The word yoga comes from Sanskrit. It may be the linguistic root of the Greek iogé, which means protection or umbrella, and the Latin jugum, which means yoke. According to these linguistic roots, to practise yoga is to place oneself under a yoke, to seek protection under a protecting force.
In Mishra’s comprehensive work on Patanjali Yoga, you can read some key sentences that show you the spiritual atmosphere of yoga: He writes:
- The higher self of man is transcendent, without beginning and without end, without birth and without death.
- Yoga means the union of the natural with the supernatural.
- Heaven and hell are only products of the human mind.
- The system of yoga is also behind magic, mysticism and occultism.
These four sentences alone show that yoga and the Bible cannot be brought together. The Far Eastern systems and the Christian faith are irreconcilable opposites. There are many forms of Indian and Tibetan yoga. A cross-section of the best-known forms of yoga reveals roughly four stages:
- The aim of the first level is to teach the student to master their mind and body. This is achieved through mental and physical exercises. The mental exercises include meditation, autogenic training, concentration and koan. This is the litany of constant repetition of a mantra, or secret word. The physical exercises include breathing exercises, various postures such as the lotus position, cobra and headstand. This first stage is therefore psychosomatic in nature, establishing the unity of body and mind.
Yoga is not just about relaxation. Dr. Kurt E. Koch experienced in his pastoral care that the relaxation technique and the so-called “emptying exercises” lead to other spirits flowing in. Yoga practitioners are often unaware of this.
- The second level of yoga involves the mastery of the subconscious mind. The master of the second level controls and directs, for example, the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for vital functions such as heartbeat, breathing and metabolism.
Example:
Dr. Kurt E. Koch met several yogis in South East Asia who were able to reduce breathing, heart activity and blood circulation to a minimum. They fell into a trance-like sleep that could last for ten weeks. During this time they consumed neither food nor drink.
Example:
A young woman from California told Dr. Kurt E. Koch in a pastoral conversation that she was a master of the second level of yoga. She had chosen Jesus as her guru for yoga practice. During her training, however, she developed occult abilities. As this seemed uncanny to her, she tried to free herself from it. Only through intense prayers from friends and terrible struggles was she able to free herself from the occult bonds. She wrote a report entitled “From Yoga to Christ” and gave Kurt Koch the right to publish it.
- The third stage of yoga is the mastery of the forces of nature. Combining magic and yoga is a speciality of Tibetan yogis. After a three-year apprenticeship with a lama, the student must be able to generate heat energies in nature and, for example, melt ice by concentrating his thoughts. Conversely, the yogi can generate heat and even flames of fire.
Having presented the first three stages of yoga, we can see that occult processes develop from yoga and that yoga thus leads to the powers of the abyss. Maurice Ray writes in his book “Yoga, yes or no?”: “Those who practise Hatha Yoga seriously acquire new abilities such as telepathy, clairvoyance, second sight and all the powers of a psychic state that are indispensable for occult activities.”
- In the fourth level of yoga, the yogi attains mastery of the black arts, which are mainly practised by Tibetan lamas. Kurt Koch has collected many examples of the fourth level of yoga through contact with many Tibetans and reports from Tibetan missionaries. These yogis are masters of trance, transmigration, telepathy and all the spiritual arts.
Yoga does not liberate, it enslaves. Yoga does not deliver, it binds. Yoga does not enlighten, it obscures. Yoga does not prepare the ground for Christ, but makes one unreceptive to Christ’s salvation. Yoga does not open the door for the Holy Spirit, but opens the doors for spiritistic spirits.
Yoga ends not only in self-redemption and atheism, but in the worship of demons. Those who participate in yoga exercises enter a force field from which they are unconsciously influenced and directed by Satan. He tries to drag people into the abyss with his deceptive and misleading light.
The subject of yoga from the perspective of the Christian faith is discussed in detail in the book “Yoga, Yes or No?” by Maurice Ray.
