A former New Ager speaks out

by Laurette Willis

Before I became a Christian in 1987, I was a student and teacher of yoga for many years. Now, as the founder of PraiseMoves™, an exercise technique that’s being called “a Christ-centered alternative to yoga,” I’m often asked, “What’s so bad about yoga? It’s just exercise, isn’t it?”

Those who are aware of yoga’s roots in Hindu spirituality assure me they’re only doing the yoga class offered at their gym or following a video they picked up at Wally World – one with no chanting or strange meditation practices. “How can that be wrong?” they ask me.

Persons who think yoga is little more than a series of stress-relieving stretching exercises may be surprised to learn about true foundation of the multi-billion dollar yoga craze in North America.

Some estimate there are 15-20 million people practicing yoga in the U.S., and over 50,000 yoga instructors offering classes at approximately 20,000 locations. We may add to this the numerous videos, books and magazines featuring yoga postures and philosophy. It’s no small wonder a recent cover of Life magazine featured television actress Eva Longoria in a yoga posture with the words, “Dogs do it, kids do it, even Desperate Housewives do it. Why we’ve become a Yoga Nation.”  

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, yoga (coming from a Sanskrit word that means “union with god” or “to yoke”) is “a mystic and ascetic Hindu discipline for achieving union with the supreme spirit through meditation, prescribed postures, controlled breathing, etc.”

Over the last several decades, yoga has been embraced by the mainstream of society – and even the church. We find yoga classes offered at YWCAs, church fellowship halls, and even elementary schools.

As a child growing up on Long Island, I became involved with yoga at the age of seven when my mother and I began watching a daily yoga exercise program on television. For the next 22 years I was heavily involved with yoga, metaphysics, and the New Age movement until I came to the end of myself and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ in 1987.

We don’t often think of other religions having missionaries, but the philosophy and practice of yoga have been primary tools of Hindu “missionaries” to America since Indian priest and mystic Swami Vivekananda introduced yoga to the West at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.  

Another Hindu missionary welcomed into elite circles was Paramahansa Yogananda who started the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles. He cleverly chose to demonstrate that yoga was completely compatible with Christianity. Wearing a cross, he came to America in the 1920s with the Hindu Bhagavad Gita in one hand and the Bible in the other. He reasoned that yoga was the binding force that could connect all religions.

Yoga may be called the “missionary arm” of Hinduism and the New Age (occult) Movement.  

From experience I can say that yoga is a dangerous practice for the Christian and leads seekers away from God rather than to Him. You may say, “Well, I’m not doing any of the meditation stuff. I’m just following the exercises.” It is impossible, however, to separate the subtleties of yoga the technique from yoga the religion. I know because I taught and practiced hatha yoga for years.

Perhaps you have sensed uneasiness while doing yoga (what some call a “check in your spirit”), but you ignored that quiet nudge. I urge you to pay attention to it. Jesus Himself said, “…the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice” (John 10:4).  

Your yoga teacher may bow to her class saying, “Namaste” (“I bow to the divine in you.”). Postures have names such as Savasana (the Corpse Pose) and Bhujangasana (the Cobra or Snake Pose). References are made to chakras or “power centers” in the body, such as the “third eye.” The relaxation and visualization session at the end of yoga classes is skillfully designed to “empty the mind” and can open one up to unwholesome spiritual influences. As Christians, we are instructed to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Subtle suggestions given in yoga classes can plant seeds of doubt in even a strong Christian’s mind.

Yoga’s breathing techniques (pranayama) may seem stress-relieving, yet they can be an open door to psychic influences.  “Prana” is the Hindu word for “life force or energy” they believe is tied to the breath. This is translated as “chi” or “ki” in other eastern practices.

As a yoga instructor before coming to Christ, I used the customary relaxation period at the end of a yoga session to plant seeds of my New Age beliefs – while my students were relaxed and “open.” As a student of yoga I remember numerous instances of “traveling outside my body” during these relaxation periods.  Whether real or imagined, one wonders who – or what – checked in when I checked out? (Note: While Christians cannot be “possessed” since the Holy Spirit resides in your re-created human spirit, one may be “oppressed” by demonic influences.)

Still not convinced? I’ve received some stunning confirmation from an unlikely source. A staff member of an East Coast Classical Yoga Academy wrote to me, “Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact.” This staff member went on to say she didn’t appreciate my “running down of the great Hindu/Yogic religion.”

According to Swami Vishnudevananda, one of yoga’s most influential leaders, hatha yoga “prescribes physical methods to begin … so that the student can manipulate the mind more easily as he advances, attaining communication with one's higher self.”  It seems the student is being manipulated as well. Yoga’s “least religious” form, hatha yoga, influences one’s spiritual life as unmistakably as any one of the dozens of other yoga techniques.

Yoga claims physical and mental disciplines bring about union with God. Sounds like “salvation by works,” doesn’t it? According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (once associated with the Beatles), meditation “brings us more ability for achieving something through right means, and very easily a sinner comes out of the field of sin and becomes a virtuous man.”  Oh, really?

The Bible tells us: “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins… We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His life for us” Romans 3:23-25 NLT.   

 

Meat Offered to Idols?

You may study or teach yoga (or “Christian yoga” – which many feel is an oxymoron, like a “Christian Buddhist”). You may believe your yoga practice is completely compatible with your Christian faith and your relationship with the Lord is unshakeable. I ask you, however, to consider for a moment the young Christians and non-believers in your life. We all have people we influence by how we live our lives.

In light of the facts – the religious philosophy and history of yoga – take a look at Paul’s warning to believers in the Corinthian church about meat offered to idols (yoga postures are offered to idols), “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being… If anyone says to you, ‘This was offered to idols,’ do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake…not your own, but that of the other… not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:23-24; 28-29, 33).

While practicing yoga may not seem to have an adverse effect on your Christian walk, it may be effecting your Christian witness. Of course not everyone who knows and trusts you will jump into yoga and find themselves engulfed in a New Age lifestyle for 22 years as I was, but some weak ones might – and be hopelessly lost as others have been. Would you agree that we are responsible for planting seeds of faith or doubt that can lead people to Christ or away from Him?  

PraiseMoves certainly isn’t for everyone, but stretching exercises are! Find a good book on stretching and flexibility. Look for videos that are purely about stretching the body – not the mind and spirit.

Ultimately, the decision is between you and the Lord.  “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God” 1 John 3:21.

 

“A flash of inspiration”

How clearly I recall the exact moment the idea for PraiseMoves occurred to me on February 25, 2001 at 10:35 a.m.  I had just finished working out to a video with a popular fitness queen and felt sweaty, uncomfortable, and fat.

“There’s got to be a better way,” I said – half to myself and half to the Lord. “There have got to be some exercises that are good for strengthening the body, but I’d like to add scripture to help renew the mind and move us to praise and glorify the Lord at the same time.”

Suddenly the idea for PraiseMoves was born. Over the next two years, I prayed, fasted, studied and developed the PraiseMoves™ technique. Our foundation scripture is 1 Corinthians 6:20, “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” People who have been looking for a safe alternative to yoga have told me PraiseMoves is answered prayer. I also believe it can be a “witty invention” to win the lost.

The physical benefits of PraiseMoves are similar to those of stretching and yoga exercises: increases flexibility, assists in weight loss, helps injuries to heal, strengthens muscles, improves circulation, coordination and balance, alleviates stress; and new research shows stretching exercises can help stabilize the hormonal system and prevent or even reverse osteoporosis.

PraiseMoves postures are integrated with corresponding Bible scriptures. For example, during a posture named “The Altar” (at left), we consider the scripture from Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Dr. Steven J. Scafidi, a chiropractor in New Jersey writes, “I have been experiencing terrific results using PraiseMoves and have been recommending it to my patients. I am thankful to Laurette for a program that combines Christ-centered worship with the physical benefits often attributed to yoga.”

PraiseMoves is featured in BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness (Harvest House Publishers, April 2005), a self-published video, and an upcoming Harvest House DVD. Individuals interested in becoming PraiseMoves Instructors are being trained and certified to bring this Christian alternative to churches, gyms, health clubs and recreation centers across North America.

I am grateful that the Lord can redeem everything we surrender to Him. The minuses of my past have become, by His amazing grace, a positive force for good to help renew the physical temples of the Body of Christ and a “witty invention”  to help win the lost to Him. He gives “beauty for ashes”  and always stretches us – in the right direction!

Laurette Willis is a speaker, actor, founder of PraiseMoves™ and author of BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness (Harvest House Publishers, 2005). She presents talks, one-woman shows (Great Women of the Bible) and Fitness for His Witness™ Seminars to churches, conferences and women’s ministries throughout North America.

Please see: www.LauretteWillis.com and www.PraiseMoves.com for information.