Students of Yogananda, Swami viva KAnanda, yoga know that each and every movement in the performance of yoga is in reverence to a Hindu god. There are 32 million gods in hinduism. Each position is reverential to one of their gods. The sick part is one of the places where these techiques are taught is the YMCA (Young Mens Christian Association) They are taught it is exercise, but those who teach it know very well it is a technique taught to get into a altered state of consciousness, which is the doorway to the occult. I am told by those who immerse themselves in yoga it is the fastest way to an altered state. Faster than drugs, biofeedback, sensory deprivation via "witches cradle", hypnosis, or any other technique. I do not believe it is compatible with the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
That doesn't mean Satan is not real, just that evil is not done except by the hand of man exercising free-will.
Your source that advises you that Hinduism has 32,000,000 gods is also full of nonsense. There are, in fact, as many religions in India as there are people. Some of them share gods, some don't. Many of them are as focused as any Christian group on monotheism, although there are many others that are purely Trinitarian.
They don't call the Subcontinent "the Mother of Religions" for nothing!
I can't see how Yoga would be anti-christian, the only way to reach the altered states you talk about is to clear your mind of everything. I used to practice meditation and am thinking about getting back into it.
I've got a DVD on Yoga for inflexible people.
Guess I missed the part on demons - all I saw were bend like this, stretch like that.
I don't do it, but have watched it a time or two for the cute girl stretching...
Come on now, I've heard the "everything strange is of the devil" crap since I was a little kid. I was raised in a VERY fundamentalist household, went to a Chrsitian school, and had friends that were more fundamentalist than I was. Monopoly was considered from Satan because you played it with dice.
A bunch of exercises are NOT going to lead you to hell. I've done Yoga exercises for years for my back and I haven't grown horns yet.
You're worried about an "altered state of consciousness"? Have you ever seen Holy Rollers, Snake Handlers, Tent Revivals? Those people make Hindus seem positively tame by comparison. Some Christians are just as wacky as any Hindu.