Tag: Vajrayana Buddhism

From Yoga School to Sex Trafficking Network

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(Left) The Miss Shakti pageant described by former members of the organization. Participants performed dances representing Hindu goddesses during the group’s annual spiritual camp in Costinești, Romania. According to survivor testimony, the competition was presented as a celebration of divine feminine energy within the movement’s tantric teachings. At the end, women were encouraged to lose their costumes and dance naked.
(Right) Illustration represents a disappointing moment described by former members when selected women were brought to meet the group’s leader in a private setting. Several survivors have said the faded older guru greeted them in a bathrobe, and after sex made them drink his pee. Women claimed the encounter differed sharply from the expectations created by the organization’s portrayal of the guru as a spiritually extraordinary figure.

In late November 2023 French police launched a series of coordinated raids across the Paris region targeting a network of international yoga schools linked to Romanian guru Gregorian Bivolaru. Investigators deployed roughly 175 officers to search multiple properties connected to the organization. Dozens of suspects were detained, including the movement’s founder.[1]

Authorities allege the investigation uncovered a system that recruited women through yoga courses and spiritual retreats before subjecting some of them to psychological coercion, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. Prosecutors say the network relied on secrecy, spiritual authority, and tightly controlled living environments to maintain power over followers.[2]

To the outside world the organization presented itself as a loose federation of yoga schools devoted to meditation, spiritual growth, and tantric philosophy. Classes advertised esoteric spirituality and techniques for personal transformation. Students attending local branches often believed they were participating in ordinary yoga programs.

However, former members say the reality behind the scenes could be very different.

Their accounts describe a gradual process in which newcomers were drawn deeper into the group through friendship, spiritual promises, and increasingly secret teachings. And a select number of participants encountered the most controversial practices, which were framed as advanced spiritual initiations.

The story of one former member, Miranda Grace, provides a detailed glimpse into how that process unfolded.[3]

The Spiritual Entry Point

Miranda first encountered the organization through what appeared to be an ordinary yoga school operating in London under the name Tara Yoga Centre. At the time she was deeply interested in spiritual practice and had recently returned from India after completing yoga teacher training. The school’s curriculum seemed attractive to someone searching for deeper spiritual knowledge. Courses covered yoga postures, meditation techniques, astrology, tantra philosophy, and elements of Kashmiri Shaivism.

Students were told the organization practiced something called “white tantra,” which teachers described as a sacred spiritual tradition emphasizing energetic transformation rather than sexuality. This distinction was important because many Western tantra workshops openly incorporate sexual exercises. By contrast, the school presented itself as offering a purer and more traditional form of tantra rooted in ancient teachings.

Miranda later explained that nothing initially appeared suspicious. Teachers and students were warm and welcoming and the environment felt supportive and spiritual. Like many new members she believed she had discovered a serious community devoted to meditation and self-development.

The Founder and the Network

The broader movement behind these yoga schools traces back to Romanian teacher Gregorian Bivolaru. During the 1970s and 1980s Bivolaru taught yoga under Romania’s communist regime, when alternative spiritual practices were often suppressed. This period helped build his reputation among followers as a persecuted mystic and spiritual rebel.

After the fall of communism he established the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute, commonly known as MISA.[4] The organization later expanded internationally and began operating under numerous affiliated names, including the Atman Federation of Yoga Schools. Branches have appeared across Europe, Asia, and North America under names such as Tara Yoga Centre, Natha Yoga, and Mahasiddha Yoga.

Within the movement Bivolaru is referred to by followers as “Grieg,” a spiritual guide believed to possess advanced enlightenment and extraordinary energetic powers. Students are taught that he can accelerate spiritual evolution and transmit powerful mystical states to disciples. Critics and investigators, however, describe a very different picture. European authorities say the guru used psychological manipulation and spiritual authority to obtain sexual access to female followers and maintain a network of exploitation.[5]

Gradual Indoctrination

According to Miranda’s account, the group’s recruitment process unfolds slowly. New members begin with standard yoga classes and meditation workshops. Over time they are invited to retreats and special groups where the teachings become more esoteric. Teachers often emphasize themes of sacred femininity and the spiritual importance of sexual energy.

Women’s groups may include exercises designed to help participants feel more comfortable with their bodies. In some cases members are encouraged to wear lingerie or perform sensual dances framed as spiritual empowerment. Discussions about sexuality become increasingly explicit, though always couched in mystical language about energy, chakras, and sacred union.

Miranda recalled that the process felt gradual rather than shocking. The environment was filled with people who appeared joyful and spiritually advanced, which made it easier to overlook moments that felt strange or uncomfortable. Compliments and encouragement from teachers created the sense that she was progressing along an important spiritual path.

Eventually she was invited to join a more exclusive women’s group. Members were described as women who were particularly “open” and spiritually receptive. Inside the group the practices intensified. Participants were told they were exploring sacred feminine energy and were encouraged to express sensuality without shame.

At one point photographs were taken of participants and sent to the guru so he could evaluate their spiritual potential by reading their aura. Some of the photographs were nude. Shortly afterward Miranda was told she had been chosen to attend a summer camp in Romania.

The Romanian Retreat

The retreat took place during the organization’s large annual spiritual camp in Costinești, Romania. Thousands of followers from around the world attend the event each summer for lectures, meditations, and spiritual workshops organized by the movement. For many participants the gathering resembles a festival devoted to yoga and mystical philosophy.

According to Miranda’s account, the atmosphere changed once she arrived at the women’s villa connected to the retreat. Participants were required to surrender their passports and phones when entering the building and were only allowed to retrieve them when leaving the premises. Organizers explained that the rules were meant to protect the group from outside interference and to maintain a focused spiritual environment.

Women were also asked to swear secrecy oaths. In Miranda’s case this involved placing a hand on a Bible and promising never to reveal what happened inside the retreat or during certain initiations. Participants were warned that breaking this oath could damage their health, spiritual evolution, or even harm their families.

Another practice involved filming participants naked while they slowly turned in a circle. Organizers told them the recordings would allow the guru to read their aura and determine their spiritual level.

During the retreat the guru himself was spoken about in increasingly reverential terms. Teachers and senior members described him as a spiritual guide whose consciousness operated beyond ordinary human limitations. Followers shared stories about profound spiritual transformations they said they had experienced through his teachings.

One of the most prominent events at the camp was the Miss Shakti pageant. The competition was presented as a celebration of divine feminine energy inspired by Hindu goddess traditions. At the beginning participants wore elaborate costumes and performed choreographed dances meant to embody different goddesses. As the competition progressed, the performances became increasingly sexualized. By the final stage the remaining contestants appeared nude on stage. According to Miranda, the winner received the prize of a special spiritual relationship and guidance from the guru for one year.

The Secret Trip

After the retreat Miranda was invited to meet Bivolaru personally. The journey was conducted under strict secrecy. Participants were instructed to tell friends and family they were attending a silent retreat and would not be reachable.

During the drive toward Paris the women were given hats and sunglasses and told to keep them pulled down so they could not see where they were going. If police stopped the vehicle they were instructed to say they were simply traveling on a yoga holiday.

When they arrived at a house outside Paris their phones, passports, and bank cards were confiscated. Organizers said electronic devices interfered with spiritual energy and that documents had to be stored safely. In practice the measures ensured that the women had no independent means of communication or travel.

Inside the house they were required to read long documents describing tantric sexual techniques, watch videos, and write reflections about spiritual experiences. Participants were filmed naked again so the guru could supposedly analyze their energy. Several women slept in each bedroom while new arrivals appeared frequently. Investigators who later raided similar properties reported finding dozens of women living in crowded conditions under tight supervision.[6]

The Initiation

Eventually Miranda was taken to meet the guru. Her first reaction was confusion. She had expected a powerful spiritual figure but instead encountered an elderly man in a bathrobe.

Despite feeling no attraction, she felt enormous pressure to proceed. Every woman she knew in the organization had supposedly undergone the same initiation. Refusing would mean failing spiritually and losing her entire community.

She later described dissociating during the experience. Afterward she was required to record a positive testimonial while naked on camera describing the encounter as spiritually meaningful.[3]

Economic Exploitation

Miranda was later transferred to another house described as a spiritual integration center. In reality it functioned as a camgirl studio. Women worked shifts on adult websites while being told the activity was a form of spiritual volunteering known as karma yoga.

The payment structure was confusing. Food, housing, and fines were deducted from earnings, leaving many participants with little or no money. Former members say similar operations existed across several countries, including webcam studios, erotic film projects, massage centers, and clubs staffed by female disciples.

Investigators believe these businesses generated substantial income for the organization.

The 2023 Police Raids

Years of complaints from former members eventually led to a large international investigation. On November 28, 2023 French police carried out coordinated raids targeting properties connected to the network.[1]

Authorities arrested dozens of suspects and placed several in pretrial detention. Bivolaru himself was arrested in Paris, where police reportedly discovered large sums of cash during the search.[7] Investigators also reported finding dozens of women living in crowded conditions at locations linked to the case.[6]

Prosecutors allege the organization used spiritual ideology and psychological pressure to control followers and obtain sexual access to women. The guru denies the accusations and supporters claim the investigation is politically motivated. The case is expected to move toward trial in the coming years.

The “Golden Elixir” Practice

One of the most unusual doctrines described by former members involves a ritual referred to inside the organization as the “golden elixir.” According to Miranda’s testimony, women were taught that after prolonged tantric intercourse the body’s fluids become spiritually transformed into a sacred substance containing a person’s highest energetic essence.[3]

Within the ritual, urine produced after the sexual act was described as a powerful elixir capable of transmitting spiritual energy between partners. Participants were told that consuming or exchanging the substance allowed practitioners to absorb each other’s spiritual qualities and accelerate enlightenment.

The terminology appears to borrow from several older esoteric traditions. In Taoist internal alchemy, texts sometimes refer to symbolic “elixirs of immortality” created through meditation and breath practices that refine the body’s vital energy. These teachings describe internal energetic processes rather than literal bodily fluids.

Classical tantric traditions also contain symbolic references to sexual energy and bodily substances as vehicles for spiritual transformation. However, scholars note that the specific ritual described by survivors does not appear in historical tantric texts and appears to be a modern interpretation developed within the group’s teachings.

Former members say the doctrine functioned as a powerful form of conditioning. By framing extreme sexual practices as advanced spiritual techniques, it helped normalize behaviors that many participants would otherwise have found disturbing.

Why Systems Like This Work

Stories like Miranda’s often provoke disbelief. It is tempting to ask how intelligent people could become involved in such situations.

But the structure of these organizations explains much of the dynamic. People do not join a cult on the first day. They join yoga classes, meditation groups, and spiritual communities. The most extreme practices appear only after months or years of gradual escalation.

By that point members often have close friendships, romantic relationships, housing arrangements, and spiritual identities tied to the organization. Leaving can mean losing an entire social world and admitting that a deeply held belief system may have been deceptive.

That psychological trap is one of the most powerful control mechanisms any high-demand spiritual group can create.

When the Pattern Appears in Other Traditions

At first glance the story of the Romanian yoga network may appear to be an extreme and unusual case. It is easy to assume that such dynamics occur only in fringe spiritual movements operating outside established religious traditions.

Yet similar patterns have appeared in many different spiritual communities where authority becomes concentrated in the hands of revered teachers and questioning that authority is discouraged.

My own experience practicing within Tibetan Buddhist communities made this reality difficult to ignore. Within Vajrayana Buddhism, devotion to the guru is considered a central element of the spiritual path. Students are taught that the teacher embodies enlightened wisdom and that maintaining trust in the guru is essential for progress. In traditional teachings, breaking that bond of devotion can be described as creating extremely serious karmic consequences.[8]

In theory these teachings are meant to cultivate trust between teacher and student. In practice they can create environments where misconduct becomes difficult to challenge. When a teacher is viewed as spiritually infallible, ethical concerns can be reframed as failures of devotion.

Recent reports from the Samye Ling Buddhist community in Scotland illustrate how such dynamics can arise. Samye Ling is one of the oldest Tibetan Buddhist centers in the West and has played a major role in introducing Tibetan Buddhism to Europe. Yet accounts published by former practitioners describe allegations of bullying, coercion, sexual abuse, and misuse of tantric authority during retreats connected with some of the teachers associated with the community.[9]

According to reports compiled from former residents and retreat participants, several women had previously raised complaints about intimidation and psychological pressure during extended retreats on Holy Isle, the island retreat center connected with Samye Ling.[9] Some accounts describe the use of tantra in ways that participants experienced as coercive or abusive.

One particularly tragic case involved the reported suicide of a woman after participating in a long retreat associated with the center. Statements shared by members of a survivors’ support group suggest she had previously expressed distress about bullying by the guru during the retreat experience.[10]

These reports do not describe the same type of organized trafficking network alleged in the Romanian case. The situations are different in important ways. Yet the structural similarities are striking. In both contexts spiritual authority can become so elevated that criticism becomes socially and psychologically dangerous. Students may feel pressured to reinterpret discomfort as evidence of their own spiritual shortcomings rather than possible misconduct by a teacher.

Over time this dynamic can lead people to reinterpret harm as a path to spiritual progress and to ignore red flags.

Recognizing this pattern reveals a recurring vulnerability that appears whenever secrecy, hierarchical authority, and devotion converge around charismatic and powerful spiritual leaders.

Examining that vulnerability openly may be one of the most important steps spiritual communities can take if they hope to prevent similar harm in the future.

The story that began with a Romanian yoga movement ultimately points to a broader issue that reaches far beyond a single organization or religious tradition. Whenever spiritual authority becomes insulated from scrutiny, secrecy surrounds advanced teachings, and students are taught that questioning a teacher is a spiritual failure, the same dynamics emerge again and again. For many survivors, the hardest realization is that practices once presented as sacred were used to enforce silence, obedience, and harm. Understanding the patterns that recur in high-demand spiritual groups is one important way people can be protected from those who seek to misuse them.

Note: In recent years the controversy surrounding the Romanian yoga movement has begun to attract wider public attention. A new documentary series titled Twisted Yoga on Apple TV examines allegations surrounding the organization and its founder, drawing on interviews with former members and investigative reporting. Independent researchers have also compiled information and survivor testimony through the website Atman Cult Alert, which tracks developments related to the network and its affiliated schools. Several podcast series have explored the story in depth as well, including The Bad Guru from the BBC in the United Kingdom, Toxic Tantra produced in Germany, and The Road to Paradise, a Danish podcast investigating the organization’s activities in Europe. Together these projects reflect a growing international effort to understand how the movement expanded across multiple countries and how former members say they were drawn into its inner circles and exploited.

Footnotes

  1. International reporting on the November 2023 French police raids targeting the Atman Federation and related yoga organizations.
  2. Statements from French prosecutors describing trafficking and organized crime charges connected to the investigation.
  3. Miranda Grace interview on the YouTube channel Cults to Consciousness describing her experiences inside the Tara Yoga / Atman network.
  4. Historical background on Gregorian Bivolaru and the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA).
  5. Investigative reporting describing allegations of psychological manipulation and exploitation linked to the organization.
  6. Reports from French authorities describing conditions discovered in properties raided during the investigation.
  7. Media coverage describing the arrest of Gregorian Bivolaru and seizure of cash during searches in Paris.
  8. Discussions in Vajrayana Buddhist literature regarding the seriousness of breaking devotion to one’s guru.
  9. Reports compiled by Dakini Translations regarding allegations of misconduct and bullying involving Drupon Karma Lhabu and teachers connected with Samye Ling and Holy Isle retreats.
  10. Reporting and survivor statements regarding the death of a woman following participation in a retreat associated with the Samye Ling community.

The Four Activities: How Tantra Organizes Power, Control, and Harm

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In Vajrayana Buddhism and related tantric systems, practitioners are taught that enlightened activity manifests in four fundamental modes, often called the Four Activities. These are commonly translated as Pacifying, Enriching, Magnetizing, and Subjugating. In Sanskrit they correspond to śāntika, pauṣṭika, vaśīkaraṇa, and abhicāra. In Tibetan sources they are known as zhi, rgyas, dbang, and drag po.

Doctrinally, the Four Activities are described as spontaneous expressions of awakened compassion. An enlightened being pacifies obstacles, enriches virtue and resources, magnetizes beings toward the Dharma, and subjugates harmful forces. This presentation emphasizes intent and realization, assuring the student that such actions, when performed from enlightenment, are free of karmic stain.

Yet this sanitized description obscures a more uncomfortable reality. Historically and textually, the Four Activities function as classificatory frameworks for large compendiums of ritual technologies. These include magical spells, rites, visualizations, mantras, and talismanic operations designed to bring about very specific effects in the world. Such effects include healing and calming, increasing wealth or longevity, attracting and binding others, and coercing, harming, or destroying enemies.

This dual framing creates a tension that is rarely examined openly within modern Buddhist discourse.

The Four Activities as Magical Technologies

Tantric manuals from India and Tibet make explicit that the Four Activities are not metaphors. They are actionable ritual categories. Tantras such as the Guhyasamāja Tantra and the Hevajra Tantra, along with later ritual compendiums such as the Sādhanamālā and abhicāravidyā genre texts, provide detailed instructions for rites aimed at controlling weather, influencing rulers, compelling lovers, paralyzing rivals, or causing illness and death.[1]

These materials make clear that tantric ritual was never confined to inner transformation alone. The Four Activities structured a full spectrum of practical interventions into social, political, and psychological life.

The Sādhanamālā

The Sādhanamālā is a large Sanskrit compendium of tantric ritual manuals compiled in India roughly between the 8th and 12th centuries CE.

It is Buddhist, specifically Vajrayana or Mantrayāna, and not Śaiva, even though it shares techniques and ritual logic with non-Buddhist tantric traditions. The text consists of several hundred sādhana instructions for meditation and ritual practice focused on Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and tantric deities such as Tārā, Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, Vajrayoginī, and Hevajra.

Many of these sādhanas are explicitly or implicitly classified according to the Four Activities. They include ritual prescriptions for pacifying illness, enriching wealth or lifespan, magnetizing kings, patrons, or disciples, and subjugating enemies. The intended effects are practical and worldly as well as soteriological.

The Sādhanamālā was translated into Tibetan in parts and circulated widely in Tibet. Tibetan ritual literature draws heavily on this material, even when the Indian source material is not foregrounded explicitly.

Standard scholarly references include: Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, Sādhanamālā, Baroda, 1925–1928, and
David Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Shambhala, 1987.

Abhicāravidyā Texts

Abhicāravidyā is not a single book but a category of ritual literature.

The Sanskrit term abhicāra refers to rites of coercion, harm, or destructive magic. Vidyā means a spell or magical formula. Abhicāravidyā texts are therefore manuals of destructive or coercive rites.

In Buddhist tantra, such texts describe subjugation practices including immobilization, madness, illness, death, expulsion of consciousness, and rites intended to cause death, sometimes described as ritual killing by proxy. These rites are usually justified as actions taken against enemies of the Dharma, oath breakers, or beings deemed karmically irredeemable.

These texts circulated in India among tantric specialists and were selectively translated into Tibetan, often under euphemistic titles or embedded within larger ritual cycles. In Tibet, their contents were reorganized under the heading of drag po, or wrathful activity.

Important examples of Buddhist abhicāra material appear in:

The Guhyasamāja Tantra and its explanatory tantras
The Hevajra Tantra
The Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha
Later ritual manuals attributed to figures such as Nāgārjuna and Padmasambhava

Because of their ethical volatility, abhicāra rites were rarely taught openly. Access was restricted, which is one reason modern practitioners often underestimate how central such practices were historically.

Key scholarly discussions include: Ronald Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, Columbia University Press, 2002, and Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age,” in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, Tokyo, 2009.

Relationship to Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism inherited these Indian materials largely intact. The Four Activities framework in Tibet is not an innovation but a systematization of Indian tantric categories.

What changed in Tibet was less the ritual content than the doctrinal rhetoric surrounding it. Destructive and coercive rites were reframed as compassionate acts performed by realized beings. This rhetorical move allowed the practices to survive while softening their public presentation.

When Tibetan teachers speak of the Four Activities today, they are standing on a ritual foundation built by Indian Buddhist tantra, including the Sādhanamālā and abhicāravidyā traditions, whether this inheritance is acknowledged or not.

In Tibetan contexts, this ritual material was further systematized. The Four Activities became a classificatory framework under which thousands of rites were organized. Fire pujas, effigy magic, thread-cross rituals, and sexual yogas all find their place within this scheme.[2]

The ethical difficulty is obvious. While pacifying and enriching activities can be interpreted charitably, subjugation practices explicitly involve violence, coercion, and psychological domination. Tibetan ritual manuals state that subjugation rites can cause madness, death, or rebirth in hell realms for the target, often justified by vague claims that the victim is an enemy of the Dharma.[3]

Subjugation and Buddhist Ethical Dissonance

From the standpoint of Buddhist ethics, subjugation is the most troubling of the Four Activities. Buddhism is grounded in non-harming and the cultivation of compassion. Yet subjugation rituals rely on wrathful intent and instrumental harm. Traditional defenses argue that enlightened beings act beyond dualistic morality because they have transcended good and evil.

For modern Western practitioners, these explanations often remain abstract. Teachers rarely teach subjugation practices explicitly, and students are encouraged to interpret wrathful deities symbolically. This produces a form of cognitive dissonance. The practices exist, are preserved, and are sometimes performed within group pujas, but disciples can maintain psychological distance by not understanding the wrathful practices or details. Ignorance becomes a form of insulation.

Magnetizing Activity and the Binding of Disciples

Magnetizing activity is often portrayed as benign. It is described as the compassionate attraction of beings to the path. Yet tantric texts are explicit that magnetizing rites are used to influence minds, bind loyalty, and generate devotion.[4]

In ritual manuals, magnetizing practices are used to attract lovers, patrons, followers, and students. They involve visualizations of cords, hooks, nooses, and substances entering the bodies of targets to incline their thoughts and emotions. These are not metaphors for persuasion. They are magical technologies of attachment.

Within guru-disciple relationships, magnetizing activity takes on a particularly disturbing dimension. Once a student takes tantric initiation, they are bound by samaya vows. These vows often include lifelong loyalty to the guru and lineage until enlightenment is achieved.[5]

The power imbalance is severe. The teacher is positioned as the embodiment of awakening. The student is warned that doubt, criticism, or separation leads to spiritual ruin.

What If Enlightenment Is Not Reached?

Traditional literature assumes enlightenment will be reached. But what if it is not. What if the practitioner becomes disillusioned, traumatized, or psychologically destabilized.

In such cases, the Four Activities do not disappear. The same ritual logic that binds can also be used to punish. Tibetan sources describe the use of subjugation rites against oath breakers, samaya violators, and enemies of the lineage.[6]

Modern scholars and psychologists studying tantric communities have documented patterns of dependency, identity collapse, and long-term trauma following abusive guru relationships.[7] Magnetizing activity, in this light, resembles a spider’s web. Attraction is not neutral. It is structured, adhesive, and difficult to escape.

Conclusion

The Four Activities are not merely poetic descriptions of enlightened compassion. They are historical and functional systems of magical action. To ignore this is to misunderstand tantra at its core.

Subjugation challenges Buddhist ethics directly. Magnetizing challenges them more subtly. It operates through devotion, love, and surrender, making it easier to accept and harder to question. For Western practitioners kept deliberately ignorant of these dynamics, the result is not safety but vulnerability and the possibility of ruin.

An honest engagement with tantra requires confronting these practices without romanticism, without denial, and without pretending that malevolent harm disappears simply because it is cloaked in sacred language.

Footnotes and Sources

  1. Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age,” in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, Tokyo, 2009.
  2. Samten Karmay, The Arrow and the Spindle, Mandala Book Point, 1998.
  3. Ronald Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, Columbia University Press, 2002.
  4. David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yogini, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
  5. Jamgön Kongtrul, The Torch of Certainty, Shambhala, 1977.
  6. Stephen Beyer, The Cult of Tārā, University of California Press, 1978.
  7. Mariana Caplan, Halfway Up the Mountain, Hohm Press, 2011.

How Tantra Masqueraded as Buddhism: the Vajrayāna Deception

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Vajrayana Buddhism, also known as Tibetan Buddhism or Tantric Buddhism, stands out for its rituals, deity worship, and complex esoteric practices. Its mantras, mandalas, and meditations on wrathful and yab/yum deities bear clear resemblance to Hindu Tantra, Vedic ritualism, and indigenous spirit cults.

So how did it convince anyone, especially devout Buddhists, that it was authentically taught by the historical Buddha?

The answer lies in a strategic combination of hidden teaching narratives, scriptural mimicry, ritual power, and imperial patronage. Let’s explore how this transformation occurred and what it means when viewed through the lens of Catholic faith and biblical discernment.

Secret Teachings: “The Buddha Taught It, But in Secret”

Vajrayana scriptures claim that the Buddha did teach tantra, but only in secret, to highly realized disciples. These teachings were said to have been hidden in celestial realms, entrusted to beings like Vajrapani or dakinis, or taught in the Buddha’s “enjoyment body” (sambhogakaya) form in other worlds such as Akanistha.(1)

This tactic mirrored earlier Mahayana developments, where new sutras like the Lotus or Avatamsaka were claimed to be higher revelations spoken by the Buddha, but not understood by his early disciples. The concept of esoteric knowledge reserved for the spiritually mature made these late texts seem like rediscovered treasures, rather than innovations.

Scriptural Mimicry and Retroactive Legitimization

To reinforce their authority, tantric scriptures deliberately mimicked the structure of traditional sutras. They often began with the familiar phrase, “Thus have I heard,” and depicted the Buddha teaching not only in celestial realms surrounded by bodhisattvas, but sometimes in radically transgressive settings such as charnel grounds, encircled by ḍākinīs and wrathful deities. These texts introduced elaborate cosmologies, detailed ritual instructions, and esoteric vows, presenting them as timeless wisdom, even though they were composed many centuries after the Buddha’s death.[2]

Authors also invented lineages, claiming that tantric teachings had been passed down secretly from Vajrapani to Nagarjuna, or from Padmasambhava to Tibetan kings.

Syncretism with Hindu and Folk Traditions

Instead of denying its similarities with Hindu Tantra, Vajrayana reinterpreted them. Wrathful deities were said to be enlightened Buddhas. Sexual rituals were described as a symbolic means to transform desire into wisdom. Offerings of blood, bones, and taboo substances were spiritualized as purifications of dualistic perception.

By repackaging Vedic and folk practices into a Buddhist framework, Vajrayana could absorb local traditions and declare them “Buddhist skillful means.”

Imperial Support and Monastic Integration

Tantra spread rapidly through the support of kings and monasteries. In Tibet, tantric masters were invited to subdue native spirits, secure political power, and perform rituals for prosperity. At Indian centers like Nalanda and Vikramashila, tantric scholars and monks practiced Mahayana logic by day and tantric visualization by night.

With the backing of the state and the academic establishment, Vajrayana was not seen as a fringe practice but as the “highest vehicle” of Buddhism.

Ritual Power and Psychological Experience

For the average practitioner, tantra “worked.” It offered visions, emotional catharsis, ritual protection, and the promise of fast-track enlightenment. The experiential pull of mantra, deity yoga, and initiation ceremonies gave people tangible results even if the doctrinal basis was historically shaky.

In the end, many believed not because of historical evidence, but because the system delivered experiences of spiritual intensity.

How Christianity Views This: The Domain of the Second Heaven

From a biblical and Catholic perspective, this raises serious concerns. The spiritual beings Vajrayana practitioners encounter, wrathful deities, dakinis, yidams, do not proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior. They do not point to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They offer power and enlightenment through self-transformation, not redemption.

The Bible is clear: Satan is the prince of the power of the air, ruling the spiritual domain between heaven and earth until Christ returns (Ephesians 2:2). What some refer to as the “second heaven” is where fallen angels operate, deceiving through false light, hidden knowledge, and seductive spiritual experiences.

Teachers like Derek Prince and Dr. Michael Heiser have explained how fallen entities inhabit unseen realms and impersonate divine figures such gods, ascended masters, or beings of light. Applying this view, the Buddhist realm of Akanistha, where the Buddha is said to teach in his sambhogakaya form, may not be a divine domain at all, but a carefully constructed counterfeit, orchestrated by spiritual powers aligned against the Kingdom of God.

This helps explain how a system like Vajrayana could emerge long after the Buddha’s time, imbued with supernatural power, spiritual visions, and doctrinal sophistication, yet still operate in direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Final Reflection: What About the Historical Buddha Himself?

This raises a deeper question: What about the historical Gautama Buddha?

His teachings, centered on renunciation, ethical conduct, and insight, seem far removed from tantric fire offerings, deity visualizations, and magical spells. He did not claim to be a god. He emphasized detachment from craving and moral clarity. So, was he simply a wise man? Or was he also deceived?

From a Catholic and biblical perspective, any system that does not point to Christ as the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) must be seen as incomplete at best, and spiritually dangerous at worst. Even teachings that emphasize compassion and morality can become a snare if they direct people away from the living God.

It is possible that the historical Buddha, though perhaps sincere and ethically inclined, encountered spiritual influences he did not fully understand. If he received his insights through meditation without divine revelation, then he may have opened himself to guidance from fallen beings presenting themselves as enlightened or falsely divine. This is a sobering possibility, but one that must be considered if we are to remain faithful to biblical truth.

The gospel does not offer esoteric techniques. It offers a person, Jesus, who does not ask you to awaken into the realization of emptiness. He calls you by name into communion with him, into truth, and finally, into eternal life.

Footnotes:

(1) Akanistha, also spelled Akaniṣṭha, is considered in Mahayana and Vajrayāna cosmology to be the highest of the seventeen or eighteen heavens in the form realm (rūpadhātu), and specifically the realm where Buddhas in their “enjoyment body” (sambhogakāya) manifest and teach advanced bodhisattvas. It is portrayed as a pure, radiant dimension beyond ordinary perception, where tantra and esoteric teachings are said to be revealed. From a Christian perspective, such realms existing in the unseen spiritual domain, may correspond to what theologians like Derek Prince and Michael Heiser describe as the “second heaven,” a sphere under temporary dominion of fallen angelic beings capable of impersonating divine figures (see Ephesians 6:12, Daniel 10:13).

[2] Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism during the Early Medieval Period,” in Genesis and Development of Tantrism, edited by Shingo Einoo (Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2009), pp. 124–126. Sanderson provides detailed evidence that Buddhist tantras were modeled after Śaiva texts and appeared centuries after the Buddha’s life.

David B. Gray, The Cakrasamvara Tantra: The Discourse of Śrī Heruka, (New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2007), Introduction, pp. 18–25. Gray discusses the charnel ground setting and the structure of tantric texts, including the invocation of ḍākinīs and wrathful deities, and their divergence from earlier Buddhist sūtra literature.

The Counterfeit Kingdom: How Occult Religions Imitate the Catholic Church

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Relic of St. Mary Magdalene in the Metropolitan Museum, NYC

There is a strange and disturbing trend among occult and demonic religions, particularly within esoteric branches of Buddhism, such as Tibetan Vajrayana. These traditions go to great lengths to mimic, distort, and counterfeit elements of the Catholic faith. Why? Because Satan has no creativity of his own. His kingdom is one of imitation, distortion, and inversion. And when we look closer, it becomes chillingly clear: many of these occult systems are designed as spiritual forgeries, imitating the truths of the Catholic Church while replacing Christ with false gods and demons.

Here are just a few examples.

Relics: Holy vs. Unholy

In Catholicism, relics are a beautiful and reverent way the faithful connect with the saints in heaven. The bones, hair, and clothing of saints, when venerated properly, are physical reminders of lives of holiness and union with Christ. First-class relics (parts of a saint’s body), second-class relics (items the saint used), and third-class relics (objects touched to a first-class relic) are all part of an ancient, sacred tradition rooted in the Incarnation: God came in the flesh, and through His Body and those who share in His holiness, the physical becomes a channel of grace.

Now compare this to Tibetan Buddhism and other occult traditions.

Tibetan lamas preserve the bones and hair of deceased teachers and display them in shrines. In some cases, these relics are even mixed into pills or powders thought to convey “blessings” or spiritual power. Even more shockingly, there are “blood pills” created from the blood of high lamas, dried and consumed by devotees, believed to transfer the lama’s blessing and heal the disciples’ illnesses.

What we see here is not simply reverence for a teacher but an occult inversion of the sacred. These objects are treated as talismans or sources of supernatural power, often wrapped in secrecy, ritual, and magical thinking.

Apostolic Succession vs. Tantric Lineage

The Catholic Church has an unbroken apostolic lineage going back to Christ Himself. This is not just symbolic but the real spiritual authority passed from bishop to bishop, from the Apostle Peter to the present-day pope. The sacraments are valid because of this lineage. The Holy Spirit moves through it, not because of magical powers or personal charisma, but because of Christ’s promise to His Church.

Tibetan Buddhism, too, places massive emphasis on “lineage” in the passing of initiations, teachings, and realizations from teacher to student. They claim these go back to the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni. But here’s the problem: the tantras, the core of Tibetan esoteric practice,did not exist during Sakyamuni Buddha’s life. These were later developments, many of which emerged between the 5th and 10th centuries AD, centuries after the Buddha died.

So how do they justify their claims? Through visions, dream revelations, hidden treasure texts (termas), and secret transmissions from spirit beings. These are not testable or historically verifiable. Instead, they mimic the structure of apostolic succession while relying on supernatural claims rooted in occultism. It’s a counterfeit version of Catholic apostolic lineage, one that replaces the Holy Spirit with “dakinis,” “protectors,” and wrathful spirits.

Blessed Sacrament vs. Tantric Empowerments

In the Catholic Church, the Eucharist is the Real Presence of Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity. It is the highest form of worship and union with God. Only validly ordained priests can consecrate the Host, and it is surrounded with reverence and liturgy.

IIn tantric Buddhism, “empowerments” are elaborate rituals meant to grant spiritual powers, open energy channels, and “ripen” the disciple for advanced practices. They are sometimes sexually charged, invoking deities (who are really demons in disguise), and can involve ingesting “nectars,” or entering into trance states. Many initiations are based on “secret” transmissions, whispered lineages, or magical seals. These seals are believed to imprint a spiritual mark or bind the practitioner to a specific deity, practice, and lineage. But this is not unique to Tibetan Buddhism. Magical seals are also found in Satanism, Luciferianism, and ceremonial magic, where they are used to summon or bind spirits and demons in exchange for occult knowledge, power, or protection. These seals are spiritual contracts or expressions of unseen allegiances, and their use is never neutral. They are tools of spiritual manipulation that open the soul to influence, possession, or bondage by demonic spirits. In these traditions, the seal acts as a gateway or portal, and it is binding, a counterfeit version of the indelible mark left by the Holy Spirit in baptism or confirmation. Where the Church seals the faithful with chrism and the sign of the cross, occult traditions seal their initiates with marks of spiritual enslavement.

Chrism refers to a consecrated oil used in the Catholic Church during certain sacraments, specifically Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. It is a mixture of olive oil and balsam, blessed by a bishop during Holy Week.

The use of chrism is deeply symbolic:

  • It represents the Holy Spirit and divine anointing.
  • It marks the person as set apart for God, sealed with grace and incorporated into Christ.
  • The anointing with chrism leaves an indelible spiritual mark on the soul, which can never be removed.

The tantric empowerments claim to transform the practitioner’s body, speech, and mind into that of a deity but again, this is a counterfeit. Instead of communion with God through grace, it’s the deification of the self through ritual manipulation and demonic assistance.

The Church Triumphant vs. the Pantheon of Demons

Catholics honor the communion of saints, those in heaven who intercede for us and serve as models of holiness. Saints are not worshipped; they are venerated. The glory always goes to God.

Tibetan Buddhism features a dizzying pantheon of “yidams” (meditational deities), “protectors,” and “enlightened deities” that are summoned, visualized, and sometimes merged with through complex meditations. These include wrathful, terrifying figures in colors of blue, red, and black, with fangs, skulls, and weapons, dripping with blood or dancing on corpses. Vajrayogini, for example, is often visualized standing on a human corpse, holding a flayed skin and drinking from a skull cup. Although these are claimed to be symbols of transcendence, they are actually demonic imitations of holiness.

Satan’s Strategy: Imitation, Not Innovation

Why does the enemy copy the Church? Because the Catholic Church is the true Bride of Christ. Satan can’t create truth, but he can twist it. His most dangerous weapons are not outright lies, but distorted half-truths wrapped in spiritual language. He dresses up darkness to look like light.

Tibetan Buddhism and similar occult systems offer spiritual hierarchy, ritual, relics, and transmission, but without Christ. They offer communion, but with spirits and demons. They offer transformation, but into false gods, not saints.

The Real Power: Jesus Christ

There is no substitute for the true power of God through Jesus Christ. No blood pill, no tantric lineage, no magical empowerment can wash away sin or bring eternal life. Only Christ, crucified and risen, can do that.

For those who have been caught up in these counterfeit systems, whether through curiosity, spiritual seeking, or deception, it is important to remember that there is hope and it is possible to extricate oneself. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and his truth is not hidden in secret teachings or passed down in esoteric rituals. It is freely offered to all who repent and believe.

A Critical Look at Vajrayana Magic

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Vajrayana Buddhism presents itself as a path of radical transformation: a sacred alchemy where ordinary perception is transmuted into enlightened wisdom. Its ritual technologies are often described as “skillful means,” and its magical practices framed as expressions of “Buddha activity.” But the colorful mandalas and enchanting deity meditations may obscure something far more dangerous than most practitioners realize.

According to vajranatha.com, Vajrayana operates through four principal kinds of magical activity, each aligned with a cardinal direction, a color, and a particular type of power:

  • White (east): for pacifying and healing
  • Yellow (south): for increasing wealth and wisdom
  • Red (west): for attraction and control
  • Dark blue or green (north): for wrathful subjugation and protection

These are personified in the deity forms of White Tara, Dzambhala, Kurukulla, and Vajrakilaya, respectively. Collectively, these “Four Activities” are described as enlightened, but their function mirrors the mechanisms of many other occult systems: healing, sorcery, love spells, exorcism, and domination.

So who, or what, is powering these rituals?

Chögyam Trungpa, one of the most influential Tibetan lamas to bring Vajrayana to the West, once gave a startlingly candid warning:

“Committing oneself to the Vajrayana teaching is like inviting a poisonous snake into bed with you and making love to it. Once you have the possibility of making love to this poisonous snake, it is fantastically pleasurable: you are churning out antideath potion on the spot. The whole snake turns into antideath potion and eternal joy. But if you make the wrong move, that snake will destroy you on the spot.”
—Chögyam Trungpa

This is not a metaphor for the all-encompassing wisdom and compassion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It is a warning of immense spiritual danger.

Vajrayana demands the total surrender of body, speech, and mind, not only to the teachings, but to the guru and the spiritual forces behind those teachings. This surrender is cloaked in bliss, ecstasy, and the promise of transformation. But as Trungpa makes clear, one wrong move and the very force you trusted can turn lethal. It can turn on a dime.

I experienced this firsthand. It began as a profound visualization and mantra practice during a three-year retreat and gradually turned into energetic torment and psychological destabilization. The deities I once practiced became increasingly foreign, invasive, and predatory. The guru, once seen as a vessel of wisdom, became a wrathful executioner.

These practices are not what they seem: they tap into powerful magic. And one must ask, who is really powering these rituals? Who benefits when a practitioner opens themselves to these entities and their so-called “energies”? Why should we assume these forces are benevolent, simply because they have Buddhist names and appear in ornate, colorful iconography?

The structure described here isn’t just about religious symbolism or spiritual beauty, it reflects a deep psychological system designed to influence the mind through ritual. Vajrayana practices use visualization, chanting, offerings, and mantra repetition to create altered states of consciousness and emotional bonding with supernatural entities. This is what scholars call ritual psychology: the way ritual shapes belief, identity, and experience.

But Vajrayana doesn’t just manipulate the mind. It aligns closely with classic occult systems, ones that use similar rituals to summon, contact, and make pacts with spirits. Healing and increase, attraction and domination are bit neutral tools. They are technologies for channeling unseen forces toward specific outcomes. And these forces are personified, and bonded with through ritual acts that, the deeper you go, begin to resemble spiritual possession with demonic pacts.

In my own experience, the entities I contacted through these practices eventually revealed themselves to be something other than the enlightened mind of the Buddhas, whatever that might be. They had their own will, their own agendas, and their own personalities. Especially in the darker rites of semi-wrathful and wrathful deities, there was a sharp edge of coercion, and spiritual threat.

If we take these rituals seriously, not as colorful mysticism, but as real technologies of spiritual manipulation, then we must also take seriously the possibility that their source may not be benevolent.

Just because it’s branded as “Buddha activity” doesn’t mean it is holy. Survivors of spiritual abuse in Tibetan Buddhism must be brave enough to ask the hard questions. Who, or what, are we inviting into our minds and bodies when we chant these mantras, visualize these beings, and make offerings in exchange for spiritual results? Are these forces truly enlightened or are we just calling them that because we’ve been taught to?

When your healing comes at the cost of spiritual bondage…When your wisdom is bought by making pacts with demons…Something is deeply wrong.

Magic in Vajrayana is not peripheral but central to the practice. And it must be examined not with awe, but with clear-eyed discernment.