Apple TV’s new three-part docuseries Twisted Yoga, which premiered on March 13, follows a group of young yoga students who traveled the world seeking inner peace and spiritual growth, only to find themselves entangled in a network of exploitation run by a Romanian man named Gregorian Bivolaru. The series has ignited a broader conversation about accountability within the yoga world — and what students should know before placing trust in any teacher or guru.
What Twisted Yoga Is About
The docuseries, produced by two-time Academy Award winner Simon Chinn, chronicles how Bivolaru built an international network of yoga schools operating under different names across nearly 30 countries — including Tara Yoga Centre in London and NATHA in Scandinavia. The schools specialized in tantric yoga rituals and attracted earnest spiritual seekers, many of them young women, who were drawn to the promise of ancient wisdom and personal transformation.
What they found instead, according to the accounts presented in the series, was a system designed to consolidate power around one individual. Bivolaru, who styled himself as an enlightened master, allegedly exploited his position to abuse students over decades. He now awaits trial in France on charges including human trafficking, kidnapping, and rape.
The strength of the documentary lies in its willingness to examine not just one predatory individual but the structural conditions in spiritual communities that allow abuse to flourish. The former students interviewed in the series describe how isolation from outside relationships, financial dependency, hierarchical authority, and the weaponization of spiritual concepts were used to maintain control.
Why This Matters for the Yoga Community
Bivolaru’s case is extreme, but the dynamics the series exposes are not unique to his organization. The yoga world has faced a growing reckoning with teacher misconduct over the past decade, from prominent Ashtanga and Bikram lineages to smaller studios where power imbalances go unchecked. Twisted Yoga arrives at a moment when the community is actively grappling with how to honor yoga’s teacher-student tradition while protecting practitioners from harm.
The core issue is the guru model itself — or rather, its distortion. In the traditional framework, a guru guides a student’s spiritual development through wisdom and example. But when that role is used to demand unquestioning obedience, discourage critical thinking, or blur personal boundaries, the teacher-student relationship becomes a vehicle for manipulation rather than growth.
Red Flags Every Yoga Student Should Know
Whether you practice at a local studio or attend retreats and trainings, awareness of manipulative dynamics is a form of self-protection. Experts in cult psychology and yoga ethics point to several consistent warning signs that a teacher or organization may be crossing healthy boundaries.
Watch for teachers who discourage questions or frame doubt as a spiritual failing. A healthy yoga teaching environment welcomes inquiry. If asking “why?” is met with deflection, shame, or claims that you aren’t spiritually advanced enough to understand, that’s a problem. Be cautious of organizations that encourage isolation from friends, family, or outside perspectives. Spiritual practice should enrich your relationships, not replace them.
Financial exploitation is another red flag. While paying for yoga classes and trainings is normal, escalating financial demands — pressure to donate, requirements to purchase expensive programs, or tying spiritual progress to financial commitment — suggest a transactional rather than educational relationship. Physical boundary violations, including inappropriate touch disguised as “adjustments” or sexual contact framed as tantric practice, are never acceptable regardless of the spiritual context offered as justification.
Perhaps the most insidious warning sign is the use of spiritual language to bypass consent. Phrases like “surrender to the process,” “your ego is resisting,” or “this is your karma” can be used to silence legitimate objections and override a student’s autonomy. Authentic yoga traditions emphasize discernment (viveka) as a core practice — any teaching that asks you to abandon your discernment is contradicting the very philosophy it claims to represent.
How the Yoga Industry Is Responding
The release of Twisted Yoga has amplified calls for better safeguarding within yoga organizations. Several major teacher training bodies have introduced or strengthened codes of ethics in recent years, and some studios now require background checks and ethics training for instructors. Organizations like the Yoga Alliance have updated their standards to include mandatory ethics education in registered teacher training programs.
But structural change is slow, and much of the yoga world operates outside any regulatory framework. Independent teachers, retreat centers, and spiritual organizations can function with minimal oversight. The most effective protection, for now, remains individual awareness — students who understand the dynamics of manipulation are far less likely to fall victim to them.
What This Means for Your Practice
None of this should discourage anyone from practicing yoga or seeking out skilled, ethical teachers — the vast majority of yoga instructors are dedicated professionals who genuinely care about their students’ wellbeing. But Twisted Yoga is a valuable reminder that the healing power of yoga does not make its institutions immune to the same abuses of power found in any other domain.
The best teachers will always encourage your independence, welcome your questions, respect your boundaries, and support your ability to think for yourself. If a yoga environment consistently makes you feel empowered and more connected to your own inner authority, that’s a good sign. If it makes you feel smaller, more dependent, or less certain of your own judgment, trust that instinct — and walk away.Key Takeaways
Apple TV’s Twisted Yoga documents how a network of international yoga schools became a vehicle for exploitation under Gregorian Bivolaru. The docuseries highlights dynamics — isolation, financial pressure, boundary violations, and spiritual manipulation — that can occur in any spiritual community. Red flags to watch for include discouragement of questions, escalating financial demands, pressure to cut outside ties, and the use of spiritual language to override consent. The yoga community continues to develop better safeguarding standards, but individual awareness remains the strongest line of defense. Yoga at its best builds your inner authority — any environment that diminishes it deserves scrutiny.
