Emma Calvé was a French opera singer who had met Swami Vivekananda in America. This is how she described that meeting in her autobiography titled “My Life” :
“An appointment was arranged for me, and when I arrived at his house, I was immediately ushered into his study. Before going I had been told not to speak until he addressed me. When I entered the room, therefore, I stood before him in silence for a moment. He was seated in a noble attitude of meditation, his robe of saffron yellow failing in straight lines to the floor, his head swathed in a turban bent forward, his eyes on the ground.
After a brief pause he spoke without looking up. “My child,” he said, “what a troubled atmosphere you have about you! Be calm! It is essential!” Then in quiet voice, untroubled and aloof, this man, who did not even know my name, talked to me of my secret problems and anxieties. He spoke of things that I thought were unknown even to my nearest friends. It seemed miraculous, supernatural! “How do you know all this?” I asked at last. “Who has talked of me to you?” He looked at me with his quiet smile as though I were a child who had asked a foolish question.” “No one has talked to me,” he answered gently. “Do you think that is necessary? I read you as an open book.”