Baron Baptiste

SMJB writes: “Have you ever heard of Baptiste yoga? Does this type of yoga involve any kind of ‘baptism’ ceremony?”

No, it does not.

Baptiste yoga, aka power vinyasa yoga, is named after its founder, Walt Baptiste. The website explains it as being “inspired by the hatha yoga teachigns of Kirshnamacharya and his students Iyengar and Desikachar,” with whom Walt’s son, Baron, personally studied.

Even though Baron claims his style of yoga contains none of the “mysticism and New Age overtones” of other kinds of yoga, the description of the method refers to it as a “potent physical yoga practice” which uses “meditation practice and active self-inquiry” as “tools of transformation.”

That can mean just about anything, and because all yoga is based in Hinduism, you can be sure the kind of transformation it’s referring to is not transformation in Christ.