The MISA Case: Georgia Bows to French Pressures and Extradites the Stoians

The two yoga teachers are accused of the imaginary crime of brainwashing for having taught students the movement’s sacred eroticism theories.

By Massimo Introvigne

May 21, 2025

Mihai and Adina Stoian in happier times. From Facebook.

On May 15, 2025, Mihai and Adina Stoian, Romanian yoga teachers of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) and the International Yoga and Meditation Federation ATMAN, were extradited from Georgia to France, just days before the maximum term allowed by the Georgian law to keep them in jail had expired.

The extradition is grossly unfair, and Georgia should have resisted French political and legal pressures. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

MISA and its sister schools that are part of ATMAN (independent but inspired by similar principles and a reference to the works of the Romanian yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru) propose a variety of teachings based on different sources. One of these teachings is a Tantra-based “sacred eroticism,” i.e., the use of the amorous intercourse as a path to enlightenment through “erotic continence,” i.e., the practice of the erotic encounter without the man’s ejaculation and without the female discharge sometimes called “female ejaculation.”

Modern democratic societies have a large tolerance of unconventional sexual practices. France, for example, is the country that originally invented the “clubs échangistes,” or “swingers clubs”. Couples go there and exchange partners with others in the club, unknown to them (and sometimes masked), so that both men and women have sexual encounters with persons they did not know before and do not expect to meet again. “Swingers clubs” are not regarded as illegal in France (nor in several other countries). Of course, forcing a person to participate in the “swingers club” evenings would be a crime—but the participation of consenting adults is not.

The purpose of “swingers clubs” and similar institutions is merely recreational. In sacred eroticism retreats, some students can go through an erotic initiation with teachers who are not their partners for reasons they would not describe as recreational but spiritual. For reasons scholars have investigated, modern societies are tolerant of sexual transgression between consenting adults but would not condone non-conventional erotic practices presented as religious or spiritual. The taboo that eroticism and religion should remain rigidly separate spheres has not yet been overcome.

Women, in particular, who go through erotic rituals with Tantric masters who are not their usual partners tend not to be believed when they say they made this choice for spiritual reasons and freely, and understand what sacred eroticism is all about. They would perhaps be believed if they claimed they went to a swingers club freely for excitement and fun.

I am aware that rituals entering the sphere of eroticism are at risk of abuse. It is false, however, to argue that any erotic ritual is by definition abusive. The key legal question is not whether the purpose of the experience is recreational or religious, nor whether the partner a woman (or man) decides to have an erotic encounter with is known or unknown to them.

The criterion distinguishing a free erotic encounter, whatever its purpose, from sexual abuse is, as usual, consent. If an adult woman (or man) freely consents to an erotic encounter with somebody who is not her (or his) partner, there is no abuse and no crime. That a woman may decide to have such an erotic encounter with a Tantric master as part of her spiritual path may seem “strange” to many who are unfamiliar with sacred eroticism. But “strange” does not mean abusive or illegal.

Adina Stoian teaching a Tantric course. From Facebook.

French authorities believe that, while the decision to visit a swingers club may be somewhat understandable, submitting to a ritual of sacred eroticism with a “guru” (a word that indicates a respected master in India but is derogatory in France) can never be a free decision. This is because France, unlike the vast majority of democratic countries, has adopted the so-called anti-cult ideology since the late 20th century, which a 2020 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has identified as a primary threat to religious liberty. A specialized (and highly controversial) French state agency called MIVILUDES promotes and applies this ideology daily.

There is no legal distinction between “religions” and “cults” in any democratic country. On the contrary, authoritative interpretations of international law on freedom of religion or belief insists that the world “cult,” whose equivalents in other languages are the derivates of the Latin “secta,” including the French “secte,” has an inherent discriminatory potential, is used to discriminate against unpopular religious and spiritual communities, and should be avoided by public authorities, as stated by the European Court of Human Rights in the decision “Tonchev v. Bulgaria” in 2022.

The French approach relies on theories dismissed by scholars, international institutions, and courts of law in most democratic countries as pseudo-scientific. These theories claim that the difference between legitimate “religions” and illegal “cults” (sectes), now renamed groups guilty of “cultic deviances” (dérives sectaires), is that religions are joined freely.

“Cults,” it is argued, are joined because their leaders (gourous) manipulate the victims through techniques of “abuse of weakness” (abus de faiblesse) or “psychological subjection” (sujétion psychologique), French terms conveying the same ideology of the English “brainwashing.”  Brainwashing theories have been dismissed by scholars and the courts of law in the U.S. and most European countries as pseudo-scientific.

The theory of “abus de faiblesse” (abuse of weakness), aka “brainwashing,” is at the heart of the French attitude about sacred eroticism groups, MISA, Gregorian Bivolaru, and the Stoians. It is assumed that MISA is not a religious group but a “cult,” using “brainwashing.” It is also argued that the choice of women to go through rituals involving erotic initiations cannot, by definition, be free. Even if (most) women claim it is a path they have freely chosen, they are, it is argued, not believable. Such “strange” behavior cannot be chosen freely. The women merely “believe”their choices were free because they were and still are under the influence of “abus de faiblesse,” “psychological subjection,” or “brainwashing.”

On November 28, 2023, the French police raided several premises of MISA and arrested Gregorian Bivolaru and others. They then told the media that they had “liberated” dozens of women (none of them French) who were “kept prisoners” and would be “raped.” Soon, however, the problem emerged that not even oneof the women, although submitted by the police to what they described as abusive treatments and pressures, agreed to file charges against Bivolaru and MISA. As some of them confirmed to international scholars who interviewed them, they claimed they went to France freely and knew precisely what MISA was about. Some (not all) intended to participate in sacred eroticism rituals, but said they were familiar with the MISA literature describing them and had freely chosen this admittedly unconventional spiritual path. They asked that their choices be respected. In fact, more than twenty of them have since filed complaints I have examined, not against Bivolaru or MISA but against the French police.

Deprived of the testimony of the “liberated” women, the French case against Bivolaru and the derivative one against the Stoians rests on the complaints filed by seven “apostate” ex-members who have left MISA and the ATMAN schools, in some cases several years ago, and cooperate with anti-cult organizations, claiming they now realize (ex post facto) that during their period in the school they experimented with sacred eroticism because they were under psychological subjection. French prosecutors have told the media that only these seven ex-members are believable, because they are those who were able to break free from “brainwashing,” while the women “liberated” during the 2023 raids are not believable because they are still under the influence of “psychological control.”

We do not deny that the discomfort of some ex-members may be very real. They need to be understood and helped. It is, however, an entirely different matter when it is dogmatically affirmed that in all cases, countries, and groups, only the women who report these were bogus rituals devised to abuse them “tell the truth,”while those who offer a different interpretation are either lying or under “brainwashing.” The latter are regarded as not capable of making free choices. The prosecutors, the police, or the media believe they know better than these women what they wanted—or did not want.

The Stoians are accused of aiding and abetting Bivolaru in committing the crime of “trafficking” by organizing the transport of students from other countries to France, where the MISA leader abused them. The Stoians denied they ever “organized” such trips.

Adina Stoian lecturing at a retreat. From Facebook.

At any rate, while accusing new religious movements of “trafficking” has now become fashionable, if women went to France freely to attend spiritual retreats or other religious activities, there is, of course, no “trafficking.” These of the seven “apostates” are ex post factoaccusations. At the time, they did not feel “trafficked,” but now they have changed their mind or have been taught to reconstruct their experience as “trafficking.”

The accusations against the Stoians rest entirely on the discredited and pseudo-scientific theory of “brainwashing,” disguised as “abus de faiblesse.” The Stoians’ role would be to have participated in the “brainwashing” process by persuading some women (perhaps including some of the apostates) to go to France and teaching them the principles of MISA’s sacred eroticism. When we read that the Stoians are accomplices in crimes allegedly committed in France, what they are accused of is just of presenting to MISA students the teachings of the movement about sacred eroticism and (perhaps) mentioning the possibility of attending retreats and meetings in France.

Whatever the role of the Stoians in facilitating the trips to France, it is clear that they are accused of exercising their freedom of thought and freedom of religion or belief by teaching certain principles to students. They are not charged with having personally raped or abused anybody.

Although there is no denying that the Stoians are regarded as authoritative and beloved teachers in the movement, similar accusations could easily target hundreds of MISA and ATMAN instructors worldwide. If the Stoians can be kept in jail and sentenced just for their teachings, based on crimes of “brainwashing” that are regarded as imaginary in most other democratic countries, freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion or belief become principles that can be denied on the arbitrary basis of one country’s decision to destroy minority spiritual movements it does not approve of.

Source: bitterwinter.org