Gregorian Bivolaru also known as Magnus AurolssonSources for 'Magnus Aurolsson': and nicknamed Grieg, Grig or, by the press, Guru (born 1952) is a Romanian tantric yoga guru, and the founder of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA). At the age of 18 he began teaching yoga, an activity deprecated by Romania's communist regime. He was twice jailed and once forcibly hospitalized in a psychiatric ward under the regime, which ended in 1989. In 2005 he was charged on counts of sexual exploitation, tax evasion, and crossing the border to escape prosecution; he sought asylum in Sweden, which he was granted in 2006. In 2008 he was expelled from the European Yoga Council. His trial in Romania for human trafficking was postponed many times; charges in another trial were dropped. In 2013, he was sentenced in absentia by Romania's supreme court for sex with a minor. In 2016 he was arrested in France and extradited to Romania. He was paroled in 2017 and fled the country, by then wanted by the police in Finland and France for human trafficking. He was arrested and imprisoned in France in 2023.
MISA teaches a combination of yoga and tantra. The teachings derive from multiple religious sources such as Hinduism, Kashmir Shaivism, and Western esotericism. The tantra teaching is oriented towards sexual practices. A principle of polarity is emphasized, with male and female as fundamentally opposite energies of the universe. MISA's practices include purifications, use of pornography, and sexual activity between teachers and pupils. Some female students have been taken to France, arriving disoriented and without passports or mobile phones at Bivolaru's apartment, where they had ritualized sex with Bivolaru, and were then taken away and forced to do sex work such as working as webcam models under harsh conditions. It was held to be an honour to have sex with the guru as this denoted spiritual progress.
Bivolaru has received hostile treatment in the media in Romania and elsewhere, with descriptions of his beliefs and practices. He has written a book describing a variant of Freemasonry as a satanic conspiracy seeking world domination. He has claimed to have contacted extraterrestrials with healing powers.
Biography
Early life
Gregorian Bivolaru was born in 1952 in Tărtășești, Ilfov County, (now in Dâmbovița County), in the Muntenia region of Romania. He completed high school in Bucharest, and joined a predecessor to the Bucharest Metro company as an unskilled labourer in 1971. He began practicing yoga at the age of 17, and began to teach it at the age of 18. He became interested in Eastern spirituality and read Mircea Eliade's scholarly writings on yoga, corresponding with the author. He managed to obtain and read books by Paramahansa Yogananda, Sivananda Saraswati, and Ramakrishna, even though these were not readily available in Romania at the time. The claim that Bivolaru had a correspondence with Eliade is not supported by Eliade's archive.
During the communist regime Bivolaru was kept under observation by the Department of State Security, since he was 19 years old, because he asked for pornography from foreign countries, he spread pornography (which was illegal),Twisted Yoga (2025) Season 1 Episode 3. and, later, because he was practicing and teaching yoga, yoga being dissuaded in Romania and barred from public facilities in 1982, in connection with the "Transcendental Meditation scandal". He was jailed twice and forcibly hospitalized in a psychiatric ward once.
In 1977, he was arrested on the charge of distributing pornography and sentenced to one year in prison, but he did not complete it due to an amnesty granted for minor convictions by the President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu on his birthday. On 17 April 1984, he was arrested again for distributing pornographic materials.
On 17 August 1989, Bivolaru was arrested again, on the grounds that he was mentally unhinged and a menace to the general public. Prosecutors requested he be hospitalized, which was granted two days later on 19 August 1989 by the sector 1 Tribunal of Bucharest based on a report submitted by National Institute for Legal Medicine (IML). He was sentenced to hospitalization at The Poiana Mare Neuropsychiatry Hospital in Dolj County. In the IML report the diagnosis was schizoid personality disorder and paranoia with obsessive-phobic elements. Until 1989 he was constantly on the list of the most dangerous people for the communist regime, being permanently in the sights of the Security, but he never stopped practicing and teaching yoga. His group of yogis is according to Gabriel Andreescu "the only example of long-lasting collective resistance under Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime".
Legal history
In 2005, Bivolaru was charged in Romania on eight counts, including sexual exploitation, tax evasion, and illegally crossing the border to escape prosecution. In March 2005, he asked for asylum in Sweden, claiming that he feared persecution in Romania. On 15 April the Romanian Police issued a second warrant in his name, accusing him of "human trafficking and other charges related to organized crime" (related to an alleged sequestration of people in some ashrams and forcing them to work without being paid). The Swedish Immigration Authority granted Bivolaru political asylum from 2 January 2006. In 2008, Bivolaru and everyone linked to MISA or Natha were expelled from the European Yoga Council, where he had been an honorary member. In 2010, Bivolaru requested damages from the Romanian state for his sentencing to mandatory psychiatric treatment during the Communist regime. On 18 January 2011, Bivolaru's trial was, for the tenth time, postponed again until 23 March 2011, marking his case as one of the longest-running in the Cluj court. This trial for human trafficking is still pending, but the unconstitutionality exceptions invoked by the suspects have been rejected.http://portal.just.ro/InstantaDosar.aspx?idInstitutie=117&d=MTE3MDAwMDAwMDAwMzU1OTU Retrieved 14 December 2011. On 1 July 2011, a Bucharest court issued a ruling recognizing the political nature of the sentences suffered by Bivolaru during the communist period and his internment.Decizia Tribunalului București , din data de 1 July 2011 în dosarul 48765/3/2010 In another 2011 trial, at the Sibiu court, the charges were dropped, partly due to lack of evidence for some charges (evidence was dropped for failing to show that the interceptions were legally mandated), and partly due to exceeding the statute of limitations corresponding to the charges.Sources for 'statute of limitations':
In 2012, MISA faced allegations of procuring and forced prostitution.Sources for 'procuring', 'prostitution', or 'forced prostitution': In 2013, the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania convicted and sentenced Bivolaru in absentia to six years in prison, without suspension, for sexual acts with a minor, who said she never had sexual relations with Bivolaru. On the same day, Court Judge Ionuț Matei received a letter threatening him and his family. In 2016, Bivolaru was arrested in France. After extradition from France, he was imprisoned in Romania. He requested a retrial. His six-year term was reduced by one year and three months, since he had already spent this time in detention. Alba Iulia Court of Appeals had rejected Bivolaru's demand for a retrial. In 2017, Bivolaru was released from prison on parole. Soon after being paroled, Bivolaru fled the country. He was wanted by the police in Finland and France for human trafficking between 2008 and 2013, for sexual abuse, and other crimes. In 2023 he was wanted by Interpol for aggravated trafficking in human beings and sexual assault at the request of Finland. He was arrested in France on 28 November 2023.Sources for 'arrested in 2023': Bivolaru and five other people belonging to MISA were placed under provisional arrest. They were accused of financial exploitation, under the guise of Tantra (sexual exploitation)., Digi24HD, 28 November 2023. Bivolaru thinks he is "the victim of a political conspiracy", who would have retaliated against him for "fighting against a gigantic planetary satanic and freemasonic conspiracy". This has long been the official creed of Bivolaru and MISA.
In 2023, MISA faced again allegations of procuring and forced prostitution. He was accused of exploiting female adepts for sexual contacts and luring them into performing in pornography, including by secretly recording them for such purposes. In Finland the charges he faces are punishable with ten years imprisonment. In France he faces charges punishable with 30 years imprisonment. The other five persons still in prison at this time face charges punishable with 15 years imprisonment. He was imprisoned in France in 2023 for what was alleged to be a rape, human trafficking and kidnapping scheme. According to Le Monde, "At the eight locations they visited, the police found 58 women – 51 of Romanian nationality, none French – 'living in difficult conditions, with severe overcrowding and no privacy'". Each woman in the villa of Bivolaru's right-hand man from France had a room of three square meters, and the hygiene conditions were poor. They were malnourished. Many of the women arrested on 28 November 2023 were inebriated.
In 2024 German authorities opened an investigation regarding MISA/ATMAN.Sources for 'Germany 2024': The authorities have expressed doubts about the success of such investigation, since Germany does not have the same laws as France. At the end of April 2024, the French authorities arrested the wife of Bivolaru's right-hand man. Bivolaru will receive payment for damages, for a 17-year trial in Romania, a duration which was ruled excessive in 2024. Two of his close associates from the EU were arrested in August or September 2024 (according to different reports) in Georgia. When they were arrested, they had half million Euro. The article from Marianne links them and other MISA leaders to an infamous cult, Ashram Shambala from Russia. Agence France-Presse said that 15 persons were indicted in 2023 on this matter. the investigation continued, finding brothels linked to Bivolaru/MISA in France, Monaco, and Italy. He faces accusations of organized crime. The trial is scheduled for 2026 or 2027. The head of the French CAIMADES police unit which investigates cult abuse stated that its task is to investigate crimes, not religious beliefs.Twisted Yoga, Season 1 Episode 1. The defense argues the sex was in relationships between freely consenting adults. According to Le Parisien, in June 2026 seven women became civil parties in the criminal trial, and Bivolaru argues that it is a conspiracy. According to what he says, he is physically ill, sexually unfit, and fears he will die in prison. He described his confinement in isolation as torture.
MISA
Official hostility to yoga ended with the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Bivolaru founded the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) as a non-profit association in 1990. MISA currently operates under different names in different countries: Natha in Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal, Tara in the US and UK, and Satya in India. It is also known as the Atman Federation.
A follower of MISA became prime-minister.
Teachings
MISA teaches a combination of yoga and tantra. Courses in these two subjects, the "Intensive Yoga Course" (IYC) and "Intensive Tantra Course" (ITC) each span two years, requiring at least two hours a week of home study, and can be taken concurrently. MISA describes its teaching in secular terms, but according to scholar of religion Zdenek Vojtíšek, it demands changes to lifestyle, investment of time, and commitment to the organization more like a religion than a leisure activity. Vojtíšek states that MISA makes itself available socially, while gradually introducing doctrines that it calls secret.