117: Yoga Led To Destruction, Dr. Laurette Willis

 From New Age spirituality and yoga to a vibrant life in Christ, Dr. Laurette Willis shares her incredible journey of faith, deliverance, and calling. 

Laurette opens up about her family’s struggles, her search for meaning in spiritual experiences around the world, and the pivotal moment when she heard God’s voice calling her home.

Be inspired by her honesty about addiction, loss, and the emptiness of seeking fulfillment outside of God. 

Laurette discusses the spiritual realities behind yoga, its history and roots, and the Christian alternative she founded, PraiseMoves. She also offers insight and advice for reaching out to those still entrenched in New Age practices.

Don’t miss this compelling story of transformation, faith, and calling on Laurette’s One80!

Helpful links:

Laurette’s video on the dangers of yoga

PraiseMoves.com ~ The Christian ALTERNATIVE to Yoga

Laurette’s video on the dangers of yoga

Laurette’s video on proper Christian meditation

Follow One80 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
Never miss a One80. Join our email list.
Follow us on Instagram.
Share One80, here's how!
OneWay Ministries

Transcript

Welcome And Teaser

Announcer 0:02

Welcome to 180. Transforming testimonies from next door to across the globe. Be amazed at how God works to bring people to himself. Share today's 180 with a friend. It might be the best news they hear today.

Laurette Willis 0:16

There was a hole in my life, a missing piece, P I E C E, which was the missing piece, P-E-A-C-E, of the Lord. When I was seven years old, my mom and I found yoga thinking it was just exercise and it led us away from Christ and into new age.

Childhood Faith And Family Turmoil

Margaret Ereneta 0:42

The voice asked her. What if everything you thought about me was completely wrong? Almost a lifetime spent searching, searching, following the carrot on the stick to nowhere. She was about to leave new age for good. This is Margaret here in the welcome to Laurent's 180, part one.

Laurette Willis 1:08

When I look at my story, I think of all the privilege, the advantages, being able to grow up where I did. Everything seemed so beautiful and so together on the outside. But there was a different story that was going on on the inside. I grew up on Long Island in New York. My dad was an attorney and a judge. My mother was the first woman assistant district attorney on Long Island. She also taught at the local university. She was Mensa, which is like for geniuses. You know, everything seemed so great on the outside. I was my parents' only child. It was beautiful, but on the inside was a different story. Sadly, my mother uh was also an alcoholic. Uh, she had three nervous breakdowns when I was growing up. My father was an emotional eater and also what's called a rageholic.

Laurette Williams 2:06

My mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. But you know what was amazing when she ate well, when she took vitamins and took care of herself and wasn't drinking, no issues. It was fine. But because of the chaos going on in my home as a as a young child, I found food as a way to cope when I was about six years old. I would overeat, emotionally eat, and it would numb me sufficiently so that I could survive. You know, and I say this as a way to encourage you that if you look back on your past and think, oh, well, the things that I did to cope, but hey, you're still here. And another person may not have made it, but we've made it. We're here. The Lord is good.

Laurette Williams 2:54

And um, when I was very little, I had encounters with the Lord from the ages of three and a half until I was six. I remember it very clearly. Whenever my feelings would be hurt, I was very sensitive as a child, still am, but especially then. My feelings would get hurt, and I'd run home. You know, the kids would say something to me, and I would I would run home and close my closet door, and I would see this flash of light on the back of my closet door, and I would see a scene, always the same scene.

Laurette Williams 3:27

I would see myself from the back as if I were watching myself on a stage. I knew I was older, it was in my 30s, 40s, 50s. I couldn't, I couldn't tell, but I knew it was supposed to be me in front of what I called a Billy Graham full audience. Now, I must have seen Billy Graham on television, although my parents came from Roman Catholicism and we I grew up in the Episcopal Church. I didn't see the people at my church doing what the people in my vision were doing. In my vision, it was an outdoor audience of people, congregation of people, and they all had their hands raised, lifted up. And I was on stage with a microphone and one hand lifted. And I know the people that were in that crowd weren't saying, You're really great, Lorette. It had nothing to do with me.

Laurette Williams 4:19

I knew it had something to do with God. And I would see that vision. And over my right shoulder, I would hear this voice, and I know it was the Lord. I would hear his beautiful voice say, Everything's going to be alright. And I would dry my tears and I'd say, Everything's going to be all right. It's going to be all r

Laurette Williams 4:39

ight. And I would open the door and come out and I'd be fine. And then every time my feelings would get hurt, I'd run back and I would see that same vision. And did I think it was weird or strange? No, because if it's happening to you, it's not weird or strange. I mean, that was just my life. When I was little, I read a picture Bible even before I could read. And I encourage you, if you have children in your life, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, kids at church, give them a picture Bible, even if they can't read yet. Because what I used to do, I'd look at the pictures and I'd put my stuffed animals in a semicircle before me and I'd preach to them. I would tell them what I was seeing in historical things that happened there. I don't call them stories. I call them historical incidents, you know, things that happened in history because they're real. It's not stories like fairy tales.

Laurette Williams 5:33

But at the age of six, the wall came up. What do I mean the wall came up? That age of accountability that Paul talks about, sin revived and I died. It was that feeling, all of a sudden, this wall, this separation between the Lord and me. I didn't know you could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, even though I did when I was really little. I used to tell him jokes, you know, to make him laugh because I thought, your job is so hard, you need a good laugh.

Laurette Williams 6:01

And so that's what I used to do. I would come up with these jokes for the Lord. And it's that faith of a child. But when that time comes where you make a decision to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, I'd never heard that before. I want to encourage you too that it's never too early to tell a child about Jesus and to receive him as their Lord and Savior. Will they completely understand? In their spirit, I believe they do. I've led children three, four, five years old to the Lord because I know what it was like.

Drawn Into New Age And Addiction

Laurette Williams 6:36

But I tell you, I didn't know him for the next 23 years. From the ages of six until I was 29. There was a hole in my life, a missing piece, P-I-E-C-E, which was the missing piece, P-E-A-C-E, of the Lord. When I was seven years old, my mom and I found yoga thinking it was just exercise, and it led us away from Christ and into new age and channeling and psychism and metaphysics. And if you're wondering what channeling is, it's allowing oneself to be used by a

Laurette Willis 7:17

demonic spirit, like a psychic, to speak and to know things about people. It's not of God. They're called familiar spirits, and it's very dangerous. I became an alcoholic at the age of 13 when my parents divorced. I was at my top weight at that time as well from emotional eating. Whenever there is a spiritual void, the enemy rushes in whenever there is a vacuum. And for me, it was new age. I was looking for God in all the wrong places. And at 24, sadly, my mother took her life. And I saw myself going that same route.

Laurette Williams 7:56

Well, I started looking for God in all the wrong places, and I had for years, for decades, 22 years. And there are some profound spiritual experiences in New Age. Just because it's spiritual doesn't mean it's good. That's the deception of the enemy. It's like living on cotton candy. It tastes so sweet, it melts in the mouth, but there's no nourishment there. And if you try to live on it, you'll die. That's how it was. I felt like, I felt like a donkey with a with a carrot dangled in front of its nose, always, always going for the next fix, the next conference, the next book, the next experience, the next, the next, the next. Always learning, as scripture says, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, knowing that the truth is a person, Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. I didn't know that.

Laurette Williams 8:42

I knew he was a great teacher, but I didn't know about having a personal relationship with God. So two years after my mother's death, my father died of diabetes and heart disease. They were both in their 50s. As a result of that, I became very interested in health and wellness, mental health as well as physical health, but I was still a mess. I was an alcoholic, a high-functioning alcoholic. I was an actor in New York, the woman of 101 Voices, I was called. I did uh improvisational comedy off Broadway. I did the One Woman Show, the Betty Boop Show. If you're familiar with Betty Boop, the cartoon character, I was Betty Boop, I certainly was. Boop, boop, beep. And about 40 other characters. Just absolutely nutty stuff in my BC days. And days is spelled D-A-Z-E, because it was a days. I wasn't totally there. You know, I still felt so empty. You know, I had so much I wanted to give.

Laurette Williams 9:42

But from what? You know, when I would be on stage, I wanted to serve. You should leave a television show, a theater, movie, feeling fuller on the inside than when you left. Not violated, not shocked, not bummed out, but full. It's to serve God. You know, we talk about entertaining thoughts. We're serving those thoughts. It was very much that way for me as well. Well, I was living in New York City. I was ready to escape. Escape. After my parents had passed away, I thought, well, let me find God. I wasn't into finding myself. I didn't like myself very much. I didn't want to find myself. I wanted to find God. That was it.

Laurette Williams 10:19

And I thought, I'll go to all the sacred sites in Europe, in air quotes, the sacred sites in Europe. And so I went to 20 countries in six and a half months, backpacking around. I was 28. And I went, you know, starting in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, up to Iceland, over to Finland, Norway, Sweden, and then went through Germany, France, I mean, all the way down to Crete, and then and then back. And I felt just as empty as I did before. It wasn't in the places. The Lord wasn't in the places.

Laurette Williams 10:56

There is a legend of Avalon and Camelot, Camelot, you know that about Camelot and the knights of the round table. And there's a mystical island called Avalon. And it's not really an island, but it is a large hill. It's not quite a mountain, a large hill. This is in England. And I went there. I'd also been to Stonehenge, Glastonbury, different places. And if you get up very early in the morning before dawn, and you climb to the top of this hill, the Avalon Hill, the way that the fog rolls in, it looks like a sea surrounding you.

Laurette Williams 11:43

You feel like you're on an island. And I thought, that's what I'm going to do. I'll get there. I'll be the first there, first thing in the morning, five o'clock in the morning. I'm going to be there. I'm going to have an experience with God. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I got up there early. I did exactly the thing. Stonehenge, the same thing, just, ooh, not a, not a thing. Nothing. Nothing at all. Well, then I came back home and I had moved to a new age community in northeastern Oklahoma from New York City. Because I thought, you know,

Searching Europe And Spiritual Experiences

Laurette Willis 12:20

I'm miserable in New York. I might as well go where I'm happy, go to northeastern Oklahoma. It was beautiful. And I live in northeastern Oklahoma now, and I'm I'm grateful for it. But at this new age community that I lived in at the time, there's no such thing as a geographical cure. You know, wherever you go, there you are. And that was the thing. I was still me. I thought I left Crummy Me back in New York, but I didn't. She followed me out here. I was still myself. And after a year of oh, and I also went to Machu Picchu. That was another experience. Went to Peru with a group in uh South America and you know, went to the high altitude 9,000, 10,000 feet. Yeah, it was remarkable to look at, but no, no. And I will mention an experience, a terrifying experience that I had in Scotland. I levitated out of my body. I was lying in bed and I wasn't asleep. I was meditating and I levitated out of my body. And I had done this, you know, before as uh as well, seated, but this was lying down.

Laurette Williams 13:33

And I floated, if you can imagine, floating out of my body and turning around where I was face to face with myself, I screamed and fell back into my body. It was one of the most terrifying experiences I ever had. I would say the most terrifying experience I had was of bliss. And you think, oh, bliss, isn't that wonderful? That nirvana. It is the emptiest, most void feeling you could imagine. The loneliness, the loneliness in it. The void. How different from the peace of God, which surpasses, goes beyond all understanding, guarding, keeping your heart and mind in the knowledge and love of God. Bliss, nirvana, is emptiness. So after being for a full year in this new age community, I was 29 years old and I was lonely. I wanted someone to love me for myself. I had so many empty relationships. I wanted someone to love me for myself. I'd never been married, didn't have any children.

Laurette Williams 14:44

The Lord will use whatever it takes to bring you to your knees. He doesn't necessarily cause these things, but he will use these things. And when you come to the end of yourself, you come to that brick wall, say, I can't go any further. He's right there, waiting. And the day before I came to the end of myself, I was driving home to my little house on the top of this mountain in this new age community where I felt all alone. And I heard his voice over my right shoulder, just as I did when I was a little girl, from three and a half years old to six years old. I hadn't heard his voice like that in so many years. I pulled off to the side of the dirt road and he asked me a very compelling question.

Laurette Williams 15:33

He said, What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong? Would you be willing to give it up to know the truth? What if everything I thought about God was completely wrong? Would I be willing to give it up to know the truth? Yes. Yes, I would, thinking maybe the truth was some, you know, philosophy or some way to go, not realizing the truth as a person. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so the next day was April Fool's Day. I was 29 years old, April 1st. April Fool's Day.

Laurette Williams 16:09

I went from being a fool for the world to a fool for Christ. I was in my kitchen in my little house on the top of a mountain in a New Age community with my dog Tula, border collie. I was going round and around the island in my kitchen, this battle going on on the inside of me, and Tula watching me going round and around and around. I think I was still that donkey looking for that next carrot. But if everything, you know, the thousands of dollars I'd invested, the thousands upon thousands

The Question That Changed Everything

Laurette Willis 16:40

of hours, I mean, I had so many books, so many conferences, but I've done so many things, everything from A to Z, astrology to Zoroastrianism. And I thought maybe there's something I missed. But it was his compelling voice, knowing this was the Lord. I knew. I knew in my heart of hearts this was the Lord with whom I had spoken. I was a little girl. I was a little girl. I knew his voice.

Laurette Williams 17:07

You know, I was his sheep then, as a little girl, and he was calling me back. I was that lost sheep and he was calling me back. What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong? Would you be willing to give it up to know the truth? Yes. Yes, no, there was not a moment of doubt. It was like, yeah, I I knew who was asking me that. I wanted to know. I wanted to know, and I didn't realize it would mean a relationship with him. My husband and I, who he was also a new ager, he and I have talked many times about why didn't someone tell us we could have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I didn't know, I thought they were always talking about a religion or something. You know, go to my church, you know, you know, have a religion. It was like, no, I'm good. I'm all right. No, sorry. No, I didn't know I could have a relationship.

Surrender, Freedom, And Marriage

Laurette Williams 18:04

So I would say that, you know, if there's if there's someone in in your life or or if you are thinking it's about religion, no, it's about a personal, one-on-one, intimate, in your heart, in your a new spirit, a new soul, a new mind. Someone who made you, who knows you, who loves you just the way you are. There's nothing like it. Nothing, I wouldn't say nothing like it.

Laurette Willis 18:35

There's nothing like him. There's no one like him. So there is no struggle. Not with that question. But walking around and around that island in my kitchen. I felt that battle on the inside. I didn't know necessarily the words to say. I didn't know the Roman road. I didn't know the Bible. I knew this is how ignorant I was. I knew the Bible. There was, you know, Jesus, Mary, and a bunch of other guys. You know, that's about all I knew. Ignorant, as we say in Oklahoma's, ignorant. Two syllables, ignorant. That was me. You know. Or as we say in New York, stupid, you know, just digest, not really stupid, but just ignorant. I didn't know. But I knew that there was that surrender and there was a there was a battle, I believe, going on for my soul. When in retrospect, I look and I see there was a battle because the questions that would, yeah, but the what if, the what if, the what if, I think the enemy was feeding those what ifs to me. You know, what if you're wrong? What if, you know, maybe it's just this, maybe it's, you know, the deceptions, the lies. Because I I had so much garbage in my head from 22 years of new age and metaphysics. But all I knew was give up, surrender. I just felt love compelling me.

unknown 19:59

That was.

Laurette Willis 20:00

It it was his love. It's the love of God that wins people to the Lord, isn't it? I felt love calling me. Surrender. Surrender. Surrender. I felt this tearing away, this battle going on on the inside. And suddenly I just cried out to the Lord. I said, I surrender. I give up. You win. If you can do something with this life, you can have it. And then I fell on my knees. And I said, if you want me to be alone, then give me peace. If you want me to be with someone, send them sin. Because I can't live like this anymore. And I fell on my face. And I felt a huge weight lift off me, which I learned later was the weight of sin.

Laurette Williams 20:57

New agers don't believe in sin. We're told it's an acronym for self-inflicted nonsense. Well, if there's no such thing as sin, why did Jesus come? Oh, he was just a good teacher. That's the lie, the deception of the enemy. At that moment, I felt peace descend upon me for the first time in my life. Not mere happiness, but peace, not serenity, not bliss. Certainly not bliss. It was full, full of joy. Joy came from the center of that peace, not mere happiness, but the joy unspeakable and full of glory, just that I'd never experienced before. And I realized that at that moment the Lord delivered me from alcoholism. I didn't even ask for that. And I didn't even realize it till a year later. It was totally washed from my mind, washed from my experience. Yes, it was a miracle.

Laurette Williams 21:46

I think that God in his infinite mercy said, you know, she's not going to be able to faith her way out of this or pray her way out of this. I'm going to deliver her from it, deliver her from it. And three, no, four, four days later, I met my husband Paul, who had three years clean and sober. So alcohol, drugs never came into our relationship or our lives. We were married three months later, on 4th of July, which is called Independence Day here in the U.S., we call it Interdependence Day. And the Lord changed my life in a moment.

Discipleship And Renewed Mind

Laurette Williams 22:23

Everything was different. But I didn't know about church. I didn't really know about the Bible. I didn't know those things. I had so much new age. So I had a new age head, but a saved heart. I think had I died and gone to heaven, I would have gone to heaven.

Laurette Willis 22:40

My only reward might have been as I had a pastor once say, you know, a Pepsi and a peanut butter sandwich, but at least I'd get in, you know. That was the thing. It wasn't until several years later that I became discipled at a church. And what had happened, though, was during that, those ensuing years, it was actually four years, new age head saved heart, square peg, round hole. The stuff that was working before wasn't working anymore. And the Lord didn't come across the sky saying, hey, do this, you know, and with you know, angelic trumpet blasts and telling me what to do. I had to seek. And I was like, something's not working, something, you know, it's just, and I began to seek. And that's when I found uh a church.

Laurette Williams 23:28

We also got out of that community that we were in. I wanted to get out of it right away. But then going to a church, being discipled, and oh how beautiful, how beautiful receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and developing a voracious appetite for the word of God. And I was like, this is what I've been looking for my whole life. This, this, the word of God. And it makes so much sense because that's really the only way you can be transformed. Romans 12, too. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, your whole life transformed, by the renewing of your mind on the word of God. For what purpose? So that you can prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's what made the difference.

Laurette Williams 24:15

And you know, when you look at any book at all, there and there's one of my books right there. It's a picture of, it's a picture of the author. However, this is the author. That's it, the word of God. And we see that in John 1.1 and 1.14. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And Revelation 19, 13 says, when Jesus comes back, says, His name is the Word of God. I mean, when someone first told that to me, they said, Lorette, Jesus is the Word. I was like, What? And I tell you, that bounced around. T

Laurette Williams 24:59

hat was the turning point for me. That was it. Yeah, of being discipled. Someone said that to me. And when someone shares the word with you, it bounces around like a tennis ball on the inside of a dryer. I tell you what, it's like boing, boing, boy, it just wouldn't leave. Jesus is the word. I had to understand that. And that is when I really started the seeking and then being discipled and, you know, got baptized in my life, just totally, totally changed. Glory to God.

The Origin Of PraiseMoves

Laurette Williams 25:27

On February 25th, 2001, at 10:35 in the morning, I remember it exactly. I was working out to a VHS video of Denise Austin of all people, and thinking, there's got to be an easier way to exercise. This is too difficult. I don't, I don't like this. I was interested in fitness, but because of the emotional eating that I had done since I was six years old, I always carried uh excess weight and was always, I was yo-yo dieting up and down, up and down. And at that moment,

Laurette Willis 26:03

working out, I kind of just backed away from the workout I was doing. And at 10:35 in the morning that date, the idea for praise moves just dropped in my heart. And it was like a crystal drop just falling into a pool and just the ripples coming out. That's how it felt, just like fell on the inside of me. Praise moves, the Christian alternative to yoga, not Christian yoga. That's an oxymoron or contradiction in terms like a Christian Hindu or Christian Buddhist. There's no such thing. You can't combine the two. That's considered syncretism, you know, combining two religions. And this isn't really syncretism either, because although yoga is a religion, and I have 22 years in it, I've had that experience.

Laurette Williams 26:50

Christianity, true Christianity, is not a religion. It's a relationship, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you know, with God, the Father, through Jesus Christ. So when I've looked at that, a Christian alternative to yoga, I would like to say that I was like, oh, wow, Lord, that's wonderful. I was like, no. No, no, please, no, I don't want to. I've spent most of my life avoiding conflict of any kind. I was ruled and riddled by fear most of my life. I used to walk on the other side of the street to avoid people to, you know, that I saw. That's why I was an alcoholic. That's why I was a compulsive overeater. That's why all the things. Lord, you want me to do the Christian alternative to so what did I do? For two years, I prayed, I fasted, secretly hoping the Lord would change his mind. But he didn't. And it began stirring in me more and more to be brave, to be strong, to be courageous with his strength, not mine.

Laurette Williams 27:53

You see, the Lord will always call you to do something that's far greater than anything you could do yourself, because if you could do it yourself, how would he get any glory for it? And I said, All right, Lord, I will. And it began coming together. I saw different postures, praise moves postures, different stretching movements. But the foundation is the word of God that we meditate upon or speak aloud while doing stretching-strengthening postures. Each one is assigned a scripture that we meditate upon or speak aloud while doing a stretching-strengthening posture. In this way, we like to say the exercise is the witty invention to get you more into the word of God and more of the word of God into you. That's it. It will change your prayer life. Because when you're praying in line with God's word, it changes everything. That's 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15.

Laurette Williams 28:48

This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, which is his word, he hears us. And if we know he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have, as our present possession, it says in the Amplified, those petitions we've desired of him. So when you're praying in line with God's word, you're speaking it aloud. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10, 17. It changes your life. I've had so many people say to me over the years, I was never able to memorize scripture before. Well, why is that? Because memorization is just mental. However, when you're moving to the word of God, when you're speaking the word of God, that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, the Holy Spirit brings all things to remembrance, Jesus said.

Why Yoga Conflicts With Christian Faith

Laurette Williams 29:40

It becomes a part of you. The word becomes a part of you on the inside. It's beyond mental understanding and the peace of God that surpasses that mental understanding. It's so beautiful to move to the Word of God. It's a wonderful experience. So some of the postures may look like yoga. Some look absolutely nothing like yoga, like our 22 Hebrew letter postures that mirror the Hebrew alphabet and follow along with the acrostic passages of Psalm 119 and Proverbs 31, and all have different scriptures with them. We're mirroring those letters. So in this way, we love to say, transform your workouts into worship with praise moves. We're worshiping the Lord through his word. Well, when I was seven years old, my mom and I started doing yoga. There was a television program that we used to watch, and we thought it was just exercise. But there is a spiritual component to yoga

Laurette Willis 30:45

that many people don't realize. In fact, the word yoga is a Hindu word, it's a Sanskrit word, and Sanskrit being the so-called the holy language, as it were, of Hinduism. And yoga means to yoke. Yoga is a mystic and ascetic Hindu discipline for achieving union with the Supreme Spirit through prescribed postures, meditation, and breathing techniques. So, in other words, it's salvation by works. And we know that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. And he said, My yoke is easy, my burden is light. It's an entirely different yoke. In fact, the poses in yoga are offerings to the 330 million Hindu gods. We know in Acts 15:29, we're told to abstain from things offered to idols.

Laurette Williams 31:45

Would you call yoga poses things? Yeah, they are. And in this way, we see also a twisting of Romans 12:1 that says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. You can see the enemy using that. Now we have hundreds of praise moves instructors around the world, but we've had some of our praise moves instructors go see yoga in India presented in front of statues of the gods. Some would bring rice, you know, some people would come and they would worship there and bring rice or flowers. Some would bring themselves doing yoga poses in front of the statues. Well, there is a lord of yoga, Shiva the destroyer.

Laurette Williams 32:44

That's part of the skewed trinity of Hinduism. Yes, there are 330 million Hindu gods, but the tr the skewed trinity, as it were, is Brahma, the so-called creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer. Now, why would Shiva be called Yogishvara, which means Lord of Yoga? And the Hindu Pradapika, which is the yoga text, talks about him being the Lord of Yoga, and especially Hatha yoga, which is the type of yoga that is done in fitness centers and in many churches, quite sadly. In Bangalore, India, there is a huge, 60-foot-tall statue of Shiva with snakes coiled around his neck at the Shiva temple. Well, here's the good news.

Laurette Williams 33:37

The first praise moves classes that were done in India were done in Bangalore at a women's conference at Winner's Church with two of our certified praise moves instructors who are from India, in India, right there where the Shiva Temple is. And we are seeing more people come to Christ, more in redeemed India, as we call it. So when you think of how did this practice come from the East, from India, and come over to the United States? And some say, well, it's just exercise. I'm not doing any of the chanting and the meditation stuff.

Laurette Williams 34:19

But would you agree that there are certain spiritual influences that we cannot see that can affect us? I was into yoga for 22 years from the ages of seven till I was 29. I was also a yoga instructor. And there are certain cues that we give when teaching yoga, such as breathing cues, where you're breathing in certain energies, bringing in universal energy through the top of your head or sending out bad energy through the soles of your feet or through your fingertips, inviting certain things in, and empty your mind, empty your mind or some of the things. No, we're to fill our mind with the word of the living God. That's the only way you're going to be transformed, Romans 12, 2. Be transformed.

Laurette Williams 35:06

Don't be conformed to this world and the world's way of doing things, just like this water is conformed to the shape of this glass. Don't be poured into the world system or to the yoga system or what other people are telling you. Be transformed, your whole life transformed, by renewing your mind on the word of God. But we didn't know about that. Did you know that in 1991, Swami Siva Siva Palani wrote an open letter to evangelicals in Hinduism today in 1991, and he said, over the last 30 years, an army of missionaries, Hindu missionaries, have been set out upon the West.

How Yoga Spread And Deceives

Laurette Williams 35:56

He was talking about yoga instructors. Yoga is the missionary arm of Hinduism and the New Age. It is what pulls many people in. That's what happened to my mom and me. We started going to an ashram, which is a yoga retreat in upstate New York. I was blessed in air quotes by Swami Sachidananda when I was 10 years old. He was the one who opened the ceremonies at Woodstock. But my mom and I went away from Christ, not realizing it, but were drawn away and began doing a lot of the new age practices. Yoga actually came to the United States in 1893

Laurette Willis 36:40

at the Chicago World's Fair, and Swami Vivekananda was his name. And he was called a Hindu priest, and they spelled Hindu H-I-N-D-O-O at that time, and doing this odd, strange thing, this yoga thing, this religion. He was called a priest, a Hindu priest, doing these spiritual movements. It was understood to be a religion at that time. And when you dig deeply into yoga, which I hope you never have to do, but I mean when you're if you're researching it and looking at it, the exercise is the witty invention, as it were, to get people into the religion. Just like in praise moves, the word of God is our foundation, and the exercise is the witty invention to bring you into the word of God.

Laurette Williams 37:30

So I couldn't really say that the yoga has a witty invention because it's it's a deceptive invention, let's put it that way. Then in the 1920s, Paramhansa Yogananda came to the United States. He landed in New York with a crucifix around his neck and with the Bhagavad Gita in one hand and the Bible in another, and he's he's pictured doing this, and saying that yoga is the bridge from the Bhagavad Gita to the Bible. It's the unifying, yoga is the unifying element. Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.

Laurette Williams 38:07

That's what that is. But I'll tell you, yoga has drawn many people away from Christ. And I'm so sad to say, I'm saddened to say that even Christian seminaries teach yoga, Christian schools, churches, thinking, oh, it's just exercise. No, it's not. There is an element to it that is very, very deceptive. And I'll have you know, there is a founder to Christian yoga. His name is A. K. Musimdar. Guess what religion he was? Hindu. Yes. The founder of Christian yoga is Hindu. He wrote the book Christian Metaphysics.

Laurette Williams 38:52

He had the Christian Yoga Society in 1912. He was close friends with Ernest Holmes, who uh I had studied when I was in New Age. He's the founder of Universal Mind, all of that. Confusion, confusion, confusion. We know from the Word of God, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. So when you see confusion like this, you know it's of the enemy. Well, Hinduism is a part of New Age. New Age is a hodgepodge of a number of different beliefs. Everything, like I said, from astrology to Zoroastrianism, A to Z. Hinduism is part of it. Buddhism is a part of it. Pantheism, part of New Age. Yeah, there's nothing new about New Age. It's as old as sin. Yeah, learning about the Egyptian book of the dead. Instead of we being made in God's image, Genesis 1, 26 and 27, we make God in our image is the lie of New Age. You can be God. You can be God. They cherry-pick things, even cherry-picking a few things from the Bible. Well, didn't Jesus say you are gods? I knew that line. That's about all I knew. But things like, well, nothing is either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. And oh, you obviously drew that to yourself on some level. It's karma. You know, you're learning something from it. There's nothing good or or bad, you know.

Laurette Williams 40:24

It's if there's no evil, deception. Lots of deception, lots of confusion in it. And like I said, there are some profound spiritual experiences there. But where it leads is emptiness. This is something that has been very helpful when I'm sharing the gospel with people, whether they're new age or they have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. They may go to a church, but they don't know Jesus personally, or they may be stuck in the in the new age, not even realizing that they're stuck, but they want to know God. There's a hunger. You can tell when someone's hungry for God, seek the Lord for the words to say. Start praying for that person so that their minds and hearts are open.

Sharing The Gospel With Seekers

Laurette Williams 41:15

When you look at Romans 10, 9, and 10, and I'll have it there for them, and I won't even mention the scripture right away. I'll just ask them a question. If anyone could be Lord of your life, who would you like it to be? Do you think Jesus would be a good Lord of your life? I mean, personally, one-on-one, if you could know him, like if you could know him, have a personal relationship with him. I'm not talking about religion or anything like that. I mean, like, you could just like

Laurette Willis 41:45

totally know him. Would you like him to be the Lord of your life? I mean, he could, you know, see things, know things, help you, and think, what are your thoughts? I've not had anyone say, no, no, no. I I want, you know, I want Buddha or I want no, nothing like that. And by the way, Buddhism is atheism. Mindfulness, don't use that word. Mindfulness is Buddhism, which is atheism. It's at a lot of churches, don't go there. So I would ask that and say, I'm just curious, do you believe in your heart, I don't mean your head, but do you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead?

Laurette Williams 42:25

Like, do you believe that he was raised from the dead? And everyone I've mentioned this to, they say, Yeah, yeah, you know, you know, it doesn't necessarily make sense in my head, but yeah, I did. I said, okay, here's the coolest thing. There's just two qualifications for what's called salvation. And all that means is being made whole. I know it's like this big Christian word, getting saved, born again, whatever.

Laurette Williams 42:49

But to be made whole, because do you ever sense there's like this missing peace on the inside of you? Like there's something missing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that missing peace is the peace of God. P-E-A-C-E. And Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. Sor Shalom in Hebrew. Shalom means nothing missing, nothing broken, the power that destroys chaos. That's shalom. And there's only two qualifications. To ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life and to believe God raised him from the dead. And then I show them in Romans 10, 9, and 10, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, made whole. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, which means right standing with God. And with the mouth, a confession is made unto salvation. It's that simple.

Laurette Williams 43:50

I once asked the Lord, Lord, why did you make it so simple for people to get saved? And I believe in my heart he said, if it weren't simple, then the simple could not be saved. And so when someone would say yes to me, then I would pray with them and they received Jesus right that moment. But asking compelling questions, that's what the Lord did to me. What if everything you thought about God was completely wrong? Would you be willing to give it up to know the truth? And if they're stuck and if they're sincere, they'll say yes. And take them to Romans 10, 9 and 10.

Margaret Ereneta 44:29

I asked Dr. Lorette to close with Psalm 145, 8 and 9, because it's part of her praise moves classes, and it's so beautiful. You can see her doing this to the praise moves in our show notes.

Psalm Reflection And Resources

Laurette Willis 44:42

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are all

Laurette Williams 45:03

his thanks for listening.

Margaret Ereneta 45:11

Dr. Lorette has many ministries. She calls beauty from Ashes, negative things in her past. She turned over to the Lord. So check out her show notes for a Christian faith-fueled weight loss program, as well as her recommended other resources that include a helpful resource and proper meditation based on Philippians 4 8 that I thought was really cool. You'll find those show notes by selecting more info at the end of the description in today's show.

Announcer 45:44

180 is brought to you by One Way Ministries. Exalt Christ, advance his gospel.