The MISA instructors

The yoga and other courses are leaded by the so called instructors. They have a special place in the Misa hierarchy. They organize and lead what happens at the courses. There are others called coordinators who do not share in the privileges of the instructors and who coordinate and lead the other courses (Shakti, Vira, Shivaism, Ayurveda, Master-disciple relationship etc.). They are considered the elite of the course and are considered infallible and the perfect example for the students.

The truly devoted Misa instructors have yoga classes on a daily basis, on every day of the week, including Sundays. Since the number of hours of a single yoga course is 4-5 hours, plus if your a good yogi you have in true Misa tradition you have at least a 2-3 hour tapas (spiritual practice) plus the yoga and other courses the instructors go to for their own pleasure, add to that the time needed for your personal or family stuff, after a few years you recognize that the best thing to do is to live off the yoga course.

Now why would this be a problem? In the eastern countries the yogis can beg and are usually supported by the community, no matter how poor it is. They also can live on the street, because the weather allows it, and of course because this is an excepted way of life there.

In the western countries if you do a few courses, take an exam and have enough money you can open up your own yoga studio or work for a yoga studio for money. This is a legitimate profession. And there is no problem with it. You learn all sorts of yoga stuff, practice it for a few years, you become good and you wish to share your knowledge with others or wish to help them discover the wonder of yoga. So you become a yoga teacher. This is good, and I totally agree with this. You ask people for a certain amount of money for your services and they pay when they come to you. This is also a good thing. This is an obvious business transaction. And there is nothing wrong with that.

But the problem at Misa is that the instructors are not like this. From the first second on they lie to the people who come to the yoga courses. They say that they do not receive money for their services, but they do it from the goodness of their heart. And you should be thankful for this. You should consider this a favor. And should look up to them for their big spiritual attitude. Of course this is not true, but is one of their manipulation methods: the students should feel stupid and inferior from second one so that they work even harder to live up to the expectations of the group and especially those of the instructor, who in this case is the substitute of the master. The all knowing aster who knows everything the students do or even think. This paranoid thought is induced from the first minutes of the first course. This is a Misa and a cult classic.

The instructors receive deductions from the money collected as course fee from the students for their travel expenses, from the yoga course fee and any other Misa course they participate in, and the camp fees. This is not money per say, but is a form of reward coming from above in the hierarchy.

Another problem is the fact that all of the instructors are smug and superior in their attitude towards the students and in general. They think that they are a special and better than everyone. They are one of the special groups inside Misa. Because of this they feel special and superior compared to everyone else.

This thought is supported by the leaders of the movement and the students.

They also are given the opportunity to sell all sorts of pyramid-schemes and Misa products. I don't know if this is true, because, yet again the information is not public, but according to the former students they pay a share to the leaders of Misa in order to be allowed to do this at the courses, officially. They also promote the books published by Misa, and I suspect that they receive some form of payment for this.

The second line of advantage is the power coming with the instructor position. They are in control of the information at the yoga or other courses. They bring in the written courses, brochures and in the advanced or “big years” the VHS tape with the audio course by the master. They control this and some of them use this to manipulate the students.

They also keep track of the number of times the students were at the yoga courses. The yoga course by Misa is organized in years of study, so far 19 years. In each year each student has a certain number of absences that are allowed if you had a reason and a certain number of absences without a reason. After a certain number of absences you had to repeat the year.

Misa always claims that all that is done at their courses is yoga, and that the courses they organize are just another course, like a cooking class or collecting stamps. Does all of this seem like it's just another course? Don't you think at another simple course you would be threatened with the humiliation of loosing a year. In Misa circles this would mean that you should be ashamed of yourself because you are not spiritual enough, you do not have enough aspiration. This is one of the biggest shames possible for a Misa student. The instructors have power over this. This is also a means of manipulation.

So in all it's not too bad to be an instructor for Misa.

Money issues

The course fee

In order to participate in the so called yoga courses you have to pay a monthly fee. When we asked in the first year what the fee was for the answer was that it is necessary to pay for the rent of the room where the courses were held, and for the different costs like water, heating, electricity etc. Also for the written course. These are printed in the Misa printing house, by the so called karma yogis, who live in the Misa ashrams (this means for free), on a very cheap paper, so you could guess, it's not something very expensive. This means that the students pay four times for the course. First for the printed course, and for the ashrams supporting the people who print the courses.

I don't know how it is outside Romania but we never received any form of receipt or any fiscal evidence for our money. This is illegal. The only thing we received for our money was a stamp and the instructors autograph on the yoga id (also produced by MISA). Also we were told that the instructors do not receive any money for their services. But they collect the money for the course (in cash), they take it to Bucharest once a month and they can deduct their course-related costs from this money (first form of payment). They also received discounts from the camp fees which are approx. 60 EUR two-three times a year (second form of payment). They also receive a deduction from the yoga and related courses fees (third form of payment). So the affirmation that the instructors do not receive any money for their services being a yoga instructor for MISA allows them to save up to half of the costs of that their regular students - who are not so privileged - have to pay.

Since all of the fees were always collected in cash, all of the profit was and still is and will be in cash, without any form of evidence and so anything can be done with this money, without the burden of having to answer for what they do with it. Even if Grieg is the wonderful, above-it-all spiritual master that they claim he is, do you really think that all of the other hundreds of people who handle Misa's money on a daily basis are so pure and perfect that they never-ever-ever once in the past 20 years have not done anything with this money?

The ashrams

The ashrams are sustained by the money from the regular students. The Romanian forums are full of the stories of yoga students men and women who say that a lot of the girls in the ashrams do video-chat to make money. Some even say that this is something that was and still is an officially recognized way to do their share of karma yoga that is mandatory for the yogis who stay there on a daily basis.

From what I understand the ashrams work in the following way. Most of the ashrams are in Bucharest There are three ashrams that I know of, but like many of the information regarding MISA, are not public. So I can not say with 100% accuracy what the number of ashrams are in Romania. Outside of Romania there are other ashrams as well. These places from what I understand based on their public information that is to be found on their homepage, have the purpose to be the place of the yoga and related courses

The ashram consist basically of one or more buildings where the misa yogis or ashramists stay. If one of the yoga students of misa wishes to stay in a misa ashram they have to send a letter to the master (Grieg) asking him to allow him or her to stay in an ashram. They also have to send the mandatory pictures and personal information. Another way of getting in a Misa ashram is to be invited by Grieg personally This option is available mainly for the good looking women and the men from Grieg's inner circle. Now the average misa yogi who only goes to the yoga courses and the meditations and or camps think at this point that this is all fine and dandy but they certainly do not allow others inside the ashrams. But sadly this is not true. Based on the preferences of the bosses of the individual ashrams, anyone could get in and stay there for free for various period of time.

The costs related to the ashrams are supported by the different courses organized by MISA. And other supposed forms of income, that are not illegal, but are very much hypocritical and very-very wrong coming from the members of a so called spiritual school and spiritual people.

Also according to some of the former students there are some special smaller luxury ashrams for the special yoghinis or preferred girls of the Mis VIP's or Grieg himself. One of these luxury ashrams is located in Costinești. I was invited to this luxury ashram in 2008 and I saw the conditions there. I stayed in the same room with a few girls from these special ashrams.

Because I never was in the main ashrams, in Bucharest, I have to base the following information on the accounts of the former members. They say that the living conditions there are poor. They don't receive enough food, they have to work very much. Also they are used to organize mass protests supporting Misa's causes, and to do special meditations for saving the planet, manipulating the political situation in the country, for favorable court decision for Grieg etc.

The only ashram I stayed in was the one of the Costinești ashrams, called Lotus. If you've been in summer camp there you know the building. It is across the street from the so called comandament, where you pick up your camp id.

The conditions were not so good, but I guess that depends on each persons individual needs or preferences There were separate rooms for men and women, but there were rooms available for married couples in the other building, called Rai (meaning heaven) across the street. This is the big building where the comandament is. In the Lotus ashram there was a special room where couples could go to make love. There was a key to this room, which was at the yogi who was in service for guarding the entrance for the building.

The rooms are small, with bunk beds. Three people stayed in one room, but it was a bit too much. If all of us were in the room at the same time, with our bags put against the wall, we barely had room to move.

The karma yogis who stayed here for the duration of the summer camp received food twice a day in the cafeteria under the room where all of the activities are held in the first period of the camp. The food was also prepared by karma yogis. It was not much, but most of the time you could go back for seconds after the serving time was over.

There was almost never warm water in the building. If we wanted to wash our clothes we had to do this in cold water, by hand, and we had to take the clothes to dry to a separate garden two doors down.

In the rest of the year few people stay here, but it's the same thing.

Other services offered by MISA

Naturist products

The Divine star, Dacia plant and other naturist products lines, are owned by Misa. On paper the firms on the names of someone close to the Misa inner circle, so that the authorities can not say that Misa has any means of income that should be taxed. The money from these go to the pockets of the leaders and also fuel the movement.

There are also no name brands commercialized inside the yoga courses, for which the instructors do promotion saying that it's important that everyone takes this or that plant that they can provide you with. Some of these are said to be special for preventing different diseases like the avian-flu, SARS, and whatever is in the news.

Lately they keep the composition of some of these products secret for a “certain reason”, which of course you never can find out, because this would mean that everyone can make these plant mixtures and no one would buy it from them. An example for this is the so called trance plant mixtures. There are different varieties: for romantic trance and trance forte. The recipe for these are secret because of “certain reasons”. This is written on the package.

Printing houses

Misa publishes esoteric books, the yoga, ayurveda, shivaism, shakti, and special courses, two magazines (Yoga magazine and Revista misterelor). These publishing houses publish the works of the privileged Misa students and the works of Gregorian Bivolaru (Grieg).

The publications are sold at the yoga courses, the spirals, the camps, and also publicly. The instructors also promote these books at the yoga courses and at the different events.

Youtube

I created a youtube account.
Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/user/Shaktiblogger

Videos coming soon.

Viluță

In Costinesti, where the annual "International Yoga Symposium" is organized, there is a vila, propriety of Misa, where each year girls and women from the yoga courses are invited. I say girls because I knew personally two girls who were underage at the time they stayed in the vila. All of the rules were mandatory for them as well. Please keep this in mind while you read the following post. And also keep in mind that according to the official MISA standpoint they never ever did anything that was any sort of danger to minors.

Access in this vila is restricted to the few VIP-s of the course.

I received one of these invitations and I vent to the vila for two weeks. The picture above is the proof for this.

The translation of the text of the invitation is as follows:

"For the woman who has become a wonderful SHAKTI (Secret Feminine Force of Nature) many of the extraordinary benefits become easily possible.

Her supernatural, enigmatic force, to influence in a paranormal way in her own universe as well as in the immediate or distant environment, in which she exists, they prove in an unutterable way THE FASCINATING MANIFESTATION OF THE ETERNAL FEMININE (witch exists in a latent state in the MICRO COSMOS of every WOMAN).

For the wise THE FORM OF THE BODY, THE FACE, GLANCE, as well as THE DIFFERENT PREVALENCES that appear (NOT AT ALL COINCIDENTALLY) at a fizical level of the FIZICAL BODY OF THE WOMAN are every time the reflection of an ineffable INTERIOR NECESSITY (that are already latently dynamic in the depths of the human being).

This is why people say: "EVERY TIME THE FORM OF THE BODY OF A HUMAN BEING AS WELL AS THIS PERSONS FACE ARE A MYSTIC REFLEXION OF NECESSITY".

The occult force of a woman who became SHAKTI consists also in awakening the capacity to boost, to regenerate and to transform easily herself with the help of the SEXUAL POTENTIAL witch is transmuted in a HUGE ENERGY. This is one of the secrets of SHAKTI.

The human being who reaches this ample and deep mysteries of the body, succeeds in knowing the secrets of the UNIVERSE. She discovers in this way that the BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (which is a sublime form of SHAKTI)."

PROFESSOR YOGA GREGORIAN BIVOLARU

Invitation

To ____________________

Following the selection made by Grieg we hereby notify you that you have been selected for a free vacation between dd August - dd September 20XX in COSTINESTI in the VILA SHAKTI OF THE INVITED.

The accommodation, the meals, and the camp fee is free for you.

It will be necessary for you only to do the HIV and SYPHILIS tests before you come to the camp and to have the photos for the ID.

You will present the invitation at the COMMANDAMENT OF THE CAMP in order to receive the access ID.

This invitation is personal and not transmissible, it is valid only for the month of AUGUST 20xx between mm dd.

In case you do not wish to accept this invitation please announce us at the following address: purplechoise@yahoo.com because the places in the vila are limited.

THANK YOU

Stamp"

Once we arrived at Costinesti and went to the so called Comandament, where the participants of the Symposium pick up their id's, we were sent to the vila. There we waited in one of the hallways for about 2 hours. In the meantime we were given to read a two page rulebook of the vila. This was taken away by the organizers after we entered the next room.

There we were put to swear that we will respect the rules. The invitation was taken away, and we had to give something important that was ours (our Id's for example) that we were assured will receive back when we leave.

We were also informed that the following day there will be a photo session in which we have to participate or our invitation is revoked and we will have to leave. The photo session consisted of nude photos and a nude short film in which we had to turn around once slowly while one of the organizer girls read out aloud our name, year of yoga course, horoscope, nitya, and place of residence. After the photo session we were sent in a room and we had to fill out a form.

In the form we had to write various personal information, and we had to answer a bunch of questions. Among others we had to write precisely when we will have time to go to Sweden to meet with Grieg, Gregorian Bivolaru, the so called spiritual leader of Misa. And we had to answer with yes or no to a question which was approximately as follows: If I will not participate (for whatever reason) in the two meditations with Grieg, specially offered for the girls in this vila, I consider that I do not deserve to be here, now or in the future.

We were told which are our rooms and we were sent on our merry way.

Among our obligations was to participate in certain special conferences that were programed in specific days. The presence was obligatory. There was such a conference at approximately two days. They took in account the other big events in the program of the camp. On these occasions there were no such conferences.

The conferences were in form of a video, on which Ms. Aida Calin the major Shakti Group coordinator from the capital, talked about various themes, all sexually related. All of these videos were recorded in the vila we were in on a previous occasion. After each such conference we had to watch a porno movie. And after that there was a seven minute meditation with the great cosmic power Tripura Sundari in order to sublimate the sexual energy awoken by the movie.

If we wanted to leave the vila for the night we had to announce the organizers. There was a special notebook for this.

The camp fee, the materials, and the food were included. The girls at the vila had access to absolutely every event for free. Or should I say at the expense of the paying participants of the camp.

In the vila on every floor (there are 4 floors) was a refrigerator, which was filled every morning with sweets, cheese, dairy. In the court, which was covered by a big yellow plastic and surrounded by a metal fence from every side, there was a sink, a stove, and boxes filled with potatoes, tomatoes, and bread backed in the mess hall across the street, by and for the karma yogi's who participated in the organizing of the camp. Every other day a truck came and brought melons which were put out in the court also. Everyone from the vila could eat anything, anytime, as much as she liked.

The girls also had access to the mess hall and received two hot meals a day, for free, of course.

We also received the whole package (books, Cd-s, and so on) that was given at the camp.

Before we left we received another package with the message "It's from Grieg." which also contained books, Cd's and a special underwear: a pair of fetish style panties.

The rooms were various in size. There were rooms in which 14 or so girls stayed. There were common bathrooms on each floor. On the ground floor the shower cabins were made in such away in which you could see the others. There were no shower curtains or doors, or anything.

Hot water was very rare. There were solar panels on the top of the building, but we had hot water only  rarely, and for short amounts of time.

There was also a special room where you could make an appointment to receive a massage (erotic of course), which could be also used by couples (only girls from the vila of course) for a special tantric meeting.

Most of the girls there knew each other from past years. Most of them were from the capital and lived in the Misa ashrams. They also were in some way or another connected to the VIP organizers of the camp. This was the real cause of their invitation, not the special selection made by Grieg that was perpetuated at the Misa folklore. The majority of the girls had participated in the organizing of some Misa propaganda activity, and this was their reward.

There were probably girls that were selected based on the preferences of the master, but the majority were from this category.

Men were not allowed to enter the vila. Except for the guy who took out the garbage and the VIPs of organizing. There was female members of the so called Order team guarding the entrance at all times. The girls from the vila had a special pink id, that said invitation on it, and based on which they could enter the vila. Every time someone who wished to leave the vila, they were searched, so they don't take anything from the vila. Every room was equipped with a stereo, portable CD player (some of them with TV's, in which we watched the conferences and pornos), Cd's, books. In the baths there were deodorants, perfumes available for everyone to use. Each of these items had the inscription "Vila invitatelor" written on them. These could be used by everyone, but could not be taken out of the vila.

There was a program based on which each room on each floor was for cleaning service on each day. The girls who stood in this room had the obligation to bring the sweets and other food to the refrigerator on their floor in the morning, clean the bathroom on the floor and the hallway. There were vacuum cleaners available. The vila also had a wash-room to which the girls in the vila could give their laundry for washing. They could not use these washing machines, they had to give it to someone, and would have their clothes back the next day.

Before you left the vila you had to do another photo session, and video shoot. The procedure was the same. If you did not participate in this, you did not get your ID back, and were intimidated with loosing the possibility to return to the vila in the following years.

The girls in the vila were from other countries as well, not just Romania. And some were from very small years of yoga course (1-2 etc).