Press Release

3 December 2024

PRESS RELEASE 3 DECEMBER 2024

On Friday 29th November 2024 NATHA was contacted Thomas Prakash, journalist from Danmarks Radio. He only gave us few hours notice to reply. Here is the answer NATHA sent to DR. The article you will find on DRs website.

We are aware of the unjust arrest of our former teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Stoian, in Georgia, forced by French prosecutors on grave allegations endangering their freedom and even their lives right now. You need to address all allegations against Mr. and Mrs. Stoian to them. We can not speak on their behalf.

For the sake of clarity, please take heed that Mr. and Mrs. Stoian are not managers in Natha but former teachers employed part-time in our school. Mr. Stoian was for a brief period in the board of Natha in 2003 and 2004 (more than 20 years ago). We would recommend questioning carefully the intentions of your sources in this matter due to the presumption of innocence according to Danish/French Law.

As an investigative journalist, you might appreciate knowing that your questions contain wrong information about our organisation. We have not engaged in or been connected to any alleged actions, as you suggest in your questions.

NATHA organizes yoga courses only in Denmark and is a non-profit organisation that operates entirely autonomously and is organised independently according to the local legislation of Denmark, holding full responsibility for its decisions and activities.
We categorically condemn any kind of abuse and actively teach against it in our courses and act against it in our yoga community. We have strict policies safeguarding intimate and emotional consent, as well as clear social boundaries in our yoga classes and our community following carefully Danish law. In interpersonal relationships, we encourage gentleness, heart-based communication, inner balance, honest introspection, freedom of choice, sincerity and mutual respect.

We are rigorous in ensuring a safe environment for everyone, perhaps more than most places in society as it is within our area of expertise. We do not condone any sexualised attitudes or misbehaviour. Anyone exhibiting such behaviour within the activities of our school and violating the rights of other students promptly receives a warning and if the behaviour continues he/she is consequently disqualified from accessing our courses, events, employment and volunteer programs. For further details, we advise you to study our consent forms, statutes and social media.

Furthermore, one of the aims of our organization is to be part of reeducating and transforming such sexualised tendencies in our society. This is why we never have, and never will, encourage or teach sexualised behaviour, which has become an obsession in today’s culture (e.g. 1/3 of all internet searches are for porn or sex).

Instead, we teach people how to transform their sexual instincts and potential into pure eroticism and higher forms of creative expression, intellectual performance and expansion of consciousness (referred to today by experts on new religious movements as ’radical aesthetics’). These goals are possible and accessible for everyone who sincerely makes the effort to learn and practice what we teach. Thousands of yoga practitioners have had significant results and astonishing personal transformations in their lives due to the esoteric yogic practices taught at NATHA.

It is also important to mention that NATHA is neither responsible nor accountable for the private lives of its staff, students, volunteers and teachers. Being a member or student of NATHA is a completely voluntary commitment, which can be cancelled with reasonable and previously agreed notice, like any other sports club, gym or non-profit organization in our country. We do not ask people to commit to yoga classes and practices any more than what they are interested in doing and feel they would benefit from.

We are sorry that we cannot be more helpful at this stage due to legal procedures. We reserve the right to prosecute you and Danmarks Radio for any statements that act against Danish and/or International defamation laws. You are welcome to use our response here in its entirety or in lengthy quotes, that do not distort the meaning of our statements.

Last but not least, We call upon all well-intended independent journalists to truly investigate the source materials and what internationally recognised experts on human rights, sociology and religious movements have found in their in-depth investigations of Gregorian Bivolaru, NATHA, MISA and Atman International Federation of Yoga and Meditation.

You can read more about the investigation in France (and the many abuses of the French authorities) in articles written by affiliate professors in religions and cultures and professional human rights lawyers from organisations like CESNUR, FOB, LIREC and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF). They have all investigated the case thoroughly and give a much more nuanced perspective than your sources gave you so far.

We would like to especially bring to your attention the recent in-depth research article MISA: Spiritual Explorations and Experiences in the Practice of Esoteric Yoga (The Journal of CESNUR, 2 November 2024) by Raffaella Di Marzio, Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC), where she is discussing the ’psychology of faith’, conversion/affiliation process and ”analyzes the experiences of ten practitioners from different yoga centers, all members of the International Federation of Yoga and Meditation ATMAN.

The objective is to detect the meanings that the interviewed members attribute to their experience based on their autobiographical reconstructions. They are examined in the light of a multidisciplinary model developed within the framework of the psychology of religion for the study of the conversion/affiliation process.”

You will find more valuable source links below. They are a must to read if you sincerely want to understand this complex case. For some people in our organization it is now a matter of a free life or prison for life.

Yours sincerely,

Team Natha

Some valuable source links to study the case further:

• MISA: A Call to the Georgian Authorities for the Release of Mihai and Adina Stoian: Eleven scholars and human right activists ask Georgia to resist the long arm of French anti-cult repression and free the two MISA leaders. https://bitterwinter.org/misa-a-call-to-the-georgian-authorities-for- the-release-of-mihail-and-adina-stoian/

• MISA: Spiritual Explorations and Experiences in the Practice of Esoteric Yoga (The Journal of CESNUR, 2 November 2024) by Raffaella Di Marzio , Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC): https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/tjoc_8_6_4_dimarzio.pdf

• Publication from 23 November 2024 Police raids on Romanian yoga centers in France, one year later Many yoga practitioners have filed complaints concerning the conditions of their custody by Willy Fautré (European Times and HRWF), who is a former chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and at the Belgian Parliament. He is the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), an NGO based in Brussels that he founded in December 1988: https://europeantimes.news/2024/11/france-police-raids-romanian-yoga-1-year/

• 3rd October 2024 WARSAW HUMAN DIMENSION CONFERENCE France Institutional torture: https://freedomofconscience.eu/2024-warsaw-human-dimension-conference-france-institutional-torture/

• Yoga – Disproportionate widescale police raids with abuses starting from a personal settlement of scores: https://www.eureporter.co/world/france-world/2024/09/20/yoga-disproportionate-widescale-police-raids-with-abuses-starting-from-a-personal-settlement-of-scores/

• The Opposition to “Cults” in Various Countries and Its International Coordination by Rosita Šorytė (International Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB)): https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/tjoc_8_6_3_soryte.pdf

• Mediale Berichterstattung zwischen Information und Sensationsgier Folgen für Yoga-Schulen und – Mitglieder, Stefanie Aue (DATY): https://traditionelles-yoga.de/news/mediale-berichterstattung- zwischen-information-und-sensationsgier-stefanie-aue/

• Sacred Eroticism or Sexual Magic? Liselotte Frisk’s Research on MISA by Massimo Introvigne (p36), The Nylund Report of 2005 and the Frisk Study of 2019: Parallels and Differences by Rosita Šorytė (p51) by Liselotte Frisk & MISA: An Emic View of a Yoga School and Its Perils by Camelia Marin (p63), all IN The Journal of CESNUR Volume 8, Issue 5, September—October 2024: https://cesnur.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tjoc_8_5_full_issue.pdf

• France – Yoga: Disproportionate widescale police raids with abuses starting from a personal settlement of scores by Willy Fautré (European Times and HRWF): https://europeantimes.news/2024/09/france-yoga-disproportionate-raids-abuses-settlement-scores/

• The Long Arm of France: Why MISA’s Mihai and Adina Stoian Have Been Arrested in Georgia by Massimo Introvigne: https://bitterwinter.org/the-long-arm-of-france-why-misas-mihail-and-adina- stoian-have-been-arrested-in-georgia/

• The Police Raids Against MISA in France, November 28, 2023. part 3: The Yogis’ Complaints About the Police by Susan Palmer: https://bitterwinter.org/the-police-raids-against-misa-in-france- november-28-2023-3-the-yogis-complaints-about-the-police/

• Experts in Human Rights, Sociology and Religious Movements about Atman and associated organisations: https://atmanyogafederation.org/experts-about-atman/

• MISA Historical Timeline by Massimo Introvigne: https://wrldrels.org/2017/05/31/movement-for- spiritual-integration-into-the-absolute/

• NATHA Press Release December 2023: https://natha.dk/press-release-dec-2023/