Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220034A
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00:03 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:14 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:25 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:35 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:56 ♪ ♪ 01:06 (Yvonne Shelton) Hello and welcome to 3ABN Today. I'm so 01:10 excited about our program today My name is Yvonne Shelton and 01:14 you are going to be so inspired and encouraged and informed by 01:20 our guest today. But before I introduce her, let me read a 01:24 scripture to you that I felt impressed to share this morning 01:28 with you. This morning when I was having my devotions. This is 01:38 from Colossians 2 verses 6-10: As you, therefore, have received 01:45 Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in 01:50 Him and established in the faith as you have been taught 01:56 abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone 02:00 cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to 02:06 the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the 02:11 world and not according to Christ, for in Him dwells all 02:17 the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete 02:22 in Him who is the head of all principality and power. 02:29 And as you'll see this scripture really says it all. Before I 02:34 introduce Blessings to you we're going to have some music from 02:38 our very own E.T. Everett. She's going to play Bind Us Together/ 02:44 Family of God. 02:51 ♪ ♪ 07:12 Thank you so much E.T. That was so soothing wasn't it? That was 07:16 so beautiful. Well let me introduce you to our guest for 07:20 today. Her name, I mentioned it before, is Blessings Robertson- 07:26 Winn and Blessings has an amazing testimony of how she was 07:32 involved with Yoga. So we're going to talk about your journey 07:36 But before we get to the yoga part let's find out more about 07:39 you. How were you raised? Were you raised in a Christian home? 07:42 Give us a bit of your journey. 07:46 Sure yes, I was indeed. I was 07:48 raised by my mother who was, I can't remember, the third or 07:52 fourth generation, I need to dig into that a little bit more, but 07:55 Seventh-day Adventist, you know. Made sure to adhere to all the 08:00 metrics that we SDAs love to have in our lives. So you know 08:04 not eating unclean foods, making sure that you observe Sabbath. 08:07 You know again, checking all the boxes. I was an avid prayer. You 08:15 know prayer life was a big component in my development. 08:17 My mother had me read and memorize scripture and I did 08:23 find myself reciting that throughout my life even when I 08:26 turned away from the faith and turned away from God. But it's 08:30 just not enough. It's one thing to practice with an idealism in 08:36 it and it's another thing to be serving God, to be just 08:41 completely surrendered and to have discipleship that means 08:48 more to you than the world. Means more to you than any title 08:51 or man's law. And I didn't come to realize that until much later 08:55 on in life. 08:56 So you were brought up in a home where your mother was Adventist. 09:01 (Yes) What about your dad? 09:02 Unfortunately, my father was not but he was absolutely more than 09:07 tolerant and willing to have my mother coach us kids to be 09:12 Adventist, to believe in Christ. When he was 12 years old his 09:17 parents asked him whether he wanted to continue going to 09:21 church. He was a Episcopalian. And he said you know I'm going 09:25 alone. It makes no sense. I'm done with it. And then he went 09:28 through you know young adulthood not really having a faith and by 09:32 the time that time that he was in college exploring life and 09:36 you know young adulthood this was the time when they were 09:39 recruiting for the Viet Nam war and this is when spiritualism 09:42 really broke out in America and the whole mantra give peace a 09:46 chance you know and people started looking to other 09:49 religions to try to fill the gap and so my father was definitely 09:53 wooed by you know Buddhism just in general eastern religions. 10:00 But yet he did not push those ideals on me. He let my mother 10:05 take the helm on my soul and my faith. 10:10 So at what point did you kind of veer off into eastern religious 10:17 thought? 10:19 Well interestingly enough I think I didn't realize that a 10:22 doorway had opened. The fact that I had a father who was 10:26 sympathetic to esotericism and eastern god and religion. And he 10:31 didn't describe it as occultism so I didn't think of it as being 10:34 anything harmful or dangerous. And again I grew up in 10:37 Berkley, a very 10:38 eccentric place where you see a little bit of everything and it 10:41 was not uncommon to see people practicing or share a culture. 10:45 So I didn't find it necessarily offensive. But when I definitely 10:52 started to get challenges when I got a full-ride scholarship to 10:55 a Jesuit University of all places and so you know and 11:01 actually, before that, because I did go to a Catholic school in 11:05 junior high. We didn't have Adventist education available to 11:09 us nearby and so public schools were a little too wonky and 11:15 undisciplined so I ended up going into Catholic school for 11:20 the safety of it and for you know just having a place where 11:24 I could learn and not have to be harassed about things that kids 11:28 are harassed about every day even now. And so I was exposed 11:32 to teachings that aren't Biblical and my parents warned 11:38 me you know the idols that are there, you know that's not what 11:42 God teaches us. You know the policy about what happens to the 11:46 body and the soul when you die. Just teachings that are 11:49 falsified and not Biblical. And... 11:53 Were you confused? 11:54 No, I wasn't confused but it definitely opened a gateway to 11:59 consider other possibilities. And so it's kind of like a 12:07 buffet, you know, when you're in a very eclectic environment 12:10 it's like I kind of reckoned it to being what it must have been 12:13 like for the Israelites when they were trying to find the 12:14 promised land and being among idolatrous people. You know, we 12:19 are humans. We want to relate with each other and so some of 12:24 those things bleed into us if we're not faithful, if we're not 12:28 reading, if we're not attentive. Then you can get conjecturing 12:33 philosophy that betrays what you know to be true but you'll 12:37 accept it in order to be included. So that pretty well 12:41 sums it up. And when I went to college you know the Bible 12:44 wasn't included in any of the curriculum. It was more about 12:48 learning how Christianity had been a thorn in the side of 12:51 society in one way or another and not necessarily about 12:55 developing my character with Christ. And again, opening up, 13:00 you know. And then by the time that I graduated college you 13:04 know I'd stopped reading the Bible and I had been thrown into 13:07 Hollywood and it just kind of started there spiraling out. 13:11 Isn't it interesting how the devil is...he's very patient. He 13:16 doesn't bring you from A to Z in 10 seconds or 10 minutes or 13:21 even 10 days and sometimes not even 10 years. It's slowly. 13:25 (Right) And you start drifting and before you know it, you know 13:29 you were here and anchored and you're out here adrift. (Right) 13:33 And it's just amazing to me how he's just so insidious and how 13:40 he introduces these little things at each juncture (Right) 13:44 Because just as God has a plan for us, Satan has a plan for us. 13:50 Absolutely. For every great plan that God has, the 13:52 opposition is there waiting. And if you have even a tiny little 13:55 thread he'll find that thread and he'll just pull it until the 14:00 whole sweater is just collapsed. And I think that was pretty much 14:04 metaphorical for what happened to me in my life. 14:07 Yes, yes. So you go through... and that's another interesting 14:12 thing...college. That is the place where so many children of 14:17 faith, young people of faith, leave the faith. (Yeah) Because 14:22 they're introduced to philosophies that are 14:27 antithetical to the Bible. And so...in the interest and under 14:34 the guise of intellectualism (Yes) and academia and so you 14:38 think you're learning about something that's important and 14:42 ...the Bible is important. The Bible is true and everything 14:46 should measure against that (absolutely) but they make it 14:51 obsolete (right) and so by the time you get out there's so many 14:55 young people who lose their Christianity in college. 14:58 (Yes) Because they start veering off (right). So after college 15:03 were you then totally out of the church. Where were you? 15:07 Yeah, I was still praying but I was no longer reading my Bible. 15:13 And I was eager to put my title that I paid so much money for 15:20 at this private Jesuit University to work. And you know 15:27 I launched into Hollywood and I worked with a company that's now 15:29 defunct called The Band Apart. And it was owned by Quentin 15:34 Tarantino, Michael Bednarczyk, and Lawrence Bender and at the 15:38 time they were you know responsible for big hits like 15:40 The Mexican and Usual Suspects. So they were just developing 15:46 hit after hit after hit. 15:47 And what were you doing? 15:48 And so I was working in their commercial division for music 15:53 videos and again commercials and I was the right hand to 15:57 a director by 15:58 the name of Darren Grant, a very talented young man. And my main 16:02 role, like if you want to say what was my main duty there, 16:08 it was writing scripts. And so we called them treatments. So, 16:12 what would happen is up and coming artists or established 16:14 artists would send in their music and they would say come up 16:17 with a vision, you know, a music video for this. And so in comes 16:22 the mail. I open it up we listen to the CD. My director and I 16:26 would sit and labor over it. What can we come up with that's 16:30 really cool, that would really make an impression on you know 16:33 the kids and the MTV-type crowd. For instance, I worked with 16:41 Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, (two voices unclear) 16:46 Destiny's Child. I worked with Boys to Men, Eric Benet, just 16:51 countless artists that weren't just here in the U.S. but also 16:57 abroad in Europe, Devala Morgan, Craig David. And I'm going to be 17:06 truthful, it was fun. But I can say that what's glitters is not 17:11 always gold. And there was a lot of effort that went into making 17:15 these people larger than life. And that's the part that 17:20 children and society don't understand that without the 17:22 cameras, without these story lines and these big production 17:26 budgets they're no different than you and I. They're sinners 17:29 just like you and I. 17:31 And many of them are miserable. (Absolutely) I mean I was in the 17:35 entertainment industry for many years too and I got to know a 17:39 lot of people who had a lot of money, but money, you know, 17:45 life is just so empty. 17:47 Very, very empty. 17:49 So empty. So just like you said what glitters is not gold. So 17:52 were you...had you started doing yoga at this point? 17:55 At this point, I had been introduced to Ti Chi by my god 17:59 mother and she too was a Buddhist and she was also the 18:06 mother of my best friend. I lost my best friend. 18:10 (Two voices) He's my father was 18:13 sympathetic to that particular faith. And my best friend had 18:19 passed away and it made she and I even closer. You know I 18:24 counted on her counseling and her guidance. You know my mother 18:28 was not from the United States My mother was an exile from the 18:35 Mosquito Coast and so her tradition and her ways were very 18:38 against what American women are and so she was kind of like my 18:43 reinforcement of well how do I grow up American you know? 18:46 And when we would spend quality time together she would take me 18:51 to places like Buddhist temples to chant and she would take me 18:55 to a yoga class or a Ti Chi class. That's how I really got 18:59 introduced to the physical practice of it. 19:02 And what did you think when you first, started it? What was going 19:06 through your mind when you first started it... 19:08 I just thought it was a measure of bonding with her. I didn't 19:10 really put my faith in it or anything like that. I just, I 19:14 really you know minimalized it and compartmentalized it like 19:18 this is just a physical thing I'm doing with her. It has 19:20 nothing to do...I know who God is you know. But it has a way of 19:26 if you're not serving God fully then you can be corrupted very 19:30 easily. 19:31 Absolutely, absolutely. So you started taking Ti Chi. You 19:35 started hanging out with your Buddhist godmother and that 19:40 opened the door to influences. Because your dad also had opened 19:47 the door to some influences. But now you're starting to 19:51 incorporate some of the practices (right) into that. And 19:56 so what happened that got you really involved with yoga to the 20:02 point where you wanted to teach? 20:03 So my father, unfortunately, when I was pregnant with my 20:07 second child was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and we didn't 20:10 find it until he was in his fourth stage and at first they 20:14 diagnosed him as having blood cancer. And so they gave him 10 20:18 years to live. They said it's okay, it's treatable, you have 20:21 about 10 years. But they completely missed it and it 20:24 wasn't until he had to have a G tube inserted in his belly that 20:30 they were able to do an upper endoscopy to find the tumor in 20:34 his throat. But it had passed the size, you know. It started 20:38 eating up his spine. It paralyzed him. It was very, very 20:42 hard. And so at the same time I had adopted my nephew and we had 20:47 been raising him since he was 12 and here I was with a now 15- 20:52 year-old teenage boy, a 17-month old girl and a nine-month belly 20:59 with about a month to go. And my mother has always been a kept 21:04 woman like a princess so she never learned to do some of the 21:09 simple things, financial things and so now I had her as well. 21:13 And my husband was playing with the San Francisco Giants in the 21:18 majors. It's a very taxing and rigorous schedule and so I had a 21:23 lot on my plate. And one of his friends, actually a Christian, 21:27 recommended a spiritual guide, a guru so to speak, and I went 21:35 to him. And he advised me and he spoke to me in Christian 21:38 terms because he was raised Catholic but he was actually you 21:42 know into this whole Krishna you know Hinduism but he spoke the 21:48 Christian dialect. And I started to put my trust in him and allow 21:54 him to guide me and then it led to yoga. 21:57 Isn't that interesting? It's so amazing to me how there's so 22:01 many gurus and people...There's a very popular woman on 22:08 television who talks the jargon of Christianity but she's a 22:14 Yoruban priestess (right, right) and she counsels people and 22:19 she's using this Christian jargon but she's a pagan (right) 22:23 priestess. (right) And so a lot of these people...That's why 22:28 it's so, so, so important to not just listen to what people say 22:32 but to know the word. 22:35 To measure it against the word. Absolutely (yes, yes) 22:36 In fact Colossians 2 22:38 what you read today is exactly what turned me completely away 22:42 from even entertaining it. Because then I did get to a 22:46 point where I realized it wasn't right and I do what to be clear 22:51 in saying that my father, my God, mother, they're well-meaning 22:55 people. They don't desire harm for you. They really believe. 22:59 You know they're ignorant to the word and when you're ignorant to 23:02 the word you're searching for truth, you're searching for 23:04 meaning and you'll attach to whatever is comfortable for you. 23:07 And you know eastern religions they do not tell you that you 23:12 need to refine your character. They tell you the way that you 23:16 are is fine, you're perfectly imperfect. And that is the 23:19 furthest thing from the truth. Now God says you know I accept 23:23 you where you are but I'm not going to leave you that way. 23:25 That's right, that's right. 23:28 And here in this other philosophy do as you wilt. 23:31 Do what you like. Follow your heart. Well we know from 23:34 scripture that the heart is deceitful and wicked, who can 23:38 know it. (that's right) You know and I can say the decisions that 23:43 I've made with my heart haven't been the best. You know like a 23:47 boyfriend that you know is no good for you. Red flags 23:49 everywhere and you say I can change him. You're heart really 23:52 makes you think that. But in the end you're the one that changes. 23:55 That's right, that's right. You don't realize when you're 23:58 getting into some of these things...that's why the Bible is 24:02 so important because it's our anchor. It brings us back to 24:06 where we're supposed to be. If we don't know it then there are 24:11 well-meaning people who just want the best for you and they 24:15 feel like this is going to be good for you. (Yeah) So just try 24:18 this. I feel peaceful with it. (right) Why not, you know, go 24:23 ahead and try it and see how you feel with it. Do you. But that's 24:28 Exactly do you. 24:30 That's not Biblical and that if we...the heart is deceitful and 24:36 desperately wicked, right, above all things, who can know it? So 24:41 we don't...we can't go by feelings. We can't go by like oh 24:46 we should be...this is okay. I did the same thing with 24:50 acupuncture. I did the same thing and when you realize later 24:54 on down the road, what have I done? (right) I've gone so far 25:00 away from where I was supposed to be. And it's sooo subtle and 25:05 insidious. So tell us you got so into this that you went to India 25:12 Well, I was deeply grieving. I was suffering. I was alone. I'm 25:20 sure being a new mother to two children under the age of two 25:24 and a 15-year-old and all the stresses that were going on. Yes 25:29 I was eternally blessed from before I even knew I was and 25:33 then on top of that, we had wealth and success and you know 25:38 everything at our fingertips. You name it. There was nothing 25:41 that we lacked. And I don't say that to glorify it but I say it 25:46 to help paint the picture of how money doesn't buy your salvation 25:53 and surely it does not buy your happiness. And happiness is 25:57 temporary. If anything, what I was really in search of was joy. 26:00 And either way, I was suffering and I said okay you know my dad 26:08 believed in this and he's the one I really miss. And what I 26:13 didn't realize at the time was that I had made my father an 26:16 idol in my life. I had put my father above Christ to where he 26:20 was my sanctuary. My father gave me a safety net, you know. He 26:25 gave me counseling on everything I could imagine and he was so 26:29 well, read. He was the most intelligent man, I've ever met in 26:31 my life. And if he wasn't cooking, telling a joke, he was 26:36 reading. And he was legally blind. So he would hold books 26:39 like this, this close...You know they were like his best friend. 26:41 He would hold books to his face and read for countless hours. 26:45 So he seemed like a man who had good reason. And you know I went 26:53 in search of connecting with him. But the Bible tells us you 26:57 can't connect with the dead. You'll maybe get that 27:00 opportunity in that direction but ultimately the dead know 27:04 nothing. (right) And so I went on this spiritual quest to try 27:08 to reunite with my father. (Ohh) And in the end what I realized 27:13 was it wasn't my father that was the lord, it was my heavenly 27:18 Father. And I've never been more content or happy in my life 27:23 after that discovery. 27:25 _praise the Lord So describe for us what happens 27:29 in a yoga class and how is yoga not compatible with Christianity 27:38 Why can't I do yoga and be a Christian too? 27:40 Right. So I thought I could. I thought oh it's just exercise, 27:44 it's physical and really good at stretching. You know, I'm good 27:47 at this. I got it you know. And I caught the eye of a lot of 27:50 instructors and they said hey I think you'd be a great teacher 27:53 and they recruited me to take up teacher training, and I did. 27:57 And so initially I did it with core power. We had a group of 28:01 20 people. But we never actually got the text, the actual ancient 28:07 text. We got a manuscript, a manual, an American watered down 28:12 manual that just told point A to point Z of the class. And so 28:18 it's memorize this. At this point you do X, at this point 28:22 you do, you know, whatever it might be. It was very 28:24 prescriptive, it was very perfunctory and I thought 28:28 nothing of it. Oh this is a cinch, it's like taking a 28:30 jazzercise class, you know. I got it. And so I did that. So 28:34 then I said to myself well it's connected to "light." I need 28:38 to explore this. So I ended up on the counsel of a D.O., a 28:46 naturopath, a doctor who was actually an Ayurvedic, a Hindu 28:49 who tried to recruit me into her faith. She sent me to Kerala 28:53 India because she wanted me to be her right hand. So I did, I 28:58 went to Kerala, India, and I lived in an ashram and I studied 29:03 therapeutic yoga. 29:04 I think we have some pictures. 29:06 Yeah so India's a beautiful country with a beautiful culture 29:11 and there's so many different religions there. There's the 29:15 Muslim faith, there's the Christian faith, there's 29:19 Hinduism. You know you name it It's kind of like a mini Berkley 29:22 essence. And so connecting with the people, that was my 29:26 favorite thing there. But I started to become mesmerized by 29:31 this whole occult world and I didn't realize it was occultic. 29:35 Yoga is Hinduism. Yoga is a prescriptive physical practice 29:41 that the Vedics, the swamis and the gurus give you in order to 29:48 exercise the esoteric manuscript patanjali yoga sutras. You know 29:56 in essence their bible. And there are warnings that come 30:01 with this that the American teachers are never taught, you 30:05 know. You're never told that these physical practices and the 30:09 breath work that's involved in it and the chanting is a part of 30:13 their occultic practice and that you're performing rituals and 30:17 that these rituals can lead to psychosis can lead to chronic 30:23 disease, irreparable harm, you know, lunacy, heart conditions 30:28 things that no one can find cures for. 30:30 Oh, I was doing research on it. I just wrote a little booklet 30:35 called Perilous Practices about yoga and I was doing research 30:41 about it and I went on YouTube and I saw a guru who said...I 30:49 was looking up information about kundalini yoga and he said Do 30:52 not do this...if you don't have someone supervising you, do not 31:00 do it. It can change your life. In days you will be 31:08 unrecognizable by your own family. And I'm thinking, Oh 31:13 I mean this is demonic possession. That's what he is 31:16 talking about (Yeah) He said it is the strongest, most dangerous 31:19 yoga that you can do. So don't do it without proper supervision 31:25 (right) And I was listening to this...and when you study the 31:30 foundations, and that's what, just like you were saying, 31:33 people don't know the foundation If you study the foundation of 31:39 yoga, which is Hinduism, acupuncture, which is Taoism 31:42 you realize that, wait a minute, this is totally against God. 31:48 Right right. It's a different... You know people get upset with 31:53 me because I've left the practice and I've stopped 31:56 teaching. They kind of go you're a hypocrite. I rather you call 32:00 me a hypocrite than God. 32:01 How are you a hypocrite? You're not doing...you know you're 32:04 doing what you think is the right thing. 32:05 Right. Because they just feel like you did this so how can you 32:11 dare, you know, now you're holier than thou. And I say, you 32:14 know, it's not about judging. It's about learning and if 32:17 you're open to learning the truth, then I'll share it with 32:20 you, but if you are comfortable in darkness and you'd rather 32:22 practice darkness I can't stop you. Right. But I shouldn't be a 32:27 stumbling block to you. I'm going to give you the light. I'm 32:29 going to give you the truth. And so for my ex-students, I try to 32:31 enlighten them and tell them you put so much faith in me. You 32:35 gave me so much credit you know and you trusted me. And you 32:39 trusted me when I led you into darkness. You held my hand and 32:41 you sang and now that I'm trying to give you light you 32:45 know you are casting me away. And it's a little bit difficult 32:50 to be honest, you know, when you're held in high esteem in a 32:55 position or title and then all of a sudden, you're no longer 32:59 considered an authority in that because you're against what 33:02 they're wanting to do. But I don't do it because I think I'm 33:07 holier than thou. I do it because I want them to know the 33:10 truth. I want them to know the light. 33:12 Yes, you don't want them to be lost. Yeah, so walk us through 33:16 a typical yoga class. What happens when you go in? 33:21 Okay, so it depends on the kind of class that you're taking. 33:24 There are different branches of yoga. I mean they even have goat 33:27 yoga now. (I saw that) I don't know if you've spent enough time 33:32 around goats but they don't have bowel control and I don't like 33:36 a yoga goat on me. So anyway. But I digress. So you come into 33:43 a class and regardless of your ability you come in. You get the 33:48 same yoga mat, same yoga block, you know, stretching tools, yoga 33:53 rope. And you're instructed to lie on your back in what's 33:57 called corpse pose with your face up toward the sky, 34:02 your palms open, your 34:03 legs spread apart. And here you're basically...I hate to say 34:10 it, you're kind of getting brain washed. You're told empty your 34:13 mind, you know you're perfect the way that you are, let this 34:17 next 60 minutes or 30 minutes, however long the class you're 34:20 taking take you into this transcendent space. And so the 34:26 goal of yoga is actually to take you to an altered state of 34:29 consciousness, so the practice, again this is a prescriptive 34:34 practice that is going to take you to this next level, this 34:37 higher level. So I'm going to work on you on various levels. 34:42 I'm going to work on you teaching you how to breathe, 34:44 right? I'm going to teach you not to think. I'm going to teach 34:49 you not to counter with your judgment anything that I say. 34:53 I'm going to ask you to empty your mind so that I can fill it 34:56 with what I want. And from that dead pose you're then going to 35:01 go into child pose, which is a rebirth, a reincarnation. And so 35:04 now you're being initiated into the whole, the sutra, the 35:10 practice of yoga the ritualistic behaviors and the idolatry of it 35:15 you know, the worship. And I'll take you through a sequence of 35:19 poses and each pose has a specific length and time and it 35:23 has a specific effect on your organs, on your mentality, and 35:28 if before class or after class if I encourage you to chant with 35:32 me, these beautiful Sanskrit, you know it sounds beautiful. 35:36 you are actually beckoning and inviting deities to come into 35:44 you and to complete their mission, whatever that may be. 35:48 And so you just become host body for this altered consciousness, 35:53 this other dimension of spiritual life. And in the end 35:58 you know, you're exhausted, if you took my class you would have 36:01 been exhausted as (Laughter obscures words) and you would 36:07 lie again in corpse pose and so this whole death and life cycle 36:10 is repeated there. And you walk out, you know, feeling, some 36:16 people feel blissful, some people feel remorseful, crying, 36:20 some people have had panic attacks, people have passed out. 36:23 Some people leave in the middle of class. Some people say it 36:26 just doesn't feel right. And at the end I ask everyone, you know 36:30 hold your palms together at your heart center, you know, because 36:34 we're talking about in that world these centers of awareness 36:38 a chakra is where energy is in the body. And from there I tell 36:42 you to put it at your third eye, the all-knowing and then you 36:45 know we bow to the universe and we bow to each other because 36:48 we're all gods and everything around us are gods. And so as a 36:52 Christian can you really participate in that and separate 36:56 it. The question is something we need to ask ourselves. 36:59 Absolutely, absolutely. Can you...it's pagan. It's yoking 37:07 with...the whole idea of yoga is yoking. Even the lotus pose 37:12 the mudra, the fingers together, which I don't want to do because 37:17 it means I'm inviting the gods to come into me. And I think 37:25 most people don't, they don't know that because just like you 37:29 said they get the surface info, the manual, (right) but they 37:34 don't get the foundation. 37:35 They don't know the foundation, they don't know the true power 37:40 of this practice. And it is dangerous, you know Swamis warn 37:47 against it. Again we have a commercialized bastardized 37:49 version of it here in America and it might be a blessing that 37:52 it is that way, but nonetheless it's a gateway and a 37:55 steppingstone to something much deeper. So I went from being you 37:57 know an exercisaholic with yoga to a faithful ashram you know 38:07 taking six weeks of my life to go study away from my family 38:11 I was really invested in it. And then seeking deeper meaning 38:16 and said like mentioned the mudras, the finger yoga and 38:20 interestingly enough when I realized what I was doing and I 38:27 tried to walk away from it I threw everything out. Then at 38:31 that point is when I started to have these weird kind of 38:37 supernatural things starting to happen to me. (Like what?) 38:39 So for instance, you know I'm also an avid runner and cyclist 38:46 so I would always stretch out my hips and I was in a particular 38:50 pose called Baddha Konasana can or cobbler's pose where you put 38:52 the soles of your feet together and you allow your knees to fall 38:55 to the side. And I had been sleeping like that stretching 38:58 out my hips and I also had myself in a propped position 39:03 something that I learned in therapeutic yoga. And again this 39:06 is me saying well now I'm Christian and saved. I know the 39:09 dangers. I won't go to class but I'll still do certain stretches. 39:12 And before I could fall asleep there was something pulling on 39:19 my legs. Visceral, like (you could literally feel the pull) 39:26 literally feel something pulling on my legs and I started praying 39:28 fervently, you know, God, Jesus the blood of Christ be on you, 39:32 you know, I rebuke you, whatever this is. And things like that 39:35 started to unfold. And I called Doctor, not doctor, but Pastor 39:41 Lomacang and I said there is just something really strange 39:44 happening. And he said, well you have opened the doorway and he 39:48 said, Have you gotten rid of everything? I said, yes. So this 39:50 went on for months, like six months. And one day I called him 39:54 because another event had happened and he says to me, 39:58 there's something still there, there's something still there. 40:00 So we prayed and I went to my room on my side of the bed and 40:04 I prayed with he and Angela and he said, in his prayer, he said, 40:08 reveal to her the force. And right in that moment, I wasn't 40:13 really conscious of it but I can envision my bachelor's chest, 40:17 the nightstand with a keepsake box where I held like the 40:22 bracelets from my children's births and you know their little 40:26 name tags from their bassinet and in that little keepsake was 40:32 a mudra book, a little mudra book. And when I opened it 40:38 I just kind of said, I can't believe this. You know and I 40:42 called him immediately and I said look what I found. And 40:47 interestingly the mudra that I had bookmarked I left it open 40:51 and it was a mudra that it's supposed to unleash power from 41:01 the root the rubadia chakra and so and it describes all 41:10 kinds of things that could come with it. And I just said, I 41:13 can't believe I did this. I burned it. I didn't even want to 41:15 throw it in the trash because I didn't want someone else to come 41:18 across it. (right) But this stuff has power, it really does. 41:22 It attracts, what people don't realize that you can have 41:25 something in your house that will attract demons. And that's 41:29 what...And you don't even know if that's the case. But it gives 41:33 them permission to come in. 41:36 Absolutely. And you know I was doubtful of that. Because 41:40 sometimes as Christians, we'll say I'll accept Jesus but I'm 41:43 not going to even you know begin to say that there's devils and 41:48 demons and these things. But the Bible says we fight against not 41:52 flesh but what? (That's right) Right? So here we are fighting 41:56 against principalities and they show up. If you allow them 41:58 they'll walk right in. (That's right) And if you don't know the 42:03 word and if you don't have the counsel and the elders to help 42:07 you through it, you could spiral out. 42:09 So how did you know to call Pastor John and Angie? 42:14 You know, we've been building a friendship and now we're like 42:18 family. And you know through COVID I came back to Christ. 42:23 Tell us about that. 42:25 Sure. Again I was searching for meaning trying to reconnect with 42:30 my father and end this 12-year grief. And you know I'd gotten 42:34 into yoga and all these things and and my world was just...it 42:38 seemed to be fine. You know I didn't need for anything. I was 42:43 able to get whatever I wanted at my fingertips any time that I 42:48 needed it. It wasn't a big deal. But when COVID hit I could see 42:52 the writing on the wall and I said, Oh, oh, we're going to get 42:55 shut down. And being a yoga instructor I knew, you know, 42:59 that gyms were going to close down. So I said I know what I 43:02 need. A Peloton bike. So I got a Peloton and I was, you know, 43:08 one of the first to do it. And I just thought I'm going to ride 43:13 through the storm. Literally, I was going to ride the storm out. 43:16 And so that lasted for about four months and then things got 43:20 really nasty. You know if you recall the COVID environment, it 43:24 was black lives matter, it was arguing from this extreme to 43:28 that extreme and there was just controversy and conspiracy 43:34 everywhere. And whenever I looked at the news it was just 43:38 dismal. And I didn't know what was going to happen. And I 43:42 literally started to have fear just fill me and I started to 43:50 experience anxiety. And that anxiety was crippling and it 43:55 made me indecisive and unsure of myself. And I've always been 43:58 confident. I've never had issues when it came to that. But this 44:02 was like a chemical disability. And there was nothing I could do 44:06 I couldn't even muster up the energy to do a yoga practice or 44:13 anything like that. And it literally brought me to my knees 44:16 and I started to pray. I took my little travel Bible and I 44:20 hid myself in the closet and every day I prayed. I said just 44:22 God take this grief from me. And every day I prayed for 44:26 discernment. I said God help me, help me see clearly, help me see 44:30 things, please. And it stripped me down to the barest thing 44:35 you know. There in my luxury closet with every brand name you 44:39 can imagine. None of it meant anything. None of that's going 44:45 to rescue you (that's right) There in our multimillion-dollar 44:49 home it felt like a hole. It did not fill me. And unfortunately I 44:56 was so anxious and so scared that I couldn't even appreciate 45:02 the most beautiful gifts that I have which are my husband and 45:05 my children. Just looking at them made me fearful. You know 45:10 because I was like what's going to happen to them? Everything 45:13 felt out of control. And my niece had moved in with us. She 45:20 was there going on three years. She had moved in from New York 45:24 She came to do a post back to get her medical degree. And she 45:29 had done Sabbath by herself, worship for three years by 45:32 herself. And she says 45:34 to me, you know, she invited me again, do you want to worship? 45:37 And I said sure. And so the pastor that she was watching, 45:41 kind of a rogue Adventist and it made me even more fearful. He 45:44 was feeding the flame. And I said, I can't do this. Can we 45:47 we find someone else. She goes Oh, there's this guy. I've seen 45:51 him before. I've watched his series on Spirits Unclean, 45:55 Unclean Spirits. And that's how we found Lomacang. And we 46:01 watched him for a year straight. My mother, my two kids, my niece 46:04 I have three journals full of his sermons. And he helped 46:10 sanctify us, he helped bring us back. And so I'm really thankful 46:14 that 3ABN was there, you know, to shine the light, for a lost 46:20 soul such as myself. 46:21 The Holy Spirit used him (absolutely) to draw. He was a 46:26 vessel. 46:28 And I emailed him and said we're ready to get baptized. And I 46:31 never heard from him for a year. 46:33 Really, for one year!? 46:35 For one year. I think his emails were flooded totally. And 46:40 serendipitously we ran into each other in Pleasanton. And... 46:46 And you know that was divine... as my husband would say was it a 46:49 coincidence or divine providence 46:51 It was providence. Absolutely. We have a picture actually of 46:56 your baptism we need to show. 46:58 Yeah, February of 2020 he baptized myself and my two 47:04 children. 47:06 Aw, praise the Lord. That was a wonderful day wasn't it? 47:11 It was glorious. That was a battle giving that testimony and 47:15 it was difficult actually. A considerable tremor came over me 47:24 as I started to talk about the yoga (yes). And it became a very 47:30 spiritual intense battle and I'm thankful God was there. The Holy 47:36 Spirit was there to see me through and to let me be 47:39 victorious. 47:40 Amen, amen. And the fact that you're sharing this you know 47:43 that the enemy is furious because he doesn't want people 47:47 to know the truth. He can hide under deceit, deception, you 47:54 know that's what he does. And so for you to come out and say 47:58 get away from it. Just don't even do...What about...okay two 48:04 things. One thing is Christian yoga and the other is just 48:10 stretching. (Yeah) So first let's go with stretching. What's 48:15 the difference between yoga and stretching? 48:18 Well again yoga is an arm of Hinduism and it is like the 48:26 medicinal, physical practice. So if you has say some sort of 48:34 surgery, pneumonia, or something the doctor will give you a 48:37 little breathing device and you'll have to exercise and 48:40 inflate those muscles to recover them you know as part of your 48:44 therapeutic practice to recovery (right) And so again the vedics 48:48 they believe that this is something that you do in order 48:51 to achieve enlightenment and an altered state of consciousness. 48:55 That's very different than stretching. Stretching is 48:57 essential, it's healthy, it's key. You can do it any kind of 49:03 number of ways. It doesn't have to be yoga. For some reason now 49:05 yoga's synonymous with stretching. But before yoga came 49:10 to this world, you know people were stretching. (right) You 49:14 think of gymnasts, you think of dancers, you know. They're able 49:16 to do that without having to do a disciplined yoga class. 49:21 And I think that's what people need to know. Stretching is fine 49:24 it's when you introduce meditation, breathing, the mind/ 49:28 body connection (right), enlightenment all of those terms 49:32 that's when you start saying okay, it's not just stretching. 49:35 But just, you know, stretching and also the sequences like the 49:41 surya namaskar, the sun worship where you go through 49:45 this whole series of movements (Yeah, sun salutation) yeah sun 49:52 salutation and it is...and people see and they're like oh 49:59 well that doesn't...you know I can do that. You know they're 50:02 doing the movements in sequence and that is a worship of the sun 50:07 It's a devotional. 50:09 It's a devotional. It's a moving liturgy to the sun god (right). 50:12 And so if people actually knew which...today, now you know 50:20 you know then, now you have to make a decision and if it's 50:24 really hard for you to make that decision and if you don't want 50:28 to let it go you really need to look at that (right). How 50:32 important is it to you? (right) Is it more important than Jesus? 50:36 Well and I think that's what's happening with the whole 50:38 Christian yoga movement, you know, is that people like myself 50:42 who are finding oh, oh, I've been entangled with darkness 50:46 they're addicted to the practice of it and they've forgotten how 50:50 to just move their body and relieve their tension without 50:54 this, you know, worship series. And so they try to justify these 51:00 movements but all their doing is replacing the names and adding 51:04 scriptures to it. So prayer pose or prayer warrior is the new 51:11 name instead of warrior 1, warrior 2, warrior 3. And it 51:16 doesn't matter how you change the name if you see a cat, it's 51:20 still, a cat, even if I call it holy cat, it's still a cat. 51:25 (true) You got to be careful you know because again well-meaning 51:29 people can mislead you. Not everybody is dark and after you 51:33 they just don't know any better. 51:34 That is so true. You cannot just change the name and think that 51:41 now it's a new thing. It's not. (mm-hum) It's just a repackaged 51:47 It's paganism, it's still an idol. 51:50 It's repackaged paganism. Yes, and so we have to be aware of 51:56 what we're doing at all times. And know that the devil is 52:01 really trying to deceive and like trip and trap us into this 52:08 and trip us up. (right) And so you know we have to be aware of 52:13 that and the word, if we just stay in the word we can know 52:19 which way to go and how to navigate. We're going to take a 52:23 quick break and we're going to be back momentarily so don't 52:27 change that dial, stay with us. We'll be right back. |
Revised 2022-09-22