James Connor: The Superyogi Scenario

But there also is a tremendous historical precedent. The Yoga Sutra was written around 200AD. In the middle of this incredible philosophical text about the true nature of reality and how to meditate to see it, Master Patanjali explains how this wisdom applies to developing superpowers. 11% of the text is about how to develop superpowers.

I felt like I had Master Patanjali’s support to do a modern take on the same thing: use superheroes to explore some deeper philosophy.

OMTIMES: You based The Superyogi Scenario on The Yoga Sutra. Why is The Yoga Sutra so important?

James Connor: It’s the root text for all yoga lineages and contains the complete yogic path to enlightenment in 195 verses. Scholars tell us it’s a mix of Buddhism, proto-samkhya Hindu philosophy, and the general Indic meditation culture. It’s amazing.

The main idea of the text is we don’t know where reality comes from and that’s why we suffer. If we could understand that we create our experience of reality through how we treat others, we could end suffering.

OMTIMES: How can you prove reality is coming from us?

James Connor: Let’s take a simple object. Imagine you are holding what you see as a pen. When you show it to a puppy dog, what do they see? They aren’t going to write you a note with it. They see it as a chew toy. So which is it? A pen or a chew toy? It depends on your perspective. To a dog it’s a chew toy, and the concept of pen never enters their mind—that reality doesn’t exist to them. But you see a reality with a pen.

But what happens if you were to throw that same pen on the floor of cellblock 13 in a prison somewhere. Some prisoners would see a tool to write their loved ones. Others might see a weapon to shiv someone with. Depending on what’s in your heart is how you experience the world.

OMTIMES: Does quantum physics say the same thing about reality?