January 3, 2026

Yoga & Spiritual Warfare

Women are told that yoga is ‘just stretching’ and stress relief, yet yoga didn’t begin as fitness and it doesn’t remain neutral today. Its roots are in Hindu worship, where postures, mantras, and breathing techniques were designed to unite the practitioner with false gods. What’s packaged as exercise in the West still carries spiritual wiring that isn’t harmless. Yoga isn’t just stretching, it’s spiritual warfare disguised as exercise.

I did yoga almost daily for the 26 years I was in the New Age and I lectured at Kripalu, Omega Institute, and other yoga centers. When God saved me, I threw away my yoga mats. I still do daily stretching, but as a Christian I will not do yoga asanas or chant Sanskrit anymore.

When you practice yoga, you’re not just moving your body. The breath control, chanting, and meditations are meant to alter your state of mind and open you up to spiritual experiences. Scripture warns us to be sober-minded and alert, because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Yoga leads to altered states which can lead to spiritual warfare.

Yoga is also a counterfeit to the Gospel. It tells you peace comes from techniques, from finding divinity within yourself, or from connecting with “the universe.” Yet true and lasting peace comes only through Jesus Christ, who gives us reconciliation with our Heavenly Father and fills us with His Holy Spirit. Yoga is the devil’s counterfeit of true peace in Christ.

Maybe you’ve noticed changes after yoga such as strange dreams, an increased hunger for mystical experiences, or even a heaviness you can’t explain. Children who practice yoga may suddenly develop signs of stress such as bed-wetting, nightmares, and difficulty in concentrating. These may be from spiritual warfare, because yoga means “yoke” and it is designed to yoke people to the Hindu creator deity which is a demon in disguise. Yoga yokes people to spiritual forces outside of God’s design.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace, not altered states or idolatry (Galatians 5:22-23). I started collecting Hindu and Buddha statues and artwork, as a direct result of being in yoga studios, and I unfortunately started praying to those idols before I was saved. Behind yoga’s calm surface is a battlefield for your soul.

If you’ve practiced yoga, the answer is repentance. Ask God to forgive you, to give you the strength and wisdom to turn away from it, and replace it with what’s safe and good. Stretch, walk, or exercise without yoga’s spiritual baggage. Meditate upon Scripture instead of on pagan mantras, remembering that true rest is found in Christ alone (Matthew 11:28). True rest comes from Christ, and not from yoga’s spiritual warfare.

Dr. Candy Gunther Brown’s research and my own surveys, found that women initially start yoga for the exercise. Then within months, their reasons for staying in yoga are because of its spiritual aspects. This is the warfare of spiritual bondage.

Sisters, please don’t treat yoga as harmless self-care, because the truth is that yoga is part of the enemy’s warfare against us. Even so-called “holy yoga” is rooted in Hindu deity worship, and like the pagan temples and pagan prayers in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, yoga can’t be redeemed.

Put on the whole armor of God, stand firm in the truth of His Word, and walk in the freedom Christ purchased for you (Ephesians 6:12-18). With Bible study, we develop the discernment to know that spiritual warfare doesn’t always look dark and scary; sometimes it looks like a yoga class.

https://oceanofpdf.com/authors/doreen-virtue/pdf-epub-from-counterfeit-to-christ-a-handbook-for-women-who-were-saved-out-of-deception-biblical-discernment-to-avoid-deception-for-christian-women-3-download/

From Counterfeit to Christ: A Handbook for Women Who Were Saved Out of Deception – by Doreen Virtue