Experts in human rights, sociology and religious movements

Series by Canadian professor of sociology Susan Palmer, about her research and interviews of women in MISA, giving a very nuanced perspective of the feminine experience within this yoga movement.

Over the years Miviludes has come under increasing scrutiny for the lack of transparency, the sensationalist rhetoric and the questionable methodologies. Also, its relationship with the media is rather close which has created a feedback loop that amplifies the public fears and stigmatizes religious minorities.

Mihai Stoian, a renowned Romanian yoga teacher, has been arrested in Georgia and is wanted by French justice. With a background in nuclear physics and mathematics, Stoian's life took a turn towards yoga after meeting Gregorian Bivolaru, the founder of MISA.

Adina Stoian, a renowned yoga teacher, has been arrested in Georgia and is wanted by French justice. Born in Romania, Stoian has spent over 30 years teaching yoga and spirituality, but now faces extradition on charges of human trafficking and exploitation, which she vehemently denies.

After one year of the abusive police actions in France against peaceful yogis, the investigation is ongoing, and thus, no official statement, let alone judgment, has been released.

it has been one year since SWAT teams of around 175 policemen simultaneously descended at on eight separate houses in and around Paris. Many yoga practitioners have filed complaints concerning the conditions of their custody.

Discussing the ’psychology of faith’, conversion/affiliation process and analysing the experiences of ten practitioners from different yoga centers, all members of Atman, the International Federation of Yoga and Meditation.

Eleven scholars and human right activists ask Georgia to resist the long arm of French anti-cult repression and free the two MISA leaders.

A thorough timeline and presentation of MISA and its founder, Gregorian Bivolaru. Updated in October 2024.

At the origin, a university researcher sentenced for harassment against a female colleague. According to the French media, the story of the wide scale police raids targeting yoga practitioners started with a University of Angers medical researcher called Hugues Gascan.

The two leaders of the movement founded by Gregorian Bivolaru are threatened with “life imprisonment” for the pseudo-crime of “psychological subjugation.”

A student of MISA herself, the author describes her personal journey and how she decided to investigate whether the accusations against her yoga school were true and where they came from. In the process, she met several scholars, and came across judges and prosecutors, whose perspective was obviously different.

“In the last ten years, I have been several times in Vitry-sur-Seine to stay in a place which was used for spiritual retreats by yoga practitioners. Every time it was comfortable, the environment was very pleasant and quiet, but on 28 November 2023, it turned into a nightmare and a traumatic experience.”

Willy Fautré fact-checks the media coverage of the French media, which was afterwards copy-paste published in worldwide press of the simultaneous SWAT raids on the yoga centers in France in November 2023.

"It would be appropriate for the French authorities, together with the public opinion in the country of Voltaire, to rethink the repressive policy against adults who make a free and voluntary choice of their conscience and therefore follow precepts of their own will".

While the authorities and mass media claim “women” have been “liberated” from a “sex cult,” Professor Palmer met and interviewed the “victims” and was told a very different story. In this series of articles, she presents some of her findings that raise serious questions about the methods, purpose, background and even legitimacy of these brutal actions by the French police.

Bivolaru was once sentenced for a sexual relationship with her when she was 17. She denies it ever happened—and says she has been offered 350,000 EUR to change her story.

Mădălina Dumitru tells how she unwillingly became a pawn in a cunning plan to destroy the MISA Yoga School and imprison the yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru. After years of unjust persecution and humiliation, she dares to unmask the stigma of terror that the Romanian State authorities marked her with.

It is necessary to open up to see the comprehensive perspective offered through academic studies, to understand that people who join spiritual movements are normal people, merely having their particular beliefs or practices. And as long as they respect the laws of their country they should enjoy freedom, respect and social protection, just like any other citizen. Yet the repetitive police raids and their scandalous presentation in mass media tell a different story.

The article argues that none of the controversial characteristics proposed by psychologist Margaret Singer as typical of "cult brainwashing" are present in the Natha School of Yoga.

Some significant observations from an independent expert in the field, professor of sociology Massimo Introvigne, opens a fresh perspective on the political mechanisms behind the French case against the Eminent Yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru.

Accusations flow in the media. Where are the “victims” though?

NATHA was contacted by Thomas Prakash, a journalist from Danmarks Radio. He only gave us few hours notice to reply. Here is the answer NATHA sent to DR.

A new concerted attack against the yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru and indirectly also against the MISA Yoga School. The English translation of the press release made by MISA Yoga School, one of our Atman Member schools.

We are deeply concerned about the unsubstantiated attacks of the police and media against our Federation. We refute any of these current absurd allegations which are brought with no evidence.

Ms. Mădălina Dumitru is the author of an autobiographic book “The Broken Flight” where she reveals the fabricated facts of authorities to attack the esoteric spiritual schools of the Atman Federation and the Eminent Yoga Teacher Gregorian Bivolaru.

Sensational TV series about religious leaders sentenced for sexual abuse are broadcast without considering that they wreak havoc in the lives of their innocent followers.

Kotkowska points out that the whole MISA case is grasped multidimensionally and includes optics from many different perspectives and declares the book a must-read for anyone interested in New Religious Movements, religiosity and eroticism and, more broadly, for all those intrigued by contemporary religious phenomena.

An important precedent was established by the Supreme Court of Sweden on October 21, 2005, when it stated that “cult” leaders accused of common crimes not directly related to religion cannot expect a fair trial in countries where an obvious prejudice against their religious beliefs and practices exist.

The dramatic history and the teachings of the movement are highlighted in the first monograph consecrated to it.

An event organized by Soteria International, Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB) and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) on MISA, or the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute.

The case of the Romanian Yoga movement and its founder, the yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru, is well known for the human rights activists and organizations, especially in Europe. The media was used as a manipulation element and an instrument of repression.

MISA, founded by Gregorian Bivolaru is the largest group teaching sacred eroticism today. One of the reasons of the scandals that were launched against it and its founder is the association between spirituality and eroticism, thus challenging general worldviews. In reality, the courses on love, eroticism and sexuality represent a very small part of the teachings of the school.

The movies and shows created by a group of artists which are students of MISA were not made to generate significant income, nor as a recruitment tool. They have an educational role, expressing their own personal beliefs and beneficial experiences as a result of tantra yoga practice.

This issue of The Journal of CESNUR explores the history, doctrines, and controversies of MISA, arguing that its teachings cannot be reduced to a doctrine of sexuality only and propose a “radical aesthetics” that also explains the reactions by both its religious and secular opponents.

This article shows that portraying the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) as an unprecedented phenomenon, due to its integration of sacred eroticism into a religious worldview, is actually not correct. This integration has precedents in Taoism, Tantrism, and Western Esotericism.

This paper examines the history and worldview of MISA, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA). Although the roots of the movement are in Siddha Yoga of Tamil Nadu and Tantric Shivaism of Kashmir, Bivolaru has in fact created a new and creative form of both theoretical and practical esotericism, with Indian roots as well as Western influences.

The article raises the question of how an anti-esoteric prejudice may have influenced MISA legal cases and their outcome. In this respect, the paper examines three possible explanations of the extreme anti-MISA feelings prevailing among sectors of the Romanian police and media, related respectively to the Romanian context, the campaigns against “cults,” and esotericism.

This four part paper examines the history, worldview, and legal problems of MISA, as a form of radical aesthetics.

Analysis of the abuses that were made in the legal cases related to Gregorian Bivolaru and MISA.

In this overview, Massimo Introvigne points out the common deformation and misinterpretation of truth that are constantly made in the case of MISA.

the effects of the mass media in shaping public perception. In the case of the Romanian yoga movement and the yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru, more than 25 years of media campaigns of defamation and hate speech have a measurable effect on the public perception, as the mediated image was based on false accusations and repetitive stereotypes.

Gabriel Andreescu proposes that, taking in consideration the discrimination and harassment done upon MISA, it should receive protection as a minority group.

Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers International (Brussels), speaks about how the long judicial harassment of Gregorian Bivolaru on numerous charges, the persecutions faced by MISA yoga practitioners for over 20 years have been amplified by an escalating social panic on television, on the radio and in the printed press.

Nylund’s report was one of the main defense evidence in the extradition trial ruled on by the Supreme Court in Stockholm in 2005, which decided finally and irreversibly to decline Romania’s extradition request. Nylund has clearly proven with his investigations that MISA is not a radical religious group, nor a manipulative sect.