Impertinent press release

With the usual delay, MISA has finally issued a "pertinent press release regarding the Twisted Yoga documentary" (source). Always in such situations, MISA has delayed reactions, as if it were not about them and often they let others speak for them, as if they were sitting in deep meditation, detached from the world. In reality, the reactions last because on the one hand, an entire manipulation mechanism is set in motion to cover up and divert attention from the exposed aspects, and on the other hand the final form must be censored and approved, nothing moves without the approval of the "School Management". The statement is not at all pertinent, but downright impertinent, because it offends the intelligence of public opinion, seeking with all kinds of ridiculous tricks to divert attention from the deeds committed by the leaders of the organization, who are under investigation in France. They didn't even bother to present a remotely valid or even original argument, as their press release is simply a compilation of the points of view already presented on MISA/ATMAN's media channels, some of which don't even belong to them, but to their friends from the organizations that defend cults.

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The documentary "Twisted Yoga" is an example of skillful, cunning manipulation made in the UK.

comment: The press release is an example of cunning but inept manipulation, manufactured in the MISA laboratories. "Made in Britain" means, in the opinion of MISA, that the British are liars and cunning.. In this regard, I recall a sample of lying combined with monumental stupidity, which took place in the UK, at TARA Yoga, a branch of MISA school. When a former TARA student, Ashleigh Freckleton, revealed to the press (link) that she was the victim of a cult disguised as a yoga movement, recounting hallucinatory events that took place in Costinești and Paris. Without being named in the public accusations made by the former student, the geniuses at TARA, feeling that their pants were on fire, published a response (archive), which they withdrew after a while, realizing that they had exposed themselves. Ashleigh responded point by point to this post by TARA Yoga (video), thus showing that it is indeed about TARA. It is worth mentioning that among the "grey eminences" at TARA Yoga are also "illuminati" from Romania, such as Bogdan Rădășanu, who would later commit another blunder when, seeking to combat the accusations of former student Miranda Grace, he broadcast her statement about her sexual initiation by guru Bivolaru, thus proving without realizing it, that Bivolaru offers sexual initiations to his female students (details in the BBC podcast ”The Bad Guru” - episode 5 ”The Breakthrough”, audio). In conclusion, "an example of skillful, cunning manipulation, made in the UK, but with a Romanian hand."

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Only venomous stories were selected that confirm the already predetermined conclusion.

comment: Look who's talking! All MISA/ATMAN "replies" start with conclusions. These were collected on a media channel called ”Twisted Media - Deception as agenda”, therefore all posts begin with the already predetermined conclusion that "all the media lies!"

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Any contrary opinions have been obviously omitted; only somewhat sensational, tragic, emotional aspects that shock the audience are treacherously exposed, systematically ignoring the global context.

comment: In a documentary that aims to be objective, it's not the contrary opinions that matter,  but the contrary evidence! If there is valid evidence to support the accusations, it is in vain for the accused to resort to denials and contrary opinions, in fact they produce the contrary effect!

The evidence that contradicts the accusations is the one that must be brought, but it is clear that the accused have no counterarguments, for if they had, they would have presented them in the first place.

The first passages of the press release expose alleged manipulation techniques that were used in the contested documentary. These techniques have been analyzed in an article on this blog, there is no point in insisting on them.

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A careful viewing of this documentary raises, for any intelligent, intuitive and objective person, some common sense and obvious questions: Why is there not even a single opinion contrary to this gloomy perspective presented in the documentary? After all, MISA and the other ATMAN schools have had many tens of thousands of students over time. Of these, many still participate in the respective courses. How is it possible here to constantly issue strange value judgments regarding the yoga courses and spiritual teachings – some unique and revolutionary – of these schools based only on a few opinions that are hostile?

comment: Any intelligent and objective person will say that It is not fair to randomly present opinions contrary to those presented in the documentary, just for the sake of formal balance. It is useless and unfair to present opinions - regardless of their nature, pro or con - of those who were not DIRECT witnesses to the alleged facts!

In a court debate, statements by ATMAN students who simply tell how wonderful they feel at school and how innocent they believe the accused are would have no relevance (and probably would not even be admitted) if the respective witnesses were not at least direct witnesses to the facts being debated!

In all of MISA's reactions, this aberration of establishing the truth on a quantitative basis obsessively returns, as if the truth were established by voting, as if we lived in a democracy of justice! Over all these, MISA invokes all its former students, in order to put as many numbers as possible into the calculation, but without realizing that, if the former students also voted, MISA would lose, because those are more numerous than the current students and they did not leave the courses out of excitement! Here we see the alleged objectivity demanded by MISA, which only wants the vote of active students against the former students who are complainants!

And one more thing that those at MISA do not notice: the statement that the school's teaching is traditional and, at the same time, unique and revolutionary, is contradictory and therefore devoid of any logic! 

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It would certainly have been worth asking for and listening to, if not the opinions of current or former members, at least those of recognized and competent researchers.

comment: Researchers recognized by whom? The court is the one who determines whether to hear experts and who they will be. MISA wants the experts consulted to be among those close to it. But what do researchers have to do with the events that took place in France? Were they witnesses, are they practitioners? They sit in their office chairs and just give their opinion about something they haven't even seen!

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We wonder, does no one notice the striking contradictions that appear in the accounts of the people interviewed? Without speculating whether the facts described are real or not, just by analyzing the statements in the film, we immediately notice that on the one hand these people already knew that "in tantra sexual initiation [n.b. actually erotic] ​​was a common practice" - and even confessed that they wanted it, and later, after years of being as serene, claiming that they had been manipulated into doing something they did not want.

comment: There is no contradiction in the accounts of the people interviewed. Of course they knew that, in Tantra, sexual initiation is a common practice. In fact, initiation also exists in “profane” love, because for everyone there is a “first time” in an aspect of life - sexuality - previously unknown! The problem is that, just like in “profane” love, initiation in Tantra is done by or together with the BELOVED BEING! It can also be with the experienced master, provided there IS LOVE or ATTRACTION or AT LEAST CONSENT!

MISA desperately seeks to divert attention from the real problem, which IS NOT SEXUAL INITIATION itself, but NON-CONSENT SEXUAL ACT with a person who is unpleasant to them! The real issue being debated in court is NOT SEXUAL INITIATION, but SEXUAL ABUSE, it is the PROBLEM of CONSENT, as the victims' lawyer said very clearly in the documentary!

In the latest episode of the German podcast "Toxic Tantra", former student Nathalie states: "From my point of view, it's not a 'YES' if I'm too afraid to say 'NO'."

It doesn't matter what Introvigne or Bivolaru think about "sacred eros" and what Tantra says, but what really happened in MISA locations in France! And the victims didn't claim to have been abused years later, but felt it right during their interaction with the guru or the school and then years passed before they were able to start legal action! This presentation of the gap between the moment of initiation with the guru and the moment of initiating legal action, as a "change of mind interval", possibly forced by anti-cult activists, is one of MISA's manipulative tactics.

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All those interviewed actually tell how they achieved many wonderful effects from practicing yoga, they say they had deep spiritual experiences, overcame certain problems and annihilated traumas. Isn't it strange to find out that the same teaching that has done a lot of good for tens of thousands of people has sometimes beneficial results, sometimes harmful results – for only a few people?

comment: Once again MISA is mixing things up, in an attempt to hide its misery. The "wonderful effects” resulted from the practices of the traditional yoga. The reported acts took place during "extracurricular activities" (as former student Andrea calls them in the documentary). And IT IS NOT THE SAME TEACHING, because SEXUAL INITIATIONS are SECRET, sealed with terrible vows! And the men and women who were not sexually "initiated" by the guru have no way of reporting the facts accused in the documentary, because they did not reach the guru, but are treacherously included in MISA's calculations, in the chapter "favorable opinions omitted by investigators"! What is bizarre in this case (and Andrea also emphasizes this in the documentary) is that THE SAME INDIVIDUAL promoted two kinds of teachings and practices with opposite effects: one, facade, beneficial, and another hidden, evil. Just like his two faces, Dr. Evil and Mr. Grieg!

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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.

comment: It is not the "ancient techniques circumscribed to sacred eroticism" that are being judged in the documentary and in court, but the forcing or manipulation of some students to take part in them without their full consent! The "connoisseurs" have nothing to do but practice whatever deviations they want, as long as they do not impose them on the "ignorants"! And some victims complain that they did not know what was prepared for them or that they did not know what the guru looked like! 

It is worth noting the abject arrogance, mixed with perversity, of those at MISA, who consider that those who do not know and do not perform the disgusting practices of MISA are thereby obtuse and malicious! "We are superior and brilliant because we drink each other's urine, you are stupid because you do not do like us!"

It is the echo of the arrogant attitude of the MISA leader towards the "obtuse and ignorants" who do not want to recognize its divine origin and the sacredness of its practices! From here to imposing, through persuasion and psychological pressure, these practices on "superficial and shifting fools", there was only one step left, through which the red line was crossed, a step taken in Paris! It seems that those at MISA are determined to prove with all their might, through this arrogant and even aggressive attitude, that the claimed facts really happened as they were reported! It is worth noting that MISA does not deny the practices, but presents them as "sacred", trying to present them as manifestations of religious freedom.

Let us not forget that the persuasion tactics through which "ancient" practices were inoculated into MISA students' mind also include the fabrication of false treatises (like "The Mystic Lady"), through which Bivolaru sought to determine his followers to adopt perverse practices, such as the mutual consumption of urine between partners during the sexual intercourse.

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The choice of whether or not to put each of these techniques into practice belongs to each individual; at MISA no one has ever been forced to do what they did not want to do beforehand.

 comment: The issue of whether or not people were forced to practice the "sacred techniques" is up to the French justice system, not MISA. And the former students who appear in the documentary claim that they were pressured to practice. "Uuh, at MISA no one was forced!" But was he in Paris? If he wasn't forced at MISA, does that automatically absolve Bivolaru of what happened in Paris?

One thing that raises questions about the full freedom of followers to participate in certain activities is the conditioning of participation on taking an vow of secrecy regarding both the practices that will take place and what happens at that activity, an oath that is taken BEFORE the follower find out details about the activity they are about to participate in! In this case, even if the follower refuses to participate in the activity because it does not correspond to his will or his principles, he is forced to remain silent on the aspects with which he disagrees and thus cannot warn others about them.

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This fundamental aspect can be confirmed at any time by many tens of thousands of people. Some of these techniques always involve the prior reciprocal performance of a mystical consecration, and when a human being does not then receive a clear, affirmative, positive answer from God, he then refuses to carry out the respective technique further, which implies a subsequent initiation.

comment: God cannot "urge" to make love in the absence of love, that is, to rape. How could the "affirmative answer" occur for Bivolaru, without appearing for his female student? Where is the "reciprocity"? Bivolaru's invocation of consecration in the French court and in this statement by MISA is more like throwing responsibility on God and on the victim, or at least invoking religious freedom. But religious freedom cannot violate freedom of choice!

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The clever accusations of manipulation and supposed psychological subjugation immediately arouse the indignation of the uninformed public and are always very convenient for the narrative, even if they are completely unfounded. In the yoga class there is always a huge emphasis on the development of personal discernment, on the assumption of full responsibility and on free will, and the obviously pseudo-scientific concept of "brainwashing" has no place at all except in the media and is more recently included in another form in French legislation. This concept has been repeatedly rejected both by the courts and by the international scientific community.

comment: Some researchers have rejected or considered improbable forced brainwashing , that is, the forcible inoculation of ideas contrary to the way of thinking of the subject of the operation. But in the case of a cult, the follower adheres by his will to the doctrine suggested by the leaders. In the case of MISA, the issue is not forceful brainwashing, but the promotion of manipulative doctrines, using both the leader's power of influence and collective pressure from the other followers, more precisely the pressure to conform to the group.

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The producer Lightbox Media Ltd sent a series of questions to the MISA press office in April 2025, to which he then received very clear, detailed answers, which were additionally accompanied by certain materials that were and are always likely to clarify some spiritual concepts and ideas that are for now less familiar. Bizarrely and tendentiously, all our answers were censored and were strangely summarized in only 5 lines at the end of the documentary, when the conclusion suggested in a treacherous and manipulative way by the producer had already been drawn long ago. It is now already obvious to us that the intention of these questions was not at all to obtain true clarifying information, but only to provide a vague formal cover before the law.

comment: The documentary producers' attitude is probably justified by the fact that - as can be seen in the case of this press release - MISA's answers actually avoid the subject of the questions and seek to manipulate, to divert attention in another direction, more precisely "they are not to the point". Moreover, these answers practically contain advertising for the organization, which would violate the objectivity of the production.

● The MISA press release disputes for the inclusion in the documentary of the accounts of former student Agnes Marques, which were not validated by the courts in Romania in a trial that ended. She did not even come to court to support her claims. Therefore, these accounts should not have been included. Of course, MISA also did not show how Agnes ended up in Japan, through the company Sc Extaz SRL, which had ties to the Movement. On the other hand, when it comes to the conviction for the sexual act with M.D., MISA challenges the court's decision, which was the conviction. So, MISA invokes court decisions when they are favorable to it, but challenges them when they are not favorable! It is both a manipulative aspect and one that denotes stupidity, by manifesting contradictory attitudes!

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Miranda, also interviewed in the documentary - where she initially states "I knew it would be a sexual initiation", later stating that she felt "forced" - is currently part of a criminal case in which she is demanding huge damages, and here the position that greatly benefits her as the "victim" in this documentary is very profitable for her.

comment: First of all, it is worth noting that MISA finally admits that Gregorian Bivolaru gives "sexual initiations" to female students, after decades of claiming to act in the spirit of truth, systematically denying this, including on a show with a national audience! (video). It also does not dispute Miranda Grace's "sexual initiation", especially since TARA Yoga broadcast in its classes the recorded testimony at her "initiation".

Then, Miranda states that she knew it would be a sexual initiation, but she had no way of knowing in advance how it would go and especially whether she would enjoy it. MISA reject the accusation of sexual abuse, because Miranda later returned to Bivolaru. What MISA does not say is that the woman is demanding compensation (also) for having been sexually exploited on porn video chat, a fact presented in the documentary, but overlooked in a guilty silence by the great and perfect school, the one eager for "truth".

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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. Furthermore, it is at least malicious and unethical to cunningly speculate on the ignorance of the public in order to provoke huge emotional reactions in them without adding even a single explanatory sentence.

comment: MISA's arrogant attitude towards the rest of the world continues: "Anyone who doesn't drink urine like us is stupid and shouldn't speak". In addition, they try to disguise bizarre practices under the guise of religious practices and freedom of belief. Added to this is the villainy with which the press release seeks to manipulate, because the documentary is not about urine therapy - therapy with one's own urine - but about the consumption of collective urine, collected during an orgy between women. Moreover, the ritual presented violates the principles of urine therapy (collection of morning urine). The practices of urine consumption (urinary orgasm) at MISA are "founded" by Gregorian Bivolaru on the basis of a falsified book, "The Mystic Lady". Since Bivolaru resorted to a fake, a non-existent book, it follows that this deviant practice does not exist in tantric tradition, because if it did exist, he would have resorted to tradition and not to a fake.

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Some statements in this film border on gigantic ridiculousness and insolent lies, such as the one regarding the practice of black magic, which obviously and cunningly has as its sole purpose the huge demonization of Gregorian Bivolaru and the insidious stigmatization of yoga schools. If black magic were really practiced, as this documentary has foolishly concocted, how do we explain the fact that none of its ever-hateful enemies, including those of this school, have ever been harmed?

comment: Then what can be said about the meditation programs against Prime Minister Năstase and the prosecutors who filed the cases against him? Năstase lost the elections and ended up in prison, after a failed suicide attempt.

Also, the first judge in the case of sexual intercourse with a minor against Bivolaru, died in a car accident, while he was working on this case. Every time something happened to the "enemies", it was said that it was the "bad karma of the enemies"! However, it is true that judge Ionuț Matei (who convicted him in 2013 for sexual intercourse with a minor, which is why Bivolaru served time in prison) was threatened but did not suffer anything, and also judge Lia Savonea   (who signed the search warrant for the police raids of March 18, 2004 against MISA) is on a high horse. Even if it were not about magical effects, why do they still resort to such actions? It was also said at MISA that inciting hatred against a person acts like black magic, but the followers were always incited against the "enemies".

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Regarding unconventional spiritual movements, what makes "balanced and objective" journalism in the pursuit of clicks and audience is to present, over and over again, a strange, one-sided and totally incorrect vision, abusing the frightening label of "sect" without any real basis, fabricating various false accusations without any coverage, and promoting sensationalist headlines.

comment: This blog showed that MISA is a sect, even according to its own criteria! (details)

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Certain words like “victims” and “survivors” are used with great superficiality and broadness, including by the French officer interviewed. But here again, the facts are omitted, tendentiously but conveniently.  Of the more than 90 people who were in the houses searched on November 28, 2023, not a single one stated that they were there against their will or that they had been abused in any way.

comment: But how should the victims be called: "blessed", "initiated"? And after challenging the victims' status as victims, MISA points us to the "real victims": its female students found during the raids at the locations in France, who lied to the police about how they got there, even though the police had been monitoring these locations for over a year! In addition, it should not be forgotten that the people found during the raids were under a terrible vow of silence!

Here we see one of the techniques used by sects, called DARVO:  Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim with Offender.

The one who explains this concept - Ashleigh Freckleton, herself a victim of MISA abuse - says (source):

”The gaslighting tactic involves denying the behavior, attacking the accuser, and reversing the victim/ offender roles - It essentially attempts to rob victims of their right to speak out against abuse by shifting the blame onto them. A particularly common angle is assuming the role of “falsely accused” and trying to attack the accusers credibility.”

MISA also manipulates, claiming that since none of the people found in the raids declared that they had been abused, it follows that Bivolaru is innocent, ignoring the fact that the raids took place based on the investigation triggered by the victims' previous complaints.

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We do not intend to analyze the documentary in the smallest, bizarre, shocking details that are apparent to intelligent people with a sharp conscience.

comment: And then on what basis does MISA draw its conclusions? How can they draw conclusions if they have not first analyzed the documentary, exposing the essential aspects? Of course, those at MISA have watched it, otherwise they could have made a statement, but they avoid not only analyzing the details, but exposing them, for fear that "the intelligent ones with a sharp conscience" might understand how things really are!

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Cunningly claiming to expose alleged manipulation within ATMAN affiliated yoga schools, this documentary is an insidious and eloquent example of how you can manipulate superficial, naive, gullible public opinion, if you have the budget.

comment: Cunningly claiming to expose the alleged manipulation in the documentary, the MISA press release offers an insidious and eloquent example of manipulation, in fact avoiding exposing the disturbing details for the organization and seeking to divert attention in other directions, mainly on the filmmakers and the victims.

Being a synthesis of the points of view expressed so far by those close to MISA, this press release is also a synthesis of the manipulation techniques: denial, self-victimization, recourse to favorable events from the past, counterattack, presentation of victims as aggressors. MISA's arrogance and even aggression towards those who disagree with their deviant practices is remarkable, providing a picture of the pressure it puts on its own followers to embrace these practices. In doing so, MISA demonstrates that what is being exposed by former students is real and that is precisely why it is making efforts, such as this press release, to hide them.