If you thought that Holy Yoga™ was only about bringing the “Hatha” yoga asanas or postures wrapped in Christian worship into the church, you would be seriously mistaken. As Holy Yoga has expanded to include almost 2000 trained instructors, the organization has sought to the continued monetization of relationships with its instructors by offering additional training in Holy Yoga Therapy™, Trauma-Sensitive Holy Yoga™, and Holy Yoga Masters™ training. Not only do these additional courses come at a significant financial cost, but they also bring significant spiritual compromise to Christians who engage in these trademarked “modalities.”
The Holy Yoga Therapy™ instructor packet states:
“Any yogic technique used to systematically address physical injury or pain, or mental and emotional stress or trauma can be considered yoga therapy.” – Yoga Journal, 2016
Accepting this mandate from Yoga Journal, Holy Yoga Therapy™ (HYT) has embarked on the nearly complete “Chopra”-ization (as in Deepak Chopra) of its training programs. This 300-hour course includes training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, advanced “energy” concepts, Ayurvedic Medicine, “Touch of Health” aka Applied Kinesiology, and Holy Yoga Therapy for Eating Disorders™. Holy Yogic healing is not your typical Christian approach to healing that includes confession, repentance, forgiveness, and prayer; but many of these HYT “modalities” include the pseudoscientific manipulation and “balancing” of “subtle energies” often called “chi,” “qi,” or kundalini. Never mind that these energies have never been scientifically proven to exist let alone the Bible’s admonition against sorcery, i.e., the conjuring and manipulation of spirits.
“Touch for Health,” a brand of Applied Kinesiology, is a form of divination where questions are asked of the body (not the person), and the body responds by changes in muscle tension during muscle strength testing. The idea here is that the body has an ontologically separate “intelligence” and consciousness that can be communicated with independently from normal two-way verbal conversation. This is not merely physical examination or palpation of the body but asking questions directly to the body about how many vitamins it needs while a therapist counts and presses down on your raised arm. Supposedly, when the “body’s” innately needed number of pills is spoken by the therapist, the body responds by weakening at “its” needed number.
Applied Kinesiology muscle testing techniques are extended to asking the body all sorts of questions including which foods to eat, and whether your body is still “holding” onto trauma from a past event. It has even been used to determine that sex of an unborn child. One chiropractor in St. Paul, Minnesota was known to have correctly determined the sex of 13 out of 14 unborn babies with Applied Kinesiology muscle testing. However, the one error was due to the mother carrying fraternal twins of both sexes. This kind of hocus-pocus is now entering the church through Holy Yoga. It is essentially turning the human body into an Ouija Board for divination.
Even a review article on the efficacy of Applied Kinesiology muscle testing in the professional journal, “Chiropractic and Osteopathy” states:
“its ultimate scientific validation and application requires testing that employs sophisticated research models in the areas of neurophysiology, biomechanics, RCTs, and statistical analysis.” Chiropractic & Osteopathy 2007, 15:4
More succinctly stated, there are no studies showing the scientific validation of muscle testing in Applied Kinesiology. Even if muscle testing were proven to show efficacy through multiple randomized controlled clinical trials, that would not answer the question as to why it works or how it works. Just because a technique has been shown to have a statistically significant effect, does not mean the metaphysical or spiritual nature of the therapy changes to something that is purely materialistic. For example, just because the National Institutes of Health supports a study of the efficacy of Reiki energy healing that yields positive results, doesn’t mean the technique is not based on the occult, psychic conjuring of spirits.
2 thoughts on “Holy Yoga – The Trojan Horse of Occult Healing in the Church”
There are also no scientific validations for demonization, possession, speaking life and death, or having visions. If you’re afraid, just say so. If you’re ill-informed, just admit it. Would love to see a post about how Christmas trees are rooted in pagan rituals and how that’s taking the church down too. We are called to being the gospel, everywhere, to make it accessible in every place, if you’re not mature enough to do Holy Yoga, then don’t do it. I’ve seen people change and be led to Christ through it. Peter was called sinful when he was eating with gentiles because he broke tradition. Stop heaping burdens on people you can’t carry yourself. If you’re not led to do it, fine. It you don’t know what God has called people to do in the privacy of their relationships. You seem really scared for someone who is supposed to have the Holy Spirit. This whole website is a sham as if scripts doesn’t regularly say “Sleah” which translates to “meditate on this” all these posts about how meditation and mindfulness is sinful LOL. This is clearly written by an America white man. You’ve clearly forgotten that Christianity is an EASTERN religion.
Dear Beth,
I am an American white man and a Christian. I have also read the scriptures and understand the admonitions against idolatry, witchcraft, and divination. I have enough faith the believe the Word. I was involved in Buddhism, Shamanism and Eastern meditation before I became a Christian. I have also traveled to South Africa where I ministered at a church where over 80 percent of the members were of Indian descent and have seen demons related to yoga manifest in individuals. The members of this church have all rejected yoga, meditation and even renounced vegetarianism. I would like to refer you to a Christian white woman, Corrina Craft, who was a yoga teacher and massage therapist who is more of an expert on Christian Yoga than me. She has even published mainstream books on Shiatsu massage which she has renounced. She has a degree from Stanford University and a law degree as well. Her website and blog is at https://whatsthematterwithyoga.wordpress.com/. I especially recommend her short videos at https://whatsthematterwithyoga.wordpress.com/podcasts/ . These videos are excellent and highly informative.