JUN 9 m/ 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



HELD AT PHILADELPHIA 

 FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE 



ON THE ART OF ENTERING ANOTHER'S BODY: A 

 HINDU FICTION MOTIF 



By MAURICE BLOOMFIELD. 



(Read April is, 1916.) 



The Yoga philosophy teaches, on the way to ultimate salvation, 

 many ascetic practices which confer supernormal powers. Thus 

 the third book of the prime authority on this philosophy, the " Yoga- 

 Sutras " of Patanjali, gives an account of these vibhutis, or powers.^ 

 They cover a large part of all imaginable magic arts, or tricks, as 

 we should call them : knowledge of the past and the future ; knowl- 

 edge of the cries of all living beings (animal language) ; knowledge 

 of previous births (jatismara, Pali jatissara) ; mind-reading; indis- 

 cernibility of the Yogin's body ; knowledge of the time of one's 

 death ; knowledge of the subtle and the concealed and the obscure ; 

 knowledge of the cosmic spaces ; the arrangements and movements 

 of the stars; cessation of hunger and thirst; motionlessness; the 

 sight of the supernatural Siddhas^ roving in the spaces between the 

 sky and the earth ; discernment of all ; knowledge of one's own 

 mind mind-stuff and of self ; supernormal sense of hearing, feeling, 

 sight, taste, and smell ; penetration of one's mind-stuff into the body 

 of another ; non-adherence of water, mud, thorns, etc. ; levitation 

 (floating in the air) ; subjugation of the elements; perfection of the 

 body ; subjugation of the organs ; authority over all states of exist- 



1 Also named bhuti, siddhi. aicvarya, j'ogegvarata, and the like. 



2 Perfected beings that have become quasi-divine. 



PROG. AMER. PHIL. SOC, LVI, A, PRINTED APRIL 3, I917. 



