Yoga - not just a benign exercise!

[LilyM]

The physical aspects of yoga may be beneficial as in ANY stretching exercise,yet you are deliberately engaging in postures specifically designed to activate energy centers regardless if you intend it or not.It can occur

Yes we have two apologists seeming to disagree a bit,yet i am seriously concerned for your well being as a fellow Catholic.

My daughter bought some benign looking plastic toe rings from the internet .She placed them on her toes and she said she felt a weird crawling sensation moving up her legs.It frightened her and I realized she was unintentionally activating these centers. I advised her to throw them away ,which she did.

They don’t seem to disagree, they DO disagree. Are you concerned for their wellbeing as Catholics as well?

Energy centres? What you’re describing sounds like no more than the natural response of the nervous system to stimulation of certain nerves in the feet. Stimulation of a nerve ending often refers pain or other sensations to parts of the body well removed from where the actual stimulation happens.

An illustration of what I mean - one common early warning symptom of heart attack is pain, not in the chest where the heart is, but in the jaw or the arm. It’s called ‘referred pain’ because the nervous system transfers the pain along the length of the nerve to a site away from the spot where you’d expect it to be. Or think of a woman in labour - often the pain is in the lower back rather than the abdomen. Same reason.

There’s absolutely nothing supernatural or diabolical about any of this, nor anything to do with ‘chakras’. It’s just the normal and natural way the nervous system works as western science describes it. And nothing particularlyworrisome in what happened to your daughter either, although of course it wouldn’t make sense to wear the rings in those spots if it has that effect. Just wear them on other toes!

In the same manner, if I noticed ANY symptoms such as you and others have been describing, be they physical, psychological or spiritual, I certainly would discontinue whatever was causing them, including yoga, as any sensible person would.

 

[DanteAlighieri]

According to the rationale behind the OP, the theater is not just a benign art form or pasttime. It was, after all, created specifically to honor the Greek god Dionysus. In fact, huge festivals with theatrical competitions were held in his honor; goats were sacrificed on the stage.

Remember: the Church possesses the fullness of truth. That does not mean that things that originate outside the Church cannot be beneficial. Yes, yoga originated as a pagan worship practice (I’m taking your word for that, OP) – but one’s intent in performing an otherwise meaningless act is what gives that act meaning. Bending into stretchy shapes is a morally neutral action; if one does so with the intent of worshiping false gods, it becomes blasphemy. If, on the other hand, one does so with the intent of relieving lower back pain or trying to relax, it remains morally neutral.

Peace,
Dante

 

[cjforJesus]

Yes I am seriously concerned with the apologists as well as they also may be treading on dangerous ground.This is not meant as a personal attack but out of genuine concern.

The yoga masters themselves say you cannot separate the exercises from the philosophy.The poses were designed to awaken this energy which you see as normal and benign,It is anything but. It is a serpent power and once it is awakened the intellectual and physicall benefits to the BODY are phenomenal.

Can you imagine as a lawyer,being able to absorb twice as much info and integrate it all effortlessly?That would put you so far above any competition. How could anyone once they have acheived it relinquish? Why should they you may ask… Because the power originates from lucifer,the light bearer who being thrown down to earth knows his time is short.

My sister engaged in these practices and was actually able to astral project and fortell certain events.She was also harassed by demons in her bedroom.No not an illusion or just a state of sleep .

 

[cjforJesus]

Lily, I am just asking you to please be careful.

Though my younger sister tried it also,assuming a pose ,meditating ,and saying a chant,she was forcibly thrown backwards! Perhaps she was awakening this power or summoning a demon.She thinks it was more likely her guardian angel protecting her from a disastrous situation. It was not her intent to have this happen,but it did regardless.We are dealing with incredibly powerful entities.

may God bless you always
Carol

 

[faithfully]

And see, I think we’re back to what is the exact issue at hand. Body placement vs, physical/emotional/mindful intensions??? 2 different things…

Doing a series of poses that involve insense (burned in church btw), chants which COULD be catholic if you choose, and for gods, that I would at least think you’d have to be aware of to offer any sense of worship…

I’m also confused by the terms false gods and demons. I think of false gods as the golden calf. A THING with zero spiritual existance good or bad… and demons, well bad spirits.

So, when someone says to worship a false god, I’m thinking… you mean, SOMETHING FALSE? That does not exist? Clarify please.

Again, are you striking a yoga pose (mountain)? Or are you simply standing? How can you tell the difference? If I’m in a ballet class, and I bend over, and place my hands out in front of me, legs locked, arms locked to stretch my hamstrings, and walk my feet a bit to really get into the glutes and hip… am I worshiping a false god because in a different room under a different name it’s called downward dog? What about in my ballet class when we sit on the floor with our feet in various locations, locked over our thighs, or touching in butterfly position… similar to lotus. Well, exactly like lotus in many cases… Because, a ballet dancer must keep her hips loose (supporting muscles), and that really helps our turnout. Is that dangerous? And what of doing downward dog on a reformer, and sliding out to plank and back again. Only, I can’t remember the pilates term for it. The abdominal strength necessary…

WHAT ABOUT KNEELING? Who is getting praise while kneeling? They kneel in yoga! They pass through the position that we take in mass all the time!!! And quite frankly, in Mass I endure the kneecap pain for the respect I want to show Christ. And in a yoga class, I’m all “forget it… I’m not going to kill myself for exercise, that’s counter productive.” Without a thought for some fake god…

And so, this is where I start looking at what the Catholic church has written. That in the wrong circumstances (as per my understanding), things could get inappropriate. But It seems in a sweaty gym, where you might just be focused on how bad your balance is… you’re probably safe.

But STILL I would love to hear a review on the prayermoves program. Because the idea of actually have a spiritual exercise program, incorporating prayers and Catholic meditation and such is quite interesting… I had never given the idea thought before…

 

[faithfully]

Lily, I am just asking you to please be careful.

Though my younger sister tried it also,assuming a pose ,meditating ,and saying a chant,she was forcibly thrown backwards! Perhaps she was awakening this power or summoning a demon.She thinks it was more likely her guardian angel protecting her from a disastrous situation. It was not her intent to have this happen,but it did regardless.We are dealing with incredibly powerful entities.

may God bless you always
Carol

Would love to know the pose she was attempting… and what was she meditating on? And what was she chanting???

Thanks…

 

[LilyM]

Lily, I am just asking you to please be careful.

Though my younger sister tried it also,assuming a pose*** ,meditating ,and saying a chant***,she was forcibly thrown backwards! Perhaps she was awakening this power or summoning a demon.She thinks it was more likely her guardian angel protecting her from a disastrous situation. It was not her intent to have this happen,but it did regardless.We are dealing with incredibly powerful entities.

may God bless you always
Carol

Well, firstly she was meditating and saying a chant.

I’m going to make a wild stab in the dark and guess that it probably wasn’t the mysteries of the Rosary, the Our Father or some other Christian prayer or theme that she was chanting or meditating upon, would I be right?

If so, that’s the problem. I daresay if she had done the meditation and chanting without the pose it would’ve had the same effect. Since you’re asserting that it’s the pose itself that was the problem, it’s for you to show that it was the pose rather than the meditation and chanting that led to the phenomena

 

[LilyM]

Can you imagine as a lawyer,being able to absorb twice as much info and integrate it all effortlessly?That would put you so far above any competition. How could anyone once they have acheived it relinquish? Why should they you may ask… Because the power originates from lucifer,the light bearer who being thrown down to earth knows his time is short.

There are many natural and totally non-diabolical ways and techniques to dramatically improve one’s ability to absorb and integrate information. Teachers working with those who have learning difficulties could doubtless tell you about some of them.

However, I don’t doubt that diabolical means can be used to achieve these things. So can sacred means - if memory serves, St Catherine of Siena illiterate and taught directly by God to read and write. You can use good and bad means to achieve most any end.

Contorting one’s body IS physically completely morally neutral. The body itself is physically completely morally neutral. Sure it can be misused, but the INTENT behind what you do with your body is what matters.

I’ve never heard of a child, for example, who unconsciously did a cobra pose or something and then got zapped by diabolical forces as a result.

My sister engaged in these practices and was actually able to astral project and fortell certain events.She was also harassed by demons in her bedroom.No not an illusion or just a state of sleep .

This wouldn’t be the same sister who was chanting and meditating in your next post, would it? Do you know for a fact that she wasn’t engaging in any dodgy spirtual practices during or alongside these physical poses? Again, couldn’t possibly be the chanting and meditating that opened her up to these influences, could it?

 

[cjforJesus]

Yes it was the combination,that is why i am asking you to please be cautious,because the masters of yoga themselves say it is impossible to separate the exercises from the philosophy.You may eventually fall into this trap and put your soul in jeopardy by succumbing to these powers.

 

[LilyM]

Yes it was the combination

I’m asking you to consider the extreme likelihood that it was NOT the combination that did for your sister. That it was in fact JUST the meditation and chanting. Which is in and of itself prayer to demons, no?

Do you truly think nothing untoward would have happened to your sister if she’d JUST done this unChristian chanting and meditation minus the physical poses?

To say so would be like saying a prayer doesn’t count unless you say it while kneeling, or don’t bless yourself first. You know, surely, that prayer can be utterly silent and non-physical. And you know, surely, that many a Hindu commits the sin of idolatry, and so opens themselves up to evil influences, without doing a single yoga pose!

As for these yoga ‘masters’, THEY may think the physical poses are inseparable from the spirituality. This probably mean no more than that they consider it not to be truly worthy of the name yoga if you separate the one from the other. Logically they can’t mean that the two are literally inseparable. Babies incapable of any sort of spirituality are capable of doing yoga poses, after all.

It’s like Catholics saying the Eucharist is inseparable from (or impossible without) transubstantiation and vice versa. We would say the form of words and the gestures used in confecting the Eucharist are DESIGNED to transubstantiate the bread and wine.

This doesn’t mean that one can’t merely go through the form of confecting the Eucharist without achieving transubstantiation. Of course one can, very easily. Anglican priests do so all the time. So do actors playing priests.

This also doesn’t mean that merely going through the form somehow ‘opens’ the bread and wine up to being transubstantiated - that would be a ridiculous notion, would it not? As if spiritual forces work on autopilot without human intent (or at least human openness to a spiritual change happening) being involved!

We simply mean that transubstantiation is the point and purpose of the form and gestures of the Eucharist, and so to go through the form and gestures without the intent or belief is, in our view, to miss the point entirely and not receive the spiritual benefit. To repeat myself, none of this is to say that it is LITERALLY impossible to go through the form without transubstantiation being effected!

 

[benedictus2]

Runes were originally used for magic and divination by ancient Germanic tribes.

It is one thing to use something that is in wide use for magic and divinization, it is another thing to use something that was specifically created for divinization.

Runes developed as a means of communication not specifically for magic.

The Yoga was developed specifically for the worship of pagan gods.

I suppose you’d also condemn Tolkien since he derived his artificial script, Cirth, from them?

There is nothing to condemn in that because Runes are simply old alphabet. Same with cuneiform or heiroglyphics.

Pentagrams are symbols of either pagan or satanic groups so does that mean I oughta cross myself, douse myself with holy water, and pray the Rosary every time I (or some other unfortunate soul) ends up making one while practicing geometry? What about fire and incense? They’re used in other religious practices as well. Should we condemn the use of both even though the former was vital in the first steps of human civilization and the latter is also used in Mass? :ehh:

The pentagrams were taken by satanic and pagan groups as a symbol, the satanic and pagan groups did not invent the pentagram.

As a matter of fact the Star of David is a pentagram.

 

[LilyM]

As a matter of fact the Star of David is a pentagram.

Nope. The Star of David is six-pointed. The pentagram (from Greek ‘pent’ meaning ‘five’) is, as the name implies, five-pointed. They’re different.

 

[benedictus2]

Nope. The Star of David is six-pointed. The pentagram (from Greek ‘pent’ meaning ‘five’) is, as the name implies, five-pointed. They’re different.

Ooopps. That’s right. Thanks for the correction.

 

[roveau]

(snip) Yoga positions are not exercises they are postitions of worship to hundreds of gods. Each yoga position is a posture of worship to one god and there are hundreds of gods that the eastern religion worships and therefore that is why there are hundreds of positions in yoga. …(snip)…You cannot adopt a position or posture of worship that was designed solely for the worship of some “god”. These are not exercises that are good for your body, they are a way to worship a false god with the body! There are lots of normal stretching exercises that are not postures of worship that are good for your body so therefore you really don’t even need to look for something else. And certainly not Yoga worship postures!!
Yoga is not something that a Catholic should practice because of it’s very nature of body worship to hundreds of false gods. No matter how many prayers you say, your body when assuming one of these postures is worshipping one of the false gods. That was and is the reason for each position.
Read this vatican document vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html
Here you will find many of the New Age practices that have infiltrated our faith …(snip)
Grateful Soul

There are so many forms of Yoga, just a short visit to Google will show you that.

I don’t know which form of Yoga you refer to which causes innocent Catholics to worship ‘hundreds of gods’ when going through Yoga exercises. You can’t worship a god unknowingly, that’s just impossible.

The Yoga taught at most fitness centres are exercises only, these are especially good for loosening up tight muscles and fixing sore backs etc. There are so many Yoga exercises because there are many parts to the human body that need strengthening and stretching.

I checked that Vatican document, as far as I could see it only mentions Yoga once (in a list) and doesn’t even describe it in the glossary at the end. I would suggest that the Western form of fitness Yoga is not high on the list of Vatican priorities.

I think ordinary yoga as taught in fitness centres can be very good for young and old bodies because it is gentle on the muscles and joints. However, as Catholics we should avoid any yoga that includes meditation or any sort of eastern philosophy - that’s all.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Runes developed as a means of communication not specifically for magic.

The Yoga was developed specifically for the worship of pagan gods.

On the contrary. I’ve read that some runes actually stood for Thor or some other member of the Aesir. Then another user made an excellent point regarding theater originally intended to glorify the Greek god Dionysus.

 

[cjforJesus]

I may be mistaken,but I think names and symbols are very powerful in themselves. Exorcists ask the name of an entity in order to expell it.

If Yoga postures are symbolic praises to specific demons I cannot see why anyone would risk drawing these entities.Someone who knows what these poses are especially should avoid them as there are many other forms of exercise which are not attached to pagan worship.

 

[benedictus2]

There are so many Yoga exercises because there are many parts to the human body that need strengthening and stretching.

You might consider this nitpicking but this statement seems to imply that Yoga was designed for the purpose of strengthening the different muscles. I don’t think this is quite true.

As many have pointed out, the poses were meant to honor pagan gods not as exercises for limbering up.

 

[benedictus2]

On the contrary. I’ve read that some runes actually stood for Thor or some other member of the Aesir.

Well of course, they have to give some code for their god. Civilizations when they develop have to have a symbol for their god becaue it is part of their vocabulary. But Runes were not developed specifically just to make a symbol for Thor or Aesir.

 

[cjforJesus]

Yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. [7] But there is not knowledge in every one. For some until this present, with conscience of the idol: eat as a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. [8] But meat doth not commend us to God. For neither, if we eat, shall we have the more; nor, if we eat not, shall we have the less. [9] But take heed lest perhaps this your liberty become a stumblingblock to the weak. [10] For if a man see him that hath knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not his conscience, being weak, be emboldened to eat those things which are sacrificed to idols?

[11] And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ hath died? [12] Now when you sin thus against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. [13] Wherefore, if meat scandalize my brother, I will never eat flesh, lest I should scandalize my brother.

13

 

[lakotak]

This may be a little off the topic, but a couple of years ago, I took a Mindful Meditation course at the University I work at just to learn how to relax for an hour at lunch time. In the beginning it didn’t seem like there was any thing wrong with it. To note, the people that taught this were from a Yoga Center here in Baltimore. However, I think the Holy Spirit started working on me because I started feeling uncomfortable. I would try to keep Jesus in my mind while they were relating some kind of a story to put yourself in in order to relax. Anyway, when each session ended, she would read something from a guru, or whatever you call these people, and I really felt uncomfortable with this. There was just something that was nagging me inside that something really didn’t seem right with this. Hard to explain this. When it came around to signing up for the next session, something within me strongly urged me not to do so. I took the advice and didn’t go back. I tend to leave any of these eastern practices out of my Catholic practices.