Baltimore’s Robert W. Coleman Elementary School is taking advantage of unknowledgeable or inattentive parents, to instruct vulnerable children in the practice meditation and Yoga.   Instead of sending unruly children to detention, they are sending them to the “Mindful Room”. There they are taught breathing exercises, meditation, and Yoga.

“Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center.” – This school replaced detention with meditation. The results are stunning, James Gaines, 9/22/2016, Upworthy (online)

What I find stunning is the fact Christians have not risen up in protest, exposed this diabolical preying on their children, and demanded the school remove the program. The program, entitled Holistic Me, was established in partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation. According to the Foundation’s website, which pictures two children in meditating in yoga position, claims to “serve” 4500 students weekly. One has to wonder if some children might create a disturbance just to get into the program. Holistic Me is active in over 14 schools including at least one Christian school, Friends School of Baltimore. They claim that no school suspensions were issued to students who attend their program. According to the Baltimore school spokesperson, none of their participating students were suspended last year. They are crediting the program with reduction in fighting and other behavioral issues.

 Some people will say, “What’s the big fuss? It’s only harmless yoga. Even Christians do yoga.” Yes, it is true that yoga has been embraced by a number of Roman Catholic and Protestant churches since the 1970s. I believe that the mixture of Christianity and yoga, as other New Age mixture, e.g. contemplative prayer, is another sign of the great and final apostasy.

The yoga movements are presented as a good way to exercise. But for some churches, it has become more than physical attraction. Grace Community Church in Raleigh, NC, states this about their involvement in yoga:

“Its sole purpose is to facilitate a Christ-honoring experience that offers an opportunity to believers and non-believers alike to authentically connect to God through His Word, worship, and wellness” (from the church’s website).

In my opinion, there is no such thing as “harmless yoga”.  Some, perhaps many, individuals involved in yoga class will engage in other religions and even the occult.

Although she accepted Jesus as a child, was baptized, attended a Christian school, and participated in Bible quizzing, Laurette Willis of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was introduced to yoga as a child. She went on to become involved in numerous New Age religions, including Kabbalah, Universalism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, until she became a Christian at age 29. Willis declares that “Christian yoga is an oxymoron”. She calls yoga “the missionary arm of Hinduism and the New Age movement” (Stretching for Jesus, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen/Mahtomedi, Time Magazine, August 29, 2005).

Just because a church teaches yoga, it doesn’t make it any safer. Parents should realize that permitting their children to practice meditation and yoga is making them susceptible to demonic influences. Willis asks on her website, “If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, would YOU want a devout Hindu, or a New Ager, or secular humanist, or a person possessed by a spirit of divination to teach and proclaim the Gospel to YOUR children?” (Yoga Defined & Personal Experiences, Laurette Willis, PraiseMoves.com)

I’m certainly not an expert, but I know that yoga is a ritual of Hinduism and Buddhism.   As I understand them, there is little difference between the two religions. Hinduism is concerned discovering existence from the Atman, or self /soul, through Brahma. Buddhism is focused on discovering the Anatman, which is denying the “illusion of existence” by disciplining one’s life in order to discover Nirvana.

Yoga, which means union, was developed by the so-called lord Krishna. It’s purpose is to yoke the human spirit with the spirit of the Universe. The “spirit” of the Universe can only be the god of this world, Satan. Yoga separates the individual from the “illusion of life”, which is what the Baltimore School is accomplishing with their program. Children are not taught to deal with life and take responsibility for their actions, but to deny reality. In the process, they are opening the young and impressionable students to satanic forces, such as, the kundalini spirit.

The breathing exercise in Hatha-yoga is to allegedly suppress the flow of psychic energies through passages on either side of the spinal column. That supposedly forces the serpent power, called the kundalini, to rise through the central psychic channel in the spine (sushumna) and up through the chakras, the supposed psychic centers of human personality and power. The breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditations (dhyana) are potentially very dangerous to one’s spiritual health.

One public school teacher began teaching her 5th grade students yoga during lunch hour at Oak Knoll elementary school in the Menlo Park City School District. She apparently did so without either the school or the parent’s knowledge of her activity. What she describes is the development of the kundalini.

“In Ananda Yoga we refer often to moving the energy up the spine. We teach it, consciously increasing the students’ awareness of what is happening inside.” – Susan Brochin, Teaching Yoga in a Public School, The Expanding Light website

Contrast that with Christianity, which presents a life changing moral standard from God’s word. Further, the indwelling Holy Spirit guides and empowers true Christians to follow that moral compass. There are no requirements of breathing exercises, meditation, or any other activities required by Hinduism or Buddhism. It is about full surrender to God and belief in His Son Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior.

Of course, any attempt to explain that yoga is a dangerous religious practice will be countered with, “But how can you argue with the results?” I can argue with the results because the school has favored a harmful religion over a harmless one. That effectively prohibits any benefits from being realized from Christianity. Further, there is no data that can judge if yoga is the best solution to school discipline. It is being supported, promoted, taught, and defended by forces from within the New Age culture.

If public schools insist on offering yoga, Christian parents should demand they allow a Christian alternative to be taught. Giving children access to a Christian program, such as PraiseMoves or WhollyFit, would provide much better and safer results.

Yoga is a New Age invasion is invited by the public school system that invokes “separation of church and state” when even the hint of Christianity is presented. Thus, programs, such as Holistic Me, has the potential to infect an entire generation of young people with demonic influences. It is imperative that parents be prepared and react to such programs immediately after they are proposed. However, it becomes more difficult to accomplish after the program is initiated.

The Encinitas Union School District in California teaches Ashtanga yoga twice weekly in schools. Ashtanga Yoga is practiced by gymnastic exercises and stretching, but includes yoga breathing and philosophy. Parents sued the school to remove the program, but lost the battle in court. The court ruled that yoga classes should continue because “it is not religious in nature”.  The court was wrong and yoga should be banned from public schools.

“But using it [yoga] for physical practice is no good, of no use – just a lot of sweating, pushing, and heavy breathing for nothing. The spiritual aspect, which is beyond the physical is the purpose of yoga. When the nervous system is purified, when your mind rests in the atman [the Self], then you can experience the true greatness of yoga.” – Yoga Master Jois, Namarapa magazine, Fall 2014 issue, quoted on the Hindu American Foundation website.

There are other yoga programs that are targeting children, such as Work It Out, YogaFun, and YogaKids International. YogaKids offers the Tools for Schools program, targeting K-5 students, which encourages them “to encounter yoga and its many benefits in a fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate manner”.

Christian parents should be alarmed that their children are being introduced to a dangerous religion that may lead them to reject the Spirit of God. They should be deeply concerned that teaching children yoga as the answer to their problems may cause them to accept the diabolical spirit of Hinduism or Buddhism when they are older.

It is essential for Christian parents, not only in Baltimore, but throughout our country to arm themselves with knowledge, to pray, unite, and resist this spiritual attack on the minds and souls of their children. Parents are the only ones that can expose and put an end to this dangerous assault on children.