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Pierre Bernard demonstrates a self-induced trance for a group of California physicians.

1898

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Bernard, known as "The Great Oom," seeks to demonstrate the impact of the practice of yoga on body control and states of being by entering a self-induced trance in front of a group of physicians. This demonstration (along with others) will bring Bernard publicity in the New York Times and elsewhere. Bernard teaches yoga practices across the United States, and also teaches and talks about tantric sex. A historian of religion will later reflect that Bernard's "sexual teachings generated such scandal that he was eventually forced to discontinue his public promulgation of Tantrism. Yet by this time Bernard had succeeded in making lasting contributions to the history of American alternative spirituality" (Fuller, 2008).