When reading news articles or listening to television and radio coverage concerning MISA or Gregorian Bivolaru, one quickly notices that journalists frequently use the term cult to describe MISA. This label is often intensified with expressions such as “sex cult” or “yoga cult.”
Such terminology is highly questionable, especially in light of the legally acknowledged opinion of Swedish scholar Karl-Erik Nylund, who conducted a personal investigation in 2005 and concluded that MISA is not a sect.
Despite this, journalists often fail to mention this important finding. Whether due to insufficient research or deliberate omission, the result is the same: MISA continues to be labelled as a sect. Through constant repetition and the strong influence of the media on public perception, these labels become deeply associated with MISA in the consciousness of audiences. This shapes public impressions and often determines attitudes toward members of this spiritual group.
This reflects not only bias and a lack of first-hand knowledge, but also a serious breach of journalistic ethics, particularly the principle of avoiding discrimination against groups based on religious or spiritual beliefs.
Here is a relevant quote from Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers:
The misuse of these derogatory labels, used without restraint by anti-cultists, has caused a lot of damage to these religious minorities and their members in their personal and professional lives. However, media outlets also have their share of responsibility in the stigmatization, hostility, intolerance, and damage caused to individuals when out of sensationalism they publish, without investigating and checking, biased and false accusations of the anti-cultists, and spread their fake news and sometimes quite gross lies. They thus create a climate of suspicion and hostility leading sometimes to hate crimes and deadly acts of violence, even in Europe.
Strategies Used to Portray MISA as a Cult
1. Select Only Convenient Sources, Ignore The Others
Journalists often ignore sources that challenge the “cult” narrative. For example, the conclusions that Karl-Erik Nylund reached in 2002 after a thorough investigation are largely overlooked. Also, current MISA members and scholars who may offer balanced or supportive perspectives—such as Gabriel Andreescu, Massimo Introvigne, or Susan J. Palmer—are rarely given a voice.
Instead, media reports frequently rely on sources who already describe MISA as a sect. These may include self-declared anti-cult activists without relevant academic credentials, such as Hugues Gascan or Antonio Madaleno.
Another commonly used source is former members who have become hostile critics. Such former members, commonly knows as apostates, may have strong personal motives and little incentive to remain objective.
2. Make Up Sensational Claims That Sound Scary
Some reports repeat dramatic allegations or extreme claims without checking their factual basis. For instance, certain former members claim that people living in MISA ashrams are forbidden from watching television or reading the news, that members are encouraged to monitor one another, or that “the guru” sees everything, decides and controls everything, even from a distance. These claims create an atmosphere of control and limited personal freedom, yet journalists do not care about visiting an ashram or interviewing residents directly.
Another form of disinformation presented without evidence are the allegations that monogamy is forbidden in MISA, or that tantra participants are pressured into open relationships. Such reporting promotes an image of fanaticism rather than pursuing objective truth.
The journalists insist on fabricating an image of fanatic, indoctrinated students who revere Gregorian Bivolaru as their ”guru”. Still, MISA has repeatedly stated a fact that could be easily checked: not all students regard Bivolaru as their spiritual guide, and that doing so is a matter of personal choice rather than a condition for attending yoga classes.
3. Select Little Understood Elements of Tantric Practices, Without The Adequate Context
Certain tantric or yogic practices—such as sublimation of energies, brahmacharya (control of procreative potential), amaroli (urinotherapy), baptism, or receiving a spiritual name—are often described as shocking or deviant. However, many of these practices also exist in broader spiritual traditions such as yoga, Ayurveda, and Taoism. By presenting them without context, journalists portray them as inherently sectarian or abnormal.
Although such reports are sometimes marketed as investigative journalism, the framing often suggests that the journalists started from predetermined conclusions and that the finality of the story was decided long before interviews even began.
4. Make the audience afraid of MISA members
Some reports go beyond simply labelling MISA students as cult members and actively encourage fear. Journalists often imply that, although Gregorian Bivolaru is now in prison, dangerous or secretive activities may still be taking place within the schools—despite offering not a single piece of evidence sustaining such claims.
Former members are also presented as “whistleblowers” who claim to fear retaliation from MISA students, sometimes hinting at threats or possible violence.
So far there has not been a single account of such action. There is no known record of MISA members committing violent acts against apostate ex-members who spoke against MISA or Gregorian Bivolaru. Nonetheless, media narratives continue to suggest the existence of an underground, organized group capable of punishing those who oppose it.
5. Disqualify and Discredit Current Members as Indoctrinated
Through the narrative strategy, current MISA students and members of schools affiliated with the Atman Federation are often portrayed as manipulated individuals who have lost independent judgment. When active members defend MISA or Gregorian Bivolaru, their statements are frequently dismissed as proof of indoctrination. In this way, their credibility is undermined in advance, and their perspectives are excluded from meaningful public consideration.
As a result, MISA members are denied the opportunity to respond effectively to misinformation circulating in the media and the audience has no chance to judge by themselves the relevance of their voices.
As a conclusion, it is easily noticeable that many journalists, rather than presenting facts impartially or seeking truth, deliver a pre-constructed narrative: that MISA is a sect, Gregorian Bivolaru is an all-controlling guru, and the yoga schools represent a social danger as long as they function.
By proceeding in this manner, they misuse the power of the press and violate fundamental principles of journalistic ethics. In the case of MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru, the media’s influence is used not to inform the public fairly, but to stigmatize a spiritual movement, its founder, and all its active members.