Twisted Yoga review – a wild exposé of a tantric sex cult
twisted yoga is a three-part documentary that follows women who say they were exploited by an international yoga network; it premiered today on the streamer and unfolds allegations tied to a reclusive guru in France and operations in Romania and Paris. The series centers on testimonies from former students, including Ashleigh Freckleton, and sketches how promises of spiritual growth turned into alleged sexual initiation rituals. The film aims to document abuse, outline alleged criminal charges now facing the man at its center, and give survivors a long-form platform to speak.
Twisted Yoga: Key revelations and the central allegation
The film presents a sequence of claims: women were invited into what was framed as Tantra-focused yoga, taken to a villa in Romania and to Paris for private meetings, and pressured into intimate rituals described as “transfiguration” or initiation. The man at the center is named in the series as Gregorian Bivolaru, described by interviewees as “the guru” in their yoga community. Some participants describe being asked to strip, to follow strict villa rules, to hand over passports and sim cards, and to submit to sexual acts framed as spiritual work.
The series includes accounts that some women were moved into online sex work without pay, portrayed there as a form of spiritual service. The documentary lays out that the alleged leader now faces charges in France, including allegations tied to trafficking and sexual violence, and that women in the film are working with French authorities as part of a legal case.
Immediate reactions from survivors and filmmakers
Ashleigh Freckleton, a survivor featured in the series, describes how initial attraction to the community shifted to alarm. She said: “I left Romania and was ready to leave the school and I was like ‘that was weird was that a cult’ I’m not really sure. ” She recounts rules at the villa, forced confessions with a hand on a bible, and being made to hand over identification and sim cards as part of control measures.
Director Rowan Deacon, credited as the filmmaker behind the series, frames the project as an investigation into how spiritual language and promises of self-improvement can be used to manipulate vulnerable people. The platform’s official summary for the series states: “Twisted Yoga follows a group of young yoga students from around the world drawn to the ancient practice in search of inner peace and purpose, only to fall under the influence of a reclusive Romanian ‘guru’… as these women work with French authorities to convict him. “
Quick context: genre and approach
The three-episode show places itself in the true-crime documentary tradition and emphasizes long interviews and survivor testimony over sensationalism. The director maps the emotional and psychological terrain that led people to join and, in some cases, to stay despite mounting doubts. The filmmakers present victims’ accounts carefully and allow space for the complexity the interviewees describe.
What’s next for the story and viewers
The film closes with legal questions still active: women featured are cooperating with investigators and face their own process of recovery and public testimony. Expect follow-up as legal proceedings continue in France and as those interviewed reckon publicly with what they describe. For viewers, twisted yoga is likely to prompt renewed scrutiny of how spiritual communities screen leadership and protect students, and to keep the legal case and survivors’ testimony in the public eye.
