We don’t get a response on either phone. Neither at the Madrid headquarters, nor at the Barcelona headquarters. El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group, has contacted the two branches in Spain of the International Atman Yoga Federation but, although the line is still operational, no one answers.
On November 28, a French police raid in Paris ended with the arrest of 41 people. Among them, the boss. ‘Teacher’. A 71-year-old Romanian named Grigorian Bivolaru. He is the guru of a sect that, under the guise of an international yoga school, hid a dark history of prostitution, kidnappings and human trafficking. And he has branches spread all over the world. Also for Spain.
A total of 175 agents intervened simultaneously in Paris, Seine-et-Marne, Val-de-Marne and Alpes-Maritimes, to dismantle the so-called International Atman Yoga Federation. An alleged tantric yoga school that allegedly exploited women. With a speech that mixed spirituality and sex, he recruited young women and then forced them, among other things, to keep non-consensual sexual relations.
From prostitution to participation in pornographic films. The guru Grigorian Bivolaru founded the sect in the year, under the name of MISA (Movement for Spiritual Integration in the Absolute). He said he approached sexuality from an approach that was far from taboo. But in reality he forced them to pose naked, to give them large amounts of money and to have unwanted sexual relations with ‘The Master’.
“They took my phone”
“As soon as you arrive, they take naked photos and videos of you”, explained one of the victims to the French media RFI. The guru recruited women throughout Europe and then transferred them to his headquarters in France, Germany or Romania, to initiate them into the practices of the sect. At first they were taken to participate in camps that took place at some of the Yoga Atman headquarters. But they were often kidnapped and stripped of their belongings.
“They searched my bag and took my passport, my credit cards and my phone, which they wrapped in aluminum foil. I also had to sign numerous documents guaranteeing that she had not been raped or trafficked,” another of those affected explained to the same French publication.
That was the modus operandi of the sect, which kept the victims kidnapped in different buildings in the French capital. When the French police completed the operation, they found 26 people crowded together and in inhumane conditions in several of these homes. A practice that was denounced in 2022 and that has concluded with the macro operation that has found the bones of the guru in prison. He now faces 30 years in prison.
Flight to Sweden
This is not the first time this has happened: the police launched an operation against Bivolaru and his henchmen for the first time in 2004. At that time, the Romanian police raided 18 buildings in Bucharest to dismantle the organization. There, Grieg (as Bivolaru is known among his followers) was accused of sexual abuse of a minor. After obtaining provisional freedom, he fled to Swedenwhere he obtained political asylum alleging reasons of persecution for ideological reasons.
The sect expert Luis Santamaría, member of the Ibero-American Network of the Study of Sects, RIES, explained in a presentation that “in his absence, the Romanian courts continue to prosecute him, and finally the Court of Cassation sentences him in 2013 to six years in prison. for the accusation of sexual abuse. For this reason, the Romanian State subsequently issues an arrest warrant, so that In January 2016, Europol published his file on the website of the most wanted criminals on the continent., and the following month he is arrested in Paris, from where he is extradited to Romania. There he remains imprisoned currently.
According to Cesnur (Center for Studies of New Religions), the sect is present in more than twenty countries, especially in Europe, although also with centers in several Latin American countries, the United States and South Africa. It would have “about 20,000 practitioners and a thousand full-time members who live in the community,” although some documents give the figure of 35,000.
Madrid and Barcelona
It is also present in Spain. There is talk of three centers: Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza. Although the latter is not documented on the website of the International Yoga Atman Federation. Only the Madrid and Barcelona branches are listed. The first is called Ananda Yoga. Their website is already closed and no one answers the phone.
The second is named Esoteric Integral Yoga. Their website is still open, but they do not answer the phone or emails either. Both offices are run, as this same website explains, by two Romanian citizens: Elisana Craciun and Bochis Simona respectively.
It should be said that there are other yoga centers that have the same name but have nothing to do with this organization. This is the case of a yoga school in Murcia that bears the name of Atman and with which EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA contacted. Those in charge, who had no idea what happened, clarified that “we founded a yoga school with that name because ‘atman’ in Sanskrit means ‘soul’. But we have nothing to do with this organization.”
erotic festivals
Luis Santamaría explains in a presentation (perhaps the most extensive that has ever been written about Bivolaru and his henchmen) that among the practices of this sect “the recording and commercialization of productions that go beyond the erotic genre to move into the pornographic field stands out.” , with some films that have been widely distributed in the specific commercial circuits of this genre, such as ‘Ecstasy water’ (which It even won an award at the 2003 Barcelona Erotic Film Festival.) and ‘The Magic Passage’.
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“Some of the sexual practices of a spiritual nature that are learned in the group have been recorded in them, such as the “secret test”; For women, which is none other than achieving, through masturbation, the “urinary orgasm.” Some events organized by MISA, such as the Miss Shakti pageant at the annual August festival in Costineşti, the annual tribute to Bivolaru for her birthday and other theatrical performances that always include nudity, would have served as an introduction or, directly, as contents for these audiovisual productions,” says Santamaría in his presentation.
Now, the guru faces 30 years in prison, with charges such as kidnapping or human trafficking. And although Google shows that the Yoga Atman headquarters (located in London) is “permanently closed”his followers continue to defend Grieg and threaten in statements to the police and judicial bodies if they end up condemning this guru.