140 Biography of a Yogiaddition, though Haddock certainly puts a marked emphasis on the power of
will, at no point is this power applied toward muscular control and development
as such. Haddock’s main concern is conscious and willful movement in the gen-
eral sense, and thus his exercises focus primarily on applying mindfulness to one’s
every movement— for example, one exercise entails picking up a book— rather
than a particular regime of g ymnastics. Furthermore, the flexing and relaxing of
the muscles as a way of channeling energ y through the power of will that are so
central to Yogananda’s method are entirely absent from Haddock’s work.
With respect to the possible influence of Payot’s work on Yogananda, Payot’s
L’Éducation de la volonté (1893, translated into English as The Education of the Will
in 1909), exhibits little interest in physical culture beyond basic hygiene and a gen-
eral endorsement of “muscular exercise.” In the absence of more concrete evidence,
it can only be concluded that Yogananda relied on one or— more likely— several
books to systematize his Yogoda method. It is likely that Jørgen Peter Müller is
indeed the “Miller” to whom Satyananda refers, but that Satyananda was mistaken
as to what exactly Yogananda had gleaned from the man’s work. It is furthermore
probable that Yogananda also came across one or more sources detailing the ways
in which will and mental power can be applied to muscular development.
Ultimately, it is extremely likely Yogananda also made some innovations of
his own, possibly including the integration of muscular tension and relaxation
with principles of will and energ y- manipulation. Singleton is probably correct to
point out the influence of Payot and Haddock on Yogananda’s work in the larger
sense. It seems likely that they might well have been the sources of Yogananda’s
preoccupation with the language of will. In Haddock’s work, especially, we find
a spiritualized will that is described as an “energ y,” thereby likening the mind
to an “electric battery.”^32 Yogananda appears to have expanded on this notion
with his concept of the “body battery” that yokes the body and mind into a
single energetic continuum. Here, Yogananda’s Indian roots in tantric energet-
ics yield something more integrated than Haddock’s exercises in mindfulness.
The Energization Exercises of Yogoda not only train and hone the power of the
will but actively effect a beneficial flow of energ y through the body. Haddock’s
exercises— calisthenic or otherwise— are a means to an end, the end being a
powerful and controlled will. Yogananda’s Energization Exercises are a small end
in themselves insofar as they effect the flow of energ y represented by the will.
Thus, the relationship between physical (energetic) practice and psycho- spiritual
development becomes reciprocal, as it would be in haṭha yogic traditions. From
this perspective, Yogananda’s system represents a transformation of the psycho-
centric practices of Western metaphysical mind cure as represented by Payot and
Haddock and a step toward the embodied psychosomatic therapy represented by
modern postural yoga.