Romanian guru Gregorian (Grieg) Bivolaru wanted for sex crimes in Romania but escaped justice when granted political asylum in Sweden in 2005. The Romanian government has been criticised for procedural errors.

Bivolaru's eclectic yoga tantra school, MISA [i:4214946b40]Movement for Integration of the Spiritual into the Absolute[/i:4214946b40], boasts it has 30,000 disciples in Romania and 40,000 worldwide.

MISA's international franchise yoga-tantra schools use various names including NATHA, AGAMA, TARA and TRIKA.

Disciples loyal to Grieg Bivolaru have started schools in Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Canada, South Africa, Cyprus, Turkey, Japan, India, UK and USA.

Ex-MISA members have started translating from Romanian into English eye-witness accounts secret and criminal activities of Gregorian (Grieg) Bivolaru and his closest disciples including underage sex orgies and lesbian urination shows described as "initiations" filmed and sold without participant consent as commercial pornography, online sex webcam work and sex work in Japan.

Disciples are told that sex with Bivolaru is spiritually elevating and that sex work is service (karma yoga). Sexual disease, madness and suicides have resulted.

The sexual abuses of the senior MISA instructors are not made public to rank and file yoga students.

The shocking revelations of the Romanian ex-members forum can be read in English here:

[exmisa.eamped.com]

A thread started on English forum can be read here:
[www.metta.org.uk]

Grig Bivolaru's Wiki entry has been written by MISA students and is very biased. Critical have not appeared on that page:
[en.wikipedia.org]

[w3.culteducation.com]

[www.culteducation.com]

in the mean time the eamped sever went down, so further information can be found at:
www.exmisa.ro
also, the official site of the MISA school is
www.yogaesoteric.net
other names for schools related to MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru are:
NATHA, AGAMA, TARA (UK), Deutsche Akademie für traditionelles Yoga, KAMALA (RO), YOGA CLUB (RO)

Bivolaru turned his dogs of hell (read yoga teachers-cum-thugs) MISA on International Yoga Federation leadership when they chucked him out for running a sex business under the guise of a yoga school.

The latest MISA hatchet job is a 72 year old lecturer and human rights activist, Seppo Isotalo, he was their supporter until they tried blackmailing him with sex when he discovered proof of their anti-yogic activities.

More can be read on this forum thread some of it in English:

Daniela Dae - Bivolaru girl named in human trafficking indictment in human rights worker honey trap
[www.jooga.meditaatio.fi]

Much more you can read in the English sections [www.exmisa.ro] and [www.exmisa.net]

these people sound a bit like the 3ho!

I think many people do not know exactly what human trafficking is, so it might be useful to post some definitions here:

"Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transfering, harbouring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them."

And a bit more detailed definition for those who might have been trafficked and do not realise it:

"Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Most people probably associate human trafficking with violence and terror, but cults have much more sophisticated ways of getting their members to do their work and even believe it is for their own good: "by doing karma yoga you will speed up your spiritual evolution", "MISA needs money for yoga rooms, and you are doing this for the benefit of spirituality", "we are raising the spiritual level of the planet", "by stripping in night-clubs you will enhance your feminity and become a real Shakti", "you will burn tons of negative karma" and so on and so forth.

Sexual exploitation is not limited to prostitution. Stripping in night-clubs, erotic videochat and adult movies could also qualify as exploitation as long as you are doing unpaid work or are donating a large part of your income to the leader.

The victims of such cult leaders totally abandon their fate in their hands, so it is very difficult to prove the gurus guilty, as the abused persons are totally devoted to them.

If somebody has experience in dealing with such cases, I would be very interested to know about them.

There are some very important discussions going on re this on a yoga forum

Please see the links below

[www.metta.org.uk]

[www.metta.org.uk]

[www.metta.org.uk]

In my opinion it would be useful to continue the discussions here, in an environment where people are generally well informed about cults and NRMs and the emotional damage they can inflict upon their victims.

There are a lot of victims of this particular cult who need help and support to either leave to, if they have already left, to stand up for themselves and give evidence in the courts against their abusers.

My concerns regarding the yoga forum is that some former MISA members who seem quite disturbed, and current members who are very defensive about the cult are posting there and the posts are not moderated in any way except to remove external links.

I feel extremely concerned about the effect that reading the threads could have upon vulnerable, traumatised victims.

We need a safe, sane place to discuss some very serious issues and until we can set up something independent I think this forum is a good place to start.

Why do women who attend the MISA camps have to submit a bikini clad photograph?

All the participants have to send photos in bathing suits, but in the case of women Gregorian Bivolaru examines their "auras" and decides if they are fit to be initiated by him. The "lucky" winners will then be contacted by their yoga teacher or by the leader of the shakti group and invited to visit him in his hide. If they are hesitating some top shaktis will put a little bit of pressure on them and explain what an extraordinary opportunity for their spiritual evolution this is. However, the guru is very generous and there are very few young female students who are spared this "grace".
To be observed that it is not known of him to ever be using condoms.
The prosecution file of the trial he is on in Romania includes some declarations of women who have been guests in his "harem", next to one of the yoga rooms in Bucharest. Apparently around 100 women were hosted there at any given time, and he would come and chose three or four to have sex with him during one night. He claims to have "made love" to over 6000 women (he never has sex, he always makes love, because sex without love is degrading). Some of the girls who were invited there were normally living in ashrams where the food was very scarce and bad, so they were happy to go to the "harem" because the food there was much better.

I notice the new forum opened in italy against Gregorian Bivolaru and MISA, and italian branches. You all are kindly requested to post your contributes to help us in this important action.

exatman.forumfree.it

Thanking you,