Sensationalized Media Representations of Sacred Esotericism Groups
By Rosita Šorytė
European Federation for Freedom of Belief
ABSTRACT: Since the 19th century, there has been a public eager to read exposés of unpopular religious or esoteric minorities claiming they were engaged in illicit sex. Roman Catholics, Mormons, and Freemasons were among those targeted. This trend continues in contemporary media. It would seem that in sacred eroticism groups, which do not hide that they teach erotic rituals, there is less room for new and sensational revelations by the media. Nonetheless, based on the accounts of hostile ex-members (“apostates”), the media have produced accounts claiming that sacred eroticism is just a pretext for sexualabuse. While abuses are possible, the media treatment of these groups is biased and unilateral. The article examines cases where two sacred eroticism groups (whose leaders were jailed) were targeted, the Guru Jára Path and the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA).
Read more here
Sacred Eroticism and Sexual Abuse: Social and Legal Issues
By Massimo Introvigne
CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions)
ABSTRACT: Based on the author’s experience as an expert witness in court cases and previous research, the article discusses the problems of studying and giving opinions on incidents where individuals or movements are accused of sex abuse within a ritualized context. Some accusations refer to imaginary or hypothetical abuses. In the case of spiritual movements teaching and practicing sacred eroticism, some ex-members reconstruct their experiences, often ex post facto, as abuses. Their voices should not be ignored. However, the view that no reasonable person would accept to participate in erotic rituals or submit to erotic initiations by a spiritual master unless she has been “brainwashed” derives from a general bias against new religious movements and misunderstandings about sacred eroticism.
Read more here
BELGIUM – UK: The role of the media in the stigmatization of religious minorities
Article by Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (08.08.2025) – On August 1-3, 2025, the HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership (HJI) convened its 3rd International Conference in New York on the theme of “The Root Causes of Contemporary Threats to Freedom of Religion.”
On that occasion, HRWF presented a paper titled “The role of the media in the stigmatization of and hostility against some religious or belief minorities.”
Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the individual right to freedom of religion or belief, to practice it either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest one’s religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
The wording is very similar to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and so are other international instruments protecting freedom of religion or belief.
FRANCE: The situation is back in flux at MIVILUDES, its head has packed his bags…
The political and administrative management of MIVILUDES is a real tangle of hurdles, another example of French ‘mille-feuille’
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
On 30 June, Donatien Le Vaillant, the head of the MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combating Cultic Abuses) since 31 January 2023 “left” his duties, according to an official statement. This Deputy Inspector General of Justice officially “wanted” to return to his senior position at the General Inspectorate of Administration. However, according to the French weekly Marianne, his departure was not voluntary but rather an ouster, following a disagreement between Donatien Le Vaillant and his superiors over the development of the structure he headed. It could be a resignation.
At the end of May 2025, the Minister of the Interior (Bruno Retailleau), with the agreement of the Prime Minister (currently François Bayrou) and the President of the French Republic (Emmanuel Macron), asked Étienne Apaire, President of MIVILUDES, to merge MIVILUDES with another state agency—the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR)—and reduce its status to one of its departments. This did not please the head of the MIVILUDES, Donatien Le Vaillant, who preferred to return to his original position. The status of the MVILUDES within the architecture of state institutions and of supervisory political authorities has, since its creation by a decree of President Jacques Chirac on 28 November 2002, been the subject of diverse ambitions. To understand its full scope, it is necessary to briefly review some basic factual information.
Synthesis of the Human Rights Conference Limits of Restrictions: Religious Minorities in Europe and Asia – Law School, University of Exeter – 30 April 2025
The interdisciplinary conference organized by Exeter Law School, Dr. Vadim Atnash, MEJORA Foundation, and the Human Rights & Democracy Forum brought together scholars, religious leaders, and NGOs to discuss major challenges in religious freedom.
They examined government restrictions and discrimination, highlighting troubling examples: Norway deregisters peaceful religious organizations, and France finances anti-religious movements. Despite being in the 21st century, many governments still prosecute nonviolent religious activities of both traditional and non-traditional religious groups. Additionally, some countries enforce laws that prohibit atheism or restrict religious conversion, further limiting freedom of belief.
Social hostilities also remain a serious concern, particularly in Asia and Europe, where religious minorities often face violence and harassment. This ranges from armed conflicts and violent extremism to discrimination over religious attire, severely impacting targeted communities.
The conference also emphasized best practices such as policies promoting integration, equality, judicial protections, and interdisciplinary research to counteract state violence and social hostilities, fostering tolerance and respect for religious rights.
Who Is Afraid of Sacred Eroticism?
From the recent conference in the Human Rights Conference Limits of Restrictions: Religious Minorities in Europe and Asia – Law School, University of Exeter – 30 April 2025 Camelia Marin presented the following:
I choose to present an emic view of the freedom of religion and belief problems encountered by members of schools that include, among their teachings, sacred eroticism. Not only do I have a long career as a religious liberty activist through the organization Soteria International, which relentlessly advocates for the rights of many different groups, but I am also a yoga practitioner in one of the different schools that follow the teachings of MISA, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute. This group has encountered several legal problems, as have other movements that include in their teachings sacred eroticism.
I start with a quote from the book Sacred Eroticism, which Massimo Introvigne devoted to MISA in 2022: “The spiritual teachers who proclaimed the virtues of sacred eroticism rarely became popular with the media, police, and prosecutors.”
But who practices “sacred eroticism”? And what is the context of these practices?
Scholars typically include the schools of yoga that practice sacred eroticism under the label “new religious movements.” However, these yoga schools do not regard themselves as “religions,” although they include elements from various religious traditions assembled through a sort of syncretism. Their members come from different faiths, and some are agnostics. Based on my experience and the observation of other similar schools, they are united by standard practices and by “community rules,” such as non-violence, abstention from recreational drugs and alcohol, and helping each other. Perhaps “communities of belief” or “communities of conscience” are better labels than “new religious movements.”
Review of the methods and legislative impact of the MIVILUDES
by Human Rights NGO from Denmark – Soteria International 30.10.2024
The secular milieu in France has a long tradition of being opposed to religious minorities and choosing a more restrictive and penal approach than most other European countries. In April 2024, France passed an amended anti-cult law after months of debate. The law’s name refers to “reinforcing the fight against cultic deviances” and introduces a new crime of “psychological subjection”. It is based on arbitrary and undefined terms. Scholars criticise it for infringing on freedom of speech as it restricts the possibility of criticising mainline medical treatments and seriously endangers freedom of religion or belief.1 In several ways, the law also gave a new and reinforced status to the French governmental anti-cult organisation MIVILUDES, Mission Interministérielle de Vigilance et de Lutte contre les Dérives Sectaires (Eng: Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances).
Mihai and Adina Stoian: A Humanitarian Appeal
Pending a final decision on their extradition to France, the two yoga teachers detained in Georgia should be released on bail for health reasons.
The undersigned scholars of religion and religious liberty activists appeal to the Georgian authorities to grant bail and house detention to Mihai and Adina Stoian, Romanian yoga teachers detained in Georgia in inhumane conditions, pending a final decision on their extradition to France.
On August 22, 2024, Mihai and Adina Stoian, who teach at Natha Yoga Center in Denmark courses following the principles of MISA, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute, were arrested on the basis of French arrest warrants when they entered Georgia, as part of a tourist trip, through the border with Türkiye at Sarpi. They are accused of complicity in “crimes allegedly committed by MISA leader Gregorian Bivolaru in France.
Who is Mihai Stoian, the Romanian yoga teacher arrested in Georgia and wanted by French justice?
The well known Beligium sociologist and human rights expert, Mr. Willy Fautre, has written and published two articles in The European Times that is related to ongoing the arrest and detaining of Mihai and Adina Stoian. Willy Frautre has safeguarded the human rights abuses towards yoga practitioners in MISA since the last decade.
Willy Frautre writes:
On 20 and 26 December 2024, the City Court of Tbilisi held hearings to decide whether Georgia should extradite Mihai Stoian and his wife Adina arrested in August 2024 on the Turkish-Georgian border on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant issued on France’s request.
A few days after mid-December, I happened to be in Tbilisi for The European Times to cover the unstable political situation and the demonstrations in the country following the contested results of the parliamentary elections and the subsequent election of a new contested pro-Kremlin president by the new parliament. On this occasion, I published two articles titled “GEORGIA: Election of an ex-footballer as the new president booed by demonstrators” and “GEORGIA: Police violence in Tbilisi while President Zurabishvili calls for quick EU actions”. I also used the opportunity of being in Tbilisi to meet state and non-state actors as well as lawyers involved in the case of the Stoians and to collect some unpublished information about the couple. A member of their family was also in Tbilisi.
At the end of the second hearing taking place after my departure from Georgia, the court found that a third hearing was necessary to try to solve a crucial issue: the interpretation of the debates and the translation of printed or written court documents in Romanian, as strongly required by Mihai, his wife and their lawyers instead of the English language imposed until then by the judicial authorities.
Who is Adina Stoian, the female yoga teacher arrested in Georgia and wanted by French justice?
By Willy Fautre
Published in The European Times
On 20 and 26 December 2024, Tbilisi City Court held hearings to decide whether Georgia should extradite Adina Stoian and her husband Mihai arrested in August 2024 on the Turkish-Georgian border on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant issued on France’s request.
A few days after mid-December, I happened to be in Tbilisi for The European Times to cover the unstable political situation and the demonstrations in the country following the contested results of the parliamentary elections and the subsequent election of a new contested pro-Kremlin president by the new parliament. On this occasion, I published two articles titled “GEORGIA: Election of an ex-footballer as the new president booed by demonstrators” and “GEORGIA: Police violence in Tbilisi while President Zurabishvili calls for quick EU actions”. I also used the opportunity of being in Tbilisi to meet state and non-state actors as well as lawyers involved in the case of the Stoians and to collect some unpublished information about the couple. A member of their family was also in Tbilisi.
At the end of the second hearing taking place after my departure from Georgia, the court found that a third hearing was necessary to try to solve a crucial issue: the interpretation of the debates and the translation of printed or written court documents in Romanian, as strongly required by Adina and Mihai Stoian and their lawyers instead of the English language imposed until then by the judicial authorities.
The Opposition to “Cults” in Various Countries and Its International Coordination
Published in the Journal of CESNUR
By Rosita Šorytė.
ABSTRACT: Opposition to groups stigmatized as “cults” has (re-)emerged in recent years as a significant social force in countries as diverse as China and Argentina. The article examines six national situations—United States, China, Russia, France, Japan, and Argentina—and the different interests inspiring the local anti-cult campaigns. In its second part, the article argues that, while remaining different, anti-cult campaigns also have common elements and are supported by the lobbying efforts of diverse social actors such as the umbrella anti-cult federation FECRIS, the research consortium Invictus, the international diplomatic action of France, Russia, and China, international TV networks that have allied themselves with the anti-cult movements (primarily Netflix), anti-trafficking agencies interested in expanding their activity to “cults,” and private individual and corporate donors. While there is not a single “hidden hand” coordinating the anti-cult activities throughout the world, the role of these coordinating agencies should not be under-estimated. KEYWORDS: Anti-Cultism, Anti-Cult Movement, FECRIS, Invictus, MIVILUDES, Brainwashing.
Police raids on Romanian yoga centers in France, one year later
Many yoga practitioners have filed complaints concerning the conditions of their custody
By Willy Fautre.
Source: Europeantimes.news
Full article here.
On 28 November, it will be one year since a SWAT team of around 175 policemen wearing black masks, helmets, and bullet proof vests, simultaneously descended at 6 am on eight separate houses and apartments in and around Paris but also in Nice where Romanian yoga practitioners had decided to go into spiritual retreat. The police forces were then brandishing semi-automatic rifles, shouting, making very loud noises, crashing doors and putting everything upside down.
The November 2023 raids were not an operation against a terrorist or armed group or a drug cartel. They were raids targeting eight private places mainly used by peaceful Romanian yoga practitioners, but the police suspected these places to be used for illegal activities: traffic in human beings, sexual exploitation and forcible confinement.
MISA: A Call to the Georgian Authorities for the Release of Mihai and Adina Stoian
Eleven scholars and human right activists ask Georgia to resist the long arm of French anti-cult repression and free the two MISA leaders.
Mihai and Adina Stoian in happier times.
We, the undersigned, respectfully ask the authorities of Georgia,
(a) to free on bail as soon as possible Mihai and Adina Stoian arrested in Georgia on August 22, 2024;
(b) to refuse their extradition to France, based on the fact that their alleged “complicity in rape” would have been performed by “mental manipulation” and “abuse of weakness” of women they allegedly persuaded to embrace the beliefs of the Romanian yoga group MISA anchored in foreign philosophies and have private meetings with MISA’s founder;
considering
- that “mental manipulation” and “abuse of weakness” are imaginary crimes and are therefore not part of international law
- that they are defined as crimes in France but not in most other democratic countries
- that the Stoians’ case is a by-product of the prosecution of MISA’s founder Gregorian Bivolaru, who is currently in jail in France with several co-workers.
We are scholars in religious studies and new religious movements and human rights defenders with different levels of knowledge of MISA. Some of us personally know the Stoians and appreciate inter alia Mihai Stoian’s work through the NGO Soteria International in favor of freedom of religion or belief for all.
The Long Arm of France: Why MISA’s Mihai and Adina Stoian Have Been Arrested in Georgia
The two leaders of the movement founded by Gregorian Bivolaru are threatened with “life imprisonment” for the pseudo-crime of “psychological subjugation.”
By Massimo Introvigne
Source here.
Georgian media coverage of the arrest of the Stoians. Screenshot.
On August 22, 2024, Mihai and Adina Stoian, well-known yoga teachers of MISA, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute, were arrested when they entered in Georgia, as part of a tourist trip, through the border with Türkiye at Sarpi. Georgian media, obviously fed by the police and anti-cultists, reported that the Stoians are wanted in France and have also been prosecuted “in Finland and Romania for child prostitution and rape.” The latter information is false. As far as they know, the Stoians are not under any prosecution in Finland or Romania. Only when they were arrested in Georgia, they were notified of an international arrest warrant from the Court of Paris, France. Of what exactly are they accused?
The Journal of CESNUR
Vol 8, issue 5 sept-oct 2024
Contents:
Articles
- Soka Gakkai’s Interpretation of the Principle “Three Thousand Realms in a Single Moment of Life” and Ikeda’s Climate Action. By Massimo Introvigne
- Ecoselves as Part of Ecosystems: What Can Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy and Practice Contribute to a Cultural Transformation Regarding Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Climate Change? By Olivia Fuchs
- The Treasure Tower: The Peace Proposal 2020, Daisaku Ikeda’s “Last Word” on Climate Action. By Rosita Šorytė
Research Notes
- Sacred Eroticism or Sexual Magic? Liselotte Frisk’s Research on MISA by Massimo Introvigne
- The Nylund Report of 2005 and the Frisk Study of 2019: Parallels and Differences. By Rosita Šorytė
- Liselotte Frisk and MISA: An Emic View of a Yoga School and Its Perils. By Camelia Marin
Read here
Yoga: Disproportionate widescale police raids with abuses starting from a personal settlement of scores
Article published on Eureporter.co
The questions raised by this article are:
- What is the origin of such a disproportionate police operation targeting yoga practitioners?
- Which groups are behind these allegations?
Learn more about the French governmental anti-cult agency MIVILUDES.
Read the full article here
More articles on the topic:
https://europeantimes.news/2024/09/france-yoga-disproportionate-raids-abuses-settlement-scores/
A new publication in English - New Journal of Human Rights edited by renowned Romanian political scientist and human rights activist Professor Gabriel Andreescu:
Repression of groups that promote “sacred eroticism”. A collective exercise in cruelty, contempt and hypocrisy
"The brutal and discriminatory treatment of groups that practice sacred eroticism (the category established by Massimo Introvigne) are behaviours reminiscent of the shameful stains on the history of European democracies: sending people to psychiatric institutions because they ”adhere to ideas differing from those which are usually shared by social consensus”, or sending women who had given birth to children out of wedlock to educational centres. The states responsible for these acts (Italy, Ireland) have many years ago repudiated these cruel measures. It would be appropriate for the French authorities, together with the public opinion in the country of Voltaire, to rethink the repressive policy against adults who make a free and voluntary choice of their conscience and therefore follow precepts of their own will". - Quote from the editorial
France, the Anti-Cult Association UNADFI Loses a Case Against CAP-LC
Anti-cultists believed that by reproducing an article by “Charlie Hebdo” they could refuse to correct their defamatory statements, as “Charlie Hebdo” had not been sued. They were wrong.
by Massimo Introvigne
Thierry Valle, President of CAP-LC.
Not for the first time, France’s largest anti-cult organization UNADFI (Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l’individu), which is largely financed by the government, i.e., by French taxpayers, was caught red-handed publishing defamatory statements, then refusing to correct them.
On December 2, 2024, the Justice Court of Marseille ordered UNADFI to publish on its website an answer by the UN ECOSOC-accredited CAP-LC (Coordination of associations and individuals for freedom of conscience) to an article the anti-cult group had reproduced on February 12, 2014, from the French magazine “Charlie Hebdo.” During the discussion in the French Parliament of the new anti-cult statute, noting the opposition to the law of the majority of the French senators, “Charlie-Hebdo” had attributed it to the campaign of criticism of CAP-LC, which it accused of being a front for the Church of Scientology and other “cults.” CAP-LC asked the UNADFI to publish its answer to the article, but the anti-cult association refused, which led to the lawsuit.
FRANCE: When state-funded anti-cult groups think they are above the law (EN/ FR)
State grants funded with taxpayers’ money said to be misused by anti-cult groups stigmatizing and inciting hostility against some religious or belief groups and their members
Source: HRWF - Human Rights Without Frontiers
In the framework of its 2023 Call for Projects, MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Combat against Cultic Deviances) generously allocated a state subsidy of 150,000 EUR to CAFFES (Family Support Center Facing Cultic Control). This represents a considerable, if not completely disproportionate, grant for a small association with 90% of its annual budget funded with public money.
If the size of the allocated amount does not constitute an irregularity in itself, the appropriateness of such state generosity raises serious questions and suspicions as every year state funding keeps artificially alive an association that would close its doors without it.
2024 WARSAW HUMAN DIMENSION CONFERENCE
France Institutional torture
Soruce: OSCE
Warsaw, 30 September to 11 October 2024
Institutional torture can take many forms, and one particularly insidious manifestation is when control and ideology take precedence over human dignity[i]. The case of the French police’s treatment of Romanian yoga practitioners is a stark example of this.
https://freedomofconscience.eu/2024-warsaw-human-dimension-conference-france-institutional-torture/
A report submitted by Human Rights Without Frontiers to this Conference details how the French police, driven by an ideological distortion regarding spiritual minorities, conducted a disproportionate and violent raid on the homes of these Yoga practitioners. The practitioners were then subjected to inhumane detention conditions, biased interrogations, and a complete disregard for their rights and due process. This was not physical torture, but a systemic, institutional abuse conveyed through inappropriate decisions and repeated, applied actions.
