{"id":151569,"date":"2024-03-16T16:56:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T16:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=151569"},"modified":"2024-03-16T16:56:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T16:56:38","slug":"the-police-raids-against-misa-in-france-november-28-2023-4-the-miviludes-behind-the-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/the-police-raids-against-misa-in-france-november-28-2023-4-the-miviludes-behind-the-raids\/","title":{"rendered":"The Police Raids Against MISA in France, November 28, 2023. 4. The MIVILUDES Behind the Raids"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Susan J. Palmer<\/em><\/p>\n

To understand what occurred to MISA it is crucial to reflect on the anti-cult role of the controversial governmental agency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 4 of 5. Read 1st part<\/a>, 2nd part<\/a>, and 3rd part<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The investigation on MISA and Bivolaru that culminated in the November 2023 multipronged raid arose from a report of July 2023 from the MIVILUDES that cited twelve testimonies from former members of MISA. The Paris Prosecutor\u2019s Office then opened a judicial investigation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The MIVILUDES was created on 28 November 2002 under President Jacques Chirac, as the successor of the MILS (Mission interminist\u00e9rielle de lutte contre les sectes, Inter-ministerial Mission for Combating Cults). The French government acknowledged the criticism that the MILS had received from outside France for certain activities that could be considered in violation of religious freedom. The 2002 decree thus repealed the decree of 7 October 1998 establishing the MILS.<\/p>\n

When the MILS (whose purpose was literally to \u201cfight cults\u201d) was replaced by the MIVILUDES in 2002, the latter found it expedient to revise its mission. Most of France\u2019s smaller persecuted spiritual movements were no longer visible on the French landscape due to the vigorous intense anti-cult persecution and had either relocated to other countries or disbanded as legal \u201cassociations\u201d to operate under the radar or had transformed into cultural centers. For this reason, MIVILUDES could no longer rely on picturesque sectes like the Mandarom, or on violent groups like the Solar Temple to regularly commit spectacular crimes, to justify its ongoing government funding. Therefore, instead of rooting out and cracking down on \u201csectes<\/em>,\u201d MIVILUDES\u2019 new mission was to focus on \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>\u201d (cultic deviances, \u201cgoing off the rails,\u201d \u201ccultic harm,\u201d etc.)<\/p>\n

\u201cD\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>\u201d is a concept that is conveniently vague and nebulous. It purports to mean the harm resulting or emanating from \u201cles sectes<\/em>.\u201d It has been translated variously and ineptly as \u201ccultic harm,\u201d \u201csectarian drift\u201d or \u201csectarian deviance.\u201d This new concept was in essence based on the assumption: \u201cCults are bad. <\/em>Ergo, bad aspects come out of cults<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A MIVILUDES spokesperson admitted in a March 2003 interview<\/a> that the current French law lacked a definition for a \u201csecte<\/em>\u201d therefore the law cannot define \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>.\u201d However, he predicted that the MIVILUDES would contribute \u201cto defining what could simply be an administrative jurisprudence<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MIVILUDES\u2019 social construction of a new social problem that they have dubbed \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>,\u201d and how this applies to MISA, should be analyzed, as well as the strategies of this anti-cult \u201cMission\u201d to root out, expose, and prosecute the \u201cgurus\u201d held responsible for the \u201ccultic deviances.\u201d In recent years, the MIVILUDES has conducted annual training workshops on the \u201cphenomenon of cults\u201d to sensitize the judges of France to the dangers of \u201cles sectes<\/em>.\u201d This was already stated in the 2004 MIVILUDES report to the Prime Minister, reporting that for seven years, the National School for Magistrates (ENM) had organized a one-week workshop on \u201ccults,\u201d conducted by the head of the \u201ccult section\u201d of the Department of criminal affairs. This workshop was aimed at magistrates and the personnel of various legal administrations. The MIVILUDES also noted it was in regular contact with magistrates designated as its correspondents within each Court of Appeals. If France\u2019s magistrates are indoctrinated into anti-cult attitudes and biased perspectives to prepare them for cases involving \u201ccult leaders,\u201d it appears reasonable to assume that many of the latter are unlikely to receive a fair and impartial hearing in court.<\/p>\n

The MIVILUDES is bound to write an annual report in which it justifies its government funding, demonstrates its usefulness to the Republic, and attempts to expand its jurisdiction. A review of the MIVILUDES\u2019 annual activity reports reveals its dedication to rooting out the latest spawning grounds for \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>,\u201d which might lurk in seemingly respectable and benign secular institutions like public schools or sales motivational workshops. In 2021, the MIVILUDES began to target yoga schools as potential \u201cdomaines d\u2019infiltration<\/em>\u201d for the \u201cgourous<\/em>\u201d and their \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, MIVILUDES had recorded 160 complaints about yoga and its \u201ccomponent,\u201d meditation. In the MIVILUDES 2021 report, Alerte sur le yoga et ses d\u00e9rives<\/em><\/a>, they warned the public: \u201cYoga, perceived in the West as a healthy and moderate practice, is however not free from cultic abuses, [since] yoga and meditation are often associated with unconventional healing practices, personal development techniques or belief systems, this generates an increase in the risk of cultic aberrations<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the data provided in the bulletins of the anti-cult organization UNADFI (Union nationale des associations de d\u00e9fense des familles et de l\u2019individu, National Union of Associations for the Defense of the Families and the Individual) and media reports, it appears that in 2021\u20132022 yoga became a new focus for France\u2019s anti-cult movement. One French yoga practitioner described it as a \u201cchasse aux sorci\u00e8res<\/em>\u201d (witch hunt). On July 13, 2022, the UNADFI bulletin featured the report, The Declining Reputation of Yoga<\/em> (La r\u00e9putation du yoga en baisse<\/em><\/a>). In 2021, MIVILUDES warned of a \u201cgrowing increase in cultic risks in movements focused on health, well-being, and pure food<\/em>.\u201d MIVILUDES is also concerned about the gurus who offer \u201csacred feminine<\/em>\u201d workshops, or \u201cdiscussion and meditation groups reserved for women<\/em>,\u201d where the risks of \u201cpsychological influence exerted on vulnerable female members<\/em>\u201d is higher.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0Gabriel Loison (left) and Christian Ruhaut (right)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before the November 2023 arrest of Gregorian Bivolaru, three other yoga teachers had been arrested in France on charge of \u201cabus de faiblesse<\/em>.\u201d In 2011, Gabriel Loison (b. 1940), described in the media as a \u201cTantra sex guru<\/em>,\u201d was captured in a raid by CAIMADES. A self-styled psychologist and alchemist, Loison is the founder of L\u2019Universit\u00e9 de la nature et de l\u2019\u00e9cologie de la relation. In 2022, he was found guilty of \u201cabus de faiblesse<\/em>,\u201d \u201cescroquerie<\/em>\u201d (fraud), and the rape of a \u201cvulnerable person\u201d (a 14-year-old girl who enrolled in one of his Tantra workshops in Morocco). Loison was condemned to 15 years in prison. His female companion was initially prosecuted as his accomplice in \u201cabus de faiblesse<\/em>\u201d and other crimes but while she was held in \u201cgarde \u00e0 vue<\/em>\u201d the charges against her were dismissed since she was considered as a victim of Loison. CAIMADES took full credit<\/a> for liberating her from his \u201cemprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, Christian Ruhaut, a yoga teacher was arrested and charged with \u201cabus de faiblesse<\/em>\u201d and forcing his yoga students to participate in sexual rituals \u201coutside the norm.\u201d The investigators determined that Ruhaut and his wife had allegedly subjected a dozen people to \u201ccultic\u201d psychological subjection with physical violence and forced sexual practices. These \u201cforced sexual practices\u201d appear to have been nothing more than private sexual fantasies Ruhaut\u2019s students shared in a therapeutic setting. He didn\u2019t literally force them to have sex with eels and deer, as the media claimed. Ruhaut was sentenced to four years in prison for abuse of weakness and money laundering, and his wife was sentenced to two years in prison\u2014both sentences were suspended.<\/p>\n

On October 19, 2023, just one month before Bivolaru was arrested, Jean-Louis Astoul, the director of Amrit Nam Sarovar, a kundalini yoga school in Michel-les-Portes, was taken into \u201cgarde \u00e0 vue<\/em>.\u201d He had been accused of sexual aggression, forcing disciples to work without salary, and \u201cabus de faiblesse<\/em>\u201d within a context<\/a> of \u201cd\u00e9rives sectaires<\/em>.\u201d Astoul is a Sikh and teaches techniques of kundalini yoga. He was accused by four women of inappropriate touching during private yoga sessions. The \u201ctravail dissimul\u00e9<\/em>\u201d in this case concerned the tasks performed by volunteers as part of the yoga student\u2019s \u201cseva<\/em>\u201d\u2014a \u201cselfless service\u201d tradition that is common among Sikhs, and at this ashram took the form of unpaid household services. The case is still pending.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0Jean-Louis Astoul<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These cases indicate that the MIVILUDES has been monitoring yoga teachers since 2011 but has recently moved yoga to the top of its list of \u201cdomaines d\u2019infiltration<\/em>.\u201d Also, it identified those yoga teachers who \u201cmix\u201d different yogic systems, such as kundalini or Tantra, with the regular and harmless \u201csport\u201d of yoga asanas as being suspects of particular interest.<\/p>\n

On July 13, 2022, France\u2019s main anticult group UNADFI published an article<\/a> that described the \u201cbrainwashed\u201d state of a yoga instructor in training: \u201cShe decided, a few months ago, to follow professional yoga training. She seems anesthetized, robotic sometimes. And she has memory loss, she searches for words as she goes along. And she seems elsewhere, disconnected from everything, except her approach to becoming a yoga teacher.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

This passage echoes one in the 1960 book by Edward Hunter, a CIA agent whose cover job was that of a reporter and who coined the word \u201cbrainwashing<\/em>,\u201d Brainwashing, from Pavlov to Powers<\/em>. Hunter describes how Mao Zedong\u2019s Red Army allegedly used terrifying ancient techniques to turn the Chinese people into Communist automatons without reasoning: \u201cThe intent is to change a consciousness radically so that its owner becomes a living puppet\u2014a human robot\u2014without the atrocity being visible from the outside. The aim is to create a mechanism in flesh and blood, with new beliefs and new thought processes inserted into a captive body. What that amounts to is the search for a slave race that, unlike the slaves of olden times, can be trusted never to revolt, always to be amenable to orders, like an insect to its instincts<\/em>\u201d (p. 309).<\/p>\n

Source: <\/em>https:\/\/bitterwinter.org\/the-police-raids-against-misa-in-france-november-28-2023-4-the-miviludes-behind-the-raids\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor in the Religions and Cultures Department at Concordia University in Montreal. She is also directing the Children on Sectarian Religions and State Control project at McGill University, supported by the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is the author of twelve books, notably The New Heretics of France<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2012).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yogaesoteric
\nMarch 16, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The investigation on MISA and Bivolaru that culminated in the November 2023 multipronged raid arose from a report of July 2023 from the MIVILUDES that cited twelve testimonies from former members of MISA. The Paris Prosecutor\u2019s Office then opened a judicial investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":151307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-flagrant-violation-of-the-human-rights-1602-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151570,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151569\/revisions\/151570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}