Is yoga demonic or no?

[Chantal25]

Yoga is defined as a “mystic discipline by which one seeks to achieve liberation of the self, and union with the supreme spirit, through intense concentration, deep meditation, and practices involving prescribed postures, controlled breathing, and so forth” (Webster’s New World Dictionary/1980

May I ask who “the supreme spirit” is to Hindus? Why do we want liberation of the self?

One of the underlying principles of the yoga philosophy is the belief that humanity (like the rest of creation) is an extension of god (ultimate reality) and that human beings share its nature. The aim of getting involved in various trances and concentrated meditation exercises is to eventually become one with the ultimate reality (god) by achieving release from the endless cycles of birth and rebirth. This is the traditional intent of yoga, as well as the goal of some of the diet, exercise, and massage therapies that are prominent today. Many of the methods are inherited from the Eastern religions. Some may argue that most Westerners derive benefits from yoga without becoming entangled in pagan theological premises, but there is a subtle tendency to become involved in yoga’s deeper stages which are distinctly religious in nature.
The book Out on a Limb, written by Shirley MacLaine and published in 1983, describes her transformation from being an agnostic to becoming a believer in the spirit realm. MacLaine’s second book, Dancing in the Light (1985), was on the New York Times Bestseller List for many months. A writer in Christianity Today (May 16, 1986) describes the book as being more like “rushing into the dark.” He says, “The journey carries (MacLaine) along into a daily exercise of yoga, the use of crystals for spiritual power, the chanting of Hindu mantras, (and) the use of various past-life recall experiences.” In her first book, MacLaine is told by the spirits that we are all co-creators with God. In her second book, she understands that each individual human being is God. Shirley MacLaine insists that if all of us would believe that “Everyone is God,” this world would be a much happier and healthier place. The Christianity Today writer concludes by saying, “MacLaine presents Hindu philosophy and various occult practices in a seductive manner … (and) those experiences will be further felt by the general public in the autumn of 1986″ — because there is tentatively scheduled for November, 1986, a five-hour made-for-TV movie series to be aired on the ABC network — a series which is based on MacLaine’s books. This is sure to have an impact on multitudes of people.

The growing belief in reincarnation and the increasing experimentation with yoga (and related concepts) is part of an attempt to remove death’s sting — not by pointing to Christ’s substitutionary atonement and His bodily resurrection — but by denying death’s reality and ruling out the possibility of God’s judgment. The genuine Christian knows that faith in the saving power of the blood of Christ (Romans 5:8) can bring true union with God and with His will. Peace with God does not come through release from participation in the endless cycles of reincarnation. (Most of us, when encountering some new setting in life, have had thoughts that we may have seen a certain street, or met a certain person, or eaten a particular food before — when indeed we never had such an experience in the past. Many places look alike; many people look alike; surely such strange thoughts are merely the imagination at work).

Yoga implies pantheism (that all is God) because human beings are a mere extension of the ultimate reality. Yoga ignores the sin nature (the Fall in Genesis 3) because alienation caused by sinful rebellion against God is not the fundamental problem of the human family. Yoga describes salvation as the healing of humanity’s problems. It is achieved when people become aware of their oneness with all living things and through intense concentration and deep meditation are released from the endless cycles of birth and death and rebirth .

Those who advocate yoga are certainly to be admired for their devotion to maintaining healthy bodies. Too many in our churches are consuming inordinate amounts of coffee, sweets, and soft drink. Such persons will find some immediate physical benefits in yoga. Care of our physical bodies is important, but not at the risk of aligning ourselves with pagan principles! The popularity of yoga presents a difficult challenge to Christians who ought to make their bodies a welcome place for the Holy Spirit to reside (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20).

Your are very well informed. It was very insightful to read this post. I know you posted for others but thank you for sharing.

((((Blessing and love to you))))

 

[Evania]

Thank you

God Bless!

 

[Michael_Mayo]

This may surprise you, but I can care less what you do. First you denied it. Then you say you don’t care. Either way, you were going to mock whatever I had to say. You were only on this forum to deride those who felt differently…

Is NASA a Christian organization going around actively and knowingly copying movements of those gods? You’re ridiculous.
Justify it all you want…That’s on you. You have the info that you supposedly didn’t have before. At least now you can do it knowingly.

I answered a question from the OP, and you’ve engaged me in a debate for the better part of the day yesterday. Clearly, you are now trolling this forum for the purpose of policing the comments of the other side. I’m going to be moving on to real Christian topics. Nice debating with you.

God Bless!

My apology for what came across to you as mocking, deriding and trolling.:flowers:

 

[Evania]

Thank you Mayo.

God Bless

 

[cheezey]

I went to a yoga class last night and the only things I could think were “Dear God, please let his be over soon” and “Pigeon position? I’ve never seen a pigeon do this!”.
Apparently, the mysticism is lost on ones such as I…

 

[BluesPicker]

Greetings Blues Picker, I appreciate this opportunity to clear up a few misconception.

What evidence do you have that:
#1 Yoga pays homage to demons

The fact is that yoga has nothing to do with any demons.

#2 People have become possessed from practicing yoga

That would be hearsay and pure speculation, spurious conjecture.

#3 Kundalini is a demon

Kundalini is a mythical energy in every human being. There is actually no scientific evidence that it exists and no evidence what so ever that it is a demon. That would have to mean that we all have a latent demon within our nervous system. Do you believe that?

Sure can. What makes you even think that?
You should study some history if Indian philosophy before making such misleading statements.

I have. Much of it is hearsay. What does the church actually teach about yoga?
Did you read my links to CDF?

That does not mean that genuine practices of meditation which come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions, which prove attractive to the man of today who is divided and disoriented, cannot constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God with an interior peace, even in the midst of external pressures.

ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfmed.htm

Not promoting, but defending from misconceptions. That’s all.

Mr. Mayo,

    I looked at the documents you referenced.  The first was an advertisement for a book.  The last had a title  something to the effect "Jesus Christ was a Yogi."  This provides proof  that there is a hidden agenda being promoted here; and, that hidden agenda is the promulgation of  Hinduism.  But,  I believe this is not the case, I pray and hope.  I simply  believe at this point you don't know your Catholic faith and are not fully concious or aware of what you promote.  Also it appears you know more about yoga and Hinduism than the Bible.  That is not a problem in itself except you have succumbed to notions contrary to the Catholic Faith.

    The biggest one is that you think pagan gods are not demons.

Check out what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:14-22.

14Wherefore, my dearly beloved, fly from the service of idols. 15I speak as to wise men: judge ye yourselves what I say. 16The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord ? 17For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread. 18Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar ? 19What then ? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing ? Or, that the idol is any thing ? 20But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils. 21You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils. 22Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? Are we stronger than he? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.

  People have become possessed by practicing Kundalini Yoga.  I am devoted to the ministry of deliverance.  I shared details of a very courageous person who has been for well over one year undergone sessions of exorcism  to free him of  a demon who identifies itself as the "the spirit of Kundalini."   The Catholic priest knew nothing of Kundalini but as I said this demon said "The more painful the posture the more comfortable I am." Actually it is in more pain but it  hates God and Man who is made in the Image of God.  All demons fell because they rejected some aspect of  Jesus Christ.

  I would not share details of an exorcism but in this case I have permission to share this.  If it motivates one person to study our Catholic Faith and deters one person from this path, it is worth it to me.   It takes the character of the priest to perform simple or certainly solemn exorcisms.   A  priest when he blesses, says Mass, hears Confession or casts out demons acts as a vicarious Representative  of  Jesus Christ.  He can do so because priests receive the sacrament of  Holy Orders  which marks their souls as God's priests for eternity.

   The mystery of the so-called lost years of  Jesus Christ can be understood in Jewish tradition.  Men who studied to become rabbis where not recognized until they were 30 years of age i.e. they had no public ministry.  They studied under the guidance of their rabbis and parents until 30 years of age.  

 Only Jesus Christ can save.  I really like your thread on St. Catherine of  Siena.  So much for only a priest with the bishops mandate can cast demons out.  She didn't say formal rites of exorcism.  Neither did  Padre Pio who never had the bishop's mandate to say a public solemn exorcism.  Every exorcism he performed was a simple one said and performed solely on his personal holiness and Faith in Jesus Christ.

BP

 

[Chantal25]

Only Jesus Christ can save.

Agreed. Your reference from the bible about Paul said it all. Thank you also for sharing.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

In all seriousness and with all due respect, I have just one last question for anyone who can answer in a few short clear sentences.

At what point does an innocent stretch cross the line and become a yoga stretch?

 

[Chantal25]

In all seriousness and with all due respect, I have just one last question for anyone who can answer in a few short clear sentences.

At what point does an innocent stretch cross the line and become a yoga stretch?

Never, lol…

It never is about the exercise or stretch. It is about mixing Yoga with the stretch or exercise.

I think we had many deep conversation about this and we both had agreed to this concept.

On the other hand, i wonder why you defend Yoga so fervently? You said that you are only doing the exercise. Have you consider that you could have those seeds that i mentioned about? Not to put you down, please don’t see it this way but just as little bell for you to check this out. It is far more important to be prudent then being right.

(No need to answer to my question)

Blessings to you!

 

[LilyM]

Never, lol…

It never is about the exercise or stretch. It is about mixing Yoga with the stretch or exercise.

I think we had many deep conversation about this and we both had agreed to this concept.

On the other hand, i wonder why you defend Yoga so fervently? You said that you are only doing the exercise. Have you consider that you could have those seeds that i mentioned about? Not to put you down, please don’t see it this way but just as little bell for you to check this out. It is far more important to be prudent then being right.

(No need to answer to my question)

Blessings to you!

So what do I have to do/think/say besides physically bend over and touch my toes for me to be doing that yoga pose? (cannot be bothered to look up the Hindu name at the moment).

Because in the books I have read and DVD’s I have seen (never taken a class) I can assure you that I have NEVER, not once, been told that I’m not doing that yoga pose if I merely bend over and touch my toes. Such a thing has never even been hinted at.

So please, do tell me the difference so I can go back and sue everyone for false and misleading advertising because clearly they’ve been telling me wrong all this time and selling me a false bill of goods.

 

[BluesPicker]

In all seriousness and with all due respect, I have just one last question for anyone who can answer in a few short clear sentences.

At what point does an innocent stretch cross the line and become a yoga stretch?

Michael,

     The topic is "Is yoga demonic or no(t)?", Right.   

    You surely are a good Catholic.   You have to understand that sometimes people have gotten hurt practicing Yoga.

     Something happened and  there is an emergency here.

Peace,
BP

 

[LilyM]

Michael,

     The topic is "Is yoga demonic or no(t)?", Right.   

    You surely are a good Catholic.   You have to understand that sometimes people have gotten hurt practicing Yoga.

     Something happened and  there is an emergency here.

Peace,
BP

People get hurt all the time - race car driving, BASE jumping, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, running marathons. None of which is proof that any of said activities is demonic.

 

[PRmerger]

At what point does an innocent stretch cross the line and become a yoga stretch?

Exactly.

There appears to be much fundamentalism and superstition being promoted in the anti-yoga polemic. God does not enter into our bodies with certain positions we make. Neither can Satan.

 

[BluesPicker]

Exactly.

There appears to be much fundamentalism and superstition being promoted in the anti-yoga polemic. God does not enter into our bodies with certain positions we make. Neither can Satan.

  Really,  it is attitudes like this that the first thing I tell a person under demonic attack is to run not walk away from debate forums.   Take anyone who has endured and suffered through a solemn exorcism and ask them if  Satan is the spirit of evil or an evil spirit, scheming, powerful, hateful and dangerous.  Holy Water that produces sores, Holy Oil that burns if consumed.  But possession does not signal a person that is not in a State of Grace.  It does not indicate that a person is in mortal sin.  

   The topic is "Is yoga demonic or no(t)."

 Yoga is a  spiritual practice.  The meditations in eastern religions do not have the same nor are they compatible with Christianity.   This theme is repeated over and over again.

 Those who promulgate Yoga here are not just talking about "stretches."  

When someone quotes foundational documents, called citations, and does so extensively,  and concludes what is found in those documents  that is a type of research that is called  "data-mining."   The value of the opinion of the author is in his coherence to those foundational documents.

 In this case of that document  I attached called something to the effect "What does the Church say about Yoga"  all the author does is cite Church documents.  Most Catholic Indian priests and clergy reject Yoga.   

 A title like "Jesus Christ was a Yogi" makes me thing of  Yogi Bear and is on the same level of intellectualism, the obscure & full of lies by 2000 years of Church History.

   Beginning with  Bishop Andrea Gemma & Cardinal Ratzinger  all have written about the fundamental dangers of  Yoga.

There are hundreds of  such documents & articles about Yoga's being bad (to say the least) in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian  by  Cardinals, Bishops, priests,  &  deacons but mostly by higher clergy who are exorcists or devoted to the ministry of Healing.

  Why is this?  Are they trying to steal candy from the children?  Or they Good Shepherds in the tradition of  Jesus Christ who have picked up their crosses daily and followed Christ.

   Good Catholics who go to Mass and have to ponder if the Host is consecrated because priests don't use the Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Missal. others who make Mass into a meal and not a Sacrifice,  holding hands while saying the Our Father, and  those priests who don't like people to go to Confession weekly,  all this we have today as common themes in Catholic life.

  Worst is the mass media who cuts and splices interviews of the Pope and other clergy.  

   Think the Vatican is pleased with the Church in the USA? 

  Got you all in  prayer.  I have snakes to kill.

Bye,
BP

 

[PRmerger]

Really, it is attitudes like this that the first thing I tell a person under demonic attack is to run not walk away from debate forums.

http://gifsforum.com/images/gif/facepalm/grand/disappointed_gif_44556.gif

Take anyone who has endured and suffered through a solemn exorcism and ask them if Satan is the spirit of evil or an evil spirit, scheming, powerful, hateful and dangerous.

Has anyone here proclaimed Satan is not scheming, powerful, hateful and dangerous?

Holy Water that produces sores, Holy Oil that burns if consumed. But possession does not signal a person that is not in a State of Grace. It does not indicate that a person is in mortal sin.

Indeed.

Yoga is a spiritual practice.

It can be. Or it can be exercises. And even if it’s exercises with spirituality, so what? Catholicism is a spiritual practice.

The meditations in eastern religions do not have the same nor are they compatible with Christianity. This theme is repeated over and over again.

Sure.

 

[InJesusItrust]

Uhm, Kundalini is real. But I would not call it an internal energy.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

That doesn’t change the fact that you are practicing an key part of the Hindu religion. Can I go into a mosque and Christianize what their teachings are and discard the part that is fundamentally Muslim? Of course not.

Uh… yes you can. Honestly, I thought I killed it but apparently the misconception that denies such separations has respawned.

I remember someone here saying that you can’t mimic animistic chants and poses without having any spiritual effects. To that I say: BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Again, the spiritual warfare camp shows its ignorance of how popular imagination works. Their logic would mean they call games like this demonic… oh wait, they have. Go figure.

The truth though is you can. Heck, a lot of mainstream fiction picks whatever it pleases from the wealth of folklore and ancient mythology that pagans from the past conceived. Creating a religion based on it may have been too far but they made good stories. Would you stop eating a good cake just because you found out the recipe was born of pagan practices?

You’ll have to ban singing then because it had those origins too.

Or it could just be called stretches.

The biggest one is that you think pagan gods are not demons.

Cuz pagan gods are myth? Demons may pose as false gods but good luck getting them to even conjure a little lightning and thunder. (Spoiler alert: They can’t.)

People have become possessed by practicing Kundalini Yoga. I am devoted to the ministry of deliverance. I shared details of a very courageous person who has been for well over one year undergone sessions of exorcism to free him of a demon who identifies itself as the “the spirit of Kundalini.”

You believe demons are masters of deception yet when it claims itself to be the “spirit of Kundalini” you’re gonna buy it?

Oh yes, that makes perfect sense. Why not believe it too when its starts saying its the spirit of Genghis Khan, Blackbeard, or the Bogeyman next?

The Catholic priest knew nothing of Kundalini

Aaaaaaand that should be the end of it.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

This thread is 692 replies long.

Has anyone changed their position about Yoga since the OP?

I doubt it.

It’s why I’ve given up with debates like this in this forum. It serves no one.

For those like myself who practice Yoga occasionally,… who would I be trying to convince in this forum that there is nothing wrong with doing the exercise? In fact, why should I even bother?

Many people in this forum don’t want to hear about Yoga, Centering Prayer, or anything they deem as being outside of their beliefs about the Catholic Church, whether it is true or not. So why bother?

One thing is true, such debates are not conducive toward spiritual growth, and can even be a hindrance.

Jim

 

[PRmerger]

This thread is 692 replies long.

Has anyone changed their position about Yoga since the OP?

I doubt it.

It’s why I’ve given up with debates like this in this forum. It serves no one.

For those like myself who practice Yoga occasionally,… who would I be trying to convince in this forum that there is nothing wrong with doing the exercise? In fact, why should I even bother?

Many people in this forum don’t want to hear about Yoga, Centering Prayer, or anything they deem as being outside of their beliefs about the Catholic Church, whether it is true or not. So why bother?

One thing is true, such debates are not conducive toward spiritual growth, and can even be a hindrance.

Jim

Firstly, there’s the lurkers. Probably more lurkers than posters, actually. And it is for them that this thread may be able to influence.

Secondly, a poster may indeed change his position, but not state it here.

Thirdly, it’s just fun to be able to discuss your differing views. It’s like we’re all sitting around a patio (hence, the icon of a patio on my Profile), eating something deliciously unhealthy, drinking your favorite cocktail, and discussing issues not necessarily of great import. Or maybe of great import. Doesn’t matter. We’re all just having fun.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Firstly, there’s the lurkers. Probably more lurkers than posters, actually. And it is for them that this thread may be able to influence.

Secondly, a poster may indeed change his position, but not state it here.

Thirdly, it’s just fun to be able to discuss your differing views. It’s like we’re all sitting around a patio (hence, the icon of a patio on my Profile), eating something deliciously unhealthy, drinking your favorite cocktail, and discussing issues not necessarily of great import. Or maybe of great import. Doesn’t matter. We’re all just having fun.

Except sitting around discussing various views in an open and respectful way, wouldn’t end up with people telling you that your practice is demonic and pagan.

Jim