Hi Katja here. You have
heard all eight episodes
of Toxic Tantra.
How exciting our research on the
yoga movement was, my colleague
Christiane Havranek tells you in
this behind-the-
scenes, in conversation with
Viktoria Koopmann of 11KM,
the day-show podcast.
There, journalists report
on their exciting research
from Monday
to Friday.
Listen to it!
Abuse of power and manipulation.
This is by the outgoing women of the
yoga movement, Atmanen.
Katja and Christiane
have tried to figure out what
the accusations are and
how the system is said
to have worked.
So let us dive into this difficult
and legally sensitive
research here at FKM.
Hi to Christiane.
and hi.
My name is Viktoria Koopmann.
Christiane, take us
a few months back.
In November 2023.
So, in France, in Paris, in a
suburb among others, there are
175 police officers on the road.
You are looking for a man.
You want to arrest him
that day.
It was a raid and the Paris
prosecutor’s office investigated.
There are various
charges, human trafficking,
kidnapping in
an organized gang,
rape and abuse
of trust of
protector.
And they are then in an
apartment complex in a Paris
suburb and eventually
find it.
They also visited several
buildings and found
not only him, but over
50 women.
These women were housed
in very tight and unhygienic
conditions.
They were also taken
out of these homes.
And one man was arrested.
Who is this?
He is called Gregorian Bivolaru
and is a spiritual teacher,
a yoga teacher.
He founded a yoga school
in Romania more than
30 years ago.
They say they are the largest
yoga school in Europe,
they call themselves Misa, and they
have just developed a kind
of teaching and they
also use different religions,
one can say.
So it’s a bit of a wild
mixture of Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism too.
And this yoga movement has spread
across several countries
as well.
It is estimated that there are about
30,000 people who
are attached to this movement.
And this yoga movement is under
the roof bandage, which
is called Atman.
During our research we have
met some people who call
him a Guru, even as
such a kind of God.
It sounds like a
sect leader. Yes though.
We also interviewed Misa’
s press spokeswoman,
who says he’s not
her guru, but a yoga
teacher.
A short step back, so I think
many know about yoga,
but in this case it is also
about Tantra Yoga,
so I think that comes from
Indian philosophy, also has
something to do with spirituality,
but also with sex,
right?
Yes, that is also part of it.
So it’s also about a complete
philosophy of
life, but also something
like having very long
sex.
In a certain, also spiritual
way, that is, just fulfilled,
spiritual, almost
sacred sex.
What many have told us is
that they should overcome
their jealousy, for example,
or that they had multiple
partners at the time.
So far, so well, he has
now been arrested with
these 175 officials, this
giant council
here, this arrest.
What did you think at that moment?
I thought, oh my God,
the Paris prosecutor’
s office told us 58 women,
including one German.
And these descriptions of the
apartments with
unhygienic conditions and
tight, I thought, crisp, that
is exactly what women
have already told us.
Because we were already in
the middle of the research
at the time and had already
spoken with women who were
brought to these apartments
to Gregory Bivoularou and
had an hour-long Tantra
ritual with him, because
they promised themselves
such an illumination.
So, the police in France
are capturing the spiritual
leader of an international
yoga movement and when you
see this, you will realize
that it has to
do with our research
in Germany.
This is known to you.
For a year, you have
been following the
footsteps of this yoga
teacher.
In what context did you first
hear of Bivou Larou?
The first note was given
by an audience from
the Soulfanger podcast.
And
it comes from Munich and
said, so hey, I have experienced
some crasses here at a
yoga school. We met her then
and she told us that
she was just doing
yoga, then later just
various Tantra rituals
and so step by step the thresholds
were lowered until
at some point, she says,
she drove to Paris, to
this secret
place at Bivoularo and
met him there, at
some point with him in bed
and he asked her
if you want to experience
spiritual expansion.
Okay, wow
But could you find evidence
for your descriptions,
which you always
need for journalistic
reporting?
Especially in such situations, where
there are often no witnesses and
there is a testimony against
a testimony?
How did you go there?
We have, of course, investigated
all possible
things.
She had told me that she
had been taken to
Paris and in such an apartment
we had her write
a landscape.
What was this apartment
like, that she might
still name us whom she
can remember.
And then we started
to look, maybe we will
find more outbounders
and outbounders.
And that was super difficult
since first time to find women
who are willing to talk
to us about it.
So we were there, for
example, in such closed groups,
and on various social media platforms,
and some of the people
we spoke with were so
trapped in this
world of thought that
they were still afraid,
for example, that something
bad would happen
now when they told
them the secrets
they learned
at the yoga
school.
And so it is very, very
difficult for some
to talk about it.
Others were also
traumatized.
I remember one email,
one said, it is not like
I was telling about
a car accident now,
but there are bizarre, extreme
things happened and
a very, very big factor
was then the
shame.
And those, who then finally
agreed to be ready, three
women we found who gave us very, very
long interviews in which
they gave us very strong
insight into their emotional
life and indeed also
in really intimate things,
all of which had a message
in principle.
They wanted the outside world
to know what had happened
to them.
It is not only about
this one yoga movement,
but mechanisms, since
everyone can learn a lot
for themselves, to
hear these stories and
listen to them in
such detail.
So shame is of course
a big topic, but
the other is that now,
of course, we can’t play
their memories one by
one in a big podcast.
Simply so. We must, of
course, look closely at who
is being accused here, with what
accusations.
That was the biggest
challenge in this
research.
So to see what is right
about it, what may not?
Look at the case from
all sides.
Because this is very important
to understand.
We, as journalists,
cannot simply claim
that, but
we publish only
if we can prove it.
How did you make sure that
it was all right?
A very accurate and good evidence
would be in that
case a large number of
witnesses, who quite consistently also
in details, without being
asked directly about it, but
that they tell it of themselves, quite
consistently report
the same thing, although
they do not know each
other.
And if it is about somewhat
fierce accusations and
depictions, like here, then, I can
imagine, it won’t please
everyone.
Specifically in this example of yoga
school, which could defend themselves
legally.
How have you dealt with it?
We at the Bavarian Radio have
a house lawyer and we knew
from the beginning
that this research must be
done very, very carefully.
We always do this
very carefully. But in
that case we knew that
this Romanian yoga school
Misa had tried to
sue the Bavarian radio.
This was a few years
ago when Vivolaru was
sought by Interpol.
And that media houses are
sued is not uncommon.
And even having
a house judge or a judge
is anything other
than unusual.
That is even the norm. This belongs
to it.
exactly So now especially
with us, I am at BR Recherche,
the investigative team of the
Bavarian broadcaster.
For us, it is not unusual
even that the other side
is trying to defend itself.
I would look
at it in this way later.
We knew they
tried, the complaint
was rejected.
But we could then also
adjust a little on what is
the line of defense and
we knew okay that will also
be a kind of hard work just
to talk with as many witnesses and
witnesses as possible and then
just to gain their trust
to talk with them long and just
to look what have the
still on the evidence photos
videos emails everything
possible
can be bills.
To summarize this briefly.
At first you had the clue
of one listener, their
statements, and then you
searched for
other women and found
them.
They have very similar
experiences.
And for the overview, Atman,
this is the roof of this yoga school.
The association includes
schools in different
countries.
In Germany it is the German
Academy for Traditional
Yoga and in Romania it is the yoga
school called Misa, which
founded the Bivolaru
more than 30 years ago.
What did you find out?
How plausible is what
the women report that,
as they say, they have been manipulated
and exploited?
According to our research, it is completely
plausible.
So we met a woman, for
example, Natalie, she
is in her mid-20s, looks
like a model,
has a degree in psychology
and has just gone
to that yoga school.
At first, she was just
very interested
in it, found it exciting.
At the beginning, it is really
quite normal and super interesting
and it is all new and there
is also a completely different
view of the world
somewhere.
She first did yoga there,
then this Tantra Yoga course
and for the first time felt that
it was all completely harmless.
But the thing is simple,
that stops so foolish
and then you are in and then
it starts on you as
you drive to practically,
just dress in.
She then went to a yoga
camp, which has a cult
status in the yoga movement Romania
on the Black Sea
Coast and there she was also
told, be careful, this is something
very special and there was
just that kind of classes,
so according to the motto,
you can suppress your period,
you can enlarge your breasts with
the help of yoga, but it
was just about Gregorian
Bivularo.
She tells me that
she had just learned there how
great it is and life-
changing to meet him and also
remembers a piece of writing
that was presented to her and there
was the question you want
to meet the guru the only
answer that is somehow okay
is of course
yes but if you are attached
there you will also be directly
thrown out how you feel when you
are thinking about
meeting your guru or of
course also the one so
then things so
pronounced, somehow so
excited, blissful, ecstatic,
such.
And exactly, so there are
only positive things, you can’
t cross anything negative.
And then you have to specify time
periods if you have time
to meet him. And this
Guru is Gregorian Bivolaru.
exactly And first she thought,
ah, I don’t know, I don’t
know it at all.
But then, after
she had gone to this camp
and she felt like
I’d hopefully learn
great things
from this wise man.
Then she said I want to drive.
She has driven from the Black Sea
Coast to Paris in a car with
several others along with
the from the At one parking lot
there was then a car change,
she is taken to another car,
she gets a glued sunglasses, a fisherman's
hat, not knowing where it
goes, then is taken to an apartment,
so a sort of waiting room for
women who want to go
to her guru, what was
like a mattress camp where she waited
for two weeks, but also completely
shut off from the outside
world because she gave her
cell phone, her passport
and then one day is taken
to the apartment by
the guru where
she is waiting for more
than a week and then
he stands in front
of her in
a purple bathing
jacket.
That is how she tells us.
I can remember
the moment he
took off his coat.
I mean, just
an old man.
And my reaction was like that.
And what happens then?
Very long sex.
Short note, the description is now
becoming very explicit.
And she remembers that
she was there around ten
o’clock and thought, another
hour, another hour, you can
do it, you can do it.
It was really just like
that, okay, just keep going,
just keep going.
So it wasn’t at all that I
was, yes, so really was
somewhere there.
So that was the thing.
And the other women?
So we just talked
to more than 20
outbounders and outbounders,
and eight of them were
actually at Bivolaru
and took the entire
path.
It was important
for us to have such
a system.
So we made such a
table.
Actually, what
are the accusations?
And then often
there are patterns.
It is often like a puzzle that
you can put together. So, for example,
one told me, yes, I was in
the yoga class and then
I was told I could suppress
my period with yoga
exercises.
But I can only remember.
Then you talk
to the next one, who tells
it again and says, hey,
I still have this, the
teaching material,
I will photograph you.
And one thing I have
to say, we are not reporting
all the allegations we
have received information about.
In some we have actively decided
against it because we have said
that is simply too intimate
now or that is just too
much beyond the boundaries
of shame, even from
our interlocutors.
We consciously let it go.
Or it was then that we
ultimately said for the
point we did not have enough
evidence and then we
let it out.
Have you seen the
places where women
were addressed?
We wanted to make as much
of an impression
as possible.
We took three trial
hours, two in Germany
and one in Romania.
And what did you do there?
I do yoga exercises.
But what was your impression
of how this goes on in the
trial hours, in Romania
or even in Germany?
This builds on each other and
here too, when you read this,
Attention, Secret
Information.
So there’s something mysterious,
mysterious and that’s just,
we’ve been told, for example,
in the trial, life is like
such a kind of Super
Mario game and to get
to the next level, you’
ll pass spiritual tests.
This was probably the moment
when we felt like we
were closest to Bivolaru,
because in this trial hour,
when we were there in Romania,
he was presented to us
as such a kind of magician
almost already.
Then, if you saw in a
video how he moved a
compass needle with his
hands and we ourselves
took some aura
measurements.
So it was a bit
esoteric.
It was esoteric, exactly.
And it is important that
we not only have a
verbal narrative, but
also look at that we
are examining
for plausibility.
We were also in a Telegram
group, for example, where this
yoga camp was also
mentioned and where various
places were
then named.
And we then again compare
this with the stories
of Nathalie and
with our suburban
research.
So, that’s a lot of small
pieces of puzzle, to say so,
indications that all this happened,
but that’s also explaining
how it could happen that
women could possibly
be drawn in.
But to prove manipulation,
I find it difficult.
What is
the most important puzzle piece
you have found?
What we have there,
for example, I brought you
here now is a document, there
is a declaration, it
is a six-page, I say
in quotation, contract and
that is Natalie, of which
we have already heard,
was several times with
her guru.
So that means she wasn’t just
with him several times, but what
you just told me about that
super long Tantra sex session,
that’s happened several times.
Just because she just, so
I speak now in the language
of this movement, she has
not managed to overcome
her ego, overcome her jealousy,
there were still problems and then,
so to speak, the advice
was, go back there
and then it will
get better.
And she felt under
pressure, and what
put a lot of pressure
on her was to sign
a contract, and she
did it every time.
So this is the
statement I brought to
you here.
Can you look at.
Here is the signature person, name,
date of birth, place of birth.
I explain
the following.
This is the point
of visiting Grieg.
Grieg is the cosename
of Bivoularo.
And then come all the things
that are explained that
happened during the visit.
I have never been raped by a
Grieg or any other person.
I have never been trafficked.
There was no human trafficking.
I was not beaten, badly
treated, forced, cursed,
insulted or dehumanized.
So somehow it puts in the
room that someone could
say that.
Yes, or maybe he has already
said.
It is a pressure tool.
So the women
who signed this then
say, oh, they have it
from me. They have me in
the hand somewhere.
I have participated. Because
they felt
I signed it too.
I have confirmed
this in this form of this but
it is still so, and so it
has been described to
us by several, on
paper they have voluntarily
taken every step.
This is a very important point,
because it is a question
of whether it is criminal.
In the criminal law,
no means no, that is
clear.
It is no longer important whether
the perpetrator threatened
the victim with violence
or whether it was used.
The crucial thing is that this
sexual act was not wanted and
that was also recognizable
for the perpetrator, for
example because the victim
cried.
But we can’
t judge now
whether it was a
rape or not.
What I can say with certainty
is that the Paris prosecutor’
s office is investigating rape.
Yes, because in different countries,
the sexual
penal law is also
different.
There are also
differences, for example
between Germany and France.
And I can also say that
the investigation has
now been extended
to Germany.
The exact content of this
investigation, the Paris prosecutor’
s office did not want
to tell us.
But I know of all the women
who have already filed
a complaint in Germany.
There are statements from
many women.
You have a look at chat groups.
You have looked
at yourself, at least, how the
test hours look.
The central question is the whole.
What do the
leaders say about the things
you have discovered?
Let’s start with Gregorian Bivolaru.
What do you say about the accusations?
This was, of course, a
big challenge, because
the Bivolaru
was in a secret place.
We knew it somewhere in Paris.
He then went to the prison, where
he is still today.
That is why we
contacted his lawyer.
He also
confirmed that he was his
lawyer.
We have tried several
times to answer our
long questionnaire.
But we did not get a response.
The only thing
we read in the French article
is that Bivoularo said at
the time of his arrest
that he was going on
a political plot, he was
a spiritual master and the
women loved him in his
home after a step
of initiation is called.
And his lawyer is also quoted
as saying Bivoularo’s innocence
will be proved.
The lawyer says this, but clearly,
the presumption of innocence is
also generally applicable and
now you have to wait to see if
the investigators find enough evidence
and what the investigations
will eventually result.
And at least the leaders
of the yoga movement
Atman wanted to say something
about this roof
bandage?
We asked for it and then
received a very short
email.
You
don’t have time to answer,
but we’ll have to look
at your website.
On the website you can
see that they
have members schools
in 30 different countries,
including Germany. The German
Academy of Traditional
Yoga.
They say they are an independent
organization.
Everything
you offer is voluntary.
And some had chosen Gregorian Bivoularo
as their spiritual teacher.
But this is just
voluntary and therefore they
are not a sectarian
organization.
And they told us on request that
they had no knowledge
that yoga students
from their academy had
also gone to Paris to Bivularo
and manipulation and
abuse of power,
they knew nothing
about it.
And another member of the association
is the Romanian yoga school
Misa and since Nathalie
was at Misa and many others,
for example, we had
a very, very
long, detailed,
three-hour conversation.
And they had some
surprising and interesting
answers for us.
They were also willing
to speak
publicly.
And what did they tell you?
We have asked for example about
the whole thing with the secret
initiations there in Paris.
We talked to a few
yoga students.
They told us that they were
going into a kind of initiation
with Gagorian Bivoularo, who
was Tantric.
I have already read it.
I read this
in the news.
Okay, if you said you should
explain what it was, then you should
be able to check it out.
That is the only thing I
can see.
So you say it exists
or does not exist?
No, no, I do not know.
I say, when they
say that such things
exist, it was
just that in the confrontation
that she said it,
yes I’ve heard it
must be, but then
there should
be evidence.
She herself can say
nothing big about it now.
And then we stopped
asking, yes, so is this
there or is it not?
And then she just said, yes,
so the official answer
of Misa is, in Romania, it doesn’
t exist, but she can’t
tell what is happening
anywhere in the world.
The Misa press spokeswoman says
she has no doubt that Pivolaru
is innocent.
They are completely
behind him.
But the fact is, Bivoularo was
arrested in Paris,
the prosecutor investigated.
And now that you
have published the story,
is the case over
for you?
We will definitely stay
on the subject.
It is not now that just
because he was arrested that
now the whole organization
behind it has collapsed
like a card
house.
So that goes on, so for example
the Romanian yoga school
Misa, which has such a kind
of Internet television stations,
which have only recently
in the middle of March
on Bivolaru's birthday, so
quasi prayed for him
and organized a six-
hour meditation with
spiritual music to honor him.
The admiration does not stop.
Christiane, thank you very much.
Yes, also a lot of thanks.
If you liked this,
please take a
look at us.
The podcast of the day.
We report on similar
interesting research
from Monday to Friday, such
as Christiane and Katja.
We are asked by the
AID correspondents to
classify what is happening,
for example in Israel
or even in Haiti.
And we look in depth
at social phenomena, such
as Teller Swift.
You will find FKM just like
Soulfanger in the ARD
audiothek and everywhere there
are podcasts.
About the Atman Yoga movement
and the accusations against
it, Christiane Havranek
told us in this FKM
series.
She has worked with Katja
Peißen-Petersen on this.
The author of this episode is Caspar von Au.
Nicole Ahles and
Mark Hoffmann.
Produced by Jakob Böttner,
Christine Dreyer, Christiane
Gerhäuser-Kamp, Victor Weresch
and Adele Mesmer.
Editorial director Lena Gürtler
and Fumi Kulip.
11KM is a production of BR24
and NDR Info.
My name is Victoria Koopmann.
We will meet again soon,
in our feed. Hi to!