The Turbaned Superman 55
postures that read as bizarre contortions when enacted by South Asian male bod-
ies easily transitioned into aesthetically appropriate g ymnastics when translated
onto white female bodies.
However, it would be a few decades before Americans would be ready to view
white women as fully competent and self- possessed students and teachers of yoga.
Just as naturally passive and suggestible women had served as perfect vessels for
the ghosts of Spiritualism, so they became ideal subjects for the Yogi’s hypnotic
powers. Ultimately these two phenomena were more than a little related, and
thus it is to the metaphysical foundations of the Yogi’s perceived powers that we
will now turn.
Figure 1.3 Film advertisement for The Love Girl (1916) in The Moving Picture World,
July 1916