Yoga and TM lead me to psychosis. A.M. May 15, 2010.

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Hello,

I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian and until recently did not practice my faith regularly. I practiced hatha yoga, pranayama and mudras, as well as the five Tibetans (whose aim's to awaiken kundalini) for many years. I thought they will keep me young and spiritual. I practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) for several years as well. It consists in silently repeating a word (mantra) twice a day for 20 minutes.

When I practiced TM I ended up having a psychosis, feeling as if there was a devil or several, a shadow, and who knows what else, inside me. I felt like I was fighting against becoming a witch and against some kind of sexual possession. I stopped the practice and gradually normalized. I dismissed what had happened as a mental health crisis from which I recovered without taking drugs.

I thought the exercises, pranayama and mudras are harmless. Many times I felt strange because of those practices, but did not pay attention to that and dismissed is as imagination or a psychotic mind, since I thought I had a purely mental health problem.

I found out on the web that the mantra was the name of a Hindu god and that I had participated in an initiation puja or some kind of Hindu devotion ritual, without knowing it, when the mantra was given to me (supposedly a calming nature sound).

I talked to a couple of priests who told me I should not fear yoga. This happened while I lived in America and one of them was a former Protestant pastor. Here in my country, a guide to confession had a warning against yoga practice as a transgression against the first commandment.

I think my mind was blinded. However, I recently did the Easter fast practiced by my church every year. While fasting, I suddenly could see/feel the mudras and asanas constantly happening inside me, not at the physical level but at a subtler one, despite my doing them rarely in a dark space within me. I suppose at the level of the soul. And that TM mantra and other Hindu mantras I happen to know emerged in my mind. I once again had that feeling of having some evil beings inside me and connection with the dead. Before I was not a serious Christian, went to church rarely, and rarely observed a short fast. Now that I did the full fast, I felt strong evil energy inside me (probably kundalini) after practicing the 5 Tibetans. Somehow I was able to see its color as red.

I started going to church regularly, confessed and took the communion, read the Bible and prayed and now I feel a lot of relief, but still am quite scared. I also felt as if I reconnected to Jesus. I am now convinced that yoga is against the first commandment and very dangerous to our salvation. After reading other testimonials on the web, I feel that through this practice we do connect to forces we as Christians should stay away from, and get possessed by them. I am, however, convinced in one thing - the name of Jesus and the Holy Trinity, and actually any priest, are more powerful than these forces. But I still feel very vulnerable to those mantras in my mind and feel that I still need to cleanse from the evil inside and worry about my salvation.

I read on the web articles about the occultist nature of yoga. Reading articles made me realize that I was not psychotic, but have the ability to see evil, as other Christian testimonials show similar experiences. I would recommend to people pestered by mantras and who have practiced mudras to repeat the name of Jesus Christ instead and do the sign of the cross with the thumb, index and third finger together and the anular and small finger tightly closed touching the inside of the palm like we do in the Orthodox church.

I decided to write this testimonial with the hope to help others an prevent more evil from happening.

Sincerely,

A.M.