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00:00You
00:20So this is the first time that I've come back
00:28It's almost five years to the day so
00:34It's a bit of an icky feeling actually it's yeah kind of
00:38Yeah just the thought of the fact that he's he's near
00:41He's he's somewhere
00:50So I'm here because
00:51I have a hearing
00:53With the judge
00:57The school are going to say that no crime occurred
01:00Because you have consenting adults
01:06We refute all of these absurd allegations which are made with no evidence
01:13The accusations currently being circulated include rape, grooming, kidnapping,
01:20human trafficking, and the accusation of mind control
01:32I devoted myself wholeheartedly to the teachings
01:36They work they really work
01:43You might feel scared you might feel repulsed you might feel overwhelmed or like you want to leave
01:47That's okay that's just your ego
01:54This is going to change your life
01:56This is a tantric master
01:59You are going to absorb his qualities
02:05He came in the middle of the night
02:08He touched with his finger the sole of my feet while I was sleeping
02:11And I woke up like that
02:13It's your turn
02:16I kind of trusted that these people wouldn't let anything bad happen to me
02:20I trusted him
02:24He has been surveilled since 1971
02:32Young women were still being taken to Bivolaro
02:38The guys of wanted fugitive on Interpol's red list
02:42Europe, Japan, all of Scandinavia
02:44Oh my god, it's everywhere
02:47This person is working at the level of really black dark magic
02:52He's very dark and he's very powerful
02:55Something snapped
02:56I need to go
02:57I need to get out of here right now
03:21Okay, here we're in our holiday house
03:23With all the old stuff from the side
03:25It's a very nice house
03:27Bit small but very nice
03:29And we're going to the bedroom
03:34There's one bunk
03:36And up top we have another bunk
03:39And there's Ashley up there
03:43I was pretty lucky
03:44I grew up in a stable home
03:46I had loving parents
03:50We grew up in a rural town
03:52A good three hour drive from Melbourne
04:00Went to school in town
04:03It was pretty uneventful
04:10We grew up in a Catholic family
04:14Even though I didn't like going to church
04:16I still had a strong faith
04:18Every night I would say my prayers before I go to sleep
04:22And I would have conversations with my parents about ghosts
04:27Or supernatural phenomena
04:28That, you know, we were all interested in those sorts of things
04:31And we were very open
04:34I started to get interested in astrology
04:37Astrology
04:37Just an interest
04:38You know, I didn't follow it
04:41Intensely
04:41But I was interested in astrology
04:43I was interested in numerology
04:45I was interested in tarot
04:46I was interested in palm readings
04:49Psychics
04:51As I got older and started to explore my identity
04:55And try and figure out who I am and what I believe in
04:57I think that created fertile ground for me to be really open to
05:01Well, what next?
05:05I had a boyfriend at the time
05:07And we clashed because he didn't have any spiritual beliefs whatsoever
05:13I wanted to meet the right person
05:15Have a family
05:18And live a fuller, more meaningful life
05:30Hey fam!
05:32It's in Piccadilly Circus
05:34Miss you guys
05:35I always wanted to move to the UK
05:38And so then in 2018
05:39Big Ben in the background
05:40I arrived in London
05:44It's a bit roll your eyes
05:45Like yeah, another Aussie in London
05:50And then I was newly single
05:54And I got a job working in the NHS
05:58I was excited at the prospect of dating again
06:01Or meeting someone
06:02You got a little house tour
06:03This is the bedroom
06:08And this is the lounge room
06:11And this is the laundry
06:13And this is the kitchen
06:17One morning I was sitting with a client at work
06:20And I looked at my phone
06:21And an old friend had popped up on the phone
06:24Him and Ziggy
06:25These crazy friends who left the army and became these hippies
06:29And they would sit on my brother's floor and make friendship bracelets
06:32And they would go to festivals
06:35And they were just these kind of like a bit of an enigma
06:39I'd heard this story about how they like run off overseas to Europe
06:43And were devoting their lives to yoga
06:46And being in service of humanity
06:48There was a whole heap of messages from him
06:50Like hey
06:51I can't remember all the messages now
06:53But one of them said
06:54What's the meaning of life
06:58And so immediately that piqued my interest
07:00Someone wants to have a philosophical or spiritual conversation
07:05And they were saying
07:06Yeah we've found this yoga school now
07:09And you know these days yoga's become commercialised
07:13It's just hot pants and lycra
07:16And what we've found is the real thing
07:20And he sent me like a link to Tara Yoga Centre
07:24Which is the UK branch of the Atman Yoga Federation
07:35It had an authentic feel to it
07:39Quite polished looking footage
07:41To me it looked legit
07:44Everyone's there to better themselves in some way
07:49It was exactly what I was looking for
07:52So I signed up to the classes
07:59And they warn you
08:00They say this course will change you
08:06You will change on this path
08:09That will happen
08:10That's going to happen
08:17And I wanted what they had
08:27The way that they teach it
08:29Is for you to visualise the activation of a chakra
08:32And the energising
08:34Of certain parts of your body
08:40I was so committed
08:42Like I would not miss a class
08:55They talk about the telluric energies coming up from the earth
09:00You imagine balancing happening in your body
09:03You imagine things becoming unstuck
09:05You imagine opening and expansion
09:11It's more than just stretching the muscles
09:16There's something spiritual going on in that process
09:24You go to a class and it's a two hour class
09:26And the first hour is a lecture
09:29The first hour is pure theory
09:31And the second hour is practice
09:32And I loved that because I was like
09:34Give me the theory, give me the knowledge
09:36And they would be associated handouts with every lesson
09:41And there's 20 plus years of courses
09:43And I was only in year one
09:46That was part of the appeal of the classes
09:49Is that they just went into so much depth
09:51You've got a lot of information about diet
09:54And exercise and looking after yourself
09:56And living well
09:58They've got the different types of yoga
09:59Tantra yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, laya yoga, tantra yoga
10:05Tantra yoga here they've described as the yoga of extreme expansion of the field of consciousness
10:11That includes a complex gamut of methods and techniques
10:14Including, among others, sexual activity for the purpose of accelerating spiritual evolution
10:19By transmuting and sublimating the creative sexual potential for both men and women
10:25And so then I'm jumping on Google, I'm like, what is tantra?
10:28And then, and then
10:31I sort of said, oh, look, I don't really know much about it
10:33But I think what most people think of when they hear the word tantra is it's something to do with
10:38sex
10:39It's something to do with couples
10:43And this kind of slowed down version of sex
10:45It's kind of what we think of, isn't it?
10:47I was like, that sounds really mysterious
10:49Mysterious?
10:51I messaged Ziggy
10:53He told me that the teachings and the meditation and the yoga practice really helped him
11:07From a young age
11:08I'm not saying it was like this, but it certainly felt this way
11:12That it was me against the world
11:18Coming from a broken childhood
11:20And the concept of love and receiving it
11:23Was quite unfamiliar to me
11:27The foster system is there and it functions to a capacity
11:31It's not perfect, but I'm still grateful that it existed
11:37When I joined the army
11:39I was trying to find a sense of belonging in a place or a community
11:46But that just never sat well
11:48I didn't particularly agree with a lot of what we were doing, what we were exposed to
11:54So it just led us to go and try and seek those answers elsewhere
12:01In 2016, I just packed up and left and came to Europe
12:10In this yoga school
12:12They're all around the world
12:14Everywhere
12:27I'm joined at school in Denmark
12:33In the beginning, I was not a great yogi
12:37He put me on a mat and it was just
12:39Wow, that's not pretty
12:43But you really did feel like you were part of something that was just so much granted
12:50And it just had this alluring element to it
12:57Possibly because of the way things unfolded in my actual biological family
13:03Motherless and fatherless relationships
13:06They were always something that I struggled with
13:11I'm not going to say my past relationships were meaningless
13:14But it was clunky, it was full of mistakes
13:18It sort of put me in a space where
13:20Right, I'm this wounded, closed off individual
13:24That's attempted to find love and been chewed up and spat out as a result
13:30And it's what led to wanting to go into this yogic tantric world
13:37And what better place to learn and grow
13:41I was aware that it was probably going to lead into this tantric love making ritual
13:47But I had a lot to learn first
14:02This was a global school
14:05And I was very much connected to the one in Sweden
14:14For me it had a huge impact
14:19It changed me at a very fundamental level
14:24The teachings spoke for themselves
14:28I think it transformed my life
14:30It transformed the way that I saw myself
14:33The way I saw the world
14:35And part of the tantric teachings is to really wake up
14:45Tantra's maybe four, five thousand years old even
14:50Long before Christianity
14:54Yoga and Tantra are sisters
14:57For example, a normal class would always start with at least an hour of yoga
15:05And then if we marry the teachings of the chakras with how energy works
15:12Certain positions, certain sexual positions are connected to certain chakras, certain energies
15:21One of the goals of tantra is to awaken this dormant energy
15:29To talk about the inner marriage between Shiva and Shakti within Tantra
15:35Shiva is the masculine principle and Shakti is the feminine principle
15:43In the meeting with a lover, there would be a big charge of energy
15:52We used that energy as a vehicle towards spiritual growth
15:58I went in wholehearted
16:00And I dedicated all my time, all my energy, everything
16:04To the school, to the path
16:08It was my life
16:12The common saying they have is that the tantric path is like
16:17Stepping off a country road onto an express freeway
16:20The lessons come fast, they come strong
16:23And, you know, you be prepared
16:29Ziggy was really involved in the school by this point
16:34Someone said, people think that tantra is about sex, but it's not
16:37It's about love, tantra is about love
16:39And it's intriguing, right? Like, it is intriguing
16:42Especially when you're hearing about it being
16:44About living from the heart
16:46And about being, and it being all about love
16:49You know, that's, who doesn't want to learn about love?
16:55I signed up for first year tantra and second year yoga
17:04In the school, all the knowledge is not available to everybody
17:10You have the normal classes
17:12And then some people are invited to take extracurricular classes
17:19Where you're invited to attend maybe a weekend workshop
17:26The teachers would choose the students that were showing the most aspiration
17:33Or the most potential
17:36Only people deemed
17:38I don't want to say worthy
17:40But I'm going to say it
17:42So only people deemed worthy
17:45Are allowed in
17:49So a little bit like a, like a secret society
17:57Must have also been quite compelling
17:59Very much so, yeah, yeah
18:01Very, um, seductive
18:07Somehow being closer, being allowed to be closer
18:10And have closer access to the source was, was really compelling
18:20I don't recall when I first heard the word guru
18:27But then the school refers to him as the spiritual guide
18:33And they gave you his name?
18:35Yeah, Gregorian Bivalaru
18:39And that he was Romanian
18:44He was teaching yoga during the communist regime
18:50He was teaching in secret because yoga wasn't allowed
18:53And these sorts of things were considered a threat to the state
18:58And they said he, you know, went out on a limb to teach yoga
19:02So he's a hero, you know, look what he did for the people
19:06And was there a concept of where he was?
19:09I had no idea where he was
19:10I knew that he was in hiding
19:14We'd spoken openly about this in class
19:16That he'd been to prison before
19:19Any greats like Mahatma Gandhi was, you know, persecuted
19:23And there were many people who fought for truth and for the light
19:28Who'd been persecuted over time
19:31They kind of likened him to this metaphor of climbing a mountain
19:35You need the guide there who knows the landscape
19:38Who knows what they're doing to guide you there
19:43A few weeks earlier I was told that there's a festival in Romania
19:47For the entire month of August
19:50And they said you could write to the spiritual guide
19:53And ask to go into the villa
19:59It'll be a perfect opportunity for you to learn new techniques that were specific for women
20:07And it'd be great for your transformation
20:10So I wrote to the guru
20:13Dear spiritual guide Greek
20:15My name is Ashley
20:17And I'm currently studying the first year of the intensive yoga course
20:21I've decided to visit Romania for the summer camp in Costa Neste
20:25I'm writing to kindly ask if I may be accepted at the villa
20:30The amazing opportunity would help me to awaken, explore and understand my femininity
20:37I did that
20:38And there's the photos that you have to send of you in a bikini
20:45And you have to be standing there holding this piece of paper that has your name, your star sign
20:52Where you're from, which school you attend
20:55And that gets sent away to the spiritual guide
20:58In order to attend the camp
21:01And I did think it was odd
21:03Because it's like, why can't you read my aura through my clothes
21:07I sent the photos
21:08And then the guru wrote back to me
21:10And it was like, yes
21:12We welcome you to the villa, come immediately
21:16On the 6th
21:32Costa Neste
21:35It's on the coast of Romania
21:40The town in August gets swamped with yogis
21:45But also with Romanians on holidays
21:50You've got this kind of juxtaposition of all these unaware unconscious people
21:54Drinking, dancing
21:58And then you have all these awakened yogis
22:02Trying to open their hearts and raise their consciousness
22:06And benefit humanity
22:10And I was going to spend a month there
22:12And I was going to do yoga
22:14I was excited
22:18I hadn't been told much
22:19I knew that the school originated in Romania
22:21And the guru was Romanian
22:23And that most of the students were Romanian
22:26And so that was where they hosted the main summer camp
22:29That everyone came to from all over the world
22:37In Denmark we had quite a strong school there
22:40A really big school that was quite established
22:46I was a massive high achiever
22:49I was a total nerd
22:50I got bullied at school
22:52I would hide in the library a lot
22:54And I would obsessively read
22:58I had been living in Sydney
22:59Each time I would meet a new partner
23:01I would say, don't even bother trying to give me pleasure
23:04It's not going to happen, my body's broken
23:06But I'm just happy to be here with you
23:08And I want you to feel good
23:10So I was a real people pleaser in that way
23:20But then at 26 I met a partner who introduced me to this whole other way of relating with sexuality
23:25and pleasure
23:27And I started to feel sensations I didn't know were possible
23:34He told me that it was connected to this yoga and meditation tradition that he had been practicing
23:43He was really wanting to explore more and go deeper with this
23:49That's when he decided he wanted to go to Denmark to do the teacher training
23:53And he invited me to go with him and said that I would be able to live there and do
23:57voluntary work for the school
24:01I was there in Denmark for nearly three years
24:05When they said you've been invited on a special women's retreat
24:08Which is happening within the camp
24:11It's part of this thing called the villa
24:13You'll be part of a community of women
24:15We'll see you there
24:22The villa
24:26I didn't know what to expect
24:31To me it looked tacky
24:33Like it just wasn't my vibe
24:36It's got tall fences
24:37You're not allowed in unless you have your pass
24:43They took my passport
24:49They get a bible out
24:51And you have to say
24:54I swear on my health and my spiritual evolution that I will not reveal any of the secrets
25:00Or anything that goes on here
25:03It was pages and pages of rules
25:05Listen I need to go into the other room
25:07And you should read these rules three times
25:09It might take you about an hour or so
25:12And then like okay now we do your photos
25:15And
25:18They said so you need to strip off naked
25:20Like take all your clothes off
25:22So they can check your aura
25:23To make sure that your energies are
25:26Balanced enough to participate
25:29And so I took my clothes off and they take photos front on and side profile
25:36And did you have any kind of
25:38Doubts in the back of your mind at that point that it was strange?
25:42I certainly thought it was strange
25:43But I don't really know
25:46If I questioned it that much
25:48I think I was like yeah this is just
25:51This is just how it is
25:52And also I guess it was kind of empowering like to think
25:55Yeah I'm going to take my clothes off
25:56I don't have a problem with my body
25:58Sure
26:03And then I had to sit down naked in front of the camera with a microphone
26:07And answer these questions
26:11And they also said oh if we ask you about like him
26:15We're talking about the master
26:17Like we refer to him as him on the camera
26:20We won't use his name it's just him
26:21They said and if you had the opportunity to meet him
26:25How would you feel?
26:27Or what would you say?
26:28Or something to that effect
26:30And I'm sitting there cross-legged
26:32Completely naked with a camera on me
26:34Holding a microphone and I'm asked that
26:38And I said yeah I
26:40I would be extremely nervous at the thought of that
26:43I'd be very intimidated at the thought of that
26:45But of course I would say yes
26:53Women would walk around like naked all the time and I loved that
26:57Like you felt really open and safe
27:04You could go to each other for advice and hold each other
27:07And hug each other and cook each other food
27:10And it was a community
27:16They'd often been in the school for a few years or at least two years before they went into the
27:21villa
27:21You know people were surprised like oh it's your first year
27:23How long you been in the school?
27:25A few months
27:25Oh and you're in the villa
27:27It was a bit
27:31I met women from America
27:33Germany, Portugal, Brazil, Greece, Thailand
27:38They come from all over the world
27:43I was a first year student
27:46And I went weekly to the classes
27:49And you know I already saw a difference in myself and my life
27:54Compared with a year, certainly two years previously
27:57My relationships were improving
27:59My sense of self had completely changed
28:03And that felt really exciting
28:09I decided that I should quit my job and like dedicate myself to this full time
28:16And so you have all these women there that seem to be sort of running the show
28:20They're sort of I think you know sort of almost mother figures
28:25They're running around, they're organizing things
28:28And almost all of the women in the villa would be like
28:32First question, what's the star sign?
28:35Second or third question, are you doing Miss Shakti?
28:46Miss Universe type style pageants
28:54And they created these videos of them for the guru
28:59And I have to say I was pretty surprised
29:04Women dancing quite seductively
29:09They're all kind of adorned with jewels and headdresses
29:14It was like the whole camp, you know, watching
29:18Miss Shakti is another level really
29:21It's kind of the basis of the whole camp
29:25They teach this idea that when you empty yourself of your person
29:31You are channeling and you are asking that other character
29:36Or entity or energy or goddess to come into you
29:40And then you become them for that period in time
29:46Transfiguration as they call it
29:48I'm inviting in the spirit of the goddess Kali
29:58It feels real
29:59And I don't know
30:03How to explain why in a rational way
30:08It's a contest and there is a winner
30:10And a first, second and third place
30:12But ultimately you're not competing against the other people
30:15It's about competing, you know, against yourself
30:17Or becoming a better version of you
30:21For a woman who's grown up having shame and judgement around your body
30:27Thinking that I was fat
30:30In the school, there's this idea that your body is sacred
30:36And it's not some kind of object
30:43Sitting and watching this, you see this really quiet, reserved, shy person
30:49And then through Miss Shakti
30:51All of a sudden they're in a micro bikini on stage
30:53Like a sex bomb
30:55And I was like, a micro bikini?
31:02So many women, I can't tell you how many there were
31:07And I knew that some of the higher, like the later stages
31:11There's a few secret stages
31:30I got kicked out after the first round
31:35At the time I was devastated
31:37And I thought, okay, was it because I'm too much in my ego?
31:41Was it because, you know, I had the wrong energy during the performance?
31:45You know, why?
31:46What was it about me meant that I was kicked out at this stage?
31:52What's my spiritual guide trying to show me here?
31:59Like some things I felt were a bit weird
32:01Like there was a, remember there was an exercise once that was on conscious touch
32:05And I think you just kind of closed your eyes and then everybody had their hands on you
32:12But then there was this other one that they did right at the end of the month
32:16It was called an integration
32:19And almost all of the women in the villa were planning to participate
32:24You had to put your name down if you were going to participate in the integration
32:27And if you weren't going to participate then you had to leave the building
32:30For the duration of the few hours that it was going on
32:34And then they started talking about the technique
32:38Which is using the urine
32:42Which they called the golden elixir
32:44Which is where you're exchanging the golden elixir
32:48You're exchanging the urine
32:50After at least 45 minutes of love making or charging
32:54So that it's then charged
32:56And that's how you supposedly integrate the qualities of the partner
32:59It's like the ultimate kind of connection and closeness
33:02Because you are then drinking and embodying these qualities of your partner
33:08I
33:10I
33:10I didn't want to
33:12I wasn't
33:13I didn't want to
33:18So I
33:19I sat in the room for it
33:21And went into the room
33:22They had all like the
33:23It was all kind of ritualised
33:28And then it was just an orgy
33:30It was just a massive orgy of all these women
33:33No men
33:38And I just sat there watching
33:40In a kind of a meditative posture
33:44And just kind of just observed
33:49And then they start passing the bowl around and they're all collectively peeing into the bowl
33:57And then they're bottling it afterwards into these little vials
34:00So that they can put a couple of drops in their water
34:03So that they can keep embodying the qualities
34:07I seemed like I was the only one that didn't want to
34:09Like it was
34:11But I rationalised it as
34:12Well I'm not evolved enough
34:14Maybe one day I'll be more evolved
34:16I'm just not there
34:19When I first did it myself
34:22It grossed me out
34:25And I had a moment of being like
34:27What
34:29What am I doing?
34:31You know, it felt weird
34:32But there was also this sense of
34:36Like love and acceptance
34:38At a very deep level
34:40It was certainly intriguing
34:43But I think I was also just
34:44Nursing or holding on to all the shame
34:47That I couldn't bring myself to be involved
34:50And
34:52So you would have liked to have been able to?
34:54I would have liked to have wanted to
34:57I wanted to want to
35:11Arriving back in the UK
35:13I was just confused and disorientated
35:19I need to get past my blockages
35:22All these fears and anxieties coming up
35:24Just represent the ego
35:27And of course you're gonna
35:28The ego is gonna try and stop you
35:29And block you at every twist and turn
35:31Along your spiritual path
35:32And your job is to keep
35:34Destroying the ego
35:35Keep quelling the ego
35:36Keep surrendering
35:38And
35:40Moving past the ego
35:46Ziggy's influence was pretty
35:49Significant
35:51I talked to him at length
35:56Everything up until that point
35:58For herself had seemed just a little bit
36:00Off colour
36:01For her to want to engage with it any further
36:06She certainly struggled with a lot of the practices
36:12Her hearing how I've integrated a lot of the teachings
36:16Certainly made her feel more comfortable
36:19Or at least reassured that
36:21You can live a somewhat normal life
36:24Surrounding the school
36:28In Denmark I was getting
36:30Brought closer into the core of the community
36:34And I had the opportunity to be initiated into the art of Tantric lovemaking
36:42Paula had been at the school maybe three years before I'd gotten there
36:48I knew it would be a series of postures within lovemaking
36:53She guided me through that in the most loving and caring way
36:58And it really did feel like a DR of the chest and of the heart
37:03I can feel and relate to myself again
37:06You know, this has been absent for so long
37:13Paula had been in several relationships by this stage
37:17She did receive those initiation techniques
37:19So I was just having it handed on to me
37:24Hmm
37:29The Tantric tradition has always been very much that
37:34It's by initiation only
37:39Because it's not enough to just
37:41Tell somebody who's struggling
37:42Yeah, just go and do some more practice
37:46We need to do deeper work than that
37:49And we need to look at ourselves much deeper than that
37:54Some things I can learn from lectures
37:57Some things I can learn from yoga, meditation, whatever
38:02But there are some experiences
38:04That are only possible through the direct contact with the teacher
38:12There are certain things that he has to take me through himself
38:19This was not possible through anybody else
38:23That it was really an initiation from the master to the student
38:36The receptionist at Tara Yoga, she messaged me
38:39Saying, hey sweetie, are you coming into the centre today?
38:43I want to talk to you about something
38:45She was looking for a private room and she couldn't find one
38:48Because a lot of the studios were being used
38:50So she ended up taking me into like this cupboard
38:53It was like a storage, it was like a storage room
38:56She said, oh, you know, do you remember when we were in the villa
39:01And we had to put down dates
39:03That we might be available to visit the guru
39:06And she said, well, he's invited you
39:10You've been invited to go and meet him
39:12It's integrated for you on these dates
39:16But it's all secret
39:17You know, you can't tell anyone else
39:20You need to book your transport and we'll pay you back for the cost of it
39:23And the location where you need to go, where you need to book to is Paris
39:39I'm the chief of the central office for the repression of the violence to the person
39:44The fight against the most serious diseases
39:47We have a national competence
39:48We have investigations on all the France
39:50And we are also a partner for the foreign services
39:54The foreign services
39:56The QEMAD, the cellule assistance in terms of the sector
40:00It seems very important to say that the QEMAD is not a police of the belief
40:06It's not a police of the conscience
40:09It's not our work
40:09The people believe in what they want
40:12But when an infraction is committed in a sectarian movement
40:16There, we can intervene
40:20It was a dossier that was really normal for us
40:24In terms of volume of investigation
40:27It's an international movement
40:31The charges that were taken against the members of this movement
40:34were the following
40:37Traiters of human beings
40:41Violes
40:42Abus de faiblesse de personnes en état de suggestion psychologique
40:49What's that saying?
40:51When the
40:53When the student is ready, the teacher appears
40:56So clearly I was ready
40:58The student was ready, I was right
41:00I was ready
41:01And the teacher appeared
41:04The student was ready
41:05But in the audience in the audience in the audience, the cupboard boardyoub Commons
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