Highlight: What About Yoga?

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kind of bringing into the forefront of conversation that a lot of people tend to ask when we've brought this up before on cultists or just in general is yoga.

00:08

That tends to be kind of very controversial when it comes to whether or not Christians should practice it. So fundamentally,

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I just want to get your thoughts and cause this is something that you experienced. What's your position? Is it fundamentally a spiritual practice that just so happens to have physical component to it?

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Or is it fundamentally, you know, it's just a physical stretching practice that just so happens to have, you know, some spiritual components out there, but you can separate the two from each other.

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What's your take on that? I think it's fundamentally spiritual and it happens to have physical practice attached to it.

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My first time ever going to a yoga class, I think I was like 16 and my mom took me, my mom and my sister and I.

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But so there was, you know, there was all the Hindu gods on the walls and things like that that didn't make sense.

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And I didn't understand when they were speaking in Sanskrit and all of that. But then as I went on, actually before my divorce,

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I got very involved in hot yoga, which was a rip off of Bikram. And that would, they would talk openly about Bikram's view on that whole process.

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And the idea was that you did those poses in that specific order and at that specific heat and humidity in order to wear the body out.

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So that way, when you laid in the final Shavasana, the final corpse pose, you could actually get your mind to still and quiet and have a spiritual experience.

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And so, and then going forward and, you know, I'll leave it to you if we wanna just deep dive into this right now, but I ended up becoming involved in Kundalini yoga.

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I went through yoga teacher training for that and taught. And that is a holy spiritual,

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WH, holy spiritual yoga practice because they almost don't even focus on, you are doing movements with your body, albeit many of them very strange and repetitive and potentially damaging to your body, but your only goal is the spiritual gain from it.

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It's not, it is not, you're not there to work out or anything like that.

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And if you are like, you'd probably be, well, you wouldn't be impressed. And you also would probably be, you know, mocked or shunned for that, because it's really about having, you're there for your spirit, you're there for your soul and your ascension.

02:38

That's the point of that specific lineage. Just initially, when you got into this, and this is around when you're going through your divorce,

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I mean, you probably instinctively, did you instinctively know that this is something

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I'm doing that's spiritual and I'm looking for a true outlet to kind of truly transcend and kind of get out of the difficulties that you're going through at that time?

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Was that kind of your purpose of why you're doing yoga then? Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean,

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I'll be clear, there are people in the studio that are doing it because especially hot yoga, because you do,

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I mean, that you see the physical effects of doing a practice like that, you're absolutely gonna lose weight and gain muscle and all of that versus say a kundalini yoga.

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But, and I'm sure there are people that are in there thinking that they're just working out, but you're being inundated with spiritual content throughout the course of the class.

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And there's usually the teacher kind of has this goal of really like giving you some quote or some piece of wisdom while you're in corpse pose that's really gonna just be like life -changing to you.

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And so I think it's similar to how the occult is seeping into just our mainstream world that people may see it as maybe it's just I'm working out or maybe it's just, oh, this, yeah, okay, sure they say these spiritual things, but they're not seeing like the full impact, but I think that's part of the seduction of the new age.

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And it starts out like that and then you want more. Yeah, a lot of people when we've had this discussion, people ask, well, can

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I just do these different stretches, whether it's the vinyasa or the warrior pose or just kind of like follow, you know, there's different, you look up like yoga stretches and people are doing it, who knows how many different ways.

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Well, can I just sort of do the stretch, but somehow just stretch, but not think of whatever

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Hindu gods that might be associated with, or what if I just do the stretch, but I pray to Jesus?

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Like those are two objections that people would kind of bring up off the get -go. Like how would you, just given your background, this is something that you're in, like how would you respond to that?

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Well, I really wrestled with that at first, you know, and wondered, can I find a way, can we do the entire sun salutation series to worship music or something like that?

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And while there were times where I wasn't sure what I thought the answer actually was to that,

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I feel really clear now that I would not, I would not recommend that at all.

05:28

I would not move in that direction at all. There are plenty of ways. I stretch and work out and exercise and I don't incorporate any of the classic yoga poses, the different asana postures, and especially would never do them in the exact sequence in which they're taught because I just think there's a certain,

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I think there's a certain level of power that you're tapping into with that.

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It's sort of like an incantation. I mean, I'm leery to say that because that's such a claim, but I've had enough people who have experienced yoga and then come to Christianity and had that similar sense about it.

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And so I would not recommend it. Okay, Andrew, what questions do you have? What's on your mind?

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It just kind of reminds me of trying to syncretize beliefs, right? And we know that throughout all of the

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Old Testament and the book of Judges specifically, we have examples of the Jews doing the very same things. I can worship

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Yahweh, but I have a pull to Asherah as well. You know, it's the same thing. I mean, in Colossians chapter two, it says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and by empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, not according to Christ.

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And a little bit further on, it says this, and elemental spirits, I would say, could be demonic, right? It says, let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God.

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Asceticism is severity to the body. What is yoga, right? It's severity to the body.

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Yeah, you can get strong in some areas and maybe stretch, but the things that you're doing are painful and they're painful for a specific reason.

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And like Amber was saying, there's poses and that you're doing in specific orders. Definitely don't do them in those orders, but the point is, is why do you need to syncretize beliefs in order to grow in a relationship with God?

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Is that what God says you need in his word is to do asceticism, severity to the body and to grow closer to him?

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No, it says, don't do it. Don't fall captive to elemental spirits of the world, to human tradition.

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It says, if with Christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why would you still walk in them as if you were still alive in the world?

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It's just a form of syncretism, really. But those are things that we need to push off. You can't separate yoga from the spiritual.

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It's just not something that, that's not why it was even created in the first place. So I don't know. It's just, it's hard,

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I think, for some people to balance those things. Well, I'm Christian. That means I can't do anything now. No, you can stretch.

08:14

Like what's the point though of doing a yoga stretch versus a regular stretch? You know, like what's really the point here?

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I don't know. So somebody asked here, said doing, and this is an objection that they had, and we'll just go over this quick and we'll kind of delve back into your story.

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But it says, doing as a stretch exercise, I don't see the problem.

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If yoga practice creates a name for my squats as a worship pose, I can't do squats anymore.

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I'm free to do whatever stretching I want, and I know I'm not worshiping demons. Yeah, when you think of like that objection too, do you have any thoughts kind of given your experience?

08:54

I hear what this person's saying. I also, I've done squats in a gym and I've done goddess or warrior pose and they're very, they're different.

09:05

So, you know, there's, I work out every day and I don't find the need to do any of the specific yoga postures or poses.

09:14

You know, you've given the definition of yoking and that is a common definition for yoga.

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And then in Kundalini yoga, it's specifically, and we say it almost every class, that it is the divine union or communion with God.

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So when you're showing up to a yoga class, that's what you're saying you're doing, but you're in a studio that has all sorts of gods on the altar or on the walls or, you know, on their posters or whatnot, you know?

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And I mean, a lot of times I felt like a total fraud teaching at the studio

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I taught at, because I thought one day I sat there, I was waiting for anybody to show up and I sat there and I was looking at the altar that sat behind me while I taught.

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And I thought, I don't even know who all of these figures are, you know?

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But here we are and there's candles lit and it's very sacred, you know?

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And not all yoga studios are like that. I think a lot of yoga studios are more secular. I still think you're tapping into that same energy and intention of the practice, which is thousands of years old and has roots in other religions and other ideas of God and are much more in that, what we were talking earlier about the one -ism versus two -ism they're not, even if they say

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God, they don't mean the creator and we are the creation. They're not talking about the

10:52

Christian God at all. Do you think like going to the yoga studio and essentially as a person who's doing yoga at a yoga studio, you're essentially in a worship service, right?

11:03

Absolutely. You look a certain way, you're doing a certain thing, you're following the leader that is there.

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So I think the question would be is, well, if you're not a yoga studio and you're doing those things at home, well, aren't you actually just doing their church liturgy at home?

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Aren't you just doing a form of worship at home? That's a way to think about it. Well, I'm not in the studio,

11:22

I'm just doing those stretches at home. Well, that's their worship and that's their liturgy. What point of view do you have to do with the worship of false gods?

11:30

Taking it from the altar and bringing it in your home makes it special now? Makes it not worship anymore? I don't know.

11:36

It's just an interesting concept to think about. Or you could use the same, what if you use the same argument too?

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Like, could you, what if praying to Mecca a certain amount of time towards Mecca certain times today and praying in that particular pose, would that, are there stress benefits or the health benefits you can get to that?

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Like, if you wanna go down that road, like that's the type of argument, the type of argumentation you can make.

11:58

In fact, one last thing, I have two questions before we kind of jump on back into your story. This one person says, it's kind of a statement, but also a question.

12:07

And I think it articulates with what you were saying earlier. It said, I have major questions. I miss hot yoga for the intense stretching and core strengthening.

12:15

Also, I miss just the plain difficulty of it. I like a challenging workout and I can't literally salute the sun over and over or do poses named for gods or goddesses.

12:26

Yeah, they renamed them to normal names, but they are still god and goddess poses meant to activate chakras and energy channels, not to mention the studios

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I used to attend to have various idols all around, plus chanting and mantras, et cetera, et cetera.

12:42

For someone bringing that up, like what would be your initial thoughts on that? I mean, I understand and I would highly recommend finding a good cardio class or start weight lifting or there's ways to challenge yourself and get a really difficult workout in that does not involve setting a toe inside of the yoga world.

13:06

Right. That would be my first thought. Gotcha. But I understand the, you know,

13:12

I mean, there are things about the practices that I miss too. Not enough to do them.