2023-12-24 07:46:39
On November 28, the French police carried out a hard blow to the Atman Federation thanks to the arrest of dozens of its leaders within the framework of a macro-operation directed against the Integral Yoga Association, the name under which the tantric yoga sect It operated in French territory. They are accused of human trafficking, indoctrination, kidnapping and rape. Crimes with which the organization is related its supreme leader, Gregorian BivolaruSince more than 30 years.
This Romanian – 71 years old – was convicted in his country for child abuse and he was currently under an Interpol order for trafficking of women. It was issued by Finland, where six of his followers filed a complaint against him. The supposed spiritual guide, known as the guru of ‘porn yoga’ for the practices he promotes, has left many victims in each of the countries he has passed through. And Bivolaru has been avoiding the challenges of justice by changing his identity and place of residence.
In the same way, it has achieved the survival of the sect he founded in 1990 in your country: MISA (Movement for Spiritual Integration in the Absolute). It is common that from the Atman Federation they publicly disassociate themselves from this “school”, ensuring that they are independent organizations and that they only operate in Romania. But the reality – and this is demonstrated by police, judicial, journalistic investigations and various experts in the field – is very different, as we will demonstrate below.
Atman is MISA. And MISA is Atman. If it changed its name it was in view of its international expansion, given the number of scandals that the original name and its founder were already involved in. In the same way, each of the “member schools” attached to the federation in more than 30 countries are Atman and at the same time MISA. In each country They appear under a different name because that allows them to close and start over under another identity when they are reported and the situation becomes complicated.
Without digging too hard, the connection is obvious. First, because share a leader: Gregorian Bivolaru. Secondly, because it is not just any leader. They weigh on him final convictions and arrest warrants for crimes as serious as child abuse or sexual exploitation of women. And here we come to the third evidence: even so, the schools affiliated with him continue to be so. After the recent macro operation in France, Far from leaving the federation, they defend the guru.
Through the Atman Federation’s own website, two statements have been published in defense of Gregorian Bivolaru – whom they point out as “eminent professor”– and the activity of his organization, calling the police operation a “witch hunt.” Digital Freedom He was also able to see how one of the guru’s disciples, the coordinator of the Madrid center (also Romanian) – currently Simona Bochis, although she has also changed her identity on several occasions – He stood up for his “master” and for the activity they carry out in the “schools”.
Double face, double talk
As pointed out Miguel Perlado, psychologist specialized in these groups for 25 years and author of the Educa Sectas blog“one of the first issues that always surrounds the phenomenon of sects is that they hide their true purposes, have double discourses and operate through multiple layers“. The expert carries ten years publishing articles about MISA and its ramificationsand has had the opportunity to closely follow how this movement/school – as its founders call it – has been “metamorphosing to disguise their true nature“.
As he explains to us, “he maintains an external discourse focused on the practice of tantra yoga and a kind of tantric spirituality, while internally – let’s say – he displays other functionings, as has been seen following this arrest (that of Gregorian Bivolaru )”. “They have been very skillful in change the names of instructors and centers to mask their activity,” he points out. This is what has allowed them to have a “global impact” and “expand, throughout Latin America and other European countriesthrough massage parlors and activities linked to the field of alternative therapies”, as detailed in detail in your article ‘Prone events are ideal for delivering the message of Sacred Love’.
They hide their nature
“In the case of MISA, we have sufficient evidence – from work with former members and with colleagues from other countries with whom I have collaborated – that there is a flawed consent in people who approach” this sect, normally with “an interest in personal development, in specific knowledge, or because they have personal problems, or through other entry doors.” But, whatever their concern, they always end up in the same place: activities related to tantra yoga.
Furthermore, they usually do it “unaware that these activities are part of the MISA nebula, since there are many centers where one can end up entering.” without knowing the underlying nature“. The problem is that, once they have entered, it is not easy to leave. “Secrecy prevails inside and they have also been becoming more sophisticated in the way (of attracting followers), they have been developing consent documents to exonerate themselves from any incident that may have occurred. , for example from accusations that could come from having participated in chats or movies with erotic/sexual content“he details.
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Situation in Spain
“In Spain, in principle I am not aware that a modus operandi has been established like in France or other countries where they have created more stable apartments” to sexually exploit their followers, says the expert. “But there has been traffic of many people here, who may have been temporarily in that sense, also grouped in apartments or other places, despite the fact that the organization itself denies it or dissociates itself saying: we have nothing to do with it, we only practice yoga.
Perlado insists that this is only the external discourse, the one they project outwards. “But we already know that it has nothing to do with the reality of the group,” he adds. For him it is also revealing that participating schools have not changed positioning as reports of sexual abuse of minors, kidnappings to satisfy the wishes of their leader or exploitation of women crowded into apartments have come to light. If its independence from the parent sect had been true, “a distancing” could be expected in the face of such accusations.
The name changes
The sect invests a lot of effort and money in erasing the trace of any activity that has generated controversy or problems with the law in order to continue its operation. Make a kind of “metamorphosis” constant. “All sects do this a little bit,” Miguel Perlado explains to us, “but this one has been especially skilled at it.”
Within the framework of that “dissimulation strategy”MISA centers and instructors “change repeatedly and systematically all their names.” Bivolaru himself was renamed Magnus Aurolsson in 2006, after fleeing from Romania, where he was convicted of human trafficking and criminal organization. With this false identity he was teaching his “esoteric yoga” in several European countries, leaving a trail of victims.
They participate in erotic festivals
Cover for the adult film Ecstasy Water.
It is “shocking” – admits Perlado – that a group that spends so much effort and energy in hiding nevertheless participates in an erotic film festival like the one it develops annually in Barcelona and that it also did so presenting a movie pornographic with a show in which its members flaunt a live urinary orgasmas they did with ‘Ecstasy Water’ in 2003. But you have to understand that for their followers “it’s not pornbut a superior and spiritual tantric activity.” “They make them perform under the conviction that in reality that is a sacred act“, Add.
To the outside observer, it is inconceivable. Obviously, anyone “would describe it, depending on the context, as an erotic or clearly pornographic act.” But from the structure of the sect the message is transmitted that “this is an activity of high spiritual significance“. Hence, the adepts do not see that there is “anything negative in it, but that they are making use of their body for an elevation of consciousness, an elevation of spirituality.”
The tainted consent
The key to the functioning of sectarian groups is found in consent, which “is tainted” but exists. “You gave the OK to a transformation process. You came here to learn tantra yoga. You gave your consent to this and then other things are going to come, but now you can’t back out“, this is what those who approach tantric yoga encounter without knowing the background of the organization that promotes it.
“Once you give partial consent to an activity, even if they did not clearly describe to you how far it would go, your consent is captured,” explains Perlado. “They always play with these fine lines. They say: If he gave me OK, then I didn’t force him. to nothing”, but in this hypothesis other variables that are decisive are not taken into account. “The conjunction of isolation, lack of communication and pressure They are ways of vitiating consent,” asserts the expert.
Many followers accept with the goal of “feeling better, improving their relationships or communication… But then they start pulling them inward.” “They are becoming more and more involved, and that also implies a greater degree of isolation and control,” he says, “they incite them to lie, to distort the information they give to their families and other close people… They say they are going to make a retreat for a week, I don’t know where, but they are going to France to make some recordings. And they do so under the conviction that It is part of a sacred task“.
Their target: women
Fundamentally, they try to attract women. “Men also participate in the filming and productions they have made. But obviously the target is on women,” says Miguel Perlado. “In fact, within megalomaniacal fantasies of the founder is the idea that have sexual relations with so many virgins and with so many women it is a way of achieve a certain spiritual elevation“This is part of these grandiose fantasies of these gurus who end up justifying exploitation under an argument, under a narrative, apparently spiritual or pseudo-spiritual,” he adds.
However, the role of women in the organizational structure remains relegated to the collection. The leaders are always men. But when it comes to gaining new followers, female instructors are more effective. “It is easier for them to connect with arguments related to the sacred goddess, with connect with the divine and feminine essenceand carry out activities aimed at the empowerment of women, which are usually the gateway,” he warns, “to a spiral from which it is difficult to escape.”
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