Eastern Mysticism – Dangers of Yoga, TM, Reincarnation, and Karate
The Dangers of Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, Reincarnation, and Karate
Book excerpt from Out From Darkness: One Man’s Extraordinary Escape from Satanic Power, by Ben Alexander, former spiritualist medium. Used with permission.)
It is difficult to understand how in this scientific age of ours thousands of young people in the United States are abandoning Christianity in exchange for the proven failure of Eastern mysticism. It is unbelievable that these young people are willing to listen to Eastern gurus whose philosophy has only brought despair in a country which thinks more of its well fed cows, and allows rats to eat off the land while millions of its own children are starving.
Why are our young people turning East? I believe there is a cry of desperation; a longing to be wanted. As I travel the country I see a cry for help among these young lives, who are seeking for a purpose to life. There are several reasons why they have turned to the East.
- The young people are looking for human friendship, warmth, and affection instead of loneliness and alienation from their fellow man.
- They are looking for a way to experience life and God more directly.
- They are wanting an authority, a father-like figure. That is why Jim Jones was accepted. In the case of the Eastern turners they accept the guru.
- They think that Eastern religions are not tainted by money and power structures.
- Some are drawn to this Eastern philosophy for health reasons.
- There is a devotion to a deity.
- There is a desire for the tranquility of meditation.
- There is a search far an inner peace.
When one examines this list of goals, it quickly becomes evident that those who are involved in Eastern mysticism are no different from anyone else. Most people in America today are looking for the same ideals. All that has happened is these that people have chosen a more dramatic way. These goals seem good and contain elements of truth. But when one carefully examines the numerous Eastern religions offered today, there are obvious discrepancies. In Eastern religion sin is never mentioned, nor is atonement for sin considered necessary. It is taught that man’s nature is divine, and the ultimate purpose in all human existence is the realization or this divinity within one’s self.
The Eastern religions reject Jesus as Savior, therefore they are without the benefit of God’s revelation. The best that they can offer is some kind or philosophy to reconciled to. If that does not work, then they are promised that it will in the next reincarnation. The goal of the Eastern mystic is known as Samahdi—the highest attainable earthly state. In other words they try to annihilate their individual self into the impersonal essence of the Universe.
A. Yoga
One of the most subtle forms or Eastern religions being unwittingly practiced by thousands of Americans today is Yoga. According to Webster’s dictionary, Yoga is:
- Strict spiritual discipline practiced to gain control forces over one’s own being, to gain occult powers, but chiefly to attain union with the Deity of Universal Spirit.
- A Far Eastern and Hindu Indian system of philosophy and psychology.
- Mystical union with the Universal Spirit.
Many who practice Yoga think that it is a harmless exercise. This is far from the truth. Here is a list of statements the yogis believe:
- Every bodily organ is related to the soul.
- Every person has a physical and spiritual nature which strive with one another for preeminence. A harmony and union of these two natures is to be achieved through psychological exercises.
- Man’s s eternal self is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
- Man’s eternal self is both transcendent and immanent. It is without end, having neither birth nor death. In essence man is god.
- Heaven and Hell are products or man’s mind.
Most systems of Yoga can be divided into three stages, at least for the Western mind. (There are actually seven stages of Yoga.)
- First Stage: exercises and meditation.
- Second Stage: control of body functions.
- Third Stage: this stage of Yoga is nothing mare than pure Spiritualism. You will find the yogis are involved in materialization, this is where spirits literally solidify. They are involved in telekinesis, which is the moving of objects through an energy force. They are involved in states of trance, especially astral or soul travel. There is an organization called “Eckankar” who through special exercises is able do this soul travel or out of body experience. This is an extremely dangerous yoga practice.
The exercises in Yoga concentrated around the navel produce a general sensitivity. The exercises concentrated around the spleen (in which the Eckankar people specialize) relate to comprehension which leads to out of the body soul travel experiences. The exercises around the heart help the psychic vibrations. The exercises concerning the throat produce what is known as clairaudience, and these exercises, when a psychic goes into trance, will enable a spirit to take control of a psychic’s voice and use his voice. Other exercises have to do with the third eye. This is clairvoyance, where eventually a yoga practitioner will be able to see a spirit world of demons very clearly. The exercises concentrated on the cerebrum have do with continuity of consciousness. The yogis believe that these exercises that they are doing are for the purification of the soul; but in reality they are helping them more and more to attain demon power.
Yoga Induces Psychic Power
Sometime ago I received a phone call from a Christian brother who was concerned about his daughter. She went to Humboldt State University and took a class on Yoga. Her problem was every time that they prayed at meal time she would give off the most piercing, terrifying scream. She had become psychic and could read people’s minds; she explained this only took place after her involvement in Yoga. Fortunately this girl began to have a close walk with Jesus and never returned to the practice of Yoga.
Yoga Writers Sound Warnings
It is interesting to observe that pro-Yoga books warn of the possibilities of developing psychic power.
Guide to Yoga Meditation by Richard Hittleman.
Page 98 – “There are great mental and physical forces within us which lie dormant; which are not being used. The practice of Yoga awakens these forces and as this occurs, the ordinary mind, our usual consciousness, is expanded.”
Page 99 – “I should like to state that I am aware of many, many people who began their study of Yoga strictly for the benefit which could be derived from the physical exercises and became deeply immersed in the philosophical pursuits as the exercises began to arouse dormant forces!”
Page 101 – “Kundalini or basic power—when stimulated and aroused, the basic power makes an ascending journey up through the cord within the spinal column and according to how far it is made to rise, activates and opens, partially or fully, the various centers. These centers then begin to ‘work’ the areas of force in different parts of the organism over which they have control, are also awakened and their great storehouse of life-force is made available. This increased life force within the organism helps to produce the expansion of consciousness. It is through the gradual awakening and control of the centers that Yogis derive what is often referred to as ‘supernatural powers’ and ‘extra-sensory perception.’”
Yoga Anti–Christ
Yoga is anti-Christ, and here are six reasons why:
- It believes in re-incarnation (Heb. 9:27).
- Yogis worship Hindu gods (first commandment).
- Yogis worship idols (first commandment).
- Self-realization (Eph. 2:8).
- Harmony of our physical and spiritual nature is achieved through special exercises. (Divination, forbidden by God.)
- Man is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient.
While I feel that it is not necessary to go into an in-depth study of Eastern Mysticism, I do feel that it is essential for our children to understand and realize that these eastern cults do exist—they should be made aware of this fact. There is, of course, no need for them to become experts in Eastern Mysticism, or experts in the occult, but we do need our children to become experts in the Word of God.
B. Transcendental Meditation
The Founder
The founder of this movement was a man by the name of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi means a great sage. Mahesh is the family name and Yogi means a master or yoga. The very fact that at the end of his name he attaches the word Yogi means a teacher and practicer of yoga. A yogi will teach nothing less than yoga itself and although yoga itself is not a religion, it is a religious practice.
In his book Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, pp. 17, 18, the Maharishi said:
“We do something here according to Vedic rites, particular, specific chanting to produce an effect in some other world, draw attention of those higher beings or gods living there. The entire knowledge of the mantras of hymns of the Vedas is devoted to man’s connection, to man’s communication with the higher beings in different strata of creation.”
The Maharishi, by this statement, is telling us that T.M. is religious practice. On page 95 of the same book, he says meditation is:
“a very good form of prayer. A most refined and most powerful form of prayer is this meditation which directly leads us to the field of the Creator, to the sources of Creation, to the field of God.”
It is worth noting that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray he did not find it necessary to mention meditation nor did he assign them individual mantras.
Many people think that T.M. is harmless but it isn’t. T.M. does not deal with sin nor does it advocate devotion to God. T.M. says that peace is attainable without a savior, that the source of the power lies not in a personal god but in man’s heart. According to God man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Paul said, “beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.”
C. Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the belief of the Hindu religion that the soul reappears after death in another and different bodily form. The process is believed to be repeated thousands of times until perfection is reached. This theory is very attractive to the sinner. He feels much safer believing the theory of reincarnation than believing the Bible— “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Reincarnationists believe that man’s eternal self is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. They also believe that man’s eternal self is both transcendent and imminent, that is, without beginning and without end, having neither birth nor death. They believe that man himself is a God.
Hypnotism’s Proofs
The strongest so-called proofs of reincarnation are those produced by hypnotists. They claim that under hypnotic spells people are able to give facts about previous lives.
Hypnotism is being extensively used in spiritualism. Many spiritists are put into trance and different voices, supposedly from the dead, speak through them.
The Bible has the answer to this theory of spiritualism. In Jude 6 we read: “The angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation He (God) hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment or the great day.” II Peter 2:4 says, “God spared not the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” The Greek word, tartaroo, means to incarcerate. Jude and Peter indicate that certain angels sinned and that they are in darkness. In Ephesians 6:12, Paul says, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rulers of darkness of this world and in spiritual wickedness in high places.”
The Bible is clear that it is not a reincarnation process that is taking place, but a process of spirits taking over people’s minds.
Reincarnation and the Seance
At one seance I attended I anxiously asked the “spirit” in control of the medium what was the final result of reincarnation. I was shocked at the answer I received. The spirit, speaking through the medium, said everything becomes peace. We become a light and are caught up into the Great White Spirit.
I asked the spirit again, “But what happens to our soul? Our way of thinking? What are we like? Do we see our loved ones? What will it be like?” The spirit seemed to enjoy my concern and my consternation and said again, “You are peace and you don’t think of anything. Your mind no longer exists. It’s just at peace and that’s it.”
The spirit emphasized that all consciousness was finished. Life itself was meaningless. I was left with the impression of a kind of death, a vacuum, a complete hopelessness, thousands and thousands and thousands of years going forward to a complete blank. I think this was the most disappointing thing that I’d ever heard in spiritualism, and it left my spirit completely broken. Believe it or not, this is what millions of reincarnationists are working towards.
Jesus Contradicted the Reincarnation Theory
In Matthew 25:46 Jesus said, “And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.” We do not keep returning until we are perfect. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment.” The Bible is the final authority.
D. Karate
Should Christians participate in Karate? The writer of this article is of the opinion that Karate is a weapon of Satan. John 8:44 tells us that Satan is a destroyer and it is my prayer that you carefully study the cunning nature of Satan in getting our youth involved in the use of Karate.
Karate and Christ
I have spoken to a number of Christians who have been involved in Karate and among them I find those who have been encouraged to practice meditation techniques and also Yoga—along with Karate lessons. Some of these brothers quit Karate because they realized that the more involved they became in Karate they experienced occult manifestation.
On the other hand, I have also spoken to Christians who do not use Yoga but do admit to a type of meditation technique. They feel it is in no way involved in the occult.
They also explain they go to schools to demonstrate Karate and it gives them an opportunity to witness for Christ. I will always praise God and say Amen that they witness for Christ. But the problem we have is that they have witnessed for Karate us well. The danger we have is that we have opened the door for possibly thousands of souls to enter into the occult which can only lead to final damnation. Christians advocating Karate must ask themselves: “Am I a stumbling block to a weaker brother?” (Rom.14:1).
Even though people may participate in Karate without offending his own conscience he must consider the conscience of another who does not have the same knowledge of the danger involved. This consideration must be given because the weaker brother in Karate who may be practicing Yoga and deep meditation, etc., will be justifying his actions because the strong Christian participates. These opinions are going to be formed in the minds of the non-Christian teenagers in schools after watching and listening to Christians who advocate “Karate for Christ.”
Christian leaders, please understand that Yoga, I-Ching, The Chi and Meditation Techniques are influences that can lead to disaster. Remember it is not Karate that wins people to Christ. It can possibly have the opposite effect. Rather, it is the foolishness of preaching that wins people to Christ. Peter tells us that Satan goes about “like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). A lion only roars when it is too late for the victim to escape.
See also, Yoga & Christianity: Are They Compatible? by Chris Lawson, and Exposing Satan’s Power – Yoga Dangers Warning Series by Ben Alexander.
- Do you know about God’s gift of grace and the forgiveness of sin?
- This article was previously posted at https://www.dangersofyoga.com/eastern-mysticism-dangers-of-yoga.html.
