YOGA: Christians Beware

Truth about YOGA - Christians Beware

This article is from Christianity Today

The patron goddess of Yoga is Kundalini the Hindu snake goddess. Yoga led
Laurette Willis into a New Age lifestyle. Now she's warning others of the
spiritual pitfalls. The attractive couple on the television screen
gracefully moved their bodies into the next yoga pose: arms extended, head
tilted slightly back, a deep breath in. In front of the TV set, a
seven-year-old girl and her mother did their best to mimic the
posture. The little girl, Laurette, loved this special time with her mom.

It was 1965, and Laurette's mom, Jacquie, didn't think twice about
exercising along with this yoga program that came on the TV after Jack La
Lanne. She developed a passion for yoga, and began instructing free classes
in her home. Laurette served as the demonstration model for her mom. The
young girl relished the attention-and her family never suspected this
seemingly innocent exercise would open the door to a New Age lifestyle that
would affect Laurette for the next 22 years. Speaking Out:

Now 46, Christian speaker/author Laurette Willis tells everyone she meets
about the dangers of yoga. The Oklahoma resident addresses groups across the
country, speaking from personal experience and her knowledge as a
certified personal trainer and aerobics instructor.

So what caused Laurette to become vocal about yoga? And is yoga really all
that bad? Her testimony is a bold answer to both questions.

Throughout her childhood, Laurette's 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 physical benefits for which yoga is often
touted: improved flexibility, weight loss, reduced stress, and improved
circulation, to name a few.

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
"union" or "to
yoke."

"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," 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.

Her statements about yoga have also drawn criticism from some Christians.
Some accuse Laurette of being judgmental. Others say her fears about yoga
are irrational. She doesn't back down from her stance on yoga. When she
speaks with Christians who practice yoga, she encourages them to pay close
attention to any hesitation they feel-and then to check out the facts for
themselves. 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: There's a new practice popping up at churches and
fitness clubs around the country. Dubbed "Christian yoga" or
"yoga for
Christians," these programs supposedly offer the physical benefits of
yoga
along with Christian spirituality. But 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."

TCW found several "Christian yoga" instructors who are affiliated
with
secular yoga organizations that have a Hindu or New Age bent.

When investigating a Christian yoga class, be on the lookout for: Sanskrit
language. Many words commonly used in yoga pay homage to Hindu deities.
Metaphysical jargon. Phrases such as "breathing in positive energy and
breathing out negative energy," "focusing on the third eye," and
"getting in
touch with the divinity within you" have New Age implications.

Projection. Beware being told to empty your mind or to step outside your
body. Feelings of discomfort. Pay attention to those feelings. Even if you
can't pinpoint why you're uncomfortable, this may be the Holy Spirit's way
of letting you know the class isn't for you.

-H.V.R. Copyright
2005 by the author or Christianity Today
International/Today's Christian Woman magazine.
March/April 2005, Vol. 27, No. 2, Page 40