SPECIAL EDIITION: Yoga The American Spirituality
In this Edition:
How Yoga Became A $27 Billion Industry — And Reinvented American Spirituality
How Christian is Yoga?
Yoga in the Church: A Conspiracy Leading to Strong Delusion?
Yoga in Churches & Public Schools: A Pictoral Essay
Yoga words
How Yoga Became A $27 Billion Industry — And Reinvented
American Spirituality
by Carolyn Gregoire
12/16/2013
In 1971, Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa moved to New York to open a yoga studio. A lawyer moonlighting as a Kundalini yoga teacher, he set up shop in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, opening a school to share the teachings of the spiritual leader Yogi Bhajan. At that time, there were only two other yoga studios in the city.
It was a time, as Khalsa told The Huffington Post, when “people confused yoga and yogurt. They were both brand new and nobody knew what either of them were.”
In the more than 40 years since Khalsa opened his school, he has watched as yoga in America has evolved from a niche activity of devout New Agers to part of the cultural mainstream. Dozens of yoga variations can be found within a 1-mile radius of his studio in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, from Equinox power yoga to yogalates to “zen bootcamp.” Across America, students, stressed-out young professionals, CEOs and retirees are among those who have embraced yoga, fueling a $27 billion industry with more than 20 million practitioners — 83 percent of them women. As Khalsa says, “The love of yoga is out there and the time is right for yoga.”
Perhaps inevitably, yoga’s journey from ancient spiritual practice to big business and premium lifestyle — complete with designer yogawear, mats, towels, luxury retreats and $100-a-day juice cleanses — has some devotees worrying that something has been lost along the way. The growing perception of yoga as a leisure activity catering to a high-end clientele doesn’t help. “The number of practitioners and the amount they spend has increased dramatically in the last four years,” Bill Harper, vice president of Active Interest Media’s Healthy Living Group, told Yoga Journal.
More than 30 percent of Yoga Journal’s readership has a household income of over $100,000. As American yoga master Rodney Yee remarked at a 2011 Omega Institute conference, compromising the authenticity of the practice and ignoring its traditions is “ass-backwards.” “It dumbs down the whole art form,” he said.
Others are more optimistic about the evolution of yoga in America, welcoming the conversations and occasional yoga-world infighting that have accompanied its rise.
“If you value yoga and the traditions it comes from, it’s a good problem to have,” Philip Goldberg, a spiritual teacher and author of American Veda, tells The Huffington Post. “Ever since the ideas of yoga came here in book form and then the gurus started to arrive, it’s all been a question of how do you adapt these ancient teachings and practices, modernize them and bring them to a new culture, without distorting or corrupting them, or diluting their effect? That’s really the key issue here.”
Of course, much of yoga’s appeal is the fact that it can be traced back roughly 5,000 years — in a world of exercise trends and diet fads, it’s a tradition that has stood the test of time. Traditionally, Yoga (Sanskrit for “divine union”) has one single aim: stilling the thoughts of the mind in order to experience one’s true self, and ultimately, to achieve liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death (samsara), or enlightenment.
The Westernized, modernized form of the ancient practice expresses just one component of what was originally considered yoga. The physical practice of postures, or asana, is one of eight traditional limbs of yoga, as outlined in the foundational text of yoga philosophy, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, thought to be over 2,000 years old. These limbs present a sort of eightfold path to enlightenment, which includes turning inward, meditation, concentration and mindful breathing. The Sutras make no mention of any specific postures, but the original 15 yoga poses were later outlined in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, dated to the 15th century CE, making it one of the oldest surviving texts of hatha yoga, the yoga of physical exercises.
The way we practice asana — usually in a crowded, mirrored room — has also changed over the years to suit modern needs. Traditionally, yoga was a private, personal practice that involved a sacred bond between student and teacher (guru), part of the oral system of imparting knowledge known as guru-shishya paramparya.
“In the West, there are streams where this authentic transmission from living masters to students still exists,” Viniyoga founder Gary Kraftsow said at the Omega Institute Being Yoga conference in 2011. “But there’s a lot of yoga that’s made up, modern stuff, with no understanding of depth and meaning of text.”
Although the guru-student tradition may have gone the way of the loincloth (which was, yes, the original yogawear), Indian knowledge has been steadily spreading in the West since the 19th century (Henry David Thoreau is commonly said to be the first yogi in America). But the physical practice didn’t really catch on until the “new cultural era” of the 1970s, a time of surging interest in both spirituality and physical fitness, Goldberg explains.
“Following the fitness and exercise boom in America, it was the physical practices [of yoga] that caught on,” he said.
That fitness and exercise boom — propelled by the emergence Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda as fitness stars, and the at-home video workout — led to growing scientific interest in yoga and meditation. More and more American research demonstrated their measurable physical and mental health benefits, legitimizing yoga in the eye of the public.
Today, yoga has come to be seen as something of a panacea for the ailments of modern society — tech overload, disconnection and alienation, insomnia, stress and anxiety. And in many cases, the timeworn technique is the perfect antidote to the modern speed of life that’s created a culture of stress and burnout. Yoga has been shown to help fight everything from addiction and lower back pain to diabetes and aging, in addition to boosting overall well-being and stress relief.
“Yoga is a traditional way of easing pain and people are flocking to it,” says Khalsa. “We’re on our phone all day, in front of the TV, in front of our computer. We hardly ever get away from it. But you can come to a yoga class and get rid of all this ‘stuff.’”
Still, it’s the tradition that many worry is being lost. Yoga’s proven health benefits don’t mean that every form of adaption of the practice is valuable, says Goldberg. “People are very concerned about this, and for good reason,” he says.
Variations began to proliferate as research on yoga’s health benefits became more robust. At that time, the practice became more widely accepted — and the industry started to cash in.
“The sudden boom of interest led to people wanting to fill the demand by getting more teachers trained, and studios discovering that they can make more money training yoga teachers than giving classes in some cases,” says Goldberg. “The standards can get compromised along the way.”
The new emphasis on asana meant that yoga institutions could train new instructors to teach physical poses without necessarily knowing much about the larger framework of yoga.
Balancing the old and the new is the “number-one challenge” for the Yoga Alliance (YA), the largest nonprofit association representing yoga teachers, schools and studios, according to CEO Richard Karpel.
“[When] the Yoga Alliance created standards for teacher training programs back in 1999, one of the primary focuses was on respecting diversity … nobody wanted an organization to tell people how to practice or teach yoga,” Karpel told The Huffington Post. “By [2011], the balance had shifted … where the concern was more about rigor.”
Currently, all YA-certified, 200-hour teacher training programs include 20 hours of philosophy, intended to give teachers a deeper understanding of the practice’s origins. “Every studio, every teacher, and every teacher-training program counts,” Karpel says, adding that YA recently implemented a new social credentialing system to gain more feedback on various teacher-training programs.
“Yoga’s very popularity creates the possibility of corruption and distortion, and lowest common denominator teachings,” says Goldberg. “The very fact that if you ask the average person what yoga is, they immediately think of a beautiful woman doing stretches and bends, that tells you how commercialized it has become, and how limited. What yoga has meant for thousands of years is not just that.”
Complaints about the commercialization of yoga go as far back as the Beatles’ 1968 trip to India, but as the multibillion-dollar industry has grown, so have efforts to keep the practice rooted in tradition.
In 2010, the Hindu America Foundation (HAF) launched the “Take Back Yoga” movement to raise awareness about the practice’s Hindu roots. “Our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand,” HAF cofounder Dr. Aseem Shukla told The New York Times.
The movement didn’t gain much traction, but it did spark a conversation about yoga’s modernization and adaptation. Religion aside, some have argued that yoga has become an elitist practice that’s inaccessible to the majority of Americans. As one Bustle writer put it, “inner peace comes with a high price tag.”
The presentation of the female “yoga body” in the media has also drawn criticism.
“The yoga body is Gwyneth Paltrow’s body — the elongated feminine form,” Karyln Crowley, a women’s studies professor at St. Norbert College, recently told ELLE. “That is still the way yoga is represented in mainstream media.”
And of course, many have noted the irony that a practice originally intended as a vehicle for transcending the ego has become a seemingly vanity-driven pursuit. Wellness junkies share Instagram shots of kale smoothies and selfies of figure-contorted inversions and balancing postures — there are more than 400,000 photos tagged #yogi on Instagram, enough to warrant a New York Times trend piece.
“Isn’t yoga supposed to be about turning your gaze inward?” the Times quipped.
But in true yogic fashion, Khalsa and some other more traditional practitioners, like ViraYoga founder Elena Brower, are unperturbed by these changes.
When Brower practices and teaches yoga, she puts a personal issue at the forefront of her mind — something that she’s confused or conflicted about. While she’s practicing, she is simply with that issue, “until all the movements in my body and the way I’m paying attention to my breathing can actually shift the way my brain is holding that thing.”
The veteran yogi and Art of Attention co-author invites thousands of students into her SoHo studio each week to help them get away from the stress of the city.
“Yoga is the time where we don’t have our phone, we are just with ourselves, our bodies and our movements,” Brower said. “There’s something very magical about that time; something very important and healing about giving yourself that time.”
Her work as a teacher, Brower explains, is to simply give people that opportunity for self-healing. “The job is one of just holding space for people to do their own healing.”
With the fitness era giving way to the explosive growth of interest in wellness and mindfulness practices, more and more Americans are taking health and healing into their own hands, and the role of yoga is evolving yet again, making the gradual move from a purely physical activity to a tool for holistic healing. This time it’s not just focused on the body, but also the mind.
“There’s a level of consciousness and an evolving way that people are talking and thinking,” Jivamukti Yoga CEO Celina Belizan told The Huffington Post. “It’s this new language that people are talking in more and more.”
More and more studios, like Jivamutki and Virayoga — popular downtown Manhattan yoga centers — are embracing the spiritual elements of the practice, drawing students into their studios with chanting, meditation and traditional teachings.
The rise of “spiritual but not religious” has supported this return to yoga’s traditional teachings. More than 1 in 3 Americans describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, according to a 2012 Pew Forum survey.
Goldberg explains that this inward-facing spirituality — in which individuals, whether or not they ever set foot on a yoga mat, turn inward to develop a connection with something larger than themselves — is fundamentally a yogic one, and that in fact, we are becoming a “nation of yogis.”
“People are taking charge of their spiritual lives in a very yogic way,” he says. “That’s changing the face of spirituality in the West.”
How Christian is Yoga?
This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and, in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will resume their conversation on God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, video and audio tapes and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call our toll free order number, 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #2105, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program.
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is an ad from yogadevotion.com April 13, 2005. Yoga devotion is a Christian based yoga company that was started in 1999. Robin Norstad and Cindy Sinarogi, co-owners, were impressed by the spiritual aspect of the physical practice of yoga, and as Christians experienced this as a devotional time in the presence of God—”We seek to share this experience with other Christians and non-Christians that are interested in using the physical practice of yoga to still their minds and be open to the relationship God intends for us. We believe that being still creates space for the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts, bring clarity to our thoughts and stability to our emotions.” Yoga devotion is available for semi-private and private instruction. Cost is $75 for a one and a half session. We are also available for special events, such as wedding showers, birthdays or any gathering of friends that you would like to add a special faith perspective to. Each event is individually priced and limited spots are available. Yoga Devotion LLC, works with churches to bring this program to the congregation and community. We are in nine area churches in the Twin Cities. We offer six, seven and eight week sessions and are available for special events such as men’s women’s or children’s ministry programs.
Tom:
Dave, we don’t usually do an ad, but this was something that I couldn’t resist because it really demonstrates just where the church is today. You know, this isn’t just a couple of people out trying to do it, this is accepted within churches. The National Pastors Convention of 2004, you go down through the schedule of events and it began in the morning with yoga and stretching. Years ago, and we’ve wrote about and are concerned about things like, you know, the YWCA, YMCA, you go there and that’s where you would practice yoga, and so on, but what is going on here? The integration, so-called, of Eastern mysticism, of Eastern meditation, which is what yoga is all about, with biblical Christianity? These are evangelicals, Dave.
Dave:
Well Tom, I could make the same statement about yoga as I made about Christian psychology: If yoga has anything to offer, the church was without it. I mean, how come it’s not in the Bible? Why didn’t Paul practice yoga if this is so great?
Tom:
Well Dave, just a second, people have quoted scriptures at me—Jesus said, Take my yoke upon yourself. Now, isn’t that yoking, isn’t that what yoga’s about?
Dave:
I think that’s a yoke that yokes oxen together pulling the plow, and I don’t think they are into yoga. But yoga does mean a yoke and it is a yoke between you and Brahman.
Tom:
The Hinduism.
Dave:
Right, the universal. Now, yoga comes out as Hinduism. The yoga Swara, the master of yoga, is Shiva, the destroyer, one of the trimergi of gods in Hinduism. You could read the books on yogi by the great masters of yogi and they will tell you that you need to have someone monitoring you because yoga is very dangerous. You get into this relaxed state that they are talking about, this stillness that they are talking about—by the way, Sir John Eccles said that the brain is a machine that a ghost can operate.
Tom:
Sir John Eccles, Nobel prize winner for his research on the brain.
Dave:
Yeah, so you get into this relaxed state and you have opened yourself up to another spirit, and the yoga masters warn about this. You can be taken over, in fact, you are inviting a spirit, demonic spirit, and this is why TM, transcendental meditation, just a form of yoga. He gave you these mantras and every mantra that he gives, there are only about 20 some mantras depending upon your age and sex at the time you are initiated, and they are all the names of Hindu deities, okay, and you are asking yourself to be possessed with them. But anyway, even forgetting all of that, Tom, someone says, Well, I’ve never experienced that, but what is the point? The Bible doesn’t say, Well, yeah, Jesus is okay, I mean what the Bible tells you about submission to the Lord and being filled with the Holy Spirit, and so forth, that’s okay up to a point, but don’t you understand, yoga is really going to help. Well, it’s not in the Bible and furthermore, when you try something like yoga to help the Holy Spirit in your life—
Tom:
You’re going to get another spirit.
Dave:
That’s right, and it is an insult to God, it’s an insult to the Holy Spirit, it’s an insult to the Word of God. Tom, just an experience. You know that I was involved in writing the book, Death of a Guru, with Bobby Maharaja, and J. B. Lipincott, a secular publisher had it in first and then they sold the rights to the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. I’ll never forget going there to meet with them and before I went up to the high rise, up to meet with them, I went into the Southern Baptist Christian Bookstore, it’s a huge one there, and I noticed that they had a, for example, Every Day Yoga for Christians, on the shelf, I didn’t see, Death of a Guru, the only Hindu guru came to Christ and here’s his story, it’s fantastic. I asked the lady in charge, Do you have Death of a Guru? Never heard of it. Well, I said, could you look it up and see maybe you might be able to order it for me. And she came back and said, Why, that’s one of our books! One of their books, they didn’t have it, they’ve got, Every Day Yoga for Christians and other stuff. So, it is very sad that we will put our faith, whether it’s in psychology, psychologists like Jung, who had a spirit guide, got most of his ideas there, or in a yogi—this is Hinduism. Tom, we need to get back to the Bible, back to the Word of God and trust it, believe God and believe His word.
Tom:
Along that line you made the connection between psychotherapy and yoga, people said, O boy, there’s a stretch. No, go back to the roots of psychotherapy, you go back to a man named Franz Anton Mesmer, mesmerism. And when Mesmer would perform his therapy people would become telepathic, they would contact spirit entities and so on. Folks, you check it out. The connection here between the mind, the imagination and these techniques, whether it be yoga or some form of altered states of consciousness, it all leads to the spiritual realm.
Dave:
And mesmerism is hypnosis, and Christian psychologists by the hundreds are still using hypnosis in their practice to help Christians.
Search the Scriptures Daily Program #2105b Transcript follows:
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Yoga in the Church: A Conspiracy Leading to Strong Delusion?
May 1 2012
An excerpt from Yoga and the Body of Christ: What Postition Should Christians Hold?
We are the most highly informed and sophisticated society in history and are currently in the midst of a hi-tech explosion beyond anyone’s wildest imagination only a few years ago. Yet at the same time, increasing millions in the West are buying into yoga, an occult practice that has been part of primitive Oriental superstitions and religions for thousands of years. Why is this happening? Finding an answer to that question will give us a good start toward understanding what yoga really is, why it is so appealing, and the havoc it is wreaking upon our culture.
Though it may come as a surprise, the fact is that the explosion of occultism in the West (of which yoga is an integral part) did not come about by accident. This growing obsession was deliberately planted and cultivated by a group of psychologists and physical scientists, many of whom had, as university students, their first encounters with the mysterious powers of the occult and came to believe in the reality of a nonphysical dimension through their use of psychedelic drugs. The major drug of what became known as the “counter-culture” was lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a once legal but now illegal substance commonly called “acid” by its users. It was developed in 1943 by Albert Hoffman, a chemist at the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Sandoz A. B.
“Consciousness” became a primary focus, and soon the phrase “alternate states of consciousness” was on the lips of millions. How to reach “alternate states” became the exciting topic at parties and was the new panacea. Few even suspected that they had stumbled onto the doorway to the occult, much less the horrors that lay beyond.
Of course, the world of academia, closed-minded to anything except materialistic explanations, spoke of an “alternate reality” as though it were a newly discovered unused corner of the physical brain that held amazing potential and must be studied in university labs. The “Human Potential Movement” was born. Mankind’s supposedly unlimited and untapped powers became the new hope of the modern world, bolstered by the psychologists’ ridiculous claim that we use only 10 percent of our brains. In that unused 90 percent, god-like psychic powers supposedly lie, awaiting discovery.
“Ironically,” wrote Marilyn Ferguson, in a key book of this era, “the introduction of major psychedelics like LSD in the 1960s was largely attributable to the Central Intelligence Agency’s investigation into these drugs for possible military use. Experiments on more than eighty college campuses, under various CIA code names, unintentionally popularized LSD. Thousands of graduate students served as guinea pigs. Soon they were synthesizing their own ‘acid.’”
Unintentionally? On the contrary, this devilish development was anything but unintentional, as Ferguson well knew. It was, as we shall see, part of a deliberate and highly secretive plan to initiate the Western world into Eastern occultism, of which the introduction of drugs to American youth played a major part. Under the influence of psychedelics, millions discovered another dimension of reality that surely was not physical. But as long as the “trip” lasted, the adventure was as real as the physical universe—or, seemingly, even more real.
It only remained to be discovered that yoga would produce the same “trip” without drugs—and yoga took off as the new panacea. I remember the mother of a 20-year-old telling me with some sense of relief and little concern, “Our son used to be heavily into drugs; but thank God he isn’t using drugs anymore because he started practicing yoga. I don’t know what yoga is, but it can’t be bad if it got him off of drugs!”
My reply must have shocked her: “I’m glad to hear that your son no longer gets ‘high’ on drugs. I’m sorry to inform you, however, that he can get a lot ‘higher’ on yoga than on drugs. Drugs were the kindergarten of occultism—yoga is the graduate school!”
The Role Being Played by Nonphysical Beings
The Bible declares that we are not alone in the universe but that in addition to mankind, there are angels, demons, Satan, and God—all with individual minds that think and make decisions for themselves. Parapsychologists (especially those associated with the Department of Defense and government Intelligence agencies) have been involved for years in mind-control research. Some of it has nothing to do with controlling minds through drugs or brainwashing techniques but with control of one person’s mind by another person’s mind. This possibility, of course, has been demonstrated repeatedly through hypnosis—even at a distance.
There is, therefore, good reason to believe that, just as a hypnotist can control someone else’s mind, so the other minds mentioned above could do the same to humans. God would never do this Himself because it would nullify the freedom of choice He has given to mankind in the act of creation. It is also both logical and biblical that He would build protection within man to prevent a take-over of the human mind by any other mind. One could, however, voluntarily allow this to be done by willingly submitting to hypnosis. Moreover, deliberately entering an altered state, whether through drugs, hypnosis, or yoga, is giving permission to evil entities to take over, whether one realizes it or not.
Charles Tart, author of Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical People , says, “There’s enough evidence that comes in to make me take the idea of disembodied intelligence seriously.” William James, one of the most highly regarded psychologists of the last century, wrote: “The refusal of modern ‘enlightenment’ to treat ‘[demonic] possession’ as a hypothesis…has always seemed to me a curious example of the power of fashion in things ‘scientific.’”
Anthropologist Michael Harner wrote, “A shaman…enters an altered state of consciousness…to acquire…special, personal power, which is usually supplied by his guardian and helping spirits.”John Lilly, who invented the isolation tank (in which one floats in a sea of heavy salt water, completely isolated from sights or sounds of the world) that inspired the movie, Altered States , declared: “Some people call it ‘lucid dreaming.’ It’s a lot easier if you have a psychedelic [drug] in you, but a lot of people…can just meditate and go into these alternate realities….” There are many recorded accounts by those who have experienced similar adventures and “possession” while practicing yoga.
Marilyn Ferguson Called It a “Conspiracy”
In 1974, a think tank at Stanford Research Institute (known as SRI), with funds from the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, completed a study called Changing Images of Man . Reading this important unpublished study, one arrives at the following startling conclusion concerning its purpose: to determine how Western man could deliberately be turned into an Eastern mystic/psychic. The project was directed by Willis W. Harman, who later became president of Edgar Mitchell’s Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by Mitchell as a result of mystical experiences on his trip to the moon. The scientists involved sincerely believed that turning to Eastern mysticism was the only hope for human survival. In their own minds, their reasons were all very scientific and their intentions noble. The end, it was believed, justified the means.
The 319-page mimeographed report was prepared by a team of fourteen researchers and supervised by a panel of twenty-three controllers, including anthropologist Margaret Mead, psychologist B. F. Skinner, Ervin Laszlo of the United Nations, and Sir Geoffrey Vickers of British intelligence. The task of persuading the public to walk through this magic door leading to a “new age” fell to one of Dr. Harman’s friends and admirers, Marilyn Ferguson. She fulfilled her assignment with the publication in 1980 of her groundbreaking bestseller, The Aquarian Conspiracy, which made it all seem very desirable. She wrote:
A great, shuddering irrevocable shift is overtaking us…a new mind, a turnabout in consciousness in critical numbers of individuals, a network powerful enough to bring about radical change in our culture.
This network—the Aquarian Conspiracy—has already enlisted the minds, hearts and resources of some of our most advanced thinkers, including Nobel laureate scientists, philosophers, statesmen, celebrities…who are working to create a different kind of society…. There are legions of [Aquarian] conspirators. They are in corporations, universities, and hospitals, on the faculties of public schools, in factories and doctors’ offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils, and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy making in the country.
The [Eastern mystical] technologies for expanding and transforming personal consciousness, once the secret of an elite, are now generating massive change in every cultural institution—medicine, politics, business, education, religion, and the family.
Famed architect Buckminster Fuller, after staying up half the night reading Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy , suggested that “the spirits of the dead” had helped her to write it. Laughing, Ferguson replied, “Well, I sometimes thought so, but I wasn’t about to tell anybody.”
Friedrich Nietzsche indicated that the inspiration for Thus Spake Zarathustra came as a form of possession. “It invaded me. One can hardly reject the idea that one is the mere incarnation, or mouthpiece, or medium, of some almighty power.” It takes little thought to conclude which “power” inspired this great inspirer of Hitler.
Molding Western Minds—Through Media
Eastern mysticism has now penetrated every area of today’s Western society. Children are being schooled in it from their earliest years through comic books, TV cartoons, movies, and videos that feature weird creatures with mind powers that exceed what even science fiction writers imagined a generation ago….
[So powerful is the medium of entertainment in “shifting” culture today that thousands of similar confessions of spirit-channeled material have come from modern musicians and writers alike, including Stephanie Meyer, scribe of the Twilight trilogy, and J. K. Rowling, who penned the Harry Potter phenomenon.]
This belief in an impersonal force that permeates the universe and that mankind can tap into through mystical rites is not new. It has been the underlying belief of primitive religions led by initiates, or masters, variously called shamans, witchdoctors, medicine men, gurus, yogis, etc., for thousands of years. Its utilization by heroes for seemingly supernatural exploits is found in the ancient fairy tales common to all cultures.
Nor has our modern world, with its worship of science, been able to escape the myths that seem to be embedded in human consciousness—again, seen planted there by the Serpent’s promise of godhood to Eve. The shift in consciousness to which Marilyn Ferguson referred has spawned two major developments, both related to yoga, though the connection may not be apparent to most readers without further explanation:
1.In general, children (and even adults) no longer look upon the fantastic powers exhibited by heroes or their evil enemies in videos and movies as fiction but as something to which they could attain as well if they only knew the secret. No one needs God anymore, because each person has the same God-powers within—it’s only a matter of learning how to master them. [Even Christians fall prey to this idea, enrolling in “Schools of Supernatural Ministry” which train believers how to “access the heavenly realm” and bring its “wonders” to earth.]
2.The Serpent’s promise to Eve in the Garden that she could become one of the gods is no longer viewed as a seductive lie that destroyed the human race in separating it from God and bringing His judgment. It has become the new truth, realized by fictional characters who are the new heroes to replace David who defeated Goliath, Daniel who came through the lions’ den unscathed—and even God himself.
An entire genre of “fiction as truth” as well as TV cartoons by the dozens…have made Eastern mysticism the normal way of thinking. This is a change in consciousness [a “paradigm shift”]—and its possible consequences for the future are alarming!
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians:11:3
Yoga in Churches & Public Schools: A Pictoral Essay
None of the following images have been Photoshopped or otherwise manipulated or edited
Yoga class in modern-day American elementary education public school
Yoga in church a promotional picture used in promoting upcoming yoga classes
Yoga inside a church sanctuary with the chairs removed to provide space for the weekly classes
Yoga class in a California public school
Yoga class in a Christ United Methodist Church
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Yoga class in a church basement
Hindu, yoga, New Age indoctrination in an American elementary school
Come, come to church…and don’t forget your yoga mat
Yoga class in an American church
Make sure the pews are removed, we have yoga class in church today!
Continued New Age yoga brainwashing taking place in an American public school
Yoga class in the North Shore United Methodist Church in the United States of America
Yoga class in Holy Trinity Church, United States of America
Yet, when I write something pertaining to the great falling away and apostate church, or post the writing of a man of God regarding the apostasy, the great falling away we are instructed about in Scripture, or post news regarding the state of the church and Christianity in these last days I am told how unloving, how hateful, how in error I am. I am told what is in my heart even though no man or woman can know what is in my heart. I do not do what I do out of heresy, or hate, or being unloving. The exact opposite is true. I do what I do out of my love and thankfulness and worship of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, the Holy Spirit and Their inerrant Word, the Holy Bible and its truths and instruction. Not to appease men and women, but to please the Lord our God.
To warn and show, this, this is what is and is done in error and we need to examine ourselves and remove ourselves from this mingling of faiths, these lies we live and tell, we need to remove ourselves from these abominations and false teachings and become a separate and peculiar people living unto God and not this world.
Serving the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds refraining and despising the ways and teachings of this world.
And yoga, and its practice, and its being incorporated and approved by Christianity is a grave and serious abomination.
I personally live with severe chronic pain. There is not one second of one day for the past 14 years I have not endured constant physical pain which wears mightily upon me. Some have suggested I turn to yoga because it is said to be the godsend regarding relief of pain.
I turn to God. And Jesus Christ. And put my faith and trust in them. I turn to the Holy Spirit and put my trust in Him. I turn to the Holy Bible and put my faith and trust in It.
I do not and will not bow to yoga and the New Age (pagan, idol worship, false god) ways of men.
My physical pain for however long I live here with it cannot compare with the soul and spiritual pain I would endure for eternity if I would serve the flesh over the spirit and abandon the teachings and instruction of my Lord.
I sincerely hope and pray every professed Christian practicing the ways of the world, adhering to and incorporating New Age, yoga, and other false teachings into their lives would turn to God, turn to Him in prayer. Study diligently His Word finding discernment and wisdom, and turn from these abominations leading to death and restore themselves in the Spirit of God and His Word, His Son, and remove themselves from these worldly deadly beliefs and practices.
Sincerely,
Ken Pullen
Administrator of “A Crooked Path”
Hello,
Why can’t you practice yoga as way of coming closer to God? You can meditate on the Holy Spirit and strengthen your body. I think you are just scared of anything that appears foreign without really understanding it. Just my opinion. Also, another great practice that helped me with back pain is Tai Chi. I highly advise looking into it before you condemn it.
Paul
Why is it the majority of people assume so much they know so little or nothing about? A people of darters, skimmers, drive-through’s? Thinking in taking a few seconds they can gain insight into a persons heart, life, history, beliefs? But ask them to pause and really learn? No time no interest. Just passing through making judgment on something or someone I know little or nothing about? Why do people insist and persist in living in this manner?
Paul, I am 60 years old presently. When I was in my teens and in my 20’s I had many books on yoga. I practiced yoga and thought I was going to not only improve my body, but also my mind and spirit, as I learned and became knowledgeable in the context of yoga and what it is. Really.
This was decades before it became so widely accepted in the West.
It is clear to me, and I have to assume here since you did not mention if you even took any time to read anything more than a headline, that you did not bother to read the articles comprising the edition of “Last Days News” focusing on yoga in America. We cannot have our spiritual lives consist of a restaurant menu. Scanning quickly in our haste and hunger attempting to be satiated from something in the appetizer column, the sides, the entrée column and think we are nourishing our spirits and souls.
We cannot mingle the false teachings, the false gods, the false doctrine this world has created over centuries with the truth which is the Living One True God, our Creator and His Word, His instruction to us.
We cannot treat His instruction to us as if we will only partake of one dish offered up on the menu provided us by God because we refuse the taste of the truth in satisfying our SELFS. Thinking this fleshly body we have is what is most important, what we like and want what makes us FEEL good is what matters.
We cannot mingle lies and false gods and teachings with the One True God and His teachings. Simple as that. We cannot make God what we want Him to be to fit our purpose and pleasure – we must conform to and serve God to His purpose. Period.
You can think in error what you choose to think. About God, about the Holy Spirit who would not work in anyone mingling a false faith, a false god based practice. About what God’s instruction and will really mean, which are His Word, the Holy Bible. About me and what I believe.
You can make a statement I’m scared without understanding what it is I’m scared of, which is an amazingly ignorant comment to make Paul. I fear the Lord our God out of awe, reverence, respect, and thankfulness. To Him.I do not bring God down to our level. He is not some grandfatherly type figure I concoct in my mind. I would not dare bring Almighty God down to our level but live daily in the hope of rising up to grow closer to Him on His level. To pursue Him. Not dictate to Him what I believe, but to obey Him.
You know, obedience, discipline, serving something other than self is not bad as those attributes have been defined by our society over the past 40 plus years. Respect is not a bad thing. Fear is not a bad thing. Fear of that which we ought to be afraid, and that is the judgment of the One True God if we choose to live for ourselves, pleasing ourselves, worshipping self, worshipping idols and other gods.
The pursuit of yoga, a practice founded entirely on self and on false gods and idol worship; something that cannot be ignored or denied or brushed aside as ignorance id not bliss and ignorance is no excuse for following lies and false teachings and worldly philosophies rather than the instruction of God and His Word. Yoga is, as you yourself used the correct word – “foreign” to the ways of God and His Word. Why would anyone want to jeapordize their relationship and standing with Almighty God due to their vain and selfish pursuits over obeying and serving the Lord? A person would jeapordize their eternity and pleasing God to practice a path of false faith, false gods, and self-absorption in this temporal life? Think about that. Think about that very long and hard.
Paul, since it appears your assumptions form your foundation let me clarify some things for you so you can have a basis in fact. I have had 4 major spine surgeries. I have lived with great infirmity for the past 14 years or so now. Chronic pain. I have pursued many avenues to lessen and make more manageable this pain. The 4 major spine surgeries were not the only surgeries I’ve had. Nor my back problems the only source of physical pain.
I do not and will not take prescription pain medications. Those are not a solution. A Band-Aid and crutch rather. A mask. And a whole new set of problems in which to deal with once one begins down that road.
I have had acupuncture. Many times. It’s at best a momentary relief and I have stopped wasting my time and money on acupuncture over 10 years ago. I have been renewed of spirit and mind and born anew in the Spirit of the Lord for a little over 3 years at this point in time.
I examined and tried multiple things to relieve and lessen pain.
I’ve had so much physical therapy one cannot imagine.
You know, physical pain and infirmity is not what is most difficult or impossible to live with. We obsess about how we must be pain-free, all the focus on the body or improving the mind, all this selfism and burgeoning of New Age practices all centered on self and making one their own individual god, all this rebirth of the pagan ways repackaged and retooled in a new box and presented to the people, and the people eat it up and demand more and love it.
Yoga is just another in the long line of New Age afflictions and maladies infecting the people. All under the guise and pretense of being beneficial, taking people to a better place. All the while appeasing and pleasing them as all this removes them further from God and His Spirit.
There is no way God’s Spirit would not be grieved, and therefore withdraw, from a person practicing yoga deluding themselves they are “meditating about the Holy Spirit.”
Such delusion and acceptance of lies and such refusal to endure the truth!
As Solomon wrote, there is nothing new under the sun and the vanity of men and woman is rampant as we replace the truth with lies and the pursuit and worship of God with the pursuit and worship of self.
Ironically I just posted an article about infirmities in the “Contemplations” section on “A Crooked Path.” It’s a very brief thing, Paul, perhaps you can take the time to read it, meditate upon it, and ten perhaps return to the edition of “Last Days News” pertaining to yoga and read deeply what is written there by people such as T.A. McMahon and Dave Hunt and others and meditate on those truths and not omit the truth.
Pain? I live with constant physical pain every second of every day and have for over 14 years. With no relief.
And to pursue a relief which would possibly taint or remove me from the treasure of eternity I am building for my spirit and soul? Because I can’t endure physical pain here on earth? Not worth it to me Paul.
You think you can mingle Hinduism, and other false faiths with that of Christianity and please God? Build treasures for yourself in heaven due to your actions here on earth? You want to take the risk of angering God? Go ahead. We all are gong to be held accountable and responsible for every thing we do or do not do. Every thing we pursue. Every misstep and false idol or god we chose over the One True Living God while here on earth. Living this life God gave to us!
Rejecting His truth in favor of self and self worship and the refusal to obey Him.
I do not live scared or in fear. And you clearly have no perception or understanding of my life, my history, where I’ve been, what I have done and my experiences and why I am where I am now. That’s okay. There is no way you possibly could.
But instead of coming at me telling me how I believe? How I’m scared? And that you are convinced God has no problem with yoga? Maybe you ought to pause, breath deeply, open your eyes, open your Bible and read deeply asking the Holy Spirit to be with you then rather than when in some pose designed to honor and worship some Hindu god, or to honor and worship self.
I know pain.
I live in the hope I know eternity with my Lord.
The latter far more important than any pain I endure in this brief sojourn here.
Ok sir, I have a few objections and observations for you. In the first article, yoga is described as “stilling the thoughts of the mind in order to experience one’s true self, and ultimately, to achieve liberation from the cycle of birth and death, or enlightenment.” The eight limbs of yoga are summarized as “turning inward, meditation, concentration and mindful breathing.” Now, assuming this is an accurate representation of yoga (from my understanding it is simplistic but close enough for the layman), I cannot for the life of me see how anyone would object to a discipline such as this. If pursued with sincerity and persistence it has the capacity to greatly enhance the lives of human beings, both physical and spiritual, which has been proven over thousands of years of practice.
As for the second article with Tom and Dave, it really made me laugh. “I mean, how come it’s not in the Bible? Why didn’t Paul practice yoga if this is so great?” Now that’s some astounding logic! You see, there’s a lot of things that aren’t in the Bible that actually work pretty well, like penicillin for example. Or laws against owning slaves. Or women’s rights. You know why that is? Because the men who wrote the Bible had no concept of these things. And of course, by opening yourself up to the spiritual realm, they automatically assume it has to be demonic. There is no way you can experience the Holy Spirit this way. If you could get in touch with God through yoga, then you might not be as likely to spend money on the “wide variety of teaching materials, including books, video and audio tapes and other items” that these Berean Call guys are peddling.
Now, I find it ironic that the first article’s main theme is the commercialization of yoga and how it has lost its meaning. Isn’t that what you constantly post about modern Christianity? “Yoga’s very popularity creates the possibility of corruption and distortion, and lowest common denominator teachings,” and I believe that is exactly the case with Christianity. You might say that doesn’t make yoga right to begin with, which is true, but I believe the similarity here points to something much deeper concerning all religions, which is that they are all man-made and susceptible to corruption from the start. Personally, I think it is a very hopeful and positive thing to read that “More than 1 in 3 Americans describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, according to a 2012 Pew Forum survey.” Maybe there is hope for our nation after all!
The most striking thing to me about the final article here by Mr. Hunt, besides his conspiracy theories (oh, how the Christian majority is constantly persecuted!), is that he refers to Eastern religions as primitive. These ancient schools created a science of the mind and spirit that penetrate to the deepest layers of our consciousness, destroying all the material delusions that keep us trapped in a state of suffering and turmoil. For the most part, these are the same material and worldly delusions that you constantly talk about. One thing I have noticed about you, Mr. Pullen, is that you seem to believe these Eastern philosophies actually worship the self, and glorify the self above all else. Maybe that is what you sought after when you studied these teachings, and probably why you failed at them, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Almost without exception these Eastern philosophies seek above all to OVERCOME the delusion of the self, to break its chains, conquer its destructive lusts, and thereby create a world of compassion and truth.
And they do this without the human sacrifice and blood atonement that Christianity was founded on! Of course, you probably can’t appreciate the irony of a man like Mr. Hunt, who believes that human sacrifice atones for his sins, calling another religion primitive. Lack of humor is the clearest sign of a failed belief system.
Sincerely,
Paul
Paul,
Do not confuse faith with religions, or denominations created by men. Faith in God, faith in God’s Word which has withstood the test of time and through time is proven to be more accurate and spot on correct than any other words ever written, faith in Jesus Christ is totally different from religion, or stating one belongs to and adheres to the precepts of a denomination. You deny and contest and do nothing but condemn the atoning blood of Jesus Christ as the only acceptable Sacrificial Lamb for the cleansing of the sins of all men.
This is not up for debate or discussion here, nor should it be with any true Christian.
Let’s get some understanding on things, okay? The special edition of articles on yoga were in the “Last Days News” category here on “A Crooked Path.” With rare exception all articles, commentaries, or links which appear in the “Last Days News” section are similar to an online newspaper, or magazine. Different writers. Different topics. Sometimes different viewpoints expressed.
Just because I post an article by T.A. McMahon or Dave Hunt of The Berean Call does not mean I am shilling for their commercialization of Christianity. And to think that from what is historically posted on this website is utter nonsense and totally takes away from the truth of what takes place here. You find “A Crooked Path” to be a commercial Christian endeavor? Have you really spent time and looked over the site? The home page? Does it appear like every other website you visit? Or is something different, truly different about this place?
T.A. McMahon and Dave Hunt are men of God. Dave Hunt passed away in 2013 but those two men are very knowledgeable in the background and history of myriad topics related to and concerning the state of Christianity.
The first article in the special edition of “Last Days News” was copied from a secular news source. A secular worldly viewpoint. The other articles from a faith-based Christian viewpoint. At no time any place in the special edition of “Last Days News” am I hawking the commercial wares of The Berean Call. Merely their insight, knowledge, and ability to convey numerous truths.
Yoga is about SELF-DIRECTED effort to attain a higher spiritual plane. No matter what you may say its entire foundation is SELF-DIRECTED. SELF-MOTIVATED. SELF-ABSORBED. And it is nothing but steeped in and founding in Hinduism and Hinduisms false gods.
The One True Living God can have no part of that. Nor should anyone professing to be a believer and follower of the One True Living God.
Let me ask you a serious question. Would you walk into a very strict long established and known vegan restaurant and enter through their doors and begin telling everyone there “Eat more meat! Eat lot’s of USDA beef!?”
I think not.
Why is it then you feel you can come here and tell people the very foundations of their faith are myths and ancient ways and we gotta all be modern and get with the world view program?
And you do this with twisted words and grave omissions – and in your spirit and soul you know this – or else you wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Where on “A Crooked Path” anywhere – does it tell anyone to join or be part or adhere to any one denomination? That this is a “religious” site? This is a website founded upon the grace and mercy of the Living God. And as a result of the grace and mercy and love of His Son, who did live, who did die as a man to be resurrected conquering death, and being the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of ALL men and ALL women.
Religion is mentioned in the Holy Bible exactly 5 times. With 3 of those references directed towards the religion of Jews. As for real religion? True religion?
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:27
You can, as you do, as is your wont in your walk in darkness, lump every Christian in one neat box and categorize them. That is your choice. It is also your choice to pursue that which your heart is led. And it is clear from your comments your heart is misled by the philosophies of man, the world view, modernism, and self. Contrary to your protests about Eastern religions being the exact opposite of self-worship that is exactly what they are. To aspire to become a god your-SELF. To attain this lofty Nirvana and spiritual elevation based upon SELF-diredted, Self-induced, Self-motivated SELF-effort.
Yes, the guise is the abandonment of self but this is only accomplished through this lengthy and ongoing and never truly attained SELF-driven manmade driven false belief.
Christianity is the only belief which has Jesus Christ. All other beliefs, faiths, world religion were founded and based by some human man creating it.
Not Christianity. And that is what irks and drives the ones walking in utter darkness in their vain pursuits utterly mad while they present the false front of inner peace and attainment, enlightenment. But it’s all a lie. And you know it in your soul and spirit.
Only Christianity is vastly different among faiths on this world. And only Christianity has Jesus Christ as its center. God who came to earth and never promoted Himself. Others did it for Him. Totally different than any other faith.
Why it that Paul? Because they were all insane and conspired to concoct a delusion that they worked in conjunction with over a span of 1,500 years between 40 authors all with the same clear message?
I thought these men were incompetent and insane? They lived in delusion and were incapable of sound reason and intelligence? How is it that 40 different men living over a span of 1,500 years can have the same concise message with a central theme and that central theme never promoted Himself one time when on this earth?
That is why the world hates and wages perpetual war with true Christianity. Because in their darkened hearts and spirits refusing the Light they know, oh they all know and one day all their knees will bow to the One True God and humble themselves before Him.
Those which love confusion and debate and maliciousness and contention and mixing things up and lies and misleading people and themselves? They all know in their hearts the One True God and HIs Son, Jesus Christ were and are VERY REAL, and ALIVE. And they war and struggle each day in an attempt to certify and approve errant world views and philosophies in the hope their constant fears can be abated and they can continue on in Self-absorption and Self-induced pursuits living their lies and some man comes along to save them and prove the Word of God wrong.
But that time, that man is never going to appear, Paul. Only more lies, more delusions, and more souls lost to an eternity in damnation will occur from following this world and its views over the truth of God and His Word, Paul.
I know for certain any one professing to be a true believer in God and Jesus Christ the Lord cannot practice the false religion, false spirituality, worldly spirituality of yoga, a 100% Hindu based practice and make claims the Holy Spirit of the One True God is working within them. The Holy Spirit would have no part in such an abomination. Nor would the Holy Spirit thrive and indwell someone so misled and walking in the lies the false teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing spew.
Ken Pullen