Conference on Roxana-Mălina Chirilă

Replică la articolul de pe Yogaesoteric

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:13:04 +0000

Bun, după cum spuneam într-un articol recent, s-a scris un articol despre mine pe Yogaesoteric, site-ul oficial al grupării MISA, condusă de Gregorian Bivolaru. Cei care mă cunosc destul de bine știu că am tendința să iau texte la bani mărunți și să încep să demonstrez ce ar merge mai bine la ele – fie că e vorba de gramatică sau logică.

Pe scurt, editoarea mea interioară e o scorpie obsesiv-compulsivă. Am tradus articolul de pe Yogaesoteric al lui Călin Gruia și mă tem că asta înseamnă că am văzut fiecare frază întortocheată rău, fiecare greșeală de tipar, fiecare argument prost, fiecare greșeală de argumentare.

Domnilor, înjurați-mă cât vreți, dar încercați să fiți competenți. În fond, ditamai site-ul, nu? Ar trebui să fiți mai profesioniști.

Cum să nu argumentezi: puțină abatere de la subiect

Hai să începem cu un mic exemplu de argumentare, scris ad hoc, ca să fie clar care va fi modul în care voi trata articolul lui Gruia de pe Yogaesoteric. Articolul va fi ceva mai complex, dar îl voi trata conform acelorași principii ca aici.

Să presupunem un grup de persoane. Doi băieți, A și B, sunt colegi de clasă și se cunosc relativ bine. Ceilalți sunt din alt mediu. Vine vorba de bacalaureat și A spune, foarte scorțos ca să fie evidente argumentele din exemplu și să le pot pune cu liniuțe:

A: Colegul B a picat examenul de bacalaureat, poate și pentru că n-a învățat și a stat prin baruri tot semestrul.

La care B răspunde, la fel de scorțos și punctual:

B: A e un răuvoitor care efectiv se chinuie să mă discrediteze! Faptul că n-aș fi învățat, pe care nu l-a demonstrat în afirmațiile de mai sus, oricum nu demonstrează absolut deloc că aș fi picat bacul! Sunt mulți care au trecut bacul fără să fi învățat, poate pe pile sau mită, ceea ce eu n-am făcut, pentru că sunt mult mai corect decât ei. Și barurile nu sunt rele, în fond toată lumea a fost într-un bar. În primul rând că n-am picatul bacul și în al doilea că media de 4 oricum nu înseamnă nimic, pentru că examenul de bacalaureat e o prostie.

De ce nu funcționează argumentele de mai sus?

A spune clar trei lucruri:

Colegul B a picat examenul.
Colegul B n-a învățat (cauză posibilă).
Colegul a stat prin baruri tot semestrul (cauză posibilă).

B spune următoarele:

Colegul A e rău intenționat.
Lipsa de învățătură nu duce automat la picarea examenului.
Unii oameni trec bacul prin metode ilicite.
Colegul B nu a trecut bacul prin metode ilicite.
Barurile nu sunt rele.
N-a picat bacul.
A picat bacul.
Picarea bacului este irelevantă.

Bun. Din punct de vedere logic, afirmațiile lui A sunt ori false, ori nu. Dar ca să complicăm puțin lucrurile, o să luăm problema și din punctul de vedere al realității în care totuși trăim și considerăm că B are mai multe variante de răspuns. B poate să nu se limiteze la contextul impus de A, ci poate să mute toată discuția în contextul implicit: valoarea lui B. Deci B ar putea să spună ceva de genul: poate că am picat bacul, dar nu e relevant pentru valoarea mea profesională, pentru că m-am angajat la Google, deci din punctul de vedere al performanțelor intelectuale, sunt arhisuficient.

În schimb, B se încurcă în vorbe și argumente. Majoritatea lucrurilor pe care le spune sunt irelevante ăn context. Să vedem de ce:

Intențiile lui A nu afectează deloc valoarea de adevăr a lucrurilor pe care le spune. Prin reducere la absurd (sau reducere la Hitler), dacă Hitler îi spune unui evreu că doi plus doi fac patru, nu înseamnă că de acum încolo trebuie să privim afirmația asta ca fiind falsă. Poate că Hitler i-o urlă în față evreului, sau poate că-l trimite în camera de gazare cu cuvintele astea. Oricum ar fi, doi plus doi continuă să facă patru. (în logica formală, eroarea e numită „argument ad hominem”)
Argumentul lui A nu era sub forma „dacă și numai dacă”. A își dă cu părera asupra unor cauze, deci întrebarea nu e dacă lipsa de învățătură duce neapărat la picarea unui examen, ci dacă e posibil să ducă la așa ceva. Poate fi o cauză necesară, dar nu suficientă. (B încearcă să demonstreze ca fiind falsă afirmația lui A din cauza unei erori de argumentare, respectiv un apel la probabilitate – ceea ce nu e cazul)
Afirmația n-are nicio legătură cu problemele expuse de A, pentru că A n-a zis că B ar fi făcut ceva ilicit.
Vezi 3.
Împreună, creează ceea ce în engleză se numește „red herring” (hering roșu) și care în logica formală care se împropoționează cu latină se numește „ignoratio elenchi”: aducerea de argumente menite să distragă de la problema inițială.
Intră tot cam aici: moralitatea sau imoralitatea barurilor e tangențială. Colegul A putea la fel de bine să spună că B făcea sport toată ziua, ideea e până la urmă tot că n-a dedicat timp studiului. E drept că barurile sună mai prost.

6., 7. B se contrazice.

B încearcă, vag, să mute lucrurile în alt context, dar nu aduce niciun argument în favoarea schimbării de paradigmă.

Deci, B nu argumentează corect, face un număr de erori, ceea ce înseamnă că orice încearcă el să demonstreze cam pică în 16. Și cam același lucru se întâmplă cu articolul despre mine și calomnierea MISA de pe site-ul Yogaesoteric.

Yogaesoteric și argumentarea

Întâi și întâi, pentru că vreau să mă urmăriți foarte clar, o să vă pun la dispoziție textele pe care lucrăm.

Context: Roxana Chirilă a mers în Franța unde a ținut o conferință despre MISA și apocalipsa grupării MISA. Apoi s-a întors și a scris un articol despre experiența respectivă (16 octombrie 2012) și a postat textul conferinței (20 octombrie 2012). După câteva luni, Călin Gruia a scris un articol despre eveniment (8 martie 2013), bazat pe articolul despre experiența de a ține o conferință în Franța (de pe 16 octombrie) și cu referiri la blogul Roxanei.

Începem cu titlul:

Calomniatorii şcolii noastre de yoga încearcă să discrediteze programul de salvare planetară Nu Apocalipsa (I)

În primul rând, titlul expune situația într-un mod greșit: „calomniatorii” Roxana Chirilă nu încearcă să discrediteze programul de salvara planetară Nu Apocalipsa, ci folosește acest program pentru a discredita școala de yoga. Logica e inversă.

Paragraful de început spune:

Roxana Chirilă, în vârstă de 24 de ani, de profesie traducătoare şi fostă cursantă MISA, a publicat pe blogul personal unele articole tendenţioase prin care aduce acuzaţii mincinoase şi nefondate împotriva şcolii noastre de yoga. Chirilă se ipostaziază într-o victimă a şcolii noastre de yoga fără a aduce, totuşi, nicio dovadă palpabilă la acuzaţiile neruşinate şi mincinoase pe care le face.

(Notă pe margine: Formularea e simpatică: spui că sunt de profesie fostă cursantă MISA! :P)

Văd că Gruia începe în stilul corect de a scrie un articol argumentativ: expune ipoteza pe care o va demonstra de-a lungul textului. Din păcate, nu va preciza care sunt acele articole tendențioase de pe blogul meu și va ignora faptul că am, totuși, dovezi.

Aşa cum ne-au obişnuit deja cei din grupuleţul minuscul al calomniatorilor ridicoli ai şcolii de yoga MISA, Chirilă nu se dezminte nici ea de stilul mizerabil şi fără scrupule al unor „paiaţe media” de teapa Ceciliei Tiz şi avo-căţelului Rapcea.

Conținutul efectiv al celui de-al doilea paragraf introductiv: Roxana Chirilă face parte din același grup ca Cecilia Tiz și Mihai Rapcea și are același comportament. Bun, e o ipoteză, la capitolul de logică și argumentare nu am nimic de comentat, încă.

La nivel de exprimare, înșiruirea de insulte e cam exagerată și există riscul să dea în parodie. „Grupulețul minuscul al calomniatorilor ridicoli” e o formulare care ar putea fi transformată în ceva mult mai puternic dacă autorul (și MISA în general) s-ar limita la ceva mai simplu, la obiect și usturător. Eu aș zice ceva gen „grupul de microbi cu ceva de zis”, pentru că îmi plac ironiile mai fine, în care privești pe cineva de pe muchia între insultă și glumă. Desigur, doar autorul de pe Yogaesoteric știe exact ce efect vrea să obțină în articol.

Ceea ce este însă deosebit de grav este faptul că se încearcă acum discreditarea şcolii noastre de yoga care este catalogată ca sectă deoarece a iniţiat programul de salvare planetar Nu Apocalipsa!

În primul rând, nu aia e singura cauză. Eu privesc problema sectă/non-sectă ca fiind una mai puțin albă/neagră. Aș zice că există un număr mare de trăsături care sunt insuficiente de unele singure pentru a face ca un grup să fie o sectă, dar cu care atunci când se adună împing gruparea din ce în ce mai mult în zona de sectă.

În cazul MISA, câteva trăsături de acest gen (insuficiente de unele singure):
-poziția centrală a lui Gtregorian Bivolaru, care are o putere foarte mare asupra unor cursanți care l-au acceptat ca maestru
-impunerea lentă a lui Gregorian Bivolaru ca fiind „maestrul nostru spiritual, Grieg”, de cele mai multe ori cursanților nefiindu-le prezentată posibilitatea de a avea alt maestru, din afara cursului
-respingerea oricăror idei critice la adresa cursului (vezi cazul Mihai Rapcea, „îndoielile demoniace” pe care cursanții trebuie să le respingă)
-secretele „spirituale” în care cursanții jură pe sănătatea și evoluția lor spirituală, deoarece au o notă amenințătoare prin chiar formularea lor
-controlul informațional (I): MISA are ceva de zis într-un număr mare de domenii, începând cu cel spiritual (care e domeniul ei), continuând cu fizica, medicina, arta, psihologia (care nu sunt domeniile ei). Practic orice vine din exterior poate fi filtrat prin perspectiva MISA, lucru care uneori nu e foarte indicat.
-controlul informațional (II): o serie de informații prezentate la MISA sunt modificate pentru a se potrivi cu miezul învățăturilor MISA, sau sunt alese informații cu caracter dubios care corespund credințelor cursului (Eliade a suferit transformări, ca să nu mai vorbim de cazul simpatic al „Doamnei Miracolului”, expus pe blogul lui Mihai Rapcea)
-împingerea cursanților spre conformitate. Nu foarte dur, e drept, dar presiunea de grup e prezentă în următoarele direcții: relații deschise, continență, „vitalizare”, Grieg e maestrul etc. Nu spun că oricare din astea sunt rele în sine, atenție! Spun doar că există o presiune să adopți un anumit stil de viață și că dacă nu respecți, să zicem, continența se cheamă că ceva nu-i în regulă cu tine. Ceea ce nu e ok.
-încurajarea cursanților înspre a nu gândi. „Mintea te minte”, nu?
-credința în Apocalipsă și lupta cu morile de vânt împotriva asteroizilor și cutremurelor.
-etc.

Mai sunt și altele. Ce vreau să spun e că nu îmi bazez concluzia pe un singur punct. Mă uit la imaginea în ansamblu și văd anumite trăsături care mă fac să cred că MISA asta nu e așa de pură și cuminte pe cât vrea să pară.
Ceea ce nu înseamnă că toți cei care se înscriu la cursurile de yoga trebuie neapărat să treacă prin toate. În Sf. Gheorghe, la începuturile mele la curs, lucrurile erau mult mai liniștite și cei de la curs nu încercau să se impună în vreun fel în viața mea personală. Mai târziu, când am ajuns să am mai multe cunoștințe de la curs am avut șansa minunată de a experimenta presiunea de grup care există în cercurile mai pregnant implicate în MISA. Experiența unei bunicuțe pe care o știu de la cursul din Sf. Gheorghe va fi, inevitabil, vast diferită de a mea.

Nu ne miră faptul că Chirilă s-a asociat cu Cecilia Tiz, cea care a fost de curând condamnată pentru calomnie de un tribunal din Germania.

Las jos pălăria de corector ca să precizez ceva: mă asociez cu multă lume și consider că e dreptul oricui să se asocieze cu cine vrea. Mă asociez cu calculatoriști care mă fascinează cu abilitățile lor tehnice, mă asociez cu fete care au pasiunea să se ascundă în baie ca să înregistreze variante audio la povești, mă asociez cu femei nebune și puternice care pot să tragă bocanci în gură oricui are nevoie de bocanci în gură, mă asociez cu indience din America care scriu despre viața lor în rezervații, mă asociez cu agorafobi care își împart viața între muncă și jocuri pe calculator – și mă asociez și cu Cecilia Tiz! Care nu doar că e o persoană simpatică, dar nici n-a fost condamnată.

Nu e nicio rușine să te asociezi cu Cecilia Tiz, sau cu oricine altcineva. Nu mi s-ar părea o dovadă de ipocrizie să mă asociez cu Oltea Mutulescu, să zicem, pentru că nu am pică pe orice e legat de MISA – pur și simplu spun că sistemul vostru rănește oameni.

În vara anului 2011, fosta cursantă Chirilă a participat „cot la cot” cu Cecilica într-o emisiune senzaţionalistă de bârfe mondene în care era calomniată şcoala noastră de yoga. În cadrul emisiunii respective, foştii colegi de curs ai lui Chirilă au recunoscut-o pe aceasta în spatele unei „camuflări” de prost gust, fiind oripilaţi de făţărnicia şi minciunile fantasmagorice pe care ea le debita la microfon.

Aici voi cere detalii, ca să știu foarte clar care sunt „minciunile fantasmagorice” despre care se vorbește în propoziție. Altfel, paragraful nu spune mare lucru și nu permite o găsire ușoară a materialului la care se referă pentru cei care ar fi interesați să studieze ei înșiși problema.

În principiu, când argumentați, e foarte indicat să puneți dovezile în față. Bun, să zicem că nu aveți dovezi că persoana camuflată era exact Roxana Chirilă, dar măcar să vedem și noi înregistrările sau să auzim acuzațiile, nu? Tot ce avem în față sunt opiniile voastre despre respectiva emisiune, care sunt egale cu zero din perspectiva argumentării. Așa pot și eu să spun că într-un anumit articol de pe Yogaesoteric, se face o insinuare falsă despre mine și se explică psihologia mea fără ca cineva să știe exact despre ce era vorba. Și, ce chestie, nu mi se dă numele, dar articolul există! Întâmplător, chiar există articolul ăsta pe YE, dar voi nu puteți verifica, așa că afirmația mea e aproximativ egală cu zero (și irelevantă în context).

Deşi articolele sale calomniatoare aduc grave prejudicii de imagine şcolii noastre de yoga, Chirilă nu catadicseşte să aducă nicio dovadă palpabilă asupra inepţiilor şi mizeriilor cu care împroaşcă imaginea şcolii de yoga MISA, bazându-se doar pe faptul că unii oameni pleacă mult prea uşor urechea la bârfe şi se lasă cuprinşi de îndoieli demoniace chiar dacă acuzele sunt lipsite de logică şi fundament.

Prea multă vorbăraie, prea puține dovezi concrete! Aici Gruia are nevoie de mai puține epitete și de mai multe citate și explicații, pentru că altfel afirmațiile lui nu stau în picioare. Întâmplător, argumentele aduse în favoarea opiniilor mele sunt clare în conferința pe care am ținut-o în Franța. Știu mult mai multe lucruri decât am scris acolo, dar m-am rezumat în mod intenționat la lucrurile ori demonstrabile, ori demonstrate, ori care fac parte din experiența mea personală pe care știu că o am la comun cu alți cursanți și foști cursanți.

Povestea s-a petrecut în toamna anului 2012, când fosta cursantă yoga ar fi fost invitată ca şi martoră pentru a vorbi despre MISA, care ar fi – în viziunea distorsionată şi confuză a fostei cursante Chirilă, o sectă.
Dincolo de faptul absurd (din perspectiva unei persoane înzestrate cu inteligenţă şi bun simţ) că o până de curând studentă la litere, deci fără absolut nicio pregătire în domeniul psihologiei sau sociologiei se auto proclamă expertă în secte,

Gruia spune:

Chirilă a fost invitată ca martoră.
Chirilă nu e expertă în secte.

Complet de acord cu punctul 2! Nu sunt expertă în secte. Am citit câteva lucruri în domeniu și m-am documentat destul ca să pot să mă conving că la MISA e ceva care nu e în regulă. Nu știu nimic despre istoria generală a sectelor, despre MISA în contextul românesc/european/mondial al sectelor, despre combaterea sectelor. Nu știu cum poți să consiliezi un fost membru al unei secte. Sunt enorm de multe lucruri pe care nu le știu!

Dar la fel cum nu trebuie să fiu astrofizician ca să știu că luna nu e la fel de mare ca soarele, nu trebuie să fiu expertă în secte ca să mă uit la ce au făcut alții într-o direcție și să aplic la un caz dat. Da, am teoria mea despre mănunchiul de trăsături care fac o grupare să fie mai mult sau mai puțin secte – întâmplător, mi-a fost confirmată viabilitatea ei de către un expert în secte.

Nu am cum să mă proclam expertă în secte, deci! Am ajuns la FECRIS ca martor și ca martor am vorbit, după ce am aruncat un ochi în ograda lor să văd cum discută ei și să mă adaptez paradigmei.

De altfel, este deja notorie activitatea a unor organizaţii antisecte precum FECRIS sau MIVILUDES din Franţa, care, sub faţada luptei sociale pe care ele o conduc împotriva cultelor şi sectelor, fac, de fapt, o adevărată vânătoare de vrăjitoare a secolului XXI, împotriva spiritualităţii autentice.

Călin Gruia ignoră aici niște afirmații pe care le-am făcut la finalul articolului despre experiența mea la conferința în Franța, în care explicam că francezii erau preocupați să nu încalce drepturile omului și să nu fie tirani. Cei din secte, spunea franțuzoaica care vorbea în numele grupului ei (s-ar putea să fi fost chiar MIVILUDES, dar mă tem că-i încurc pe unii cu alții) trebuie tratați bine, convinși și nu forțați. Trebuie să li se explice, nu să li se interzică.

Comentariu de editor: dacă ignori o parte relevantă din ceea ce spune cineva și denaturezi mesajul pe care-l are, se numește că te lupți cu un om de paie. Un om de paie e un inamic pe care poți să-l învingi ușor, pentru că nu are nimic coerent și clar de zis, dar omul de paie nu există cu adevărat.

Eu aș prefera să mă lupt cu cel mai coerent, puternic și abil om din MISA, nu cu persoane gen Dr Dolittle care scria pe aici și care e un adversar slab. Dacă-l învingi pe cel mai puternic, situația e clară. Dar dacă alegi ce găsești mai slab și îți porți luptele acolo, chiar trișând puțin, nu faci o impresie prea bună.

Ce spun aici e valabil și pentru citatele pe care le dă Gruia din ce am spus și pentru modul în care îmi reformulează ideile.

Având în vedere că unele secte cum ar fi Martorii lui Iehova sunt foarte ataşate de ideea de Apocalipsă, de sfârşitul lumii şi de faptul că numai membrii respectivelor grupuri vor fi salvaţi de la o moarte iminentă şi catastrofală (care va surveni pentru întreaga omenire), considerăm necesar să atragem atenţia asupra diferenţei care există între raportarea unor astfel de secte la Apocalipsă, comparativ cu viziunea şcolii de yoga MISA.

Citat chiar din articolul pe care lucrează Gruia: „E o poveste întreagă, le explic. Nu toți cei de la cursurile de yoga MISA cred în poveștile astea, dar încetul cu încetul sunt convinși de câte una din idei.” – deci n-am spus că MISA s-ar centra în jurul Apocalipsei.

Citat din conferința efectivă: „However, the apocalypse as a whole is a somewhat secondary and optional belief in the MISA system – the topics which are universally accepted and which form the MISA doctrine are usually related to sexuality, conspiracies or the personal effort made to evolve spiritually. Even so, the half-believed in apocalypse still has an influence on the mentality of yogis, who will pray and meditate against it and mention it often enough in conversation.”

Traducere: „Însă, apocalipsa în ansamblul ei e o credință oarecum secundară și opțională în sistemul MISA – subiectele care sunt universal acceptate și care formează doctrina MISA sunt de obicei conexe cu sexualitatea, conspirațiile și efortul personal de a evolua spiritual. Chiar și așa, această apocalipsă în care se crede pe jumătate are totuși o influență asupra mentalității yoghinilor, care se vor ruga și vor medita împotriva ei și o vor menționa destul de des în conversații.”

Călin Gruia se luptă din nou cu un om de paie.

O să fac rezumatul unor paragrafe de-ale lui Gruia: MISA, spune el, nu privește apocalipsa prin perspectiva fricii și nu se doresc a fi eroi, dar yoghinii cred că a ști și a nu acționa e suprema lașitate, mai ales că Fecioara Maria de la Fatima a profețit cataclisme – și yoghinii fac tehnica Nu Apocalipsa pentru binele omenirii.

Nu știu dacă există vreo denumire pentru eroarea de argumentare în care încerci să infirmi o propoziție confirmând-o. S-ar putea să nu-i fi trecut nimănui prin minte să o inventeze, dar recunosc că nu știu toată lista de erori.

Același lucru se repetă mai încolo. Gruia afirmă că înșiruiesc bazaconii când spun că la MISA se crede în extratereștri, o centură de fotoni, conspirații mondiale cu francmasoni și o epocă spirituală. Se pare că yoghinii nu cred în nimic de acest gen pentru că ei cred în Dumnezeu – iar apoi continuă să explice că toate lucrurile înșirate de mine sunt perfect adevărate și cei de la curs învață despre ele. Nu știu în ce context aș fi vorbit bazaconii în contextul dat. Poate nu i-a plăcut formularea, pentru că am folosit cuvântul „cred” în legătură cu non-Dumnezeu.

Atunci, reformulez: yoghinii au convingerea că există extratereștri, o centură de fotoni care va înghiți pământul, că francmasonii manipulează societatea și că va veni o epocă spiritulă. E mai clar?…

Oricum, mă bucur mult că Gruia le-a confirmat pe toate în parte. Acum nu mai trebuie să caut în toată arhiva de pe yogaesoteric pentru a găsi dovezi că yoghinii cred în ceea ce el numește „toată înşiruirea de bazaconii pe care ea a expus-o”. Se pare că am avut o mică eroare în ce privește centura de fotoni, care se pare că nu va omorî pe nimeni, în ciuda afirmației mele. Am fost păcălită de exprimarea dintr-un articol de pe yogaesoteric, în care se spunea: „Înainte de 2012, sufletele evoluate de pe planeta noastră vor face acest salt şi astfel vor deschide poarta ascensională şi pentru alţii care le vor urma. Unele fiinţe, care deja s-au orientat către Dumnezeu cu credinţă şi sinceritate, vor realiza Ascensiunea cu propriul lor corp fizic sublimat, în timp ce altele îşi vor părăsi acest corp fizic pentru a se regăsi într-un alt plan, cu un corp subtil mai apropiat noii frecvenţe de vibraţie.” Și profețiile nefaste de la Fatima, plus folclorul MISA m-au făcut să cred că și centura de fotoni ucide. Mea culpa, se pare că doar dă migrene și că unii vor părăsi corpul fizic… dintr-o cauză sau alta.

În final, un mic New Age

Yoghinii de la MISA în general sar ca arși când se sugerează măcar că ar avea vreo legătură cu New Age-ul, considerând că e o insultă ca o școală tradițională de yoga să fie asociată cu așa ceva.

Consider că MISA nu predă yoga tradițională – predă, cel mult, yoga tradițională printre multe alte lucruri. Iată câteva elemente care nu fac parte din yoga tradițională:
-extratereștrii
-îngerii
-Fecioara Maria
-Iisus Hristos
-de fapt, orice legat de creștinism
-spiralele
-tehnica paratrăsnetului
-Nu Apocalipsa

Nu spun că cele de mai sus sunt rele, ci că nu fac parte din yoga tradițională. La MISA se predau tot felul de lucruri care nu sunt, de fapt, yoga tradițională și unele nu sunt nici măcar yoga. Dați pe google, să zicem, „photon belt”, ca să vedeți cam ce curente contemporane mai sunt preocupate de anumite idei care sunt luate de bune pe la curs. Și căutați arhanghelii ăia din „Darul Arhanghelilor”.

Article About Me on Yogaesoteric.net (translation)

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:53:20 +0000

My note: The following article was published on the Yogaesoteric.net website on the 8th of March 2013. It’s a response to a conference in which I talked about MISA, a Romanian yoga group which is spreading in various other countries, and its leader, Gregorian Bivolaru. The conference was held at the meeting of the anti-cult organization FECRIS in Perpignan, France, in October 2012. You can find the written conference on this very blog.

As a side note, I spoke freely during the conference, which means that any recorded audio/video version is going to differ slightly from the written one. However, the basics are the same.

Unfortunately, the author writing this article for the MISA official website, Yogaesoteric.net, only read my impressions of the trip to Perpignan and not my actual conference, which means he missed the opportunity to offer a reply to the issues that I really raised. The author still pretends he read it, though, which I find to be delightfully ironic in some corners.

This translation appeared out of a desire to share this article with some of my foreign friends and acquaintances, as well as with interested parties. I searched far and wide for relevant quotes to demonstrate MISA standing points on aliens, the Apocalypse and so forth, gathering them from wherever I could. I find that the following article neatly demonstrates some of the points I was trying to make during my FECRIS conference. I hereby allow any interested parties to reproduce it or use it as they see fit, with the note that I would appreciate it if they offered a link to it (or credits). The credit/link, however, are not strictly necessary.

I have provided in-text notes concerning some very punctual issues that I wanted cleared. I will eventually provide an actual commentary on this. The oddity of the text and the run-on sentences are features of the original Gruia-written article.

**********************~

The Slanderers of Our Yoga School Attempt to Discredit the Planetary Saving Program No Apocalypse (I)

They Are Attempting to Bring MISA to the Attention of International Organizations Known for Their Abuse Against Authentic Spiritual Groups

by Călin Gruia

Roxana Chirilă, aged 24, translator and former MISA student, published several tendentious articles on her blog, in which she brings false and unfounded accusations against our yoga school. Chirilă claims to be a victim of our yoga school, but fails to bring any real evidence in support of her shameless, false accusations.
As is common for those in the tiny group of ridiculous slanderers of the MISA yoga school, Chirilă does not fail to use the sleazy, unscrupulous methods of „media clowns” such as Cecilia Tiz or the dog-lawyer Rapcea. What is particularly grave, however, is that we are currently faced with an attempt to discredit our yoga school by cataloging it as a cult because it initiated the planetary saving program No Apocalypse! Considering its importance for the future of our planet, we believe that it is necessary to sanction the aberrations launched by Roxana Chirilă by offering a few logical and pertinent observations.

According to the declarations made on her personal blog, Chirilă attended the yoga course for seven-eight years. It would appear that in 2011, the translator quit and started, instead, to discredit and slander the MISA yoga school. We aren’t surprised by the fact that Chirilă associated herself with Cecilia Tiz, who has recently been condemned for calumny by a German court. In the summer of 2011, the former student Chirilă participated alongside sweet Cecilia in a sensationalist tabloid TV show in which they slandered our yoga school. In that show, Chirilă’s former yoga colleagues recognized her behind a „camouflage” done in poor taste and they were horrified by her hypocrisy and by the phantasmagorical lies that she spouted into the microphone.

On her personal blog, Chirilă laments, saying that she’s a victim of the MISA yoga school, but, aside from that, she is the one who, with humongous impertinence, attacks, discredits and slanders our yoga school. Although her slandering articles bring great prejudice against the image of our yoga school, Chirilă doesn’t bother bringing any palpable proof in support of the ineptitude and dirt with which she splatters the image of the MISA yoga school, basing her accusations only on the fact that people listen too readily to gossip and allow themselves to be filled with demoniac doubts even if the accusations lack logic and basis.

For example, in one of the texts that the translator posted on her blog, Chirilă describes her visit at a meeting of an anti-cult organization in France. The story happened in the autumn of 2012, when the former yoga student would have been invited as a witness to speak about MISA, which would be – in the distorted and confused view of the former student Chirilă, a cult.
Aside from the absurd fact (as any person with intelligence and common sense can see) that someone who was a student of letters until very recently, thus having absolutely no training in psychology or sociology, proclaims herself a cult expert, what is also revolting is the way in which so-called anti-cult organizations use such shady, ill-meaning and lying people in their fight against authentic spirituality.

Actually, there’s already a notoriety around the activity of some anti-cult organizations, such as FECRIS, or the French MIVILUDES, who, under the guise of a social battle they lead against cults and sects are actually leading a 21st century witch hunt against authentic spirituality.
Aside from the so-called „good” intentions that some of the anti-cult organizations proclaim, the gross way in which these organizations violate human rights and liberties in their rush to repress, violently and entirely unfairly, all spiritual minorities is already notorious, both in Europe and across the ocean. A majority of the researchers in this domain from all over the world noticed that the French anti-cult system is extremely suppressive, this position being pointed out every year by Asma Jahangir, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Supervision of Human Rights [translator’s note: Wikipedia says United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.]

Aside from the cults and sects that have already been recognized as dangerous for society, some elitist groups of occult interests (such as the satanic cult of freemasonry) use anti-cult organizations to control groups or associations of people who choose to live according to beneficial and harmonious spiritual and moral values, which our human society, in its current form, has lost in the storm of so-called „technological development”.

The position adopted by the former student Chirilă against our yoga school obliges us to remind everyone, and especially those who aren’t in the know, that the MISA yoga school hasn’t been, isn’t and (we believe) will never be a cult. Moreover, we find it necessary to underline that although the MISA yoga school has been continuously subjected, from its founding up until now, to a true media lynching and to immeasurable abuse and injustice from the Romanian State, our enemies have never found legal incriminating evidence because it simply doesn’t exist.
Because of this, one of the abject types of accusation used by the enemies of our yoga school to discredit its image is the slandering accusation that MISA is, actually, a cult. Although there are countless pieces of evidence that would completely dispel this false accusation, such as the detailed study made by the priest Karl Erik Nylund, the greatest cult expert, still, the rigorous research which demonstrates that the MISA yoga school does not have a cult-like quality is disregarded by the enslaved Romanian media, because politics dictates that MISA should be continuously discredited in front of Romanians.

Certainly, if those who wanted to condemn MISA at any cost had had at least one piece of solid evidence regarding the false and slandering accusations which they bring against MISA or against the yoga professor Gregorian Bivolaru, there would be no need for unstable and ill-intended people such as Chirilă, Rapcea or Tiz to parade themselves in the tabloid media to discredit the MISA yoga school in front of public opinion.

Several replies we consider to be necessary to dismantle the series of insinuations, slanders and aberrant accusations made by former student Chirilă, on the occasion of her abject and slandering conference in France

Last autumn, Chirilă participated in a FECRIS meeting in France, which was centered on cult visions of the so-called Biblical Apocalypse [translator’s note: Inaccurate. The theme was the Apocalypse in general, not the Biblical Apocalypse]. Seeing that some cults such as Jehova’s Witnesses are very attached to the idea of Apocalypse, to the end of the world and to the fact that only the members of those groups will be saved from an imminent and catastrophic death (which will happen for all mankind), we believe it to be necessary to draw one’s attention the the difference which exists between the way in which such cults see the Apocalypse, compared to the point of view of the MISA yoga school.

The style in which Chirilă’s so-called conference is written is manipulating and insidious, the former student spouting several aberrations to demonstrate the so-called association of the MISA yoga school with those cults which feel threatened by a possible Apocalypse and the „centers” of which gravitate around the fear of humanity’s total destruction and the salvation of those who „do what they must” alone, as the former student affirms. The forced association with this pessimistic perspective was based on the fact that our yoga school initiated the program No Apocalypse! From this point of view, we find it important to mention that, first of all, the program of planetary saving No Apocalypse is not compulsory for anyone who participates in the courses of our yoga school and the activity of our school does not center at all around a „fear of the Apocalypse”. [translator’s note: Incidentally, I never claimed the opposite]
Rather, we could say that due to the effects of the systematic practice of the yoga techniques offered through our courses, many human beings choose to overcome their egocentric attitude and their preoccupation with personal welfare alone, responding to, each according to their own possibilities, numerous beneficial calls, such as the one that pertains to applying the Supreme and Efficient Method.

Moreover, the Supreme and Efficient Method can be done by anybody who has faith in GOD and who wishes to convince him/herself of the miraculous effects of this method, even if that person isn’t or was never interested in yoga. Even this profoundly significant aspect on its own represents overwhelming proof of the fact that MISA is not a cult.

Considering the profound planetary transformations taking place during this time, which can be observed by anyone gifted with clarity and common sense, many students of our yoga school embraced the practice of the Supreme and Efficient Method, not because they believe they are heroes, as Chirilă insidiously affirms, but because any man who has a harmonious, beneficial, divinely oriented lifestyle can understand the truth lying behind the aphorism, „to know and fail to act is the supreme cowardice”.
It’s worth mentioning that, considering the current horrible spiritual decline of humanity, it is even more praiseworthy that within our school yoga is practiced in a profound manner, based on a vast and wise spiritual vision. The fruit of this practice is meant to make every individual feel responsible for the society he lives in, and this permits thousands of human beings to wish to become involved in the practice of such a pure and harmonious method.

The Supreme and Efficient Method is based on the third prophecy from Fatima, which contains a true apocalyptic warning made by the Virgin Mary which could, in the end, hold true if humanity doesn’t transform spiritually as soon as possible.
This prophecy truly exists, it was made in 1917, hundreds of thousands of people bore witness to the miracle of Fatima, and today this prophecy is hidden by elitist circles of occult interest which control our planet from the shadows and whose sovereignty is based precisely on maintaining the ignorance and naivety of the people of this planet.
Although some officials of the Catholic Church know this troubling prophecy, they won’t or they aren’t allowed to make everything public, being afraid of the repercussions.

The priest and theologian Malachi Martin, who was appreciated for his long-term collaboration with the Vatican, claimed that the Papacy hides a terrifying and shaking secret from humanity about the terrible apocalyptic punishment reserved for humanity if it doesn’t return to GOD with its entire soul: „when I was around Pope John the XXIIIrd, this paper was held in a box on the fireplace of the Pope’s private apartment in Rome.” It was Malachi Martin again who claimed that Pope John Paul the IInd didn’t agree with revealing the prophecy of the Virgin Mary, because „the message of the secret is very apocalyptic.”

Aside from the inertia and spiritual blindness manifested by Chirilă, who criticizes without research and practice, some of these so-called apocalyptic signs have already appeared and they can be noticed all over the planet.
In the past two years, there has been a worrying increase in natural catastrophes on our planet. Climatically speaking, the characteristics of the four seasons are turning less and less visible. In the past three years, the solar storms have been much greater than those we’ve known thus far, which made many scientists worry and wonder what would become of life on our planet if this accelerated heating of the sun continued? It is important to mention that during Mary’s appearance in Fatima, which was witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people, the Virgin Mary showed the people gathered there an apocalyptic vision in which the sun crashed down on the earth. On that occasion, as well as in other appearances of the Virgin Mary this century, she asked people to pray so that the sins of humanity may be forgiven and she told them to turn towards GOD.
Those divine visions from Fatima represent a significant warning for us humans and they deserve to be treated with all due attention, and if a united group of human beings, oriented towards good, willingly choose to practice the Supreme and Efficient Method, this doesn’t prove at all that the MISA yoga school is a cult.

MISA Is a Spiritual Yoga School

The theoretical and practical yoga courses, the valuable spiritual initiations, as well as the exceptional spiritual conferences that are offered by our yoga school are based on the principles and millenarian values of the yoga system, and their profoundly transforming effects can be felt by all those who are curious and willing to practice these yoga techniques systematically. Those who don’t make a minimal personal effort to practice these techniques will, obviously, feel no effects – and if they have a questionable character, they will start criticizing the yoga system. The criticism invented by, for example, by Roxana Chirilă is baseless and it only serves to hide gross techniques of manipulation which want to induce baseless demoniac doubts in all those who wish to get closer to yoga practice.
This is where we can place the association between MISA and the abject, manipulating and dirty hoax that was Caritas – this is a fantasy of Chirilă’s mind and it is entirely baseless. Among the fantastic comments made by the former student is one according to which our yoga school manipulates those who enroll in its courses, „catching them with an emotional hook” which tempts them by explaining how well they’ll do if they „leave themselves to MISA” (an expression which belongs to her).

Aside from Chirilă’s perverse insinuations, this manipulation might be true in the case of cults, but it is entirely false and non-existent in a yoga school such as MISA, the principles of which are based on authentic spiritual and moral values and on the profound transformation of the human being which cannot be obtained in any way but through personal spiritual practice. How could anybody in this school promise the „good” which pertains strictly to the rhythm, character and individual structure of each student? Anybody who practices yoga enthusiastically within our yoga school tries to keep in mind the famous aphorism „a gram of practice is worth tons of theory”. From this point of view, we would like to tell the former student that nobody, at any time or in any place will be responsible for her even if they wanted to, for her happiness or contentment, especially when she won’t bother to make even the tiniest effort towards self-knowledge.
In other words, we could deduce that Chirilă’s fears also show her immaturity and the extremely superficial and naive vision (which in her case comes close to pathology), with which the former student regards the activities in our yoga school.

The XXIst Century Inquisition

The more we look at the absurd accusations made by Chirilă during the FECRIS conference in France, the less we can abstain from noticing that either the translator is entirely misinformed, or she pretends to be so in order to discredit the image of the MISA yoga school at any cost.

We quote from the translator’s „masterpiece”: „Aside from that, I say, apocalypses differ… But they know that as well. MISA believes in aliens coming to help, in the photon belt which will swallow the earth and kill those who aren’t ready in December, in freemasons who manipulate everyone and who build all sorts of things underground to which they’ll evade, but they won’t be able to escape anyway. MISA believes in looming natural disasters and in the fact that soon enough we’ll enter not the New Age-like Age of Aquarius, but Satya Yuga, the spiritual age described by Indians.”

Aside from Chirilă’s unfounded aberrations, MISA is a yoga school and its values and principles are based on the ancient yogic tradition, not on New Age „beliefs”, as Chirilă tries to insinuate in a manipulating manner.
Actually, the recent „New Age” combines some spiritual truth with the fantasies in the heads of those who invented it, with the purpose of maintaining human beings far away from the authentic spirituality which we might consider to be represented by yoga, which has been successfully practiced for thousands of years.
Although this „New Age” has been embraced by some contemporary spiritual seekers, it is a hoax precisely because it isn’t based on either profound faith in GOD and or on belonging to an authentic spiritual path, as we can say is the case of the ancient science of yoga and within which there were some authentic spiritual guides who were able to transmit the pure knowledge they received from GOD.

Because within our yoga school we try to reach a global and profoundly spiritual integration of man in Creation and not just a materialistic and egocentric one, as the society we live on dictates, it isn’t at all coincidental that the increasingly profound discovery of GOD’s existence is the miracle that can be experienced by all those who practice yoga within MISA, being filled with pure, good intentions.
In other words, although we believe that it is naive to think that humans are alone in this Universe, Chirilă’s affirmations according to which MISA believes in aliens and in the whole string of oddities that she exposed is false, because the faith of any conscious yogi filled with noble aspirations lies in GOD.

Seeing that in the past two years there have been numerous sightings all over the world which demonstrate, in images, the presence of so-called amazing UFOs on the sky of the planet Earth, even the Russian prime minister Medvedev recently bid the US, publicly, to show the entire world their complex information concerning extraterrestrial visits on our planet.
In the context in which the presence of UFOs on our planet becomes more and more obvious to humans, why wouldn’t people in MISA be free to experiment as they will with some meditations of communion with beneficial extraterrestrial beings?

Also, it is worth mentioning that the very special calls made to contact highly spiritual extraterrestrial civilizations that take place at the end of yogic YANG spirals are open to all those who are curious and wish to experience such sublime telepathic communications personally. This altruistic feeling that the students in our yoga school have for those who, although they aren’t interested in yoga, still wish to convince themselves of the existence of good aliens, represents a clear proof that MISA does not have a dogmatic, rigid and cultish character.

The photon belt is not an invention of our yoga school. The probability of such a „photon belt” existing in the universe, having a complex relationship with solar systems and developing cyclically and the fact that this has already been scientifically proved by the researcher Gregg Baden don’t demonstrate in any way that MISA is a cult. Anybody who freely chooses to study the theory of the photon belt can do this on specialized internet sites, and practicing yoga is not a requirement.

Chirilă’s accusations are nonsense, because freely chosen beliefs do not demonstrate cultish traits in any way, especially if these convictions are willingly embraced and don’t presuppose a separation or isolation from society. They are manifested rather as a freely assumed and creative vision on life and one’s surroundings.
Aside from that, the MISA yoga school never and under any form supported the aberration claimed by Chirilă according to which „the photon belt will kill those who aren’t ready”. This is a fatalistic description, a fantastic and inept one which counters all ethical, moral and spiritual yogi values and principles that form the basis of MISA activities.

We consider that the accusation that MISA believes in freemasons who manipulate everyone is tendentious and manipulating. Today there is much undeniable evidence about the intentions and criminal plans of the satanic cult of freemasonry. The fact that some people in our yoga school took a stand against the worldwide manipulation done by the so called „Illuminati”, exposing, in several articles, the amount of overwhelming evidence concerning the danger represented by the satanic cult of freemasonry is not singular at all. Anyone who wishes to study the issue of the elitist worldwide conspiracy more closely can do it via the thousands of written papers as well as on many internet sites, a huge number of written texts as well as videos are at their disposal for discovering information about the evil plans of the masonry, which are exposed clearly, in a Machiavellian manner, in the canonical propagandist paper „The Protocols of the Freemason Masters”. Far from being cultish, the preoccupation with the good of our society and the desire to draw attention to the perversity, manipulation and corruption that exist in the world today because of the insidious infiltration of the masonic mentality in all the areas of our lives renders salutary and even brave the initiative of some of the students of our school to draw attention to the villainies of the masonry, considereing the context of a sleeping society which is enslaved by gross, materialistic habits.

The Sanskrit term SATYA YUGA belongs to the ancient Hindu spiritual tradition and, regardless of former student Chirilă’s manipulating words, using this term doesn’t demonstrate the fact that MISA is a cult at all. In our yoga school, just as in the ancient yogi tradition, that term is used to represent a certain period in the history of humanity and seeing that MISA is a yoga school based on the ancient yogi science, it is natural that in some descriptions it would have borrowed the basic terms which define them.

Aside from Chirilă’s abject and petty accusations, we ask ourselves with concern what authority belongs to those who listened to the translator and how ready these people are to judge what is and what isn’t cultish behavior?

Condemning the freely assumed beliefs of some people who simply open their eyes and wish to see something other than what the corrupt and politically enslaved media dictates in such a clear, violent and annihilating manner constitutes a gross lack of recognition for the fundamental rights of citizens. What is also worth emphasizing is that this theft of „spiritual freedom” which insidiously happens under our very eyes is a true contemporary inquisition and the slandering conference in France held by the former student Chirilă is extra evidence that proves that human beings are on the brink of losing their right to free association and faith in the hands of some materialistic, half-learned people.

(to be continued)

The FECRIS Conference

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 09:22:54 +0000

This blog will mostly be in Romanian, but since my conference in Perpignan was in English and it’ll take awhile before I get around to translating it, I figured I might post the text as-is.

Two things:

You may use the text of this conference as you wish – as long as you don’t modify it and you attribute it to me (and it would be nice if you also specified the context). Re-post it, criticize it, publish it – be my guests. If you’re doing something with it online, a link back would be very nice. If you’re doing something interesting with it, I enjoy being told. But if I’m unavailable for comment or whatever, just assume you have my permission.

For further info (or for criticism or whatever), I am available here, or at roxmchirila (at) yahoo (dot) com.

This written text is what I planned on reading at the conference. However, when I found myself there, I chose to speak freely. The obvious side-effect is that there are discrepancies between what I wrote and what I said – mostly in wording, although there are a few things in writing that never got to show up in the actual speech (the Benedict Anderson comment, the invocation from the „No Apocalypse” technique, the reference to the article on Yogaesoteric.net).

This IS the official written version, though, which I sent for publication on the FECRIS site and which will be published in the Traspasos magazine (translated in Spanish).

And here is the conference:

The Emotional Apocalypse:
A Quick View of MISA and its Apocalypse(s)

An apocalypse is an emotional event. I am referring here not to the usual meaning of the word apocalypse, the death of mankind, the destruction of civilization, the end of our world. Instead, I am referring to the phenomenon that occurs when a sect makes the end of the world a part of its doctrine: a very specific apocalypse is prepared for and it becomes part of the mentality and everyday life of a restricted, local group of people. Benedict Anderson once explained that most communities we are part of are too large for us to personally know every other person involved in them (“Imagined Communities”) – thus we imagine communities, feeling a kinship with others who live in the same territory, speak the same language, have the same beliefs – or even share the same apocalypse.

An apocalypse is a local solution for generalized problems and desires. It connects to the fear of death, translated into larger scale death and destruction that can paradoxically make the individual feel more in control of his or her personal destiny. An apocalypse is a judgment of value that will decide once and for all who are the virtuous and who are the sinful, who was right in their belief and who was wrong. An apocalypse is a chance to fight against evil and to prove oneself a savior, a worthy person or a hero who can withstand any challenge.

While sect apocalypses are many and vary according to the specifics of each sect’s teachings, the core of the various scenarios for the end of the world remains the same and it generally forms a knot of emotions and meanings, of concepts and desires and fears. It is my belief that in order to begin defusing the concept of the apocalypse it generally will not be enough to bring proof against the pet apocalyptic theory of the group – it is also necessary to understand how that apocalypse came to be believed and what its implications are for those members.

I will be addressing the issue as a former student of the Romanian MISA yoga school – in other words, as a former sect member of an orientally-flavored group that believes it has already averted at least two large-scale disasters and is working hard to delay or stop the 2012 Apocalypse. One averted disaster would have taken place in 1996, when an asteroid would have hit the earth, and another one would have been a devastating earthquake that would have destroyed a great part of Romania – MISA yogis believe that they have managed to avert both disasters by meditating and praying against them. Now they are meditating, praying and invoking God’s grace to avert or delay the 2012 apocalypse.

To better understand the concept of this particular apocalypse and how it relates to the rest of the sect beliefs, it is necessary to have some background of the MISA yoga school. It has been established in 1990 under the name of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute and it was one of the first sources of oriental philosophy and spiritual practices in the country, all oriental disciplines having been banned during the communist regime that lasted until the end of 1989. Yoga classes are held once a week – at the end of a year of study, those who have attended enough classes automatically graduate into a superior year (today the highest ‘yoga year’ is 23). Due to its good timing and course-like structure, it boasts a high number of intellectuals who attended or continue attending its classes. MISA also organizes yoga camps, conferences, shows, courses on traditional Indian medicine, astrology or spirituality-related topics, as well as student groups that have as purpose the improvement of the master-disciple relationship, or the personal improvement of women. Eventually, students are led to believe that they can find the answer to most questions and life situations within the sect, that the leader Gregorian Bivolaru knows anything of all possible subjects and can suggest better alternatives than those found outside and that anything in the world can either be incorporated into the sect, or is based on false knowledge. They gradually come to believe that they are better than „normal people” and that going back to the world, back to normal interests or interacting on a normal level would maybe affect their spiritual level.

Despite the fact that MISA calls itself a yoga school, the theoretical teachings are also drawn from other traditions – the Hindu Shiva and Shakti are worshiped along with Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Other teachings are drawn from New Age beliefs or conspiracy theories, such as neo-Tantric sexual techniques, beliefs in benevolent aliens coming to the aid of humankind, a belief in freemasonry taking over the world and trying to bring MISA to its knees. Bivolaru and the higher-up circle of the sect (the big name instructors and VIPs) attempt to transform these elements into a single, coherent whole, but occasionally problems of doctrine can arise. Often, discrepancies or contradictions are smoothed over by modifying the texts of other spiritual traditions to make it seem as if MISA ideas are universally supported.

However, even when contradictions do appear, they are usually glossed over and ignored because MISA yogis are encouraged not to research matters thoroughly, but to swallow what they can of the theory – and practice according to what their higher-ups recommend. There is an enormous amount of written courses, books, brochures, conferences and articles written on a wide range of topics, but the core of MISA beliefs is actually orally transmitted, sometimes with short aphorisms attached for easier memorizing and quicker responses to issues.

For example, „one gram of practice is worth more than tons of theory”: the yogi is led to believe that if he or she does what the instructors or especially Gregorian Bivolaru say, then they will evolve quickly. Then, the much sought-after evolution is judged by the „states” that the yogi has: „A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds and the yogi by his states”. The elusive „state” is a mood/sentiment/condition in which the student can find oneself – the state of happiness, the state of wisdom, the super-mental state, the state of communion with God. Yogis are encouraged to become over-sexual, because „sex energy is the basic energy of life”. MISA yogis are also encouraged to feel rather than to trust their logic skills – „The mind lies”. They are encouraged to blindly follow Gregorian Bivolaru as well („the chance of encountering a true spiritual master is the same as that of a sea turtle that comes up to breathe every one hundred years and even then manages to bump its head on a floating piece of wood”).

In this context, all possible apocalypses can be averted by using methods proposed by Gregorian Bivolaru, which will involve asking for God’s help in the matter. The success of communicating with God will be judged by the ‘states’ that the yogi will have during meditations/invocations (feeling better, feeling light, feeling life). Not believing in the apocalypse due to disbelief would be succumbing to the mind’s lies, the mind’s so-called stupidity.

MISA’s concept of the Apocalypse is, like much of its doctrine, orally transmitted and made up of various elements taken from vastly different contexts. December 2012 is seen as a time when the world will move into a new era – the Hindu Satya Yuga -, a spiritual age in which the Earth will enter the photon belt, which will kill all those who are not spiritually prepared for the event. Benevolent aliens are offering their help to mankind and must be told that their help is accepted through meditations in which an affirmative answer is transmitted to them. There will be a number of natural disasters, which will mostly happen anywhere but in Romania, but all this can be averted through the prayers and invocations of MISA yogis – the Apocalypse can be delayed and drawn out for the good of all mankind with just a gram of practice and the grace of God. At the same time, the freemasons, a group of people who wish to enslave humanity, are also aware of these imminent disasters and are building underground structures to defend themselves – but some of these underground structures were destroyed due to God’s will, which was prompted by the meditations and invocations of MISA yogis.

Even if when summarized this entire theory looks more than unlikely, the yogi comes in contact with it gradually and will be likely to believe at least part of it, if not all of it. However, the apocalypse as a whole is a somewhat secondary and optional belief in the MISA system – the topics which are universally accepted and which form the MISA doctrine are usually related to sexuality, conspiracies or the personal effort made to evolve spiritually. Even so, the half-believed in apocalypse still has an influence on the mentality of yogis, who will pray and meditate against it and mention it often enough in conversation.

The fact that they discuss and consider it even if they are not entirely convinced by it is due to the fact that the apocalypse is a ‘strong’ idea. We live in a culture where we are very familiar with end of the world scenarios due to films and other media, as well as due to a Christian tradition that speaks of the end of the world. More than that, the local apocalypse of a sect will connect to three ideas that have strong emotional attachments: 1. the personal fear of death, generalized to the picture of everybody dying; 2. a judgment of all those who die (either in the sense of somebody judging, or of only the worthy ones surviving/going to heaven); 3. the hero aspect of the cult follower, who battles the forces of evil in an ultimate setting.

As far as the first aspect, that of death, is concerned, the individual shifts the uncertainty of their own future existence (we all know we’re going to die, but we don’t know when or how or what will happen afterwards) into the certainty of an outside event that will affect everybody. This has the paradoxical potential of making personal death seem more manageable – on the one hand, major events can seem escapable; on the other hand, the person will be surrounded by many others and at least will not face non-existence alone. Still, the death-aspect isn’t the one that MISA focuses on.

The second aspect is that of judgment – whether the apocalypse is the Christian one in which good men go to heaven, or the photon belt one in which only spiritual people survive, there will be some sort of measuring by which the individual is weighted and his or her value is established. The reward at the end would justify present problems and give a meaning to all suffering or discomforts that may arise on the way. For example, the image of MISA in Romania is that of a sex-obsessed, pee-drinking group of pseudo-yogis worshiping the guru (which is not that far from the truth) and adepts have to live with the unpleasant labeling. Some yogis have experienced health problems or mental problems, but they are considered tests which will make them all the better and stronger at the end. Sometimes adepts are asked to do things like working for free or near-prostitution (pole dancing and erotic videochat for women), or they are urged sternly to go through difficult practices on a daily basis. However, to members these can appear not as degradations or abuse, but as stepping stones to achieve a spiritual level that will eventually have divine validation when the yogi survives the apocalypse or defends himself from freemasonry-related disasters or becomes enlightened. The deeper the yogi goes in these practices, the more likely he is to keep believing in the system, in the apocalypse, in the guru in order to give a meaning to difficulties, ascetic practices and suffering. The desire to have all of these things be true grows as time goes by in order to maintain the person’s inner equilibrium and to validate their lifestyle.

The third aspect is the heroic aspect: MISA yogis are always meditating, praying and invoking forces to help the planet or mankind. They can see themselves as noble heroes that save the world even if the world doesn’t know it. More than that, they see themselves as battling their own lower aspects and evolving in the face of demonic influence, the apocalypse, the difficulty of living in what they think is a fallen, materialistic age. Not only are they validated, as we have seen above, but they can see themselves as people who are to some measure pure and good.

The apocalypse now established, there are two further issues to be taken into consideration: how to react to it and what happens if the apocalypse does or does not occur. Due to the fact that MISA believes that any destiny can be changed if one knows how to act, MISA yogis attempt to avert the death aspect through a ritual technique described by Gregorian Bivolaru („the supreme and efficient method”) as part of a long program stretching over years: the “Planetary Program of Urgent Action: No to the Apocalypse!!!” (also published as a brochure) Persuasion is used to convince students to do the technique at home or at work.

The technique contains invocations of angels, the Holy Ghost and a prayer-like invocation directed towards God which asks him to forgive the sins of humanity. Sample invocation: „I invoke, here and now, with a full, profound and strong faith, the mysterious manifestation of God’s grace in my being and I strongly aspire to feel ever more clearly and intensely its accumulation in my inner universe. I am profoundly and fully convinced that this is happening due to the miraculous help that the heavenly father – God – is offering to me.” (Bivolaru 95)

On MISA’s official website, there is an article called „10 reasons to perform the Supreme and Efficient Method”, signed by Maxim Hongell that enumerates ten reasons for involving oneself in the program:

The love for our planet and for humanity.
The privilege and responsibility granted by the fact that one knows about the technique and the apocalypse.
One’s faith in God – if the disciples believe in God, then they should believe he can save the world as well, if asked to do it.
Assuring the continuity of life.
A good impact on the general state of the planet and of humanity – since disciples are praying for the forgiveness of sins.
Elevating the vibration level of the planet and of humanity.
The excellence of the Supreme and Efficient Method – it is so good that it should be practiced at least twice a day and should have priority in one’s spiritual practice.
Doing what the spiritual master says – and thus evolving spiritually
The efficiency of group action
Personal spiritual evolution due to helping out the rest of the world.

We can see here that the death-aspect is mentioned, but only through negatives: the technique will abate death. The heroic aspect is underlined: yogis will be able to save the world. Also, they will become better people by doing so. An interesting addition is the fact that by doing the technique one follows the master, thus evolving more rapidly.

One can ask why yogis would willingly go through a time-consuming technique even if they’re not certain that the end for which it is employed is actually real. This question is actually connected to why yogis – and sect members in general – would follow techniques and orders and allow somebody to dictate their lives. A scholar of emotions, William Reddy, suggests that they do so in order to avoid emotional conflicts: strict regulations sacrifice freedom, but allow the individual to become more stable and less vulnerable when they are confronted with problematic issues (125, 126). In this case, MISA yogis can feel that they are less vulnerable in the face of death and social failure – if they fail in the ’normal’ world, they can always make up for it by following a few easy steps to become heroes in the MISA world.

It is emotions, and not beliefs, that make them go through the motions of averting the apocalypse, or meditate with the guru, or work for free for MISA, or even, in the case of women, prostitute themselves because Gregorian Bivolaru asks them to do it. As Nico Fridja put it, “What is wrong with death, other than it is disliked?”(qtd. in Reddy 21). What is wrong with any course of action, in fact, other than we like or dislike the outcome? Even if we proceed in a rational manner, weighing options and collecting data, then acting upon the information we have, what we are trying to achieve is determined emotionally.

Conversely, our emotions can make us prioritize the information we receive – we can take or leave data, believe it or disbelieve it, at least to a point, depending on our emotions connected to that data and to data that would contradict it (Yudkowsky). Even worse, we may have a tendency to look at a conclusion and then find evidence to support it, therefore rationalizing our favored data. So, even if MISA yogis can see that we are in October 2012 and people are not yet dying the way they were supposed to according to doctrine, they can rationalize the situation. They can conclude that the reason the apocalypse does not seem to happen is that they averted it, like they made an asteroid change course and a devastating earthquake disappear. They can also look for signs of the apocalypse and interpret anything unpleasant they discover in that key: if there are unidentified lights in the sky, they must be alien ships. If there is a new epidemic (like swine flu), it is a sign of impending doom and the one of the Biblical signs of the end of the world. They have taken steps concerning the end of the world: now whether anything happens or not, it can confirm their belief – if they want it to. The question that arises is whether they are sufficiently attached to the apocalypse to desire that to be the outcome of their reasoning.

The apocalypse will change the individual’s world view – it depends on them if they are willing or able to change it back. Whether the MISA yogi believes wholeheartedly in the apocalypse or not, the idea of impeding doom modifies their perception to the point where disasters and sudden deaths would not be unexpected. They come to see MISA techniques as being very powerful and they believe that they can do anything with them, but „they do not work enough”. This means that in case anybody becomes physically or mentally ill, the situation is blamed on their not using the techniques enough or properly.

For example, two MISA yogis, Cristina Gaina and Diana Dobrin, who were famous enough and who had starred in MISA porn films that were supposed to ‘sexually educate’ the world, died of breast cancer. Their getting ill was blamed on emotional issues (Cristina Gaina was known to be somewhat harsh, while Diana Dobrin had had relationship issues with one of the MISA VIPs) and they sought medical advice from Gregorian Bivolaru, who warned them against going to normal doctors and getting the common treatment. When they died, it was believed to be because they did not manage to resolve their emotional and spiritual issues – as I have mentioned about, ‘states’ are the measure by which the evolution of a MISA yogi is judged and it is supposed that a perfect yogi is safe from all physical harm. Also, two other yogis killed themselves – Attila Nagy and Mihaela Diaconescu. Their deaths were mostly glossed over and blamed on ‘demoniac influences’. Also, there are numerous other yogis who have many physical or psychological problems, but their problems are seen as arising from their spiritual imperfections. There are few questions asked about their cases because they are considered ‘atypical’ of yogis.

There are many ‘hooks’ that can play on the fears and desires of sect members and make them wish to believe in what they are told. The solution, in my opinion, would not be to prove that each hook is false: after all, there will always be some hook that can catch the individual, whether it is the religious one, or the materialistic one (the basis of gambling games), or any other one. The solution would be to go to the heart of the matter: the apocalypse, like the sect, is mostly an emotional phenomenon – we must solve that. It is a battle of what we want to believe against what we should believe in. If we want to believe something, then we will rationalize in order to prove to ourselves that the situation is as we picture it to be. Therefore, an approach to resolve this issue would be to attempt to convince people to seek to believe what is true, not to seek proof that what they believe is true. The solution is not an attack against the apocalypse – it is a local phenomenon, an emotional phenomenon and it can be fought against again and again without getting very far, but an attempt to convince individuals to test and retest what they believe in before they commit to it. A healthy dose of looking at one’s emotional triggers can help ‘vaccinate’ against apocalypses, sects – and all other unhealthy hooks that catch emotional attachments.

Works cited:

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print.
Bivolaru, Gregorian. The Planetary Program for Urgent Action „No to the Apocalypse!!!” Vol. 1. N.p.: Natha House, 2011. Web. .
Hongell, Maxim. „10 Reasons to Perform the Supreme and Efficient Method.” YogaEsoteric. N.p., 10 Mar. 2012. Web. .
Reddy, William M. The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.
Yudkowsky, Eliezer. „Affective Death Spirals.” Less Wrong. N.p., 2 Dec. 2007. Web. .