How Media Stories Are Built Around Spiritual Movements – Part 4
In the previous articles of this series (read part 1, part 2 and part 3), we examined how Twisted Yoga constructs its story. We saw that the documentary relies on a series of narrative techniques that influence how viewers interpret what they see. Some of these techniques shape the story through how events are presented, while others shape it through what information is left out.
Taken together, these techniques form a clear pattern. The documentary does not simply report events. Instead, it builds a narrative framework that leads viewers toward a particular conclusion about the yoga school and its founder.
What emerges from this analysis is not only a criticism of one documentary. It also reveals a broader problem in the way many media productions portray unconventional spiritual communities.
A Pattern of Narrative Construction
Several techniques work together to produce the story told in Twisted Yoga.
The documentary begins with emotional priming, meaning that viewers are introduced to the subject through dramatic accusations and alarming statements before they have learned what the yoga school actually teaches. This creates an atmosphere of suspicion from the very beginning.
The story then follows what can be called a grooming narrative template. This is a storytelling structure in which people first encounter something that seems positive or inspiring, but later discover that it was supposedly part of a hidden system of manipulation. Earlier experiences are therefore reinterpreted in light of a later negative conclusion.
Within this structure, the documentary repeatedly uses negative reframing, a technique in which practices that participants themselves describe as meaningful spiritual exercises are presented instead as tools of psychological control.
Unfamiliar spiritual practices are also presented through deviance amplification, meaning that elements that may appear unusual to outsiders are highlighted in ways that make them seem shocking or disturbing.
A recurring technique in the documentary is pre-emptive rebuttal: possible counter-arguments are introduced through phrases like “they will say,” only to be immediately dismissed. Repeated in this way, it subtly teaches the viewer to see any response from the yoga school as mere deflection – framing alternative perspectives in advance as excuses, lies, or manipulations.
Finally, many accusations and testimonies are placed one after another through what can be called narrative accumulation, where the repetition of allegations creates the impression of overwhelming evidence even when individual claims remain disputed.
When combined, these techniques guide the viewer step by step toward a single interpretation of the story.
The Power of Omission
The narrative is also shaped by what the documentary does not show.
One example is context stripping, where fragments of teachings or practices are shown without the broader context that would help viewers understand them.
In line with this, spiritual teachings are often removed from the traditions in which they belong through cultural isolation, making ideas that exist in many spiritual paths appear unusual or suspicious.
Another is selective testimony, meaning that the documentary relies heavily on apostates, disgruntled former members who describe negative experiences while giving little space to the thousands of current participants who describe their involvement very differently.
Yet another important element in this narrative structure is knowledge filtering, in which existing scholarly research and academic debate about the movement and about theories of psychological manipulation are largely absent from the documentary. Despite the large source material of academic publications about the yoga movement and the complexity of the situation, none of such publications are taken into consideration.
(see inter alia the collected publication on https://atmanyogafederation.org/experts-about-atman/).
The legal history surrounding the yoga school is also simplified through legal simplification, where decades of complex legal proceedings—many of which ended in acquittals—are compressed into a simple narrative suggesting consistent guilt.
Events themselves are sometimes interpreted through event reframing, where situations that remain contested or unresolved are presented as if they confirm the documentary’s storyline.
Together, these omissions narrow the viewer’s field of vision until only one interpretation seems possible.
The Paradox of Manipulation
One of the most striking aspects of this pattern is the paradox it creates.
The documentary repeatedly accuses the yoga school of manipulating its members – of shaping how they think and perceive reality. In several occasions as well as in interviews of the director and producer of the documentary it is claimed, that it aims to expose such manipulations. Yet the storytelling techniques used in the documentary perform a very similar function as they declare to prevent.
Through emotional framing, selective evidence, and strategic omission, viewers are guided step by step toward a predetermined interpretation. Alternative explanations rarely appear, and voices that challenge the narrative are largely absent.
In other words, a documentary that claims to expose manipulation relies heavily on narrative techniques that manipulate the audience’s perception.
The irony is difficult to ignore. In its attempt to criticize what it presents as manipulation within the yoga school, the documentary constructs its own system of influence directed at viewers.
This paradox becomes even clearer when we consider the scale at which these different forms of influence operate. Within a spiritual community, teachings and practices are openly presented as part of a spiritual path that individuals are free to explore or not. In a documentary, however, the audience may not even be aware that their perception is being shaped through narrative techniques. Emotional framing, selective editing, and carefully chosen testimonies can guide viewers toward conclusions without their realizing how strongly the story has been constructed.
The result is a situation in which the audience may be influenced in ways that are both subtle and powerful, while believing they are simply watching an objective investigation. The irony is therefore striking: a documentary that warns viewers about manipulation ends up demonstrating how easily public perception itself can be shaped through selective storytelling.
The deeper paradox is that a production intended to warn viewers about manipulation ends up demonstrating how easily public perception itself can be manipulated.
A Broader Media Pattern
This dynamic is not unique to Twisted Yoga. Similar patterns have appeared in media portrayals of many unconventional spiritual communities over the past several decades.
New religious or spiritual movements are often presented through a familiar set of themes: manipulation, secrecy, exploitation, and psychological control. These themes appear so frequently that they have almost become a standard template for mass-media stories about such groups.
Several well-known documentaries follow this pattern. Series such as Wild Wild Country about the Rajneesh movement or The Vow about the NXIVM organization begin with scenes of idealism and spiritual searching and then move toward dramatic revelations of manipulation or abuse. Disgruntled former members who describe negative experiences are given a central role, while voices from those who remain involved are often treated with skepticism or left out entirely.
A similar approach can be seen in earlier media productions about the yoga school associated with Gregorian Bivolaru. In Britain, BBC’s podcast series The Bad Guru produced investigative episodes that relied heavily on testimonies from former members and interpreted the community mainly through the lens of manipulation and exploitation. Similar podcast series or documentaries have been made in Finland (The Dark Side of Tantra), Denmark (The Road to Paradise), Sweden (The Yoga Sect) and Portugal (The Secrets of the Yoga Sect). They all constructed a comparable narrative, presenting spiritual teachings and practices largely as elements of psychological control.
In many such productions, unusual beliefs or practices are also highlighted in ways that emphasize their strangeness, often without explaining their cultural or spiritual context. As a result, communities that include thousands of ordinary practitioners can be reduced to a few dramatic stories told by anti-cultist critics or apostates.
Over time, this has created a recurring media narrative. Each new podcast and documentary in this field reinforces the expectations created by earlier ones. Journalists may begin their investigations already knowing what kind of story audiences expect to hear.
In this sense, the productions mentioned above instead of being isolated investigations, they can be identified as examples of a broader media genre: the story of the dangerous spiritual movement that must be exposed to the public.
Professor of Sociology Massimo Introvigne points out:
Media in general have a bias against groups labeled as ‘cults’ and rely heavily on ‘apostates,’ a technical word used by sociologists that is not synonym of ‘ex-member’ but identifies the small minority of ex-members who become militant opponents of the groups they have left (most ex-members don’t). Television knows that illicit sex always titillates and sells, and this is even more true for the combination between religion and illicit sex – even if they are only accusations.
One possible interpretation of this recurring pattern is that it reflects a deeper cultural conflict – a kind of quiet war against spirituality itself. Many of these emerging movements encourage people to integrate spiritual practice into everyday life rather than treating religion as a private or occasional activity within an otherwise secular existence. For critics shaped by strongly secular assumptions, this more pervasive form of spirituality can easily appear suspicious or threatening.
Diplomat, scholar and human rights activist Rosita Šorytė published a study that takes this perspective a step further and “examines six national situations – United States, China, Russia, France, Japan, and Argentina – and the different interests inspiring the local anti-cult campaigns.” It shows “that international TV networks that have allied themselves with the anti-cult movements, [government] agencies interested in expanding their activity to ‘cults,’ and private individual and corporate donors” are part of larger international anti-cult campaigns that “are supported by the lobbying efforts of diverse social actors.” (Rosita Šorytė The Opposition to “Cults” in Various Countries and Its International Coordination, The Journal of CESNUR, Volume 8, Issue 6, November—December 2024, pages 38—48)
The Silence of the Participants
One consequence of this media environment is that many participants in spiritual communities become increasingly reluctant to speak to journalists.
From their perspective, the risks are obvious. Statements may be truncated, edited, or quoted outside their original context. Explanations may be placed next to images or commentary that change their meaning entirely.
Even sincere attempts to explain personal experiences can later be presented as evidence that the speaker has been manipulated.
For this reason, many members of the yoga community prefer not to give interviews at all. They believe that whatever they say may simply be incorporated into a narrative that has already been decided.
This creates a strange situation in which the media’s own methods contribute to the silence they later interpret as secrecy.
This reluctance to speak with journalists is not unique to this particular community. Researchers who study new religious movements have often observed similar patterns. Scholars such as Eileen Barker, James T. Richardson, and others have noted that members of controversial spiritual groups frequently avoid media contact because earlier interviews were experienced as misleading or hostile.
In several studies, participants reported that their statements had been shortened, removed from their context, or placed next to commentary that changed their meaning. As a result, members often conclude that engaging with journalists is unlikely to lead to fair representation.
Over time this creates a self-reinforcing cycle: communities become increasingly silent in public discussions, while journalists and audiences may interpret that silence as evidence that something must be hidden – or even as a tacit admission of guilt. In this way, silence produced by mistrust of the media can easily be mistaken for confirmation of the narrative the media has already constructed.
The Cost of Simplified Narratives
The problem with this style of storytelling is not only that it may be unfair to a particular community. It also makes genuine understanding extremely difficult.
Spiritual traditions are often complex and sometimes controversial. They deserve careful examination and open debate. But meaningful discussion becomes almost impossible when narratives are built primarily through emotional framing and selective evidence. Instead of exploring complexity, the story is reduced to a single interpretive framework.
Even when concrete events are described, they are often presented without examining how the participants themselves understood those situations. Actions are shown and judged, but the internal logic that guided the people involved is rarely explored. Without that perspective, viewers encounter behavior that may appear irrational or sinister, even though those involved may have experienced it within a very different framework of meaning.
In this way, viewers are not invited to explore a complicated reality. They are encouraged to adopt a ready-made conclusion about what the events must mean.
For the communities involved, the consequences of such portrayals can be significant. Members may find themselves publicly described as victims, manipulators, or followers of a dangerous organization, even when their own experience of the community is very different. Individuals who simply practice yoga, meditation, or other spiritual disciplines can suddenly discover that their personal beliefs and choices are portrayed in the media as signs of psychological control.
For people who have built an important part of their lives around these spiritual practices, this can be deeply unsettling. Many practitioners experience their involvement not as something imposed on them but as a conscious path that has given their lives meaning, structure, and direction. When media narratives dismiss these experiences as illusions or symptoms of manipulation, they do more than criticize an organization – they call into question the personal convictions and spiritual journeys of thousands of people.
Such portrayals can also contribute to social stigma. Members may hesitate to speak openly about their spiritual commitments at work, among friends, or within their families, knowing that the public image of their community has been shaped by dramatic and often negative media narratives.
In the case of the yoga school discussed in this series, many practitioners report that this has indeed happened to a significant extent. Individuals have experienced misunderstanding, suspicion, social distancing, online harassment and sometimes even hate-crimes simply because they are associated with a spiritual path that has been repeatedly portrayed in negative ways. In this way, simplified stories told in documentaries or podcasts can have lasting consequences for the everyday lives of the people involved.
The producers of the TV and radio shows or podcasts claim that they give voice to victims of sexual abuse by religious leaders. This is legitimate and also important if the victims are real. However, it is a very different story if the claims are subject of an ongoing court case, especially if in the broad spectrum of mass-media publications only one side – the accusing side – of the case is given a voice. Then the shows in reality do not anymore follow the presumption of innocence (even if they formally use legal disclaimers about this), actually they promote a presumption of guilt.
This constitutes a serious violation of the principle of media neutrality, especially if it comes from established networks with a great range of distribution, such as Apple TV, BBC or the national radio stations in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Portugal. Such networks have a responsibility towards society of unbiased and fair reportage especially of controversial topics as movements that integrate in their teachings practices of sacred eroticism.
Additionally, if the shows stereotype and generalize, further pain is inflicted on those who want to remain in the religious movements and are personally not guilty nor accused of any crime.
Introvigne points out that these are not theoretical risks. There are “hundreds of cases of discrimination at schools and on the workplace of members of groups TV series and media have stigmatized as ‘cults.’” (Massimo Introvigne, Is Netflix a Threat to Religious Liberty?)
Toward a More Honest Conversation
A more honest conversation about spiritual communities would require a different approach.
It would mean listening to a wider range of voices, including those of participants who remain actively involved in the practices. It would also mean presenting teachings within their broader cultural and historical context rather than isolating them as strange or suspicious phenomena. And it would require acknowledging the existing body of scholarly research on new religious movements, instead of filtering out the academic debates that complicate simple narratives of manipulation. Furthermore, it would mean acknowledging the complexity of legal and social controversies instead of reducing them to simple stories of guilt or innocence.
Such an approach might produce less dramatic storytelling. But it would come much closer to the real goal of journalism: helping the public understand a complicated world.
Many people within the yoga community hope that such journalism will eventually appear. They hope that some journalists will be willing to approach the subject with genuine curiosity and investigative spirit, to look beyond established narratives, and to question the ways in which earlier media portrayals have framed the story. This would require a certain degree of courage, since it means not only investigating the community itself but also examining how the media has reported on it.
Until that happens, documentaries like Twisted Yoga risk becoming less a search for truth than another chapter in a long-running cultural conflict between mainstream media institutions and unconventional spiritual paths. And in that conflict, the techniques used to accuse others of manipulation can themselves become powerful interventional tools of shaping how audiences perceive reality.