Date of Award

5-11-2023

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Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Yoga Studies

School or College

Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts

First Advisor

Zoe Slatoff

Abstract

This paper discusses the realities and implications of the framework for siddhis as outlined in pādas III and IV of the Yogasūtra of Patañjali, and the impact of the Western Protestant hermeneutical lens on the dismissal or negative treatment of siddhis within many schools of Modern Yoga. Contending for the possibility of the supernatural or paranormal, this project will explore the transformative potential of yoga using that framework to discuss the need for new metaphors which contain space for the dance between form and formless present within Sāṃkhyan metaphysics. It will discuss the idea of embodied metaphors and how yoga and subtle body practices use embodied metaphors to install new image schemas in the conceptual system. This provides a basis for understanding why powers beyond ordinary awareness, such as the siddhis, may arise from the repetition and practice of embodied metaphors.

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