The Turbaned Superman 53
few studies have examined this phenomenon in the context of movements such as
Spiritualism, Christian Science, and New Thought,^93 no extensive work has been
done with regard to Asian- inspired movements and yoga.
The parties who were clutching their pearls over the exploitation of American
women were far more concerned with the presumed active agents in this interac-
tion: the Yogis. Anxiety over women’s independence and trumped up panic over
“white slavery”^94 led to a number of Yogis being charged with everything from
sexual impropriety to hypnotism. Elizabeth A. Reed, whose voice proved particu-
larly effective due to her position as a respected Orientalist scholar, claimed that
“the Guru is a modern money- making invention”^95 who had long been preying
on the credulity of India’s women but has now brought the same strategies to
America. She claimed that “the Swami, Gossian, or Guru is now quite at home in
both Europe and America and many a desolated home lies in the trail of his silken
robes,”^96 and further elaborated:
In one of our great cities, the headquarters of a Hindu cult are, or were
until very recently, in charge of an American woman who had taken
the terrible vows, and the veil of an Indian nun... . A well- known New
England woman, having fallen under the hypnotic say of a Swami, made
over her entire fortune at his dictation. After the papers were safely made
out, the “further mysteries” were revealed to her. Can we wonder that she
then went hopelessly insane and was for years— in the asylum? ... One
well- known Swami was in the habit of receiving the adoration of his fol-
lowers, when he came out of his daily meditation. Then these American
woman were ready to caress his robe, and kiss his sandaled feet.^97The image of American women bowing at and kissing the feet of their Indian
masters proved so shocking for many Americans that it spread like wildfire as a
symbol of the Yogi’s power. Reed warns, “let the white woman beware of the hyp-
notic influence of the East— let her remember that when her Guru, or god- man,
has once whispered his mystic syllables into her ear and she has sworn allegiance
to him, she is forever helpless in his hands.”^98 It is unclear how many American
women took her words to heart, but it is clear that a number of American men
did. For every account of a Yogi giving a celebrated lecture in a major American
city, there is usually a corresponding account of him being chased out or being
threatened by an army of angry husbands.
A number of other anti- Hindu publications emerged around this time, add-
ing fuel to the xenophobic panic. Among these were Mabel Potter Dagget’s “The
Heathen Invasion” (1911), Mrs. Gross Alexander’s “American Women Going after
Heathen Gods” (1912),^99 Katherine Mayo’s Mother India (1927), and Mersene