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Pierre Arnold Bernard (October 31, 1875 – September 27, 1955) — known as "The Great Oom", "The Omnipotent Oom" and "Oom the Magnificent" — was a pioneering American
yogi A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297–299, 331 ...
, scholar, occultist, philosopher, mystic and businessman.


Biography

Due to his practice of keeping his origins obscure, little is known for certain about his early life. He is reported to have been born Perry Arnold Baker or Peter CoonTantra in America
/ref> in
Leon, Iowa Leon is a city in and the county seat of Decatur County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,822 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is located near the Little River Lake Recreation Area. Leon is home to a major rodeo that has been R ...
, 31 October 1875, the son of a barber. He also used the name Homer Stansbury Leeds. Bernard was trained in yoga by an accomplished Tantric yogi known as Sylvais Hamati, under whom Bernard studied for years. He met Hamati in
Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...
in the late 1880s, and they travelled together. Hamati taught Bernard the body-control techniques of
hatha yoga Hatha yoga (; Sanskrit हठयोग, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''haṭhayoga'') is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word ह� ...
. After several years of study, Bernard was supposedly able to put himself into a trance deep enough to withstand piercings by surgical needles without anesthesia. He gave a public demonstration of what he termed the "Kali mudra" (a simulated, so-called "death trance") in January 1898 to a group of physicians in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. During the demonstration, Dr. D. McMillan inserted a surgical needle "slowly through one of Bernard's earlobes". Needles were also pushed through his cheek, upper lip, and nostril. On January 29, 1898, Bernard was featured on the front page of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Bernard then took interest in
hypnotism Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...
. In 1905, he founded the Bacchante Academy with Mortimer K. Hargis to teach hypnotism and "sexual practices." The organization declined because of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
, and their partnership dissolved. Bernard claimed to have traveled to
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
and
Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
before founding the Tantrik Order of America in 1905 or 1906 (variously reported as starting in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
,
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...
, or
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
); the New York Sanskrit College in 1910; and the Clarkstown Country Club (originally called the Braeburn Country Club), a seventy-two acre estate with a thirty-room mansion in
Nyack, New York Nyack () is a Village (New York), village primarily located in the Town (New York), town of Orangetown, New York, Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, a small western section of the village lies in Clarkst ...
, a gift from a disciple, in 1918. He eventually expanded to a chain of "tantric clinics" in cities such as Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City. Bernard is widely credited as the first American to introduce the philosophy and practices of yoga and tantra to the American people. He also played a critical role in establishing a greatly exaggerated association of tantra with the use of sex for mystical purposes in the American mindset. In 1910, two teenage girls, Zella Hopp and Gertrude Leo, feeling that he had taken too much psychic control over their lives, had him charged with kidnapping (alleging that Leo had been prevented three times from leaving the institute) and briefly imprisoned. Hopp reported that, for a pre-induction, Bernard had her strip and placed his hand upon her left breast, explaining that he was testing her heartbeat. "I cannot tell you how Bernard got his control over me or how he gets it over other people. He is the most wonderful man in the world. No women seem able to resist him.... He had promised to marry me many times. But when he began the same thing with my little sister ary, age sixteenI decided I would expose the whole matter. If it had only been myself I wouldn't have done it for the whole world." Three months later, the charges were dropped. He remained popular with upper-middle class women and the high society of New York throughout the 1920s and 30s. He married Blanche de Vries, who taught yoga in New York into her eighties; combining yoga with "Eastern-inspired" sensual dance and contributing to a shift in attitudes about women's autonomy and sexuality. Historian of religion Robert C. Fuller has commented 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." In his ''
The Story of Yoga ''The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West'' is a cultural history of yoga by Alistair Shearer, published by Hurst in 2020. It narrates how an ancient spiritual practice in India became a global method of exercise, often with ...
'', the cultural historian Alistair Shearer acknowledges Bernard's importance but states that he gave yoga a bad reputation and called him a "roguey yogi". Bernard trained boxer
Lou Nova Lou Nova (March 16, 1913 – September 29, 1991) also called the Cosmic Puncher was an American boxer and actor. Born in Los Angeles, California, the Nova was the U.S. and World Amateur Boxing Champion in 1935. After turning pro, he remained ...
in yoga. Bernard was involved with more conventional businesses, including baseball stadiums, dog tracks, an airport, and became president of the State Bank of Pearl River in 1931. Lecturers at the Clarkstown Country Club included Ruth Fuller Everett and
Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...
. One of Bernard's students was
Ida Rolf Ida Pauline Rolf (May 19, 1896 – March 19, 1979) was a biochemist and the creator of the pseudoscientific practice of Structural Integration, later termed Rolfing, a type of manual therapy that claims to aligning the human body's so-called " ...
. Scholars from across the United States visited Bernard's library; it was said to have been the best Sanskrit collection in the country and to contain some 7000 volumes of philosophy,
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, education,
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
, and related material on
physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
and
medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
.Library of Pierre Arnold Bernard Bernard died on September 27, 1955 at French Hospital in New York.


Family

He was uncle of
Theos Bernard Theos Casimir Hamati Bernard (1908–1947) was an American explorer and author known for his work on yoga and religious studies (particularly in Tibetan Buddhism). He was the nephew of Pierre Arnold Bernard, "Oom the Omnipotent", and like him b ...
, an American scholar of religion, explorer and famous practitioner of
Hatha Yoga Hatha yoga (; Sanskrit हठयोग, International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''haṭhayoga'') is a branch of yoga that uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word ह� ...
and
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
. His half-sister Ora Ray Baker (Ameena Begum) married
Inayat Khan Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan (; 5 July 1882 – 5 February 1927) was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the saraswati vina, poet, philosopher, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his students ...
after they met in 1912 at Bernard's Sanskrit College. Bernard adamantly opposed the match and Ora literally ran away from home to be with Inayat Khan, showing-up unannounced on his doorstep in London. She subsequently became the mother of
Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
teacher
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan Vilayat Inayat Khan (19 June 1916 17 June 2004) was a teacher of meditation and of the traditions of the East Indian Chishti Sufi order of Sufism. His teaching derived from the tradition of his father, Inayat Khan, founder of The Sufi Order ...
(1916–2004), World War II spy Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan (1914–1944),
Hidayat Inayat Khan Hidayat Inayat Khan (; 6 August 1917 – 12 September 2016) was a British-French classical composer, conductor and Representative-General of the Inayati Order. Biography Hidayat was born in London to Sufi Master Inayat Khan and Pirani Ameena B ...
(1917–2016) and Khair-un-Nisa (Claire) (1919–2011).


Publications

Bernard published the ''International Journal: Tantrik Order''. Only one issue was published in 1906."Journal of the Tantrick Order"
The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals.

''International Journal: Tantrik Order''
1 (5). * ''Vira Sadhana: A Theory and Practice of Veda'' (American Import Book Company, 1919)


References


Sources

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External links


Omnipotent Oom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Pierre 1875 births 1955 deaths American occultists American spiritual teachers People associated with physical culture People from Leon, Iowa American yoga teachers