Introduction 11
templates were adopted subjectively, either consciously or subconsciously, while
others were simply imposed on them by the outside world. However, whether
the distinction at the heart of the matter is truly ontological (that is, dealing with
the Yogi’s state of being fundamentally Other or superhuman) or simply episte-
mological (dealing with the ways in which the Yogi is perceived to be superhu-
man) remains open to question. It is not my goal to debunk or otherwise expose
Yogananda or anyone else as a spiritual charlatan or pretender. This study, for lack
of a methodologically sound approach to determining the historical reality of the
Yogi’s superhumanity (is the Yogi really the man with superpowers?), will confine
itself to the epistemological category of what it has meant to present oneself and
to be perceived as a Yogi. That is, how and for what reasons did people take on the
identity of a Yogi, and how did others in turn understand and represent them?
Some Clarifications on Terminolog y
A few technical details remain to be addressed. The first is one of terminolog y.
When discussing the Yogi and his abilities, I make frequent use of words like
supernatural, superhuman, and superpower(s). These are all familiar enough
words, albeit the last in the sequence is more typically associated with comic book
heroes than it is with spiritual adepts, especially in its plural form. When I use
this latter term, as I will rather frequently throughout this work, I refer generally
to some equivalent of the Sanskrit siddhi (and its various terminological varia-
tions such as vibhūti, ṛddhi, labdhi, and so on),^16 the “perfections” so ubiquitous
within South Asian yogic and tantric sources. However, I have chosen to render
this term in a pop cultural rather than academic register because I believe that
such a translation hits closer to what is actually meant by these abilities when they
are referenced both in Indian folk narratives and in Western popular media.^17 On
the one hand, “superpower,” in the singular and more abstract sense, refers to the
extraordinary nature of the Yogi’s control over his body and surrounding environ-
ment. On the other hand, “superpowers,” in the more colloquially familiar form
evokes the similarity between the Yogi’s feats and those belonging to the superhe-
roes of pulp fiction and comic book fame.^18
As for the other two uses of this prefix, as in supernatural and superhuman,
they too require a slight qualification. Typically, when we employ these terms in
everyday language, we do so to signify something that is outside of nature, or
someone who is beyond human. However, as Vivekananda reminds us, “there is
no supernatural, says the Yogi, but there are in nature gross manifestations and
subtle manifestations.”^19 Thus “super” is used here in its meaning as “superior.”
The superman does not stand outside the category of man; rather, he is man at