48 Biography of a Yogia “Super- Man” and “Super- Woman” endowed with perfect bodily health and
telepathy, as well as the power of self- projection through an “ethereal body.” The
book is a rather dense volume, containing a multitude of mantras in corrupted
Sanskrit and of indeterminate origin, lists of various stages of attainment, and
instructions concerning various practices, some of which appear rather ill- advised
as they require one to stare directly into the sun for lengthy periods of time. This is
followed by a set of recipes, some of which are for bathing the eyes— unsurprising
since most of the “Occult Concentration” exercises seem to involve some form of
optic manipulation— while others are for homemade candy. The end lapses into
practical miscellanea ranging from “How I make my Chicken Soup,” to “What
I Should Do if I Should Have a Hemorrhage or Diarrhea,” to “How I Shampoo
My Ha i r.”^78
A special mention should be made of Pierre Arnold Bernard, also known as
the “Omnipotent Oom,” who may very well deserve the title of America’s first
real domestic Yogi. Bernard’s biography still remains a bit murky, but journalist
Robert Love has recently done much to dispel at least a measure of the mystery.
Bernard was born Perry Arnold Baker of Leon, Iowa, in 1876. This seems like an
unlikely point of origin for a superstar Yogi, though perhaps not so much more
unlikely than Lincoln, Nebraska, where, in 1889, young Perry met the teacher
who would change his life. Bernard’s guru was Sylvais Hamati, a Syrian Indian
who had emigrated from Calcutta for reasons unknown. By the time he encoun-
tered Bernard, Hamati was making a reasonable living for himself as an itinerant
tutor of “Vedic philosophy.” It turned out, however, that Hamati was a veritable
tantric Yogi and so initiated Bernard into an ancient lineage of practice. By 1896
Bernard and Hamati had relocated to San Francisco where Bernard, with a couple
of invented degrees in tow, began marketing himself as a teacher of hypnotism,
yoga, and other occult practices. His signature demonstration, which he called
“Kali Mudra,” involved entering into a deep trance while surgical needles were
used to pierce various parts of his face. Bernard was ultimately able to place him-
self at the head of a circle of wealthy benefactors- cum- disciples, male and female,
whom he organized into a secret society called the Tantrik Order after the fash-
ion of the Freemasons and Theosophists.^79 Controversy and run- ins with the law
forced Bernard to relocate a number of times, and he established several lodges of
the Order across the Pacific Northwest before finally settling in New York.
Bernard’s system of practice emphasized the sexual nature of tantric ritual—
though to what extent the practices reflected any known Indian system is not
clear— and he took on a series of female students as his sacred consorts or “nautch
girls.” In 1910 two of his close female disciples, Zelia Hopp and Gertrude Leo,
facilitated his arrest, though perhaps not altogether intentionally, on the charges
of kidnapping and false imprisonment. The media went into an immediate frenzy,