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A film by Sandhedsseminar (Truth Seminar)
A journalistic investigation by Joachim Porslund
Sandhedsseminar presents
Natha – Turning Black into White and White to Black: A study of a truth activist
A famous philosopher once said that he would rather know the truth
than to be happy.
The question is whether one can be happy if you are living a lie.
Humans have always searched for the truth.
Some seek it in the past, others in the future.
Others in nature and the universe or from ancient sages.
Some seek it in love, and others in the name of freedom.
Some seek it in the exterior, others seek it in the interior.
The question is whether or not it is possible to find the truth all over the place,
if you sincerely seek it.
The news media in Denmark have time and again shown
how important national and international situations
and events are not conveyed to the public.
Or how they get presented with the dominant elite's interests in mind.
The truth often lies buried in the shadow of an elitist agenda,
which does not bear the public's best interests at heart.
It is therefore necessary that new media and public forums step up
to ensure that all that is not being said
out loud is given weight and volume.
Enough so that people
can create their own opinions based on a deeper and more nuanced view
of what is going on in the world as well as in their own lives.
Some years ago I started a project dedicated to this purpose.
Truth Seminar.
Throughout history, people with a special innovative power or self-awareness
have not been popular among those in power.
What a culture or a country considered as being morally, politically or religiously correct
was seen as being morally, politically and spiritually atrocious.
The most persecuted and controversial people in a society
were often later honored as martyrs, patriots and sages
when the dominant paradigm shifted and the political climate suddenly changed.
Likewise, leaders and rulers of a culture that were hailed as heralds of the truth
were later rejected by the same people as being criminal enemies of the people.
Socrates was condemned to death as an enemy of the state,
accused of blasphemy and of 'seducing the youth' of Greek democracy
and later hailed as being one of mankind's greatest philosophers.
Mahatma Gandhi was first imprisoned in South Africa for his work
in improving the conditions of Indians.
Later back in his home country, he spearheaded India's Independence Movement.
In 1919 he started Satyagraha, the so-called 'truth movement',
and boycotted the British colonial power in order
for India to achieve self-government.
He was repeatedly imprisoned by the British and later killed
by a fanatical Hindu - one of his own people.
His personal lifestyle based on simple principles known from yoga,
such as fasting, vegetarianism, meditation, non-violence and adherence to truth
are to this day a profound inspiration for millions of people.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in South African prisons,
convicted of terrorism and anti government work.
Later he became President of South Africa and received the Nobel Peace Prize
and numerous awards for his work against apartheid and racism.
Osho Rajneesh was denied access to more than 21 countries
in his attempt to teach spirituality and to build an alternative society in Oregon, USA.
He was poisoned under strange circumstances and later died at an early age of 58 years.
As a Truth Activist and facilitator for the Truth Seminar,
I regularly arrange lectures and major events,
where I invite some of our society's most notable people
such as Lloyd Pye, Dr. Stephen Greer, Professor Niels Harrit, who,
through their research, understanding and personal experience,
can contribute to a deeper insight into some of the most vital situations and topics
for our lives and society.
Some years ago I decided to take part in one of the most respected
and at the same time controversial yoga schools.
I heard that yoga could help me
to get in touch with the truth about myself.
In the beginning I mostly saw yoga as being a series of bending and stretching exercises,
however, I quickly realized that yoga was more than mere physical training,
but is in fact a path to gaining a deeper self-understanding.
Yoga students have been portrayed as a bunch of fight-picking brawlers
even though it was them that were beaten.
They have been accused of taking drugs,
even if they refuse to take even the most commonly used stimulants
which all people unsuspectingly use daily:
coffee, alcohol and cigarettes.
It has even been claimed that yoga students spread venereal diseases,
even though they are extremely attentive about their *** hygiene and health
compared with the society they live in.
They are portrayed as being profit mongers,
even though the members of the community place honor in helping each other
to a degree far above the norm.
In MISA's case black has been turned to white, and white has been turned to black
to such a degree that it makes George Orwell's book, '“1984',” appear harmless.
At the time I wondered a lot about how yoga and meditation and generally
what we call 'self-development', may pose a threat to society, or its leaders.
Why are people with special insight and a liberated way of thinking a vulnerable minority?
Could it be that complex state institutions seek control of human insight?
Can spiritual freedom and innovation really represent a threat
and not an innovative opportunity for development?
This movie is about the yoga school Natha and its spiritual mentor Grieg.
Gregorian Bivolaru or Grieg: tortured and imprisoned for teaching yoga
during the communist period in Romania.
The infamous Romanian secret police, “Securitate”, has repeatedly attempted to take his life
and launched countless smear campaigns against him.
The actions were known as "Operation Christ".
Today he is a political refugee from a past that still haunts him
and the yoga schools his work has inspired.
The question is why?
Journalists, historians and human rights organizations
have found that both the yoga movement and its founder in particular
have been persecuted, violated, abused, discriminated against and betrayed
by both leading politicians, media and private individuals.
Through my personal commitment to the yoga school
it has been very difficult to recognize the media's critical portrayal of this yoga school,
which in truth makes use of a traditional learning system
based on alternative healing, energy, meditation and tantric sexuality.
But this lifestyle is surely not banned?
Yoga can almost be classified as a national sport in Denmark.
Yet Grieg and his yoga movement are to this day still being persecuted
by the media, portrayed as a morally subversive paramilitary crime syndicate
that smuggles beautiful women, dangerous drugs and firearms.
Curious to figure out the deeper underlying truth behind the media representations of Grieg
and the yoga school, I instigated an investigation.
My search led me back to the Romanian communist era
and the fabrications made by the infamous secret service “Securitate” against yoga,
to the control of the mass media and the unique case of political asylum
between two EU countries, and onward to the European parliamentarians
and human rights organizations' observations in the case,
passing by a number of experts and journalists who have investigated
the matter fully and all the way back to Denmark,
where a smear campaign that started in Romania has had serious consequences
for the yoga school here.
As a so-called “insider”, people in the yoga school form a part of my daily circle.
We have shared some of the best experiences of my life,
and faced many hardships in the work for a yoga school
that has been exposed to quite a few things.
I have met the most amazing people and seen them both renew themselves
and also repeat the same mistakes.
I have been the quiet student attending the yoga class,
the ambitious yogi in a mountain retreat, the enthusiastic teacher in front of new students.
I've sat in project groups until dawn and shaken the money box at the end of the month,
participated in all the boring after-work meetings and taken part in numerous courses,
workshops and excursions.
Some might then say that I am not qualified to conduct a study of an organization,
since I myself am somehow part of the study.
But is this not the very point of self development, yoga and meditation?
To investigate oneself while examining the whole that you form a part of?
Perhaps that which we are about to embark on is a kind of documentary
in which the researcher is part of the investigation?
Quantum physics claims that the observer is a part of the experiment:
If we choose to perceive light as a wave, then it is a wave, and if we choose
to perceive it as a particle, then it is a particle.
We cannot observe anything without us influencing the outcome.
We cannot analyze anything without ourselves becoming
an important part of the result.
To achieve a higher perspective on something,
we must therefore look out with one eye looking from the inside out,
and with the other eye looking from the outside in,
and in this way we become able to open the 'third eye':
To whom does the truth belong?
Is it something that you patent due to being many
crying out loud or by holding the power?
Why have spiritual movements, since the beginning of history,
from the first Christian movements to the present day with Gandhi,
Osho, Falun Gong and MISA
been persecuted by those in power?
I chose to start by traveling back in time
to get insight into what happened to the yoga school in Romania.
One of my friends was present in Bucharest
when the persecution culminated in March 2004.
300 Romanian police from the anti-terrorist squad special forces
stormed 16 private housing communities.
It was early in the morning
And we, who were living in the ashram, were asleep.
And then the house was stormed
by armed masked men who came jumping in
through the bathroom window on the first floor,
and breaking into the house wherever they could with machine guns,
yelling and screaming in Romanian.
I had no clue what was going on.
Absolutely no clue what was going on.
From images from different media
it seemed like they were terrorists,
or guerilla forces, something like that.
When we went with our colleagues by metro to our yoga course
we didn't dare to speak about the fact that we were practicing yoga,
because it seemed that everybody had the idea
that yoga was something terrible.
So that was a very strange experience.
The news explodes in the Romanian media, but is simultaneously met
with strong international criticism from, among others,
Amnesty International, the Helsinki Committee
and a number of Danish European parliamentarians
in connection with Grieg's application for political asylum in Sweden
against the Romanian state.
- Jens Peter Bonde - Former Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the Independence and Democracy (ID) Group in the European Parliament
'I am free'
- Lisbeth Kirk - Danish journalist, Editor in Chief of The EU-Observer
- Ulla Sandbæk - Pastor Emeritus and Former Member of the European Parliament
- Willy Fautré - Director of Human Rights without Frontiers, Brussels
There were many forceful actions; human rights were flagrantly violated
and we consider that the police should correctly perform their duty.
Not as they acted, violating the fundamental liberty of people,
starting these investigations without having a foundation.
In my research about Grieg and the Romanian yoga school (MISA)
I bumped into renowned historian and professor at the Political Studies
and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest, Gabriel Andreescu.
Professor Andreescu is also known to be one of the critics of Ceausescu
and his communist regime, who dared speak out
during the communist period.
Today he is one of the few people who have access
to the Romanian Secret Service Securitate's secret files.
The Secret Service started to check those who read mystic books.
In this way, they found Gregorian Bivolaru, who was going to the Academic Library
looking for such books.
But they continued to gather information on him,
because they found out about his correspondence with some foreigners.
When I contacted Mircea Eliade by mail
I was put on the list of suspected persons by the Secret Service.
At a certain moment, in 1971,
I underwent my first home search.
When they left, the three policemen who attentively searched my house
took all my notes, all my books
and my correspondence with the people from abroad.
"During the home searches performed, they found and seized
more than one million pages of mystical, religious literature,
originals and photocopies.
Also negatives, photos, movies, video tapes, magazines."
- Joachim Porslund - Truth Seminar
- Mihai Stoian - Educational Leader of Natha Yogacenter Copenhagen
In 1971, I started to teach yoga.
There were about 14 students.
I did a course of so-called psycho-somatic yoga gymnastics.
At a certain moment we decided to put up posters for this yoga class.
The Secret Service, which was very active at that time,
noticed these actions.
And I remember that they restricted the telephones
and even cancelled that phone number.
In 1981-82, all those activities were prohibited:
yoga, and not only yoga, also karate, also judo...
And also the Secret Service was ordered to suppress any yoga activity.
Since 1982, when the courses were suspended, I must say that I continued
and I taught yoga illegally.
- Mihai Stoian - Educational Leader of Natha Yogacenter Copenhagen
The Secret Service made great efforts to stop Gregorian Bivolaru
and those around him from practicing yoga, but they refused.
Although those courses had been officially banned,
I kept on meeting at my home with five reliable persons,
who met after with more than 170 people.
So they kept on practicing yoga illegally.
And I continued to carry out this activity until April 1984.
The files of the Secret Service couldn't obviously record on paper
how they tortured and beat people, things that were illegal even then.
Why was yoga and meditation forbidden in the communist regime in Eastern Europe?
Because it was considered to be mysticism. If the citizens were to believe in anything
they wanted it to be in the Party.
Being in a communist regime and having a different way of thinking,
such as in meditation and this kind of thing, seemed to be highly suspect.
On one of the occasions Bivolaru was imprisoned
during the communist times,
it was because of accusations of subversive activities
against Ceausescu's regime.
How... subversive activities in which way?
As far as I know, he did not do any subversive activities,
but yoga and meditation, and all those kinds of things,
were automatically regarded as subversive.
They attempted to charge me with a plot against Ceausescu.
They really wanted to give such a turn to that trial,
because they had some testimonials.
And one of them was saying I had spoken with some people
and I had told them that we would make a yogi group that,
by paranormal means, would kill Ceausescu from a distance.
And given their mixed goals, including that paranoid masquerade
of rescuing their 'comrade', so they will get praises and receive distinctions,
I was labeled as an extremely dangerous person.
In their view, I was more dangerous than an ordinary criminal
armed with a bomb or a pistol; because I would act in a way
that couldnt be counteracted.
Afterwards I arranged for myself an escape from the custody of the National Security,
from where, up until then, as I was told afterwards,
nobody else had managed to escape.
And I can say that by combining some telepathic
and hypnotic procedures I managed that escape
and I could then impose my point of view.
I escaped and in this way I made a sui-generis protest
that stopped an aberrant investigation.
In the end,
I was condemned only for escaping for one year and six months.
This led to some pretty strange discussions in prison.
Everybody, when they heard, asked me:
What do you mean, accused of escape?
- And what else? - Nothing else.
But, all things considered they kept me imprisoned
for a year and six months, because I was already a very famous being,
because I had escaped from a place in which such an event
had never happened before.
We have to emphasize to the same extent that each individual
who practiced yoga at that time was a hero.
For they had all suffered the harassment,
the threats, and the beatings of the Secret Service.
Still they didn't give up.
This was an impressive resistance,
for it had lasted from the beginning of 1980 until the end of 1989.
I don't know any group that resisted that long.
What I did was to track the files of the leaders
and of some of the people in those groups, who, in fact, in 1990
founded the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute,
MISA.
Andreescu has just released a two-volume work on Grieg and the MISA case,
'Misa - An X-ray Photo of a Brutal Repression'.
An in-depth study of the repression of the movement and its members
both during and after the communist period.
In this historic work of more than 500 pages,
he concludes that this repression and persecution of yoga practitioners
was made possible through the intelligence service,
the media and judiciaries formed a united front against the yoga school:
The Securitate was responsible for the spreading of rumours and the fabrication
of false accusations against Grieg and the yoga school.
The media made sure to smear all the press and daily news
with scandalous headlines,
which young ambitious journalists happily agreed to claim authorship of.
And the justice system, which has the task to protect
the population against that kind of corruption,
instead participated in the persecution.
How could there be such a largescale flagrant abuse
before the public opinion?
I cannot understand all these actions.
What is happening today is like what happened in the 40's.
"The repression against MISA has been going on for 20 years now,
and had still not ceased at the moment when this book was published.
The repression against MISA
has taken place in all the different governments,
starting in the communist period and continuing up until when Romania
joined the EU, and even after that significant event.
It looks like the repression has never been affected
by the transition from one government to another,
nor was it influenced by the change of presidents,
where both the heads of the intelligence services
and the general prosecutors were changed.
What could explain all that extraordinary political hostility?
What exactly could trigger the state’s entire institutional system
to get involved in a war against
The Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute?
Could it really be that everyone thought the yogis were having group sex?
In a country where *** images were lavishly displayed on TV screens,
in news magazines, and on billboards?
Could it be that such hostility stems from the belief that Gregorian Bivolaru
had a *** relationship with a teenage girl who at that time
barely was 18 years of age?"
No,
I was never violated by anyone.
And all these are only lies.
I was fored to give false statements and I was confined illegally
with the silent complicity of the prosecution, police, the secret service,
and even of the judges.
I was beaten,
threatened with death,
terrorized with prison.
I was humiliated and mocked at in front of the whole country.
I could not graduate from school.
I was forced to isolate myself.
I am permanently in a state of shock.
I became a victim
of an absurd and repressive justice which follows its dirty goals.
I am not Gregorian Bivolaru's victim.
I am the victim of the prosecutors and of the authorities
that used me in this trial in order to incriminate him,
and that is the reason why they did not hesitate to ruin my life.
"Potentially shady businesses?
The austerity of most MISA adepts turns such allegations
into something ludicrous.
Out of the thousands of opinions brought forth by the printed media,
only a very small number observed the principles of honest journalism.
From March 2004 to October 2005 alone,
and only on such national TV stations,
570 pieces of news were broadcast
which were hostile towards MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru."
So it is in fact the security service or the secret service
that have served as journalists and spread these stories
through the press.
Romania is characterized by only having a partially free press.
There is a lot of statement control within the press,
both direct and indirect
which enables this kind of manipulation.
We have many reasons to suspect that the main responsibility for turning
the entire printed media into the main persecutors
of a bunch of innocent people
lies with the Securitate agents, paid or unpaid."
It has also surfaced, also from the new secret service,
that for 16 years I think it is, people have acted as journalists,
people from the old security service have acted as journalists
and have led the violent campaign against MISA and against Bivolaru.
The main driver of the oppression,
the main builder of the anti-MISA files, and the main surveyor of the MISA movement,
the main coordinator of the SWAT teams and prosecutors were the people
belonging to the Romanian Secret Services -
remnants of the former Communist Securitate.
"The first reason for that would be the intelligence services'
key role in the repression.
Then there is the direct
involvement of a string of magazines
in the spreading of defamatory rumors,
with the assistance of former Securitate people
former communists and
former Securitate informers.
I noticed that these actions were connected or, better said,
were a continuation of some old repressive actions against MISA members,
coming from before 1989,
from the time of the Communist dictatorship regime
when Romanian Securitate orchestrated several files,
some of national interest.
For example, the file regarding the Yoga Movement in Romania,
a movement that later on led to the founding of MISA.
It was a movement that disturbed the board of the Communist Party
and of the state during Ceausescu's time, due to its new form of manifestation,
of approaching life matters, the human personality,
ideas that would contravene the communist ideology.
It is clear that MISA members were continuously harassed,
and this is proven by
all the actions of surveillance perpetrated by the Romanian Securitate.
The necessary purging that should have happened
in the Romanian secret service has not happened
and there are many from the old security service,
the very feared security service,
who have survived in the new Romanian security service
and they have been very intent to prove that they were justified
with their harsh persecution of yoga practice
that existed under communist rule,
yes, in fact from the start of 1980 to the fall of communism
it was prohibited to practice yoga.
"The impact of what journalists say is tremendous and causes contempt
and stigmatization targeted at the yogis.
Acquaintances, neighbors, friends, the family with whom the yogis hitherto
had the warmest possible connections,
cut themselves off from the yoga students
when they read the papers or watched MISA-focused TV shows.
More often than not, journalists have turned into prosecutors.
The printed media has been launching campaigns
accusing the MISA Yoga School of causing the dismantling of families,
when in fact it is the other way around:
It is these negative press campaigns
that have had a dramatic effect on the relationships
between parents and children, spouses, and relatives.
Although coincidences,
unpredictable events,
and spontaneity have played their part in the turn of events,
the repression against MISA adepts still remains
an enourmous expression of manipulation.
It has a lot to do with the fact that manipulations have had a constant
and continual presence in the history of the society we live in.
Communism relied heavily on manipulation,
and it is out of manipulation that the dawn of post-December
Romania emerged twenty years ago."
No less unusual is the fact that the manipulation against MISA
is a long-term undertaking which continues to this day,
at a time when Romania, at least in principle,
has moved from learning the ropes of democracy
to becoming part of the European Union.
"X-ray of a Brutal Repression" proves the dramatic need
for reconstruction of those institutions
that were supposed to withstand acts of cruelty and injustice -
not only reconsidering their mechanisms,
but more than that, through the selection
of those human beings that can give those institutions their appropriate content."
It has received a great deal of attention from European parliamentarians
because it was a totally absurd persecution of something as innocent as yoga.
The leader and the founder of MISA has been accused of a lot of terrible things:
trafficking, sex with minors, narcotics trade etc,
but no plausible evidence has been brought forth.
So if they want to judge him, the prosecutors,
why don't they just do it?
Probably because they don't have anything
they can judge him with.
We have not seen any concrete proof that he did anything illegal.
And the Swedish authorities, where he received political asylum
in 2005, have naturally also investigated all the circumstances
and not found anything that could justify
that Sweden should give him to Romania.
You mentioned the MISA case earlier. …
The MISA case is very interesting and we have worked with it
since we started in 2007.
As a Swede I was originally fascinated that a Romanian
received asylum in Sweden due to religious persecution in his homeland.
This was at the same time that Romania was seeking membership in the EU.
It turned out when we looked closer, that the case had been
thoroughly investigated by the Romanian Helsinki Committee
as well as by Amnesty and other big organizations.
It is a case that exploded in 2004 with a huge police action in Bucharest,
where human rights were put aside in a very loud and clear manner
which echoed throughout Europe.
After this thorough insight into the Romanian authorities'
repression of yoga practitioners, a case that went all the way
to the Swedish Supreme Court
and the highest international political level,
the next obvious question is:
Were they the same mechanisms that were at play
when, in 2009, the Danish press suddenly launched an almost
identical criticism against the Danish yoga school?
According to the Media Liability Act of 1992,
the Danish press
is obliged to follow the code of ethics of journalism:
- The media should bring accurate and timely information.
As much as possible,
to make sure that the information given is accurate by checking.
- Beware of unprofessional sources:
Human emotions, ignorance or poor judgment should not be abused.
- Keep the facts and opinions separated:
The reader should be able to tell the difference between facts
and the journalist's or anyone else's comments.
- The control of information
must be particularly thorough
when people mentioned can be injured or wronged.
First of all, the information should be submitted to those involved.
- Attacks and replies should, where appropriate, be put in context
and in the same way.
- An accused person should not be declared guilty or not guilty.
- Do not write about things that can
make the outcome of a case more difficult.
Who influences what we talk about over morning coffee,
at lunchtime and on facebook?
Also in Denmark
all media are self-supported companies.
Even the state-owned media need to earn their daily bread.
And the product they sell is news,
entertainment and formation of public opinion,
- not necessarily good press ethics or common sense.
What dictates in reality the media's priorities and choices?
The municipality of Copenhagen
is now being accused of giving financial support to a sex sect.
Tomorrow, cultural minister
Pia Allerslev
will ask her administration to look closer at the yoga center.
In May 2009,
Jyllands-Posten and a number of other Danish media
published critical stories about Natha Yogacenter,
where three former students
and a former spokesman
for anti-cult organization,
The Dialogue Center, criticized the yoga school.
The article, 'Sex, Lies and Yoga Courses'
that appeared in Jyllands-Posten on 24th May 2009,
starts with a warning that Natha "looks like a regular yoga school",
but that "beneath the surface lies a sect-like organization
that earns money by offering various *** services",
and that "gullible Danes are in danger of being engulfed by the sect".
Karl-Erik Nylund has a doctorate in theology
and is the pastor of Maria Magdalena Assembly in Stockholm,
and he is probably Sweden's most recognized expert on sects.
He is the author of several books on sects,
including "Playing with Fire"
and is criticized by Scientology and others
for leading a smear campaign against those who think differently
in matters of faith.
In 2005, he drafted a report on Grieg and MISA, commissioned
by the Swedish Supreme Court
when Grieg was seeking political asylum.
Nylund tells about his meetings with Grieg in the report.
Nylund concludes in his report:
"I can say about MISA that it is a movement
that supports a different lifestyle, including alternative therapies
which have strong similarities with Gnostic syncretism.
The basic ideas are reincarnation
and self-transformation (the ability to transform oneself).
A sect is a movement that is often accompanied
by psychic deprivation where people gather around a leader.
MISA is rather a yoga movement
in which participants aim to improve themselves,
their health and their harmony
through a lacto-vegetarian diet and yoga techniques. "
In other words, MISA and Natha
is a healthy, life-enhancing yoga movement
without sectarian tendencies.
Several teachers and students from Natha
are undergoing education as psychotherapists.
Their teacher, Erik Smith, is a lawyer and philosopher,
former MP and president for 20 years.
And I also know that Natha has been subjected to criticism,
and I know that when you are criticised
then you stick together.
They are incredibly tolerant
and inclusive, incredibly sweet
and harmonious and smiling,
well - you are simply in good company.
Natha is criticized, among other things,
of mistreating people who leave the school's courses,
of earning money for *** services and of receiving financial support
from the Copenhagen municipality.
Through my contact the with yoga school,
I organized a series of interviews with teachers and current students,
and I was allowed to ask them about their experience of the yoga school
inside the doors of the school and to ask about the criticism.
I asked the same questions
as a journalist from Jyllands-Posten or BT would have done.
"Do they themselves experience Natha as a sect that earns money on sex?"
Have you been part of a sect, or are you part of a sect, Emanuel?
For the last 20 years?
If Natha Yogacenter would be a sect,
then it's strange that there
is such an increasing interest in the school,
more and more people come to the courses.
And in Natha Yogacenter
we invite other yoga schools to teach inside of our school.
And this I dont think a sect would ever do.
If the normal Copenhagener saw Natha as a sect
then it is strange that Natha is the biggest yoga school in Copenhagen.
I remember that I made a workshop
in which we did this famous Angel Walk,
but in the DR reportage of the workshop, the speaker says
"in this workshop people learn how to be sexually open towards everybody",
even though in the workshop this was presented
as a workshop that had nothing to do with sexuality.
In the last years the yoga school
has become much better at becoming involved in the society
and at taking part in different festivals and cultural arrangements,
exactly in order to come out and to show
that this is what this yoga school can do.
So, I do not perceive Natha Yogacenter as a kind
of closed island or inner circle, on the countrary,
it is a very dynamic yoga center
which engages itself in a lot of different things in society.
The school today is blossoming
and has become a huge center on Nørrebro,
which both functions as a host for other arrangements
and for other people who come and benefit from the center.
But also that the yoga school
goes out and participates to really many things.
In fact I think that the strength of the school
is its unique knowledge and spiritual insight.
But in many other ways the school can of course improve...
I myself am for example
working as a tantra masseur and psychotherapist.
And the money goes into my own company,
so I am not giving any money to Natha Yogacenter.
What to say;
it is a natural community that arises
whenever many people are interested in the same things.
It is not sectarian in meaning that you try to create distance,
or to build a wall,
or try to draw people in or try to push others away,
or an us-and-them... This is not at all what I experience.
Well there are some people
who change their priorities about their lives
concerning education or family.
Some with families, other with jobs and so on.
Actually I think that we get encouraged to try to find balance
and to still be able to function in the daily life in society
while at the same time practising yoga or tantra or meditation.
How can we be a sect when we never agree about anything,
this would be the first criteria.
That we do what we are told...
is there room for criticism in Natha,
is it possible to critisise Mihai, or Grieg, or you...?
No, me you cannot criticize...
So in my opinion people happily criticize around a lot...
I have never been recommended to not see my family by the school
- if this is what you ask?
Yes, it could be...
I have a close relationship with my family.
As have Adina and Mihai.
I was also with them once, driving to Romania.
And he has a really close relationship
to both his father and his mother.
And Adina also,
when her father got sick,
then she went there immediately to visit him,
- so from the leadership, the way they live their life,
it shows that for them family means a lot.
I experience that there are a lot of very close friendships
among the people in Natha.
And also that there - at least among some of the students,
exists a very strong fellowship.
But I think that this is very normal in all the areas that you engage in.
In fact I experience that both Grieg and Mihai
are very much against fanaticism
and very much against people behaving in a sectarian manner.
There has been some talk about Natha
making money from pornographic films.
So I asked some of the people from the yoga school
who starred in *** films if it was true
and what the project was actually about:
Then we thought that if we could make some movies
that are immensely beautiful,
which would show how in fact we can make love with each other,
with a partner whom you love,
and how you could use the *** energy to reach wonderful states,
where your heart is awakening and your soul awakens...
What we had in mind with this movie
was to show how beautiful it can be
when people love each other very much,
and also we wanted to illustrate in a very practical manner
the whole concept about *** continence,
which, among others things, includes that the man is not ejaculating.
People who have sex with each other are people
who have a strong desire for each other
and this is why they cannot stop having sex with each other.
On the other hand,
people who make love in the tantric way,
are two persons who love each other so much
that they wish to melt together on all the levels of their being.
Also on the *** level, but also in their hearts,
on all the levels they wish to unite.
This is what we tried to illustrate with the movie.
I found the project extremely appealing.
Maybe it could even start a trend,
we could maybe even start a revolution,
or a new way - you know, it could have been fantastic in some way.
So this was one thing, and then there was also
a personal transformation thing in it,
Well, I was extremely...
Well, it was a very scary thought, simply, very challenging for me
- do I really dare? Can I? Am I able to be present at all,
can I make love with a girl in front of a camera,
can I be with my girlfriend in this way?
So there was something... I wanted to challenge myself;
is it possible? can I do this?
and then, can we do something beautiful and poetic?
So there were those two reasons, right...
Was it Natha that made this movie?
No, it was not Natha, but, of course, we all came from Natha,
you see - we all did yoga and we all had this interest for tantra;
this is how we knew each other in the first place.
But it's not a Natha movie. No.
According to the contracts with the distribution company BN Agentur,
the production company
Sublime Erotica earned a total amount of
27,875.00 Danish kroner
on the two films the company sold on the market.
Hardly a million dollar business on which you can run a yoga school!
So it was a private initiative?
Yes, a private initiative and a private company,
which is now closed, as far as I know.
well, it is really difficult to earn money on this kind of thing,
and well, we were amateurs, right.
We tried something,
and made a small company to see if it would work,
and then we tried to make some movies and so...
So you did not make big money on it and then gave it all to the guru?
Well, you should know that this business was in a huge deficit.
If it is not correct that Natha earned money on *** films,
if students are not encouraged to have sex
and if experts have confirmed that the yoga movement
does not have sectarian traits,
then what's with the serious allegations of abuse of power,
manipulation and *** assault by prominent persons?
In addition to the charges against Grieg,
the coordinating teacher Mihai Stoian
got a rough ride when three former members slammed the door behind them:
Just like in universities - they have an administration,
who hire the teachers and also hire the Dean of Studies,
which I think it's called in university level,
who is responsible for the quality of the teachings.
He can be the world's warmest person
and he has a profound insight in the inner nature of the human being,
and he is capable of meeting many people on many different levels.
And sometimes he is temperamental,
sometimes he is warm - so it is like this,
that you can have a big quarrel with him.
Personally I did have some meetings with shouting, we shouted so much,
almost throwing things around.
But you cannot blame the man,
that he has temperament sometimes
and that he has charisma
and that he has personality:
he has a strong personality and he also respects people,
who stand up for what they say,
he respects people, who stand up for their opinions.
And he can give his very honest, raw opinion about some things,
if he thinks that something is not good
or if he would like things to be in a certain way -
but he never told me: you have to do like this and this,
so in this way he never manipulated me
to do something in particular.
I have always asked advice, if I had doubt about something,
and after I got the advice I was feeling myself really carefully,
to find out - what do I want?
And I remember once I had a doubt if I should do something,
and then he just said:
"Use your own intuition!"
I would like to add, that this "having a mentor"
is something that I do not consider to be something peculiar at all,
as is sometimes the tendency in Denmark.
Many people have mentors,
even in a relatively new country such as the States,
many people have mentors.
Even in business people have mentors, because this is how knowledge is passed on:
there is a person who has a lot of knowledge,
a lot of life wisdom and he is passing this knowledge further on to people.
From the more than 30 interviews I made with students and teachers at Natha,
not one described him as either militant, despotic or manipulative.
However, he is described as a strong and dynamic leader
with great initiative and commitment to the yoga school.
But what is in fact the relationship that Natha people have to Grieg,
who is the spiritual mentor and founder of the yoga system?
What is his actual role in the yoga movement
behind all the colorful headlines and accusations of using the yoga school
as a recruiting place for his meetings with young women?
Of course, sometimes people ask,
they are curious and ask: who founded the school?
Who is the founder?
And if I feel inspired,
then of course I like to tell about my meetings with Grieg.
For me, Grieg is a guide,
meant in the way that if I am confronted
with some things where I need advice,
it is often him I turn to, or I send him a letter
and ask his advice.
First of all, I have a deep respect for him,
because I find it so fantastic this educational system,
or what to call it.
I mean, all that I learn, we learn so much in the yoga class,
in tantra class and all the courses that take place here in Natha.
So there is no doubt,
we all know that Grieg is
"the master",
as you call it, that he is the head of the organisation.
But you do not get a feeling
that he is mentioned in each and every tantra class,
not at all,
sometimes his name comes up, and he is mentioned,
but this does not really influence me as a student in this school.
A tireless person,
tireless in giving impulses to wake up - simply.
So my first meeting with him was when my teacher from here,
Narcis Tarcau,
invited us to come with him to Romania
because there was a camp near Costinesti, near the Black Sea.
To come to Bucharest, it was the first time
that I visited a country from the East.
It was all grey and I was really scared,
I was scared that hmm...
scared that I would be taken in some way,
by something that would happen.
It seemed so wild,
And then this human being came inside and stood in the entrance
and I was kind of in the dark a bit,
so he could not see me.
He had hair to his shoulders and long fingernails,
and a vibration, which was...
so for me he looked like an indian from the Amazon River,
who suddenly came in, vibrating, a sorcerer or something;
a magician, whom I did not understand at all,
and then the civilization had given him a wristwatch and glasses,
The allegations in the press against Grieg,
are, according to current teachers and students in the yoga school,
a serious distortion of his real role and relationship with the members.
Well, I can of course not claim
that I am spying on what the other teachers are doing,
but I seriously doubt that a single one of them
in the teaching in the classes would tell to one single student
to go and have sex with Grieg.
This is first of all not something that we as teachers would interfere with;
who is having sex with who.
Then on the other hand we do emphazise,
as part of the tantric system,
that when you do have sex with another human being,
it is very important that that relationship is based on love -
true, genuine love and genuine attraction.
I was never recommended by any teacher or anybody
to have sex with Grieg.
No, I never heard about someone who was recommended
to have sex with Grieg, never.
No, I never heard about that,
and I have never been forced myself or been recommended
to have sex with any of my teachers
or Grieg or Mihai, not at all.
Well, just like when you practise karate
or practise something with some Japanese somewhere,
who started a movement, but it's not an old man
that you have ever met yourself,
or visited or it is not something that you normally hear about
- except sometimes someone would say;
"ahh - he said that you should train in this way,
like this and like that, right",
but besides that it is not very dominant.
Is it true that you are told to have sex with Grieg
by your yoga teacher in Natha?
No.
And I really don't know who came up with that story,
because it's really far out.
What was the reason for the same few people's grudges and enmity,
and their repeated accusations against the yoga school,
and against Grieg?
Several of their former friends from the yoga school explain
that they all had personal reasons to go to the press:
The unhappy couple who Jyllands-Posten and TV2 used
as a source in their criticism of Natha
is, according to former friends and colleagues at the yoga school,
motivated by a personal vendetta against Mihai Stoian.
They were among my closest friends and I must say,
when I look at some of these old guys who had been here for a long time,
and the way they are angrily waving their swords and calling Natha a sect,
then I think: "Well, in fact you are angry with Mihai
and because of that you are punishing me and telling me that I am a poor sect-member,
because you have a problem with Mihai in which you could not stand up.
And then you are just saying now that all those who are still in the school
are sect members
and about yourself, "I have been saved - I managed to escape",
and then we all have to listen to how bad they felt,
instead of them just assuming responsibility for their emotions.
I can say that I felt deeply let down by these people
because they were some of my best friends.
They were together with me in building this school.
He did not do the things they were saying.
They had personal reasons to accuse him in order to keep their own path clean.
So they did not break up with Natha more seriously at first.
When they moved out of the ashram,
they just moved to the other side of the street.
You would think that if they wanted to break up with the school,
they would move far away.
They just moved across the street.
Celia was the type who was very fanatic about everything she did.
She was also one of those who had a tendency to be very fanatic
about the yoga school in the 10 years or however long she was in the yoga school.
And when she wanted to leave the school,
it was the same convinced fanaticism she used
as when she suddenly was against the school.
In psychology when you have a counsellor or a therapist-client relationship
or teacher-student relationship, you have a phenomenon called transference,
where the one who is receiving the learning or the teachings
has a tendency to project a father figure and to project all the unsolved conflicts
and problems and neurotic dilemas on that father figure.
So if they ask for advice and they receive advice,
then you can wonder, why do they have a problem with that?
If they had a problem, they should not have asked him.
So if he is saying his opinion when they ask for it,
how can they be angry?
That seems quiet irresponsible.
That is not to be repsonsible.
If they wanted a certain answer, then they could have asked,
"Are you agreeing with this and this?"
Rather than confronting him personally with their dissatisfaction,
they choose to speak through the media.
In Jyllands-Posten's articles, a third former member is quoted.
His hostility to the yoga school is all about money and ownership
of a farm with a value of over 4 million Danish kroner.
In 2010 he won the property case against the yoga school,
which had invested more than 20,000 hours of volunteer work
and 1.2 million Danish kroner in the transformation of the property
into a retreat centre.
According to the case managers from the yoga school,
Kim Schmock had just been a middle man in the beginning,
buying the farm on behalf of the school and he had put out 120,000 kroner
as a loan to the school.
He had signed a document regarding the transfer of the deed to the yoga center,
but ran away from his promise.
Instead, he chose to scare residents with violence and harassment
and to portray himself in the media as a sect victim.
The way it was working was that in the beginning he was very happy for this
and he said that he wanted to make the down payment for this farm.
But there were some problems later on with the farm and a court case?
Gradually, well for some years it was really wonderful.
We were living in peace and harmony.
And we had this impetus of building up the farm,
and the school invested around 1 million kroner in the farm
for building materials and in rent.
We had all our summer camps there and we built the farm,
so that it would be possible to use it as a retreat center.
At one point Kim started getting tired of doing yoga.
He was not really practicing yoga himself,
It was mostly his girlfriend practicing.
And he said: "Well, I will still help
to make sure that people have a place to practice spirituality",
but he did not really want to do it himself.
And that became a problem for him, more and more.
And then he had some problems with the school,
because he promised to do some things that he did not keep.
And then it was hard for him to look people in the eyes.
Then he became angry.
He was fighing with the people on the board and they lost trust in each other.
And the first step that he took was that he said that actually
he just wanted to move out.
And then he said we should solve the ownership
so that it comes into the yoga school instead.
So that he was not responsible anymore.
Then he moved out.
And the first negotiations we had after he moved out was in this direction.
But quite fast he started saying:
"Listen. I have my name on the contract, so the farm is actually mine."
In 2005 he moved out of Bhoga.
And after that he did everything he could to kick us out of the place.
And that is where the hardest part of my life begins.
Because never have I experienced so much harrasment as during those three years.
And the interesting thing is that Schmock is not a stupid man,
he understands group psychology.
He understands how to portray himself as the weak one who has been harrassed
by the big bad sect Natha.
But in fact he was the one harrassing the people who lived there.
And he is really good at harassing others, I must say that...
You come home from your work and there is a stranger in your garden,
a man who is sneaking around in the darkness.
You are being forced, threatened in different ways
by a big man who is walking around on the farm.
In one of the episodes he came with all his men
and he emptied the house of all our possessions.
We are musicians;
we have a lot of music instruments, very expensive stuff,
they were all thrown out,
and the doors were locked.
So we are coming home late at night
and all our things have been put into a hall,
and many of them destroyed.
They were not exactly careful when they did it...
The most dramatic event was when six half-drunk nasty men showed up.
Me and my friend Martin, and my girlfriend Mariah, who was there,
we simply got beaten.
Personally I was punched in the face twice by a drunk man.
And Martin was strangled and beaten in the chest and in the throat.
He still has psychic problems since that.
So it was his style, and he had this advice from his lawyer
that he had to present the school as a sect in court,
because in this way he could be free of his responsibilities towards the school.
He could go in the court and say: "I was brainwashed by a sect. "
This was his strategy.
And at the same time if the media has a case where he is portraying us
as a sect that would support his case in the court.
With regards to statements made by the former spokesman of The Dialogue Center,
Tom Thygesen Dauggaard, The Dialogue Center was generally critical of yoga and tantra
and other non-Christian influences in Denmark during its time.
Yoga and tantra were perceived as obscure oriental religious practices
which constitute a dangerous foreign Hindu influence and a serious
threat to our Christian community.
The Dialogue Center closed on 2nd April 2011.
One can ask if this kind of attitude is not highly outdated and conflictual
in a multicultural European community?
Is not a nation's cultural and spiritual heritage something
that is constantly evolving and changing?
Is holding on to its national values about belittling or fearing others?
Perhaps they may even be a facilitator for the necessary renewal;
to breathe life into something that is about to burn out.
In May 2013, the TV2 series 'Denmark According to Bubber'
broadcast two programs called "The Sect?", in which the same three former students
as in 2009 speak critically about the yoga school.
Just like in the newspaper articles of 2009, Natha was given no place in the program.
And just like in Jyllands-Posten's series of articles in 2009,
the program begins with two of the former members
who through their own emotional accounts
attempt to compromise the yoga school's work.
Bubber says in the program that Natha did not want to participate.
You write to us that you have only one kind of contract,
but we investigated a bit and found out
that you have more than one kind of contract.
- I do not know anything about that.
I only know about the contracts that we have given to you.
So you are saying that you only have one kind of contract?
- No, that is not what I am saying.
But the one that we are using for this show is the one that we have sent to you.
So that means there are other types of cooperations than the kind of contract
you sent to us, in which we have absolutely no influence at all?
- We have never given up the editing rights as you requested.
We never do that.
Yes, but others who have taken part, you have made some special agreements
with them in order to have them participate, but you did not want that with Natha.
What are these special agreements?
- I do not know anything about that.
But Bubber is saying in some other programs
that there have been special agreements made,
otherwise they would not participate.
For example, …
- Ah, you are thinking about Scientology?
Yes, amongst others and that program with Scientology.
- Yes, that was that they did not want to take part if there were
former members taking part.
So that was the deal for that program.
Bubber is lying in the show.
The telephone conversation is cut to fit into the story of Natha
they would like to tell: Natha as a dangerous and closed sect.
However, it was Bubber and the production company Eyeworks
that insisted there is only one way to enter media agreements.
In fact they did not want Natha in the program on fair terms,
but simply to color a certain 'blackened' image of the organization.
"Bubber claims in his program
to meet the communities he visits in a fair and unbiased manner
and with an open mind.
Why then does he not mention
that Natha won the Copenhagen Cultural Prize in 2012
as the most popular association?
Why has not he investigated the background
of the three private persons attack on the yoga school?
Or why does he target the wrong statement that Natha should have
received 10 million kroner in municipal grants
when he had previously informed us that the amount is only about
600,000 kr per year since 2005. That is almost half.
And most of all, the awakened seer of
"Denmark According to Bubber"
should ask themselves why their program includes a sequence of 1.5 seconds,
during which 16 images of logos from various organizations flash across the screen.
The logos are not visible to the naked eye when the program is played at normal speed,
but when we play the program frame by frame recognizable logos that belong to
The Order of the Earls of Baelder (Neo-Nazism),
Hizbut Tahrir, Al Qaeda, The English Defence League, Hamas,
the Ku Klux ***, Hells Angels, Red Army Faction, Scientology,
Taliban, Bandidos, and others can be seen.
This image sequence is a so-called subliminal that is only registered
by the subconscious mind,
and it runs while a person in the program states
that if 'you can support Natha, you can support everything'.
In media science this is known as mind control.
An attempt by the producers to create strong negative emotions
in the viewer for something by associating it with something completely different,
which the viewer already has an aversion to.
Had Bubber openly associated Natha with the above organizations
he would probably have lost most of the viewers' sympathy,
but by creating a subconscious and emotional anchor he does not
give the viewers the opportunity to choose.
This is not a documentary or investigation with an open mind, but manipulation,
and reveals the program's intention.
Yes, unfortunately when we talk about freedom of press
it means that the freedom of speech has been influenced in a negative way
by the economic crisis
in Denmark and even in Italy. Italy is also on the list of countries
which has only a partially free press.
Spain also has a big problem with freedom of speech.
Could this happen in Denmark - that we could see the same tendency
that some social initiatives, which are a bit different
will be treated very badly, because they are different?
Well, we have seen some minorities being very badly treated.
B.T. backs up the TV2 program with a series of articles that uses
anonymous sources claiming to be afraid to stand out
in order to compromise the yoga school even more, making claims of a 'sect' making money
through sex and prostitution and abusing people sexually.
The structure and content of the references to the yoga school in 2009 and 2013
are similar to the confusion:
The next thing that happens is that Copenhagen Leisure Management
and politicians in the City Council are contacted by journalists
and outraged citizens who have read the first articles,
and request that Natha be stripped of its support
for adult education evening classes
and for its classes in both yoga and tantra to no longer be able to receive support.
If it will surface that there are some activities that are not according
to the law or that they do not fit with the leisure law,
then we will have to look at the application once again.
Press coverage works in a way that is carefully rehearsed and planned
with a strategic precision worthy of the military.
The question is, is this not manipulation and propaganda rather than journalism?
Who would benefit from Natha not receiving financial support
and thus being burdened financially?
Who would benefit from yoga and tantra being deprived of government support?
In May 2009, the Culture & Leisure department made
a political study of Natha.
They concluded in their report that "the said newspaper articles
are characterized by a lot of guess-work and assumptions.
This, combined with the association's response
to the administration's questions, resulted in the administration
not seeing any immediate reason to take further action.
So they have a certain amount of hours of yoga and we support that
by paying 1/3 of the teacher's salary.
In May 2013, a politician from Folkeoplysningsudvalget (The Cultural Board of Copenhagen) asked for a new study.
The reply from the administration of the Culture and Leisure Department states:
"Culture and Leisure has, since approval,
led several overviews of the association's activities in
the general education area.
Since 2010, management increased its overseeing of the association's grants
and concluded that, "not since that time has there been found any reason
to comment in this regard".
Natha's financial statements are publicly available.
It is reported that the association's only income is course work,
renting out rooms and government support.
All expenses are documented and reviewed for association members
at the annual general meeting.
67% percent of the association's expenditure goes into wages and rent for the yoga center
in Copenhagen and 33% goes to the actual operation of the yoga center.
The overall result in 2012 was a surplus of 141,705 kroner.
The financial statements also confirm that there is no economic connection
between Natha and other associations that the media says are connected
financially with Natha:
So you cannot equate the Tantra Temple with Natha Yogacenter.
It was a private initiative.
We have some people employed, but also some people are working there
voluntarily.
Some people are helping with the website, some are helping with writing texts,
some are helping with updating the Facebook page, some are giving massages,
some are teaching tantra courses.
So we have many people involved in one way or another.
So tantra massage is not prostitution.
It is not a *** service we are giving.
You cannot come to the Tantra Temple and order some kind of *** service.
For example, for the men who are receiving tantric massage in the temple,
they are not receiving a massage of the lingam - the genitals.
So in this way there is no *** service in it.
It is true, we are using the *** energy.
When the *** energy is awakened during the massage,
this energy we are awakening to spread it out in the entire body
to help people to experience to be completely relaxed
and completely alive at the same time.
So if you would like to be a tantra masseur,
you can write an application to the Tantra Temple
and those who we find good will be invited for a job interview.
And that will result in whether they will be employed or not.
And we cannot say that we are getting rich from it.
I was curious to double check Natha-people and experts that
went to the Tantrafestival in Aarhus to hear what people in the
tantra community had to say about Natha:
The openness that you are showing through these festivals,
where everybody can come, everybody is welcome
and everybody can come here, I find that so wonderful.
It has really done something to Natha.
It is so beautiful the way you contain everything,
that you are non-judgemental.
You have this attitude;
Yes, let's hear from the woman who knows something about pole dance,
let's hear about somebody who was in an ashram in India
under another Guru.
So there is this multitude that you are bringing.
Do you have any personal experiences with Natha apart from the Tantrafestival?
Yes. Yes, I was in Natha some time ago for some years.
I was both in the yoga course and in the tantra course.
Natha has been very judged and that is kind of blocking the love.
But we can see that all of you who are in Natha,
you are open and happy and nice and you respect a woman
when she is entering the door.
You are very warm.
You are yourselves.
You are not like someone who follows the others like in a military army.
You are very individual.
So it is so heartfelt, warm and loving.
It is like Danish people
are so afraid of everything where it is a little bit foreign.
Ah, it is something Romanian.
And then somebody who is called Grieg.
We are very afraid of the foreign things.
But the fact that Natha is opening up for this,
we can all feel how loving, how warm and wonderful it is.
We can see it in your eyes.
We can taste it in the food.
We can feel the athmospere in the room.
You really do something very good by opening up in this way, I believe.
This will be really big.
If Natha continues to make these festivals once or twice per year,
then it will become really big in all the cities.
And Natha will become the place that is about tantra.
I have kept many lectures in Jylland over the last 7 years and the fact
that there is a Tantrafestival in Jylland I believe that is fantastic.
I know what it takes to set up this kind of thing.
And I believe that.
Yes, it is pioneer work of the highest degree
and I am very happy to see how many people support this.
And that shows that there is a vacuum that needs to be filled.
People are seeking, people are searching for this.
And there is nothing sectarian about Tantrafestival.
There is a good mix of all kinds of people.
Since I am teaching and I said 'yes' to come here for free, full of enthusiasm,
it means I did not smell that there is something sectarian
and destructive here.
It is often a kind of "pop" phenomenan, which is really about entertaining people
to make some money.
I also heard from many people who have been there
that the entire basic package about yoga and meditation
is very thorough and very competent.
And it is some of the best we have in Denmark.
Also mysticism.
And there have also been some misconceptions of the Steiner environment.
But let's try to look at ourselves to develop and make ourselves evolve.
What you are doing here in Aarhus is fantastic and the fact
that so many people come to support this.
Well, when the media is attacking you that seems like a "pop" phenomenon,
that can be very dangerous, very desctructive.
So you have to team up with some people who are not Natha,
but who are working with the same things.
And in this network where we help each other
there will be some journalists who look at the whole perspective
and fundamentally from the beginning are very open and positive,
and who dare to make an investigation.
In other words, people from the tantra environment in Denmark
perceive Natha not as a sect, but rather as one of the leading authorities in Denmark
with regards to yoga and tantra and self-development.
Why has the media not also contacted
people in the environment of tantra in Denmark?
Would those persons, who are also part of the tantra environment,
but not part of the yoga school not also have been good credible
sources of information?
Another person that the media could have contacted, if they sincerely
would have liked an objective and nuanced portrait of the yoga school,
is former EU Parliamentarian and Pastor Emeritus, Ulla Sandbaek.
Ulla Sandbaek participated as a guest of honour at one of
the yoga school's meditation retreats in January 2013:
In this movie we investigated the case of Grieg
and his yoga movement as an example of the criticism and persecution
which is still today directed against people who are pointing
towards new possibilities of development:
spiritually, intellectually and socially.
Willy Fautré is the leader of Human Rights Without Frontiers
and one of the most respected European supporters
of the right to freedom of belief.
We met him in May 2013
in Bucharest where he was making a report about the MISA case.
In the Middle Ages being accused of witchcraft meant certain death.
Either you would sink and drown or you would float
and then you would be burned at the stake.
Today's media are the inquisition of our time.
The truth of the media is dictating terror,
sex and dangerous sects.
Their verdict is respected more than the one made by professionals.
The media in Denmark have given unreasonably large space
for these orchestrated opinions of the yoga school.
In contrast to most of the media in Denmark,
officials, experts, and opinion formers who are involved in the case,
as well as independent reports made by professionals, are telling a different and bigger story
than the sources the Danish media stick to, and that are motivated by personal reasons.
George Orwell once said
that in times of universal deceit the truth will be an act of revolution.
The truth is not drawn in black and white only,
you find it by shedding light on the reality
and in this way the multitude of colours appears.
In the end it is our choice where we focus and what filter
we put on the lens.
Are we not all responsible when the show of Bubber
is given more space than the journalism of Vibeke Sperling?
Can we - as a society - really afford this witchhunt on spiritual leaders
and movements who try out new ways of living?
What if the experts are right?
What if thousands of yogis have been innocently convicted?
Should our society protect us against Grieg?
Or shall we protect his
and everybody else's right to freely explore life?
A film by Sandhedsseminar (Truth Seminar)
An investigation by Joachim Porslund
The truth is without any hidden agenda