There are hidden dangers associated with yoga and meditation, not the least of which is that one of its main aims is to create a passiveness of mind which can easily cause a person to unknowingly become vulnerable to spiritual manipulation in various forms.
When one looks at the facts and the statistics, there is no doubt that there are many reasons that yoga – and meditation which is so often associated with yoga – are potentially harmful.
Just how popular is yoga these days? The statistics are staggering…
Worldwide, yoga is estimated to be a 30 billion dollar business encompassing almost every aspect of life. According to Google, in 2002, there were approximately 1.2 million web pages carrying the term yoga and ten years later, that has increased to 85 million. Today, a search for yoga on Amazon.com returns more than 96,000 results, with 23,000 in the books, CDs and DVDs categories. The remaining 73,000 results cover no less than 34 categories including 260 in the Pets category, more than 4,750 in Homes and Kitchens, around 2,000 in jewellery, 200 in Toys, 200 in Office, and 400 in Automotive.
It is estimated that 15 million Americans practise yoga. The Los Angeles Times estimates that there are more than 70 yoga studios in Southern California alone, with some of the bigger ones pulling in as much as $30,000 a week. The largest yoga residential retreat centre in the US, The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts draws close to 20,000 guests a year, for an annual gross of about $10 million. The popular Jivamukti Yoga Center in Manhattan offers at least 108 classes a week, with an average of 60 students packed into every class.
“Yoga studios may be as ubiquitous as Starbucks in our country, and worldwide, yoga is getting as popular as Coca-Cola!”
“As part of a pledge to donate $1 million of yoga each year to non-profit organizations, YogaFit, the leader in Mind/Body Fitness education has partnered with Chicago-based Aparecio Foundation, a mentoring program for young, underserved women as well as over 100 nonprofits in the US & Canada. Yogafit is a $5 million company. YogaFit has trained and certified over 200,000 yoga instructors on six continents and is the largest yoga school in the world, and will be donating yoga mats to Aparecio’s program. YogaFit donated 1 million dollars in yoga supplies and free yoga instruction in 2011.”
The following was posted on Yoga Business Academy site over a year ago:
- A whopping $6 billion was spent solely on yoga products last year (that is 2010)
- One in 10 Americans now practice yoga
- The percentage of people that practice Yoga increases on an average of 20-25% every year.
- Yoga is becoming mainstream in the corporate world.
- Companies looking to associate their products or services with a wellness lifestyle will turn to yoga imagery (think Worldly-Wise by Morgan Stanley). A sexy yogini sipping a glass of wine while sitting in lotus position on the hood of a car is not out of the question if it helps sell a car.
- Asia will be a major growth market for yoga.
- New training — with overall growth of the wellness industry, new training programs to support practitioners in demand, including advanced professional development and business training.
- Insurance companies are already paying for yoga
- Yoga will be prescribed by the doctor
- Yoga’s growth is part of a bigger wellness trend. Those companies that want to capitalize off the trend will add services such as nutritional programs, exercise routines, spa services and wellness consultations in conjunction to yoga offerings.
- Conclusion: Yoga as a business is a HUGE market, what’s your take?
Is the bustling business of yoga—a practice rooted in renunciation and greedlessness—good karma?
According to a May article in U.S. News & World Report, about 18 million Americans now practice yoga. The average practitioner’s yearly expenditure on all things yoga-instruction, mats, props, clothing, weekend workshops, books, CDs, videos-could be conservatively estimated at a ballpark $1,500. That amount times 18 million equals $27 billion. To put this into perspective, if the yoga business were consolidated, the resulting corporation (Yoga-Mart?) would be slightly larger than Dow Chemical, slightly smaller than Microsoft. That’s big. And it’s getting bigger. Mainstream retailers like J.Crew and Puma have been selling their own lines of yoga gear for some time now, and Nike is introducing its first yoga shoe (the Kyoto, $55 retail) in November. (Russell Wild)
Some people, granted, not many, are getting rich off yoga. One executive, whose company is one of the largest sellers of yoga paraphernalia, makes a quarter-million a year in salary. That’s in addition to this manager’s stock options, which over the last several years have totaled $1.4 million. When asked to comment on such good fortune, this executive responded testily: “To take this [discussion] into my salary is to trivialize what we do here. I feel compromised by your asking me that question. People are expected to make a living. And besides, you have no clue what I do with my worldly goods – what, for instance, I give to charity. I’m very upset with you.”
A touch of soul-scraping ambivalence? If so, our executive is far from alone. Throughout the yoga community, people are wondering whether the bustling business of yoga is good karma. Is it OK to make big money off a practice that has its roots in renunciation and asceticism? Is the commercialization of yoga distorting its very essence? And what’s next for the yoga biz, now that we’ve already seen the marketing of yogatards, yoga shoes, yogi pillows (stuffed with buckwheat hulls), the $1,200 “Tantric Bedroom Set” (for adults only), and a battery-operated, inflatable “Chi Machine”?
What are the dangers?
One of the major dangers must be the way that yoga is so readily connected with so many not so healthy ‘New Age’ beliefs. Is yoga really all that bad?
Throughout her childhood, Laurette Willis’ family regularly attended church. “If someone had asked us, we would have said we were Christians,” she says. “But we never heard the message of salvation at our church.” Lacking knowledge about the Christian faith, Laurette’s mom found herself drawn to New Age practices, and began reading books by Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce (both claimed to have psychic abilities) and taking Laurette to an ashram, a Hindu yoga retreat.
As an adult, Laurette immersed herself in every New Age and metaphysical practice she came across: chanting, crystals, tarot cards, psychics, channeling spirits. “I tried everything—Kabbalah, Universalism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism —because I was spiritually hungry,” Laurette says. “I call the New Age movement ‘Burger King’ because it’s like the fast-food restaurant’s motto: ‘Have it your way.’ That’s what the New Age movement tries to do, to achieve God on its terms.”
There was one thing Laurette wasn’t remotely interested in pursuing: Christianity. “I thought Christians just wanted to give me a bunch of rules and dogma,” she says. “I didn’t know they were speaking about a relationship with Jesus.”
But in Laurette’s quest to find herself, she only found a deepening sense of loneliness. “God will use whatever it takes to bring you to your knees,” she says. “I’d made a mess of my life. I was an alcoholic. I’d been promiscuous. I tried every form of religion, never coming to any knowledge of the truth.”
One day in 1987, a thought popped into Laurette’s head: What if everything I thought about God was completely wrong? Two days later, she fell to her knees. “I didn’t know anything about the Bible or Jesus. I just cried out to God from the depths of my soul, ‘I give up! You win! If you can do something with my life, you can have it.’ “As Laurette asked God to take control of her life, she felt a physical weight lift from her body.
“I learned much later that the weight was sin,” she says. “I hadn’t realized sin was real. New Agers think the word ‘sin’ is an acronym for ‘self-inflicted nonsense.’ That’s the deception of the Enemy, because if there’s no sin, then you don’t need a Savior.”
She remembers the change at the moment she accepted Christ: “I felt peace descend upon me for the first time in my life.”
After giving her life to God, Laurette began devouring the Bible. She burned her New Age books and disengaged from everything associated with her turbulent past—including yoga.
The Problem with Yoga
The goal of all yoga, Laurette explains, is to obtain oneness with ‘the universe’. That’s also known as the process of enlightenment, or union with Brahman (Hinduism’s highest god). The word ‘yoga’ means ‘connect’, ‘union’, ‘attach’, ‘to yoke’ or ‘to be yoked to’.
“Yoga wants to get students to the point of complete numbness in their minds. God, on the other hand, wants you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind through his Word,” Laurette says.
Before she became a Christian, Laurette used subliminal tapes to train her mind to empty itself. These tapes are often used in yoga classes, she says. She also taught yoga classes and instructed her students in astral projection, or “stepping outside” of the body, which Laurette says poses a serious spiritual danger.
“If there’s nothing in your mind, you’re open to all kinds of deception. After coming to Christ, I wondered who—or what—came into my body when I ‘stepped out.’ While I don’t believe Christians can become possessed, I do believe we can become oppressed by demonic spirits of fear, depression, lust, false religion, etc. These are all things designed to draw us away from Jesus Christ.”
But what about hatha yoga, the less overtly spiritual form of yoga taught at most gyms? Even in this format, Laurette says there are commonly used words and poses antithetical to God’s Word. For example, the word ‘namaste’ (an anagram of ‘me satan’ often said at the close of yoga classes, means, ‘I bow to the god within you’. The sound ‘om’ chanted in many yoga classes, is meant to bring students into a trance so they can join with the universal mind. And the ‘salute to the sun’ posture, used at the beginning of most classes, pays homage to the Hindu sun god. Laurette believes it’s impossible to extract Hindu spiritualism from yoga—and she’s gotten a bit of confirmation on this from an unlikely source:
“I received an e-mail from a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey. The staff member wrote, ‘Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact.’ This staff member included that she didn’t appreciate my ‘running down the great Hindu/Yogic religion,'” Laurette says.
Numerous Christian women have told Laurette they decided to quit yoga after learning about its Hindu roots. It’s a hard decision for those who’ve invested many years and many dollars into the practice. Laurette says, “I tell people that if their reasoning is, ‘But I’ve already paid for these yoga classes,’ or ‘But I just bought these cool yoga pants and a yoga DVD,’ to ask themselves: Am I willing to give these things up to know the truth?”
Proceed with Caution
The Bible makes it clear that syncretism, the blending together of pagan worship with the worship of Yahweh is an abomination to God. Yet there’s a new practice popping up at churches and fitness clubs dubbed ‘Christian yoga’ or ‘yoga for Christians’ and these programs supposedly offer the physical benefits of yoga along with Christian spirituality. Is it really possible for yoga to be transformed into a practice for Christians?
Doug Groothuis, author of Confronting the New Age and a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary, says proponents of ‘Christian yoga’ are misled—and are misleading others. “Christian yoga is an oxymoron. Yoga is rooted in Hinduism and cannot be separated from it”, he says. “There’s nothing wrong with stretching and calming down one’s breathing. But yoga isn’t really about that; it’s aimed at transforming human consciousness to experience the Hindu god, which is a false god.”
The Many Claims Made for Yoga and Its Widespread Growth
Yoga is often but not exclusively associated with meditation, or is regarded as being a series of stretching exercises, good for relaxation and suppleness, health, peace of mind, and so on (there is a list of claimed benefits further on in this article). There are many varied things associated with yoga, eg. philosophies and beliefs. It is often directly and indirectly connected with many dubious institutions, cults and gurus (‘teachers’).
There seems to be an endless list, whether it be retreats, holidays, and all things associated. So there are very many different reasons why people choose to practise yoga.
An example of the vigorous across the board promotion of yoga that is now taking place all over the world
Nationwide Campaign To Bring Free Yoga To Schools
FRIDAY, 11 MAY 2012: The first full week of May has been declared National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week by the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. The purpose of the week is to increase public awareness about the triumphs and challenges in children’s mental health and to emphasize the importance of family and youth involvement in the children’s mental health movement. Shanti Generation® and Move with Me ® Action Adventures, supported by Yoga-Recess™, have launched a “Buy 1, Give 1“ program, similar to the TOMS™ shoe model, to bring yoga programs into public schools, FREE.
“Children with a wide range of mental health issues can benefit from the social-emotional learning (SEL) skills that basic yoga practice teaches including self-awareness and self regulation. We use simple techniques of conscious breathing, mindful awareness, stretching and centering postures to give children tangible tools for reducing stress,” says Abby Wills, a Southern California yoga instructor, who holds an MA in Education and has fifteen years of hands-on experience working in schools. She is the founder of Shanti Generation™, a “youth centric” yoga program created to help tweens and teens (ages 8 – 16) develop confidence and strength while cultivating inner peace and mindfulness, SHANTI GENERATION: YOGA SKILLS FOR YOUTH PEACEMAKERS.
The “Free Yoga Resources for Classrooms Project” was envisioned as a way to bring easy-to-use yoga curricula to educators from Pre-K – 12, at no charge. The project encourages public school teachers to register to receive a free DVD (plus educational license) of either SHANTI GENERATION: YOGA SKILLS FOR YOUTH PEACEMAKERS (middle and high schools) or MOVE WITH ME ACTION ADVENTURES (for pre-school and early elementary grades) and then solicits the yoga community to Buy 1 (or more copies of the DVD) in order to Give 1 to a school. “With ongoing budget cuts, most teachers can’t afford to purchase the educational license required to use these program in schools,” says Leah Kalish, MA, former Program Director of Yoga Ed. and founder of Move with Me ™ Action Adventures DVDs, which are designed to involve the whole child (ages 3 – 7), in social-emotional learning through yoga stories and pretend play.
Over the last 2 years, Yoga Recess™ collected ten thousand requests from teachers wanting a FREE copy of the SHANTI GENERATION or MOVE WITH ME; however the cost involved in fulfilling those requests is prohibitive. “Now we just need the yoga community to step up,” says Wills. “Yoga has helped children with ADHD, Autism and chronic disease to stay physically healthy and mentally focused. It’s also an incredible antidote to the bullying epidemic that is confronting our children. “
“Our goal,” says Kalish, “is to have at least 600 units of both SHANTI and MOVE WITH ME purchased and delivered to teachers by the end of the 2012.
Yoga practices give kids and teachers the tools and techniques they desperately need to manage stress, develop emotional intelligence and learn healthy self-regulation. This is our way to support the next generation in becoming well-balanced adults.”
About Shanti Generation and Abby Wills
Shanti Generation is a movement to empower youth with peacemaking skills to build a world that respects and celebrates difference on the way to discovering unity. We produce educational media experiences that bring ancient and modern practices to youth in relevant, innovative formats. Every step of our process is informed by youth input. Our programs are designed to reduce stress, increase resiliency and nurture mind/body health.
Shanti Generation: Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers
The first DVD in a series, merges yoga exercises and mindfulness techniques for youth ages 9 to 16. Developed by renowned youth yoga expert, Abby Wills, MA, and created in collaboration with teens, the program integrates a series of movements, breathing techniques and mindful practices that facilitate inner calm, positive attitude and a strong, healthy body. Exercises are demonstrated by Abby’s teenage students and set to positive grooves created by 311 bassist, Aaron Wills (aka P-Nut).
For Program details for Middle and High School programs and teacher registration, visit www.shantigeneration.com
Many Claims are being made about What Yoga Can Do For You
Taken from the website: Yoga for Schools
“Yoga is currently practiced in many educational institutions worldwide. In several countries in Europe and South America, Yoga has been taught in schools for more than twenty-five years. Many schools in North America have already trained teachers to include Yoga as a regular part of the classroom day. It is also becoming more common as a regular part of the physical education curriculum where it offers a non-competitive alternative to competitive sports. “
“In addition to enhancing physical and mental well-being, Yoga teaches students to concentrate, releases tension and develops inner qualities such as patience and insight. With regular practice, students learn to develop better self-control, inner confidence and focus. Regular Yoga practice unifies the two sides of the brain, allowing information and knowledge to enter the brain at deeper levels. Practicing the exercises together enhances the relationship between teacher and students, enabling them to work together productively and enjoy the learning process.”
Why Take a Yoga Break?
- Develop motor skills and balance
- Create physical and mental strength and flexibility
- Energize body and mind and bring more oxygen to the blood cells and brain
- Make breath, blood and lymph fluids circulate better
- Release physical and mental tensions that have accumulated while students who have been sitting for a long time
- Enhance concentration
- Develop better listening skills
- Improve posture
- Bring students into the present moment
- Exercise the body and balance the emotions
- Open the shoulders and chest, allowing students to relax and breathe deeper during their classes
- Open the hip joints and prepare students to sit comfortably
- Teach patience and insight
- Create a calm harmonious classroom
Evangelicals Embrace Energy Of The Serpent
In a frank interview in Yoga Journal, Ken Wilbur, a yoga expert who is often called the “Einstein of consciousness,” warns that Eastern meditation, no matter how carefully practiced, involves “a whole series of deaths and rebirths…some very rough and frightening times.”
David Pursglove, therapist and transpersonal counselor for decades, warns that those involved in Eastern meditation can encounter “Frightening ESP and other parapsychological occurrences…out-of-body experiences…[encounters] with death and subsequent rebirth…awakening of the serpent power (Kundalini)…violent shaking and twisting….”
Among the few who honestly warn the public is Dr. Walt Larimore. He explains, “Yoga has spiritual roots…. [Therefore] one could argue that promoting it in schools violates the…so-called separation of church and state….” He warns that the “deeply religious practice” of yoga, with its roots in Eastern mysticism, may put kids in a position to be influenced by elements that are not at all healthy.
Yoga opens the door not to true enlightenment but to demonic seduction of mankind. And in spite of the literally hundreds of exposés by those who have experienced the evil firsthand and barely escaped, yoga is gaining adherents among Christians and is being practiced in a growing number of churches, including those that claim to be evangelical. Christian leaders have naïvely encouraged this deadly practice. Robert Schuller was one of the first to give it his endorsement….
No matter what the various schools and forms of yoga being practiced in the West, however, there is no mistaking that if one is interested in true yoga, one must be willing to have that terrifying Kundalini aroused. What is this serpentine power that allegedly lies coiled at the base of the spine?
The texts by ancient yogis warn that the “Kundalini serpent force” often manifests itself in frightening and destructive ways. Unfortunately, those texts are scarcely known to yoga enthusiasts today and are certainly not heeded by their instructors. Kundalini is the “enlightenment” that the practice of yoga is designed to “awaken.” One yoga enthusiast writes, “The cobra that opened its fan over Buddha’s head is the metaphor for the field of energy, which…emits out from the head during and after sustaining Kundalini….”
[Another] writes, “When the Kundalini awakens, tremendous power is unleashed. The resulting expansion of consciousness affects every element of our being, from our biological functions to our personal relationships to our concept of reality to our influence in the world….Kundalini is Shakti, the Great Mother Goddess, the living energy that daily makes her vibrant presence known in my body and my psyche….If Kundalini is to be invoked, it must be with care and better still, with reverence and humility. We are treading sacred waters here. To plunge in recklessly is to risk self-annihilation.”
This entire discussion always brings us back to the most fundamental fact about yoga. No matter what physical benefit might be derived from the exercises themselves, yoga inevitably involves Eastern meditation. And Eastern meditation, unlike Western contemplation or reflection, accompanies an intentional dissociation from our conscious minds.
This shutting down of the mind is, in fact, a total abdication of our God-given responsibility that Jesus declared is the first and great commandment: to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5-6, Matthew 22:37). Thus, we are violating one of the true God’s most basic commandments every time we give our minds over to the intentional ‘nothingness’ of yoga and associated ‘relaxation techniques.’
‘Pilates’ may be a potential alternative for some as it doesn’t usually have any religion or belief system attached to it.
Examining The New Age Movement
Gods and Gurus of the New Age
Inside the New Age Nightmare
What You Should Know about Reiki
New Age Christianity and Christian Witchcraft in the ‘One World’ System
What is the New Age
What is Wrong with the New Age
Obtaining ‘New Age Enlightenment”
Prayer for Divine Healing and Health
The New Age Deception
The Spirituality of Oprah
Occult Questionnaire
Prayer of Release from the Occult and False Religion
How to Help those in the Occult
The Occult
The Armour of God
Truth in Reality 
Forgive my directness. I’m curious. Who are you and why should we believe your arguments over other Christians, especially HTB, who I have found to be the most genuine church of the lot I have visited or been a member of. Can we have Jesus without the church? The church, both in the broad sense and in the narrow (my local church) seem to either get it wrong too often or become entrenched in dogma or rules. Is it not possible to have pure Jesus, revealed by Himself, not by Man? I’ve been searching for Jesus for some time now and I would like to experience him physically, spiritually and personally. I struggle (relatively mildly and possibly as a result of my clinical depression) with addictions (food, alcohol and sex – porn/prostitutes). If only I could find Jesus am I right in thinking I would not need the addictive stuff? Many people I meet, in fact most, are searching spiritually in similar ways to me. Why is the true God so difficult to find?
Thank you and regards
Bill
get into the word Bill. Read it everyday that the word of truth will set you free from all of that. Will keep you in my prayers.
YOGA IS PART OF HINDUISM AND THROUGH YOGA YOU CAN BE CONNECT TO SUPREME PERSONALITY (GOD) WITHOUT ANY MEDIATOR…
That is a lie straight out of the pits of hell. There is but one mediator between God and man, and that is Christ Jesus.
The word “yoga” means union and the exercises are designed to make one more able to merge with spirit but it is not the spirit of God but one of 30 million Hindu ‘gods’ who range from ‘benign’ to utterly evil.
Not to put too fine a point on it, God has told us in His word that if we worship false gods, we are worshipping demons and come under a curse from Him which will end in our destruction.
Taking a realistic look at the world and also history, How can anyone reasonably deny what the Bible tells us, that the whole world lies in wickedness, and that we are conceived in sin?
To say that we don’t need a mediator, is the opposite of what the Bible tells us. The idea that we don’t need a mediator denies the existence of evil, and moreover denies Christ, His work on the cross and His blood that was shed for our sins.
Pilates seems to be a good alternative for Christians.
With all due respect to Truth in Reality, I do not agree that PILATES is the perfect alternative for Christians. Demonic spirits are experts at deception as their master is Satan himself, the father of lies (John 8:44), the master deceiver (Rev.12:9). Something about PILATES looked Yoga-ish to me. I did some research and found information actually linking Pilates to Yoga. They are cousins. Apparently, Joseph Pilates’ techniques were derived from the study of Yoga, and incorporate New Age principles.
Women of Grace
Pilates
I could be wrong, but I’m not willing to risk it with the Lord. The people of God should not love the things of this world so much that we’re willing to put ourselves in spiritual jeopardy to have them. If we belong to Christ, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and God is to be glorified in it (2 Corinthians 6:19-20). People are running to these practices, and trying to make okay with the Lord. They were originally developed through deceptive demonic influence for the purpose beguiling the participant into unknowingly connecting with Satan himself. Any attempt to put Christ in them is futile. He will never come into agreement with anything Satanic in origin or purpose. I have no authority over God. If the Lord wasn’t in it from the start, all my efforts to put Him there will fail. Jesus will never agree with Belial (2 Corinthians 6:15), and God Almighty is not subject to my good intentions. I’m choosing to stay away.
If only people would understand that the Bible makes it clear God cannot let these things pass. Idolatry – worship of false or demon gods – is an abomination to God.
As to yoga and Pilates specifically, the writer has attended many classes of both. In my experience, the yoga teachers seem totally different from the Pilates teachers. While there is a religious basis for yoga which is Hinduism (the word itself meaning “union”), there does not seem to be any religious basis for Pilates which is simply an exercise system. Although it does cater for the body. unlike yoga, Pilates does not seem to be connected to religious beliefs. If anyone has any evidence that is not the case, please do post here.
As with any information gleaned from the internet, care should be taken, as so much of it is disinformation, even from universities, etc.
A Christian can practice the exercises and movements of yoga just as she practices Pilates: for exercise and overall wellness and health. Yoga can be practiced while praying, praising, and meditating (Psalm 1:2, Psalm 19:14) on the Word of God – all the while moving the body as God created. God created the body to move. God created the body to stretch and to exercise. God created our minds and our spirits. If a Christian feels convicted or struggles in this area, she should certainly not do it, but to proclaim that yoga can’t be practiced by Christians is untrue and dangerous.
Yoga can be dangerous because it is based on Hinduism which is idolatry and as such it can open demonic doorways.
Please do your own research, but yoga means union and you have to ask yourself exactly what is the mind and the body being trained to be in union with?
Hinduism believes in 30 million ‘gods’, covering the whole spectrum from benign to utterly evil and destructive. That has to be dangerous.
Pilates works as well as – if not better than – yoga for physical exercise so why should anyone risk the dangers inherent in yoga of giving one’s mind and body over to Hindu ‘gods’ (which are not gods at all)?
It doesn’t make sense for people to give their mind and body over to something they can neither know, nor understand, nor trust. Unless it is actually more than that …
DIdn’t realize you had replied until I saw this today. My apologies. I’m concerned that arguments against yoga are similar with arguments against dancing, though dancing in worship and celebration to the Lord is modeled in the Scriptures and dancing in and of itself isn’t inherently evil. We should be careful to discriminate our opinions between what Scripture tells us (I know I have to do that) and admit that our thoughts on yoga are our opinions, not Biblical.
I’ve been doing yoga (the exercise, not the spiritual practice) for years, also Pilates. Both exercises have helped with lower back pain and minor injuries. Yoga may not have helped you, but the movements have helped many people. Both yoga and Pilates are a way to stretch and work our muscles and our bodies that God created! Perhaps I could just say I do dynamic stretches and not call it yoga, since by technical definition it might not be. But I follow yoga and Pilates movement routines several times a week. And for most of my yoga routines, I can praise the Lord throughout and meditate on Him. To say that the exercise practices themselves are evil isn’t true. With that logic, would you also say that running is evil, or ballet is evil or tap dance is evil? One doesn’t have to practice the yoga as a religion.
It’s not the exercise in itself which is wrong – although yoga is Hindu and the exercises – asanas – are a form of union with them. Yoga is not just exercises, but a form of religious practice complete with a value system which is not in accord with the Bible.
On the contrary, practising yoga is dangerous because it is a religious practice that is not Christian, but Hindu, and it has a value system attached to it that is not compatible with Christianity and does not align with what the Bible says.
Pingback: Is Yoga or Meditation Harmful |
Jesus died so that we can stretch our bodies and thank him for the strength to do it. I believe you all go way too far with some of the things on this website… God searches our hearts and he knows our intent. NO one is going to Hell for doing Yoga…
It doesn’t work like that. The writer has some personal experience of yoga, attending yoga classes for many years. It was difficult to understand why the yoga teacher seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and/or quite cold and/or worldly. (Pilates teachers seemed to be quite different and calm and didn’t seem to have the same problems.) So later it was not surprising to hear that yoga and therefore people who practice yoga – the Bible God says “Do not bring a cursed thing into your home unless you become a cursed thing like it” – are under a curse from God because yoga is idolatry, as false religion is always idolatry.
Based on Hinduism (where there are many millions of Gods) the word yoga means union – but union with what? Meditation also can be giving your mind away – but to what? That doesn’t seem a wise thing to do. If one is going to meditate, there is a great deal out there – and one only has to look at the state of the world to see that much is obviously bad – so surely one ought to be very careful with meditation because it directly affects our mind and there are simply too many unknown factors. It seems somehow to be a very good idea, and a great deal safer, to keep close to God the Creator and His word.
The writer certainly feels a great deal happier and at peace since rejecting yoga and other New Age practices as being based on falsehoods – from many years of very personal experiences – and keeping to Christianity.
True! He knows our hearts! What an awesome and powerful God we serve.
Truth!
I know I must avoid all appearance of evil..I will not meditate, I will not do Yoga or Pilates. I will only follow God. (If something is New Age and from the devil I get a pressure in my forehead and I know I am near New Age and anti Crhistain beliefs and turn from that at once…I just knew that Meditation and Yoga were Of the devil. I spoke that in bible study and they did not believe me. The leader told me they were not ready to hear that and believe it. I said they must be told anyway..That was a 4 square church full of sin.
Yoga is considered not to be appropriate for Christians in any way, shape or form as it is deeply rooted in meditation, Hinduism, etc. The literal translation of “yoga” is “union” – but union with what? There are said to be 33 million Hindu gods but according to the Bible there is only one God, the Creator God of the Bible, and all others are demon gods.
Pilates can be suitable for Christians as it is not rooted in any religion. Although some disagree. There is a story on the internet that pilates was invented by yoga students, but that may not be true.
I endorse the arguments the writer has presented regarding the dangers of Yoga. Many Christians are unaware of this peril and so they become excited and captivated with this practice. Knowledge is power so if one is ignorant, then one is liable to be caught in the web of deception.
It is my belief that physical activity is essential as it is important to move the limbs of the body which promote blood flow and relaxation among other benefits. During this process, the mind however should be captivated by the free flow of the Holy Spirit.
This will enable the individual to reflect and dwell on scripture that will invite the peace of God to permeate the being of the individual. Praise, honour and adoration for the only true God should be released with a feeling of ease and gratitude.
The background information regarding yoga practices have heightened my awareness.