Talk:Pierre Bernard (yogi)

Reference problems
I'm not sure why the list of sources is called "notes" here.... perhaps because they are not cited in a way that is very complete? Does anyone know what "Urban" is referring to? (currently second on the list, cited 5 times) Also the link titled "Pierre Arnold Bernard" (currently fifth on the list, cited 6 times) is essentially dead, as the page it references no longer exists. Clicking on it brings you to my.vanderbilt.edu, a web-building platform, and searching there for "Pierre Arnold Bernard" doesn't produce anything. Of the two books listed in references, Stirling is used a half dozen times but Love isn't actually cited at all. I happen to have read Love's book several years ago and it's a good read, full of information that would be excellent to cite for this article... actually it would be quite a task to figure out how to pick and choose what to include. Also, both of these books deserve a full citation rather than just author and title. I'm busy on some other articles and won't dive into this project but perhaps someone else is up for it? Or is willing to dig back through the records to see who posted those cryptic sources? Thanks!--Karinpower (talk) 03:17, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

The "Urban", is Hugh Urban, a professor of religious studies at Ohio State Universities Department of Comparative Studies. Psychologist Guy (talk) 16:24, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Influence from physical culture
There is a source that claims Pierre Bernard was influenced by physical culture "Bernard held a life-affirming vision of yoga that combined modern yoga’s physical techniques—as detailed below, this form of yoga was influenced by modern physical culture—tantra’s erotico-mysticism, and a communal ethic based on his nondualist philosophy." .

And another "Bernard borrowed from the physical culture movement and presented yoga as an antidote to the emasculating effects of modern society." Psychologist Guy (talk) 13:19, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Another reference
The most detailed source I have found on Bernard is Hugh B. Urban. (2001). The Omnipotent Oom: Tantra and its Impact on Modern Western Esotericism. Esoterica: The Journal of Esoteric Studies 3: 218-259. Unfortunately I do not know the status of this journal, looks obscure to me so I will not add it, but the references within this source will be useful. Psychologist Guy (talk) 15:52, 17 April 2019 (UTC)


 * It appears Urban is already cited on the article. Psychologist Guy (talk) 16:18, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Sylvais Hamati
Sylvais Hamati is mentioned as Bernard's guru and yoga teacher by biographer Robert Love and it is accepted as factual by some scholars such as Jeffrey J. Kripal but there is no reliable evidence he existed. Love admits that Bernard faked his early background. Hugh B. Urban has also written that "Virtually nothing is known about the enigmatic Bernard’s early life and background in fact, he seems to have gone to some lengths to conceal his real background behind a strange veil of fictitious identities and false biography, often using the fake persona of ‘Peter Coons’ from Iowa." Sylvais Hamati may have been entirely fictitious. Psychologist Guy (talk) 22:47, 17 April 2019 (UTC)