Yogic Rays: The Self-Externalization of the Yogi in Ritual, Narrative and Philosophy

In the late Upanishads and the Mahabharata, one begins to encounter descriptions of Yogis who are possessed of the power to exit their bodies—via “rays” (raśmi) that radiate outward from their eyes, heart, or fontanel—as a means to rising up to the sun or to entering the bodies of other creatures. In the centuries that follow, this power becomes a commonplace of yogic theory and yogic lore, with ritual, narrative, and philosophical texts describing the Yogi′s appropriation of other creatures′ bodies in both symbiotic and predatory modes. In the former case, the yogic “fusing of the channels” is the means by which a Tantric teacher initiates his disciple: exiting his own body, his mindstuff travels along a ray to enter his disciple′s body, which he transforms from within. In the latter, the practice of “subtle yoga,” as described in the ninth-century Netra Tantra, becomes a means by which a Yogi may take over another person′s body, either to inhabit it or to draw its energy back into his own body, thereby increasing his own power. Through these techniques, the Yogi is said to possess the power to enter multiple bodies simultaneously, creating armies of “himself” in the process. These practices, which are attested in hundreds of documents, fly in the face of received notions of so-called “classical yoga,” in which the emphasis is placed on turning the senses inward to isolate the mind-body complex from the distractions of the outside world. In the light of these practices of yogic self-externalization, a re-evaluation of “classical yoga” itself is in order.