Perilous Times and the True Purpose and Dangers of Yoga
An Overview of the Facts
Subjects covered:
1. Perilous times are here! (2 Tim 3:1- 17).
2. Yoga has arrived in our communities!
3. What is the “occult,” and occultism? (various definitions).
4. Community-wide illustrations and literature samples
a. New Age/occult infiltration and practices.
b. “Exercise” and “Wellness” Yoga classes at state universities and colleges such as California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Cuesta College San Luis Obispo, California.
c. Local Yoga Studios, journals, publications, etc.
5. Worldview clarifications:
a. Biblical worldview - Man is created, separate from God, sinful, and in need of salvation through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and His bodily resurrection.
b. Monism (monistic) - "All is One, One is All."
c. Pantheism (pantheistic) - "God is All, All is God."
d. Pantheistic Monism - "All is One, One is All, All is God."
* Pan-en-theism (panentheistic) = Variations of ”All in God” and/or “God in All.”
e. Gnosticism - Salvation through “knowledge” (gnosis) via esoteric and mystical experiences, rather than through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
f. Polytheism (polytheistic) - Belief in many gods.
g. Animism - Frome animae, "spirits" in rocks, trees, animals, etc.
h. Karma/Reincarnation - The Law of sowing and reaping and an endless cycle of judgment and rebirth.
i. Occult “energy” - creative force, life force, vital force, "The Force", impersonal force, animal magnetism, chi (yin/yang), the innate, New Age “consciousness,” vital energy, universal life energy, cosmic energy, mana, orgone, para-electricity, prana, vital energy, etc.
j. New Age (occultism) - Umbrella term defined.
6. Our duty as Christians (Ephesians 5:6-14):
Ephesians 5:6-14: "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”
7. What is Yoga?
a. Definitions from Collegiate dictionaries.
b. Definitions from Christian authors.
c. Definitions from Hindu yogis and occultists.
8. How did Yoga invade the West?
a. Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Jiddu Krishnamurti.
b. Christian Science, New Thought and Unity School of Christianity.
c. The pervasion of the 1960’s hippie, drugs, music, and yogi “god-men” occult explosion.
9. Dissemination of Hindu and Buddhist variations of occult philosophies and teachings.
10. Is this a New Age, or the Same Old Lie that Lucifer (through the serpent) deceived Eve with? (Genesis 3:1-5; Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
11. The theory of Yoga (occult philosophy) is inextricably tied to the practice of Yoga (postural and meditative).
a. Postural Yoga is designed to physically and spiritually open up the “psychic” senses.
b. The aim of all Yoga is to arouse Kundalini shakti - the serpent power of Hinduism.
c. The ultimate end result of yoga is, “a progressive dismantling of human personality ending in a complete abolition.”
d. Quote from the Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs (John Ankerberg and John Weldon):
“This is why people who practice yoga only for physical or mental health reasons are ultimately the victims of a confidence game. They are promised better health; little do they suspect the end goal of yoga is to destroy them as individuals. As yoga authorities Feuerstein and Miller comment, yoga results in "a progressive dismantling of human personality ending in a complete abolition. With every step (anga) of Yoga, what we call 'man' is demolished a little more.” (George Feuerstein, Jeanine Miller, Yoga and Beyond: Essays in Indian Philosophy, New York: Schockenn, 1972.)
Note also that Dr. Georg Feuerstein (born 1947) is a German-Canadian Indologist who has authored over 45 books on mysticism, Yoga, Tantra, and Hinduism, and Buddhism.
12. The progression and the ultimate goal of yoga leads to delusion and the destruction of the individual human.
13. Warnings, acknowledgments, and dangers from the authoritative yoga texts.
a. “Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1).
b. Why so many quotes in this audio - because the warnings are authoritative, documented, and published.
c. Quotes:
- What about the Occult?
- Risks and Hazards of Yoga.
- Kundalini arousal.
d. Spontaneous yoga poses fueled by occult power can manifest at the whim of the forces of darkness.
14. God’s purposes versus “Eastern [occult] ways” (occult spirituality and pagan religious practices). Hebrews 12:14; Hosea 2:5-6; Isaiah 47:8-15.
15. Christianity and Eastern occult religions cannot be combined or blended.
a. Printed testimony of Christina Grof of her kundalini manifestations from doing Hatha Yoga, September 28, 1968 (See, The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis, June 1, 1992, Christina and Stanislav Grof).
b. Manifestations, psychoses, painful and agonizing experiences, and extreme delusion as ”spiritual emergencies.” These are actually demonic possession states wrongly labeled as states and stages of “personal metamorphosis,” “healing,” the alleged “cycle of inner death and rebirth,” and “spiritual transformation” that (as the Grof’s believe) bring healing through a connection to a transcendent Higher Power or Higher Self.
c. The Biblical Gospel versus Yoga (i.e., Hindu occult Self-Realization).
d. God’s wrath against sin versus His judgment on sin at the cross and the current and future hope of the Christian.
e. John 3:36 - “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
f. John 8:21-24 - “Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
16. Salvation and victory through Jesus Christ!
a. Satan is a liar, murderer, the wicked one, the devil, the slander, the God hater, etc.
b. Yoga is a works-based-do-it-yourself-religion that cannot save the soul.
c. The simplicity of the biblical Gospel.
17. Final warning about Yoga!
a. All yoga practice (postural and meditative) is directly tied to the occult philosophy that it is derived from.
b. Yoga is Hinduism and Christian and non-Christians alike should - and are - warning about its dangers.
c. Christians need to warn others about spiritual deception - including the dangers of Yoga.
Recorded 1997, San Luis Obispo, California.
Chris Lawson
Jude 3
