Yoga is catch all term for many different practices that attempt to align the practitioner with spiritual energies. It comes to us from the rich, complex, Hindu religion, which honors many “gods.”
Some styles of yoga state at the core of their traditions that they are used to invoke these “gods,” even going so far as to invite them into the body. And some traditions go even further – encouraging adherents to focus on completing uniting themselves with the gods of yoga.
Hmm!
The Custodians would appear to be at it again.
I’m always hard on these entities, even though humanity has had a love/hate affair with them for millennia. Some people would say, “What’s wrong with attempting to unite with the divine? Why wouldn’t you want to invite the gods into your life or into your body or, indeed, to attempt to merge with them?”
I would respond with this – “What exactly are you trying to merge with? And how can you be certain that the thing or being you’re inviting in has your best interests at heart?”
Just because something has been done for thousands of years doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
Humanity shat in the woods (or in outhouses or chamber pots) for many centuries before modern plumbing was invented. The resulting diseases occurred because we weren’t practicing good hygiene.
Does this mean that modern plumbing is bad?
No!
It means we got smarter and cleaner and healthier. We began to try new things that gave us a better standard of living.
In a similar way, we need to be getting smarter about practicing good spiritual hygiene. And we need to be questioning the “gods” and their true nature at every opportunity.
That doesn’t meant that we should be disrespectful to people who practice yoga. Many wonderful people and teachers have been practitioners of this ancient system. And yet even they may have been misled, not understanding that the very tenets of that system were Custodial (i.e., spiritually enslaving toward humanity.)
Many older yoga teachers will discuss that yes, indeed, yoga (especially Hatha yoga, one of the most popular forms) has always focused on invoking the gods and inviting them into the body or energy system. But you won’t find this bit of information in the many popular “Yoga for Yuppies” books sold at Barnes and Noble! You have to actually talk to the yogis about this. And many of the younger yoga teachers either aren’t aware of what the original Vedas said about yoga, or they aren’t talking about it – or both! I’ve had two older yoga teachers from India admit to me off the record that yes, in the original texts, yoga was all about bringing these “gods” into the body through the various postures. That’s kind of a big admission, don’t you think? So why isn’t it talked about more openly?
I found an interesting blog the other day where the publisher briefly talks about yoga. The blog is called Animam Recro: Explorations in the Esoteric and the Political.
Here is some of what this fascinating blogger had to say about The Gods Within Hinduisim:
I recently met an interesting person and we got into a rather lengthy conversation. . .While speaking with him, I got to the topic of divinity within man. My new friend told me several stories and then mentioned one of his favorite techniques in Hinduism. One can invoke certain Gods when in need of help, usually invoking the God whose particular attribute would be most helpful to you. I’ve never considered the psychological significance of this before. Putting aside whether these Gods ‘physically’ exist or not, this is a very interesting practice of self-empowerment.
Self-empowerment? Or psychic possession?
The blogger also provides an interesting quote from The Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson:
In bhakti yoga, you form a love-bond with a particular divinity, dedicate every waking moment to Him (or Her) and invoke that Divine Being by every method possible, especially vivid visual imagination.
Hmm, if you’re doing this every day, should it be any surprise if your personality begins to change, your body goes through strange transformations, you experience mental disturbances and other classic symptoms of psychic possession? You’ve been inviting something alien (or someone!) into your body!
One of the commenters on this post had the following to say:
In Hindu Bhakti yoga, first devotee worships a personal God with name and form; Then that God becomes light; Then as devotee matures in devotion, that God becomes void or devotee & God becomes ONE. …This happens to every one who seeks after God, irrespective one is Hindu or not.
And that’s the root of the problem, isn’t it?
Too often spiritual and religious traditions encourage people to deny the body, to let go of the self, and to resign to something from the OUTSIDE coming into the body. This is nothing less than a complete psychic takeover.
Generally NOT a good idea! Especially if it’s questionable Custodial entities that you’re inviting to take over your life.
I would encourage anybody who has had an interest in yoga to take a long, hard look at this system. If you look into some of the original vedas (written texts) they openly state that you are INVITING GODS INTO YOUR BODY as you PERFORM CERTAIN HIGHLY REGIMENTED PHYSICAL POSTURES.
Do you want to be doing this? This isn’t about getting the equivalent of a nice workout on the treadmill. It’s no longer just about physical exercise. You need to look into the true esoteric origins of yoga and ask if you really need to be inviting something foreign – and likely to be Custodial in nature – into your body.
I’m just sayin’! Take a closer look, folks.
Filed under: History | Tagged: bhakti yoga, cosmic trigger, hatha yoga, robert anton wilson, vedas, yoga |
Custodial Smackdown 
Interesting discussion this, though I’d prefer it if the writer had a touch more experience with the subject matter.
Yoga postures invoke hindu gods huh? I wonder what gods, grade school kids in the U.S are invoking in their gymnastics class?
Quick, someone tell the authorities, moving your body into different postures can call up the devil!! Stop bending, stretching or twisting in anyway to save your soul!
Never forget stiffness is closest to godliness! lol.
Yeah, I get it that these foreign ideas such as yoga come from a particular cultural and religious background but really you need to know substantially more about the subject matter and the ancient cultures they derive from, to be able to accurately critique it.
I mean how would you like it if a hindu walked into a typical southern baptist church service where people were howling and moaning and rolling around under the influence of “the holy spirit” and then wrote about how Christianity is all about demon possession.
And they’d have a very strong case for their argument, don’t you think? I mean, how do you know what really takes people over in these services?
If you were a custodial entity, where would you rather be going for your regular psychic energy feed? – scrambling around with a few mangy new agers or feasting on the weekly rich pickings at churches all around the country. Mmm tasty….
Gymnastics, last time I checked, were not designed to specifically align the person with nonphysical beings as a form of moving meditation.
Yoga as taught to humans by the original Hindu “gods” (whom I believe to be Custodians) was.
Intention, tradition, and teaching are the thing that distinguish yogic practices of the postures from mere stretches and bends. They really aren’t the same thing. I don’t think Mary Lou Retton specifically seeks to align herself with Vishnu each time she does a backflip.
Yoga postures, invocations, and breathwork are not a neutral activity. Custodians own these disciplines.
And who says talking in tongues and rolling around under the influence of a “Holy Spirit” isn’t psychic possession, too? It’s giving permission to a nonphysical force or entity (or group of entities) to not only have access to your energy field, but to physically operate your vocal chords and body. (The same is going on in yoga when you seek to unite with the gods and bring them into your body, which is what many of the original yogic texts advise yoga practitioners to do.)
Doesn’t sound like such a good idea, in my opinion!
If I were a custodial entity, I imagine I’d be seeking a loosh feed at every available opportunity – at Christian churches, yoga class, and anywhere else where a group of motivated (and usually well-intentioned) folks are seeking to bring gods/”God” into the room to inhabit their bodies for a time.
I get ya! But like I said, you really need to try out a yoga class or 2 before you make these accusations. Anyone who’s ever attending a class in their life would be laughing their heads off at some of the statements you’ve just made.
In fact true yogis are deeply offended by the commercialization of yoga in the west.
Why? Because in the west, yoga is taught WITHOUT the intention and devotion that is absolutely NECESSARY to achieve the union with the gods that you refer to. Without that focus, yoga becomes just another series of body postures, just like gymnastics. And seeing as it’s your body and your breath, you get to own it in all it’s permutations unless you CHOOSE to give it away.
Though if you study the yogic texts, those who choose to give it away through devotions/intention etc, feel they are making a pretty good bargain – gaining powerful psychic protection from ‘benevolent forces’ on their high intensity spiritual journey to eventually ESCAPE from all spiritual servitude/imprisonment etc including the one that forces souls to keep incarnating on this prison planet.
Whether you believe they are correct in their beliefs or not is not relevant (I’m in two minds myself), but it just makes sense to have some genuine understanding of a topic so your criticisms are based on something more than cultural prejudices, rumour, conjecture and fear of the unknown.
I just wanted to add, that the realisations that a few conspiracy theorists and thinkers are making in the present day about the spiritual lockdown this planet is under, are the same realisations the yogis made thousands of years ago.
The difference between these people and our generation is that instead of spending their time whining about how bad things are, they devoted themselves to discovering and practicing myriad techniques of mind and body to completely escape the Matrix.
And just like in the film of that name, their experiences and discoveries are the stuff of science fiction.
Hi Dodgy,
I’m wondering – Why would you assume I haven’t taken yoga classes?
Why would you assume I don’t know anything about this topic?
It’s funny how a blog post can evoke certain perceptions in people – about the author, the author’s background, their experiences, etc.
I haven’t written much here yet about what I’ve really seen or what I’ve personally experienced. Neither have I shared the full body of my own research into more objective sources. All I’ve given here is a brief taste of things.
So I’d appreciate fewer assumptions about me in your future comments, if you choose to share your thoughts again. Because I’ll tell you right now – they are bound to be wrong! 🙂
This blog is not a democracy, by the way, and if I feel commenters are being disruptive or taking the discussion too off course (or introducing too much of a pro-Custodian stance) I won’t be approving them. I have a bit of ambivalence about allowing comments, anyway, because it’s my blog, not yours!
I do appreciate people visiting this blog and I honor everyone’s right to believe, perceive, and experience things in their own way. But I refuse to get into a “Who is right” style of dialogue with anybody because it’s not about being right.
It’s about exploring with unsparing discernment the potential Custodial influences in all aspects of society, especially metaphysical traditions – and ESPECIALLY really old traditions originally taught to humans by Custodial-seeming beings.
Somewhere in the piles of research I’ve accumulated over the years I have the original Vedic text that lays it all out there – I believe it was in reference to the Hatha style of yoga in particular – which openly talks about Yoga being a tool to bring the gods into your body.
And that’s what I have a problem with. (Along with many other Custodial issues within yoga, some of which I’m choosing not to talk about at the moment.)
But don’t assume ANYTHING about me or my experiences. I haven’t even begun to lay all my cards on the table yet. I’m not sure how much of what I’ve really seen and witnessed that I’ll be sharing. For now, I’m exploring ideas in an extremely superficial and simple way – on purpose. This blog is still at the introductory level where we are only at the 101 stage of highlighting Custodial themes in society.
I’m not sure how far down the rabbit hole I’m going to be going with this blog in the future. We’ll see.
But to act like I’m the first person ever to be critical of yoga is kind of silly. Two advanced yoga teachers, one an old man in his eighties from India, the other middle-aged Western woman, have shared with me their own confirmations about various yogic traditions being designed to create union with (and physical possession by) the “gods.” One of these admissions came in an entirely unexpected way because I did not seek it, he just volunteered this information as we were talking about other things some years ago. Which in turn led me to some original text, which is buried here in my voluminous files somewhere. I’ll locate it at some point! But it does lay things out very explicitly. Within some yogic paths, anyway, the gods are actively welcomed into the body. That is psychic possession. Period.
And here’s another metaphysical teacher who is highly critical of what he calls “the ghouls” – those Custodial attachments associated with yoga:
From Stuart Wilde – Avoid Yoga, It’s Deadly.
Sometimes we only see what we want to see. And it’s those predispositions – to give our trust and power over to a guru or a mystic tradition without lots of critical discernment – that I believe is the problem. It’s how humanity’s spiritual experience has been hijacked for thousands of years, and forgive me if I lack patience in continuing a dialogue about this.
You can’t use a Custodial system to free yourself from a Custodial system. So while many practitioners of (or founders of) yoga were no doubt trying to devise a system of spirituality that freed people from spiritual slavery, there were doing so within a tradition that puts practitioners straight into the laps of the Custodians. So how do you break free that way, when you’ve invoked the Custodians to oversee your spiritual growth? There’s a paradox here. Surely there are other ways to achieve wisdom about our divine natures that don’t require us to hook up with the Custodians? Yoga is a ley line of a very specific energy that connects with the Custodians. You can be at the outer fringes of it, thinking you’re simply studying postures with some nice teacher who studied at the Kripalu Center in New York, yet those Custodial energies are THERE IN THE ROOM WITH YOU as you do your practice. Ask anyone with clairvoyant abilities who is brave enough to tell you what they really see. (They might not do it, though because many people with strong psychic gifts don’t like speaking up about it.)
By the way, my intention through publishing this blog is NOT to be making friends or accumulating admirers. I expect to piss off a LOT more people off before it’s over. And that’s a good thing, since almost everyone has at some point given away their spiritual power to the Custodial gods. And I don’t consider myself immune, either, as I have many questions about the true nature of Jesus. On the one hand, the being I’ve communed with is immensely loving and helpful. On the other, the Custodial influences surrounding the cult that arose after his passing and a lot of the Biblical text attributed to him do not match this being’s energy. Again with the paradox.
This blog is meant to be a hardcore examination of these issues, not a mutual admiration society.
Whether you agree with what you read here or not is up to you. All I can say to everyone is thanks for the energy you’ve given to this blog and for stopping by. I also thank you Dodgy for your sincere exploration of these issues because it’s very nice to see so many people who obviously have deep concern about spiritual matters and are working hard in their lives to attain clarity, enlightenment, and healing.
I heartily applaud the process – but I will remain critical of Custodial influences as I see them.
Now this discussion is getting tasty! I love Stuart Wilde, have many of his books and have been inspired by his journey over the years. It’s his humour with it all that I love best – always a good sign when someone doesn’t take themselves too seriously!
Yeah I’ve already read his yoga article and found interesting the points he’d raised. I’m open to all viewpoints, by the way and refuse to come down firmly on one side or the other, as I feel that would limit my capacity to encompass the multiple levels of truth that can exist simultaneously. My personal motto could be ‘No to black and white thinking’.
I know my writing style can be a bit combatative at times but that’s only cos I want to stimulate discourse, debate and critical thinking. I’m hoping more people will join this discussion with their own viewpoints. I learn from them all.
I’m enjoying reading your articles and responses and would like to hear more about your experiences and encounters if you feel like sharing them.
Keep up the good work, my friend.
Hi Dodgy,
Yes, I think you and I are kindred spirits, always challenging ourselves just as hard as we challenge other people to think outside the box while at the same time continuing the journey on into new adventures in consciousness. It’s all good.
I love Stuart Wilde’s stuff myself although I worry about him maybe having taken a bit too many psychedelics in his quest for more visions of the “Morph.” That can be hard on the third eye after a while, and also it can cause the nonphysical realms to appear to “bleed” into this one, which can make life very challenging! I personally don’t think I’m read for walls to melt, etc. I need things a bit more “normal.” 🙂
But I adore his humor, too.
Thanks again for stopping by and contributing.
Hey Systembuster & Dodgy
Both your viewpoints are interesting. For myself I have learned that nothing is completely black or white. What has happened with the whole yoga in the west is it has become another industry. Commercialism at its finest. Now there are whole stores devoted to outfitting you in the designer duds and making sure you have that proper mat in one of the rainbow colours. All for a good chunk of change so that one may appear to be spiritual. Isn’t that what is happening with a lot of all this…people think they can purchase spirituality? Another commodity? As with other trends most people have jumped on the bandwagon never questionning what it is they are learning or doing.
In terms of freeing oneself from “custodial” influences would not it be wiser to start addressing one’s own environmental baggage (beliefs, conditionning, cultual influences, fears, etc.) that they have collected throughout their lives? As Stuie has repeatedly said throughout his books and articles, drop the fear. As I recall he has said that the ghouls are attracted to fear.
This is a good site…thanks for taking the time…bev
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Systembuster43:
First, I must thank you for using material from my blog for your post. On behalf of my co-writer and myself, we are always pleased when people take the time to read our musings.
I’ve read that you do not wish this to become an “I’m right, you’re wrong” exchange and are hesitant to allow comments to begin with. You can do what you will, but I hope you allow this comment as I am reflecting on some of your comments on my original post.
The crux of the discussion is the point at which I believe our two opinions deviate. The central idea is whether “gods”, “goddesses”, “entities”, or what you refer to as “custodians” have a will of their own. As you write in your post “…how can you be certain that the thing or being you’re inviting in has your best interests at heart?”
In short, I do not have an answer to this. At length, you’ll be able to see my stance reflected in the quote you selected from my site. “…I’ve never considered the psychological significance of this before. Putting aside whether these Gods ‘physically’ exist or not, this is a very interesting practice of self-empowerment.”
I mention “psychological” because I’m thinking along the lines of auto-suggestion. Something akin to the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy, that which is made manifest through the mind. The deity doesn’t have to exist for a change in a person to occur. It does not have to be true for it to work. Robert Anton Wilson offered a similar perspective.
Your caution however is not completely out of place. I do think that such concepts are powerful and could potentially get out of hand if the practitioner takes it too far. Or if their potentially delicate psyche forgets that the exercise was simply a practice of sorts. The distinction between your view and my own is that I think the potential danger lies within the individual whereas, from what I have read, you seem to prescribe to the view that it could be the invoked deity behind the mischief.
Dodgyguru:
I like your comments and would like to reflect on your following statement…
“I just wanted to add, that the realizations that a few conspiracy theorists and thinkers are making in the present day about the spiritual lockdown this planet is under, are the same realizations the yogis made thousands of years ago. The difference between these people and our generation is that instead of spending their time whining about how bad things are, they devoted themselves to discovering and practicing myriad techniques of mind and body to completely escape the Matrix.”
An interesting point. But is this because we’ve been in a spiritual lockdown for centuries, or is it because we’ve always thought we’ve been in one? Bear with my horrible allusion to pseudo-philosophical rhetoric and let me make a slightly tangential reference.
Some psychedelic thinkers liked to consider an age when people were in direct contact with the divine through the ritualistic use of psychoactive mushrooms, also known as entheogens. Anthropologists and other academics such as John Marco Allegro, who worked on The Dead Sea Scrolls after their discovery, believed that cultures may have existed that revered the mushroom, which may have been central to their society. Although this idea is not really accepted in academic circles, it alludes to an age of the mushroom. It’s a common theme in psychedelic circles though. Santa was really an Amanita Muscaria mushroom, McKenna’s stoned ape theory, goddess worshiping mushroom cults and so on.
After reading a wonderful book “Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom”, the rather persuasive author examines the evidence of an “age of the mushroom” and discerns it to be unlikely that such a phenomenon was ever widespread or common. However, he leaves us with an absolutely wonderful point, which is that if humanity ever lived in an “age of the mushroom”, it’s now. The popularity of the substance and the spread of spiritually related notions are unparallel. If this is a good thing or not, I cannot say. However, I think the same sort of logic applies to what you’re saying about yogis who practiced thousands of years ago and didn’t whine.
Do you know how many people predicted the end of the world would happen 1000, 500, 250, 100, 50, 9 years ago? Thousands and thousands of people! But we’re still here. The same applies to our “spiritual lockdown”. I would venture to guess that it’s not because there’s a spiritual lockdown, but because for some reason we as humans like to think there is one. Maybe because we want to be special, to be the last generation or the prosecuted ones. Well, if the yogis taught us anything, it’s that it’s all a great illusion, it’s in our heads. There is no spiritual lockdown and I would venture to propose that there are more people seriously perusing spiritual practices now than in any other point in history. We also love to romanticize the past. Now, what’s real and what’s fiction? And does it really matter?
Hey Systembuster,
Thank you very much for speaking kindly about AnimamRecro. I kind of like your blog, it is probably one of the most original takes on spirituality I have come across.
As for your post, sadly enough, I have to jump on the wagon with DodgyGuru, it does seem to me that your knowledge of yoga is not adequate to the topic at hand.
The 8 limbs of yoga (as summed up by Patanjali, this is the most common understanding of yoga) are a mystical system with the single aim of reaching what all mystical systems seek to reach – the union with God (not plural). Union with God in this instance means the realization of the divine, or samadhi. The 8 limbs are the different stages of practice that a yogi learns and masters in order to reach that goal.
More about them can be found here:
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/yoga/ (this is for a reader who already has some knowledge of Yoga – in this instance it pays off not to judge the text by the notoriety of the author)
http://zacharius.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=134409 (this is the first part of a podcast series called Systematic for the People, the following parts tackle the rest of the system)
So, if you choose to adopt the view that yoga was designed in order for the adept (yogi) to reach divinity (which, in my opinion is the true aim of spirituality), which is how (to the best of my knowledge) it was intended, then there is very little to find fault with. Possession doesn’t come into it.
Now, as for other types of yoga (such as previously mentioned bhakti yoga, or raja yoga, not forgetting tantric yoga) – there are all kinds of practices there for different reasons and with different aims. Possession is intended in some of these practices (to the best of my knowledge). Though you would have to search long and hard to find a manual for them, they are not particularly popular – especially here in the West.
Taking this into account, it’s still pretty hard to judge or validate yoga as a whole field – the yogic system is the largest body of work (and a collection of manuals) I have to this day encountered. It tackles everything from mysticism, magick, to some pretty weird shit.
Consequently, if you happen to believe that invocation = possession (as you imply), /which would radically change the meaning of magick/, then sure, there is something to be disliked about certain types of yoga and their methodology.
Ultimately, the core practice of yoga has nothing to do with invocation. Especially asanas, which you mentioned (hatha yoga), which are in intention and effect only a method of strengthening the body, creating more focus and learning self-control, or breathing (pranayama), which is related to energy maintenance, focus, and calmness, have nothing to do with allowing possession. The other 6 limbs also do not contain any mention of invocation or the worship of Gods. The aim is to bring the God inside out – not the other way around.
I hope that this helps. Best of luck on the journey.