An Apple TV series against Gregorian Bivolaru and his movement even rehabilitates the notorious Securitate police of Ceaușescu.
by Massimo Introvigne and Rosita Šorytė
Article 1 of 4.
On February 16, 2026, one of us (Introvigne) received an email from Vince Calvi, Senior Manager at the company producing a documentary titled “Twisted Yoga.” Calvi requested an interview and insisted that the documentary would examine “contested allegations” impartially, without “drawing conclusions,” avoiding “sensational true-crime storytelling,” and “emphasizing balance.” This appeared to be half a dozen unrequested excuses in a brief email. With over forty years of experience confronting anti-cultism disguised as “balanced” journalism, Introvigne reviewed the trailer, smelled a rat, and responded on February 19 with a two-line message: “It seems precisely the kind of project we DO NOT want to be part of.”
He was, as expected, correct. Apple TV’s three-part “Twisted Yoga” doesn’t focus on balance and instead aims to draw sensational conclusions. It addresses not general problems within the yoga community but a specific group, MISA, the Movement for the Spiritual Integration into the Absolute, whose founder, Gregorian Bivolaru, is currently in jail in France awaiting trial. Introvigne wrote the only book-length scholarly analysis on this group.
“Twisted Yoga” is interesting. It clearly shows how sensational anti-cult media stories are made. It also confirms some details about the MISA case in France that we suspected before and have now been proven true.
We will explore how “Twisted Yoga” revises the origins of MISA in Romania, how the French case was initiated, the perspectives of some women accusing Bivolaru, and the stance of the French specialized anti-cult police.
With the help of a Romanian journalist hostile to MISA, the documentary initially…