Transcript
A (0:00)
This is Australian True Crime International with Michelle Laurie. Twisted Yoga is a brand new short documentary series on Apple tv. It takes us into the world of Gregorian Bivalaru, who is the spiritual leader of an international tantric yoga movement and who was for many years one of Interpol's most wanted fugitives. Bivalaru is now in custody in France, thanks in part to our guest Ashley Freckleton. She joins us to talk about it. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. I actually like a lot of people, I guess saw the ad for this documentary and I thought it was going to be another documentary about Bikram yoga. Are you getting that a lot or a lot of people going, I can't believe it's a second kind of yoga.
B (0:58)
Yeah. Not necessarily Bikram, but everyone's going, oh, another yoga one. It's another story about yoga. Yeah.
A (1:05)
It's surprising to us, isn't it? I've never been a big yoga person, but we have this. But I am Buddhist, I suppose so they probably intersect that in our imaginations. We think of yogis as chilled out, fantastic people, don't we? Do they're, they're chill and good normally. Good hearted, kind hearted, vegetarian, kind of, you know, good people around the place.
B (1:29)
Yeah. Non violence, you know, they've got these, what are they called, like ahimsa, like nonviolence and all of these principles that underpin yoga which are all very humanistic and kind and loving.
A (1:42)
Yeah. So I could understand why you, like so many other people, were attracted to yoga and then thought, I'm gonna actually take yoga real serious, I'm gonna turn this into my lifestyle and my identity, I guess. Can you tell us about that period of your life, please, when you, when this all started?
B (2:00)
Yes. I was living overseas and I was on a bit of a spiritual journey and I would really kind of think about it being a situation of vulnerability because I'd, I'd just moved overseas, I was 25, I was exploring my spirituality, my identity, what I, I was in a new city going through a breakup and I also really enjoyed yoga and I was just looking for a really good yoga practice to start with. I wasn't looking for a spiritual yoga school, I was just looking to go to India and then I got linked in with my brother's friends and they'd found this amazing spiritual yoga school that was going to change my life and it just snowballed from there?
A (2:43)
Yeah. What was it called again? What's the name? Because I know it's got a couple of names around the world, but firstly, where were you in the world and what was it called there?
