Mike

“I was a yoga guru with 300 students when a stranger picked me up hitchhiking, a picture of Jesus taped to his van's ceiling — and when he asked if I'd experienced Jesus, I said, 'No, but when can I?'”

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What they struggled with

Occult involvement Demonic oppression Spiritual warfare (post-conversion)Near-death experience

False refuges

New age Occult practices

What this story reveals about God

Relentless pursuit Patience Shepherd's heart Faithful to his word Restorer Defender

Religious background

Roman Catholic Hinduism New Age / spirituality

Main testimony theme

Secondary theme

Deliverance and freedom

How they came to faith

Relational influence Supernatural encounter

Content advisory

Before you watch

This testimony moves through a near-death experience, years inside a Hindu ashram as a practicing guru, and a dramatic same-day conversion orchestrated through a prayer group and a stranger's van. Mike is a careful, theologically precise speaker — expect detailed comparison of Eastern and biblical worldviews alongside the personal story, and a vivid post-conversion demonic encounter that is described with unusual specificity.

What this story teaches

People who are most passionately searching for God can end up most deeply lost — sincerity of seeking does not guarantee truth of destination. God can use that same intensity of devotion and redirect it entirely once a person encounters him personally.

How God moved

Go Deeper

I would encourage everyone to contact me if they have questions still. If they're confused about some of the ideas that I've shared that were matters of confusion for me and they want to try and sort them out, I would urge them to come to thetruelight.net and you can shoot me an email. I try to answer every email that comes in on that website. Also for former Catholics, I have another website catholicswithlove.org. And I would urge you if you're sorting through the beliefs of Catholicism and you're really hungry to be born again and you're questioning the correct interpretation of the Bible, come to that website. God is a great God. God works miracles. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Jesus that walked the earth 2,000 years ago still heals, still delivers, still fills people with the power of the Holy Spirit. And I pray that you encounter his reality.

People who are most passionately searching for God can end up most deeply lost — sincerity of seeking does not guarantee truth of destination. God can use that same intensity of devotion and redirect it entirely once a person encounters him personally.

What you can take from this

If you practice yoga, meditation, or any spiritual discipline this week, pause and ask yourself honestly: am I encountering a person, or manipulating a force? Read John 14:6 and sit with the exclusive claim Jesus makes — not to argue it, but to genuinely consider it.

Counterfeit spirituality

I was in darkness thinking I was in the light. I was totally committed to the idea that God was within every human being and to find God you look within. I believed in 330 million gods all emanated out of Brahman. I thought I had achieved a much broader state of mind embracing all religions as different paths to ultimate reality.

Unnamed entity

I looked up and saw something about the size of a large grapefruit come through the wall — throbbing, cloudy. It rushed across the room and slammed into my forehead, starting to suck my soul out of my body to get me into that astral projection state again. I knew intuitively that if it got me out of my body, I'd never get back in again.

Familiar spirit

Back when I studied yoga, I had some experiences that I thought were astral projection where I felt my soul leaving my body through the third eye. Now I believe those were deceptive experiences — not actual experiences of entering a higher plane. The power unleashed in meditation is not the true spirit of God. It's an impersonating spirit, a demonic spirit that gives you the sense you're entering some kind of white light or higher consciousness. But it's a spiritual delusion.

1

Jesus, if you're there and if you can hear me, then I invite you to come into my heart. Wash my sins away in your blood. Be Lord of my life, and I renounce all false religion and accept only the truth. And you said, 'I am the truth, so I accept you into my life.'

2

I shut down my yoga ashroom, dismissed all my classes. I went back to all my yoga classes in that area and that same week shut them all down.

3

I went and joined a Christian commune in Central Florida where there were a number of others that lived and studied the Bible on a constant basis. We'd have prayer meetings at night at 7:00 that would always last till about midnight.

4

I said in my mind, 'The blood of Jesus be upon me. The blood of Jesus be upon me.' And about the second or third time I thought that, that power ripped away from me and hovered before me and then I could speak and I said, 'The blood of Jesus be upon you.' And it fled from the room.

John 14:6

Quoted by Larry in his letter and by the man in the van — the exclusive claim of Jesus that challenged Mike's pluralistic worldview.

Ephesians 2:8–9

Cited by Mike to contrast grace-based salvation with karma and self-achieved enlightenment in yoga.

John 3:3–5

Jesus's words to Nicodemus on being born again — the phrase that first intrigued Mike and set him searching.

John 5:24–29

Jesus's teaching on resurrection used to contrast with reincarnation, anchored by the guru's own claim that Jesus could only speak truth.

John 11:25–26

'I am the resurrection and the life' — used to show Jesus taught resurrection, not reincarnation.

John 4:23–24

True worshippers worship in spirit and truth — used to contrast authentic prayer with mantra repetition.

Matthew 6:7

Jesus's command against vain repetitions — directly challenged Mike's years of mantra chanting practice.

Ezekiel 36:26

God's promise of a new heart and new spirit — used to explain what being born again means.

2 Corinthians 5:17

'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation' — cited to describe the transformation of the born-again experience.

Deuteronomy 18:10–12

God's prohibition of witchcraft — used to classify kundalini yoga and occult practices as abomination.

John 1:9

Jesus as the true light that lights every man — contrasted with Mike's false claim to be a guru bringing people from darkness to light.

John 6:35

'I am the bread of life' — used by Mike to describe union with Christ and calling to satisfy others' hunger for truth.

John 8:12

'I am the light of the world' — contrasted with the darkness of over 4,000 religions and Mike's former spiritual darkness.

Like Paul, Mike was deeply committed to a false system, encountered Christ suddenly, and immediately reversed course, publicly declaring the truth he had opposed.

Mike describes his conversion as 'I'm home, I've finally come back to my heavenly Father' — the prodigal's return language is explicit in his own words.

Mike describes Jesus resurrecting his dead spirit — 'he came in and resurrected this spirit that was in a sense dead' — echoing Ezekiel's vision of spiritual restoration.

Mike's Christian Walk

Shut down his yoga ashram and dismissed all classes the same week he was saved. Most of his main students also became Christians. Gave away all his possessions six months after conversion. Went hitchhiking across the country preaching the gospel. Built a global ministry reaching millions. Delivered from demonic oppression that followed him from his former lifestyle.

I knew I'm home. I've finally come back to my heavenly father and we're finally one again after so many years of being separate from God.

The demonic entity attempting astral projection — 'that power ripped away from me... and it fled from the room. And I never had an attack like that again.'

He saved me from sin, from the curse of death, from sickness and disease, from demonic oppression. After I became saved, I had experiences, encounters where demonic powers tried to come back into my life from my former lifestyle. And he saved me. He delivered me.

Prayer

The power of Prayer — Former fellow truth-seeker turned born-again Christian (Larry), and a former yoga devotee turned prayer group member who picked him up hitchhiking stood in the gap for Mike.

Larry, an old friend who had also dropped out of college to study under gurus, wrote Mike an unexpected letter describing how he heard an audible voice say 'Jesus is the only way' in a church and was born again — planting the phrase 'born again' in Mike's mind for days. Then a member of the local prayer group who had been praying for Mike for three weeks was redirected by the Holy Spirit from a laundromat, drove to find Mike hitchhiking, picked him up despite never picking up hitchhikers, and led him through a salvation prayer in the back of his van that same afternoon.

Is today your day?

Yes — I'm Ready

Absolutely, He will.

You don't have to figure everything out right now.

You don't need to have all the answers.

If something stirred in your heart while you were watching or reading — that's not nothing.

That is the Holy Spirit gently knocking on the door of your heart.

Stay right here. There's no rush. The Spirit doesn't pressure or hurry.

Watch another video. Read a little more. Take your time.

When you're ready — even if “ready” just means a little curious — Jesus is ready to meet you.

You don't have to clean up your life first.

You don't have to pass any test.

You only need to say a simple “yes” to Him.

He will take care of the rest.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Luke 11:9

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