Apple TV reveals exclusive first look at documentary where tantric yoga school attendees fear they joined a cult

Apple TV has revealed an exclusive first-look clip at its new documentary detailing shocking allegations of abuse at tantric yoga schools.

Twisted Yoga follows ex-members of a global network of tantric yoga camps who went from searching for wellness and community to fearing they had joined a cult.

It centres on the personal experiences of those who attended the schools while also examining accusations against the movement’s founder, Gregorian Bivolaru.

Bivolaru was charged in France in 2023 with human trafficking, organised kidnapping, rape and organised abuse of weakness by a sect – he has denied the charges against him and is currently awaiting trial.

In the minute-long exclusive clip, which you can watch above, we see one of the women who has chosen to speak out about her time at one of the schools.

Ashleigh reflects on a moment of disorientation, caught between her instincts and her reality. Isolated and without resources, she describes the overwhelming feeling of no longer being able to trust herself or those around her. But "something snapped", she says.

She sits in a dark room as she explains that she was so indoctrinated in the movement that she didn't initially understand she could ever leave.

"That was when I first had the thought, 'Maybe I could leave.' But before that, that thought was too crazy. I wouldn't have thought to do that," she says.

Ashleigh then goes on to share more of her experience and what made her suspect she had unwillingly joined a cult.

She continued: "They had all of my belongings. They had my phone. They had my wallet. I had no way of speaking the language. I didn't know where I was.

"Nothing felt real anymore, and I actually thought I was going crazy. I thought maybe I was in a state of psychosis.

"I didn't know what world I lived in. I couldn't trust myself, but I also couldn't trust them. In that moment, something snapped. I need to go. I need to get out of here right now."

Directed by Rowan Deacon, all three episodes of the series will be coming exclusively to Apple TV on Friday 13 March.

On why he decided to pursue this story, Deacon said: "When I first encountered this story, the questions that preoccupied me were why and how: how was this organisation's self-proclaimed guru able to amass the power he held over these intelligent, articulate, worldly individuals?

"I wanted to understand the mechanisms at work. What kind of psychological manipulation led these women to believe in an ideology that they would later question? What kind of psychological authority did individuals connect to the organisation’s exercise of power, and how was that power sustained? How did this prison of belief really work?"

All episodes of Twisted Yoga will air on Apple TV on Friday 13 March.

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