Yogi Calisthenics 131
Physical culture, even without any spiritual trappings, was on the rise through-
out the second half of the nineteenth century as a response to the increasingly
sedentary lifestyles of the post- Industrial middle and upper classes. Such move-
ments were especially popular in England, Germany, and the United States.
Nevertheless, grounded in the legacy of Mesmerism and other esoterically linked
ideologies, from German Lebensreform^16 to American mind cure, physical cul-
ture, naturopathy, and alternative spirituality often went hand- in- hand.
The epigraph that opens this chapter, a satirical blurb published by the Chicago
Daily Tribune in 1902, illustrates that at the very outset of the twentieth century
physical exercises were already a part of the general cultural conflation of New
Thought mind cure, metaphysical ideolog y, and health consciousness. Although
his formal publication on the topic, Hatha Yoga or the Yogi Philosophy of Physical
Well- Being, would not be released until 1904, the subject of the satire is most
likely Yogi Ramacharaka, also known as William Walker Atkinson. Atkinson was
active on Chicago’s New Thought scene at the time and it is not unlikely that
he might have propagated the book’s contents before its publication. However,
despite its title, there is very little yoga or indeed anything else of Indian origin
in the book’s pages. It is largely an overview of contemporary understandings of
the human health, diet, and other related topics with sections devoted to basic
breathing exercises and some minor calisthenics. It is the latter section that is of
most importance to us as it contains chiefly the exact type of pendular arm and
leg exercises that the Tribune finds so amusing. However, such exercises, typical
of Euro- American physical culture at the time, are also extremely similar to those
later promoted by Yogananda.
Unlike Yogananda, Atkinson’s knowledge of Indian systems of thought was
cursory at best, as evidenced by his frequent representation of New Thought
and other Western esoteric principles under the guise of ancient yogic truth.
He would have had basic access to more traditional versions of haṭha yoga—
Abhedananda’s How to Be a Yogi (1902) contains not only more accurate repre-
sentations of the premises of this system but description of several recognizable
yogic āsanas. However, Ramacharaka’s book puts forth an explicit explanation for
the absence of such forms that both legitimates his method and underhandedly
discredits his competitor, who freely acknowledges that haṭha yogis are not only
after physical health but bona fide superpowers. Appealing to a lingering Western
Romanticism, Ramacharaka specifies that real “Hatha Yoga” aspires to no more
than to return man to the proper state of nature. He further explains that the
reason this branch of yoga has heretofore been dismissed is due to the actions of
Indian pretenders— “a horde of mendicants of the lower fakir class, who pose as
Hatha Yogis ... acquiring the ability to perform certain abnormal ‘tricks’ which
they exhibit to amuse and entertain (or disgust) Western travelers.”^17 He then