Paul Derengowski, ThM
It never ceases to amaze me just how gullible and naive people can be when it comes to the spirit world.
Most of the gullibility and naiveté is born out of biblical ignorance, which includes a vast majority biblically ignorant Christians.
One spiritual discipline that continues to evolve and grow in the west, all under the guises of physical and emotional well-being, is the eastern practice of uniting oneself with the great divine or yoga.
Yoga, from the ancient Sanskrit language, literally means “union,” and when it is practiced as the ancient Hindu yogis intended, means “union” with a god.
Of course, those same yogis stress that “union” cannot take place until the person involved in all the physical and mental exercises have emptied their minds of any thoughts.
Pantajali, the renowned Indian yoga practitioner who developed his Sutras, stressed this very point when he wrote, “Once you make the mind thoughtless you have attained the goal.”
“This itself is Yoga practice,” he continued, “watching our thoughts and analyzing them,” with the ultimate goal of entering into a thoughtless spiritual state.
What is disgustingly deceitful, however, about such a state is that the real, true-blue, yogi often does not alert the naive practitioner of what is waiting for him/her in the spirit world, should a person actually achieve such mindlessness.
In his Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism, Yogi Ramacharaka not only describes in vivid detail all of the occult connections associated with the practice of yoga (“psychic power,” “telepathy,” “astral projection,” etc.), he speaks of conditions of clairaudience, where “ghosts” and wandering souls are located on varying planes of existence.
In the worst-case scenarios, according to Ramacharaka,
The very lowest planes of the Astral World are filled with souls of a gross type–undeveloped and animal like–who live as near as possible the lives they lived on earth…These undeveloped souls cannot, of course, visit the upper planes, and the only plane below them being the plane of shells and the astral sub-plane immediately above the material plane (which is one of the so-called ante-rooms of the Astral World) they often flock back as near to earth as is possible. They are able to get so near back to earth that they may become conscious of much that is transpiring there, particularly when the conditions are such that they are in harmony with their own natures. They may be said to be able to practically live on the low material plane, except that they are separated from it by a tantalizing thin veil, which prevents them from actively participating in it except on rare occasions. They may see, but not join in, the earth-life. They hang around the scenes of their old degrading lives, and often take possession of the brain of one of their own kind, who may be under the influence of liquor, and thus add to his own low desires (pp. 201-202).
From the biblical perspective, such a description of fits perfectly with that of the demonic realm, where “unclean spirits” regularly seek out and possess those either against their will or by unwitting invitation through occult involvement (see Mt. 12:43; Mk. 1:26; Lk. 4:33; 8:29; 9:42; Acts 5:16).
Most yoga instructors in the west are either ill-informed of what they are doing or are simply leading forums of ignorant dupes who have no clue of what they have paid to have done to them.
All is assumed to be stretching exercises to make the body more tone or the mind less stressful.
The reality, though, is that yoga is a spiritual practice that puts the adherent in contact with the demonic realm.
At first, all seems innocuous and innocent, and there may even be temporary relief or physical benefit.
However, the more involved the person becomes in yogic practices, the more hostile the person becomes towards the truths of God, as the individual slowly yields the mind to possession of spirit entities that Jesus said were only interested in destroying him/her (Jn. 10:10).
So, a word to the wise would be, the next time you hear of someone boasting about the wonders of yoga, you might want to ask them if they have lost their mind, yet.
If the person returns with a look of incredulity or a negative response, then you might wish to enlighten the boaster that losing one’s mind is what real yoga is all about.
Anything other than that is simply westernized marketing designed to make a buck, while dabbling in the occult to get it.
That being the case, a regular evening stroll after dinner would provide more beneficial physical exercise, mental heath, and certainly spiritual well-being, than emptying one’s mind and invite in unwanted visitors from the Astral Plane to take up residence, whereby they may never leave until their goal is accomplished.
