In this post, eastern meditation is briefly examined from a Biblical perspective; then an authoritative view of Christian yoga and eastern meditation is presented via the teaching of the late Caryl Matrisciana. She was born in India and has written in depth on yoga and eastern religions; and she was a Christian. Her teaching video is 29 minutes long (on 4-27-21 I replaced her 77 minute video with a 29 minute because the initial video was terminated); it is my prayer that you would skip yoga today and partake of her expertise on a topic that is highly significant to your spiritual life.
A second video, a 13 minute excerpt from a Q&A session following Dr. John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference, deals with the yogic Kundalini spirit in the Pentecostal movement. A panel of pastors field questions about this topic. Their source for information about the Kundalini spirit is Adam Strom, a concerned Charismatic.
I was moved to offer this post because I was lost in the study of eastern religion for 15 years, during which time, I practiced yoga. I eventually gave up looking for God therein, a decade later, my life crashed; afterwards, God revealed Himself to me. At age 53, I was born again during my first read through the Bible; that was the most wonderful thing I have ever done in my life. Because of that read, and the experiences my former spiritual quest afforded me, I understand why the church is filled with chaos today: professed believers are not reading their Bibles, but are imbibing deeply of eastern spirituality… Because there are so few biblically literate Christians, living spirit-filled lives in the western world; many wrongly assume that Christianity has nothing to offer and they look to the east to enhance their spiritual experience: they are on the same dead-end street I spent 15 years walking. Yet, this is not something new, consider a verse from Isaiah, who prophesied 700 years before Christ: Isa 2:6 For the LORD has rejected His people, the descendants of Jacob, because they have filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers, as the Philistines do. They have made alliances with pagans.
If you are having trouble believing what I have shared about how the Bible impacted my life, then you might want to consider what happen to a lesbian professor, head of Queer studies at Syracuse University: she read through the Bible twice to prepare herself to write against it and was converted. She described her conversion experience as a “train wreck,” because it turned her life upside down, see: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert [see: categories, LGBT / Christianity for her story].
One last point, for all Christians who practice yoga: merely practicing yoga can cause the kundalini spirit to be released. That is, meditation hastens that release, but is not necessary for its occurrence. Therefore, please carefully attend to the signs noted below that accompany the presence of that evil spirit.
Who practices eastern meditation? (Eastern meditation is also known as transcendental meditation; TM; entering the silence; Hindu or yogic meditation….) Those of the New Spirituality (formerly New Agers); Reiki healers; Yogics; Wiccans; and now, Christians.
What is the goal of this meditation? Encountering the “higher self,”the deity within (one or more spirit guides).
For what reason would one want to encounter his higher self? Christian practitioners are seeking “fresh”, revelation from God, or “rhema” (In Christianity, rhema is used in Bible study to signify Jesus Christ’s utterances.[citation needed] from Wikipedia); Reiki healers seek these spirits to impart healing to their patients; yogics want to merge with God; Wiccans seek a deeper connection with the earth and blessedness. Some likely only seek mental refreshment; alleviation from stress; altered consciousness…but the truth is that this meditation opens up a channel to unknown spirit beings.
The steps practiced to enter the silence: 1. PURGATION: is emptying the mind or stopping the stream of thought by repetition of a word or phrase (mantra). 2. ILLUMINATION: acquiring truth via unknown spirit contacts and 3., UNION WITH GOD.
[Breath prayers, centering prayers…are like mantras, they are uttered with the intention of stilling the mind, to stop one’s thoughts; those who recommend them are moving practitioners towards eastern meditation. God gave us reason and imagination, both have their purposes in the functioning of our minds; a chief function of reason seems to be that of gatekeeper, especially regarding imagination. If we permit our imagination to dictate to our reason, then we invite evil into our minds as there is no accounting for where our unchecked imaginations might take us. Stephen Charnock, in his little treatise, Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts, addressed this in the process of explaining the cure he proposed.]
Why is this meditation unbiblical? In the Bible, God divides knowledge into three categories: 1. general revelation (the created universe); 2. special revelation, (scripture); and 3, unrevealed secret knowledge belonging only to God (see Deuteronomy 29:29). “Divination” is a biblical term describing any process used to get unrevealed spiritual knowledge (see Deut. 18: 9-12, e.g.); “familiar spirits” are those entities encountered in divination or in eastern meditation (Lev. 19:31 e.g.).
God forbids divination. Those who use divination are opening themselves to evil because they cannot know what kinds of spirits they are encountering (Eph. 5: 1-21; 6: 10-18). Anyone familiar with the 4 gospel accounts of Christ’s earthly ministry has read about Christ casting demons out of people who had been possessed by them. If you are a Christian who is dabbling in eastern meditation, then please reread the gospel accounts of these exorcisms, and consider practicing biblical meditation instead. As God protects Christians from such beings if they stay within the boundaries set by scripture. There are videos on YouTube about people who practiced yoga and were possessed by evil spirits, check them out for yourself. I studied psychic phenomena in one of my philosophy classes, and I remember studying how people had been possessed via using a ouija board; I have read of possessions occurring via TM…please don’t think that it cannot happen to you.
What is biblical meditation? It is the filling of the mind with scripture to understand and apply it, as in, e.g.: Joshua 1:8 “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” Also see Psalms 1 and 119; and 1 Tim. 4:15 e.g. (Sources: Faith at Risk 4 and 5, Twin city fellowship; A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen; Is That You Lord by Gary Gilley.)
The following 29 minute YouTube video by the late Caryl Matrisciana will enable you to better understand yoga and eastern meditation; also you will learn how yoga, meditation and the eastern worldview became so popular in the USA during the 1960s and thereafter; she was an expert on these topics and a Christian.
There are many yoga videos on YouTube by Caryl Matrisciana if this video left some of your questions unanswered.
God’s word states 5 times that mankind is to add nothing to His commands / laws; that man will be cursed for adding or taking from His word (see, categories, Mission Statement: that post provides all those scriptures).
Syncretism is adding to God’s word: adding rules, practices…that God did not specifically state. Therefore, Cindy Senarighi is under God’s curse, according to the Bible. But since most people go by their opinions / their own reason these days, they worship God in ways that they believe to be acceptable; all that do so are under God’s curse.
Yoga spirits coming into the church:
In the second post of this blog, under the category of “mission statement” I addressed this problem more thoroughly than here.
The following 13 minute video is an excerpt of Dr. John MacArthur’s Strange Fire Conference discussion panel. The pastors on the panel are soberly discussing phenomena occurring in the church via the Charismatic movement. The Kundalini spirit is from the Hindu yogic tradition; and Andrew Strom, a charismatic, in his book and three brief videos on YouTube, talks about how it is invading the church through the Pentecostal Charismatic movement. The following video has a brief clip from Strom’s videos. The men in this video, from left to right, are Todd Friel (host of Wretched TV); pastors Tom Pennington; Justin Peters; Steven J Lawson; and John MacArthur:
In Strom’s videos, he calls the Kundalini spirit the counterfeit Holy Spirit. Please view his 3 brief videos on YouTube. There are more videos on YouTube by Matrisciana and on the Strange Fire conference; these are worthy of viewing so that you might be armed against such deceptions occurring presently in the church. Furthermore, the preachers who spoke at the Strange Fire conference are sound biblical expositors; students of the Bible need to listen to such preachers who correctly exposit the Bible; also, Justin Peters has a ministry against false teachings in the church, see YouTube.
Did you hear Strom say twice, “how do we know” this wasn’t the Kundalini spirit. I noted above that only followers of the Bible can be sure of the type of Spirit they are dealing with. It seems to me that Pentecostals and yogics are exposing themselves to dangerous spirits, spiritual possession, etc. as they seek direct revelation from God–something He warns against in the Bible: Deu 29:29 “The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. (NLT) We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that He has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. (KJV) Deu 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. [Following are all the cross references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge for Deut. 29:29: secret: Job_11:6-7, Job_28:28; Psa_25:14; Pro_3:32; Jer_23:18; Dan_2:18-19, Dan_2:22; Dan_2:27-30, Dan_4:9; Amo_3:7; Mat_13:35; Joh_15:15, Joh_21:22; Act_1:7; Rom_11:33-34, Rom_16:25-26; 1Co_2:16 revealed: Psa_78:2-7; Isa_8:20; Mat_11:27-30, Mat_13:11; Joh_20:31; Rom_16:26; 2Ti_1:5, 2Ti_3:16 and to our: Deu_6:7, Deu_30:2]
One last note to parents, did you notice that the adolescents at Bethel church were practicing a very unorthodox form of religion just as those in the video clips of IHOP and of Rodney Brown? In the Holy Bible, parents are instructed to teach their children in the ways of the Lord (one must know scripture well to teach it); as you read the following examples from scripture, consider what you are teaching your children: we will be held accountable in God’s courtroom for how we worshiped Him and how we taught our children to worship Him.
Eph 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. 2Ti 3:15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. Deu 6:6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Deu 6:7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Below are more such scriptural references about raising children in the word:
Gen_18:19; Exo_12:26-27, Exo_13:14-15; Deu_4:9, Deu_6:7, Deu_6:20-24, Deu_11:19-21; Jos_4:6-7, Jos_4:21-24, Jos_24:15; 1Ch_22:10-13, 1Ch_28:9-10, 1Ch_28:20, 1Ch_29:19; Psa_71:17; Psa_71:18, Psa_78:4-7; Pro_4:1-4, Pro_19:18, Pro_22:6, Pro_22:15, Pro_23:13-14, Pro_29:15, Pro_29:17; Isa_38:19; 2Ti_1:5, 2Ti_3:15; Heb_12:7-10
It is my prayer that you will turn to the study of the Holy Bible for guidance in worshiping God.
Recommended studies:
Matrisciana: Wide is the Gate, Vol. 1, which covers unbiblical teachings that all Christians ought to be aware of. It is available at www.thebereancall.org
Another great study reference regarding the current clash of the two worldviews in our midst, is by Dr. Peter Jones: Only Two Religions. It is only available on cd or audible at Amazon. I took the computer class at Ligonier. org (for $90 a year, one may take as many classes as he likes from Ligonier by Biblical instructors). In this study, Jones brings to light information that Matriciana does not mention. It is a good investment for the Christian who wants to understand social forces at work in our culture, for the purposes of missionary work or witnessing Christ, e.g.
My second blog post under the category of “mission statement” explains that Christ considered the Bible to be the foundation of spiritual knowledge. In the video of that post, pastor Paul Washer defined what a true Christian disciple looks like according to the Bible. In the process, he said many things that could help one discern true from false teachers.