Yoga leads to possession by devils?

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Yoga leads to possession by devils?

LONDON: It’s a spiritual practice that provides all the health benefits of physical exercise. Yet, a British exorcist has claimed that yoga could put people in danger of being possessed by evil spirits.
According to Father Jeremy Davies, exorcist for the leader of Catholics in the UK, yoga puts people at risk from devils and the occult is closely associated with the scourges of “drugs, demonic music and pornography” which’re “destroying millions of young people in our time”.
But Madhavi Padhy, one of the foremost yoga exponents based in New Delhi, laughed off the claims of the 73-year-old Catholic priest, saying “they are baseless”.
“Yoga originated in India thousands of years back. It has no connection with evil spirits. On the contrary, it helps you become more aware of your body, mind and environment. It also plays a key role in relieving stress and bringing inner peace,” Padhy said.
Father Davies has argued in his new book ‘In Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism In Scripture And Practice’ published by the Catholic Truth Society, that people who practice yoga may end up afflicting themselves by demons, British newspaper the ‘Daily Mail’ has reported.

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wow…that’s crazy. I know here locally there are Catholic churches that teach yoga classes, and I have been to a convent where the sisters had a yoga room.
 
i don’t think there is anything wrong with the physical fitness aspects of yoga but the spiritual aspects definitely contradict the 1st commandment
 
Michael_Neal said:
i don’t think there is anything wrong with the physical fitness aspects of yoga but the spiritual aspects definitely contradict the 1st commandment
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Precisely what “spiritual aspects” do this? It would seem to me that the only thing that contradicts the 1st commandment is calling on another god. That does occasionally happen. On the few occasions when I’ve been in a yoga class where this occurred (actually the person being invoked was Patanjali, the historical author of the Yoga Sutra–but in typical Hindu fashion he’s regarded as the incarnation of a god) I have kept silent and murmured the Jesus Prayer to myself. I would not attend a yoga class where this happened regularly or where I was pressured to participate.

Other than that, I do not see what about yoga involves a violation of the First or any other Commandment.

Edwin
 
other than that (spiritual stuff) yoga is fine, that is exactly what I said.
 
Michael_Neal said:
other than that (spiritual stuff) yoga is fine, that is exactly what I said.
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If by “spiritual stuff” you mean “invocation of other gods or sacred figures of other religions” then I agree with you entirely.

Edwin
 
yes that is what I meant.

But I would even be hesitant with the meditations unless those meditations were focused on God. As many of the Saints have told us over and over again, opening a spiritual connection through meditation without a specific focus on God can lead is in many wrong directions.

You should read the book Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel-On Prayer by Thomas Dubay.

That being said I do practice yoga on occasion for the physical fitness benefits.
 
It is pretty dodgy from what I can tell, I wouldn’t do it, though depends on the type and whether it is purely physical or spiritual as well.

Though the title does remind me of once when a girl from my Church heard someone mention yoga and said ‘isn’t that Satanic, don’t you get possessed by the devil when you do that?’ while my priest was trying to shut her up because the nun there does yoga
 
Hi everyone,

I have practied yoga for number of years myself, and found it to be ideal for me, as a person with back troubles. The gentle movements don’t cause strain or injury, and some yoga programs
can be as rigorous as any other exercise out there.

Yoga has become so universalized that you can easily find programs that are focused exclusively on the exercise aspect. Or as another poster has said, the spiritual lingo may get thrown in occasionally, as is easy to spot and ignore/reject internally. I actually went through my conversion to Catholicsm while practicing yoga, it didn’t hinder me at all from knowing the truth. I don’t believe that any series of physical movements done for exercise are intrinsically evil.

When I began to hear people saying this was something that would compromise the faith of Catholics/Christians, I took another look at it, consulted my pastor. I still believe it can be done, however, perhaps with caution, especially for those that would be susceptible to getting caught up in the sort of “eastern thinking”, at least the parts that contradict the teachings of the Church.

One other suggestion is that if you yourself, or you know someone else who wants to practice yoga, shop around for a video series that is strictly about the exercise, and then you will always know what you are getting! That is what I do, so I never encounter any curve balls. :cool:

God Bless you,

Peace,
Kelly
 
buffalo said:
Yoga leads to possession by devils?

LONDON: It’s a spiritual practice that provides all the health benefits of physical exercise. Yet, a British exorcist has claimed that yoga could put people in danger of being possessed by evil spirits.
According to Father Jeremy Davies, exorcist for the leader of Catholics in the UK, yoga puts people at risk from devils and the occult is closely associated with the scourges of “drugs, demonic music and pornography” which’re “destroying millions of young people in our time”.
But Madhavi Padhy, one of the foremost yoga exponents based in New Delhi, laughed off the claims of the 73-year-old Catholic priest, saying “they are baseless”.
“Yoga originated in India thousands of years back. It has no connection with evil spirits. On the contrary, it helps you become more aware of your body, mind and environment. It also plays a key role in relieving stress and bringing inner peace,” Padhy said.
Father Davies has argued in his new book ‘In Exorcism: Understanding Exorcism In Scripture And Practice’ published by the Catholic Truth Society, that people who practice yoga may end up afflicting themselves by demons, British newspaper the ‘Daily Mail’ has reported.

more…
Click to expand...
There are different understandings among exorcists from the camps of Protestantism and Catholicism about this kind of issue. You will see some in deliverance ministries go to extremes and say that there is a “spirit” of religion, “spirit” of alcohol, tobacco and just about any other spirit of “x” that you can think of. Given that context, heck, we would all be possessed by some devils.

Then there is the other extreme that downplays the severity and openness one has to possession. I don’t think either extreme is good. Understand that exorcists in the Catholic faith go by the Rite of Exorcism, but at least in the past there was limited training and it was focused on the expulsion, not the theology of possession.

My personal belief is that if gods are being invoked in the presence of a group of people or even one person, then that god or demon can and does manifest there. So, if a person or leader of the yoga group does this, one needs to leave that area. You don’t want to be open to the influence of that god or demon.

I would speak to the leader of the yoga group and tell them my concerns and ask them not to invoke these gods. If they cannot commit to that, then choose another group and start the process over.

Peace…

p.s. I hope Imryl reads this so that she can further her belief that I’m a meglomaniac and narcissist and use it to further her accusations against me 😃
 
Yoga is completely demonic. It’s an occultic practice. I don’t care whether you dabble a little down your local health club and it seems alright to you.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini

The essence of Yoga is the development of spiritual flows within the body. You don’t need to awaken any “sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine.”

I don’t care if you think I sound like a fundy. My mother was one of the first people to introduce Yoga to the West (Europe) in the 70’s.

As ever, study the issue properly. Guess what, ‘Father Jeremy Davies, exorcist for the leader of Catholics in the UK’ knows more about it than you do.
 
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