How Christian Is Yoga?

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 Senarighi, 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 dollars for a one and a half-hour 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 – you know, we wrote about and are concerned about things like, you know, the YWCA, YMCA – you go there, that’s where you’d 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’re into yoga. But yoga does mean a yoke, and it is a yoke between you and Brahman.

Tom: Hinduism.

Dave: Right, the universal. Now, yoga comes out of Hinduism. The Yogeshwara, the master of yoga, is Shiva the destroyer, one of the trimurti of gods in Hinduism. You could read the books on yoga by the great masters of yoga, 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 Rabi Maharaj. And J.B. Lippincott, a secular publisher, had it first and then they sold the rights to the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. I will 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, Everyday 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 [if] 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 Everyday Yoga for Christians and other stuff.

So it is very sad that we will put our faith, whether it’s in psychology [and] 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 say, “Oh 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.