Book explores ‘darkness’ of yoga
Linda Carl, a former yoga instructor, warns that yoga can lead to “darkness” and misconceptions, especially for Catholics. She discusses her experience in a May 11 talk at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., and promotes her book “Yoga Unveiled: My Spiritual Journey from Darkness to Light.” Carl explains how her involvement in yoga, chakras, and Reiki—labelled as New Age modalities—ultimately led her to leave the practice after prayer, discernment, and an encounter she describes as with the devil. She urges people to arm themselves with information to recognize yoga’s potential dangers, noting that even clergy may lack understanding of the practice.
5 months ago
The new book Yoga Unveiled: My Spiritual Journey from Darkness to Light by former yoga instructor Linda Carl warns that yoga’s practices, terminology, and underlying beliefs are rooted in Hindu spirituality and New Age ideas, which she describes as contrary to Catholic teaching. Carl’s presentation at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 2026, outlines how yoga’s postures, mantras, breathing techniques, and concepts such as chakras and Kundalini function as acts of devotion to deities other than the Christian God and can lead believers into “darkness” 1 2.
Linda Carl spent nearly 20 years teaching and practicing yoga before leaving the discipline after prayer, discernment, and what she calls “an encounter with the devil.”
Her book draws on personal experience, scriptural references, and statements from Hindu teachers to contrast yoga beliefs with Catholic doctrine 1 2.
Carl explains that “yoga” comes from Sanskrit meaning “to yoke” or “to unite,” but the object of the yoking is the Hindu god Brahman, not the Judeo‑Christian God 1 2.
She cites the Vedas as the source of yoga’s liturgical sequences, describing the movements as intended to honor Hindu deities.
According to Carl, this makes yoga an occult practice that opens “the door to Satan and evil spirits” 1 2.
The author links yoga to New‑Age modalities such as crystals, numerology, astrology, and channeling, labeling the New Age an “ideology that essentially replaces religion, which essentially replaces God” 1 2.
Carl argues that spirituality must be “tethered to God”; otherwise, it attaches to “something not of God,” posing spiritual danger for Catholics.
She stresses that many priests and religious may lack awareness of yoga’s theological implications, underscoring the need for informed catechesis 1 2.
The book offers a side‑by‑side comparison of yoga beliefs versus Catholic beliefs, highlighting fundamental differences in concepts of God, worship, and the source of spiritual authority 1 2.
Examine Catholic discernment of non-Christian spiritual practices
Catholic discernment of non-Christian spiritual practices is neither a blanket rejection of everything “spiritual” nor an uncritical openness that treats all paths as interchangeable. It is an evangelically ordered discernment: everything is measured by the truth and the final end of Christian life—communion with God in Jesus Christ—and by the moral limits the Church sets for religion, prayer, and worship.
A central Catholic approach is to evaluate any proposed spiritual “instrument” by what it is for and what it actually produces in the believer. A Dominican theological criterion frames this directly: the basic question is whether the practice formally assists the believer to attain what the Church holds to be the final end of Christian life—Christian beatitude—or whether it serves some other objective immediately.
Connected to this is an insistence on the object and content of prayer. When practices are presented as “prayer groups” or “meditation” but detach the person from the Christian object of prayer, Christians must be taught how to judge the intention and content of the practice—especially whether prayer is directed “in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, to the Father.”
Finally, Catholic discernment presumes that the deposit of faith, taught under the Magisterium, is the Church’s principle of discernment in encounters with other religions. Dialogue can be real, but it must not collapse into relativism.
Catholic teaching supports genuine dialogue with other religious traditions and respectful engagement with shared moral and spiritual goods. Pope John Paul II explicitly speaks of the Church engaging “friendly dialogue with all the great religions,” seeking mutual understanding and collaboration so that moral and spiritual values may offer strength to people today.
However, Catholic discernment also rejects the relativist move that makes differences in faith feel “relative” or interchangeable. One Catholic document warns that, in a context of religious relativism, it is necessary to warn against placing New Age religiosity on the same level as Christian faith, because this increases confusion and undermines the stability of belief.
An older treatment of “New Age” concerns similarly describes syncretistic and immanent forms that:
So Catholic discernment follows a consistent pattern: respect and dialogue do not eliminate doctrinal judgment; they heighten it.
Beyond doctrinal compatibility, the Church sets moral limits because certain practices directly contradict the virtue of religion—i.e., the duty of worship and trust owed to God alone.
The Catechism states that all practices of magic or sorcery—attempting to “tame occult powers” for supernatural power over others—are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion, and wearing charms is “reprehensible.”
It also teaches that all forms of divination are to be rejected—including consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpreting omens, clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums—because these express a desire for power over time and hidden powers and contradict the honor and loving fear due to God alone.
And it warns against an unhealthy curiosity about the future: Christians should entrust the future to God’s providence rather than pursuing knowledge that becomes spiritually unhealthy.
Implication for non-Christian spiritual practices: even when something is marketed as “spiritual,” Catholic discernment must check whether it involves divination, charm-wearing, conjuring, occult power, or ways of treating the future as something one manipulates rather than receives in providence.
A distinctive Catholic caution is that discernment cannot always isolate “harmless elements” from an incompatible whole. Regarding New Age religiosity, one text argues that it is “difficult to separate” individual elements that may seem innocent from the overarching framework permeating the movement. It adds:
“From the point of view of Christian faith, it is not possible to isolate some elements…as acceptable…, while rejecting others.”
The reasoning is that a movement’s deeper assumptions (e.g., whether it negates revealed Christian content through a gnostic approach or relativizes faith itself) determine whether particular practices become vehicles of a different religion.
A related concern appears in the practical guidance about “prayer groups” and Eastern-derived techniques: Christians should be wary if there is an initiation ceremony, because such groups may take advantage of spiritual immaturity and lure people gradually into “false worship.”
Implication for discernment: Catholic evaluation should ask not only “Is this technique benign?” but also “What is the spiritual framework that makes it intelligible—what does it train you to believe and to seek?”
Catholic discernment is not merely a cognitive checklist. It is a spiritual act requiring prayerful testing. In a set of norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith cites Gaudete et Exsultate and St. Paul: discernment is sought and cultivated in prayer; it supports the instruction “test everything; hold fast what is good.”
At the same time, the Church’s pastoral approach includes acknowledging that people can have a genuine thirst for God. In discussions of pseudo-religious movements, the Church urges pastors to detect an authentic thirst for an intimate relationship with God—while still addressing spiritual confusion caused by incompatible worldviews.
In the area of popular religiosity, the Church also teaches that authentic devotional practices can be spiritually fruitful—but with limits. Popular devotions:
While these sources are about Catholic popular devotions, the underlying principle is transferable to discernment of non-Christian practices: practices must be evaluated by their orientation toward truth, worship, and the Christian life—not by their ability to produce feelings.
Drawing carefully from the sources above, Catholic discernment typically evaluates practices by the following questions:
If the practice is not ordered—formally and practically—toward Christian finality (Christian beatitude), then it fails the criterion of authenticity as a Christian instrument.
Discern whether the practice forms prayer “in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, to the Father,” or whether it subtly trains participants to relate to God through a different religious mechanism.
Any practice involving magic/sorcery, charms, divination, horoscopes/omens/mediums, or similar attempts to manipulate occult forces is categorically rejected.
If the practice’s worldview sidelines Revelation, relativizes doctrine, or relocates salvation/sin/redemption into an “immanent” cosmos-ordering logic, it conflicts with Christian faith.
Some movements resist “element-by-element” salvage because the whole worldview determines whether practices become vehicles of false worship. This is especially emphasized for New Age religiosity.
Even within Catholic devotions, the Church insists on harmony with the liturgy and warns against merging devotional exercises into liturgical worship in ways that distort the Eucharistic celebration’s character. This supports a broader caution that Christian spiritual practices should not function as religious substitutes.
Catholic discernment of non-Christian spiritual practices is Christological, sacramental/liturgical in orientation, morally strict against divination and magic, and spiritually cautious about “harmless techniques” when they belong to incompatible worldviews. At the same time, Catholic discernment is not hostile to dialogue: it seeks respectful understanding and can identify in others a real thirst for God—while still refusing relativism and holding fast to the Church’s principle of discernment under the Magisterium.