Source: TW
When Hinduism was put on Trial: The Case of Mrs. Sara Bull
After Swami Vivekananda delivered his now famous speech at World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893, he would go on to found the Vedanta Society in America, establishing centers in New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco. Vedanta quickly gained a following among the urban elite, particularly well-heeled women. The reasons for Vedanta’s sudden success were manifold. One cannot discount the importance of Vivekananda’s personal charisma, which helped draw in a dedicated set of volunteers and devotees who would help establish and grow chapters across the country. More importantly, however, Vivekananda did not present Vedanta as a distinctly “Indian religion”, but rather a universal one.
Vivekananda adapted the teachings of his guru Sri Ramakrishna to the prevailing religious climate, borrowing extensively from the wave of American metaphysical religions that had emerged in the decades prior to his arrival. His theory of yoga, far from being a straightforward translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, was a modern construct that reflected Vivekananda’s disparate influences, both east and west. And like Raja Rammohan Roy before him, Vivekananda attracted attention by attacking Christianity head-on. Vedanta was not just an exotic alternative to Christianity, but in fact a rival universalist creed that was superior to establish Protestantism. Naturally, this drew the ire of the religious establishment. Missionary journals from this period are replete with attacks on Vivekananda and his national tour, accusing him of disseminating “heathen propaganda” on American soil (Altman 76).
One of the most prominent adherents of the new American religion of Vedanta was one Mrs. Sara Bull, the widow of Ole Bull, a celebrated Norwegian violinist. Mrs. Bull lived in Cambridge and was a central figure at Green Acre, a rural retreat located in Eliot, Maine, dedicated to interfaith dialogue and a key congregation spot for the adherents of American metaphysical religions. Bull would host salons in her Cambridge home, featuring prominent east coast intellectuals– William James was one of her guests– and visiting swamis from India, including Swami Vivekananda himself.
After Mrs. Bull died in 1911, it was revealed that she had left the bulk of her sizable estate to the Vedanta Society. Her daughter challenged her will in court, arguing that she was mentally incompetent at the time it was produced and signed. The specific argument forwarded by Mrs. Bull’s daughter and her attorney (a man named Sherman Whipple) was that the Hindus had driven her late mother insane.
The case was a national sensation and was covered widely, including in the New York Times. In a paper titled “Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in U.S. Culture”, Professor Stephen Prothero notes that over the five-week trial, Whipple called a number of witnesses, “including a cook, a maid, and a ‘psychic barber,’ in an effort to build a case for Mrs. Bull’s religiously induced insanity” (Prothero 14). The main argument of the petitioner’s lawyers was that the late Mrs. Bull’s brain had been “inoculated with the bacteria of faith taught by Indian swamis”, and although Mrs. Bull approached the swamis as a genuine seeker, she fell prey to a “psychic conspiracy of Hindu swamis who put her under a spell, coerced her into taking a variety of Indian drugs, and stripped her of her morals, her mind, and her money” (Prothero 14).
The “Raja Yoga” taught by Swami Vivekananda was characterized by Whipple as a malign influence that “brought not only shattered health and loss of reason, but death to members of the band of Yogis and students who executed the psychic gymnastics in the home of Mrs. Bull.” (Prothero 15).
The lawyer’s argument did not emerge from a vacuum. Indeed, the sudden rise in popularity of Hindu philosophy and Vedanta in particular had long been a cause of consternation among the religious establishment and the media. In reporting on the trial, the New York Times called Hinduism a “strange cult” and in popular culture the Hindoo swami or “fakir” had long been derided as a charlatan at best, and at worst, a predator who was out to steal the money and devotion of innocent American women. Prothero quotes an editorial written at the end of the trial in the Boston Herald, which attacked the purveyors of Vedanta for being “fakers”, arguing that “Real Hinduism” was not about the worship of a formless divine, but rather about “public prostitution, idol worship, antisocial ascetics, child brides, and the caste system” (Prothero 16). +++(5)+++
These attitudes were not confined to rabble rousing editorials, either. Elizabeth A. Reed, a prominent scholar of religion, published a book titled “Hinduism in Europe in America” in 1914 wherein she gives credence to this view, arguing that “the Guru is a modern money-making invention” and that the Swamis in America “creep into houses and lead captive silly women” into slavish devotion and– eventually– insanity.
The notion that swamis exercised a corrupting influence on the minds of their followers dovetailed neatly with popular images of the “Hindoo” as a magician or mystic who was adept at hypnosis. Some of the earliest references to the “Hindoo” in American newspapers are found in ads for magicians who traveled the country claiming to have learned “Hindoo magic” from the wandering fakirs of India. Crowds across the country attended these shows to witness the famous “rope trick”. The hypnosis and illusions of the Hindoo magician seamlessly transformed into the pernicious and corrupting mind control of the Hindu swami. As Prothero points out, however, there is also an anti-Catholic antecedent for this prejudice. Anti-Catholic tracts in the 19th century often depicted the Catholic priest as a lecherous and manipulative figure, and the Catholic convent as a place that drove people insane (Prothero 29). Catholicism and Hinduism alike were characterized as inversions of the ideal social and political order, an “offense against democracy, republicanism, and individualism” (Prothero 28). +++(4)+++
The case of Mrs. Sara Bull is a landmark event in the history of the American encounter with the “Hindoo”. Over a century later, we can look back on the trial and the sensational media coverage around the trial with a degree of detached amusement, but we should not let that blind us from the intellectual and cultural currents that made such a trial possible in the first place. That Mrs. Sara Bull’s sincere dedication to Vedanta was itself accepted as evidence of her “Insanity” is a striking testament to prevailing attitudes at the time. Daggett in her essay the “Heathen Invasion of America” describes how yoga was “proving the way that leads to domestic infelicity and insanity and death” and cites Mrs. Sara Bull as an example, reflecting a widespread fear that the “Hindoo” and his religious ideas were seen as a threat to the American women in particular. But this fear, as Professor Altman notes, “fit within broader arguments and conflicts in America at the time about the proper roles of white women, their independence, and their social and political power” (Altman 100). The fixation around Mrs. Sara Bull’s mental state, in other words, were symptomatic of deeper anxiety about the stability of the American family in the face rapid societal and cultural change. In understanding the interplay between the influx of Hindu culture and thought and shifts in the domestic cultural and social landscape can help illuminate how this encounter between east and west continues to play out in the current day.
Altman, Michael J.. 2022. Hinduism in America (Religion in America). Taylor & Francis.
Prothero, Stephen. 2004. “Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in U.S. Culture.” In The Stranger’s Religion: Fascination and Fear, edited by Lännström, Anna, 13-37. South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press.
Reed, Elizabeth. 1914. “Hinduism in Europe and America.” G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
SAYS WOMAN WAS VICTIM OF QUEER PSYCHIC SPELL
Attorney is Trying To Break Will of Late Mrs. Bull—Cult Was Run by Former Detroiter.
ALFRED, Maine, May 24.—More details of the weird household customs alleged to have been maintained in Cambridge, Mass. by the widow of Ole Bull, the famous Norwegian violinist, were brought out today when trial of the suit to break her $500,000 will was resumed. Under examination of counsel for Mrs. Ole Bull Vaughn, the daughter seeking to break Mrs. Bull’s will, witnesses told of the mystic rites wherein masseurs, barbers and students in orientalism played leading roles.
Much of this testimony showed that at 60, Mrs. Bull devoted most of her time to thoughts of love, to things psychic and ethereal and to “Soul soaring as a Yogi through thought space, unattached to the body and matters material.”
In an effort to show that the widow suffered undue influence from the men and women with whom she surrounded herself, the ritual of Mrs. Bull’s “Holy room” was related. There Mrs. Bull and her disciples gathered and with chanting and incense and a furniture polish of ointment and ammonia, sought to cast out the evil thoughts directed against them.
Attorney Sherman L. Whipple, who is conducting the case for those who want to break the will, declares that Mrs. Bull was the victim of a “psychic conspiracy” for some time prior to her death last January.
Mr. Whipple declared that Miss Margaret Noble, an Englishwoman, now living in Calcutta, was the chief factor in this conspiracy. Others in the circle, he asserted, were Dr. Boss, of Indiana, a Dr. Coulter and Mrs. Marion Daniels Briggs, of Waltham.
The name of Dr. Joseph Goodwin Thorp, brother of Mrs. Bull, was brought into the case by Mr. Whipple, who said Dr. Thorp knew of the conditions in his sister’s household.
Mr. Whipple asserted that a Miss Farmer lost her reason psychic because of over-indulgence. That several members of the circle were dropped because they had too much power, and that Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu philosopher, lecturer and writer, author of “Rajah Yoga,” died from excessive participation in the mysteries of the chamber of meditation. Vive Kananda some years ago was disporting himself and exploiting his “religion” in Detroit and Chicago.
The sun, May 27, 1911
MRS. BULL HAD MANY VISIONS
SAW SPIRITS UNDER BLOOMING APPLE TREE IN BROOKLYN.
Met. Prof. William James at Home of Brooklyn Teacher and Later Befriended Him—Refused to See Her Daughter Except in Another Person’s Presence.
ALFRED, Me., May 26—Miss Siri Swanander, who teaches school and lives with her mother at 639A Madison street, Brooklyn, and Joseph G. Thorp were the only witnesses heard to-day in the contest over the will of Mrs. Ole Bull.
Mr. Thorp produced a number of letters which passed between himself and his sister, while Miss Swanander told of Mrs. Bull’s visits to her home and of what she saw at the studio house in Cambridge and at Greenacre Farm in Eliot, Me., where the Mystic Circle met.
Elaborating on their charges that Mrs. Ole Bull was under the complete domination of a band of “psychic conspirators,” Mrs. Vaughn’s attorney offered evidence that while Olga was critically ill and in danger of death from peritonitis in 1899 her mother hastened from England to India to assist Dr. Bose, a Yogi philosopher, instead of making the shorter journey to the United States to attend and comfort her only child.
Simultaneously it was shown by the testimony of Thorp that Mrs. Bull, despite an interest in Dr. Bose which caused her to cross two continents, manifested the liveliest concern in letters and cables relative to the condition of her daughter.
It is the contention of the opponents to the will that Mrs. Bull’s conduct on that occasion demonstrated her alleged inability to follow out her own wishes.
Another point in to-day’s evidence was the assertion in one of Mrs. Bull’s letters that she wanted her own will and Thorp’s drawn up in such a way that Olga’s husband, Henry Vaughn, could not inherit anything from them.
It was asserted to-day that many families were influenced by the Yoga cult and that several prominent women became insane as a result of its practices. A squad of lawyers is in court to protect the interests of persons who may become involved in the case indirectly.
One of the letters written by Mrs. Bull to Mr. Thorp contained the following references to the late Prof. William James of Harvard and to Swami lectures in Boston:
“Dr. James’s forbearance and chivalrous support of Miss Farmer’s ideas to the very last makes me regret more truly her efforts to hurt him with her present statement of considerations which she reports to me. For myself I feel that silence is the best course. So strong and true a man needs no defence from the line of attack made and I feel that to discuss the matter now would be unworthy under the circumstances. One feels too deeply the sorrow and loss to spirits of the universe’s united temper that made the last weeks of his work so difficult.”
Miss Swanander told how she and her mother first met Mrs. Ole Bull at a lecture in Brooklyn in February, 1906, given under the auspices of the Brooklyn Ethical Association, of which Prof. William James of Harvard was the head.
She said that they had met many times thereafter and that last year Mrs. Bull had sent for her to come to Greenacre, Me., Miss Sarah J. Farmer’s advanced thought farm.
“When I came to Greenacre,” said Miss Swanander, “Mrs. Bull was sick in body and mind. She spoke to me of her illness. I told her I thought it was intestinal trouble. She said no, that it was not physical. She said that something had come into her life—a malign influence, which had sapped her life, but now she was better and that she had conquered that influence. She told me that in overcoming it her health had been broken. She said, however, that she might get better.”
“Did she tell you the source of this malign influence?” asked Attorney Whipple.
“No,” said Miss Swanander. “Twice she promised she would tell me but she never did so. One day she called me to her couch when she was in the sitting room. She said: ‘Swami Vivekananda came to me from the spirit world. He stood by my couch under an apple or cherry tree in full bloom. He spoke to me and said. “I have art to care for you.”’ Edwina (Mrs. Bull’s grandson) also came and spoke to me, though in no vision.”
“How long had you been at Greenacre before she told you of Swami Vivekananda?” asked Mr. Whipple.
“Two days,” answered Miss Swanander.
“How recently had Swami appeared before Mrs. Bull told you?”
“She told me at noon and he appeared during the morning. She told me that Swami had comforted her, and that I had been sent by him, and that my mother would soon come and that she would get well. She told me Swami told her he was caring for and looking after her and that she would get well.”
Miss Swanander then said that Mrs. Bull at the sanitarium in Brooklyn, months later, had told her of other visits she had received from the spirits of Swami and Edwina.
“Did Ole Bull also come?”
“She spoke not as seeing him but as hearing his voice.”
“Were there any meditations at Greenacre?”
“Yes, every time that Mrs. Bull felt strong enough she held meditations.”
“Who joined with her in these?”
“Miss Celia Richmond, who lived at the hotel, and also Swami Bodenanda. Swami Bodenanda conducted the meditations when he could be present.”
“Did you notice what sort of room the meditation chamber was?”
“In this room she had the pictures of those whom she thought most precious. At the meditations the Swami would read the rajah yoga.”
“Did she have an altar in the room?”
“Yes, at Greenacre there were pictures of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Ramakrishna, Edwina and flowers and sometimes fruit and incense on the altar.”
“Did Mrs. Bull go with you to Brooklyn?”
“She came later.”
“When she sent for your mother, did she ask her to bring Dr. Reed?”
“I told her it would be impossible. She wanted us to go to Cambridge. I was a teacher and didn’t want to give up my work.”
Attorney Whipple read a letter from Mrs. Bull to the witness. It was dated Thursday. It read:
“Little friend, my dear:
So let me fit in and sleep in your back parlor. I will be so much happier to be your room occupant as long as you keep with me and we will save every penny for an emergency fund for the mother that we can. I am so happy to think of coming, if no one is disturbed, and I need food and love. No extras, only sweet, welcome delicious meals, which the good doctor added.”
“In haste, with love, MRS. BULL.”
Miss Swanander said that Mrs. Bull had paid two visits to their house, from October 1 to November 5, 1910, and from December 15, 1910, to January 10, 1911. Mrs. Bull died in Cambridge on January 15 last. The witness testified that Miss Noble had been with Mrs. Bull in Cambridge just before she visited Brooklyn for the last time.
The witness said that Mrs. Bull believed that Swami was visiting her in Brooklyn and that the long dead Edwina also came to stand by her couch. She said that Mrs. Bull while in Brooklyn bought much old jewelry. She said Mrs. Bull told her the Swami, Ole Bull, her parents and others came to her from the spirit world and had her buy these articles of jewelry for herself as presents from them.
During the first visit to Miss Swanander’s home many visitors called, among them being Mrs. William James and some of the school teacher friends of the witness. Miss Swanander testified that Mrs. Bull’s visions were not as frequent as when she was in Brooklyn, but that she often exclaimed when fruit was brought in that she had just seen “the Swami in a cherry tree.”
When told that her daughter, Mrs. Vaughan, was coming to see her, Mrs. Bull said she did not want to see her alone, and consequently Miss Swanander and Miss Noble of Cambridge were in the room when the mother and daughter met. The talk was entirely about Mrs. Bull’s health.
A Hallowe’en party was arranged in honor of Mrs. Vaughn at the Swanander home. Pumpkins made into lanterns were placed in a darkened room and when Mrs. Bull saw them lighted she was much delighted and addressed them as if they were people.
Miss Noble did not like the affair and said it was “an ungodly sight to have in such a holy room.”
On another occasion when Mrs. Vaughn came in Mrs. Bull exclaimed: “I want to put my arms around you, but I cannot.”
In November last, Miss Swanander said, she went with Mrs. Bull to Cambridge and stayed at the latter’s home. Mr. Reid came up from New York to see Mrs. Bull and put a stop to Miss Noble spending nights with the patient. When Mrs. Bull again visited Miss Swanander in Brooklyn, between December 15 and January 14, she appeared to the witness to be very feeble and remarked once that she “expected soon to make a full confession of this malign influence.”
The proceedings were adjourned this afternoon until Wednesday.