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Ouin of Ine Rv Jountaina ^outh oi thi ouin of ine r v JountainA The Historical Society of Rockland County Vbl. 44, No.l January-March, 2000 Hay Cutting at the Eagle’s Nest, Clarkstown Country Club Pierre Bernard and the Clarkstown Country Club A Millennium Story IN THIS ISSUE Pierre Bernard and the Clarkstown Country Club............................Page 3 The author, Grace Gordon, a resident of Tappan, was born and bred in Rock­ land County. She has worked on a number of local history projects and was the archivist, commissioned by Pierre’s niece-in-law, Dr. Viola Bernard, for the numerous cartons containing Clarkstown Country Club papers, photographs and artifacts. A Millennium Story..........................................................................................Page 19 Prophets, forseeing major disasters or the end of the world, have been capturing the imaginations of followers and the attention of the press for a long time. This story was transcribed from microfilms of the Nyack Evening Star and the Nyack Evening Journal in the New City Library by Marianne B. Leese. Thank you to our reader, Marshall Hornblower, who spotted an article about this story in The Washington Post. COVER PICTURES. Front Cover: hay cutting at the Eagle’s Nest, Clarks­ town Country Club, Nyack, New York. Back Cover: CCC elephants perform­ ing. All of the photographs in this issue are from the collection of the Historical Society of Rockland County. SOUTH OF THE MOUNTAINS (ISSN 0489-9563) is published quarterly by the Historical Society of Rockland County, 20 Zukor Road, New City, NY 10956; telephone, 914-634-9629; fax, 914-634-8690. Single copy price is $2 plus 75 cents postage and handling. While all efforts are made to ensure accuracy in the articles, the society assumes no responsibility for opinions and conclusions expressed or implied by contributors. © 2000 The Historical Society of Rockland County All rights reserved Executive Director: Sarah E. Henrich Editor: Marjorie H. Bauer Senior Historian: Thomas F.X. Casey Consulting Editor: Marianne B. Leese Senior Historian Emeritus: John Scott Printing by Ramapo Graphics, Pearl River, New York 2 Pierre Bernard and The Clarkstown Country Club by Grace Gordon laced squarely on the crest of a at a given moment. He was extremely knoll overlooking the Hudson perceptive and crafty, and not much River in South Nyack is a hand­ got past him. One of his early disci­ Psome stone and stucco building, whichples once said of him: “If you want to boasts a history so colorful it has fool Oom, try to fool God first.” His become a legend in Rockland County. interest in yoga was genuine and It was built in 1931 as the home of the intense, and although he often exploit­ Clarkstown Country Club, brainchild ed its use for his own gain, he always of Pierre Arnold Bernard, a character believed in the value of its practice even more colorful than his creation. and he was, for all his life, a teacher Because of his controversial lifestyle and spokesman for its benefits. Pierre Bernard, also known as Oom Although Bernard would answer the Omnipotent, has been in and out any question on yoga or Eastern philos­ of public scrutiny for the entire 20th ophy eagerly and expansively, he hard­ century. The first reports of his activi­ ly ever gave true, factual information ties appeared in the San Francisco regarding his personal life and his fami­ newspapers in 1900, while only last ly, preferring instead to fabricate, year a website was created in his embellish or mislead. He often claimed, name. One reason for this continuing for instance, that he was educated in interest is the fact that Bernard, a pio­ India and held degrees from three uni­ neer in this country in the field of versities there. Actually, he never set yoga, was the first Westerner to estab­ foot in the country and the degrees lish an organized method of teaching were honorary, and of somewhat dubi­ yoga and Eastern philosophy on these ous origin. He frequently stated he was shores. Another reason is the man born in Chicago and traveled much of himself. Bernard was a fascinating the country in his youth, when actually individual with a long and checkered he was born in Iowa and lived there for career, which included riches and most of his early life. notoriety as well as disgrace and Bernard was born on October 31, imprisonment. 1876 in Leon, Iowa and given the Bernard was a very intelligent name Perry Baker. Three years later and complex man, with many facets to his parents, Kittie and Erastus Baker, his character, good and bad. He could were divorced and when Kittie mar­ be genuine or devious, brutally honest ried J.C. Bernard, a barber from Leon, or artfully deceptive, cruel or compas­ young Perry took his stepfather’s sionate—whichever best fit his needs name. “Perry” was later changed to 3 Pierre, no doubt for effect. Not much and exercises, called hatha yoga. He is known of his very early years, but promoted these methods as a form of perhaps the most important event of self-cure for various ailments and his adolescence was his meeting up advertised for students. Bernard with a man called Sylvais Hamati, a trained a few of his followers as teach­ Syrian, it is said, who was a practition­ ers and with their help was able to eke er of Tantrik yoga and a guru of sorts out a meager living. to a few pupils in the Midwest. By his While he was operating these own account, the young Iowan had schools, the young Bernard began already developed an interest in East­ efforts to found a Tantrik Order in ern philosophy and religion when he America, with Hamati’s help at first. met Hamati in Lincoln, Nebraska and He worked diligently on the West became his pupil. He studied with Coast to this end, forming lodges in Hamati for at least six years and was San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Taco­ associated with him on the West Coast ma, and other cities in the Northwest, for longer than that. evidently gathering enough adherents One of the disciplines of Tantrik and benefactors to keep the order yoga, and other forms of yoga as well, going. He moved his operations fre­ includes mastering elaborate exercises quently and at each new place, for controlling involuntary bodily func­ Bernard would establish a Tantrik tions such as breathing and heart rate. lodge, recruit new members, leave dis­ Diligent in his studies, Bernard ciples in charge and move on. Initia­ became proficient at such feats as tion into the Tantrik sect involved a breath control to the point of simulat­ great deal of cryptic and arcane rigma­ ing death, and mind control, or self­ role. Initiates were made to take a hypnosis, to eradicate pain. He used vow of secrecy regarding its rituals, to these skills to impress and, as a way to swear allegiance to the order and to earn a living, staged demonstrations to sign an elaborate oath to this effect in recruit pupils who would pay to learn their own blood. them. In one of these demonstrations, he wove long needles in and out of the flesh of his cheeks and tongue and showed that, through self-hypnosis, he did not bleed and felt no pain. In another, he appeared to be in a death­ like state as he slowed his breathing and heart rate to a barely perceptible ■ m. ?V - point. First in San Francisco and then in other cities in California and the Northwest during the first decade of the century, Bernard listed himself as a physician —despite having never even attended high school. He estab­ lished schools, which he called temples of learning, for instruction in breath­ ing and mind control techniques as well as for lessons in yoga postures Pierre Bernard with his everpresent cigar 4 Bernard was successful in his months and was released only when endeavors on the West Coast—success­ charges were dropped because the two ful enough, anyway, to announce the girls had disappeared. Gertrude Leo, establishment of the first Tantrik one of the accusers, was part of the Order of America. He filed all the nec­ West Coast entourage which followed essary papers to legitimize the order Bernard to New York and was, she and wasted no time proclaiming him­ said, lured to the East Coast on the self its founder and chief primate. promise that she would become his In 1908, Bernard decided to move nautch girl, meaning his Tantrik wife. his operations to New York. Arriving Zelia Hopp was a student/patient at with a small entourage of men and the sanitarium, being treated for a women, he rented furnished rooms and heart ailment. There was some jeal­ small apartments in Harlem and mid ousy between the two girls, both of Manhattan. He allied himself with one whom he promised to marry. Believe it or two doctors, never discouraging the or not, both appeared to be enamored idea that he was one himself, and of Bernard, this much older, balding, established what he called sanitari­ financially insecure man. It must have ums, where he and his aides would been that whatever he lacked in looks offer medical and physical assistance, he more than made up for in spellbind­ coupled with yoga instruction, to reha­ ing charisma. bilitate the afflicted. For one hundred When the girls disappeared, some dollars in advance, one could enroll in say they fled because they were terri­ his course of treatment, and after a fied of revenge by their captor, others four week trial, the enrollee’s money that they had made the whole thing up would be refunded, it was promised, if to get even, and were frightened of he wasn’t satisfied.
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