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When I first heard about NXIVM, the “self help “cult with a sex cult within a cult, headquartered outside of Albany, NY, it sounded like a Lifetime movie. A bad one. Headquartered outside of Albany of all places? No way.

And yet, it’s true. It’s all true. There is even a Lifetime movie about it. Over the course of 20 years, beginning in the late 90’s, NXIVM expanded across the North American continent, promoting personal and professional development programs as a front – and a recruiting tool – to a disturbing and damaging multi-level marketing scheme. Its members were of the elite, of Hollywood, of high intelligence, and many with past traumas. All were preyed upon, broken down, and rebuilt as followers of NXIVM.  With the headquarters in the shadow of the New York State Capital, teeming with lawmakers.

Keith Rainere is a master manipulator, no doubt. To ensnare so many people, who all seem to be highly intelligent and talented, requires a mastery of manipulation. A set of tools to break down their intuition, and their souls, to such a degree their intelligence becomes hijacked. Their natural desire to question and investigate becomes their downfall.

And what of Keith’s NXIVM business partner, Nancy Salzman? She was integral to developing the company into what it was, harnessing Keith’s “genius”, and seeing the business development angle. Yet not much is known about her. Let me tell you, two minutes of watching Keith makes me want to run screaming for the hills and roll my eyes at the same time. Two minutes of watching Nancy Salzman I find terrifying. Her eyes glaze over, her belief in what she’s saying is so absolute it’s hard to tell if she’s in on Keith’s game, or if she’s his biggest convert.

Except for maybe Allison Mack. Now known as the leader of DOS, the secret sex slave cult within NXIVM, Allison was an actress from a young age, gaining notoriety on a very popular early 2000’s network TV show, and transitioned to be a shell of a person, completely inhabited by Keith’s evil and frankly, fucked up, upside down look at life.

As the cult began to implode, led by former high ranking center leaders and coaches, and very publicly by Catherine Oxenberg, who’s daughter was part of DOS, real charges by the US government became possible.  Rainere, Mack, Salzman and her daughter Lauren Salzman, Clare Bronfman (Seagram’s), and others have been charged with crimes such as: racketeering, wire fraud, kidnapping, identity fraud, sex trafficking, and more.

All have been convicted, some still awaiting sentencing, with Rainere being sentenced in October 2020 to 120 years in prison for: identity theft, trafficking for labor, sex trafficking, sexual exploitation of a child and child pornography, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy,  racketeering conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. Justice prevails, and sets a precedence for taking down other cults. We all know one that has its tentacles deep into Hollywood …

Two documentary series were recently released, “The Vow” on HBO and “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult” on STARZ.  After watching both, “The Vow” first – for the simple reason it was released first – and then “Seduced”, I came away disgusted, angry, and trying to understand how all of these people – intelligent, talented, good hearted – fell under Keith’s spell.

Many cult experts have now called NXIVM one of the worst they’ve ever seen, pointing out the known cult tactics that Keith used, such as sleep deprivation, emotional dissociation, extreme dieting, packed schedules with no alone time.

To me, it comes down to two main factors: praise of high intelligence and the obsession with personal development. Historically, highly intelligent individuals have been placed on pedestals, rarely questioned and deeply believed. This has created a scenario where someone deemed intelligent – either by others or themselves – often slides through life on the reputation of intelligence, but not necessarily on their actual intelligence. They are praised and revered, and while most highly intelligent people have no bad intentions, there’s always a bad apple in the bunch. The person who is smart enough to see what it means to be on that pedestal, how to use it, and how infrequently their beliefs and theories will be questioned.

Keith was presented as a genius (certainly an evil genius), and thus became a genius to those who followed him. His speeches, many of them disturbing, were taken without question. Because he was the genius, the leader, the one who would change the world. When really, his “genius” was based on inverting truths, practicing frequent dissociation techniques, and creating a harem of women who would do whatever he said.

The truly sick thing is he tapped into a culturally-driven obsession with personal development, professional development, self help, however you want to word it. There’s a line between learning skills to advance in a career, break a personal habit, have a more positive thought process, and being pushed to believe that the person that you are is not enough. And with the structure of NXIVM, you can spend thousands of dollars, hours of your time, dedicate your life to the process, and never reach that point of being “enough” in Keith’s terms.

I believe firmly that you can’t change who you are at the core. You can make changes, conscious choices to succeed in a career, build a life, be a better person on a daily basis. And we all have experiences and trauma, on some level, that have shaped us into who we are today, and that person can be shaped differently as other experiences come into play. But we cannot change the basis of who we are.

It’s this “failure” that perpetuates the plethora of self help and development theories and tools out there. There are hundreds of books, podcasts, films, and coaches for personal development. There’s no regulation or trials to see if these work. So why do so many people become addicted?  Because you can always “improve”, there is no final test or solid win. To fill a hole or a need, to seek relief from unhappiness and the day to day, humans turn to these self help aids with belief they will really help. Do some create more damage? Do some really help? The answer can be yes and no. It’s a dangerous cycle to enter, and seems to have created a hamster wheel effect of seeking the new and most enlightened ways to improve.

I highly recommend both documentaries, and in the way I watched them. Watching “The Vow” first throws you right into the mix, trying to figure out, much like the subjects of the documentary, what the hell is going on.  “Seduced” plays like a sequel, covering India Oxenberg’s experience and interviews with cult experts, plus more coverage on the legal charges.

And watch closely. Learn the tactics. Because while Keith is in jail for the rest of his life, evil people exist in all corners of the world, taking all forms. Question. Listen to your instinct. While your mind might not pick up on lurking danger, your body often does. It’s a biological instinct that still exists even with the most extreme mental manipulation and disassociation.