Episode 1

 

ARD – Seelenfänger (Soul Catcher – Hunter of Souls)

Podcast – Toxic Tantra

24.04.2024
1. Yoga for beginners
https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/seelenfaenger/toxic-tantra-yoga-fuer-anfaenger-1/bayern-2/13338453/

You can find all episodes of this podcast in the ARD audio library and wherever podcasts are available.
Filmmakers - Katja Paysen-Petersen (narration) and Christiane Hawranek.

Translated with Google.

Filmmaker: Romania, Black Sea coast, late summer 2021. Nathalie remembers clearly.
She piles into the back seat of a silver van. She's cramped in here because there are five other women in the car with her. They're all young in their twenties, they're all pretty and bubbly.
Nathalie: The fact that there were other girls traveling with me, so there was a bit of a group dynamic, I think that helped me not to completely panic.
Filmmaker: I'm on my way to Paris or somewhere nearby, Nathalie doesn't know exactly. She only knows that they will go to him, where he stands: Grieg, her spiritual teacher, her guru.
Nathalie: I think it was two days in the car, no break, so not a hotel or anything, but two days in the car with six girls.
Filmmaker: I cross the border into France and then, just before Paris, the car slows down, turns into a supermarket parking lot and stops. Everyone gets out. Nathalie lies down, breathes in the fresh air, looks at the midday sun and the bustle around her, the people pushing shopping carts in front of them.
Nathalie: There were other cars, there were other people, so we weren't hidden somewhere in a super shady corner, but right in the center.
Filmmaker: But it all gets really dubious in a few moments. Because now a man is coming straight to Nathalie's group. He is about 40 years old, speaks Romanian and motions for them to get into his car. Changing the vehicle. What follows, Nathalie has only seen on TV, in crime movies.
The Romanian hands the women in the car wide-brimmed fisherman's hats.
Nathalie: When they put these glasses on us, with the hats and the other things, it was very difficult. It was the first time I really thought "wow, I'm really scared now!" Filmmaker: When they all put on their hats, they also got sunglasses. Nathalie puts them on, then everything around her goes black, because the glasses have foil stuck to the inside. Women must not be recognized and must not be able to see where they are being taken.
Nathalie: It was really traffic, like you see in the movies. That was really, really bad, because then I had the feeling that now everything is getting really surreal.
Producer: The journey continues to Paris. Or maybe on the outskirts? Nathalie doesn't know. She can't see anything behind her glued-on glasses (with opaque film). But what does Nathalie remember well? An apartment in Paris.
A lot of half-naked women in a small space. The smell of perfume and sweaty bodies.
And she still remembers this moment very clearly. Her, again, somewhere, in his apartment. How she stands there in a narrow corridor, waiting outside his door. Nathalie is naked and shaking. Not from the cold, but from...
Nathalie: ...Fear.
But then I convinced myself that no, it's because I have emotions, because he's my guru and all that. So that's how it actually starts, that you carry the work of persuasion with you to get excited, so that you don't go completely crazy.
Filmmaker: Then he opens the door for her. It's Nathalie's guru, Grieg. He threw only a purple velvet bathrobe over his bare body. Many things about him are white: the skin, the hair on the chest, the hair on the head, the beard.
Nathalie: So I didn't expect him to look so old. But that's right, he's really old!
Director: Grieg is old. He is almost 70 years old. He has big dark circles under his eyes. A few strands of hair fall over his furrowed forehead. Grieg smiles at Nathalie and Nathalie smiles back.
Nathalie: Well, yes, this is my guru. He is my guru. And this pressure that has been put on you is so real. So it is your guru and this is now a big event. It's your moment, this changes your life here and now!
Filmmaker: Grieg opens his bedroom door for Nathalie and motions for her to enter. Nathalie looked at him.
Should they really do it? Should she go in, sleep with her guru, and be initiated into the greatest secrets of tantra? Or should she tell him: "I've changed my mind!" and come back?

Listen to Soul Catcher. Season 4, Toxic Tantra.
A podcast made by Christiane Hawranek and myself, Katja Paysen-Petersen.

Episode 1, Yoga for Beginners.
Filmmaker: What Nathalie experienced in Paris, blindfolded trafficking to her guru, who invited her naked into his room, sounds like a thriller. It seems to have nothing to do with yoga. But it has, because that's what it can lead to here in Nathalie's yoga movement.
This visit to her guru is said to be the culmination of tantric yoga practice. At least that's how it was sold to Nathalie. It all started harmlessly enough, in a yoga school.
Nathalie: At the beginning it is as normal as possible and very interesting, everything is new and there is a completely different perspective on the world.
Filmmaker: At a certain point, women like Nathalie do not only yoga in this school, but also tantra rituals.
You learn to view body and mind as one. They treat their peers completely differently, more intensely, more intimately, they say. Feel like you're glowing from within. And this radiance radiates outward, and others see it.
Nathalie: But the thing is, it's all so misleading. Once you're in it, it starts pulling you like quicksand, just like that.
Filmmaker: We tell you the story of Nathalie and Liz. They were part of an international Yoga Movement, the ATMAN Federation of Yoga and Meditation. Many say it is a sect.
The members of the ATMAN movement say that "We are not. We do traditional, original yoga." ATMAN followers, men and women, practice yoga in schools in 30 different countries. They are independent organizations and have different names almost everywhere, but they follow the same teaching. The group is estimated to have up to 30,000 followers worldwide. The oldest school, MISA in Romania, describes itself as the largest yoga school in Europe.
There is also a yoga school in Germany that belongs to this Movement, the German Traditional Yoga Academy DAtY. It currently has nine locations, for example in Berlin, Munich, Freiburg and Stuttgart.
For me and my colleague Christiane Hawranek, it all starts in the spring of 2023.
I got a tip from a Soul Catcher listener.
She told us that she went to the German Traditional Yoga Academy, at first she just did yoga and ended up sleeping with her guru, not necessarily wanting to. Even years later, she still feels quite uncomfortable talking about it, but says she wants to warn others about the machinations of the yoga movement and would love it if we could investigate it.
That's what we do. And we'll start by watching an official video from the German Academy of Traditional Yoga, DAtY for short, on YouTube.
Yogis at the Berlin Yoga Center talk about what is so special about their school: DAtY representatives: Yoga has practically influenced every area of ​​my life, making it more intense and better. I notice this in the fact that, for example, I struggled to quit smoking for ten years, and suddenly it somehow became easy for me.
And those who practice yoga can shape their bodies, experience their sexuality, increase their social skills and self-esteem, open their hearts and experience their emotions in a way that brings them happiness, hone their inspiration and intelligence until they are truly happy.
Producer: Everything seems totally harmless. But if you do not go to the official pages on the Internet, you are reading completely different things about the schools of the ATMAN yoga movement as a whole.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: But now be careful, I saw some things here on Facebook.
Christiane Hawranek: Wow, really getting to the point here.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: "Tantra not trauma" (name of a Facebook group). It's always sexual abuse.
Filmmaker: The accusations of those who have left the yoga movement in various countries make for harsh reading. It is about sexual abuse, sex work, human trafficking, psychological terror. And we also find an anonymous warning about the German Yoga School in Berlin.
Christiane Hawranek: On a site called Free in Berlin. And there are also several entries from this yoga school. But there is a comment right there: "WARNING!", in capital letters. "This is a sex sect!" Filmmaker: Okay, so what's actually going on with this yoga move? Christiane and I want to find out. We sign up for a trial lesson at the yoga center of the German Academy of Traditional Yoga in Berlin and we are going there now.
It's May 2023 and it's a sunny spring afternoon. Berlin is booming. We can't really enjoy the pleasant atmosphere because we are a bit agitated because of the accusations being made against the school we are going to visit. And there's this: today is a trial Tantra yoga class, and it's the first time for both of us.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: I'm getting a little excited about what's to come and how it's all going to play out.
Also, I'm a little afraid I'm going to giggle at some point or something.
I have no idea, because tantra yoga isn't necessarily a topic I've covered in particular before.
Producer: Yes, I admit it. On the way to school, I still have the dominant image of Tantra in my head: that you do some exercises to have more and more intense sex. Actually, I know better because of course I did the research. Tantra is an entire philosophy of life, about 5000 years old, from India.
There are many definitions of it, but basically it is a spiritual technique to develop yourself. I know everything, but somehow I wonder: what exactly do they practice in school and what do they expect from us?
Christiane also makes up her own mind.
Christiane Hawranek: I also had various yoga experiences. For example, I was in one (class) where you used to do partner exercises with sweaty men I didn't know. And I thought it was very, very terrible, so I never went there again. If there were to be partner exercises there, dear Katja, then I would love to do them with you.
Maker: The German Academy for Traditional Yoga is located in a lively area of ​​Berlin with hipster cafes and restaurants side by side. Well, let's take a look.
Shortly before yoga school, we turn off the microphone and put it away. We don't want to be recognized as journalists because we want to get the most authentic and unaltered impression possible. We won't record secretly either, because that would be illegal. Three hours later, our trial lesson ended and it was now dark in Berlin.
We turn on the microphone again.
Christiane Hawranek: Did you turn it on?
Katja Paysen-Petersen: It's already on, yes. So then?
Christiane Hawranek: Okay, so Katja, we can finally talk about this.
Filmmaker: We're sitting in a park near the yoga school and we're pretty tired.
Christiane Hawranek: It's 10:36 in the evening.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Exactly. I just ate some kebabs.
Christiane Hawranek: We had to, because we were so hungry after this experience, because you weren't allowed to eat anything two hours before. And it was also very important that the stomach was empty. She told me this again, between them.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Yes? Did she tell you that?
Christiane Hawranek: At that abdominal massage exercise.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Ah, good. So how was it? God knows what I had in mind before.
Filmmaker: My preconceptions about Tantra were not confirmed. No one touched the other. I don't even think the word yoni, meaning female genital organ, was mentioned. From that point of view, it was totally unspectacular.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Exactly, so for me it was a mixture of Pilates, I knew some exercises, but also more sporty things that require effort.
Christiane Hawranek: I didn't find it sporty at all. I really didn't find it sporty at all. It seemed very light to me.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: So, nothing that seems completely abnormal, new or strange to me.
Christiane Hawranek: It didn't seem so normal to me. You know what I noticed? That there was something in the direction of healing.
Filmmaker: Christiane talks about yoga exercises and how they were introduced to us. For example, we lie on our backs and stretch our legs up, with our arms extended parallel to them. Like an abdominal exercise, only with the legs extended. This only works if we contract our abs. But here at the yoga school, it's not just a simple abdominal workout, but the exercise is designed to activate the Manipura chakra and thus provide more willpower, self-control and harmonious expressiveness. So far, relatively unspectacular from a yoga perspective, but something more is promised here.
Christiane Hawranek: Do this exercise and you will become so and so.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Yes.
Christiane Hawranek: Do this and that asana and then you will have this and that ability, for intelligence or self-awareness. Or with this you will have more awareness or with this you will have more this and that. So many and different... what are these? Feelings and ...
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Qualities. Positive features. And frankly, it's something that everyone in our society, who otherwise has everything they need, is looking for somehow. What are we looking for? We seek self-confidence. We are looking for charm.
Christiane Hawranek: Exactly, and that's kind of a healing promise, I put it in quotes, that you basically improve your whole life.
Producer: We will hear more often about promises of healing. They are central to the teachings of this yoga movement. Improving life through yoga, of course, sounds great at first glance, and obviously attracts many people to this school.
Christiane Hawranek: There were eight women, eight men. It was practically full, to the last seat. I think there were a lot of young women. I would say. Maybe female students, right?
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Yes, and all quite attractive, young, attractive.
Christiane Hawranek: And the yoga teacher. Exactly, and this is what I find so interesting, that this young woman manages to have such status in this yoga class that you can ask her questions about your entire life.
Filmmaker: That's exactly what happens in this test session. After an hour and a half of yoga, we are presented with an hour and a half of theory. This is quite unusual, I have never seen anything like this in other yoga schools. And the content also makes our ears prick up. The yoga teacher talks about the tests you have to pass in life.
Christiane Hawranek: She even said it's like the Super Mario video game, you always have to go to the next level. And you will have a test beforehand, before you get to the next level, then you have to pass this test. And there are always other life tasks and you never finish, so to speak.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: You are responsible for your own happiness.
Christiane Hawranek: And if you really want something, you can get it.
Maker: It sounds very simple, but it can become toxic, because not all people have the same conditions in life, because there are factors like chance, health and social status, and the will alone, often, can't do anything. According to the teachings of the school, you can obviously pass the tests I'm talking about with yoga, and of course you get help from the teachers here at the school.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: She was bombarded with questions as a therapist, so all these men were mainly asking her. Again and again: "yes, what if I have this problem, but I can't move forward?" Christiane Hawranek: And one of them actually had a specific problem. He had a project and thought he could make a lot of money. What should he do?
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Many people who are looking for meaning in their lives and who are now looking for some kind of counseling and find it in this form of yoga.
Producer: Counseling, life counseling. This is what the German Academy of Traditional Yoga entices. They advertise that they can give people practical help with their job and everyday life.
It doesn't even take a major existential crisis for this, anyone can feel targeted. But it's not just that. In our trial session we learn that if we continue this course we will also be initiated into the secrets. Yes, it almost has a sacred aura to it.
Christiane Hawranek: The first slide was titled "those who are initiated". This word "initiate", I immediately thought, what is this? When exactly are you initiated?
Producer: "Initiation", keep that in mind for now, It will concern us a lot later. .
Katja Paysen-Petersen: She said that this will happen at the next meetings. A magical promise you can't access until later. And she also said that such a thing is learned only in two years.
Christiane Hawranek: In a few years, exactly.
Filmmaker: Got it, it's best to do this school for as long as possible, until enlightenment, so to speak. Christiane and I feel as if we are bombarded with mysterious promises in this theoretical lesson. And after three hours, at the very end, another surprise awaits us. A teaching material to go through, a few A4 pages. We look at him here in the park and see that suddenly there are quite a few sensual-sexual exercises for partners.
Christiane Hawranek: Esoteric-Tantra Esoteric Yoga, Lesson 1. We must examine it further. Man and woman sit on top of each other here in a photo.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: In the grass Christiane Hawranek: We have to be together, again, to... Here's another picture, with them having sex in a lake, it seems, or a pond. Oh my God, now here... "Caution, secret information, structure of divine power!" Maker: Christiane could go through this work endlessly. I'm logging off, I'm tired, my voice is hoarse, I'm done for the day.
Christiane Hawranek: Now we have to go.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: I'm cold.
Christiane Hawranek: You froze. And I think I have already talked a lot, very mixed.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Totally mixed. But we can sit down again tomorrow and reflect a little more, right?
Christiane Hawranek: Yes, absolutely.
Filmmaker: But we don't have that much time to let things clear up. The next day we have a meeting with a former member. We know that, like many other people, she was searching for meaning, improvement and a fulfilled life. She believed she had finally found all of this at the German Traditional Yoga Academy. This is probably what she wants to tell us about today. Because, before she tells us anything, she wants to know us.
Christiane Hawranek: We don't know anything about her. All we know is that she dropped out of school. So she wrote something like: she is just learning how to deal with other people, she needs a lot of gentleness.
Filmmaker: And she wants to remain anonymous. In this podcast she wants to be called Liz. She set a condition for our meeting: it must take place on neutral ground. Not at our place, not at her place, but in a park.
Christiane Hawranek: So we're at the lake now. On the other side is a woman, shifting from one leg to the other. She wears a red cap.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Does she have a yoga mat under her arm?
Christiane Hawranek: She has a yoga mat under her arm. Exactly, that could be her. She looked around.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: I think she is.
Christiane Hawranek: We are excited.
Maker: The yoga mat turns out to be a red fleece blanket. We greet each other. Liz is reserved, cautious, almost shy. We are equally excited. Will she tell us what she experienced at the yoga school? We sit together on her blanket. Liz is tall and sits across from us with her back straight. Like Nathalie, Liz is also strikingly beautiful, with a well-proportioned face and large eyes.
We're not telling you this because we're shallow, but because there seems to be a system. The women I have met who are advancing the yoga movement are obviously very attractive. Liz, Christiane and I chat for a while. At some point we ask her if we can record. And she says yes.
Christiane Hawranek: I'm going to put the phone here, like this.
Filmmaker: Because we don't want to be intrusive, we put the smartphone a little further away from her, that's why there's a little noise in the background.
Liz: So I took everything they offered me because I was very curious. I was shocked myself. I still believe a lot of things, so I need to detox.
Christiane Hawranek: When did you get out (of DAtY)?
Liz: I'm still on the way out. Emotionally, psychologically and mentally, I am still in the process of coming out.
So I couldn't say I'm done yet.
Filmmaker: Of course, we're interested in how Liz ended up enrolling in the yoga class at the German Traditional Yoga Academy. She says she had a problem with so many topics being ignored in school and in life in general. Body, sensuality, desire.
Liz: Who teaches us that in school? Who brings our body to attention? Who even talks about the body? Even sports are somehow just about throwing balls or something, but it's never really about your own body.
Filmmaker: So there was this lack. Finally, she wanted to talk about all these topics. But before finding out how it all started with her and the yoga school, she moves on to the next topic, using terms that are foreign to us: the factual world, the dualistic worldview.
At this point, I feel like I need more background on her story first, so I ask Liz this question: Katja Paysen-Petersen: If it's not too much trouble for you, can you take us back to the beginning and tell us how it all started? Describe your path to this school and what experiences did you have?
Filmmaker: Bad question, because Liz suddenly folds her arms and leans back. Don't say anything for now. This silence, this closure, is hard for us to bear.
Liz: It's just something very personal.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Then I'll take a quick step back. Simply say only what you are willing to talk about.
Filmmaker: At first, Liz gives only vague hints about what fascinated her about this yoga school. The teachers there, she says, always communicated to her: Liz: "We have such amazing knowledge that we can finally show you how to become the coolest version of you." And you swallow that right away. "And we can do it in all areas of your life. In your sexuality, in your profession, in your vocation, in your spirituality, in your contribution to the world. And if you're truly radical, you can even achieve enlightenment through us, as well as a supremely enlightening and uplifting spiritual sexuality.
The winning lottery! Do you take it or not take it?
Filmmaker: We, Liz, Christiane and I, laugh a lot in this conversation. But what we are discussing is no laughing matter. Christiane and I are just insecure. We often don't know how to react to Liz's statements. We laugh to cover our tension. I don't know why Liz is laughing, maybe she feels the same way. The winning raffle she just told us about soon turned into a no-win for her.
Liz: I've always been somehow shown my own deficiency. And physically, really physically. Women should be like this, women should have big breasts like this, women should have big asses, so very sexist.
Producer: Wait, are we still at Tantra yoga or is this something completely different? Now, Liz's thoughts are bouncing around.
Liz: So everything was always a sign: a divine sign, angels, entities.
Filmmaker: So this doesn't really have a place in classical yoga teaching.
Liz: From morning to night, you believe you are being watched by God to see if you prove yourself worthy by your daily actions, to reach the next level.
Maker: We know about the next level from our test session: keywords, Super Mario.
Liz: Receiving the gift, the investiture, the initiation.
Maker: Initiation, and that's what we heard in our trial lesson, and we wonder again what it means.
Liz: It's very exciting, it's very addictive, but it's also very crazy. You simply lose touch with reality.
Producer: We tell Liz that we have already heard about these terms, "investiture", "initiation" during our Tantra yoga trial session at DAtY. She thinks it's good that we went there and tried Tantra yoga ourselves. We feel like we're getting closer and closer to Liz. But then comes this.
Liz: What was also very extreme was a kind of total devotion to the guru, the belief that the guru is simply a servant of God.
Christiane Hawranek: Which guru?
Filmmaker: Actually, we already know. Many in Liz's yoga movement look up to a kind of guru, a spiritual teacher.
DAtY itself does not refer to him as a guru. We know his name is Gregorian Bivolaru. Christiane, a bona fide investigative reporter, doesn't want to put this in Liz's mouth.
If she does, let her say it herself. But these two words - "Which guru?" – are enough and Liz struggles to keep her cool. From one moment to the next, she stands there, frozen, and seems momentarily to be in a completely different world.
Liz: I realize it's very… I have to slow you down.
Christiane Hawranek: Yes, yes, yes, yes. We take a step back.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: I think we really have to keep our mouths shut now.
Liz: From a Tantra yoga perspective, I would say: Take your feminine energy and get out of that rushed masculine energy, which is also super important, but relax, dude.
Filmmaker: Even after our meeting in the park, we still can't understand Liz. We aim to be even slower and more cautious, but we are also uncertain. What are we allowed to ask? Apparently, all it takes is one wrong word like "guru" and our dialogue partners shut down.
Shortly after our meeting, Liz sends us another voicemail, again alluding to her time at the German Traditional Yoga Academy.
Liz: I feel like I've been raped deep down. They really violated me in my whole being and I feel them still inside me. I'm still in my thoughts, I'm still in my feelings. I find myself again and again in these worlds.
Maker: While Liz is still fully occupied with breaking out of the yoga movement, Nathalie has recently made the leap. She contacted us in response to a search request on a network of affected people.
You already heard Nathalie at the very beginning of this episode. She is the one for whom Gregorian Bivolaru opened the door in his purple robe. But more about that later. Nathalie's story in this yoga movement, which she is about to tell us, is quite adventurous and looks at many more aspects than her guru. We have a meeting with her through the Teams platform.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Is your recording going?
Nathalie: Yes, it's running in the background on my laptop. Yes.
Maker: Nathalie is too far away for a face-to-face meeting. She lives and works where others vacation, surrounded by palm trees and miles of white sand beaches, on an island in Thailand.
Nathalie blends well into the landscape. She is 27 years old, with long brown hair and model features.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: I would like to go back to the beginning, before I was introduced to the yoga school.
Filmmaker: Nathalie takes us back in time, to a time when she was about 16 years old. She grows up sheltered in a small town somewhere in Germany and comes from a good family. They don't have to worry about money. Her parents raise her as an atheist. It has nothing to do with religion, with spirituality.
Nathalie has nothing to do with yoga either. Instead, she often goes to the gym.
Nathalie: Well, I was kind of very into bodybuilding. So that was definitely what I was interested in.
It was two hours a day, it took up a lot of space in my life.
Maker: Nathalie is also passionate about psychology. She studied it later.
Nathalie: I've always been very interested in understanding somehow more deeply why we work the way we do. And when you look back now, it's interesting that I'm the one who slipped into it.
Producer: In parallel with her studies, Nathalie already works in the human resources department of a luxury car manufacturer. She likes the work she does. She has the opportunity to meet interesting people and travels a lot. So now, examined just like that, theoretically. Nathalie is attractive and intelligent. She has a hobby that fulfills her. She has money and a good job. But she is not really satisfied.
Nathalie: Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? Not really. Can I find something somewhere that makes sense to me?
Filmmaker: Try to travel, to see the world, to think about something else. But then India comes along and suddenly everything changes. For better, but also for worse. It all starts in 2019. Nathalie is currently in Rishikesh, a small town on the Ganges. The Beatles meditated here in the Maharishi's ashram. Yoga is quite important here. Travel guides even call it the "world capital of yoga". Nathalie receives a flyer on the street in Rishikesh from a school called Mahasiddha, which offers Tantra yoga.
Nathalie: Tantra, that would be cool to take a look at. And that's exactly what I did, I called and then Jasper answered.
Producer: Jasper. Nathalie's story at yoga school is also Nathalie and Jasper's story at this school.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Ah, you met on the phone, so to speak.
Nathalie: Yes, yes. Exact.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Do you remember that first phone call? What did you think of him?
Nathalie: Actually, what I had in mind was that it must be an older guy, an older Western man who somehow broke away and is now somehow teaching his Tantra class here in India.
Filmmaker: Jasper is 29 years old and from Australia. Nathalie meets him immediately when she first visits the yoga center. Jasper is an "apparition" for Nathalie. Muscular, tanned, his hair falls unruly on his face. Everything about him attracts Nathalie.
Nathalie: Right after that, when I got back from the gym, I texted my best friend like, "Oh my God, because I was totally blown away, oh wow, that's so great .”
Maker: This amazing Jasper is part of the team of teachers at the yoga school.
Nathalie: The first thing I went to was an introduction, they have an introduction night which is also free, so you don't have to pay for this introduction and looking back, that's how you get people.
Producer: There are about 30 people in the yoga room. They are sitting on the floor, talking, laughing, and then their eyes turn to a television. It now has testimonials, videos of people who are already at this school talking about how great yoga is there.
Nathalie: Yeah, and then they turned off the TV and played the music and then she came in.
Filmmaker: She walks in, no, she walks in and everyone standing there looks up at her. That's how Nathalie remembers it to this day.
Nathalie: It's quite a sight in itself, because she's such a beautiful Eastern European woman. So it stands out and it's very neat and all that. He doesn't look hippie like everyone else sitting there.
Producer: The yoga teacher speaks to the participants in English. She talks about the basics of yoga, the content of the course and...
Nathalie: ... what Tantra is and how great it is and that the school is the only one that offers true, correct Tantra and so on.
Filmmaker: Then, at the end, there is another exercise...
Nathalie: ... in which we did something called "walk of angels".
Katja Paysen-Petersen: What's the name?
Nathalie: "The walk of angels".
Producer: For the "walk of the angels", all the Tantra students line up next to each other...
Nathalie: ... And then you walk past them. You walk with your eyes closed and then everyone kind of comforts you.
Producer: Nathalie enrols in the Tantra course. She lives in a hostel in Rishikesh, but her entire life now revolves around the yoga school. She opens her chakras, meditates and unlocks her energies. For four months, every day, for two hours in the morning and six hours in the afternoon.
She is absorbed into this school like quicksand.
Nathalie: It also meant that you were very close to all the people who were part of the group, so in the evenings you would go out to dinner with them or something. So we were very, very close.
Filmmaker: Only the person Nathalie would most like to spend time with tends to stay away. It's Jasper from the teaching staff.
Nathalie: Well, yes, they were a little more special.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: So they were at a higher level then?
Nathalie: Yes. Exact.
Katja Paysen-Petersen: Does that mean you couldn't approach him from the beginning?
Nathalie: No, no.
Filmmaker: However, Nathalie wins Jasper over relatively quickly for a date. The two approach, meet, it goes. But one thing annoys Nathalie.
Nathalie: Because in the beginning he was actually a little bit like a teacher, like, "I'll tell you how it works," and I was like, "Okay, but I don't want to know." It's cool that you do tantra here and all that, but that's not you.
Nathalie doesn't know it yet, but Jasper lives and breathes the teachings of the yoga movement. Nathalie doesn't hear anything about this guru in Tantra classes , although she sees him every day in a photo from the yoga school.
Nathalie: So it was a relatively small photo, not something big, "Here's the guy who's a guru!", so nothing like that he was younger, he still had black hair.
His name is Gregorian Bivolaru. Everyone here just calls him Grieg. Nathalie only finds out a few months after her first visit to the school, in March 2020.
Nathalie: Yes , that was the first time I found out about this whole story with the guru.
Filmmaker: It's Bivolaru's birthday. He celebrates it elsewhere, not in Rishikesh, but there is a meditation on him at school, says Nathalie.
Nathalie: There they just play the music for six hours, like that, and you close your eyes and you have to somehow connect with the guru, because he's supposed to be meditating at that time and he's somehow connecting with us and stuff.
Filmmaker: Nathalie doesn't feel a connection with Grieg during these six hours, but with the people around her.
Nathalie: I remember thinking at the time, "Wow, it's really nice that he formed such a community."
Maker: This guy that the yogis in this Indian school celebrate so much, the one with whom Nathalie is supposed to connect for hours, three and a half years later is in the middle of a long-planned mission to France - in the morning, on a Tuesday in November 2023, 175 French policemen are on a mission. They are dressed in dark clothes, have guns and wear caps. They are listed in various locations in and around Paris, as well as from the south of France. They are to carry out raids there. Among them is an apartment complex in Yvry-sur-Seine.
He is said to be hiding in an apartment on the ground floor from here Gregorian Bivolaru, Nathalie's guru, and Liz's guru have orders to arrest him.