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The Secret tantric Path of Love to Happiness and Fulfillment in a Couple Relationship with Presentation Lecture CD by Author
A rare book that introduces an enlightened master s perspective on love, intimacy and relationships. Full of wisdom, common sense and heart-felt advice, the Tantric Path of Love... stands aside from the usual tantric literature. This book is the missing ingredient for a happy, fulfilling and ever-growing love relationship. It contains all those lessons that schools and parents failed to teach us. Each chapter deals with a specific aspect of a couple s life, ranging from daily communication, to spiritual awakening. An easy and delightful reading, this book will give you inspiration and practical ideas. It will help you change your point of view on areas of life that deeply trouble you. It will give you hope that amazing love is not just possible, but your divine right. And that never-ending happiness is not just a dream or a fairy tale, but a reality within your reach.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published November 26, 2010
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September 22, 2023
So to give some perspective, here are some experience from girls who have been with this so called "enlightened" guru:
When the female students have been in the yoga school (Misa, Natha, Tara, Atman) for a certain period and undergone some initiations, private invitations are sent by Bivolaru and communicated to the adept by a female initiate, who points out how extraordinary the adept’s personality is and that the master’s offer is truly exceptional.
All communication regarding the initiation is held secret and the adept is explicitly forbidden to speak about it. Sometimes small gifts are sent from Bivolaru, such as necklaces, these are seen as prestigious among the initiated women.
The sexual content and the conditions of the initiation are not described.
In some cases the woman is also asked to make a payment, but this is more akin to a financial deposit, which is usually returned after the event, because all the expenses related to the initiation are understood as a gift from the master.
04.
Arriving In Paris
Before Bivolaru was wanted by police for sex trafficking, he was able to have initiations in a villa in Costinesti, Romania, where yoga camps take place each year.
During the time of Bivolaru’s hiding in Paris, all the transfers were kept completely secret, which means that neither the address of the Paris ashram inhabited only by women nor the place of the initiation, was known by the women.
Flight tickets are given to the women in the last minute. Since it is strictly forbidden to speak about the initiation, women do not tell their family, friends or partners about the invitation or where they are going. Often going away for weeks and months at a time.
When they arrive in Paris, they are picked up by chauffeurs. They are disguised and blindfolded so that they cannot recall the locations of their stays later on.
“We arrived at the airport. Then some guy came to pick us up from there. He then took us into this house, a big house. On the way there, we had to keep on these opaque- I mean, these super darkened sunglasses through which you couldn’t see anything, and we had hats on as well. And we weren’t quite told why that was.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“.. A driver picked me up, made me wear a hat and sunglasses so I couldn’t be recognized”
Alina, Former MISA member
“We were told that that they were doing this so we couldn’t tell anybody where we’d been and therefore wouldn’t get into trouble”
Cristina, Former MISA member
“Yeah, so when we arrived at that house, taking away our passports and mobile phones was the first thing they did.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I was in an apartment where there were at least 15 of us, at most we got to more than 20, and we couldn’t get out of the house until we were taken out by the drivers who would again make us wear the hats and glasses”
Cristina, Former MISA member
05.
The House
Yoga school MISA owns several different estates in Paris.
While staying in Paris, dozens of young women from Romania and other European countries are taken to a house.
There, they are practically held as prisoners. Their belongings are thoroughly searched, their passports and mobile devices are confiscated. Contact with the outside world is forbidden, with the exception of one phone call to parents, once a week, under strict monitoring. If any terminology like “yoga” or “Paris” is mentioned, the call would be cut.
Staff under Bivolaru live in the house to monitor the women.
Gregorian Bivolaru, also known as Grieg, doesn’t usually live where the women live.
06.
Preparation
During their stay in the house, which could stretch from days to weeks, the women are subjected to intense manipulation and coercion tactics.
The women are instructed to stand while their photos and videos are taken, and take vows of secrecy on their health and spiritual evolution. They are told exactly when to sleep, down to the exact minute, and forced to watch porn and listen to recordings of Bivolaru having sex with other women.
Any attempt to speak out about concerns are considered “satanic”, and are publicly shamed. They have to sign declarations to accept punishments ranging from: shaving their heads, and recieving humiliating cavity searches.
While at the same time, they are frequently reassured that they are doing everything of their own free will and would never be forced to do anything.
Some women were told to pay for the flight and accommodation should they cancel the invitation.
“And some of the girls who got there, they weren’t very taken with the idea of sleeping with this man, I don’t blame them, I didn’t want to either, he’s old, he’s a bit on the disgusting side really, with the long slimy hair and the long nails…”
Roxana Former MISA member
“There is manipulation, you believe that things you are doing are good, you think sleeping with Bivolaru is good, you believe lying about sleeping or not sleeping with him, or about meeting him is good. Because you are being told that you do it to protect him, to protect yourself as ignorant people can’t understand the things that you experience.”
Cristina, Former MISA member
“And he lived in this one room apartment. – And it was very very warm, and I’m not sure, I’m thinking maybe 40 degrees Celsius, or something like that, it was impossibly hot. And I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and there was a strong scent of mint in the air.”
Roxana Former MISA member
“On the shelves, there were vibrators and erotic accessories and things like that. – When we arrived there, Grieg was having sex with some other woman, and we had to wait for them to be done. Then he let us inside.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
07.
Bivolaru’s Apartment
The women would be summoned to Bivolaru’s apartment any time during the day and night. They are taken to another apartment for the initiation.
Again, they would have to wear the dark glasses and be driven away by the same drivers.
Once they arrive, they are left waiting in the entrance hall along with the other girls.
08.
The Initiation
The women are offered drinks with unknown contents before going into the initiation. Some women have reported impaired states of clarity.
The initiation can last several hours. During which, the women are asked to go through different sexual positions, as well as anal sex and to drink his urine. He exercises total control during the initiation, and if the woman make any errors, he berates them and becomes very aggressive.
No condoms are used during the initiation.
There have been claims of women catching sexual disease after being in the initiation. Bivolaru has publicly rebuked these claims.
“That first of all, the way that Grieg touched me, it really hurt. Then, he got me to do things which I didn’t want to do at all, because you don’t say no to an authority figure like that. And in addition to that, I was somehow still thinking that I’m supposed to trust him and believe what he says, because he’s so wise and “godly”. – Well, Grieg asked me then, if I like to pleasure men orally. To which I replied, that I don’t enjoy it much at all. – Then, I was nearly choking during that, because he handled me in a very rough way. And at that point, I, like… the attempt ended then, because I couldn’t breathe. He didn’t realize I was choking, I had to sort of tear myself from his grip. – And then he told me off for being stubborn, stupid and a lazy slacker, because I wasn’t able to complete this initiation.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“Then, I was really broken up about the experience, I mean, what happened at Grieg’s, and didn’t feel like talking about it at all, not in the slightest. But I was forced to be in my underpants and tell about what happened, on tape. And I did talk, then, – like, when… if I got another chance, I’d try harder, harder and more. And wouldn’t, like, give up like that again…Then we were supposed to write a note… or rather, copy one… which said, among other things, that I have been here willingly, I have gotten gifts from Grieg and I haven’t been forced to do anything. – I still remember, when I was writing it, [I thought that] I certainly don’t agree with all this.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“And I was still crying when I left that place and I was feeling horrible, horrible, the driver didn’t really care that much or if he did he didn’t really say anything, and I got back to the apartment and the girls wanted me to share my experience.”
Roxana Former MISA member
09.
Testimonial
After the initiation, the women are driven back to the house.
Before they get to rest, they are forced to make a positive testimonial in front of a video recorder, naked, about the wonderful experience they have just undergone.
Negative testimonials are rejected and they are not let go until they have given a positive one.
10.
The Bubble Bursts
It usually takes some time for the women to digest their experience.
Many women choose to not break the vow and stay in the school. A few women choose to go to the police.
Gregorian Bivolaru and his supporters have remained completely silent about what goes on in Paris. In the Finnish case, the documentary team contacted Natha Finland’s representatives to offer them a chance to answer questions. The interview was never done, because their terms were not met.
To this day, Bivolaru is still luring women to Paris. He is still wanted by Finnish and Romanian authorities.
“And I tried to see him as my spiritual master and I couldn’t, and it kind of broke me in half.” – – – Mentally I was going through these horrible loops trying to see, trying to understand and trying to figure things out and I was going just down, I was getting worse and worse and depressed and panic attacks and…”
Roxana Former MISA member
“Well, actually after that trip, I went… I left to North for a couple of weeks, that’s where I’m from. And there I told one of my friends about this. I mean, like, I somehow had to tell what had happened. And my friend got me thinking about all this in a new way.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I had, about a year after that experience, a really bad psychological meltdown. Even then I couldn’t make the connection between my experiences, the breakdown and that… like, really severe depression which was triggered in me at that time.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I was lying down on my yoga mat during one point, and I felt entirely lost and broken and I didn’t know what to believe. – – – And I was just lying there on my back, and I said Enough. And when I said enough I just felt a wave of anger coming from deep within me, it was this horrible, horrible anger, I’d never felt anything like it in my life.”
Roxana Former MISA member
11.
Unresolved
In Finland, Reetta isn’t the only Finnish victim. At least twenty Finnish women have been taken to be initiated by Bivolaru. Some of them have been to Paris several times.
In addition to Finns, young women from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and, naturally, from Romania, have been transported for Bivolaru to abuse.
Official statement from Natha Finland says “Natha teaches classical tantra, eroticism as a spiritual path, or how to harness the creative energies of eroticism for your spiritual growth. Before everything, it emphasizes love as a necessary prerequisite for practicing tantra, and also as a certain goal to strengthen love.”
Inside the Misa/Natha/Tara/Atman tantra yoga sect
The experiences of Ashleigh Freckleton in Tara Yoga Centre London UK and Misa Costinesti Romania and Paris:
Three years before she was a contestant on The Bachelor, Ashleigh Freckleton survived a cult.
The following contains descriptions of sexual exploitation that may be distressing.
There was a period in 2018 when Ashleigh Freckleton felt split in two.
There was the lucid, rational Ashleigh who was alarmed by what was unfolding around her, who knew the yoga school she'd joined was something far more dangerous, manipulative, and abusive than it claimed. Then there was the Ashleigh who'd been coerced and brainwashed into justifying it all, into unpicking her suspicions, one by one.
Ashleigh, who many will recognise from the current season of The Bachelor Australia, joined the school while living in London. She was 25, alone in a new city, recovering from a relationship breakdown, and searching for a purpose.
A deeply spiritual person, raised in the Catholic faith, she was contemplating studying yoga in India when a well-meaning friend recommended a yoga school with branches across Europe.
"This friend was so charismatic, and he was the first person I'd spoken to about spirituality who wasn't afraid to use the word God, who wasn't afraid to talk about all different types of faith, and synchronicity, and fate and destiny and life path, and all these sorts of things. I was like, 'This is my calling. This is the first person I've ever met, that understands me,'" Ashleigh told Mamamia.
"Eventually, he said, 'Look, rather than going to India, come to Romania and live for a month amongst all the yogis. It's one of the only true schools that teaches real yoga with a real guide.'"
After taking classes online for several months, Ashleigh flew to Romania in August 2018.
Ashleigh said when she arrived at the camp, she was made to take vows on her own health and spiritual evolution that she wouldn't tell anyone what happens in the program. She said she was then told to strip naked, was photographed and interviewed about her devotion to Him — the school's guru.
Ashleigh said her body was "screaming" at her that the situation wasn't right, that she should leave. But she'd been admitted into the program for free, she didn't have a job or a flight out of there for another month, and she said she was being told that her discomfort with her nudity was rooted in superficiality and that she'd need to overcome that to progress.
"Even though my body's telling me this is wrong, I'm shaming myself thinking, 'It's your ego. You need to spiritually evolve. You've got to push through, keep going,'" she said.
While the yoga and meditation provided a much-needed salve to her anxiety, she said it soon became clear they were only part of the program. They were mixed in with teachings about tantra, Hinduism, and Buddhism. There was Freemasonry propaganda, conspiracy theories, and anti-vax messaging. She said she was made to watch hours of footage of the guru performing supposedly miraculous acts like moving a compass.
Ashleigh also described a range of exploitative practices, many of which were sexual in nature. Women were encouraged to be intimate with each other. There were viewings of mainstream pornography that were said to encourage sexual liberation. There was an activity that was billed as being empowering to women that was essentially just a striptease contest. Finally, the program culminated in an orgy involving urine play, as urine was said to be 'charged with spiritual energy'. Ashleigh refused to participate.
The characteristics of a cult.
Cults are broadly defined by the three characteristics: A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship; a process of coercive persuasion or thought reform (commonly referred to as 'brainwashing'); and economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members.
"There's that old adage that nobody joins a cult," Ashleigh said. "You don't join a cult; you join a yoga school, you attend a self-development seminar, you go to a wellness retreat, you join a political movement wanting to better the world," she said. "The people that join, they have very positive and good intentions, and they're exploited."
It's also important to note that intelligence is not among the factors identified in research about an individual's susceptibility to joining a cult. Instead, the commonly cited traits include those such as emotional vulnerability, lack of strong family support systems, situational stress and low socioeconomic status.
Ashleigh said the next, and final, step in her indoctrination was an initiation ritual in Paris.
She claims when she arrived at the train station she was put in a car, given a hat to pull low on her head, and a pair of sunglasses with tape on the inside to obscure her vision. After a roughly 40-minute drive out of the city, she arrived at a house with frosted windows where she said her phone, her laptop, cards and passport — any connection with the outside world — was taken and locked in a safe.
The ritual involved meeting the guru for the first time and, ultimately, sleeping with him. Ashleigh refused. She said she was given promises that if she proceeded she would receive his divine energy, that her demons would be exorcised, that her beauty would be enhanced, her breasts would grow and she would have more sexual charisma.
"They promised the whole world at your feet, if you go through with the initiation. And they say that if a woman gets the opportunity and she says no, then she is stubborn, stupid and superficial. She's completely lacking any aspiration for spiritual evolution, and she's destined for a life of suffering and negative karma," Ashleigh told Mamamia.
Ashleigh said she didn't know where she was, nor have any means to escape. And the warring sides of herself were louder than ever.
"I felt like I was losing touch with reality. It felt like [the guru's] claws were grabbing my brain and like pulling it out from underneath me. I had to write letters to myself in my diary and tell myself to stay lucid, because I was so afraid," she said.
"I was terrified of what brainwashed Ashleigh would do. I didn't trust that I would have the strength to say no to [the guru]. When you're sitting there in front of him, naked, how do you say no to someone of that level of authority, even though every part of your being is screaming at you that it's wrong?"
Ashleigh said that when she was made to watch a testimonial video of another woman who'd just completed the initiation, a naked woman who Ashleigh said was "clearly not OK", that's when the rational side of herself won.
After eight days, she managed to negotiate her way out of the initiation and was expelled from the program, condemned.
"When I got to a hotel, I just collapsed on the floor in my room. I was in France, no one knew that I was there. I had to lie to my family. And I didn't know what to do," she said. "That brainwashed part of me was still there. It took months after coming home to Australia to really understand what had happened."
Ashleigh was ultimately diagnosed with PTSD as a result of her experience. But she began a path to recovery with the help of a psychologist and the support of her family.
When the female students have been in the yoga school (Misa, Natha, Tara, Atman) for a certain period and undergone some initiations, private invitations are sent by Bivolaru and communicated to the adept by a female initiate, who points out how extraordinary the adept’s personality is and that the master’s offer is truly exceptional.
All communication regarding the initiation is held secret and the adept is explicitly forbidden to speak about it. Sometimes small gifts are sent from Bivolaru, such as necklaces, these are seen as prestigious among the initiated women.
The sexual content and the conditions of the initiation are not described.
In some cases the woman is also asked to make a payment, but this is more akin to a financial deposit, which is usually returned after the event, because all the expenses related to the initiation are understood as a gift from the master.
04.
Arriving In Paris
Before Bivolaru was wanted by police for sex trafficking, he was able to have initiations in a villa in Costinesti, Romania, where yoga camps take place each year.
During the time of Bivolaru’s hiding in Paris, all the transfers were kept completely secret, which means that neither the address of the Paris ashram inhabited only by women nor the place of the initiation, was known by the women.
Flight tickets are given to the women in the last minute. Since it is strictly forbidden to speak about the initiation, women do not tell their family, friends or partners about the invitation or where they are going. Often going away for weeks and months at a time.
When they arrive in Paris, they are picked up by chauffeurs. They are disguised and blindfolded so that they cannot recall the locations of their stays later on.
“We arrived at the airport. Then some guy came to pick us up from there. He then took us into this house, a big house. On the way there, we had to keep on these opaque- I mean, these super darkened sunglasses through which you couldn’t see anything, and we had hats on as well. And we weren’t quite told why that was.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“.. A driver picked me up, made me wear a hat and sunglasses so I couldn’t be recognized”
Alina, Former MISA member
“We were told that that they were doing this so we couldn’t tell anybody where we’d been and therefore wouldn’t get into trouble”
Cristina, Former MISA member
“Yeah, so when we arrived at that house, taking away our passports and mobile phones was the first thing they did.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I was in an apartment where there were at least 15 of us, at most we got to more than 20, and we couldn’t get out of the house until we were taken out by the drivers who would again make us wear the hats and glasses”
Cristina, Former MISA member
05.
The House
Yoga school MISA owns several different estates in Paris.
While staying in Paris, dozens of young women from Romania and other European countries are taken to a house.
There, they are practically held as prisoners. Their belongings are thoroughly searched, their passports and mobile devices are confiscated. Contact with the outside world is forbidden, with the exception of one phone call to parents, once a week, under strict monitoring. If any terminology like “yoga” or “Paris” is mentioned, the call would be cut.
Staff under Bivolaru live in the house to monitor the women.
Gregorian Bivolaru, also known as Grieg, doesn’t usually live where the women live.
06.
Preparation
During their stay in the house, which could stretch from days to weeks, the women are subjected to intense manipulation and coercion tactics.
The women are instructed to stand while their photos and videos are taken, and take vows of secrecy on their health and spiritual evolution. They are told exactly when to sleep, down to the exact minute, and forced to watch porn and listen to recordings of Bivolaru having sex with other women.
Any attempt to speak out about concerns are considered “satanic”, and are publicly shamed. They have to sign declarations to accept punishments ranging from: shaving their heads, and recieving humiliating cavity searches.
While at the same time, they are frequently reassured that they are doing everything of their own free will and would never be forced to do anything.
Some women were told to pay for the flight and accommodation should they cancel the invitation.
“And some of the girls who got there, they weren’t very taken with the idea of sleeping with this man, I don’t blame them, I didn’t want to either, he’s old, he’s a bit on the disgusting side really, with the long slimy hair and the long nails…”
Roxana Former MISA member
“There is manipulation, you believe that things you are doing are good, you think sleeping with Bivolaru is good, you believe lying about sleeping or not sleeping with him, or about meeting him is good. Because you are being told that you do it to protect him, to protect yourself as ignorant people can’t understand the things that you experience.”
Cristina, Former MISA member
“And he lived in this one room apartment. – And it was very very warm, and I’m not sure, I’m thinking maybe 40 degrees Celsius, or something like that, it was impossibly hot. And I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and there was a strong scent of mint in the air.”
Roxana Former MISA member
“On the shelves, there were vibrators and erotic accessories and things like that. – When we arrived there, Grieg was having sex with some other woman, and we had to wait for them to be done. Then he let us inside.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
07.
Bivolaru’s Apartment
The women would be summoned to Bivolaru’s apartment any time during the day and night. They are taken to another apartment for the initiation.
Again, they would have to wear the dark glasses and be driven away by the same drivers.
Once they arrive, they are left waiting in the entrance hall along with the other girls.
08.
The Initiation
The women are offered drinks with unknown contents before going into the initiation. Some women have reported impaired states of clarity.
The initiation can last several hours. During which, the women are asked to go through different sexual positions, as well as anal sex and to drink his urine. He exercises total control during the initiation, and if the woman make any errors, he berates them and becomes very aggressive.
No condoms are used during the initiation.
There have been claims of women catching sexual disease after being in the initiation. Bivolaru has publicly rebuked these claims.
“That first of all, the way that Grieg touched me, it really hurt. Then, he got me to do things which I didn’t want to do at all, because you don’t say no to an authority figure like that. And in addition to that, I was somehow still thinking that I’m supposed to trust him and believe what he says, because he’s so wise and “godly”. – Well, Grieg asked me then, if I like to pleasure men orally. To which I replied, that I don’t enjoy it much at all. – Then, I was nearly choking during that, because he handled me in a very rough way. And at that point, I, like… the attempt ended then, because I couldn’t breathe. He didn’t realize I was choking, I had to sort of tear myself from his grip. – And then he told me off for being stubborn, stupid and a lazy slacker, because I wasn’t able to complete this initiation.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“Then, I was really broken up about the experience, I mean, what happened at Grieg’s, and didn’t feel like talking about it at all, not in the slightest. But I was forced to be in my underpants and tell about what happened, on tape. And I did talk, then, – like, when… if I got another chance, I’d try harder, harder and more. And wouldn’t, like, give up like that again…Then we were supposed to write a note… or rather, copy one… which said, among other things, that I have been here willingly, I have gotten gifts from Grieg and I haven’t been forced to do anything. – I still remember, when I was writing it, [I thought that] I certainly don’t agree with all this.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“And I was still crying when I left that place and I was feeling horrible, horrible, the driver didn’t really care that much or if he did he didn’t really say anything, and I got back to the apartment and the girls wanted me to share my experience.”
Roxana Former MISA member
09.
Testimonial
After the initiation, the women are driven back to the house.
Before they get to rest, they are forced to make a positive testimonial in front of a video recorder, naked, about the wonderful experience they have just undergone.
Negative testimonials are rejected and they are not let go until they have given a positive one.
10.
The Bubble Bursts
It usually takes some time for the women to digest their experience.
Many women choose to not break the vow and stay in the school. A few women choose to go to the police.
Gregorian Bivolaru and his supporters have remained completely silent about what goes on in Paris. In the Finnish case, the documentary team contacted Natha Finland’s representatives to offer them a chance to answer questions. The interview was never done, because their terms were not met.
To this day, Bivolaru is still luring women to Paris. He is still wanted by Finnish and Romanian authorities.
“And I tried to see him as my spiritual master and I couldn’t, and it kind of broke me in half.” – – – Mentally I was going through these horrible loops trying to see, trying to understand and trying to figure things out and I was going just down, I was getting worse and worse and depressed and panic attacks and…”
Roxana Former MISA member
“Well, actually after that trip, I went… I left to North for a couple of weeks, that’s where I’m from. And there I told one of my friends about this. I mean, like, I somehow had to tell what had happened. And my friend got me thinking about all this in a new way.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I had, about a year after that experience, a really bad psychological meltdown. Even then I couldn’t make the connection between my experiences, the breakdown and that… like, really severe depression which was triggered in me at that time.”
Reeta, Former Natha Finland Student
“I was lying down on my yoga mat during one point, and I felt entirely lost and broken and I didn’t know what to believe. – – – And I was just lying there on my back, and I said Enough. And when I said enough I just felt a wave of anger coming from deep within me, it was this horrible, horrible anger, I’d never felt anything like it in my life.”
Roxana Former MISA member
11.
Unresolved
In Finland, Reetta isn’t the only Finnish victim. At least twenty Finnish women have been taken to be initiated by Bivolaru. Some of them have been to Paris several times.
In addition to Finns, young women from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and, naturally, from Romania, have been transported for Bivolaru to abuse.
Official statement from Natha Finland says “Natha teaches classical tantra, eroticism as a spiritual path, or how to harness the creative energies of eroticism for your spiritual growth. Before everything, it emphasizes love as a necessary prerequisite for practicing tantra, and also as a certain goal to strengthen love.”
Inside the Misa/Natha/Tara/Atman tantra yoga sect
The experiences of Ashleigh Freckleton in Tara Yoga Centre London UK and Misa Costinesti Romania and Paris:
Three years before she was a contestant on The Bachelor, Ashleigh Freckleton survived a cult.
The following contains descriptions of sexual exploitation that may be distressing.
There was a period in 2018 when Ashleigh Freckleton felt split in two.
There was the lucid, rational Ashleigh who was alarmed by what was unfolding around her, who knew the yoga school she'd joined was something far more dangerous, manipulative, and abusive than it claimed. Then there was the Ashleigh who'd been coerced and brainwashed into justifying it all, into unpicking her suspicions, one by one.
Ashleigh, who many will recognise from the current season of The Bachelor Australia, joined the school while living in London. She was 25, alone in a new city, recovering from a relationship breakdown, and searching for a purpose.
A deeply spiritual person, raised in the Catholic faith, she was contemplating studying yoga in India when a well-meaning friend recommended a yoga school with branches across Europe.
"This friend was so charismatic, and he was the first person I'd spoken to about spirituality who wasn't afraid to use the word God, who wasn't afraid to talk about all different types of faith, and synchronicity, and fate and destiny and life path, and all these sorts of things. I was like, 'This is my calling. This is the first person I've ever met, that understands me,'" Ashleigh told Mamamia.
"Eventually, he said, 'Look, rather than going to India, come to Romania and live for a month amongst all the yogis. It's one of the only true schools that teaches real yoga with a real guide.'"
After taking classes online for several months, Ashleigh flew to Romania in August 2018.
Ashleigh said when she arrived at the camp, she was made to take vows on her own health and spiritual evolution that she wouldn't tell anyone what happens in the program. She said she was then told to strip naked, was photographed and interviewed about her devotion to Him — the school's guru.
Ashleigh said her body was "screaming" at her that the situation wasn't right, that she should leave. But she'd been admitted into the program for free, she didn't have a job or a flight out of there for another month, and she said she was being told that her discomfort with her nudity was rooted in superficiality and that she'd need to overcome that to progress.
"Even though my body's telling me this is wrong, I'm shaming myself thinking, 'It's your ego. You need to spiritually evolve. You've got to push through, keep going,'" she said.
While the yoga and meditation provided a much-needed salve to her anxiety, she said it soon became clear they were only part of the program. They were mixed in with teachings about tantra, Hinduism, and Buddhism. There was Freemasonry propaganda, conspiracy theories, and anti-vax messaging. She said she was made to watch hours of footage of the guru performing supposedly miraculous acts like moving a compass.
Ashleigh also described a range of exploitative practices, many of which were sexual in nature. Women were encouraged to be intimate with each other. There were viewings of mainstream pornography that were said to encourage sexual liberation. There was an activity that was billed as being empowering to women that was essentially just a striptease contest. Finally, the program culminated in an orgy involving urine play, as urine was said to be 'charged with spiritual energy'. Ashleigh refused to participate.
The characteristics of a cult.
Cults are broadly defined by the three characteristics: A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship; a process of coercive persuasion or thought reform (commonly referred to as 'brainwashing'); and economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members.
"There's that old adage that nobody joins a cult," Ashleigh said. "You don't join a cult; you join a yoga school, you attend a self-development seminar, you go to a wellness retreat, you join a political movement wanting to better the world," she said. "The people that join, they have very positive and good intentions, and they're exploited."
It's also important to note that intelligence is not among the factors identified in research about an individual's susceptibility to joining a cult. Instead, the commonly cited traits include those such as emotional vulnerability, lack of strong family support systems, situational stress and low socioeconomic status.
Ashleigh said the next, and final, step in her indoctrination was an initiation ritual in Paris.
She claims when she arrived at the train station she was put in a car, given a hat to pull low on her head, and a pair of sunglasses with tape on the inside to obscure her vision. After a roughly 40-minute drive out of the city, she arrived at a house with frosted windows where she said her phone, her laptop, cards and passport — any connection with the outside world — was taken and locked in a safe.
The ritual involved meeting the guru for the first time and, ultimately, sleeping with him. Ashleigh refused. She said she was given promises that if she proceeded she would receive his divine energy, that her demons would be exorcised, that her beauty would be enhanced, her breasts would grow and she would have more sexual charisma.
"They promised the whole world at your feet, if you go through with the initiation. And they say that if a woman gets the opportunity and she says no, then she is stubborn, stupid and superficial. She's completely lacking any aspiration for spiritual evolution, and she's destined for a life of suffering and negative karma," Ashleigh told Mamamia.
Ashleigh said she didn't know where she was, nor have any means to escape. And the warring sides of herself were louder than ever.
"I felt like I was losing touch with reality. It felt like [the guru's] claws were grabbing my brain and like pulling it out from underneath me. I had to write letters to myself in my diary and tell myself to stay lucid, because I was so afraid," she said.
"I was terrified of what brainwashed Ashleigh would do. I didn't trust that I would have the strength to say no to [the guru]. When you're sitting there in front of him, naked, how do you say no to someone of that level of authority, even though every part of your being is screaming at you that it's wrong?"
Ashleigh said that when she was made to watch a testimonial video of another woman who'd just completed the initiation, a naked woman who Ashleigh said was "clearly not OK", that's when the rational side of herself won.
After eight days, she managed to negotiate her way out of the initiation and was expelled from the program, condemned.
"When I got to a hotel, I just collapsed on the floor in my room. I was in France, no one knew that I was there. I had to lie to my family. And I didn't know what to do," she said. "That brainwashed part of me was still there. It took months after coming home to Australia to really understand what had happened."
Ashleigh was ultimately diagnosed with PTSD as a result of her experience. But she began a path to recovery with the help of a psychologist and the support of her family.
November 22, 2021
Must read book about spiritual relationships.
April 11, 2023
I was impressed by how much it helped me in my couple relationship!!! It can be studied in chapters by both lovers in the relationship. wow! I love this book!
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