Atman: investigation into a multinational sect of tantrism
On Tuesday, November 28, 2023, the French police carried out a large raid against an international tantric yoga sect, the Atman federation, and arrested dozens of its executives for human trafficking, indoctrination and kidnapping. Among them is his guru, Gregorian Bivolaru, a Romanian who pushed female followers to sleep with him for supposed spiritual elevation. Our correspondent in India, Sébastien Farcis, investigated for two months and spoke with several victims. He reveals how this sect operates.
From our correspondent in India,
The music is soft and soaring. Sunset light radiates the room, located on top of a hotel in Rishikesh, a holy city in northern India. In the center of the room, around fifty young people in casual clothes advance with their eyes closed, one after the other, in an aisle formed by their companions. With a hesitant step, everyone then lets themselves be caressed by the hands of the other practitioners. “ Connect with your feelings, disconnect your mind and feel the loving energies of others ,” encourages the teacher, Purusha Ananda, dressed in a red tunic. This “ angel walk ” represents the first exercise of a tantric yoga class, offered by the Mahasiddha school. An introductory session to encourage these young people to follow a three-day course, which begins the next morning: “ erotic energy is the source of our inner power ,” explains the teacher in a suave voice. And I will teach you how to control this energy to make love better, and to purify your emotions to transcendence and communion with God .”
The master's sexual gratification
This proposition seems tempting. But it hides a darker face: that of a sect of tantrism, the Atman federation, which pushes hundreds of young women towards unbridled sexual relations.
With one ultimate goal: the sexual gratification of his master, Gregorian Bivolaru. As revealed by RFI, this 71-year-old Romanian guru was arrested this Tuesday, November 28 in the Paris region, with 40 other members of his network. He is being prosecuted for human trafficking, kidnapping by an organized gang, abuse of weakness by a gang organized by members of a sect, and rape. He faces up to thirty years in prison.
Several victims agreed to reveal to RFI, on condition of anonymity, their traumatic journey in this galaxy of tantrism.
Forced orgies between followers
For Silke, it all started in October 2019, in Rishikesh, with this introductory course from Mahasiddha, one of the dozens of associations affiliated with the Atman federation. This German woman, aged 21 at the time, was captivated by the “no taboo” discourse on sexuality, enhanced with a strong dose of spirituality mixing Hindu gods and Christian angels. “ I come from an atheist background, and this was all exciting and intriguing to me,” Silke says. I was also vulnerable, because I was fresh out of college and looking for a purpose in my life .” She joined this new family, for three years in Germany, then in Romania, where she was invited to the most important summer camp of the federation, organized by MISA, an association founded by Gregorian Bivolaru in 1990. “As soon as you arrive , They take naked photos and videos of you, Silke relates. Then we ask you when you want to meet Grieg ”, nickname given to Gregorian Bivolaru in the federation. “ And it’s impossible to say no to all that, because if you do, you’ll be kicked out of the camp .”
During the two weeks of this course conducted in Costinesti, on the shores of the Black Sea, the lessons are increasingly sexually explicit: the women must listen to fiery stories of copulations, and at the end, they are pushed to practice a orgy between them. “ All of this is done to erode your boundaries or shame around talking and hearing about sex,” Silke explains. It should also be normal to think of Grieg as your lover, to prepare yourself to agree to sleep with him. » MISA denies taking nude photos, and only admits asking for images in a swimsuit, “ to show the physical transformations and the harmony of the body expected by the practice of Hatha Yoga ”. The organization also describes orgy holding as a “myth”.
Sequestration in Paris to meet Gregorian Bivolaru
This MISA yoga camp serves, in any case, according to these former followers interviewed by RFI, as a recruitment center for young women for Gregorian Bivolaru.
Shortly after participating, Stella, an Englishwoman, was taken to Paris to meet this master of the tantra movement, for a “sexual initiation”. A trip that quickly takes the form of human trafficking: Stella first meets at a Parisian gas station. There, two Romanians put her in a van and put opaque glasses and a hat on her head, which prevent her from seeing where she is going. She then arrives at a large house in the suburbs of Paris. “ They search my bag and take my passport, my credit cards and my phone, which they wrap in aluminum foil, ” says Stella, in a still nervous voice. “ I also have to sign numerous documents ensuring that I have not been raped or trafficked .” However, during the two weeks that she will wait there, Stella will only have the right to leave this house alone once, and will only be able to call her loved ones once, during a conversation controlled by the Romanians. , from a phone they lend her, and during which she will not be able to reveal where she is or with whom.
The deification of the master of the “sect”
She is finally called by Gregorian Bivolaru. “ When I see him, I immediately tell myself that he is frail and old, and that I don’t want to sleep with this man,” Stella remembers. And at the same time, I hear this voice of indoctrination in my head, telling me that I'm superficial, that I have to see him as the divine being that he is, and that this is a great opportunity for me . » The deification of this master, as well as the increased culture of secrecy, are two of the elements which make these former followers say today that the Atman movement is a “sect”.
“ During penetration, he kept his eyes closed, and I thought he was meditating,” Stella says. But in this act, the most important thing for him is to drink the urine. So he made me drink his urine, and he drank mine. And then he lay down and fell asleep. By snoring. »
Silke also met Gregorian Bivolaru in this gloomy Parisian apartment. But what shocked him more was seeing a minor there. “ She was a 16-year-old Hungarian girl, and she came with her mother, who had lived in the school for decades,” says Silke. And Gregorian Bivolaru yelled at him, because the girl didn't want to suck him long enough. That’s when I told myself that this really wasn’t normal .”
The Atman federation did not respond to our multiple requests for responses to these accusations.
For Silke as for Stella, this forced relationship with Gregorian Bivolaru broke the indoctrination, and began the long process of leaving this sect.