Twisted Yoga: Inside the Shocking Exposé of a Tantric Sex Cult
Apple TV+'s three-part docuseries Twisted Yoga uncovers how women were lured into a tantric sex cult through deception, spiritual manipulation, and false promises.
Twisted Yoga: A Disturbing Deep Dive Into Exploitation and Deception
Imagine accepting an invitation to an exclusive yoga retreat, only to arrive at a rundown building in Romania where bizarre rituals unfold before your eyes. Or picture being summoned to meet a so-called spiritual guru in Paris, only to have a stranger wrap your SIM card in tin foil and drive you to a nondescript flat on the outskirts of the city — where you are expected to engage in prolonged sexual acts with an elderly man you must mentally "transfigure" into someone tolerable.
For most people, a scenario like that would read as a surreal nightmare. For a number of real women, however, it was lived reality. Apple TV+'s new three-part documentary series Twisted Yoga chronicles these experiences with unflinching honesty, balancing jaw-dropping revelations with a thoughtful sensitivity toward the women at its center.
How It All Began: A Yoga Studio With a Hidden Agenda
The documentary opens by introducing us to Ashleigh, an upbeat Australian woman with an affinity for alternative spirituality — think astrology, numerology, and a genuine openness to the unexplained. After relocating to London in her twenties, she reconnects with a friend who points her toward a local yoga studio specializing in tantric yoga.
For many, tantra is a practice unfairly reduced to punchlines — most infamously associated with a certain rock star's oversharing in the 1990s. But as Twisted Yoga makes clear, tantra carries a deeper philosophical tradition rooted in the pursuit of expanded consciousness and spiritual knowledge. It was precisely this sense of mysticism and self-transcendence that drew Ashleigh and many others in.
What began as a wellness journey soon took a deeply troubling turn.
The Guru Behind the Curtain
Ashleigh's path eventually led her into the world of Gregorian Bivolaru, a Romanian man revered within her yoga community simply as "the guru." When an invitation to meet him arrived through the studio's front desk, Ashleigh traveled abroad — agreeing, as instructed, to keep her destination secret from friends and family.
She refused to participate in the expected sexual encounter with the septuagenarian. The response she received was chilling: she was told that "demons" were manipulating her and blocking her access to "divine power." It was at this moment that Ashleigh recognized the uncomfortable truth — tantra had never been offered to her as a path to self-improvement. It had been a calculated mechanism of exploitation from the very start.
Testimonies of Manipulation and Coercion
Ashleigh's experience, while alarming, was not the most extreme documented in the series. Several other women — many of whom were connected to different but loosely affiliated yoga studios — describe having gone through with the so-called "sexual initiation" with Bivolaru.
One woman recounts being transported to Prague afterward, where she was coerced into performing unpaid shifts on a camgirl website. She was told she was performing a spiritual service — helping her online clients connect with a higher sexual energy and, in effect, saving their souls.
Director Deacon handles these accounts with remarkable care. None of the women are portrayed as naive or foolish. On the contrary, they come across as perceptive, articulate individuals who were ensnared by an expertly constructed trap. The series draws attention to how yoga's cultural association with wellness, mindfulness, and moral integrity made it the perfect cover for manipulation.
The Psychology of Spiritual Control
A recurring theme throughout Twisted Yoga is how spiritual language was weaponized to suppress doubt. Followers were conditioned to view any instinct for self-preservation as a weakness — a failure of faith that would cost them their "salvation," as one interviewee named Miranda from Oxford explains. Questioning the group's practices wasn't just discouraged; it was framed as spiritually dangerous. This is a hallmark of cult psychology, and the documentary illustrates it with sobering clarity.
Who Is Gregorian Bivolaru?
As the series progresses, it reveals that Bivolaru is far from an obscure figure. In Romania, he is a well-known and deeply controversial name. During the 2000s, he faced a string of serious criminal charges, including sexual corruption, trafficking of minors, engaging in sexual relations with minors, and attempted illegal border crossings — though he repeatedly failed to appear in court.
He was later located in Sweden, where authorities granted him asylum after he claimed his yoga practice had made him a target of religious persecution — a claim not entirely without context, given that yoga had genuinely been banned in Romania for a period. Nevertheless, in 2013, he was convicted in absentia of having sexual relations with a minor.
Then, in 2023, the walls finally began to close in. French authorities — operating under some of Europe's most robust anti-cult legislation — arrested Bivolaru on new charges including rape, kidnapping, and human trafficking. He remains in custody in France and has denied all allegations against him.
A Documentary That Demands to Be Watched
Twisted Yoga is not easy viewing, but it is essential viewing. It is a meticulously detailed account of how spiritual communities can be corrupted and weaponized against the very people seeking healing and growth. More importantly, it gives voice to women whose experiences might otherwise have been dismissed or disbelieved.
With its blend of extraordinary detail and genuine compassion for its subjects, this docuseries stands as both a gripping exposé and a sobering reminder of how manipulation thrives in spaces built on trust.
