Excerpted from “How to Avoid New Age & New Thought Deception” by Doreen Virtue, available at:  https://a.co/d/0DDm3SQ

One of the most spiritually dangerous events in a Christian woman’s life is when she’s vulnerable because of a health, financial, or relationship challenge – and another professing Christian recommends a New Thought or New Age practitioner to help her. We must be on-guard against these schemes of the devil that can come through the recommendations of unaware and well-meaning friends.

First, let’s look at New Age and New Thought beliefs and practices. Then, we’ll outline the various practitioners of these deceptions, so you’ll know what to avoid – and so you’ll be equipped to warn other sisters in Christ against these practices:

New Age and New Thought Similarities & Differences

As someone who spent 33 years as a New Thought church member and 26 years as a New Age teacher before God saved me, I’ve observed that there’s an overlap between New Thought and New Age beliefs. After all, they both have the same author (the devil).

Just like the Bible is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), so all deception is devil-breathed. That’s why New Thought, New Age, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), and Word of Faith all sound similar. They’re from the same counterfeiting, lying, scheming, deceitful devil!

Similarities between New Thought & New Age:

• New Thought and New Age both utilize visualization and affirmations to try to “manifest” or “attract” desires.
• Both also downplay the Bible’s authority.
• They both deny Jesus’ divinity and describe Him as a human teacher or role model.
• The New Thought Religious Science Science of Mind 1926 first edition church manual by Ernest Holmes endorsed mediumship and spirit communication, just as New Age does. Subsequent printings of Science of Mind removed the mediumship recommendation chapter. The other New Thought denominations either denounce mediumship/necromancy (Christian Science) or ignore the topic (Unity).

Differences between New Thought & New Age:

• In my 33 years in New Thought, I never once saw the use of tarot or other divination tools.
• New Age tends to appropriate from other cultures, while this isn’t common in New Thought. Although I do remember sitting through a Religious Science church service when Buddha’s “birthday” (known as Vesak or Wesak) was celebrated. New Agers incorporate: Hindu worship practices such as yoga and chakra balancing and belief in reincarnation; utilize Native American Shamanic methods such as smudging with sage, dream catchers, power animals, sweat lodges, and drumming circles; and believe in Roman Catholic saints and archangels, and goddesses and deities from various cultures.

Avoiding New Thought & New Age Practitioners

Avoiding New Age and New Thought deception means avoiding their evangelists, teachers, sales people, and practitioners. Here are the most common to notice and avoid:

New Thought Church Practitioners

Most New Thought practitioners are part of the Christian Science, Unity, and Religious Science churches. Christian Science, Unity, and Religious Science train people to become professional practitioners, using their New Thought teachings. The main focus is upon healing physical illness or injury; however, the practitioners will focus upon whatever issue the client brings. Usually, New Thought practitioners don’t charge a fee, but expect to receive a suggested donation or “love gift” amount for their services.

As I mentioned, my mom was a professional New Thought Christian Science practitioner. She had her own fancy office in downtown Escondido, California with a busy practice specializing in women with eye issues including glaucoma. In Christian Science lingo, she would “treat” her clients by assigning them Bible passages and excerpts from the Science and Health book to read daily.

At our Wednesday evening Christian Science testimonial meetings and in our Christian Science publications, we’d hear about people saying that they were miraculously healed from these treatments. Our family, like most Christian Science families, didn’t go to doctors or use medicine. So, we relied upon mom’s practitioner treatments. I remember a few times of rapid healing of my childhood cuts and bruises. Of course, most of us have also read the tragic accounts of children dying because their Christian Science parents wouldn’t allow medical care.

Louise L. Hay, my former publisher, was a former Religious Science practitioner. She said that she “received” the information for her first book, You Can Heal Your Life, from her sessions with clients. Louise had a lot of entertaining stories from those days. Yet, she like all of us who were deceived by the New Thought, didn’t know or believe the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people attested that Louise’s books helped them. Unfortunately, without the Gospel, souls can’t be saved.

New Thought practitioner treatments center around counseling, coaching, and praying. The goal is to get the client to align their thoughts with positive thinking and “knowing the truth” that we are already healthy, wealthy, etc. in spiritual truth. The practitioner believes that the only block to revealing or manifesting this reality is the person’s negative thoughts. So, sessions are focused upon uplifting and encouragement.

New Thought practitioners don’t mention sin, hell, God’s wrath or anything else from the Gospel that they consider “negative.” After all, they believe that negativity caused their clients’ problems. This was how I was raised, so when I heard the Gospel it made no sense to me.

New Thought teaches that we’re “perfect, whole, and complete” and that we’re sinless like God. New Thought skips over Genesis 3 and just cherry-picks the Bible so that humans are the heroes, and God is the helper. Until we realize that we’re all sinners (Romans 3:23), we won’t know why we can’t save ourselves and why we need the only Savior Jesus as our Lord.

New Thought prayers also differ from biblically based prayers. New Thought practitioners aren’t praying to seek God’s wisdom or to repent. Instead, New Thought “treatments” are more like positive affirmations to try to boost the clients’ “self-esteem.” New Thought prayers are an attempt to make something happen, instead of offering our petition to God and trusting His will. While ego-stroking prayers said aloud during these sessions may feel good in the moment, without Jesus and salvation, the client can’t know true and lasting peace.

Life Coaches

Now, not all life coaches use New Thought or New Age methods. But enough of them do, to warrant this section. A life coach is usually an unlicensed paraprofessional counselor. During life coaching sessions, clients receive advise on career, relationships, and other life concerns for a fee.

Unless a life coach is rooted and grounded in the Bible, there’s a high chance that her advice will have New Thought and New Age elements. For example, she may guide clients to follow their heart, believe in themselves, visualize success, make a vision board, or use positive affirmations. She may encourage clients to quit an unsatisfying job that pays the bills, and instead try starting a new career in an unproven industry. These methods have become so normalized that many Christians don’t recognize that they’re man-centered instead of God-centered concepts. They also can be risky, and people can have regrets for letting go of their paycheck while chasing an unrealistic dream.

We need to pray for God’s wisdom and leading, not try to hand Him a script to follow. Our desires and will are based upon our limited human understanding, while God has created and sees the bigger picture for our lives.

If you go to a life coach, or you are one yourself . . . please be careful and compare everything to Scripture to stay on the straight and narrow path.

Mastermind Groups

Similar to life coaches, these groups are usually based upon Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich concepts. Individuals meet online or in-person to share their goals and receive ideas and support. Some groups are free, while others charge a fee for the host of the group. While that sounds acceptable, beware of New Thought and New Age elements such as following your own heart instead of praying for God’s will.

Watch out for tell-tale mottos of the New Age and New Thought such as, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” As someone who followed and “manifested” my dreams for five decades before God saved me, I can attest that our manifested dreams can often turn into nightmares. Trust in the Lord, not in your heart (Proverbs 3:5; Jeremiah 17:9).

Energy Healers

New Thought emphasizes healing using your thoughts and their unbiblical prayers, while New Age emphasizes “energy healing.” In the New Age, I was deeply involved with energy healing and took many courses on the topic. I ended up becoming a Reiki master, a Pranic Healer, and I practiced polarity therapy.

New Age energy healers will show you journal articles that seem to show the efficacy of energy healing. I saw evidence of energy healing working, as well. But at what cost? If someone believes they were healed by an energy healer, do they give glory to God? Does this experience result in salvation, or a commitment to Bible study, drawing closer to Jesus, or greater involvement in the local church? Not usually! Most energy healing sessions are about “thanking the universe,” because they believe the healer is channeling energy from the universe and directing it to the client.

In Reiki, this effect supposedly occurs because of becoming attuned to Reiki symbols which are drawings that Mikao Usui – a Japanese spiritualist who emulated “Medicine Buddha” – said that he saw in a vision. Reiki does have a palpable vibration. You can feel it moving your body when Reiki is sent to you. And some people claim they were healed by Reiki. As we see in Pharaoh’s court in Exodus, the sorcerers do have the ability to a degree to counterfeit God’s miracles including healing.

When Usui’s student, Hawayo Takata introduced Reiki to the United States, she lied to make his teachings more palatable to the Western culture which was largely Christian at that time in 1937. So, Takata fabricated a story that Usui was a Christian seminary professor. She later admitted that this was untrue. Any Bible student would have instantly recognized that Reiki was incompatible with Christianity. Yet, to this day some professing Christians argue that Reiki is based upon Christianity. Even worse, I’ve heard people blasphemously argue that Jesus healed people with Reiki!

Reiki teachings are also a pyramid scheme, in that clients who receive Reiki treatments are often pressured to become Reiki practitioners themselves. To become a Reiki master, you take levels 1 and 2 classes which are either free or inexpensive. Becoming the next level – Reiki “master” – is expensive to add to the allure of exclusivity. I’ve always thought that term “master” is prideful, as well.

Another type of energy healing is Pranic Healing, which was supposedly invented by a man named Master Choa Kok Sui. There’s that “Master” word again! Pranic healing consists of using energy from your hands to clear people’s chakras (Hindu teachings about energy wheels inside the body). When I took Pranic Healing classes, I was impressed by the effects of these sessions. I was also swayed by Master Cho Kok Sui’s audio recordings of “the prayer of Saint Francis.” Now I realize that this prayer wasn’t actually from the historical Francis, and the effects of Pranic Healing were one more counterfeit from the devil’s playbook.

I’ve met people who claimed to have “discovered” other forms of energy healing. They sell online and in-person courses to become certified in these energy healing modalities.

The buzz words that people use for their energy healing inventions include:

• Quantum
• Light
• Reconnective
• Resonance
• Freedom

My strong advice is to avoid energy healing. People will argue, “Well, God made energy” as if that justifies engaging in a pagan practice. It’s similar to the astrologers who argue that “God made the stars, so therefore we can turn to the stars for divination.” And those who claim that it’s a choice between New Age energy healing and Big Pharma are making a false dichotomy. There are other options.

The basis of energy healing is that the healer is a channel between “universal life force energy” and the client. This is so man-centered and pagan, that it has dozens of red flag warnings attached to it.

If you go to a massage therapist or chiropractor, be sure to tell them that you’re a Christian and that you don’t want Reiki or other energy healing systems during your session. Many body workers apply Reiki to their clients without first seeking permission, so be sure to speak up before your session begins. Or, better yet, seek a Christian practitioner who understands why Reiki is not advisable.

Hypnotherapy is another New Age / New Thought healing modality to avoid. Phineas Quimby, the father of New Thought, was himself a “mesmerist” and hypnotist influenced by Franz Anton Mesmer.

Before I was saved, I read books written by Quimby in which he discussed traveling widely and giving demonstrations of his hypnotism methods. Quimby believed that the mind was the primary cause of illness and healing. Quimby said that he could influence a person’s mind to go into a hypnotic trance and then he would guide the person to remove negative beliefs and accept positive beliefs that would lead to healings.

Ironically Quimby’s student, Mary Baker Eddy, who was legally accused of plagiarizing Quimby forbids Christian Scientists to go to hypnotists. I remember watching a hypnotherapy demonstration with my mom at a county fair. When they asked for volunteers, I begged my mom but she said I wasn’t allowed to participate because we were Christian Scientists. That was actually one accurate teaching in Christian Science, since hypnotherapy is spiritually dangerous.

I trained in hypnotherapy through the American Institute of Hypnotherapy in Irvine, before I was saved. Today, I would never conduct nor go to a hypnotist because the Bible teaches us to be alert and sober-minded. Hypnotherapy and trances make us unaware and unalert, so we’re tragically vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion and demonic deception.

I understand that hypnotherapy seems helpful in conquering addictions, and I used the Lamaze method of hypnotherapy for the natural birth of both of my sons. However, I would look for other alternatives from biblically sound Christian counselors, before ever considering hypnosis.

Past-Life Regressions are related to hypnotherapy. Once you’re lulled into a trance by the regressionist, she’ll suggest that your “subconscious mind” can go back in time and remember when your current problem began. She’ll ask you to speak aloud to describe your experience of “remembering” your past life, and how it’s connected to your current issue. The belief is that once you consciously understand the beginning of your current problem, by accessing a past-life memory, that the problem will vanish.

This modality is an example of how the New Age appropriates other cultures. Hinduism believes in reincarnation, and the New Age borrows heavily from Hinduism. As Christians, though, we follow the Bible’s teachings which clearly teach that there’s only one earthly life followed by an afterlife to either heaven or hell. Those who have repented and believe the Gospel of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are forgiven and cloaked in His righteousness and will spend eternity in heaven with Him.

The Bible says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Once we die, we are in the presence of God (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

If reincarnation were true, then there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the cross to save us. The idea of past-lives and reincarnation is a man-centered works-based belief, thinking that people can save themselves with their good works through subsequent lives.

Like the other New Thought and New Age modalities, past-life regression may seem to work. People always point to the examples of children who seem to remember their past lives with incredible accuracy. I had similar experience with past life regressions given to me by the late Dolores Cannon. Yet, this is one more example of the devil’s ability to fool people into following him. The devil and his demons have studied human history for thousands of years, so it’s not difficult for them to suggest details of another person’s life and trick us into believing it is our own. We must be alert, sober-minded, and resist the devil.

Psychics and Mediums are New Agers who have honed their intuition to the point where they can pick up on messages from demons masquerading as angels or departed loved ones (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). The messages can be shockingly accurate, which is falsely seen as a sign that these are messages from angels or departed loved ones. Always, the accurate messages in readings is mixed together with lies such as “follow your heart” or encouragement to keep sinning. The devil hooks people with the false hope of getting accurate messages, and then twists the knife with false messages designed to lead people astray.

Before salvation, I was a psychic and medium (also known as a necromancer) who gave public readings to large audiences. I received “messages” through my thoughts, feelings, and visions for people I’d never before met. While giving audience readings in Athens, Greece I received messages in the Greek language. My psychic and mediumship readings were startling in their accuracy, because I was tragically listening to demons posing as angels and departed loved ones. The demons are evil, and they shrewdly know how to fool the psychic and her client because they don’t know the Bible.

God condemns psychic readings in the Old and New Testament (c.f., Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Acts 16:16) because He wants to protect us from deception. If we’re tempted to visit a medium because our heart is grief-stricken, we must turn to God for strength and comfort instead.

Some people twist the “great cloud of witnesses” verse in Hebrews 12:1 to try to justify mediumship. However, we can’t take verses out of context like this! The great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1 relates to the previous “hall of faith” chapter of Hebrews 11 which lists Biblical men and women like Moses and Sarah who should inspire us by their examples of faith. The cloud of witnesses isn’t a group of deceased people hovering over us, awaiting a mediumship session.

A session with a medium only intensifies our grief, because it’s sinful rebellion against God and not trusting Him to comfort our hearts. Opening that doorway to the occult can lead to further deception, as the appetite for the paranormal increases and leads to people exploring other areas of the New Age. Stay away from fortune tellers, palm readers, psychics, and mediums.

Pet Psychics also use condemned New Age methods in their sessions. Now, I do believe that animals non-verbally communicate with us about their needs. Yet, pet psychics often concoct crazy messages about our pets’ past lives and their spiritual lessons for us. They elevate animals above humans (and yes, I realize that animals can be nicer than humans).

Some horse and dog trainers may incorporate New Thought and New Age teachings when they ask owners to “increase your energy” (energy is a major New Thought / New Age buzz word), and other psychic techniques. Be discerning and don’t open the door to deception.

Divination, Angel, and Tarot Card Readers claim to get messages from pieces of cardboard. I cringe to remember when I was involved with “angel cards,” which appear to be innocent since angels are in the Bible. Yet, all forms of divination are condemned by God in the Bible for good reason. I still can’t fathom why I put so much faith into little pieces of cardboard back then!

The cards tempt people into believing that they can predict their future. In this way, they can perhaps prepare for the future, or even bypass unwanted future events. It’s one more way that the devil tries to fool people into thinking they can “be like God” as he did to Eve in Genesis 3.

Divination cards have tragically become normalized. When I first segued from New Thought to New Age in the early 1990’s, you could only buy divination cards at crystal shops and metaphysical stores. These days, divination cards are sold at regular stores. People hire tarot card readers for their parties, and yoga teachers read cards for their students as the class winds down. Your co-worker may have a glass bowl of cards on her desk, and your neighbor may pull out a deck of cards from her purse. People even wear tarot card images on their clothing!

Some argue that the Bible condones divination because of the passages about casting lots and the Urim & Thummim. Here’s why these arguments don’t hold water:

• The Urim & Thummim were entirely under God’s control. Divination methods are under human and demonic control.
• The practice of casting lots ended soon after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:26), and the Urim & Thummim ceased in the Old Testament times (Exodus through 1 Samuel). There are no stories or instructions to the early church to continue these practices.
• There are no descriptions of what the Urim & Thummim are. Some people guess that they were crystals, but that’s just a guess.
• God never contradicts Himself. When He says that divination is condemned, He means it.

Other divination practitioners to avoid include those who use pendulums, which are crystal points hanging from chains. These pendulums are supposed to act like truth detectors, but they are divination tools. Yes, God made the crystals but that doesn’t give us permission to defy His commandments.

Also be discerning about water dowsers or “water witches” who use rods to find underground water sources. There may be some evidence that this works, but many dowsers teach New Age divination beliefs in energies and forces instead of giving glory to God for wisdom and His creation of water.

Astrology and Horoscopes are in the same category of divination practices. And no, the Magi were not astrologers! They were following a prophesied star to see the baby Jesus. This is different than turning to the stars for personal guidance about your life, as astrology and horoscopes claim to do.

I was very involved in these practices in the New Age, and believed that it was important to know someone’s astrological chart before becoming friends with them to see if you were compatible.

Some Christians argue that, since God created the stars and the planets, it’s fine for us to turn to them for guidance. This is a case of confusing the creation (stars and planets) with the Creator (God). Romans 1:25 warns against serving the creation instead of the Creator. God wants us to turn to Him and His Word for wisdom, not to His creations!

The Bible denounces astrology. In the book of Daniel, astrologers are shown to be inept and ineffective. God also warned about the bitter end for those who practice astrology:

“You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.

‘Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!” Isaiah 47:13-14

Horoscopes are normalized in women’s magazines, yet they’re not innocent cousins to astrology. Horoscopes are a condemned divination tool that people use to try to find “hidden secret knowledge” and also to attempt to identify themselves. Our identity isn’t in a pagan sun sign. Our identity is whether or not we are saved in Christ. If we are, we are children of God.

The traits of the various zodiac signs shouldn’t intrigue us. We should instead focus upon the Fruit of the Spirit:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Yoga teachers (sometimes unknowingly) glorifying Hindu deities. Yes, there are practices that some churches host called “Christian yoga” and “holy yoga,” but please know that the word “Yoga” is a Hindu Sanskrit term that means “yoke” or “bind” to the Hindu creator deity. Stretching is healthful and natural, but yoga is not redeemable for Christians.

I did yoga almost every day for over 20 years. Then God saved me out of the new age and I started to research the practices I was involved in. Yoga violates the first two Commandments that are still for today, no other gods and no graven images. So I threw away my yoga mats and haven’t looked back. I still stretch daily, but without yoga asana poses.

Yoga is a Hindu worship practice to glorify their 330 million deities by contorting your body to a shape that mimics an aspect of the deity. It’s literally glorifying a Hindu deity by twisting your body into a graven image. There’s no way to redeem yoga. It’s not just stretching. This is not legalism. Yoga is not like the meat that was redeemed in 1 Corinthians 8 – yoga is like the pagan temple and the pagan prayers.

We’re commanded to glorify our one true God with our bodies and with everything we do. How is twisting our bodies like a Hindu deity glorifying our God? We can’t add Bible verses to a Ouija board and redeem it, and neither can we redeem yoga.

Some women argue, “Well, God knows my heart!” Yes He does, and we should be reverent and not rebellious.

Putting the word “Christian” in front of a pagan practice does not magically Christianize paganism. I’ve been seeing posts about “Christian astrology,” “Christian yoga,” “Christian enneagram” and “Christian witchcraft,” as if those terms would legitimize pagan practices that the Bible condemns.

That’s like putting the word “legal” in front of an illegal activity such as “legal bank robbery” in an attempt to circumvent the law. Can you imagine standing before a judge, arguing that it was okay to rob a bank because you used the term “legal”? Can you imagine standing before God on judgment day, arguing that it was okay to break His law because you used the term “Christian” in front of His condemned practices?

Those who use terms such as “Christian astrology” argue that these practices are condoned in the Bible, just because the terms are listed in the Bible. The reason why those practices are in the Bible is because they are in lists of condemned forbidden practices.

Even worse is the argument to try to justify so-called “Christian witchcraft,” which claims that Jesus practiced witchcraft! Those who say that need to repent. Jesus was fully God and fully human during his earthly ministry. Jesus’ miracles were pointing to His identity and divinity, as the second Person of the Holy Trinity.

No matter how many hymns or Bible verses are chanted during a yoga session, there’s no such thing as Christian yoga. Yoga is a Hindu practice of bowing down to pagan deities. You don’t see people claiming they’re doing “Christian basketball,” because basketball is spiritually neutral. Yoga is not, because engaging in a practice deigned to worship idols is forbidden by the 10 Commandments.

Yoga is NOT “just stretching.” The ancient Hindu writings clearly describe yoga as a prayer and glorification of their 330 million deities. The word yoga means “yoke or bind” with the Hindu deity Shiva. Unlike the meat that was redeemed in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, yoga is analogous to the unredeemable pagan temple and prayers.

Yes, God knows your heart, which should give us pause to obey his first and second commandments and not engage in the polytheistic idolatry of yoga – even if it’s called “holy yoga, Christian yoga, or PraiseMoves.” Yoga like Ouija boards can never be “Christianized.” There are many ways to stretch without engaging in yoga asanas.

A man named Sandeep whom I interviewed twice for my YouTube channel is an ex-Hindu originally from India. He was born in the high priestly Brahman caste and he was saved when he read the Bible. Sandeep previously studied all of the Hindu literature and is now a Bible-believing Christian. He recently wrote:

“Yoga is rooted in Hinduism. One of the most important Hindu scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, has its chapters named with the word yoga. Yoga is just not about physical practice, but the yoga of devotion is the highest of all yogas. That’s the goal. If anyone opens Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.1, 1.35, he would never say that yoga is not Hinduism. Don’t call yourself a Christian if you practice yoga. Jesus did nothing of those, neither did the apostles or even the early church fathers. Yogas sutras of Patanjali in 2.44-45 talks about yoga’s spiritual connection.

‘If anyone opens Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.1, 1.35, he would never say that yoga is not Hinduism. The earliest trace of the word yoga can be found in Rig Veda 1.18. Here yoga isn’t related with any kind of asanas, but rather you see different names of Hindu gods mentioned. Name me one evidence for the Hindu gods that goes before the 2-3rd century BC? One?

‘The Vedas were not written until a thousand years ago. What we know as Hinduism today has mostly developed within the last 1500 years. Not the oldest!”

In my studies of “Christian yoga,” “Praise Moves,” and “holy yoga,” I find that they use many of the same poses as Hindu yoga. They might change the title of the pose, or add a Bible verse that you’re supposed to say while holding the pose. But it’s still Hindu yoga at its core.

As I said earlier – we can’t add Bible verses to a ouija board and call it “Christian ouija.” It doesn’t work like that!

I could write an entire book about the various yoga poses, and which Hindu deity each pose glorifies and emulates. Yet, I’ll focus upon the main pose that is a problem for Christian women: Warrior pose. This pose is in almost every yoga session, as part of the “sun salutation series.” (The fact that they’re saluting the sun should be a major red flag).

So, let’s look closer at why we should avoid Warrior pose:

Warrior 1, 2, and 3 are poses or asanas mimicking the murderous Virabhadrasana. That’s why these poses are collectively called Virabhadrasana (Sanskrit: वीरभद्रासन) in Hindu Sanskrit. Vīrabhadrāsana or Warrior Pose glorifies the exploits of a Hindu mythical warrior named Virabhadra. This deity committed murderous revenge. So, when we engage in the Warrior poses, we’re literally using our bodies to enact a pagan murder scene.

Being in yoga studios also led me astray by introducing me to the pantheon of Hindu and Buddhist deities in statutes and artwork at the yoga studios. I emulated this, and purchased similar statues and artwork for my home, and tragically began worshiping them as idols. Needless to say, those statues and artwork went in the trash when I was saved.

We are to give ALL glory to God with our bodies. How is mimicking a Hindu deity honoring to our God?

Yoga also leads students to sin by chanting blasphemous words and phrases in Hindu Sanskrit like Namaste (which affirms the heretical belief in panentheism) and Ohm (which glorifies the universe, instead of our true God).

Here are some ways to stretch without engaging in yoga:

1. Pilates
2. Essentrics movement program
3. Physical therapy door stretches
4. Resistance elastic bands

Lots of sins seem to feel good and seem to help. But they are still sins and we need to avoid them.

In general, use discernment with practitioners who incorporate New Thought and New Age teachings into their practice. People have complained to me that their psychotherapists, doula, birthing coach, and other professionals have tried to push unbiblical deception teachings upon them.