Horrific NXIVM cult

Cult leader - Keith Raniere

A recent nine-part HBO series called 'The Vow' is following former members of the NXIVM cult. I had never heard of this cult before the series was announced. A cult that made headlines in the last couple of years as it became known as a sex cult and advocating starvation diets. The series follows former members of the group as they reckon with their participation in the group and attempt to destroy it. 

NXIVM was an organisation that allegedly brainwashed and blackmailed women into being 'sex slaves'. In March 2018, its founder, Keith Raniere, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking for his role in the group. In the months which followed, federal prosecutors went on to charge more and more people for their involvement within the cult, some of whom have begun to plead guilty. The cult was advertised as a purported 'self-help' organisation, however, this was a mask for the brutal reality of it being a sex cult that branded numerous female members with Raniere's initials and coerced them into master-slave relationships. 

Some of the details of the things which happened in this cult are truly abhorrent, with details relating from enslavement to child pronography. This self-help group was in reality a crime organisation with Keith Raniere a crime boss. In the cult, Rainere documented himself engaging in sexual conduct with a 15 year old girl. Multiple people also testified that Raniere had a den in a house in upstate New York, where he had sex with some of his slaves in an oddly-arranged room. 

The highest profile in the case against this horrific cult is Smallville actress Allison Mack, who pleaded guilty to one account of racketeering conspiracy and one count of racketeering. She admitted that she attempted to recruit other women into the group and that she coerced women into giving her embarrassing information and photographs in order to blackmail them into going along with NXIVM and Rainere's demands. Not only was Allison Mack involved in recruiting for this cult, other women have also pleaded guilty such as NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman, Lauren Salzman and bookkeeper Kathy Russell. 

The cult started from the founding of NXIVM as a personal development company which offered "Executive Success Programs" and a range of techniques aimed at self-improvement. This company was both run in 1998 by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman. Raniere claimed that the programs' "main emphasis is to have people experience more joy in their lives." During the NXIVM seminars, students were expected to call Raniere and Salzman "Vanguard" and "Prefect" respectively. The Hollywood Reporter stated that Raniere "adopted the title 'Vanguard' from a favourite arcade game...in which the destruction of one's enemies increased one's own power." 

By 2003, some 3,700 people had taken part in the classes, reportedly including businesswoman Sheila Johnson and Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of former Mexican president Vicente Fox. Other participants later were reported to include entrepreneur Richard Branson and actresses Linda Evans and Grace Park. The allegations of it being a cult began in 2003 when Vanity Fair reported an article stating that Edgar Bronfman, the president of the World Jewish Congress, stated: "I think it's a cult" and going on to say that he was troubled by the 'emotional and financial' investment in NXIVM by his daughters, who donated $2 million to the cult. 

Early 2007 saw a string of financial contributions from NXIVM participants to Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign, with over a dozen participants donating the maximum allowable figure of $2,300. The contributions totalled $29,900. In 2008, the Bronfman sisters, daughters of Edgar Bronfman, pressured Stephen Herbits, a confidante of their father, to ask Albany County District Attorney David Soares, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, and New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram to open criminal investigations into NXIVM's critics. 

Controversy further emerged over the idea of NXIVM as a cult when in a 2010 article in the Times Union, former NXIVM coaches characterised students as 'prey' for use by Raniere in satisfying his sexual or gambling-related proclivities. Kristin Keeffe, a longtime partner of Raniere and mother of his child, left the group in 2014 and described Raniere as "dangerous", stating that "all the worst things you know about NXIVM are true."

In 2014, Raniere founded the NXIVM-affiliated news organisation The Knife of Aristotle, which was later known as The Knife and The Knife Media. The Knife of Aristotle was subsequently described as a a fake news website and a cult. The organisation reportedly hired journalists in an attempt to gain support from media and solicit new member to NXIVM. From there on, controversies emerged. In October 2017, in The New York Times, details began to emerge about Dominus Obsequious Sororium, a "secret sisterhood" within NXIVM, in which female members were allegedly referred to as "slaves", branded with the initials of Raniere and Mack, subjected to corporal punishment from their masters, and required to provide nude photos or other potentially damaging information about themselves. Law enforcement representatives have alleged that members of this secret club were forced into sexual slavery. 

Sarah Edmondson, a Canadian actress who had been a member since 2005, said that she left NXIVM after she was inducted into the Dominus Obsequious Sororium club within the cult and seen that participants were blindfolded naked, held down by three other women and branded by NXIVM-affiliated doctor Danielle Roberts, using a cauterizing pen. The Times later reported that hundreds of members left NXIVM after Edmondson went public about her experience. Several former members reported financial and sexual predation carried out by NXIVM leaders.  

Finally, in March 2018, Raniere was arrested and indicted on a variety of charges related to this sub group including sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit forced labor. He was arrested in Mexico and held in custody in New York after appearing in federal court in Texas. This indictment alleged that at least one women was coerced into sex with Raniere, who forced members of the sub group (Dominus Obsequious Sororium) to undergo the branding ritual alleged by Edmondson and others. 

The US attorney Richard Donoghue stated that Raniere "created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets." The Smallville actress, Allison Mack, was allegedly second-in-command of NXIVM after Raniere. For me, I still find it crazy that underlying sex cults that coerce women still exist in our present day society. 

A cult where ranks were signified by the wearing of colored sashes, similar to belts used in various martial arts. NXIVM featured a 12 point Mission Statement which participants recited, pledging to purge themselves of all parasite and envy-based habits, to enroll others in such courses, and to ethically control as much of the money, wealth and resources of the world as possible within their success plan. Photographs of Raniere and Mack were displayed during classes. 

NXIVM conducted "intensives" classes for 12 hours daily for 16 days. One cited price was $7,500. Classes were divided into modules. In one module, "Relationship Sourcing", students were instructed to explore the benefits they would receive in the event of a partner's sudden death. Another module, "Dracula and his ghouls", reportedly discussed psychopaths and their followers. NXIVM featured a practice, termed "exploration of meaning", that involved senior members questioning members as they delved into their childhood memories. They organised 'Vanguard Week', an annual celebration of Raniere's birthday. Some members of NXIVM's inner circle were reportedly taught that, in past lives, they were high-ranking Nazis. 

It is worrying that cults promoting women self-improvement can actually be an attempt to coerce women into the complete opposite and being subordinate. Despite all the horrific actions that have been reported of the cult's activity, there are still supporters. At least 6 NXIVM loyalists were organising dance protests outside the detention centre which houses Raniere. While incarcerated, Raniere has maintained his leadership role over NVXIM, regularly communicating with his followers via burner phones and giving false names to prison officials of whom he is calling. While the cult has been exposed, the sad reality is that it is still operating underground in many ways.