David:

[0:00] So when it comes to the world of health and healing, there are many methods to choose from, and some are effective while others are not. You all know that. But however, today's topic is a little different. And it's basically just because it works or just because you can doesn't mean you should. Just because it's something works doesn't mean it's safe. It's interesting because in the Bible, God warns against witchcraft and sorcery because those power sources are not from God, but from the devil. And that's oppositions. And as believers, we need to be wise and know what is from God and what is not from God and basically stay clear of it. And so, there's a lot of things out there. And so, I brought on Dana Canetto today to try to help clarify some of these distinctions from us. And the reason I brought her on to talk about this is because she was in the New Age movement and was very familiar with some of these things and knows the sources of these that, yeah, they're not good. But a few years ago, she gave her life to Jesus, following her heart after Jesus.

David:

[0:56] And I'll let her explain all that and that history. So Dana, welcome. And to start off with, why don't you give us a little background of why you left the New Age and followed after Jesus?

Dana:

[1:08] Yeah. First of all, thank you. Thanks for the intro or inviting me onto the podcast today. So yeah, my name is Dana. I have a business myself. It's called The Luminary Woman, really helping women empower themselves to step into their God-given purpose. And what comes with that is all the healing and all the things that we need to do in order to get the confidence to go ahead and do that and have the courage and I always think of the story of Esther you know really talking to the Esthers out there that know that such a time is this, yeah so I left the new age it was actually last year although about a two years ago I was starting to get the call from God I was not realizing what it was so I was getting just these little nudges and hints to go to church. And, you know, just for everyone listening, I grew up in a Christian home. It was very lukewarm.

Dana:

[2:03] I had my father, just like God does, you know, gives us free will. Do you want to stay, you know, if you want to keep going to church, amazing. And so after my confirmation, I kind of just decided I didn't need to go on every, you know, every Sunday. Long story short, my father passed away. He was like the rock in my life. He passed away in 2010. And that was when I started to, I was very vulnerable. I was grieving. I was seeking what is my purpose and where do I fit? And the question spiritually wasn't even there until I started, I went into a health coaching school that I was learning all about, you know, holistic stuff. And I met some people in there that were very, I'm going to use air quotes, if you're listening, I'm watching, you know, very spiritual in a sense. And it opened me up to seeking, you know, it was almost like things just kind of came to me. Uh and things like and i'll just start with naming these things and i'll talk just briefly about like why these things are not very safe um.

David:

[3:12] Later yeah yeah yeah

Dana:

[3:13] Uh so i learned you know went into some priestess as it was called training and then um i was doing bikram yoga i uh then learned shamanism, went to magic school, which is all about learning about psychic stuff. And I dabbled in just to list them off, Reiki, mediumship. And one led to the other. So it wasn't like I was like, oh, let me pick and choose. It was like each one of these things kind of, I met someone through all that, or like I'll say in air quotes again, a gift started to develop and i wanted to yeah um then what happened fast forwarding through a lot of pain and suffering which i thought at the time was i'm ascending i'm which is a lot of what the new age will say um.

Dana:

[4:02] You know, mentors and stuff like that out there. And then, um, I was going through a really, really, really difficult time. 23 to 24, I actually had to put the business down. Um, well, I started to, cause something wasn't feeling right spiritually. God was already starting to speak to me and I also lost a job. So 23 to 24, my husband and I went through a lot of financial struggle.

Dana:

[4:25] I had put myself in a lot of debt due to all the investing I was doing in the new age um and in 2024 in june and i won't even go through what happened in january february march april may that just caused so much more suffering but i think god was just like sit down and stop trying to focus on all these things and trying to figure a life out and just three days in a row i went down on my chair and i just started praying and at this day i was on my knees pleading to god to just show me like what do you want me to do i have all these things these and i have nothing to show for it and it was just a very painful time and in that moment i just had a holy encounter and i didn't even know scripture yet i didn't read the bible yet and i just knew throw it all away and i packed bags and i didn't know what i was doing i packed bags i all this isn't right something's not right um you know all my shamanic stuff crystals everything and uh i just that was i was just fell in love with jesus like i was just like on fire for the lord and i started reading the bible and so many revelations since um and i just knew that everything that i was doing was hurting me more than helping me so now i my goal my my you know my mission through my work too is I have a lot of women in my community that are still dabbling in those whether they don't realize that it's unsafe or sure yeah.

Dana:

[5:55] Or just fearing leaving that world and submitting themselves to God because

Dana:

[6:00] it's, you know, everybody's on their different timeline, you know. So sharing the message of the importance of the deceit in the New Age world is really big on my heart.

David:

[6:13] It's interesting. It reminds me, I think it's Acts 19 where Paul was so effective in Ephesus in that region that there's a lot of people who came together and burned all their magical books. And it was the cost of these books was thousands and thousands of dollars in their day and age and yeah just the get rid of it kind of thing so it's interesting that's kind of what you're talking about um

Dana:

[6:37] Yeah and when i like right when that happened i started listening to all these testimonies and they all were saying the same thing and that's when i was like wow like i'm not alone here this is you know this is happening yeah.

David:

[6:49] Yeah and well since since this is a christian podcast i like to help our listeners be salt and light in this world and to spur them on to love and good deeds so i'd like to ask the question my odd my audience my guess um what is one way that you have found to honor god in your business and that may be encouragement to other people Yeah.

Dana:

[7:12] You know, I love this question, honestly, because there's so much that I've learned. I just literally was writing an email to my community because there was something that I was planning on putting out there. And it's changing now because every time I went to put it out there, I'd get like a slap on my hand. Like it was like God was like, no, I did not tell you to do this. So I feel like there's a very clear connection that I built in, My, I can't create from just my own will. Um, and some of the things that I feel like I'm being asked to change or do, they're not always what I want or I doesn't make sense and I just have to follow it. Um, and that's been really powerful and so different than what I have learned in the new age because it was always like follow your desires and what you want and you know and it's not always that because you know building like like when i mentioned us or it's like building the courage to do the things you're being asked to do and oftentimes we're held back doing the comfortable thing and so i think that like i say i'm like god is my ceo like god will tell me what the next direction is.

David:

[8:35] Yeah, very, very good. And you're right. And sometimes things are counterintuitive to our worldly thinking and mind when God asks us to do things, you know, love those who hate you, pray, you know, do good to those who don't do good to you. That's, that's counterintuitive to how we've been raised. Yeah. Very good.

David:

[8:53] So, you know, get diving into this topic. There's a lot of health-related activities that may or may not have a root in the new age, what may seem questionable. I know only a few different words, but go ahead and talk to me about some of these. I know like yoga, acupuncture, hypnosis that I kind of question. I don't know where they're from, but those or others, what kind of things should we be aware of that are popular today?

Dana:

[9:18] Yeah. My rule of thinking around this and just for everybody listening just to make this one almost like okay this one thing that I can do when I'm looking into some of these things is to always look at the origin of it so I'll use yoga as an example only because that's probably the most universal you know I can talk all day long about shamanism and and the dangers in that plant medicine the dangers of that like we're opening ourselves up to other spirits that we don't know.

Dana:

[9:50] Who they are we think they're of god but that's like especially if we are not um which most of your sounds like most of your listeners are christian but if somebody's listening and hasn't come to you know jesus yet like that's just even you're opening yourself even more so it's kind of like you got both hands in not just one you know um i would say though in a sense of yoga because This is something I had, you know, prayed over, looked into, not that I was doing it often, but there was certain stretching exercises or something I would do. And here's my feeling around it, or what I've understand and learned is like something like yoga is that it was meant and built for a spiritual practice.

Dana:

[10:35] It's meant a lot of yoga practices are meant for enlightenment. Um they a lot of the body postures are created to call in and worship different deities so even if we're not going into with that intention we are going into a room um with the intention right so if you have a facilitator up there like it's hard i i find sometimes like if i'm wanting to learn how to run my business but listening to somebody who is a new age business coach it doesn't you know it's not going to resonate so if we are just using stretches and things like that but if we're going into a yogic experience um doing these different postures some yoga like kundalini yoga is they talk about um they say mantras throughout it um.

Dana:

[11:27] They focus on meditation and mindfulness you know which is again all about clearing the mind uh so i like i said i like to look at the origins of where things are and a lot of it's based on like hindu philosophy so right there we are merging to religions and worlds and like you said like with scripture like in corinthians and some of these other uh verses where it's all about like you know not worshiping other gods um, Something like Reiki is another one that which I was certified in. So I know a little bit more on that when I think back to it. I'm like, OK.

David:

[12:09] What is Reiki?

Dana:

[12:11] Yeah. So Reiki is and it's spelled R-E-I-K-I if you ever want to look it up.

Dana:

[12:16] So it is a form of energy healing that's used where you're bringing in this energy that you are pretty much like the word isn't anoint.

Dana:

[12:27] It's something else that they do when you're in the training. they kind of drop the let's just say anointing in and you use symbols to to place on people in certain parts of their body my experience with yoga is that like it's really relaxing because you're lying down on a bed you have hands-on healing so here's where everything gets perverted hands-on healing is a gift from god but then there's all like a form of reiki that comes from a different origin than god right and we're using symbols now we don't know where these symbols are coming from um my fear in some of these things is that reiki became so universal that almost anybody is doing it so you don't know what they're what's running through their sister like their spiritual body that they're placing their hands on me or over me and what is going into me right what am i opening myself up to so some people say well i bring god into it but if you're using reiki is about using these symbols and these symbols are not of god so what are these actually right so again it's almost like and i know i had shared this once before with you but it's like we think of like a really healthy smoothie and then we put like one drop of.

Dana:

[13:48] Something not so good in it yeah like a mender had said that and i always had that stuck stuck with me it's like you put that one little drop of poison and it just becomes wrong um a lot of teachings that come from like buddhic uh buddhist buddhism you know the the problem with that too is that a lot of people know surface level of these religions so like buddhism we know of like you know very uh you know we have we we get to enlightenment we are we have there's past lives um but really the nuance the the real i shouldn't say nuance like the actual origin of buddhism is to reach nirvana which means the only way you can reach that is to be off on your own, and be in enlightenment so it's the opposite of what god wants from us it's almost to like take us away from everybody else family everybody right um and uh i'm trying to think some of the other ones that some so acupuncture is something that i'm not fully

Dana:

[14:55] i that's what i'm actually looking into now because um let's.

David:

[14:59] Go back to yoga real quick because i see i hear a lot of even podcast people talk about yoga i go to yoga to relax or i go to yoga to stretch out or whatever Yeah. Is it just the. The what goes is it the meditating or is it just the stretching out as bad or is it the meditating? Is it the people leading it? I mean, can you do parts of it and it's OK or what do you think?

Dana:

[15:26] I feel that everybody needs to like pray on it for themselves and test the spirits as always. Like I will never be one to say you cannot do it. From my understanding, like I said, the way I look at it, it's kind of like human design and gene keys. When I see where like, and those are like personality things and books that you can learn. It's all based on astrology and the I Ching, Tiching, however you say that. And the, when I, when I understand yoga, yoga, the word yoga means to yoke. So if we're going into a practice that was meant to yoke with other deities, and that's the intention of the yoga and the positions, I don't even want to open myself up to that world. If you're home and you're doing a stretch that just happens to be I mean I think that's like a different you know and I think we can pray we can pray over those things but I think that if we're entering a room where there's you're.

David:

[16:35] A facilitator or something

Dana:

[16:36] Yeah yeah and the other thing with yoga and this is this is a lot of how like new age starts is you start with one thing and it opens you up to everything else like you know even just like the holistic health I think there's, I mean, I am so passionate about holistic health and, you know, the way we eat, you know, natural, but there's also a lot of big community that is big into the worldly meditation and all the different meditations. And I never once met somebody inside of those communities that, read the bible or reads the bible or you know sure yeah so.

David:

[17:19] They're not going down that way

Dana:

[17:20] Yeah yeah.

David:

[17:21] So what are some common mistakes when people enter into some of these things that that they could you could help them out with

Dana:

[17:28] Common mistakes meaning maybe like some experiences i think yeah like.

David:

[17:33] They're going in and thinking things are okay but they're maybe they're not okay what are what you talked about origins and i know that's a big thing but sometimes we don't have we i don't have the time to look at the origin it seems like it was recommended by somebody else let's go ahead

Dana:

[17:47] Yeah let's do it yeah yeah i would say this like i'll share something from personal experience um which i had a revelation around afterwards i used to use like it was like my life um and that's like a hot yoga for like 120 minutes um it's the same positions it's like it can be very healing but um i've also heard a lot of people kind of hurt themselves but then again also the creator of it if you read his story if that's a whole nother thing i don't ever want to like promote um there was a story and i'll kind of combine this with mine of a woman she was she's a christian woman she has a podcast if i can remember what it was i'll share it with you if you ever wanted to share with your community but it took her about a year and a half to share the story and she even said it on there but she was warning her christine christian friend she was always christian but she thought oh yoga it's just you know it's stretching you know and she had a very demonic experience when she was in there, um she knew right away she needed to leave um this was not good and so i always say.

Dana:

[18:57] Pay so much attention to the signals in your body because the signals in your body is God's warning. When I was doing this, made me realize that after Bikram yoga, and I kid you not, I'd be very relaxed in there. I'm one of those, like when I work out, I want to sweat. I want to, you know, so I was like, really wasn't doing Bikram yoga to just like, ah, like I, I like to push myself, you know sure and i'd go in my car and even when i got home i would feel rage i thought it's because i was sweating and i and i used to like i used to um buy into the whole ayurvedic so like i'm uh my makeup like i'm not supposed to get super hot and like so i had this whole thing in my head that it's like oh i just my body needs to cool down but i literally would leave there and then i was like well that's fascinating because i can't believe i didn't even put these two together but i actually wasn't a person that got into yoga because every time i did yoga i wouldn't feel well afterwards i felt pissed i felt annoyed and i would say that to a yoga person and they would say oh that's because yoga brings everything up like all the trauma that you need healing.

Dana:

[20:08] Okay i bought into that and i was like okay well i do other things for healing like i don't need But I think that was God's warning too of like, don't get into this now, you know, like you're already dabbling in all this other stuff. But yeah, I mean, I think, I think it's a matter of trusting, like we say, like test the spirits, like trust. Um and yeah a lot of people will fight against the yoga thing and again i'm not a professional i wasn't a professional yoga but i also know i'm in a big community of other new age practitioners that came to jesus praise god and there's a few yoga instructors in there and completely put down a very successful business um, And, you know, you can't make that up. I mean, it was her life force. And now she's figuring out her life again, you know.

David:

[21:00] Yeah. And, again, it's interesting what you said, that after that you feel upset, mad, angry, whatever. And those are emotions that we should not have. That's not a good thing to have.

Dana:

[21:11] No. And in new age, it'll teach you to feel your feelings, to go into your feelings, accept your feelings. You know, it's like such an opposite of, I mean, there's a balance. Again, with everything, it's like counterfeited. Like, yes, of course, don't suppress your feelings, but go to God with your feelings. Don't make your feelings mean that you have to dig through another trauma to heal. Because that's kind of like, I called it the rabbit hole of healing. That's what trauma does. I mean, that's what a new age does.

David:

[21:42] Psychiatry may do that too, but yeah. Very good. Yeah. Go down those paths. Yeah. So very good. Is there any other, anything else? Well, actually, you know what? It's around 20 minutes or so. We're going to wrap up, but you've talked a lot

David:

[21:59] about a few different things. What is one challenge you have for our audience to take away, to take action on from the things you've talked about today?

Dana:

[22:09] Can you say that again?

David:

[22:10] One challenge. If you could summarize everything up, you can say, I just have one challenge for you in relation to all these things. What would it be?

Dana:

[22:19] I would say that challenge your own will. Like if you're doing one of these things and you're disagreeing or that could be a demonic spirit saying like, no, don't listen to her. This is good. But just I've experienced so many things through these things and I'm always open for questioning, too, if anyone, you know, you know, ever wanted to have a question for me or something. But I would challenge you to go to God with it. Pray to God and trust the answer you get without fighting it.

David:

[22:56] Yeah. Trust it and don't fight. That's good. That's very good. Don't keep questioning.

Dana:

[23:01] Yeah.

David:

[23:02] Well, hey, Dana, thank you very much for your time today and your encouragement. And the next step for all my listeners and to be doers and not hearers is to check out the show notes. We're going to have links and sites to how to contact Dana if you want more information about her, to sign up for our newsletter because that's a great way to communicate and not miss out on future episodes, coming opportunities. And if you're a perfectionist and habitually gets caught in the trap of indecision, book a call with me to help get you unstuck and move forward in your business in a way that honors God. Friends, that's all we have for now. Trust you've been inspired to redeem your business, redeem your time, and walk to the glory of God. Thank you very much. Bye for now.