My Response to the Media

May 20, 2013 | NATHA Denmark, Silent War

I was left with a deep feeling of compassion after I saw the Bubber show.

What I saw watching the Bubber show was only a desperate attempt to reheat an old soup and to add spice to make it interesting again. It was the sad display of a lost charm, which in its search to come back desperately try to keep people’s attention and sympathy by any means. And when there is nothing new or interesting, sex and sect will be reinvented. How else can one see the fact that the exact same people who performed in the JP drama in 2009 are now recast in “The Bubber Show”, trying to spice up their story with details that were designed to steal the attention of a bored audience. When a journalist is in such a lack of inspiration that he has to reinvent subjects that were already debated four years ago, and to use unprofessional methods of manipulation of the information, while needing to hide behind one-sidedness, this is a sad show to see.

If it was only about me, or a few individuals, I would have let it be, for the only worthwhile measure to take in that case would be to ignore it. But it is about an entire school and, moreover, about an entire movement that is structured around this school worldwide. They are also the victims of this attempt at success by any means – a collateral damage that becomes much more important than the players in this drama. The irresponsible players might not realize that they are affecting the freedom and basic human rights of the people, turning into inquisitors that hypocritically claim to be the defenders of freedom and justice. By distorting the truth and aggressively attacking people’s choices to believe and practice, the ones behind this campaign are in fact guilty of severely violating the citizens’ basic rights. And with this I do not agree.

There is a very simple series of answers to all the allegations that TV2 and BT tried to put forward after reactivating the old ghosts of Natha. Here you can read them.

The journalists were willing to talk with people who were proven to be biased by personal interest but failed to offer just a little flexibility to the ones who are the target of such accusations.

Is Natha a Sect?
To say that Natha is not a sect and even less a sex sect is to repeat the obvious. There is absolutely no evidence to support these claims apart from the very few unauthorized opinions that do not show more than personal angles. All the official and professional inquiries on this subject have underlined time and again the open structure of Natha and the fact that it cannot be a sect.

If these people felt like this when they were in Natha I am sorry for that and it is something for us to take into consideration, with respect to the way in which our school presents itself to some of the students. Yet with regards to its structure and the methods it uses, Natha cannot in any way be considered a sect since it is has the structure and methods of a genuine school: it holds open courses and actively teaches people to think and practice for themselves. In the introductory lessons of the tantra class, (the students are given printouts), the necessity of having a positive, critical view and to not blindly believe all that it is said in the class is stressed upon. Moreover, the teachers are constantly giving methods instead of giving a belief system as would normally happen in a sect. A method can be checked by everyone, therefore it is the most honest way to offer education.

Even the practical role of a spiritual guide on the path of transformation is explained with great details and stripped from any mystical aspects so that everyone can thoroughly understand this matter, beyond the taboos that surround this subject today. Based on these simple arguments (that are only a small selection), I strongly disagree that Natha can be called a sect.

Is Natha a Sex Organization?

As for the sex organization (sect was dismissed above), this statement is even more abhorrent. In the curriculum of the yoga course in Natha there are over 1800 topics, each representing a complete course. Out of this immense number of courses, only 15 address the subject of sexual energy and sexuality, in the context of a yogi’s spiritual life. This means less than 0.8% of the courses refer to sexuality! In the tantra courses, out of 560 titles in the curriculum there are 45 courses that talk about sexuality from the tantric perspective. That means 8% of the whole curriculum.

Therefore, considering this school to be a sex organization shows only malevolent intent combined with stupidity on the part of the Bubber show.

Bubber said that they cannot agree with the contract that Natha came forward with but they refused every time to offer any negotiations of the conditions, stating that this is the standard contract which all their participants are asked to sign. Doing just a little research we found out that Bubber was lying to us as they have offered contracts in which they offer flexible conditions of cooperation to others.

Why would Bubber need to lie about this? Is it because they had this plan from the beginning? It is strange that they repeatedly state that they cannot agree with our conditions while they systematically refused to offer anything more than our total and unconditional agreement to their views. And reality proved that their views were biased by all kinds of preconceived ideas and therefore made our request for a legal frame very legitimate. Should the Bubber show have been a decent inquiry with a lot of balanced attitudes and no witch hunt or libel, then they would have proven our request to be exaggerated and therefore wrong. But as it has been until now it is clearly showing that our request was a legitimate attempt to protect the work of so many people in Natha from the defamation that they were subjecting us to.

The Actors in the Bubber Show
If one listens to the story told to JP in 2009 by Celia Clausen and compares it with the interview she made with Bubber now, it becomes clear that the story is growing and become more interesting just like an actor rehearses his role and makes it more convincing. If it was a work of fiction we could understand this because adding more spice will make it easier to sell. But in the case of a so called witness, this is a strange finding. In 2009 Celia “failed” to remember – even if her memory was fresh about the events – that she had visited Grieg. Now, in well-timed synchronization with the program that was made in Finland targeting the same issue, Celia start to apparently recover her memory and tell the story of her meeting with Grieg. How come she skipped such an important aspect that was (according to her) one of the reasons why she decided to leave the school? The very simple explanation is simple: she is not telling the truth.

In the Bubber show we also see Celia’s mother who is now apparently presenting herself as a concerned parent of one who was lost in the sect and then recovered again. But in reality she visited Celia several times in the ashram and she was very happy while being there, meeting with Celia’s friends and enjoying spending time with them. Meanwhile, Celia attended a lot of meetings with her family. The fact that she didn’t agree with her daughter’s life choices is a common occurrence today and it has become part of the so called generational conflict. But I cannot agree to put that on the shoulders of a school that is only teaching people methods to become better persons with a higher degree of freedom. How about the teenager that enters college and, surrounded by his colleagues, starts to be influenced by all kinds of cultural trends that the parents do not understand for they are not part of them? Is that the fault of the college or university? And when the daughter decides to move to another city (or country) to follow a career that is different from what the parents would have envisioned for her, does it mean that they lost the child to the university? And does that make the university a dangerous sect that kidnaps children from their families? All these simple observations underline the absurd attempt made by a showman (Bubber) who desperately tries some emotional blackmail on his decreasing audience, in order to squeeze a little sympathetic approval from all the parents that are suffering from this conflict between the generations.

In the show Kim Schmock also appears. He is a violent person that beat his former friends only to steal from them almost 3 million kroner in the value of the property. Bringing him into the show now, after all that he did, after he was proven to be a liar and a violent person several times, represents a level of unprofessionalism that is only equaled by the desperation Bubber has to keep the interest of the public. Read here the story of Kim Schmock and the proven facts.

And What About Erotic Movies?
I also do not agree about presenting the movies that I participated in as being porn movies made by Natha.

The fact that I chose, years ago, to deepen my exploration of the tantric science and wanted to make it available to the public should not become the subject of discrimination as it is now.

This project was done together with some friends and never involved Natha (it was in fact done before I moved to Denmark, in the end of 2002). The idea with which we started was that lovemaking is today drowning in a lot of misunderstandings and becoming sex. Therefore, the sex industry is unconsciously contributing to the violent separation of people from their Loving capacity. When wanting to make love, all that people know about these days is to have sex. Having tested the difference (learned from the tantra that my spiritual guide Grieg was teaching) I wanted to share these findings with others and together with some people that were artists we started such project. If it was a porn movie it would have continued because the market is demanding more. We stopped because we didn’t have more time and the understanding of these ideas maybe needed a better exposure.

And I did not receive any financial gain from this project; in fact not even my personal expenses were covered. What is wrong with doing a project like this if there is not even financial gain?

In one of the movies we depicted an initiation into one of the very secret tantric methods (that are not taught in Natha), which explains about the power, in special conditions, of the urinary orgasm. With this we gave a unique insight into some of the most esoteric elements that some of the ancient tantric texts reveal. And I participated in this film because I am a practitioner of tantra and I was the consultant in these matters. If this is provocative for some people I understand that, but this was not done in a class for the students that are learning; it was only the result of the enthusiasm of some young people who wanted to share with those that choose to look into that direction. Since this is not a part of what is taught in Natha, nor is it a part of what is practiced in the school, why is my personal choice presented in connection with this? Is that professional journalism? (A rhetorical question since it has become obvious what kind of journalism we are dealing with in the Bubber show)

An important observation: all the participants in this project willingly participated, they were aware of what they were doing and it was never presented as something else to them.

The Life of a Volunteer Worker
The other accusation/insinuation that has been repeatedly put forward regards the voluntary work in the school. This is proving stupidity from the side of the host of the show since there are so many associations in Denmark that are based on voluntary work and receive also support from the state. Some of the tasks in Natha are covered by volunteers that take hours of helping in Natha and some are taken by people that are supported by the public funds.

I am paid by Natha for 20 hours of work every week and the rest is voluntary work. Weekly I am doing up to 75 hours of voluntary work which consists of, among other things: teaching yoga, tantra and meditation classes, administration meetings, consultations with students, authoring books and the tantra course, international yoga and tantra teacher training courses, various workshops and seminars. If these people that are doing voluntary work in Natha are brainwashed probably in my case it is an incredible case of self-brainwashing 😉

As for donations … we have rarely experienced generosity from the public but we never tried to persuade anyone for this.

Even though I am writing these lines which contain my answers to the allegations that were posed in the media, I am almost certain that no journalist will take more than a few sentences that are only serving to endorse their accusations. Yet out of responsibility for our students, these are some of my answers.

More will come in the following days.