumably played off of Bey’s and Ostoja’s common talent for being buried alive.
The following announcement appeared in the Berkeley Daily Gazette on October
20, 1934:
Dr. Roman Ostoja, sponsored by Swami Yogananda, founder of the Self
Realization Fellowship of Los Angeles, will give a series of phenomenal
self- mastery demonstrations and lectures at Ebell Hall, 1440 Harrison
Street, Oakland, at 8 o’clock Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday evenings.
His subjects will be:
Sunday, “Science of Instantaneous Healing and Overcoming
Nervousness,” also Special Demonstrations.
Monday, “What Happens Ten Minutes After Death.”
Wednesday, “Developing Magnetic Power of Will.”
Dr. Roman Ostoja is a Westerner. After undergoing rigorous training
in the caves of wisdom in the Himalayas, his earnestness and sincerity were
recognized by the masters of the Far East, and he was entrusted by them
with the sacred mission of bringing the Divine teachings of the East to the
Western people. He spent many years in working out a simplified method
of instruction, a method which is adaptable to the westerner, yet does not
destroy the essence of the eastern teachings.
Since coming to this country, Dr. Roman Ostoja has appeared with
his teachings and demonstrations before Harvard University, Columbia
University, and Ann Harbor [sic], also University of Southern California,
Los Angeles. He has also appeared before various medical and scientific
groups and individuals, among them Albert Einstein. Everywhere he has
received acknowledgement.
He is not only lecturing and teaching, but demonstrating mental telep-
athy and death- defying feats which display so- called super- human powers.
He performs these mental miracles to prove that a westerner is capable of
controlling the infinite forces.There is more no credible evidence as to whether Ostoja had studied with
the Himalayan masters than that he was a Polish aristocrat, though the for-
mer seems even less likely than the latter, since it only becomes a prominent
feature of Ostoja’s advertised biography subsequent to his association with
Yogananda.^58