ATMAN - Distorted narratives

When they created their new website to twist others minds, MISA/ATMAN promised to thoroughly analyze the documentary "Twisted Yoga" and the podcasts that revealed what goes on inside the organization:

On this website, we intend to analyze each such media production in detail in order to expose the subjectivity and biases evident in the makers’ approach (source).

But like all the promises of MISA (such as fast spiritual evolution, certain liberation or bodily regeneration), this promise has also proven to be a lie. Instead of analyzing and then combating with evidence and arguments what is stated in detail in these productions, the editors of this website have treated everything in a general way, precisely in order to avoid and hide the disturbing details. And we have a whole cover-up operation: the action of the French authorities in November 2023 is not presented as what it actually is - an investigation against a criminal network led by Bivolaru and his acolytes - but an action directed against the "yoga school" ("we are deeply concerned about the unsubstantiated attacks of the police and media against our Federation") after which, in turn, the "yoga school" is hidden behind "authentic spirituality" ("another episode of a slanderous witch-hunt against genuine spirituality") (source). That is, MISA/ATMAN and its leader are not guilty of anything, but the forces of evil have launched yet another attack against the forces of good and have pounced on innocent people for no reason, whom they probably chose at random.

But they didn't even do a real analysis in general, they just proclaimed from the beginning that the press is lying, although they are the ones who accuse "the biases evident in the makers' approach", as can be seen in the aforementioned quote. The height of the ridiculousness is reached in one of the videos (details) on the YouTube channel associated with the page, when the author reveals his biased attitude and flight from the truth:

”When encountering a documentary like this, the natural reaction is to focus on the accusations themselves. Are they true or false? But in this analysis, I approached the documentary from a slightly different angle.”

Instead of following the natural attitude of focusing on the accusations themselves, as the author himself shows, he nonchalant declares, without realizing his blunder, that he has approached a slightly different angle, therefore unnatural attitude! Why? Precisely to avoid the accusations, the very substance of the documentary! And then, what is left to analyze? "What does not appear in the documentary"! 

The editors declare at a certain point that "the story is shaped not only by what is shown but also by what is quietly left out". (source). Instead of analyzing the statements and evidence present in the productions about MISA, they sneak in "what does not exist": their own version, which suits them (but which has no connection with the facts presented in the respective media productions), such as "the testimonies of thousands of school students", who, however, were not witnesses to the facts exposed. It is clear that, having nothing to combat the accusations concerning them, MISA activists are at least trying to say something, so as not to remain silent and seem to admit their guilt, while also seeking to divert attention from the subject to the desired direction.

Let's analyze the series of articles dedicated to the documentary "Twisted Yoga", entitled "Distorted Narratives".

➤ Part 1 (archive)

● quote:

For those of us who have been part of a yoga school using the teachings of the yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru, the documentary series Twisted Yoga premiered on Apple TV on March 13, 2026 is not simply a controversial portrayal of our community. It is a deeply distorted one. For people who know the community from the inside, the gap between the reality we experience and the picture shown in the documentary is striking.

comments: For us, who were part of the school created by Bivolaru, knowing the community from the inside, the gap between the reality we experienced and the image presented by the school management was striking, so we left this school of lies, manipulation and absolute villainy. And the current students, who express their surprise at what the documentary presents, it is clear that they have not seen what we saw long ago. Of course, they have known for a long time that Bivolaru "initiates" students and that he has created a system of training (grooming) them, starting with the promotion of unbridled sexuality, continuing with the selection through swimsuit photos and the Miss Shakti contest, with the gifts and free vacations offered to them at the Villa specially built for them from the beginning. But some were surprised by his arrest in Paris, while everyone believed that their great spiritual guide was in Sweden, under the protection of political asylum from the Occult that hunts him and keeps sending him threatening letters to his address there. In fact, the surprise comes from the fact that they discover that their guide is lying to them shamelessly and that he is not invulnerable and protected by God, as they imagined because that is what the guide had let them understand. And they also discover that it is as it was said by the "enemies" who abandoned the school, that it is exactly as some former students have told them in the past (video, press).

● quote: 

For decades, similar stories have circulated in the media: a spiritual group that appears inspiring at first is gradually exposed as manipulative or dangerous. Twisted Yoga docuseries follows this familiar script almost perfectly. Viewers are invited to believe that they are uncovering a hidden truth, while the story quietly guides them toward a conclusion that has largely been decided in advance.

comments: In fact, it was not the conclusion that was predetermined, but the victims' accounts were made in advance, and their testimonies were confirmed by the evidence gathered later in the police investigation. The documentary merely presents these testimonies, and the fact that they were confirmed by the subsequent investigation is interpreted by the twisted minds of MISA followers and activists as proof that everything was predetermined, because they came to see everything upside down (twisted).

● quote: 

This series of articles takes a closer look at how that story is built. Instead of debating individual accusations, we examine the documentary itself—its structure, its narrative choices, and the way it guides viewers toward particular interpretations. When we analyze the film in this way, a clear pattern begins to emerge. What appears at first glance to be an investigation turns out to rely heavily on storytelling techniques that shape how viewers interpret what they see

comments: The authors do exactly the opposite: instead of debating the accusations and then, only if they prove to be false, debating the manipulative techniques and the goals pursued, they avoid serious accusations and, instead, claim to be DIRECTLY analyzing the alleged maneuvers used. But how can they go directly to analyzing the manipulation techniques, as long as they have not first established that it is a matter of  falsehood and lies, therefore manipulation? It is obvious that the authors of the analyzed article are seeking to divert attention from the accusations made against the organization they serve.

● quote: 

The documentary repeatedly accuses the yoga school of manipulating its members and shaping how they perceive reality. Yet the techniques used in the documentary perform a very similar function for the audience. Through emotional framing, selective evidence, and strategic omission, viewers themselves are guided toward a predetermined interpretation. In trying to expose manipulation, the documentary ends up demonstrating how easily public perception can be manipulated. This paradox stands at the center of the analysis that follows.

comments: By avoiding addressing the accusations and seeking to divert attention in another direction, then bringing false arguments that have no connection with the case (i.e. the laudatory accounts of their own members who did not even witness the events or know about them), the authors of the analyzed articles prove how easily they manipulate the minds of the followers of the organization to which they themselves belong, since the articles are intended primarily for their own colleagues. Unlike MISA  followers, public opinion is naturally interested in the facts (as the authors of these articles analyzed here themselves show), not being affected by the maneuver of concealment and diversion of attention.

➤ Part 2. How ”Twisted Yoga” Builds Its Story (archive)

● quote: 

In the first article of this series, we argued that Twisted Yoga docuseries on Apple TV presents itself as an investigation but actually follows a narrative that has largely been decided in advance. To understand why, it is not enough to look only at what the documentary says. We also need to look at how the story is constructed.

comments: "It is not enough to look ONLY at what the documentary says." The limiting adverb ONLY has no place in the previous sentence, because the authors have not shown at all what the documentary says! Those who would read directly the 2nd part of the series of articles without reading the first part, would have the impression that in the previous article the accusations were analyzed and established as untrue, so this documentary is manipulative and that is why the maneuver used must be unmasked. Obviously, none of the accusations were debated, and the reason is clear: not only are they serious accusations against the MISA leaders, but they cannot be fought! That is why they jump straight to the "analysis", passing over in silence the really important things: the facts! But if the facts are not analyzed, then what is analyzed? "What is left out", that is, what the MISA activists seek to bring to attention, instead of the facts that they pass over in silence!

● quote: 

In the method called framing, just like when we are taking picture of something, we always face the decision what to include and what to leave out – what to focus on, to place in the center and to position on the margins. Through this analogy, it becomes clear how these choices influence how the audience understands the story. In Twisted Yoga, several storytelling techniques are used again and again. They guide the viewer toward a particular interpretation of the yoga movement connected with Gregorian Bivolaru.

comments: This is why MISA in general and the authors of these articles in particular avoid even mentioning the accusations, much less debating them: because they concern Bivolaru first and foremost. At MISA, it is all about Bivolaru. Nothing moves without his initiative and approval. So, you can't get a picture of MISA without Bivolaru being in it. There is no framing technique, he is simply present everywhere, even when he is an unseen presence. Bivolaru has truly achieved the state of omnipresence. But he lacks omnipotence and omniscience... While blaming the documentary for the alleged use of the framing technique, it is precisely the authors of these articles who do so! They frame the picture in such a way that the very people who are the focus of the documentary - the "yoga school" and its leader - are missing from it, focusing instead on those who made this documentary. It is a more subtle use of the DARVO technique that cults resort to when the spotlight is on them (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim with Offender).

● quote:

Emotional priming is presenting dramatic or alarming material at the start so that everything that follows is interpreted through the same emotional lens. The documentary opens with a sequence of statements about manipulation, abuse, and psychological control. At this stage the audience does not yet know what the courses are like, what the teachings contain, or why people join them. Instead, the viewer is first introduced to a mood of suspicion and danger. Interviews with former participants are combined with tense music and dramatic narration, creating an atmosphere similar to a crime investigation. Once this emotional tone is established, later scenes are automatically interpreted through it. Meditation practices, spiritual teachings, and community life now appear not as neutral activities but as potential signs of something darker.

comments: The opening sequence shows what the documentary is about, it is a trailer. It is not a manipulation technique, but a method to capture the audience's attention. Then, let's highlight the following sentence:

”Interviews with former participants are combined with tense music and dramatic narration, creating an atmosphere similar to a crime investigation.”

A little later in this second article of the series, the process called visual moral coding (attribution of moral meaning through visual atmosphere) is described, where it is said:

”Interviews with apostate former participants are usually filmed in warm and comfortable settings. Soft lighting, calm environments, and close camera framing create an atmosphere that feels intimate and trustworthy.”

Although these two passages refer to the same thing - interviews with former participants - the statements are contradictory. This is a picture of how people lie constantly at MISA, depending on the intended purpose, which is called "circumstantial lying". For this reason, investigators repeat questions from time to time in their search, but in different contexts, and if the suspect does not tell the truth but invents, he will give different answers and thus be caught lying!

● quote:

The documentary focuses almost entirely on people who later came to see their experiences negatively. What it does not show is that thousands of people are still active in the yoga school today and do not share this interpretation at all. Many participants describe their experiences as meaningful, beneficial, and freely chosen.

comments: Each with their own experiences! The fact that there are many people with positive experiences does not exclude the existence of those with negative experiences, especially when the experiences of the latter are not known to the former and are not in the same category. For example, the documentary is about abuse and sexual exploitation claimed by some female students invited by Bivolaru to be sexually initiated by him personally, facts that cannot be experienced by men or by female students who were not invited and who, moreover, had no way of knowing about the existence of these facts, due to the secrecy of the MISA courses. Therefore, the positive experiences of of some students do not exclude those of the "initiated" women.

● quote:

Negative reframing happens when something that participants experience as positive or meaningful is reinterpreted as evidence of manipulation. Concepts based on well-established religious and philosophical traditions such as conscious surrendering, devotion, seeing beyond appearances (transfiguration) or the transcendence of ego are introduced not as spiritual ideas but as tools that supposedly weaken people psychologically. The same happens with philosophical teachings about tantra or meditation. 

Instead of being explained as part of a spiritual worldview, they are framed as methods used to influence followers.

comments: Again, the authors resort to the tactic of mixing things up and hiding the tree behind the forest. The way practices are presented in tradition is one thing, and the way they are interpreted and applied in MISA is something completely different. The author starts from the premise that MISA is authentic and in the spirit of the spiritual tradition, which turns out to be false. For example, the teaching of abandonment, devotion and transfiguration is used in MISA to promote and justify the renunciation of individual will in the face of the spiritual authority of the leader, the transcendence of the ego is used as a justification for exceeding sexual limits, just as the idea of ​​"sexual initiation" is used to justify sexual abuse and to fulfill the sexual desires of the leader. Removal and separation from tradition is one of the characteristics of sects.

● quote:

Another technique used throughout the series is deviance amplification. This concept from sociology describes how unusual or unfamiliar behavior can be presented in ways that make it appear more disturbing or dangerous than it actually is. Spiritual traditions often contain practices that may seem strange to outsiders. In a fair investigation these practices would normally be explained in their cultural or philosophical context. One striking example is the discussion of a practice involving urine consumption. The documentary presents this moment as shocking and humiliating. What is not explained is that similar practices – known as amaroli – exist in the Yoga and Ayurveda traditions, as well as in certain Western natural therapies. In the tantric tradition it is described for instance in the more than thousand years old work Damar Tantra. Without that context, the practice appears bizarre and disturbing. With context, viewers might at least understand that it is part of a wider spiritual tradition, even if they personally reject it.

comments: It is clear that MISA does not understand the concept of consent and free will at all. Traditional or not, any practice must first be consented to and accepted. The scene in the documentary refers to the moment when former student Ashleigh reports an orgy that she was forced to attend without knowing in advance what was to come, because she had taken a vow of silence. In the shakti group she was in during a secret ritual, the other participants made love to each other and at the end collected urine from everyone in a bowl, from which they were supposed to drink and send the “dilutions” to other groups. Ashleigh refused to participate, but had to attend, because she was not allowed to leave the room. This moment represents an obvious pushing of personal boundaries and a violation of consent, because she had been forced to swear to secrecy without knowing in advance what was to come. In MISA, traditional means of imposing by force.

Then, there is no practice of collecting and consuming urine from other people in the Damar Tantra treatise, but only the consumption of one's own urine. Even less is there the practice of collecting urine after lovemaking between women. This is an invention of Bivolaru, a sick fantasy of his, which he satisfies by deceiving women into participating. For this purpose, he inoculates his followers with this deviant practice by presenting it as traditional, which is false. In fact, Bivolaru seeks to "explain" the charging of urine during lovemaking, appealing to Masaru Emoto's works on water memory, which are recent. If there had really been a procedure for "charging" urine in Damar Tantra or in tradition, Bivolaru would have referred to it.

It should not be omitted that the practice of consuming urine between sexual partners does not exist in Tantrism either, Bivolaru having to falsify an entire book (“The Mystic Lady”) to justify his perversion and inoculate it to his followers, in order to take advantage of it. Already Bivolaru gave investigators “respect for tradition” as a reason to “justify” the presence of some bowls of urine found during the police raid on his home in Paris (details). Finally, as for the “justification” with traditional practices, no matter how aberrant some of them may be, I recall the existence in India of the thug sect, who lured travelers or passersby, whom they then robbed and killed in “honor” of the goddess Kali. What do you want, that's “tradition” ...  

”Viewers might at least understand that it is part of a wider spiritual tradition, even if they personally reject it”. The viewers understood very well of course that, just as they reject this practice, there are also MISA/ATMAN students who reject it and consider it horrible, and to pressure someone to attend or participate in such a thing even in the name of tradition, is a violation of human freedom and laws, regardless of the "context". From what follows, it is equally clear that the leaders and followers of MISA do not understand what free will is and must be made to understand and respect it!

● quote:

By presenting unfamiliar practices without context, the documentary turns cultural difference into evidence of wrongdoing. Instead of explaining the unfamiliar, it uses it to reinforce suspicion.

comments: First, it is not the duty of the documentary makers to "familiarize" the public with "unfamiliar" practices. This is the duty of the MISA/ATMAN school, which has assumed this in its statutes, but through promotion and disclosure, not through persuasion and manipulation, through psychological pressure or by imposing force. Then forcing people to perform "unfamiliar" practices or even to witness them, without their consent is not "cultural difference", but that is an illegal act. And such practices continue with dates in the form of games that force individual boundaries (details, FAQ). There are other "unfamiliar games" that should actually be called "uncomfortable": group hugs, "the walk of angels", eye contact or other ”spicy” games in which, in all cases, mixed couples are drawn by lot (video).

MISA presents its perverse and deviant practices under the cover of "cultural difference" (although it blames the diversity policy!) and even uses a mild adjective ("unfamiliar") to mask the violation of consent. Those from MISA are aware that their practices are perverse and even illegal, that's why they hide them behind  ”retreats” and oaths of silence, but the problem is that followers are forced to swear BEFORE they know what they are talking about. However, they continue with their practices that force and violate individual limits, constituting a social danger, they do not make the difference between tradition and legality and do not understand that their freedoms cannot violate the freedoms of others.

● quote:

Another powerful technique used in the documentary is narrative accumulation. This happens when many accusations or testimonies are presented one after another so that their combined impact creates the impression of strong evidence. In the sections describing houses connected to the yoga school in Paris, the viewer hears a series of claims in quick succession: stories of secrecy, suggestions of manipulation, references to police investigations, and testimonies from former participants. Each individual claim may still be uncertain or contested. But when they are presented together in a continuous sequence, their emotional impact becomes much stronger.

comments: "Uuh, stop presenting the disturbing aspects in rapid succession, it makes us dizzy!" But how should it be done, one episode for each accusation? This will also be done, after the trial, with concrete evidence from the file. "Stories about secrecy!" So isn't it true that secret activities are carried out at MISA? So isn't it true that vows of silence are demanded and taken at MISA? MISA has already admitted this (details) and so has the guru (details).

➤ Part 3. Strategic Omissions: How ”Twisted Yoga” Shapes the Story by Leaving Things Out (archive)

● quote:

Documentaries do not shape perception only through what they show. They also shape it through what they leave out. Every documentary must simplify reality to some extent. No film can present everything. But when key pieces of information repeatedly disappear, the viewer no longer sees a simplified reality but a selectively constructed one. 

comments: Since the documentary does not present the information "that is left out", only the author "knows" what information he is referring to, since he raised the issue of the left out information. In this way, he can invoke that information favorable to the organization he serves and that is not related to the subjects exposed in the documentary, which MISA seeks to pass over in silence. This is exactly what MISA does when, in relation to the accusations of trafficking and sexual exploitation, it brings as a counterargument the "thousands of testimonies" of followers who declare that they have not witnessed any abuse, and indeed most of them have not. The problem is that, since they did not witness the alleged events, they are not entitled to speak out, but  nevertheless they do so in favor of the school, which is a violation of the moral and ethical principle of Truth, which is preached at MISA. 

MISA activists criticize the omissions, accusing that “half-truths are whole lies”. They would be justified in accusing the omission of facts, evidence and information which would DIRECTLY related to the case in France and would contribute to the exoneration of the accused, but this is not the case as they do not analyze any of the facts exposed in the documentary. Thus, they exceed any limit of villainy when they accuse those who made the documentary of omissions, while they themselves avoid mentioning what the documentary is about which they pretend to analyze in the smallest details.

● quote:

A similar pattern can be described as cultural isolation. This occurs when ideas or practices are removed from the wider traditions in which they exist, making them appear far more unusual or disturbing than they actually are. Many of the spiritual concepts discussed in the documentary – such as devotion, surrender, or the transcendence of ego – are common themes in spiritual traditions around the world. Similar ideas appear in classical yoga texts, Buddhist teachings, and Christian mysticism.

comments: The removing from tradition is committed by Bivolaru himself, when he invents new practices (“revelations in planetary premiere”, “adaptations of tradition to contemporary understanding, in the light of scientific discoveries”). Then, the fact that certain ideas or practices exist in the traditions of some does not mean that they must be imposed on others. On the one hand, MISA activists mix things up, so that the claimed facts and accusations are hidden behind other aspects and disappear from attention.

On the other hand, however, they show that they do not realize where their freedom of belief ends and where that of others begins. This fact also comes from an ego exacerbated to monstrous dimensions, which makes them convinced that their practices are perfect and that they are always right and without mistake (infallible). This makes them fundamentalist fanatics, a real social danger, as I said before.

● quote:

When tantric practices are presented without their wider cultural background, viewers may easily conclude that they are bizarre inventions of the group itself.

comments: As already shown, the practices of MISA are indeed bizarre inventions, which is why they are contested in the yoga community. Not only are they taken out of context by Bivolaru himself, but often there is no such context in the spiritual tradition, which is why Bivolaru himself created a false context by creating fake books or by modifying the tradition. Paraphrasing the quote above, in this way the teachings become "new traditions", different from the ones they come from. As usual, MISA activists blame their own miserable deeds on those who challenge them (the DARVO manipulation technique of sects).

● quote:

Another important distortion concerns whose voices are allowed to speak. The documentary relies heavily on testimonies from disgruntled former participants who describe their experiences in negative terms. In sociology these are called apostates, a technical word used by sociologists that is not synonym of ‘ex-member’ but identifies the small minority of ex-members who become militant opponents of the groups they have left (most ex-members don’t). 

”An essential point, indeed, the key to understand this series and something media dealing with new religious movements and minority religions should keep in mind, is that apostates are but a minority of the ex-members. Most ex-members do not become militant opponents of the group they have left, nor do they regard it as  extraordinarily evil.” (source)

What viewers rarely hear, however, are the voices of people who remain actively involved in the courses and practices. Not even the many former participants who are neutral or even positive about the movement are included. Having existed for over 35 years, there are thousands of former members, who are not at all against the movement, but simply left, when they considered, because they simply chose another path or orientation of their lives.

comments: It is understood that "apostates" do not have the right to express themselves? Only MISA has the right to express themselves? In the end, what matters is the Truth, that is, not which voices are heard, but which voices are right! The fact that "apostates are a minority" does not mean that they are any less right! But let MISA stop worrying about the "apostates", because they will not only have to deal with them at the trial, but with concrete evidence against them, which will speak for itself and whose "voices" they will not be able to stop! 

The gentle tone is funny: "the majority of former members do not consider the group extraordinarily evil". Since they nevertheless left it, they consider it at least "a little evil", because no one wants to leave paradise! And many of them, even if they are not militants, are not exactly "neutral", because they had reason to leave and there is also the problem that some are under a vow of silence, a fact that MISA passes... under silence. In addition, the number of those who have left MISA over time is much higher (in any case, more than half) than the number of current participants.

● quote:

Another telling example concerns the way the documentary discusses the internal life of the community. Decisions about relationships, spiritual practices, or daily routines are described by outsiders as if their meaning were already obvious. Yet the people who actually live within that environment are rarely asked to explain why they participate or what these practices mean to them. Their experiences remain largely absent from the narrative.

comments: The documentary is not about the “MISA yoga school”, but about the experiences of some women within this group. The opinions of current MISA followers are relevant only to the extent that they have had to deal with the facts exposed in the documentary, which most of them do not even know about. Asked by “scholars” about the victims who appear in the film, some called them “liars” (details). But the facts reported by the victims and laid out on paper in the written complaints previously filed with the police, correspond to those found by investigators during surveillance and raids, being in fact largely confirmed! So who are the real liars: those who are right or those who do not even want to accept the evidence?

● quote:

Another form of distortion occurs in the way specific events are presented. This can be described as event reframing: interpreting events in ways that make them appear to confirm a particular story. A clear example appears in the final episode of Twisted Yoga, where police raids in France are presented as the dramatic climax of the documentary. The narrative suggests that these raids uncovered a hidden system of exploitation and confirmed the accusations described earlier. Although the documentary briefly acknowledges that the legal process is still ongoing and that a trial may take years, the emotional structure strongly implies that the raids themselves already confirm the story.

comments: The raids have already confirmed the story! They have confirmed it so clearly that, faced with overwhelming evidence, Bivolaru could no longer deny as usual and was forced to admit most of the facts exposed, except for the abuse, which he rejects, considering that it was always about consent, "confirmed by God through an affirmative response to consecration" (details). The only ones who still do not want to admit are the followers of MISA and their defenders. Then on what basis have Bivolaru and his acolytes been detained by the police for so long?

➤ Part 4. The Larger Pattern: Media Narratives and the War Against Spiritual Communities (archive)

This final article in the series recaps and synthesizes what was stated in the three previous articles.

● quote:

This dynamic is not unique to Twisted Yoga. Similar patterns have appeared in media portrayals of many unconventional spiritual communities over the past several decades. These themes appear so frequently that they have almost become a standard template for mass-media stories about such groups. Several well-known documentaries follow this pattern. Series such as Wild Wild Country about the Rajneesh movement or The Vow about the NXIVM organization begin with scenes of idealism and spiritual searching and then move toward dramatic revelations of manipulation or abuse. Disgruntled former members who describe negative experiences are given a central role, while voices from those who remain involved are often treated with skepticism or left out entirely.

comments: To paraphrase the quote above, this dynamic is not specific to MISA, but to all sects. It's always like that: at first it seems wonderful, but later the cruel reality comes to light. This is because sects usually do not kidnap people off the street and forcibly transform them into followers, but attract certain people who are on a quest, to whom they promise the fulfillment of their ideals. That is why it seems to novices at first that they have found the place of their dreams, which, after a while, become nightmares. I hope that mentioning the documentaries about the cases of the Rajneesh and NXIVM sects in the same paragraph as the documentary about MISA/ATMAN will be auspicious, and that the case of Bivolaru and his sect will join the condemnations in the case of the other two sects mentioned.

● quote:

One consequence of this media environment is that many participants in spiritual communities become increasingly reluctant to speak to journalists. From their perspective, the risks are obvious. Statements may be truncated, edited, or quoted outside their original context. Explanations may be placed next to images or commentary that change their meaning entirely. Even sincere attempts to explain personal experiences can later be presented as evidence that the speaker has been manipulated. For this reason, many members of the yoga community prefer not to give interviews at all. They believe that whatever they say may simply be incorporated into a narrative that has already been decided.

comments: Even if the media were to present the statements of MISA leaders and followers as they are, without any modification or comments, the result would be the same: public opinion would find, upon simple analysis that these statements contradict reality, common sense, or contradict each other. This is what happens in the case of the statements and replies issued by the MISA Press Office, full of blatant lies and defying the truth. Moreover, in the case of interviews requested by the press, the MISA Press Office usually asks for the list of questions in advance, in order to then come up with ready-made answers, in a specific cliché-filled language that circumvent the questions. On this blog, we have analyzed MISA's official statements and communiqués many times, as well as articles like the ones described in this post.

As for the students' reluctance to give interviews, they have been warned by the school management not to give statements to the press unless a member of the MISA Press Office is present. In addition, followers are also bound by vows of silence, so they would not make statements about what they see inside the school anyway, but only filler statements about how wonderful it is to be a MISA student. And an additional reason to discourage students from giving statements to the media is the very title of this new page: "Distorted Media - Deception as an Agenda". "Do not give interviews, because the press distorts them!". Since everyone in the media has had to deal with these MISA tactics and knows that they cannot get honest answers anyway, why bother requesting statements and staged interviews from MISA?

● quote:

A more honest conversation about spiritual communities would require a different approach. It would mean listening to a wider range of voices, including those of participants who remain actively involved in the practices. It would also mean presenting teachings within their broader cultural and historical context rather than isolating them as strange or suspicious phenomena. Many people within the yoga community hope that such journalism will eventually appear. They hope that some journalists will be willing to approach the subject with genuine curiosity and investigative spirit, to look beyond established narratives.

comments: The sparrow dreams of millet, and the MISA press like a chorus of praisers! How much they would like to see themselves as stars, and the press to absorb their words! They see journalists as MISA's advertising agents, who take the self-praise of the great school and spread it freely in society, and then from everywhere to hear only hosannas raised to the glory of their spiritual guide! They probably imagine journalists signing up for yoga classes at MISA, full of genuine curiosity, then promoting in the media their "divine" orgies with group sex and urine. But while they dream of "presenting the teachings in their broader cultural and historical context", at the same time they are putting them into practice in rituals carried out in "retreats", covered with the veil of vows of silence! So, how can there be an honest conversation, when MISA comes with posters that show one thing on the outside, while something completely different is happening inside, hidden from the world's eyes?

● quote:

Until that happens, documentaries like Twisted Yoga risk becoming less a search for truth than another chapter in a long-running cultural conflict between mainstream media institutions and unconventional spiritual paths. And in that conflict, the techniques used to accuse others of manipulation can themselves become powerful interventional tools of shaping how audiences perceive reality.

comments: ”Until that happens”... The people of MISA really believe that one day the media will become their advertising agent! "Until that happens", however, the trial will take place, which will truly have a global audience, and MISA and its leader will become absolute stars, but not in the sense they want... Until then, it is important to remember what the real attitude of the people of MISA is towards the media and public opinion (which they imagine as an audience of admirers), in relation to their more than "strange or suspicious" practices. I quote from the impertinent MISA press release:

The ancient techniques that are circumscribed to "sacred eroticism", which has been and still is practiced throughout history in various forms and in many countries, can never be judged in an obtuse way without a minimum effort to understand them and it is not at all appropriate to be hastily and maliciously labeled by the ignorant as deviant or abusive (source).

Techniques involving the therapeutic use of urine are in fact – despite silly prejudices and public ridicule – ever-present in the ancient yoga and ayurvedic traditions. They are documented for thousands of years in the ancient treatise Damar Tantra under the name Shivambu and are common in many effective Western natural therapies. Everyone is always entitled to their own opinion, but it is incorrect and biased to make hasty value judgments based solely on one's own ignorance (source).

"Whoever doesn't drink urine from everyone, menstrual secretions, menstrual blood, like us, is stupid,  obtuse, ignorant and malicious!" Since the MISA leadership manifests itself so contemptuously and  vehemently towards ordinary people outside MISA, imagine how they behave with their students, whom they see as a herd of good cows to milk and as a harem at the disposal of the Parisian  sultan at any time. This vehemence, manifested precisely in an official MISA statement, is a illustration of the psychological abuse that is practiced within the organization. Someone should bring this statement - especially the quotes above - to the attention of the victims' lawyer, from where they can reach the court that will judge the Bivolaru-MISA trial! But we are sure that MISA will never debate the facts exposed during the trial, even if this time they will be accompanied by concrete evidence, which MISA can only avoid by closing their eyes...