Yoga and The Occult

yogaWhen I was in my late teens, early twenties, I was very interested in learning more about connecting with myself and finding myself. I wanted to find out about deeper and higher levels of consciousness, so I could connect with who I truly was. I wanted to connect with the universe and the power that it held. I knew it was a part of who I was and that through this connection I could find the answers to life’s greatest questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Why was I born?

During this time I did a lot of searching through eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. I learned about meditation, chakras, channeling energy, using crystals to bring healing and alignment within the body, yoga and more. I practiced all of these things on a regular basis in hopes to reach enlightenment and to become a better person. I wanted very much to be a good person and it seemed these were things that were going to help me bring that out.

I was very open to the eastern religions as I studied them, because they were the polar opposite of what I knew and believed about God. I believed God was a far away guy up in the sky, who looked down on people and judged them harshly. In eastern religions there are many different gods, and they all hold important roles in life. These religions offered to help you cut through the limitations of the human mind and body to move closer to a god like status yourself.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

Romans 1:21

I would often spend time in meditation trying to “empty” my mind. I wanted to get to that god consciousness. I would then spend time with my crystals and gemstones, each one serving a specific purpose. Sometimes I would hold the gemstones to meditate on it’s qualities (such as love or peace) and sometimes I would place it on my chakras to help bring that good and healing energy into my body. I spent a lot of time with the crystals and gemstones in order to put my own energy into them, and then bring the positive energy out of it.

I would then practice various yoga poses that I learned from a book I had, that taught all about higher consciousness and Hinduism. I wanted to awaken my mind, body and third eye. The third eye is related to one of the Hindu gods and is the gate to your higher power. I loved doing yoga and even taught my boyfriend all about it. I felt great doing it and made a point to make it a part of my daily routine as often as possible.

At one time I even ventured to a Buddhist temple to learn more about the religion. I found it very interesting, but I was not going to be bound to any one religion. I enjoyed the freedom to pick and choose from different religions so I could find what worked best for me. Yoga was practiced at this Buddhist temple along with meditation time. At that time yoga was not as popular as it is now, and was not considered a form of stretching only, but a form of meditation and spiritual discipline.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;  to be made new in the attitude of your minds;  and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22-24

As my life moved forward and changed drastically, I no longer had leisure time to meditate or spend hours reading books on eastern religions or do the witchcraft I was so fond of. I let go of a lot of the practices, but yoga was one of the things I held on to because it was relaxing. And as our culture progressed yoga began to become more and more popular, to where it was easy to pick up a dvd of yoga and pop it in a few times a week.

I continued that practice on and off for years, even when I became a Christian. As far as I understood, there was nothing wrong with yoga. It was good for the body, mind and soul, and it also felt good all over. It took me some time to realize that I had always used it for a spiritual practice, and that spirituality was not compatible with the One and True God of the Universe. As I grew in my relationship with Jesus Christ, I began to realize that you cannot disconnect from the spiritual nature of the practice of yoga.

Eastern religions have always been popular because of their claims to reach higher levels of consciousness along with the exotic world of colors, the beautiful artwork, the statues of gods, and the positive feeling that seems to permeate it. It seems to be able to morph with the times, giving freedom to the hippies of the sixties, and health and well being to people today.  What is not understood. is that each one of these religions is based around spiritual principles aligned with the many gods and goddesses, or the teacher who is like a great leader and prophet of sorts, who is worshiped like a god.

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:27

Practices such as yoga, meditation, channeling energy, tai chi, kung fu, karate, acupuncture, mantras, mandalas, reiki and feng shui are all based on these spiritual teachings or principles that incorporate the gods and goddesses or the channeling of energy. All gods and goddesses are false gods aka demons. There is only one God, and He is the One who created the heavens and the earth. Any other “god” is like Satan; looking to become like god in order to gain power and control over humanity.

Channeling energy is an age old occult practice. Demons use energy as one of the ways they can move from place to place. They use this energy movement to transfer from person to person, person to object, etc. It is a form of witchcraft and it is not a practice that brings a person into alignment with the Spirit of God. Even meditation is a form of moving energy, as you are trying to move your energy into a certain direction, thought pattern, or process in order to gain something. That is witchcraft.

Doing these eastern spiritual practices is aligning yourself with the kingdom of darkness. It is practicing inviting the demonic into your being and into your life. It can cause great harm to your physical being, as well as your spiritual being. Once you bring these practices into your life, you are also inviting these demonic entities into your home and your family. Yoga in particular is very dangerous, because of the momentum it has gained in our world today, even within the Christian church.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8

As I grew in my relationship with Jesus Christ I understood that yoga was a spiritual practice to invite demons in. What I did not realize was that I was taught to use yoga to channel demons into my being during satanic rituals as a child. During one of my inner healing sessions that I have weekly, the Holy Spirit revealed to me how yoga was used in satanic rituals. Each specific yoga pose has a purpose in opening you up to the alignment of your spirit and soul with different deities. It is channeling the kundalini spirit through your spine, said to be the lifeline of your body.

prayer-on-my-kneesThe kundalini spirit is harnessed by the power of the goddess Shakti from Hinduism. It was that particular energy that I was to ask into my body while doing a series of specific yoga poses to channel it inside of me, so that I could align myself with the goddess power she offered. I had no conscious memory of this event until the Holy Spirit revealed it to me, because during extremely traumatic events a child’s mind has ways of fragmenting these terrible memories into places where the conscious mind cannot access them. Without this ability a human could never endure this great of a trauma and survive to function normally.

There are many other individuals who have devoted large portions of their lives over to the philosophy and lifestyle of yoga and eastern religion who have now come forward and stated what the Holy Spirit has revealed to them. Yoga is a new age deception to bring innocent people into alignment with the kingdom of darkness and channel demonic spirits into their beings. It is dangerous and has consequences beyond our understanding.

Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:1

If you have participated in yoga of any sort, I urge you to take time off from the practice as you devote yourself to prayer in asking God to reveal His truth to you. We must bring everything before the Lord Jesus Christ to see things from the perspective that is far higher than our own. He is beyond time and space and knows all things, and it is that wisdom that we need to seek in order to have clarity and discernment in a world full of darkness and lies.

God does not hate anyone who has done or is doing yoga. He loves every single person period. He understands the hearts and minds of people and knows why we choose to do the things we do. He wants us to have freedom from our bondage so we can have an even deeper revelation of His Spirit. It is only through this freedom that we can truly experience and know God’s heart and His love for us. The devil wants to steal that from us by convincing us his dark arts are actually healthy and good.

We are on the brink of the promised land. Unless we are to step out in faith and take the hand of the One who loves us most, we are never going to taste the fruits that He has planted there for us. We do not need to listen to the lies of the world, full of empty promises in order to find hope and peace. We need only look to the Author and Perfecter of our faith to know these things. Jesus Christ is hope and peace, and so much more. Your Father loves you more than you can even imagine. Step out and let Him show you.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Matthew 5:6

 

18 comments

  1. Tammy

    Great article. I totally agree about the spiritual background of this kind of “sport”. I would like to know your opinion about Callanetics. I love these excercises and they gave me muscles I never thought I had. 🙂 Callanetics was created by one woman, Callan Pinckney. She herself said that these exercises are based upon ballet movements, but some say there are yoga movements in it. I’ve never done yoga, so I can’t discern this. Can you give me an opinion? Thank you!

  2. Maureen Seepaul

    Wow, I could truly relate. I tried it all and still I did not find the inner peace until it came clearly. I turned my life over to Jesus. My life has transformed, the most powerful gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the transformation took place and I have learnt to let go, forgive and the best part of it all..do what Jesus did..Serve. Have a heart of compassion and His light truly, truly shine. I have the peace that passeth all understanding.

  3. Sharon Carby

    I would appreciate you explaining how neurofeedback is meditation and hypnosis, and any other truths about neurofeedback. It has made great in roads into the church and schools and I am most concerned at how many children are being seduced into meditation through this therapy.

  4. Dave

    You are truly a blessing for shining the light on topics like the dangers of yoga. Once a taboo in America, yoga can be found in so many shopping centers (unfortunately), thanks to the Beatles (among many) who made it popular and acceptable, influencing generations of Americans toward a path away from God. I’m no yoga expert but have advised Christian friends that their choosing of yoga for relaxation purposes (Devil’s deception) by emptying the mind … is really opening the door to evil spirits, unbeknownst to them.

  5. Dagny

    I’m frustrated with the idea that one can catch a demon as simply as they catch a cold. And when it comes to teachings on the supernatural world the church seems to be one extreme or the other. Either they don’t believe that demons oppress/possess people today or they believe that there is a demon hiding behind every bush and that every problem is demonic.
    Since you know how demons enter people do you know how to get them to exit? Is renouncing them by name in Jesus’ name enough? and what if a person doesn’t know all the names of the poses that they just practiced in class? How can they renounce the demon of that pose? And can demons really operate in a person whom the holy spirit is dwelling in? Can God’s spirit and a demonic spirit dwell together in one body?

    1. The Other Side of Darkness

      Demons are not caught, they are invited in. It is quite different than a cold. We need to develop our relationship with Jesus, so that we have the discernment and wisdom to not allow things of the occult into our lives and hearts. It is very simple in that way. The problem is that we need to stop being afraid of what we have already allowed in, or what has been put on us through previous generational rights, and understand that absolutely with repentance, renunciation, and humility we can stop partnering with the occult and instead with God. He has called us for a greater purpose than this. We are looking to things of man to find things of God, but it is not possible to find them. Every Christian needs to start with a deliverance. A trained deliverance ministry will get to the root of all of these things and more. I partner with a ministry that works world wide. fourcornersfree.com

  6. Elizabeth

    My daughter is instructor of yoga and I have been sharing with her you article ! Since she has been involved with yoga, she has been sick emotionally, depress, tired phisicly. I’m praying that Holy Spirit will show her the truth ! She is believer. She is adult, please pray for her ! Rachel will come quickly to truth ! ! Breakthrough

  7. Jessica

    Thanks for your post! I practiced yoga for a period of time a couple years ago for physical fitness. I thought it was innocent enough. Although I felt physically good, it was like something was separating me from hearing God’s voice. I was depressed, had nightmares and cried to God often, but never made the connection between yoga and demonic oppression. I started seeking healing though holistic health practices, while becoming more deaf to the voice of God. I thank God that he brought difficulty to my life and turned my heart back to Him, exposing the deception I was falling into. I realized that Christians can be deceived and we must be vigilant and test everything against the word of God.

  8. Nelly

    Thank you for writing about yoga . I thought it is an exercise to help someone loss weight,but now I know it a road to spiritual destruction.

  9. Laura

    Hello – I WAS LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT to find you tonight and wow, what a week it has been for being FURTHER led to TRUTH . I just recently ( a few days ago) was reminded of Carolyn Hamlet who also speaks of this subject and its satanic roots. I wasn’t quite understanding it all TILL your article ! Now I get it ! ..

    Okay, so I do not do yoga even though I am constantly asked if I do it because of my fit/lean physique ( but I did not know that was a SIGN of a yoga participant ? would’t Pilates be more fitting ? ) .. anyway , years ago I bought a Groupon for 10 Yoga sessions. I only went 3 x . The one class I did was a CHAKRA class and the chakra for that night was the Sacral I believe . The room was really cold ( brand new studio) and I literally JUST STARTED TO MEDITATE 3 months ago ( I was ADDICTED !) .. but at that time , I was the queen of ADD , I could not sit still for the life of me and I like high intensity workouts , so it was TOUGH to sit through this class. As I was doing these moves , all I could think was “is this working ?” … that night I slept like a baby , I had a great bowel movement the next day ( I have suffered with constipation my entire life and it has been 10 MONTHS and I CANNOT have a bowel movement ( I am beyond frustrated and nothing I am trying naturally is working , I just started to think this week, it must be demon related ?) .. anyway, not only did I have a great BM that next day but OMG, I FELT LIKE I WAS FLOATING !!! I had this INNER GLOW/JOY and I did not want it to leave me ! I have always assumed ( I have not thought much of that day ) till this week and the Holy Spirit putting this info into my life . Moreso, that is as I had heard yoga was Satanic based , but never knew why and never did the research , till this week and a friend mentioned Carolyn Hamlet and in that moment , SPIRIT spoke to me loud , I HAD to start watching /reading her blogs , it was time to get back into this demonic subject to educate myself further ( last year at this time I was going through a possession ! … so now I understand why I felt that way after doing that chakra yoga class , it all makes soooo much sense now !!!! I LOVE your website and I am so excited to learn more about you !!! xo

  10. Chris

    I have prayed about it and thought about it a lot and I sincerely believe yoga is ok for Christians to practice, and doing the 8 limbs of yoga helped me deepen my Christian faith. But I know it may not be for everyone. When I read the Bible passage in Romans about meat offered to idols, I felt as though it was similar. I know you do not agree with me based on your experience, and that is fine. I just wanted to share my story.

    When it comes to all the stuff about “life force energy,” that is remarkably similar to the “ruwach” and “pneuma” mentioned in the Bible by Jesus and the prophets. Chi and prana essentially mean the same thing as ruwach or pneuma. I do not believe it is demon stuff or witchcraft, but I know you may disagree. My point is not to convince you of anything, it is merely to state my experience and opinion since I have heard yours.

    Also, the Bible does not say that pagan gods are demons. It does say that demons are involved in paganism (1 Corinthians 10-20), but it also says that an idol or false god is nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4).

    1. beth.eckert

      Yoga is a spiritual practice based on worshipping false gods. You cannot remove the core purpose of what it was created for by deciding its not spiritual. Every pose is created specifically as a pose of worship to different dieties. I have not made decisions solely based on experience, but also on research from yogis, and ex yogis, who clearly state these as facts.

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