Virgil Cătălin Călin on Roxana-Mălina Chirilă

Un salut către Yogaesoteric

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:24:08 +0000

Astăzi, 14 ianuarie 2013, am fost pomenită în mod oficial de către cineva din MISA. Nu e prima oară când mi se întâmplă, dar e prima oară când mi se dă numele. E o ocazie care merită comemorată. Beau, la fel ca Mihai Rapcea, un ceai negru în cinstea voastră!

Prima oară m-a pomenit Mihai Stoian, liderul Natha (ramura daneză a MISA) și unul din personajele importante din filmul erotico-artistic „The Magic Passage” pe blogul lui:

However, we now have direct information from the case file confirming that the three main complaints were made by Virgil Calin, Cecilia Tiz (a proven collaborator of the Romanian Secret Service and convicted for calumnies against the yoga school in Germany by a german court). The last complaint was from a previously unknown Romanian person that has never been in the school but was recently used by some anti-sect movements (some that were publicly exposed in international forums for using unethical methods – i have personally witnessed such exposure of the organization cooperating with this romanian) .

Adică, pe graiul nostru care mult e dulce și frumos, vorba cântecului:

Însă, acum avem informații direct din dosar care confirmă că cele trei plângeri principale au fost făcute de Virgil Călin, Cecilia Tiz (o colaboratoare dovedită a Serviciului Secret Român și condamnată pentru calomnii împotriva școlii de yoga în Germania de un tribunal german). Ultima plângere a fost din partea unei persoane române, necunoscute înainte, care nu a făcut niciodată parte din școală, dar care a fost folosită recent de niște mișcări anti-secte (unele dintre care au fost expuse public pe forumuri internaționale pentru că foloseau metode lipsite de etică – eu personal am fost martorul unei astfel de expuneri a organizației care colaborează cu această persoană română.

Când am citit chestia asta am rămas nedumerită – o fi fost vorba de mine au ba? Că vorba aia, eu, spre deosebire de Mihai Stoian, știu cine sunt. Și știu că am fost la curs. Mai am legitimații și alte povești. Poze cu Ioan Pohariu de la o filmare, chestii de-astea. Mă mai știe lumea. Dar aia cu anti-sectele se potrivea (am avut legături doar cu FECRIS, dar nici Stoian nu se poate decide dacă persoana în cauză a colaborat cu o organizație sau mai multe). Să fie oare vorba de mine?…

Am întrebat în jur. Unii au fost de părere că aș fi eu, alții că nu. Și eu nu știam că aș fi avut cine știe ce influență asupra italienilor!…

Dar uite că și Yogaesotericul confirmă, într-un (nou!) articol despre Virgil Cătălin Călin:

Dar este necesar să se ştie că aceasta nu este tot: dincolo de aceste aspecte elementare pe care vi le-am prezentat aici şi care sunt, așa cum se spune, „la mintea cocoşului”, s-a aflat de curând chiar de la avocații școlii de yoga din Italia că, atunci când au avut ocazia să studieze dosarul (de îndată ce li s-a permis accesul la respectivul dosar), au găsit acolo și declarațiile în mod aberant incriminatoare ale lui Pinocchio-Cătălin! În plus, un element oarecum surprinzător şi chiar nebunesc rămâne pentru noi implicarea (ce a fost de asemenea descoperită din parcurgerea dosarului incipient) a „maha-cutrei” Cecilia Tiz, precum și a unei foste cursante din România, pe nume Roxana Chirilă!

Când am citit asta, am sărit în sus: EU ERAM! Cine e capul răutăților la MISA, împreună cu Cecilia Tiz și Cătălin Călin? Eu sunt! Merită un tango sau nu? Un tango… de Voltaire (nu, nu francezul).

Dar să lăsăm gluma. Articolul în sine e atât de lung încât dacă aș fi fost pomenită undeva mai jos ar fi trebuit să mă anunțe alții că s-a vorbit de mine. Apar un pariu cu Virgil Cătălin Călin că n-a dat bani către MISA, multe acuzații, steluțe strălucitoare în ochișorii lui Nicușor Catrina când vorbește de măreția cursului și de măreția lui Gregorian Bivolaru și ideea repetată că V. Călin ar fi un Pinocchio cu orgoliul uriaș. Se pare că aia cu Virgil Călin, Bucătarul nu le-a mers, că nu era destul de caustică. Pe lângă Mahacutra și Avocățel, un simplu bucătar? Nu, trebuia să găsească ceva mai rău. Încă mai caută, se pare.

Sincer, știu prea puține despre Virgil Cătălin Călin. Dacă nu-l confund cu altcineva, ultima oară l-am văzut pe la Costinești acum mai mulți ani și nu mi-a lăsat o impresie prea bună. El nici măcar nu cred că m-a știut vreodată. I-am tradus răspunsurile către YE în engleză pentru că mi s-a părut interesant ce zicea. Înseamnă oare că-l cred întru totul, pentru eternitate, că am senzația că e îngeraș pentru eternitate? Nu. Dar are din partea mea încrederea pe care i-o acorzi unui om oarecare.

În schimb Yogaesoteric & co. nu au din partea mea niciun fel de încredere. De prea multe ori ne-au aburit în față, sau au făcut presupuneri bazate pe fapte pe care le-au auzit de cine știe unde – Cecilia Tiz, condamnată în Germania! Articole conspiraționiste preluate din Academia Cațavencu! Sau, dacă nu vă convine, uitați-vă cu câtă siguranță spune Stoian că n-am fost la curs, pentru ca YE să-l contrazică după câteva zile, cu la fel de multă siguranță. Asta e MISA. Mereu siguri… fără să aibă siguranța de nicăieri.

Elementar, dragă YE. Dacă ești prins la cotitură îți scade credibilitatea.

"Sucker Love is Heaven Sent" – A Romanian Yoga Cult Under Investigation

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:48:07 +0000

„Sucker Love is Heaven Sent” – A Romanian Yoga Cult Under Investigation

MISA spiral meditation -- thousands of people holding hands

In Romania, MISA has a dark and worrying public image: an orgiastic, pee-drinking yoga movement, full of strange, incomprehensible practices, spiral meditations, brainwashing and master-worship. The Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute, founded in 1990, has often been featured in the media after it came into public attention in 2004 when the police broke into and searched a number of MISA homes in Bucharest.

The legal prosecution against MISA and its guru, Gregorian Bivolaru, includes accusations such as sex with a minor girl, tax evasion and illegal crossing of the border. Bivolaru escaped to Sweden, where he managed to convince the Swedish court that the violence of the media against him, as well as the context of a post-communist country and the unexpected and rough treatment MISA received in 2004 at the hands of the police involved in the searches were proof enough of his being persecuted in his home country. Due to this, he received political asylum and he supposedly lives in Malmo, Sweden – although former members point out that his actual location may be Paris, France.

The (In)Famous MISA and Its Even More (In)Famous Guru, Gregorian Bivolaru

Although the media boom concerning MISA happened in 2004, riding a wave of scandalous sex stories and abhorrent pee-related practices, a bit of journalistic digging revealed it as an unsafe religious movement much earlier on. One article published in 1993 in the Tinerama magazine was illustrated by a picture of the great guru Gregorian Bivolaru involved in a sex act with a faceless woman. The article informs us that the photo was used by Gregorian Bivolaru as tuition material for new yoga students – and that Bivolaru was involved in trafficking pornography and seeking out women for perverted practices.

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Gregorian Bivolaru, top right, demonstrating Tantric sex -- Tinerama, 1993

While other articles were published about Bivolaru and MISA over the years, they had little effect when it came to informing the general public and the guru and his ever-growing yoga movement. Thousands of people of all ages were attracted by the possibility of learning about yoga and Eastern practices from what seemed to be a legitimate school. Little did many of them know that the printed courses and brochures they received were plagiarized and that their master was ‘initiating’ his young female yogis sexually.

Those who started attending MISA yoga classes were first presented with entrancing ideas about spirituality, among which were Tantric sexuality and the idealized, divine romantic love. The concepts served as the foundation on which later on other ideas were added to construct a world-view in which sexual energy is the basic energy of life, which must be controlled in very specific ways. Sexual ecstasy became a spiritual endeavor. Once sex became entirely regulated by MISA, women would be invited to sleep with Bivolaru or to become erotic videochat workers, masturbating online for the pleasure of paying men. At one point, women started being sent to Japan to work as hostesses in night bars or even strip dancers – following their success in earning money for MISA, these „spiritual activities” became widely spread and women were also sent to strip in European bars, or even the Bucharest Lucky Love, MISA’s own night club.

A Lucky Love promotion video:

This involvement in sex biz, initially kept secret from the world at large and from many low-level members, started being revealed after the police interventions in 2004, when members and former members of MISA profited from the anonymity of the internet to share stories of their yoga school and their yoga teachers. After long debates about the better and worse sides of MISA and the founding of the Exmisa forum, a large amount of information was gathered and shared with the press. This eventually led to MISA tightening its grip on members and introducing strong thought-control methods to force its students to stay in place. Bivolaru’s conferences started speaking out against the „gossip” around the questionable activities and eventually against „demoniac doubts” which made yogis doubtful about his authenticity – and, implicitly, that of the school. Some members were punished for their beliefs – such as kicking out high-profile student Mihai Rapcea, once Gregorian Bivolaru’s lawyer, who published a number of articles voicing his concerns about MISA’s policies and activities on his personal blog.

Over time, the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute provoked new scandals internationally by its continued involvement in sex biz and its shady practices. In India, the MISA yoga center was closed when Mihai and Adina Stoian, the leaders of the Denmark branch of MISA, were supposed to hold a yoga camp there. The two yoga instructors, and also porn stars, had to flee the country before they could be caught by the police. MISA was also involved in a media scandal in Argentina and it was the sex biz side of the organization that got it kicked out of the International Yoga Federation. Currently, MISA is being thoroughly investigated by the Italian Antimafia Commission.

The Italian MISA Investigation: 25 Locations Searched, Gregorian Bivolaru a Suspect

The Prosecutor in Florence, Angela Pietroiusti, filed charges of conspiracy, enslavement, human trafficking and sexual violence against MISA – charges not much different from the human trafficking and sexual perversions with a minor that Gregorian Bivolaru has been accused of in Romania.

According to former Italian MISA-affiliated instructor, Virgil Cătălin Călin, the investigation started when a number of MISA students filed complaints because somebody had placed porn DVDs of MISA students on their cars while they attended Mihai Stoian’s conference in Italy. Instead of getting the wrong-doer arrested, they found themselves under investigation after they admitted that the porn actors were their colleagues. While Călin doesn’t specify which MISA porn film this was, it should be mentioned that Mihai Stoian starred in „The Magic Passage” and „Ecstasy Water” along with his wife, Adina Stoian.

Gregorian Bivolaru in the Lotus position

The investigation grew in scope from this initial report and, on the sixth and seventh of December 2012, it led to 25 raids across Italy against the Italian branches of MISA – searches were performed in MISA quarters and suspect homes in Bologna, Florence, Milan, San Benedetto del Tronto and Bari. Eighteen people, ‘spiritual master’ Gregorian Bivolaru included, are suspected for enslavement and sexual abuse.

The official MISA website, Yogaesoteric, blamed the Italian investigation on vengeance from Virgil Cătălin Călin and disclaimed any connection with either prostitution or pornography. This might simply be a matter of the MISA perspective: members will be more likely to consider their own explicit films art rather than pornography. While the „Making Off”[sic!] for „The Magic Passage” (starring Mihai and Adina Stoian) has been taken offline, another film, „Ecstasy Water”, carries forwards MISA beliefs about sexuality and spirituality.

„Ecstasy Water” depicts pee games, spiritual teachings and group sexual practices. The storyline revolves around a disciple learning the Tantric path under the guidance of a true spiritual master, played by renowned MISA actor Ioan Pohariu. There are some connections between the spiritual master in the film and Gregorian Bivolaru himself – Pohariu’s character demonstrates his paranormal abilities by making a compass spin through the power of his thoughts alone, something that Gregorian Bivolaru himself has claimed to be able to do. (Sequences of the film can be found on pornhub – please do not click the link unless you are over the age of consent in your country)

However, the Italian investigation is not about the morality or immorality of these practices. As an investigator puts it, “Liberation through sex? That isn’t a problem.” Although MISA yogis seem to believe that they are persecuted because of a misunderstanding of their spirituality or because the evil Satanic cult of the freemasons is afraid of them, the Italian investigator says, “sex itself is certainly not under investigation. But if it becomes a tool to commit abuse against other people, to enslave some, exploit others, the issue changes profoundly. Especially if it turns out that some people are emotionally fragile on a psychological level.”

One of the problems with psychological abuse, however, is that it is hard to find the fine line between consent and coercion. According to December 10 article in Firenze Today, students and instructors from the raided centers described MISA sexual practices as “necessary for spiritual evolution”. However, 10 witnesses, aged 20 to 30, both men and women, discussed psychological subservience, violent sex acts and being filmed without their knowledge or consent during sex. The usage of the secretly filmed footage is under investigation, but there is a theory saying that they were sold as adult films.

A worrying case is discussed by former instructor Virgil Călin. One of the women enrolled in the MISA courses in Italy was invited to meet with Gregorian Bivolaru. Călin warned her no to go, but she had heard from other women that meeting her spiritual master was a ‘great occasion to evolve’ – thus, wanting to get closer to God and to her own self, she accepted the invitation. Popular stories in MISA say that women sleeping with Bivolaru evolve very rapidly, because their auras mix with their master’s and his spiritual achievements will be partially transferred to them. However, the Italian woman’s story was not one of divine sex – once she was face to face with Bivolaru, she was offered two large glasses of strong liquor that got her intoxicated. During sex, she felt ill and asked him to stop, which he didn’t do. When he asked her to pee on him and she couldn’t, he told her she was „a very stupid person” and blamed her inability on demonic possession.

Obviously, this was far from the spiritual and enlightened behavior she had expected – far enough for her to share her story in front of a yoga instructors’ meeting in Italy, prompting others to share their own worrying experiences. This very quickly led to most of the Italian branch of MISA splitting away from Bivolaru’s tutelage.

MISA Demands Justice

Despite the evidence of abuse and of immoral practices, MISA students continue to demand justice and freedom of thought and religion. A number of core believers profess their love for Gregorian Bivolaru, their trust in him as a spiritual leader and their persecution at the hands of the authorities, of the media and of the world in general. They believe that their phones are tapped, that their activities are under surveillance, that at least the Romanian Intelligence Service is trying to bring them down by fabricating evidence.

On the 18th of December, they caroled in front of the building where one of their lawsuits was judged, demanding justice and favorable verdicts. Today, on the 21st of December 2012, they expect a worldwide transformation which doesn’t yet seem to be happening. One cannot doubt the earnestness with which most strong-going MISA members support their favorite causes, the strength of their beliefs and their love for MISA and their spiritual master. While I am certain that they see these as qualities, looking back on some who claimed to have donated tens or hundreds of thousands of euros, or goods and time and money, to MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru, and on the women who slept with their master from love of the man himself and from love of God, I cannot help but hum, along with Placebo, „Sucker love is heaven sent”.

Happy Doomsday.

– Roxana-Mălina Chirilă
21.XII.2012

Virgil Călin breaks the silence and responds to MISA. New disclosures about the inquiry in Italy – Part II

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:30:05 +0000

[Roxana Chirilă’s note: This is the follow-up of the article I’ve just posted before this one, and it contains some new disclosures from Virgil Cătălin Călin. They were initially posted on Rapcea’s blog one day apart, but I got to both of them now, hence the speed. If you have any connection to MISA, keep reading. This stuff sounds bad. The original Romanian version can be found here. It has pictures. I might get around to adding them – or not.]

II. Message from Cătălin Călin concerning the recent events in Italy, written for all those interested in the truth.

Now, since we’re already talking about jobs and other such, let’s clear up another matter that Gregorian Bivolaru and yogaesoteric pick on, namely the fact that I would call myself „master Virgil”. This is another cheap manipulation that they use so that the few people who are still faithful to them would think that I have some sort of desire for glory and that this would be one of the reasons why I left MISA. I will start by saying that I’m not the one who calls myself that, but SOMETIMES, some people call me that and they do it for entirely different reasons than those Gregorian Bivolaru and yogaesoteric refer to. In Italian the word „master” is used with to mean something entirely different than it does in Romanian. In Italian the word is used for all those who work in a certain domain which, generally, has to do with teaching, but not exclusively. Therefore, in Italian we will encounter such phrases as: „ski master”, „swimming master”, „maths master”, „kindergarten master”, „painting master”, „dance master”, „yoga master”, „karate master”, „master chef” (you see, chefs are masters as well, so you could say that I am twice the master – this being a joke, of course). Thus the mystery of my supposedly calling myself „master” is revealed.

In the next sentence in the article people refer to my having fans. This is entirely false. I have friends, people whom I respect and who respect me and appreciate the work I do. That is all! As far as this is concerned, we all know that it is actually mister Bivolaru who has fans, because he is adored by a number of people who become hysterical and faint even at the bare mention of his name.

In the same context, the article on yogaesoteric says that I have contacted Swami Suryananda to threaten him that, if he goes to the yoga congress in Romania, he will be arrested. This is another way of twisting the truth. It all started from the fact that, after the first yoga congress held in Bucharest a few years ago, in which Swami Suryananda participated, the latter reproached me for not telling him about the fact that he would have to hold conferences at the same table and in the same context as some porn actors, for which the people in the Federation strongly reproached him. Now, when I found out that he would participate in the so-called yoga congress this year, you can imagine that I was very surprised. That was why I called him and asked him if it was true. He said yes and I asked him if he remembered the situation that was caused by the other congress. He said yes, he remembered, but he had been called insistently a number of times by Swami Mahalayananda from Portugal, and the latter had strongly urged him to participate in the new „congress” and guaranteed repeatedly that MISA no longer had any legal problems and that they were cleared. I told him that those affirmations were false and that MISA still had legal problems – even more so, these problems had spread to many other countries, among which Italy, which was proved by the fact that there was an inquiry concerning the MISA branches in Italy and that I had already been visited by the authorities who searched my home, cars, etc. He thanked me and said he’d think about it. Now I found out from yogaesoteric that I did nothing else but than „threaten” this man. Gentlemen from yogaesoteric, do you know what a threat is?

Yesterday, after I found out about what was written in this article, I called Swami Suryananada again to ask him when I threatened him or if he had felt threatened. He denied that and he even thanked me repeatedly for my warning, considering the fact that he had now read the Italian newspapers and he was sorry even about the fact that he offered those from MISA that video conference. He said that his decision to not go to that congress in Romania was taken after a conversation he had with his collaborators from the Federation, conversation in which the latter insisted that he shouldn’t participate, saying that there was a risk that he would besmirch the name of the Federation again. He then called those from MISA to tell them that he no longer intended to participate in that „congress” and he proposed that he should return the money for the ticket and the other expenses that MISA paid for, but they refused him. Then, mister Suryananada, as he told me last night on the phone, somehow felt he owed them because of the yogi principles of fairness. At the suggestion of his collaborators, he offered those in MISA that video conference. He actually asked me last night: „How have I wronged these people, why do they want to cause me trouble? I have lived all my life honestly and now they put me in this risky situation where I could get in trouble with the authorities without having done anything wrong. Is that what I need at my age?” If you want to convince yourselves of what I said regarding this, mister Suryananda can be contacted by telephone or e-mail at the addresses that are found on the European Federation of Yoga website.

Now let us talk about other things as well, you could say more serious ones, MISA and I and about my breaking off from MISA. Despite all the lies that were told about this, I decided to cease all contact with MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru mostly due to four reasons:

The interminable legal problems which, in my opinion, are problems that appeared due to behavior that is contrary to the moral and ethical yogi principles.
The misrepresentation – in many cases, the complete misrepresentation – of the authentic yogi teachings.
The fact that mister Gregorian Bivolaru himself suggested that I should manipulate my students (he said: „Well, I think that in this case you should use some manipulation techniques with them”)
The invitations made to girls from the yoga courses to attend so-called Tantric initiations with mister Gregorian Bivolaru. These girls were invited by other girls whom Gregorian Bivolaru trusted and they were told: „Be discrete, Cătălin mustn’t know.”

First of all I would like to clarify the absurd claims that some people in MISA make, according to which I had been sent to Italy by Gregorian Bivolaru to spread his teachings. This is completely false. I came to Italy to work, I became acquainted with many yoga schools, martial arts schools, etc., and at one point I started holding yoga courses. At the time I had no connection to MISA or Gregorian Bivolaru, but my brother attended their courses. He went to Gregorian Bivolaru and told him he had a brother in Italy, etc.,etc., and Bivolaru caught the idea and proposed: „Well, he could teach for us, why should he prepare courses himself when we have them already written down and we can offer them to him.” I don’t want to bore you with the details, I will only tell you that after four years of teaching I had only received the first 5 courses from the first year, the introductory ones which describe nearly nothing, and those were in a sorry state. On the other hand, Gregorian Bivolaru had already started asking me for my „monthly contribution” in cash and considered me and my courses to somehow be his property, which was the reason why (I think in ‘94-‘95) we had a very heated discussion, a discussion in which he accused me of gaining some benefits from the MISA courses (?!) and of not giving anything to „them”. He called me „an amazingly selfish person”. I explained then that he had no right to ask me for absolutely anything, because: 1. I did not hold „MISA courses”: 2. I didn’t have any profit, seeing that I myself put in $500 a month to sustain the expenses with the courses and 3. If it were that important for him, I could give him money I earned myself (as a chef), in case he needed it. He insisted on being hysterical, and then I proposed a game with „coloured pencils” through which I would try to make him understand that something was wrong with his approach. He sat at the table with a pen in his hand to calculate (that was all he was interested in) and he kept screaming that if I was honest, why didn’t I bring him accounting papers. In the end he, too, accepted that I had no reason to do that since I had received no support from MISA, not in cash, not in courses, not in any way, and he tried to change tracks and somehow repair the situation by asking: „What, you really don’t earn anything from these courses and you even have to pay money yourself? Well, if that’s the case, you’re stupid! So you go in the West and hold courses for rich Italians and you still have losses? I’ll teach you what to do, because I’ve been in jail and I know all the tricks, I can’t be tricked by anybody. Many have tried, but none have succeeded. Even recently, a boy who grew mushrooms thought he could fool me in this affair, but he couldn’t manage it. Look, you have to adopt Maharishi’s system and ask for a tax equal with 30% of their earnings.” That was when I started laughing and I told him that his view on Westerners wasn’t a very accurate one and that, in my opinion, nobody who has a head on his shoulders shows up at a course with a declaration on how much he earns, so he’d pay you a 30% tax :). The discussion continued on several subjects as he tried to correct his initial mistake. I can tell you that after I got out of the room I told my brother, who was waiting for me, that there was something strange in Gregorian Bivolaru’s behaviour and that I would rather have nothing else to do with him. My brother told me then that I was wrong, that I should think on it some more and he practically spent that summer trying to convince me. I then said ok, let’s try again. That was my mistake! Later on Gregorian Bivolaru proposed that I should be sold written courses (he said it was so that I wouldn’t have to work on writing them). The initial sum that he asked me for – we’re talking about ‘94-‘95 – was of $300/month, then that became $400, then $500, $600 and so on. When the euro appeared, we switched to euros. If we sum up all the „donations” I gave him, we get to almost 200.000 euros and most of the time I didn’t even get those „courses”, I always had to fight with the people at the library, as if they were doing me a favor.

Naturally, I tried to continue studying elsewhere. At the same time, every time I came to Romania I brought mister Gregorian Bivolaru many books and CDs that you couldn’t find in Romania at the time, again as donations. Many of the songs that I used for meditations came from the CDs I offered him and which most of the time MISA sold back, changing their label and naming the songs for meditations. Many of the courses „written by” Gregorian Bivolaru come from such books that I and others who lived abroad brought him. Same goes for the courses on Shivaism. And here’s the equation: I pay a lot of money for some books in the West, which I later donate to the MISA „school”, Gregorian Bivolaru copies them word by word and writes such „courses”, which he later offers me for money. We have to admit that here, when it came to schemes, he was clever. Of course I noticed it, but, like many of you, at the time I thought that maybe I didn’t get it. I have told you all this to clarify this lie about „Cătălin, sent by Gregorian Bivolaru abroad, look how ungrateful he is now, a rebel.” And to ask those who keep claiming that I have used the MISA courses: which courses, gentlemen? Do you even know what you’re talking about, or are you parroting what you’ve been told?

Let’s return to recent times. After the events in 2004, Gregorian Bivolaru started revealing his true nature more openly and also started acting increasingly strange. During the meetings that I’ve had with him (always in Paris, not in Sweden as he claims), I tried to understand what was going on and to convince him to change his behaviour concerning the „yoga school” in Romania: girls dancing in night bars (and don’t tell me that they don’t exist, because it was suggested both to me and some of my students that we should open such night bars which would also have erotic massage parlours, but we refused), the dictatorship and absurdity imposed during camps and courses (let me remind you of a few examples: the way in which those who decided to quit MISA were publicly accused and the way they were insulted with words that aren’t at all worthy of a spiritual school, waiting in the tent at Costinești in horrible conditions even for two days in a row in insanitary conditions, etc., or even the absurd situation in which during some courses you were obligated to listen to colleagues describing their own experience for hours in a row, or more absurdly, the very strange demand that instructors should read, during courses, those horrible letters in which some of the top representatives of MISA threw mud at each other) etc.

During all these meetings with Gregorian Bivolaru, when I mentioned these situations he told me that he actually has nothing to do with them, but he guarantees that he’ll fix them. For many years that was the way it went and he had reached the point where he lied continuously and even more than that, he wanted to lie to me about situations that I myself had attended and about which I knew the truth. There was even a case when I told him: „Grieg, remember that back then I was there as well and things aren’t like you say they are.” It all came to an end when a girl who had just returned from him came and told all of us, nearly 40 instructors (we were at a meeting with the instructors in Italy), about the inhumane treatment she had been subjected to by Gregorian Bivolaru. She said that when she saw Gregorian Bivolaru in the flesh for the so-called initiation, he first offered her 2 rather large glasses of liquor that was very strong, after which, she said: „I no longer knew what I was doing and I didn’t understand anything.” During the actual initiation, at one point the girl felt sick and she asked him to stop, but he didn’t care and went on. He later asked the girl to pee on him, but she couldn’t do it. The girl said that when that happened Gregorian Bivolaru started screaming at her, telling her she was stupid („you are a very stupid person”), and that she was full of demons that made her cringe and fail. After that he took her hand, took her to the bathroom, he sat in the tub and asked the girl to pee on him. What the girl told us was this: „Believe me when I say that I’ve never seen anything more pathetic.” In the end the girl told him that she wanted to go back home, but he started screaming and told her that she had to stay for another week, so they could meet again. She replied that she didn’t want to and that she would have problems in Italy if she were late, because she had no way to justify her absence. Gregorian Bivolaru asked her what sort of problems she would have and she said she’d get in trouble with her boyfriend, but also with me (Cătălin), because I didn’t agree with her going to him. (Regarding that, I want to say that when this girl was invited to meet Gregorian Bivolaru we had a huge fight because I insisted she didn’t go because something was wrong, and she told me that wasn’t true, because many girls told her that this might be a great occasion to evolve). Hearing this, Gregorian Bivolaru got very angry and started screaming at her, saying the following: „How dare Cătălin do such a thing? He should be proud when you come to visit me and he should even help you do it, doesn’t he realize that he is what he is because of me? Because back when I met him he was a lowly dishwasher!” This is when I said: enough! It was the last drop because before this happened there had already been all sorts of issues. That was when I decided that from that moment on I wanted nothing to do with Gregorian Bivolaru and MISA and I ended our „relationship” by sending him a letter. That was also when two other girls got up and told us about their unpleasant experiences with Gregorian Bivolaru, and at the end of that meeting with the instructors, after I decided along with the other instructors that we should break off all ties with MISA, I found out something else: the cherry on top of the cake, as they say, that told me that we couldn’t have done otherwise anyway. An instructor came to me and whispered in my ear that he also had something to say to somehow confirm our decision, seeing that we had broken off with MISA anyhow. He told me then that many months previous, at the end of a training for future instructors in Denmark, he was pulled aside by Mihai Stoian, who told him that Gregorian Bivolaru intended to replace Cătălin Călin from the leadership of the Italian school and that, in this respect, he had already thought of a few people who could replace him, people among whom was this instructor. Gregorian Bivolaru told these people to choose a date when they could go to him to establish who would replace Cătălin. Then, this instructor asked Mihai Stoian: „But does Cătălin know about this, have you told him?” Stoian’s answer was as follows: „No, he hasn’t been informed and he mustn’t know yet. First you’ll have to meet with Gregorian Bivolaru and decide who will replace him.” (The pattern is the same as the one used to replace Raphael Mitica Achirei in England, Narcis Tarcău in India, Dinu Roman in Denmark, etc.) I want to make it clear that my decision to break off from MISA was taken before I found out about the plan to replace me.

Virgil Călin

Virgil Călin breaks the silence and responds to MISA. New disclosures about the inquiry in Italy

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:22:19 +0000

Dec.11,2012

[Roxana Chirilă’s note: This message was written by Virgil Cătălin Călin, formerly a MISA instructor in Italy. It refers to the recent events in that country. It can be found in the original Romanian on Mihai Rapcea’s blog. I was asked to translate it for the benefit of English speakers and I am taking the liberty of spreading it around via my blog.]

I have decided to write these lines in response to the repeated accusations that have been brought against me during the last few years by Gregorian Bivolaru, the MISA leadership and the yogaesoteric website. I want to point out from the very beginning that up until now I didn’t have the slightest intention to respond, in any way, to the multiple false accusations that were brought against me by these people. I really wasn’t interested in the subject. I thought that if I didn’t answer, if I didn’t stoop as low as they do, finally they would stop and everybody would mind their own business. It would appear, however, that this is not the case and that these „people” dine on filth, which is why they always seek to provoke and maintain fights. I believe that, considering these last accusations that were brought against me on the yogaesoteric website (and considering the style in which the article is written, it is very likely that Gregorian Bivolaru is behind it), things have already gone too far and, seeing that these „people” won’t stop, I have decided to reply to shed some light for those who might be interested in it and who can still think independently and wish to use their discernment.

I will start by shedding some light on the lies in this last article, where it is impudently asserted that I would be the one who made the complaints that led to the police raids against MISA in Italy. The title of this yogaesoteric article says: „The investigations are based on a series of complaints made by a Romanian chef who lives in Italy and who wanted to get revenge for being kicked out of the Romanian yoga school”. Let us be clear: I am asking you to use your reason. First of all, I would like to say that I DID NOT FILE ANY SINGLE COMPLAINT! Not to the police, nor to anyone else. This is a lie that belongs to Gregorian Bivolaru and its purpose is to make you focus on a new „enemy” so you wouldn’t see the filth that this „school” wallows in. Should I understand that, through yogaesoteric, Gregorian Bivolaru „understood” that the stories about evil freemasons don’t work anymore and that now he’s trying to grab a hold on anything and anyone who can become an „enemy” to you? And, to prove that I haven’t lost my sense of humour, I challenge those from yogaesoteric and the person who, like a real vira [n. hero] hides behind this article, to a bet – a bet on how many million euros they want, if they prove that I have filed any single complaint. I want to repeat: I HAVE FILED NO COMPLAINT. As far as I know, the inquiry started from a complaint made, strangely enough, by the MISA representatives in Italy. These people were so „intelligent” that they went to the police to file a complaint saying that I put porn DVDs on their cars while they were attending a conference held by Stoian, which had as subject „The Power of Truth”, conference in which he talked about me and about how evil I was to have left MISA. In their great „intelligence”, they then declared to the police that, yes, they personally know the actors in those porn films and they’re all part of the same yoga school, but actually it’s not pornography, it’s art – and they themselves practice these Tantric customs. Their motivation for this complaint was that, supposedly, they were very worried that a child could have taken that DVD from car windows (DVDs that I hadn’t placed there, but, as in the case of other people, they had to have a scapegoat). Imagine that this was a tragicomic moment. The person making the inquiry, who called me there since I was an individual who had information on the subject, looked at me wide-eyed and said with astonishment: „Sir, I don’t understand, tell me. What does yoga have to do with pornography? And then, these people who made this complaint didn’t think that I am actually a cop and therefore I get a „lit light-bulb” when they tell me such a story and that I’ll therefore start investigating? The official question I have for you is: do you really know anything about these films and, I personally, because I do have a „lit light-bulb”, I want to know if you are aware in this case about any prostitution network or other activities connected to that area?” My answer was that I knew nothing about all that and that it was best for him to ask these questions directly of those who came to complain, because they were the ones who claimed they were friends with those actors, etc. That was all!

I was told then that he would continue his investigation. That was the first step, I think, in the beginning of this inquiry and it was made precisely by MISA representatives. Later on, as the majority of Italian newspapers wrote, I found out that there had already been many people, men and women, who complained about the treatment they were subjected to in these MISA branches. I have absolutely nothing to do with the things that happened these days, instead I can tell you that I was actually the first, this summer, who had his house, cars and yoga center searched to gather information for this inquiry. That was when I found out as well that there were complaints made by MISA students in Italy, that was when I found out that the legal circumscription was a serious one, even more so considering that those doing the inquiry were the Antimafia Commission of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Italy. I don’t know if that tells you anything, but if you look it up, you’ll see that this Antimafia Commission rarely picks up insignificant cases and, before police raids, they tend to have the necessary evidence to start an inquiry. But if you find it easier to believe that there is a secret plan through which MISA is „persecuted”, you are free to continue to let your conscience and reason sleep.

Also, in the title of the yogaesoteric article, it is claimed that I would have filed these complaints in order to get revenge because I would have „been kicked out of the Romanian yoga school”!?! First of all, if I really wanted revenge (?), do you really think this is how I’d have acted? What sort of revenge is this? Think for a second that I had many more means to do such a thing. Think a bit about the fact that what happened now in Italy is first of all a dirtying of the YOGA name, as it happened in Romania, and for me, as a person involved in this system, this is unpleasant, especially since many people unfortunately still think of me as connected to MISA. What sort of a person who had my possibilities would come up with such a stupid sort of „revenge”? I didn’t even think of revenge. People, will you really accept to be lied to in this way? Is there nobody who will get up and say: „Sirs, who are you trying to fool?” During that „divinely integrated action”, where people so heatedly asked for my charisma to be withdrawn, etc., wasn’t it exactly Gregorian Bivolaru who was talking to you and telling you that I was the one who decided to leave the „mother school”? When was I ever kicked out? I am the one who left precisely because of, among many other things, these infinite judicial vicissitudes with which MISA is endlessly confronted – and despite that they won’t stop those activities which harm the „school” no matter what. Didn’t Gregorian Bivolaru say in that message that I preferred to leave without even talking to him? And now he’s the one who comes and says, to fool you again, that they were the ones who kicked me out! Wake up and see the lie that is happening under your very eyes and which you aren’t reacting to. Didn’t Gregorian Bivolaru say in that message that I didn’t take any single yoga lesson from him or any other MISA instructor? Well then, where was I kicked out from? Ask yourselves why you’re continuously lied to.

And one final aspect referring again to the title of the article. This is connected to the fact that, as Gregorian Bivolaru mentioned in the beginning of his litany, and in that message from the „divinely integrated action”, I would be a „simple chef”, or more precisely, in this article he writes that I am actually a chef. This is said in a context in which it can seem that being a chef is a degrading occupation. Let’s make things clear. From my point of view, being a chef, like having any other job through which you honestly earn your living, is a noble job. I would like to point out here both my statements and the statements made by Gregorian Bivolaru, especially for those who practice karma yoga [n. volunteer work] in the kitchens in ashrams, in camps, in Gregorian Bivolaru’s home, and I will ask them to think, even for five minutes alone, about the opinion that Gregorian Bivolaru has about them and what he thinks of their worth as human beings. I gather from here that he judges and classifies people according to the jobs that they have, but, at the same time, we can see that he also has an unhealthy opinion about those jobs. I see that for him being a chef is something worthy of contempt, but videochat is something honorable and profoundly transforming. And since we’re talking about these things, let’s clear up this aspect in order to cure this obsession that some people have regarding my job. First of all, I am not a chef. My ID card says something entirely different (in Italy the ID card also names the owner’s job), namely: freelancer; but it doesn’t say chef at all and I don’t work as one, either. I did in the past, more than 20 years ago, and I made pizza and I’m proud of it. It was an experience that made me rich, both in experience and money, but also in inner growth. It was and it is a respectful job in the West and it’s very well paid, which was the reason why Gregorian Bivolaru often asked me to make donations. Back then he wasn’t quite as horrified by this job. Aside from that, because I said that I would help some of you to get past this obsession concerning my supposed job as a chef, I’d like to add that I have graduated, almost with the highest grade, from the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations. Moreover, I have a post-university diploma in Herbal Medicine and Bioenergotherapy, diploma gained with the maximum grade from one of the most renowned Academies of Natural Sciences in Italy. Aside from that, I have also studied at the most renown (real!) schools of yoga in the world, among which I will mention Shivananda’s School, Iyengar’s School and others that are less known, and I have also taught the class to train new yoga instructors in one of the World Yoga Federations. I have mentioned these few domains that I am proficient in here because I have truly studied them and I haven’t just improvised, to show you that the „bait” that mister Bivolaru keeps throwing at you, the one concerning being a „simple chef”, is false and also improper when you talk about someone. You don’t judge the person based on the job they have, especially if that job doesn’t harm others and is also an honest one.

And since we’re talking about jobs, I would like to ask you a question, in the spirit of the yogaesoteric article. It’s a rhetorical question: What is Gregorian Bivolaru’s profession? As far as we know, he is a plumber and he worked somewhere in the subway system. Not that this would be bad or ugly in itself, but since he’s the one who is so bent on discussing professions, he should first explain to us how things work in his case. What are his studies? What jobs do you have, you who have edited this article in which, like true viras, you hide behind nicknames?

VIRGIL CĂLIN