yoga is DEMONIC????

[dancingleaf]

No really.

I was chit chatting with L - who fills in for at the studio where I take yoga classes - She's not there all the time but is the back up instructor.

Now L is a wonderful older woman. Almost 60. Tiny thing. about 5 ft tall. Very flexible. - well she's a yoga instructor, right? She can really kick your butt at yoga if she wants to.

She had been approached by the seniors centre in her area in a nearby town to teach a senior's class. Keep in mind that a lot of the population around here is French Canadian, which means Catholic.

So they are negotiating the details and the fact that she's was charging more than their last 'exercise' instructor... it was $5 more. Big deal. They get past that. Then they tell her... okay but you can't call it yoga. Yoga is Demonic and the Catholic Church FORBIDS people to practice yoga. She was more than a little ticked off by this and then they had this release thing they wanted her to sign... and she just finally lost it and said - I'm just not interested in working with you - find someone else if you want to make them jump hoops.

Honestly... I thought this was a whole lot of hooey. But she continued on with a related story... she had a massage therapist in one of her classes. And this woman came to her and said... well I'm taking classes so that I can get married and the priest has told me that I can't attend your class any more, I'm sorry but I have to quit.

Apparently this isn't just some weird thing, I found a whole lot of articles on the web on the subject. I won't link to them because some read like hoaxes and others are just too blasted long without really getting to the point.

I thought people objected to bellydance as too sexualized but... yoga is an open invitation to Demonic Possession.

Yup. There are some weird weird people out there.

Comments

[ishtara.livejournal.com]

I had this conversation a week ago using my other account. Same kinds of issues - is yoga exercise or a religion?

I think that it really varies depending on the teacher. Most people on that message threat seemed to have only gone to non-religious yoga classes and couldn't understand how anyone would have a problem with it.

My personal experience is that I've tried it twice. The first time, I was doing my undergrad. I was expecting to learn stretching and flexibility. Instead, it focused on "emptying our minds" which I thought was ironic considering I was paying thousands of dollars to fill my mind.

The second (about 14 years later) had us chant something in an Indian language. When I asked what exactly we were chanting, the instructor couldn't tell me and I refused to chant something when I didn't know what it meant.

I wish I'd had better experiences, but the two I had are the reason why I am a Pilates girl. Same focus on flexiblity and core stretch and zero percent chance of Eastern spirituality. I do have a ton of friends who do yoga, both inside and outside of Christianity, but I just can't into yoga.