Yoga Journal subscription Virginia

Is this woman happy … or possessed?

Religion is playing an unintended role in yoga recently. It’s the question at the heart of an ongoing trial in Encinitas, California, where a group of parents have objected to yoga as a part of the public school curriculum. We’ll have to wait until later this month, when the trial reconvenes, to find out if a judge will side with those who believe yoga is indeed a religious practice or a secular activity meant to foster good health. In the meantime, though, a candidate in Virginia is getting a lot of attention for his views on yoga and religion.

Meanwhile, a politician from Virginia was “outed” for saying that doing yoga puts people at risk for possession by Satan. E.W. Jackson, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and an outspoken conservative pastor, wrote in a 2008 book, that those who have emptied themselves through yoga might not even know they’ve been possessed. (Jackson also believes that homosexuals are “very sick people, ” has compared Planned Parenthood to the KKK.)

The comments about yoga from Jackson’s Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life: Making Your Dreams Come True were quoted in a post by Betsy Woodruff Wednesday on :

“When one hears the word meditation, it conjures an image of Maharishi Yoga talking about finding a mantra and striving for nirvana … The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself … [Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want.”