World Of Secrets - The Bad Guru: 6. The Return

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Miranda returns to Paris after some surprising news about the guru Gregorian Bivolaru. This episode contains sexual content, allegations of sexual exploitation and some strong language. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams

Hi, it's Emma Weddall here. I'm one of the producers of season six of World of Secrets. I just wanted to let you know that more seasons are coming out in 2025. I can't reveal the details about these investigations yet, it's called World of Secrets for a reason, but do follow or subscribe so you get every episode automatically. This episode contains sexual content, allegations of sexual exploitation and some strong language. sexual content, allegations of sexual exploitation and some strong language. A man we're going to call Jacques normally spends his weekdays out at work. But unusually, on Tuesday 28th November 2023, he has a day off. At around 10 in the morning, he takes a stroll around his neighbourhood.

He lives in a suburb to the east of Paris called Villiers-Saman. I walked back at 11am and a minibus was parked just in front of my house. I was curious, obviously. People are congregating around one of the houses further up the street. He watches in disbelief as armed police leave their vehicles and storm into the house. A few minutes later, they come back out the front door, bringing with them women one by one. The girls coming out of the house, I wasn't able to count, but at least 12, maybe 15, maybe 20. I was wondering, these girls, were they arrested?

Later that day, Jacques checks the news. He learns there was actually 26 women that came out of that house, and they weren't being arrested. According to the police, they were being rescued. From the news reports, Jacques reads that their removal was part of a huge operation involving 175 police officers

carrying out raids across Paris. And the strangest part is that the people being arrested are all part of an international yoga movement or organisations affiliated to Atman, the International Federation of Yoga and Meditation. In total that day, over 40 people associated with the yoga movement are arrested in France, including the 71-year-old spiritual guide Gagorian Bivalaru. A few days later, the spiritual guide is charged with human trafficking, organised kidnapping, rape and the French criminal offence of organised abuse or weakness by a sect, an anti-cult law which doesn't exist in England.

He is reminded in custody. How on earth is a yoga movement at the centre of a mass police operation? This is World of Secrets, season six, The Bad Guru, BBC Radio 4 investigation. I'm Kat McShane, episode 6, The Return. It was empowering to feel some sense of something positive and constructive happening. Miranda is one of the former members of this yoga movement who spent time in that holding house in Paris, waiting for her initiation with Gagori and Bivalaru.

She used to revere him as a guru. Then she became one of the several women who complained about him to the French police. She's pleased he's now been arrested. I felt safer in a physical sense. I felt a sense of relief. But it was also accompanied a concern knowing that many hundreds of, if not more, of kind of pretty hardcore devotees would know that I personally had something to do with this. And understanding from having been in the organisation, knowing the rhetoric, knowing the group think, the way in which they will be blaming and demonising me. So just because he's behind bars, he's still their spiritual leader, he's still their guru.

They still try to be like him, unless something changes within the way that that organization operates. It's going to continue. It's going to keep damaging people. After I hear about the arrests, my mind immediately turns to what impact it's going to have here in the UK. Gauri and the Valari's umbrella organisation of tantric yoga schools, the Atman Federation, is based in the UK, and its English affiliate, a registered charity called Tara Yoga Centre, has studios in London, Oxford and Plymouth, and over the years has run classes in Cambridge, Birmingham, Manchester Leeds, Leicester, Burton-on-Trent, Woking and Dublin.

Gregorian Bivalari has spent most of the past decade on the run from sex offence and human trafficking charges but that hasn't stopped the Atman Federation and the Tara Yoga Center from promoting him as a spiritual guide. Four women I've spoken to even say they were approached by teachers at the Tara Yoga Center to visit Bivolaru for an initiation ritual during his periods in hiding as a fugitive. I have met Professor Vivolaro on multiple occasions over many years and he always manifested with me a wonderful state of humbleness, an immense willingness to help me with everything

that I needed. I've also heard this secret recording of senior figures at Tara Yoga Center talking about their own contact with Gagoor in Bivalaru, who they call Grieg. This recording was made in 2022. It's from a meeting called to denounce a former student, Miranda, who had made allegations about trafficking and abuse among Bivalaru's followers. Miranda had also visited the spiritual guide when he was in hiding in Paris. Her trip wasn't one

organized by the Tara Yoga Center, but one of the prominent women there, someone called Catherine, says she had been in touch with the guru on Miranda's behalf to arrange a second visit to him. Catherine says this was at Miranda's request and Maria Porsfeld, the most important figure in Tara at the time, says she sees nothing wrong with arranging a follow-up visit to the fugitive guru. If Amanda wanted to get in touch with Greenwich, Catherine would help. Yeah, that's my personal opinion about that.

With Bivalari still in hiding, no doubt it would, like the first visit, have been another clandestine trip through Paris. We were told that we should put on one of these pairs of dark glasses which had masking tape on the inside and put on a hat and pull it down over our eyes so that we couldn't see where we were going. And then time spent in a holding house. We had to hand over our passports, mobile phones, credit cards, any other IDs. It's true, Miranda did at one point want to return, even though the first time her meeting with the guru was a traumatising sexual initiation.

Now she wants nothing more to do with him. She believes this is a cult. On the secret recording of the meeting, a male teacher also talks about visiting Gugorje in Bivalaru. I had a chance to meet Gugorje about 10 years ago. The man who is speaking is Bogdan Radassanu, a teacher at Tara Yoga Centre. He's also a director of the Atman Federation umbrella organisation. The way he describes his visit to Gugorje in Bivalaru suggests it was when the guru was a wanted man. His security in private life is more, let's say, a concern.

In some ways it's surprising to hear the teachers at Tara Yoga Center talk so openly about their contact with Gugori and Bivalaru. As I said earlier, Tara Yoga Center is a registered charity. According to the regulator, the Charity Commission, the trustees of Tara assured them in 2020 that they had no involvement with Gugori and Bivalaru. I wonder what the reaction to Bivalaru's recent arrest will be at the Atman Federation

and its affiliate, the Tara Yoga Centre. I type in Tara Yoga's web address to see if there's any announcement to reassure students. I see they've put out a press release about Gagoorian Bivalari's arrest. It says they don't know anything more than what is being reported in the media and that they're following the situation closely. The reaction on the website of the Atman Federation, to which Tara Yoga is affiliated, is more bullish. Reproducing a statement from Atman's Romanian affiliate, they reply robustly to the accusations.

None of the 26 alleged victims gave any statement against Gregorian Bivalaru or any other person. None considered themselves exploited, abused, trafficked or the victim of any rape. It appears that even though Gregorian Bivalaru is arrested, both Atman and Tara are continuing with business as usual. Neither seems to be reflecting on their own connection with Bivoularou. Can you hear me? Hi. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you well. A few months after Gawain Bivoularou is arrested, the French authorities have been in touch with Miranda. She's being called to give her testimony in France.

I phoned Miranda just before she boarded her flight to Paris. I'm just having a sit down at Pret. Absolute classic airport, vital pre-plane airport trip to Pret. I'll be joining her there in a couple of days time. So look, what's happening in Paris this week? So first up is the tribunal. Tomorrow morning we're going to see the judge at 10 and they told me that it will be just us and the judge and her clerk. So that's a relief.

There's no legal representation from the defense. I'm not going to be cross-examined. They said, you know, the purpose of this is not to question your testimony. It's to see what the long lasting impact is on you. And also to identify the roles of the other kind of co conspirators, the other key players in the whole operation. And because apparently, yeah, apparently they are claiming that they're also victims as other lawyers. How do you feel about that? You know, I was just assuming that it would be like the things I'd

seen on TV with kind of cross-examination and things. So it's a relief to know that won't be happening. I feel annoyed that I have to go. I wish that I wasn't having to spend all that time and money going to the place where I was traumatized. The last time I was there, I was brought to a petrol station, service station somewhere in the outskirts of Paris, and then I was blindfolded everywhere else I went that wasn't inside. So, I don't have fond memories of it, and I don't have good memories of kind of what happened to my life from there on.

Maybe we can try and create, have some kind of better memory for you while we're there. Maybe we can have a glass of wine by the Eiffel Tower or something. That sounds nice. Okay, well listen, safe flight Miranda. I'll be in touch soon. Thanks Kat. Bye. As Miranda heads off to Paris, I think about the bits of the testimony she might be giving

in France. She'll be talking about her initiation with the Guru of course, but will the French authorities be interested in how she learnt to revere Bivalaru at the Tara Yoga Centre in London? Or what she says about succumbing to pressure to take part in sexualised rituals. We were told it was optional, but if you didn't want to participate you had to leave and you had to stay out for the whole day. And what she has told me happened after she was taken to a house near Prague. She said, look, we do cam girl work and you don't have to do it,

but you need to pay for being here and you need to pay for your passage here. Two days later, I travel to Paris to meet up with Miranda in a park. She tells me about meeting up with the judge. We went to a room adjacent to the judge's office. The judge was wearing a kind of pink sweater with daisies on and jeans. I really liked the judge.

I felt that it's in good hands. So that felt like a huge relief and gratitude that the French authorities cared enough to do this and that they listened to us and that they looked at the facts and that they cared enough about us and about other women. She said kind of almost from the beginning I'm not going to you know make you go through any specific questions around GB and it was a relief because that's one of the most difficult parts to retell. She was assessing the long lasting

impact on my life. I also saw some photos of people that I knew who were involved, who were present at the arrest and that was very upsetting. So were they asking you to identify people? Yes. Even though I know the process is really long and it's far from over to know that we've taken a really important step in that and hopefully I won't have to come back, it's a relief and I feel like I can finally close one door, or at least start to close it, and open a new door in my life.

As a way to help close that door, Miranda and I discussed going to visit the holding house that she was kept in before her initiation with Bivilaru. We both think it might give her some closure, so we drive east to the street she stayed at in a Paris suburb. Are you remembering God's Do you think that seeing it and knowing the house is no longer operational, it's an empty crime scene, might in any way help let go of those associations and that pain? I suppose there'll be a sense of relief in knowing that it's no longer the site of that same abuse and that no one else will go through what me or some of the other women that I know went through there.

I was nervous this morning that the organisation might still have some kind of surveillance of that property. I think that's entirely possible. Okay, this is the street. You can drop us here. We walk along the street towards the holding house. Miranda's concerns that she will somehow be watched seems to me to be paranoia. Vivolaro and his associates have been arrested. We approach the house, expecting to see an abandoned building, perhaps with some police

tape around it. But instead… There's someone in that house. That's the house and there's someone in that house. That's the house and there's someone in that house. I can't. OK, let's move. That's definitely the house and someone definitely opened a window.

Yeah, I saw that as well. Someone at the window who just opened and then closed the window when they saw us. I just want to get away from here as quickly as possible. Can you explain how you're feeling? I feel really nervous. Just can't believe that there's people still living there. We don't know who is living there, but Miranda suspects it's still Gregorian Bivilari's followers.

And what would you be worried that they might do if they recognised you? I just don't want to see them. And if you look like a face that I kind of semi-recognised, I'm kind of shaking a bit. Yeah, your bottom lip is trembling. It could be then that people have been arrested but then released and come straight back. Miranda's put up her hood and we're quickly walking away. After walking away from the house,

Miranda starts to regain her composure. She tells me why she was so upset to see someone in the window in a place she suspects is still inhabited by Gagorian Bivalari's followers. To know that there's still people sitting in that house carrying on about their daily life and cult activities makes me really fucking angry. It's so beautiful here. We're walking down the side of the Seine, we've got the Eiffel Tower in front of us. While I'm in Paris, Miranda asked me to meet her on the banks of the Seine, the main river running through the city. When I arrive, I see she's brought a couple of objects

with her. So I've got two necklaces here that I want to symbolically release, let go of into the river. One necklace which is from the short Tantra course that prompted me to search for Tantra when I came back to London. And the second one is a mullah which is a prayer bead. I did quite a lot of meditation. Yeah, I'm just gonna say a few words for myself and let them go. I watch Miranda. She's in silent contemplation.

She then opens her clenched fist and lets the two necklaces drop down into the river. She turns to me and her face is beaming. Her joy is infectious. Other former members of Tara Yoga Center tell me that they struggle with moving on with their lives. Elise is a hair stylist from Oxford who went to the Polarity retreat in Somerset. Now that she's no longer part of Tara Yoga, she's having to work out a new identity for herself. I modulated my behaviour so much to fit in with them that I lost parts of myself that I'm now trying to reclaim. And that's been a bit weird. I have really angry dreams about the school or about Grieg or I feel quite angry with the teachers specifically because I feel like they know what goes on

and they just, like some of them want to bury their head in the sand. We wrote to Grigorin Bivalaru via his lawyer to give him an opportunity to respond to the allegations made against him. We did not receive a reply. Misa, a yoga organization associated with Mr. Bivalaru, strongly defended him, stating that he has been the victim of political persecution and false allegations, and that his teachings are followed by more than 40,000 people around the world.

Tara Yoga Center declined to be interviewed for this series. We wrote to both Tara and Atman, the International Federation of Yoga and Meditation, we put it to both organisations that through their encouragement of pushing against sexual boundaries and a cult-like veneration of Gagoor and Bivalaru, they have left some women vulnerable to exploitation. We also put to Tara Yoga Center our evidence that senior figures at Tara had acted as a conduit for Gagorian Bivalaru and had encouraged women to travel to Paris to meet him for a sexual initiation during his years as a fugitive. Tara Yoga Center told us we unequivocally condemn all forms of abuse, and they told

us that Gregorian Pivolaru does not have direct contact with Tara Yoga Center nor does he hold any decision-making authority or influence over its operations or finances. They said that they had been advised that due to legal proceedings, which they will vigorously defend, it would be inappropriate to comment further. The Atman Federation told us that it operates entirely autonomously of its member schools and that it categorically condemns any kind of abuse. They also said that as some of the matters we raise may be subject to legal proceedings, they had been advised that it would be inappropriate for them to comment further. The Charities Regulator, the Charity Commission,

to comment further. The Charities Regulator, the Charity Commission, told us that a compliance case regarding tarioga in 2020 gave rise to regulatory concerns, notably around the trustees' governance of safeguarding procedures. They told us they therefore provided formal regulatory advice and guidance to ensure they addressed the issues we identified. They told us we are assessing new information to determine any next steps we might take as regulator. Hearing Miranda's story has made me realize that the search for wellness, for something spiritual, can leave people open to abuse.

But it's also made me realize that, even with an organisation as flawed as Tara Yoga Centre, the ordinary seekers got something good out of it. Each other. How important to you is the community that the school offers you? That was the most important thing for me. It mattered so much for me to field connection with people outside of what I immediately knew as my family. What I knew to be spiritual. When you practice spirituality you immediately open up a field to connect with people

and commune. That was what I was looking for and it's what I valued. And the shared values and building friendships on that, yeah that really mattered. It's really powerful, really really powerful. You're doing the meditations, you're doing yoga, you're part of the community. It's funny, like one of my friends from Tara, he and I, last year, I think both of us were really missing it and so we were like well why don't we just try and gather our friends and why don't we practice yoga together, why don't we do some meditation together. It really felt like a family, yeah. It would be great if they one day saw the light.

It would be great if they one day saw the light. And for Miranda, that chance to belong, to be part of something more than just herself, turns out it was always there, waiting without judgement for Miranda to come home. I've done a certain amount of googling, as you do, so I've got an educated guess as to the stuff that went on, and my heart goes out to you. Penny, Miranda's mother, never tried to interfere. Miranda's now back living in the same county as her family in Oxfordshire. There's still a lot about her experiences she wants to explain to Penny. One of the reasons why it worked so well and has worked for so long on so many people,

is that it was pretty subtle. It wasn't like cold side head about where, you know, they tell you to stop seeing your family or, you know, to stop spending time with your friends. They didn't tell that to anyone, especially not in the beginning. But there was talk kind of throughout really about a spiritual family and birth family, and that your spiritual family were the people who were on the same path as you, they understood.

the people who were on the same path as you, they understood. So there was this idea that your spiritual family was possibly more important than your birth family. And they often said that there was this phrase that supposedly was from GB that no mother has ever become enlightened. And they use that as a way of, obviously it's putting women and mothers down, but they also used it as a way of discouraging people from having their own families and discouraging women from having children. And, you know, family is not a spiritual priority. No. Well, I think it speaks volumes for your skill as a communicator and also your wonderful commitment to family

that you kept that going. I'm gonna hazard a guess, which is I don't think they ever quite caught all of you. Do you think that's right? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. Are you disappointed in me? No, never.

The reverse. I'm full of admiration for someone who can go through the experiences you've been through. And I know that some of them are unspeakably difficult to talk about. I have nothing but admiration for you. To then do what you're doing now to bring it into the light and almost alchemize some of that evil stuff that went on and take back the power. I think you're meant to do that and again I am just so proud of you for doing that. Words can't really express how proud I am. Thank you so much for your support.

Well you have it always. You know you do. World of Secrets, the Bad Guru is a BBC Studios audio production. It's presented by me, Kat McShane, and produced by myself and Emma Wetherill. Executive producer is Inez Bowen. Unit manager is Lucy Banister. French language production Adele Mbair. Sound designer is Melvin Rickaby. Development producer is Emma Shaw. Development executive is Anya Saunders.

Storytelling consultant is Jamie Bartlett. Legal advisor is David Atfield. Editorial policy advisor is Matthew Eltrincham. Commissioning executive is Tracy Williams. Commissioning editor is Dan Clark. World of Secrets The Bad Guru is a BBC Studios audio production. For years a witness's evidence has been locked away. I've seen the dark side.

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