All language subtitles for Seduced.Inside.The.NXIVM.Cult.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10-English

How do I do something
that makes the world better

beyond what I need today?

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

[Clyne] The three words
I would use to describe NXIVM

are magnificence
times infinity.

[India]
I went into NXIVM looking

for a more purposeful life,

and I thought that these
people wanted that, too.

An EM is a stimulus-response
disconnection.

[India] But then I went
through something

that I don't wish
upon anybody.

[woman 1] Keith Raniere,
NXIVM's founder,

created
a secret sex slave ring.

[woman 2] Female members
of NXIVM were branded

in their pelvic areas.

[Lalich] NXIVM is one
of the worst,

most harmful cults
I've ever heard of.

[India] How did we all end up
in the clutches of a monster?

I'm still trying to figure
it out,

and I need to go back

so I can deconstruct the last
seven years of my life.

[Keith] Do you understand
how you could rape a baby?

I can make it a baby
that's very rapable.

[India] It's taken me
over 50 hours

of working with a therapist

to even be able to say
something sexual did happen

between Keith and I.

[disquieting electronic music]

[siren wailing in the distance]

Confronting all
of these memories

is just bringing up
a lot for me.

[Bernstein]
Mm-hmm.

Like, I feel robbed sometimes.

[Bernstein]
You were.

You were robbed
of a lot of things

that if you had known
ahead of time,

you would've run
for the hills, right?

-My God.
-Right?

[laughing]
Like, I can't even imagine

what my- what my life
would've been like

if someone was like,
"Hey, come to this course

"where eventually
you're going to feel crazy

"and you're going to
have to be somebody's slave

and you're not gonna have
your own life."

[sniffles]

-How did that happen?
-[Bernstein] Yeah.

You've been influenced
in so many ways

because Keith created

a very deliberate methodology
for indoctrination,

and so the more you understand
about what happened to you,

sort of the system
that you were put in,

then I think the more you get
why it is that you did this

so that you're not
beating yourself up.

[spacey music]

♪ ♪

I've really been struggling
to figure out

how NXIVM really worked.

It's like, what the hell
happened to me?

It's like the curriculum
totally changed my brain.

How did I get indoctrinated
without even knowing it?

[sedate rock music]

♪ ♪

NXIVM seemed so legitimate.

They had centers
all over the world,

but their headquarters
were in Albany.

Albany-Rensselear is the final stop
for this train.

Make sure you have all of your
personal belongings.

Albany is where Keith
and a majority

of the higher-ranking
members lived.

♪ ♪

It's not easy
to come back here.

♪ ♪

455 New Karner Road,
NXIVM headquarters.

The 55 is gone.

A lot of my life
was spent in this place.

This is super weird.

How are you different
than your indoctrination?

How are you actually different
than you believe you are?

[uneasy music]

Oh, that's freaky.

Still says
"Executive Success Programs."

♪ ♪

[Keith] A psychopath,
doesn't have any empathy,

just sees something
that feels good--

raping a person, raping a cat.

♪ ♪

You know, whatever it is.

I feel like the blood

is leaving my arms.

Not totally dizzy, but just,
like, a li-little bit weird.

Oh, that's so weird.
Even the lights are still on.

It's like they just left.

♪ ♪

In this room,

we would have
the higher-ranking members

promote people.

The only way to move up
in NXIVM

was to recruit other people

and to continue taking
more and more classes.

♪ ♪

The Stripe Path
was NXIVM's ranking system,

similar to
a martial arts studio,

where you master one level
and then the next and the next

until you're proficient enough
to teach.

People worked really hard
to earn their next stripe

or the next colored sash.

[Kelly] There were
different goals

you had to meet,
and enrolling was part of it.

I was enrolling clients

and friends and acquaintances

and family members

because I believed
in this so much

and because I had
a huge network of people.

[India] When I was
first promoted to coach,

it felt great because
I thought that I was rising

through the ranks

of this innovative
humanitarian organization.

So welcome to the rank
of proctor,

with all the rights,
privileges,

and responsibilities
that come with the rank.

[India] The only way that you
could make money in NXIVM

is when you became a proctor,
which was an orange sash.

That was the dream,
to have an actual career

where you could help people.

Senior proctors,

wore the green sashes,

like Sarah Edmondson
and Mark Vicente,

were making a good living

running the centers
and enrolling people.

They were making commissions
off of anyone

that they brought
into the organization,

and they were making
commissions off of anyone

who those people brought in.

[Ross] This is the way
indoctrination works.

In order to get so many people

to go even deeper and deeper
into the course curriculum,

Keith Raniere would hold out
a kind of carrot

and say, "Look, you know,

"this might be tough,

but there's a pot of gold
at the end of this rainbow."

Welcome to the rank of proctor.

[India]
The first time I saw someone

be promoted to proctor,

I felt a little jealous.

I thought, "I want that.

How do I even get there?"

[Lalich] The illusion was,

to be able to rise up
in the ranks.

It was a merit-based system,
but, in fact,

Keith was really pulling
the strings

from behind the scenes,

and so it really had

nothing to do with merit

but to Keith's preferences.

And as you might imagine,
it was the more beautiful,

slender women who were chosen

to rise up more quickly
in the ranks.

And that's how Keith
eventually built up

the stable of sex slaves.

Those were
well-earned promotions.

With respect
to motivating mules,

I just set up
the circumstances.

Most of the time,
if they're motivated

for the first time
in their life,

they go too far,
which is fine.

Yeah.

-So anything else? Are we done?
-[man speaks indistinctly]

-[clapboard snaps]
-[man] We're good.

By 2013, I had been in NXIVM

for about two years

and a coach in training
for about a year.

I put in hundreds of hours
in teaching and coaching,

and I wasn't making
any money doing it,

but I believed that
I was working my way up.

They said it was like
an unpaid internship.

All coaches had to work
without pay.

So, to make money,
I'd pick up any odd jobs

and assistant work that
I could fit around coaching.

Eventually my entire life
became NXIVM-related,

including my friends.

And then I met a guy,
and I thought it could be

the beginning
of something really great.

His name
was Michel Chernitzky,

and he was also in NXIVM.

Enrolling is like sex.

It feels good, and if it doesn't,
you're not doing it correctly.

[laughter]

[India]
When we first started dating,

Nancy Salzman
was super opposed,

because he was
a higher-ranking coach

and I was not.

And so she kind of, like,
inserted herself

in our relationship

and put all these parameters
in place

in order for him to date me.

So we had to split everything
50/50, for example,

to make sure that I wasn't
dependent on him.

Nancy told me that being
dependent on people

was a problem
that I needed to work on.

[Lalich]
There was a great deal

of what we call
the systems of control,

telling people
who they could date

and who they couldn't date,
how they should behave.

Every little part of daily life
was controlled

in some way or another
by the group.

Over time, you begin to lose

your critical-thinking
abilities.

Through
this indoctrination process,

you don't really know
who yourself is,

and they're creating
a new self for you.

[Catherine]
I-I do feel unbelievable guilt

because I was the one who
introduced India to NXIVM,

and it took me years to realize
how dangerous it was.

After India became a coach,

she started
to recruit everybody.

She started to recruit
all my friends on Facebook.

Her personality changed,
and it wasn't her.

I didn't know
what I was up against,

and I thought, "Okay,

I don't want to fight
with her,"

but I would try
and remind her that

before she joined the group,
she had other interests,

including
the entertainment business.

So, when a friend of mine
told me

that they were producing
a film with Pierce Brosnan

and it was gonna be filming
in Belgrade, I thought,

"What a great opportunity
for India,"

because they were looking
for an assistant for Pierce.

[gunshots]

[India] When I decided to take
the job,

Mark Vicente made
it impossible

for me to feel good
about my decision.

I remember him even crying
over the fact

that I was bailing
on my ESP team.

There was
so much guilt-tripping

about doing anything

that NXIVM
didn't want you to do.

So, even when I was leaving
to do this job,

they were chasing
after me, telling me,

"Can't you see
how this is your issue?

"You're giving up
on your ideology

"'cause you want
to take this job

and get
your parents' approval."

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I even remember
being in Belgrade,

and I was getting
constant feedback

that I was a shitty coach

because of my lack
of commitment.

So then they ended up
giving me an ultimatum.

They said I could continue
to placate my family

or commit to NXIVM
and achieve my full potential.

♪ ♪

I did end up
finishing the job,

but when I was done,

they made me go
straight to Silver Bay

so that I could go
to my second V-Week

and then stay in Albany
another three weeks

for back-to-back trainings.

[all cheering]

I had really hoped that
this Pierce Brosnan project

would inspire her to go
in another direction,

but my plans backfired,

because the minute she was done
with the project,

her involvement
with NXIVM only deepened.

Those two weeks are $20,000.

There is a 20% discount
going on for V-Week.

It is an investment
in your internal world,

in your life.

[Tabby] I didn't ever take
the $10,000 course,

because that is just a big no,

but I frequently took
the $5,000 to $6,000 courses.

And so I got into debt
pretty easily,

about $80,000 to $100,000.

In order to pay off that debt,
I worked for NXIVM.

Once I was ahead,
they would say,

"Tabby, we just started
this brand-new intensive.

"We think it's the next thing
that you need

to get to your next stripe."

[sighs]
Okay, okay, I can do this.

[India] My grandfather

had so generously left me
money for college,

and I ended up spending it all
on NXIVM courses.

They convinced me

that their education
was better than college.

They wanted me to enroll
in a series of courses

called Jness Tracks.

♪ ♪

Jness had been around
for a while,

but it was just for women.

These new tracks
were like Jness on steroids.

It took the curriculum
to a whole new level.

Even though we had been
with Jness since 2006,

we didn't understand, really,
the men's side of things,

and having the men with us,
it was life-changing.

[woman]
Three, two, one, clap.

I feel like more of a man today

than when I started
this intensive.

[India] NXIVM said the purpose
of the Jness Tracks

was to improve relationships

and to understand
the gender roles.

It's day one, and I felt
so exposed, I felt nauseous.

But there's a potency

to the way
that this is structured

that's really,
really, really effective.

I believe Jness Tracks
really helps understand

some of the-the gender roles
that males experience

with respect to sexuality.

It was a lot about how men

are not naturally monogamous,

and it's normal for men
to want to sleep

with many women

and that women really shouldn't
question what their husbands,

men, boyfriends,
partners are doing.

He can be serious
with one woman

and still do things
with other women,

whereas he knows you can't.

I remember having a problem

with the
open-relationship idea,

and when I said
anything about it,

they would just tell me,
"Well, go get an EM

so that you don't have
that reaction anymore."

[Salzman]
Once you have an EM,

the issue not only isn't
an issue anymore in your life,

but after
a short period of time,

you forget that it ever was.

[India]
To be honest,

my relationship got
worse and worse

as I continued
with the Jness Tracks,

although I wanted to tell
myself that it got better.

I think what I gained
is a perspective

that allows me to exercise
my free will

in a very different way,
actually exercise my free will.

[India] I believed Michel and I
had a monogamous relationship.

I was only, like, 23 years old,

and I-I hadn't had

a lot of experience
with these things,

and the majority
of these people were,

you know, 30s and up.

And what I started to learn

was that many of the couples
within NXIVM and ESP

were frequently swapping.

All of these ideas
about sexuality

and blurring boundaries

were repeated constantly
in all of the classes.

It was like a- you're
in a revolving door

that never ends.

It's like, we're going around

in this, uh... in, uh,
some kind of merry-go-round,

and it's just-it just gets
more enjoyable.

[uneasy music]

[Edmondson] When I got here,
I was a ball of stress.

On day one,
I turned to my fiancé

and said, "I just got
my money's worth."

[cheers]

It's my turn.

Every woman needs this.

This is true empowerment.

Take the Jness Tracks.
[laughs]

The Jness Tracks were

incredibly lucrative
for the company,

and I got a lot of pressure
from Mark Vicente

at the time to continue
taking more tracks.

He was making commissions

off of any of the trainings
that I took.

This training is, uh,

a very, very, very safe
environment

for men and women
to be together.

[woman]
Um, you're hired.

-[laughter]
-Yeah?

[Keith]
Most people scream abuse,

and they have no idea
of the morality

that they're talking about,

and a lot of times,

the screaming of abuse
is abuse in itself.

One of the Jness Tracks
was actually about rape,

and Keith would blur the lines
between rape and consent.

[Keith]
You physically could rape.

Really, the issue is, why won't
you let yourself go there?

[India] The idea that rape
wasn't rape

if the victim didn't choose
to see it that way

started to become normalized,

and it wasn't like you just
heard those "lessons" once.

You heard them over
and over and over again.

So that just became normal.

[Keith]
Molested, abused.

The worst thing
that ever happened to you.

You know how I know
it wasn't that bad?

'Cause you're all sitting here.

In Jness, one of the things

I had to struggle with

was how they spoke about rape.

W-what happened to me

should never have happened
to anyone.

Growing up, my family was part

of this religious cult
called the Children of God.

At the time, when I was five,
I was living

in the Philippines
at this commune.

We were all separated by age,

and we all had these...

caretakers...
[sniffles]

...these people
who enforced the rules

and taught us.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

This caretaker raped me...

and took away my innocence...

♪ ♪

...and violated me
in the most inhumane way.

So how NXIVM
talked about rape--

now it was--

just happened to my body.

Did not make once-
one ounce of sense to me.

The person that's the victim,
self-victimizing, is abusing.

The person
who is complaining is abusing.

So the question...

[Naomi]
I wanted to leave NXIVM,

but I didn't.

It was very confusing.

When you're the only one
in the room

who thinks something is wrong,

are you the wrong one?

Are you the right one?

After what happened
to me as a child,

it's hard to admit that
I was part of another cult,

especially an organization
like NXIVM.

Uh, yeah.
Why do I look green?

[Naomi] Looking back, I see
how they were slowly creating

this environment for Keith

to achieve
his horrible, barbaric goals

by completely manipulating

the minds of women and men.

[man speaking foreign language]

[men groaning]

[cheers and applause]

[Ashley]
Probably one

of the most horrifying
programs of NXIVM

was something called SOP,

because it was really militant.

[disquieting music]

[Ames]
Throughout history,

most movements
have been led by men.

They go grab their pitchforks,
or they grab their muskets,

or they grab something.

Imagine knowing that
you have thousands of men,

maybe even millions of men,

that will fortify the
principles that we stand for.

[applause]

[cheering]

SOP stands
for "Society of Protectors."

It started off as
the male counterpart to Jness.

[Keith]
Primitive parts of us

are hungry fucking beasties.

I mean, that's what
we want to do,

is fucking, fucking,
fuck, fuck, fuck.

Feel like fucking
something today.

"God, I'm pissed!
I want to fuck something!"

You know?

If we conquer a woman,

if we grab the thing
we want to fuck,

whatever it is, and fuck it,
they enjoy it.

[cheers and applause]

No one has ever taught us
how to relate to women

nowhere in all the education
my whole life...

and this is, in my opinion,

the Harvard of trying to relate
to women.

You have to come.

Cult indoctrination is actually

a mind-control regime

to reprogram your beliefs
and to foster obedience.

What you see in NXIVM
is the same indoctrination

and coercive
persuasion process

used by
terrorist organizations

like ISIS and al-Qaeda.

[in Arabic] We were beating each other
because it would make us tougher,

and they said it wouldn't hurt next time.

[Ross, in English] Where was Keith Raniere
really going with all this?

Because it appears that
he was going to weaponize

his most devoted followers.

People bond through pain.

They don't bond
through "ha ha" happy.

[India] Next, Keith developed
the SOP Complete program,

and he invited women

to take this curriculum
with men.

[Ashley]
SOP Complete was an intensive

that was six days long

for women to understand
what it was like

to be treated like little boys.

Because we weren't raised
the way little boys were,

we had to learn
how to be disciplined.

I actually sat right there
when I took SOP.

That was probably

one of the more
disturbing programs.

[Ashley] Every day
we were just supposed to wear

the biggest, baggiest clothes.

It was all about not drawing
attention to your body.

[India] There were a series
of physical challenges,

like planks and push-ups,

and we weren't allowed to eat
or drink or pee

unless we asked permission.

We were told that as women,

we couldn't just
get away with things

to achieve success in life.

We had to agree to accept
100% feedback

when you signed up
for one of these courses,

and I remember,
in one of the courses,

I was wearing
these pink Converse,

and the man
who was running my group

made a comment to me.

He said, "Every time you wear
those pink Converse,

all I can think about
is fucking you."

And I felt totally humiliated
and embarrassed,

like I had done
something wrong,

like the fact that I was a girl

wearing pink shoes

was taunting him
and torturing him as a man,

but I bought that,
and I believed that.

I believed that my action
was hurting him.

-[insects chirping]
-Ah.

[Lalich] Using that kind
of misogyny was a way

to get the women

to hate themselves, in a way,

and-and behave
in a subservient way,

which is what Keith Raniere
was promoting.

[Ashley] They made fun of you,
demean you.

If you talked back, you had
to wear a crown or a mask.

[India] They even made
Clare Bronfman

wear a jockstrap.

They gave us nicknames
and mantras.

Mine was "I am nothing,
and I have no real emotions."

In order to speak,
you had to repeat that mantra

over and over again,

sometimes yelling
across the room.

♪ ♪

I basically just fell
into a pattern of compliance

because that was
the safest thing I could do

to not be pointed out
and humiliated.

SOP was
a very abusive curriculum.

[India] The freakiest part
for me about that training

is that at the end of it,

you love your male mentors,

and you feel like,

"This is the best thing
that's ever happened to me."

I still don't understand it.

How did they make us
feel grateful

for that kind of abuse?

[Ashley]
At the end of SOP Complete,

they want you to sign up
for $50 a month

to be part of a team.

You practice something
called "readiness drills."

Every day somebody
in the chain of command

would send in the word "ready"

to team members
all over the world.

And then everyone on the team
would have to respond

with the word ready
within 60 seconds.

I was in a group of six women
that included India.

[chiming]

If one of the team members
missed the drill,

you would have a fail.

When our group failed
the readiness drill,

we would get what they called
a penance, like a punishment.

[synth music]

[Ashley] Sometimes you're
taking cold showers

or you get up at, like,
4:00 in the morning,

stand for half an hour.

So, if you're traveling,
if you're sleeping,

if you're driving, like,
you're always on edge,

you're always thinking,
you're always going,

"Is it going to go off?
What's next?"

That was what we did
to build character.

[Vicente]
And at the highest levels

of current readiness testing,

629 members in 96 teams
are ready for action.

They are tested at random

at any time day or night.

[Bernstein]
You're not saying, "Okay."

You're not saying, "Here."

You're saying, "Ready,"

which is like giving
your consent.

"I'm ready for this.

"I'm ready for whatever
is about to happen to me.

"I don't know what's
gonna happen to me,

but I need to be ready."

To this day, if I hear
an iPhone go off

with a certain ringer,

like, my whole body goes

into, like,
fight-or-flight mode.

It was about, "Don't think.

Just react."

[Keith]
We can be ready.

[Ross]
There is a parallel

between Jim Jones
and Keith Raniere,

where they wanted people
to obey and obey immediately.

[Keith] There are
no other organizations

that practice readiness
other than the military.

[Ross] He wanted
his followers weaponized

to take on his enemies.

[Yusko] In 2003,
a remarkable story

was published in Forbes,

which should have opened

a lot of people's eyes.

[Cangro] The head
of Seagram's Liquor,

multibillionaire
Edgar Bronfman,

whose daughters,
Clare and Sara,

were deeply involved in NXIVM,

He came out in that article

and said that he thinks
this group is a cult.

Keith then turned the sisters
against their father,

allegedly making Clare

install spyware
on their father's computer.

But even after that article
was published,

nothing happened.

NXIVM kept going.

Whatever shit goes on with us,
we do what's necessary.

[Cangro] Keith had created
the support network around him

that would always stick by him.

[Lalich] His followers did
internal damage control,

where they would say
to people,

"You might see something
by so-and-so.

"Well, so-and-so's
a declared enemy

"because they're really
just jealous

and they don't want
to see us succeed."

[Ross]
Over a period of years,

the Bronfman sisters
have spent

huge amounts of money

on damage control
to defend NXIVM.

I know, because there
was information about Raniere

that I published
on culteducation.com

and was sued over.

[Yusko] NXIVM filed
a $10 million lawsuit

against Rick Ross.

It was shocking, the extent
in which NXIVM would go

to silence their critics.

[Ross] They had me
under surveillance.

They actually went
through my garbage.

They set up a phony client

to retain me
for an intervention

in an effort to get me
out on a- on a cruise ship

in the middle of the ocean.

What their intention
was regarding that,

I-I'll never know.

[India] A lot of people
were labeled the enemy,

so anyone who left NXIVM
or disagreed with them

would be put
into that category.

I remember Nancy specifically
singling out Rick Ross

as a suppressive.

[Nancy]
A full suppressive is

the worst possible thing
that can occur,

because these people
look like you

and they seem to act like you,
but they're nothing like you.

[lock clicks]

[India] Why didn't
I even question it?

-Hi.
-Hi, there.

It's nice to meet you.

Keith and Nancy told us
to think of you

as a devil, like Lucifer,

and I'm embarrassed
that I- I believed that.

I don't think that's anything
to be embarrassed about.

There are many groups
that teach

that whoever opposes them
is evil,

they're Satanic,
they're possessed by demons.

And it wasn't about you.

-It was about Keith.
-Mm-hmm.

It was about what he wanted
everyone to believe.

- What he was a genius at...
- Mm-hmm.

...was tweaking
and working this curriculum

with the deliberate intent
of breaking people down.

After I took one
of the SOP trainings,

I remember telling Mark Vicente
that I just felt very dark,

like I felt like I had gone
into a depressed state,

and I thought,
"Is this normal?"

And he was like, "Yeah."

They used to record
people's brainwaves

and emotional reactions.

It was a cap that they would
put on their heads

and then track what
was going on with their brains

while they were either
getting EMs

or while they were exploring
in certain intensives.

I think it could help create,
like, a new form of science.

[Cangro] Dr. Brandon Porter
joined NXIVM

in the early 2000s,

originally to do tests

on how well

the curriculum was working.

Nancy Salzman and Keith
had made a bunch of different claims

that their teachings
would be able

to cure things
like Tourette's and OCD.

It was Dr. Porter's job to see,
do these things actually work?

[Porter] Every time
we're putting the hat on,

it's like fishing.

I'm throwing something out

and then, like, seeing
if I catch anything.

So keep wearing those hats.

Yeah.

[India] At the time, I didn't
think it was all that strange

because they were saying that
they were a scientific program

that was trying
to track everything.

The cap with the electrodes
is kind of like pseudoscience,

and it just kept getting
more and more extreme.

Dr. Brandon Porter was doing
these, like crazy experiments,

where he was exposing women

to these horrific scenes
of violence.

He sat women in a chair.

He showed them
horrifying images of people

being slaughtered
and mutilated,

and then he filmed
their facial expression.

[Glazer] If they expressed
horror and wanted to stop,

it was suggested

that that wouldn't be good
for the experiment.

They needed to continue.

And the very last scene

that the subjects
were exposed to

was actual footage

of some drug cartel members

hacking up and dismembering
five live Mexican women.

[in Spanish]
They held the heads of the women and said,

"Look at what we did to your whores."

They showed their heads and their bodies.

It was traumatic.

[in English] One person seems to be alive
for, like, 60 seconds.

So there's- there's having
that done to you,

and then what is it like
being the executioner?

[Meier] It was something
out of, like,

a Goebbels experiment.

[Lalich]
Makes one immediately think

about what the Nazis
were doing,

where they carried out
horrific experiments

under the guise
of "great medical experiments."

This completely
unconscionable,

illegal activity,

even if this were
in a medical institution,

and of course, it wasn't.

In my opinion,

one of the most horrific things
I've ever heard of,

and I've been studying cults
for 30 years.

There's a part of me that
is so scared to do this.

-[Keith] Good.
-[light laughter]

[Ross] There were no boundaries
as to what the group

might subject you to.

You could have a meltdown.

You could have
a psychotic break.

You could fold, and people did.

[India] I had seen people
have complete meltdowns

in intensives,

They were quickly escorted out.
It was very hushed.

But I had never heard

of anything
like Ana Cecilia's story.

My name is Ana Cecilia,

and I was in ESP

for six months in 2002.

This is the first time
I talk publicly about this.

I had a psychotic event in one
of the advanced trainings.

This was 2002,
so, like, 18 years ago.

-Wow.
-Yeah.

Oh, my gosh,
this is, like, 10 years

before I even got involved.

[Ana] Yeah, wow.

My family and I were invited

by Alex Betancourt
in Mexico City.

I was with my mom,

and I said joking, like,

"I feel like
we're being hypnotized,"

And she said, "Nah,"
like, "Yeah"...

And that was it.

And six months later,

I'm, like, having
a total mental breakdown.

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

I was six months
into the program,

and I was in Albany

in the level two intensive.

Usually Nancy spoke in class.

I'd like you to think

of the saddest thing
you can think of.

Be aware,

you're experiencing
the sadness...

yet at the same time,
you're separate from it.

[Ana] I was feeling
her tone of voice

changing and saying one thing,

but kind of meaning another.

Go deeper and deeper

into the emotion.

Something in my heart
told me this is not good.

And I just said, "I'm done,
I quit," and I left.

Nancy came after me,
and I said,

"If I really dedicate my life
to Keith and his mission,

"I feel like I'm gonna lose
everything that I love,

"everything in my life,
my family,

my friends, my relationship,
my future, in a sense."

And she said, "Oh, don't worry.

You know, you're gonna see them
on the other side."

In that state,
I took it as I would meet them

in the next life
or in the afterlife.

That's the last thing
I remember she said.

My mind went blank,
and that's when I...

I think that's when
the psychosis really kicked in,

because then I- I lost clarity

of what was real
and what wasn't.

[Salzman]
Do you agree to take feedback?

[Hassan] If you're
a psychiatrist whose-

whose oath is do no harm,

you would never mess

with people's minds,

but people like Nancy Salzman

and Keith Raniere
used hypnosis

and neurolinguistic programing
to manipulate people.

If someone is very effective
as a hypnotist,

they can get
very intelligent people

to turn against themselves
and their true self,

as well as their family
and friends.

[Ana] I was sent back
to the hotel to sleep,

but I couldn't sleep, and
my hallucinations got worse.

I heard my boyfriend
talking on the phone.

They told him to bring me
back to the center.

That's when I just ran.

[disquieting music]

Like, I literally ran out
of the hotel room half naked,

and, like, did
a whole horrible scene.

And as I was leaving
in the ambulance,

I saw Alex
and Karen and Raniere

just watching me.

And I knew that
I was in trouble

and that I better shut up.

For fear of?

[Ana] Fear of them
coming after me,

fear of them retaliating
against my family legally.

So I kept silent.

I spoke to Rick Ross,
and he said

that I wasn't the only person
to come from NXIVM

having had a psychotic break.

[Yusko] I was the first person
to report

on NXIVM and ESP,

starting in 2003.

People were saying
that the courses

involved sleep deprivation,

mind-control techniques,

and a lot of the people
that were calling me

and were telling me

they were experiencing this
were women.

In 2003,

Kristin Snyder was taking
a NXIVM course in Alaska,

and she started falling apart
really psychologically.

No one ever saw her after that.

According to police,
she took a kayak

into Alaska Bay,
turned it over,

and killed herself.

State police found
a devastating suicide note

in her truck.

[Ross]
Before she was in NXIVM,

Kristin Snyder was happy.

She had a master's degree.

She had her whole life
ahead of her,

but when she got caught up

in their endless maze
of courses,

she had a meltdown.

Even though it appears
that she killed herself,

they could not recover
the body.

[Yusko] You would think that
that would be enough

to get some investigation
into the group

that allegedly caused this,

but we still have no answers.

I know that NXIVM had a lot
of money

from the Bronfman sisters,

and public officials

didn't want to get
on their wrong side.

Keith Raniere said
the whole thing was a hoax.

Keith told his followers
that Kristin Snyder was alive

and living in Mexico.

[India] By 2015, I had been
in NXIVM for four years,

and I moved into an apartment
in Santa Monica

near the NXIVM center
with my boyfriend, Michel.

I had been a coach a while,

and getting
to the next rank of proctor

felt totally out of my reach.

Michel really pressured me

into taking
the ethicist course

that Keith was teaching.

He said it was
a very exclusive opportunity

to be taught
by Keith directly,

that this was
a very special thing

that I was getting to do.

Keith became obsessed with
having us watch these movies

that were all about people
sacrificing themselves

for a greater cause.

In this cause, I, too,
am prepared to die.

[Keith] You know,
in some cultures,

people fought to die.

The Mayan culture
where they had that that game

and the people
who won the tournament

were all sacrificed
to the sun god,

they fought for that.

They go, "I want that
to happen to me someday.

"I want to get thrown
over an altar

"and have my-myself slit
from my throat to my guts.

"I want to drive a plane
into the World Trade Center,

'cause then there's glory."

[India]
I remember sitting

in this breakout group
in ethicist,

and all of a sudden,

I felt like I'm--
will die for Keith.

-Yes.
-Like I would sacrifice myself.

And I saw him sort of
in this godly position.

[uneasy music]

[Ross]
In a destructive cult,

there is an absolute
authoritarian leader

who becomes an object
of worship.

Everything
in the group became,

"How much are you willing
to do for Keith Raniere?"

And Keith Raniere
was teaching a philosophy

that the ends justify
the means.

If we lie, but our goal

is to save the world,

isn't that justified?

You can understand killing
when you feel it is necessary.

So here you have these women,

and let's suppose these women
are representative to you

of a gang
that's killing your family,

and that you feel
that if you don't do this,

your family's gonna die,

or people you know
are gonna die.

So you feel they must die.

[Ross]
Whatever I ask you to do,

don't worry
about whether it's illegal,

it's criminal, it's unethical,

because our goal
is to improve the world,

and as long
as that's our stated goal,

whatever I asked you to do
is justified.

Historically,
the most terrible example

would be Waco or Jonestown,

where you have people
willing to die

and let their children die

because the leader says,
"This is what we must do."

♪ ♪

It's very scary to think
where Keith Raniere

was really leading this group,

because year after year,
it escalated.

[Junco] Vanguard, it is
with great honor that today,

August 26 of 2015,

I get to present you
with a gift,

and it is a commitment
from myself

and from the whole
of the NXIVM community

that before this year ends,

we will have started
the construction

of your $20 million
dream science lab,

a stem cell lab
and a brain lab

with the MRIs and all
the progressive technology.

Mr. Raniere is,
for those who don't know,

RPI's first triple major.

He has degrees in mathematics
and biology in physics.

[Lalich]
One thing Keith always did

was exaggerate
his intelligence,

and they always touted that
he had three graduate degrees.

We later came to see

his actual
college transcripts,

where he was on probation
several times,

and his final GPA was 2.26,
which is barely a C.

Keith was honored in 1989

by the "Genius" Book
of World Records

in the category-category
of highest IQ in human history.

I found this on eBay.

The highest score

in the admission test
devised by Ronald K. Hoeflin...

It names a number of people,

with "Keith Raniere
of New York,

"one of the only three members

who have scored
higher than 45."

I'd love to know
what the Hoeflin Test is.

I've never heard of it.

I'm sure that the
Guinness Book of World Records

realized that it wasn't
a thing.

This is the only edition

that he appears in,

and he's literally only

in the Australian version
of this book.

Keith was born in Brooklyn,

and his parents divorced

when he was around
eight years old.

He then became his mother's
primary caregiver.

She passed away
when he was 18.

His father was actually
in advertising,

and Keith followed
in those footsteps

when he went into sales.

Keith had been diagnosed
as gifted,

and his childhood friends
have said that he developed

a superiority complex
because of it.

What do you think one
common misconception is

that people might have
about you?

I think because my life
is sufficiently different

than a normal life,
it's hard to read,

and if it's hard to read,
people will read as they will

and think
all the strangest things.

[Catherine] In September
of 2015, I had invited India

to join my mother and I
in Tulum for my birthday,

My husband, Casper,
and I had been separated,

and during that trip,
he filed for divorce.

So I was
definitely distracted,

and I only wish in retrospect

that I had been
more present with India

and that I had maybe noticed
what was going on with her.

[India] There was not
a lot of time off with NXIVM.

Even on a family trip,

I was bombarded
with activities,

like my SOP group,

readiness check-ins, calls,
admin work, you name it.

We were always kept very busy.

I was trying so hard to do well

'cause I just really wanted
to be promoted.

[Elizabeth] I remember going
for walks with India

and trying to talk to her,
just chat away,

and I would say,
"But what's it like?

What are you doing
up in there?"

"Oh, well, we do this,

and we do that."

But I could never get

a-a total feedback.

She was faintly absent-minded.
She didn't completely focus.

She seemed stuck.

It was right then

that Keith Raniere

took a very dark turn that...

...affected, impacted
my daughter's life profoundly.

I wish I had known.

I wish I had known to be able
to inter-intervene

in that moment.

[India]
By the end of 2015,

I was going
to Albany constantly

to take more classes.

I used to stay with Mark
and his wife, Bonnie,

and sometimes Allison Mack
would be there, too.

Allison was very expressive.
She was really outgoing.

She seemed fearless.

[speaking indistinctly]

All these characteristics

that I felt kind of weak in...

[Allison]
Principles.

If you have principles
that you won't violate...

[India] Allison taught a series
of advanced courses,

which I took.

It's always easier to satiate
than build character.

She was progressing up
the Stripe Path really fast,

and all of a sudden,
she was promoted to proctor.

I think it's perfect.

[India] I looked up to her
because of that.

I mean, what I did, I-I...

And I wanted that.

So, when she approached me,

I felt like the popular girl
at school

was coming to talk to me.

Allison asked me,
"How are you doing?"

So I just kind of answered
her honestly,

which was "Not good."

I just felt
like I was at a loss.

It had been a long time
since I had been promoted,

but I was taking tons
of classes.

I was teaching
tons of classes.

I was doing everything,
everything that I could.

I was exhausted,
and I wasn't making any money,

and I was scared.

I was investing all this time
and energy

into something that...

I couldn't make it work.

I just couldn't succeed.

My whole life was NXIVM,
and I wasn't getting anywhere.

I felt completely desperate.

[man] Don't mess
with perfection.

[laughs]

[India]
And that's when she said,

"I have something that
could be really great for you.

I think it could really help."

She really made it sound
like she had the answer,

like she had exactly
what I needed.

[Bernstein]
The cult sets up a system

where people can have a little
success at the beginning,

and then it stalls.

The cult will want you to feel

it's because of you
that it stalled.

What you don't realize
is that the group caused this.

It's like they knocked you
down to the ground,

and here they're putting
their hand out to you

to help pick you back up,

and you're so grateful

they're helping you
off the ground.

[India] Allison said,
"I really want to be able

"to tell you more
about this thing,

"but I-I need
something from you.

"I need collateral.

"I need something
that's really important to you,

"so I know that
when I tell you this secret,

you won't share it
with anybody else."

[ominous synth music]

[Lalich]
In the advanced courses,

they introduce the concept
of collateral,

which was, if you didn't stick

to some commitment
you had made,

you had to pay
some price for that.

Say you had a gym buddy,

and if you didn't turn up
every morning at 8:00,

then you would pay $100.

That was the deal you made.

That was turned
into something far more severe,

things like the deed
to your house,

compromising photos,

some kind of stories
about your family.

Turning this over

was showing
your ethical commitment.

It's always couched
in this language

to get you to accept it,

when, in fact, it was just
straight-out blackmail.

[India] The collateral
I was going to give to Allison

was information
about my family

that was very personal
and damaging.

She asked me to have it
in a letter format

addressed to the media,

like a New York Times or a CNN,

and then get it notarized.

These family secrets would be
immediately sent to the press

if I ever said anything about
what she was gonna tell me.

I just thought,
"I believe Allison."

I wanted to do well
in this program,

and I wanted to be promoted.

And I was never gonna share
the secret.

♪ ♪

We were
at this coach summit event.

Allison and I
were, like, hiding

behind this little
coffee table on a break.

I give her this collateral,

and she starts telling me
about this thing called DOS,

this secret society of women

that is unlike anything else
in NXIVM.

She believed that
the other NXIVM programs

couldn't push me
to become truly empowered

like DOS could.

Allison told me that Keith
had no involvement in this.

She said it was women
mentoring women

in a very specialized,
deep way...

...and that it would be able
to push me past the areas

that I hadn't been able
to push myself to grow.

It felt heavy.
It felt like a secret.

It felt like something

that I was getting
the privilege to learn about.

This was the first step
in the initiation process,

but there was
much more to come.

♪ ♪

I went back to LA,

and Allison started
calling me,

and we would have
these long conversations,

where she would tell me
more and more about DOS.

She wanted me to make
a lifetime commitment,

which included
ultimate obedience to her.

I asked Allison, "What does
'ultimate obedience' even mean?

"Like, does it mean that I have
to ask you permission

to have a boyfriend
or to travel?"

And she would say,

"You need to ask me permission
to do anything in your life."

And then Allison
explained to me

that the setup of DOS
was a master-slave dynamic.

I had a physical reaction
to those words.

She told me
that was perfectly normal.

That was part of the program,

to feel uncomfortable
and to do it anyways.

She told me to look at it more

as a mentor-student
relationship

and that she would always
be there for me.

I would constantly be taking
these phone calls outside

so that Michel, my boyfriend,
wouldn't hear.

So I was pacing
up and down my street

in front of my apartment.

I got on the phone
with Allison, and I said,

"I'm really embarrassed
to tell you this,

"but before I say yes,

"I just need to confess
something to you,

"which is I'm afraid that
you're gonna try to hurt me.

"I'm afraid
that you're gonna use...

[voice breaking] ...this stuff
that I've given you."

Sorry.
[sniffles]

[sighs softly]

It just really disturbs me.
[scoffs]

[sniffles]

It's really hard to, like...

just think about her lying
to me so much.

[sniffles]
But I told her.

I said, "I'm giving you
this stuff,

"but I'm afraid
that you're gonna try

"to hurt me with it,
and I don't know you very well.

"And I'm trusting you
that what I'm sharing with you,

you're gonna keep private."

And she said, "How can you
think of me like that?

"You know me.

"You know the things
that I stand for.

"You've taken intensives
with me.

"You've stayed in my house.

"How could you ever think
that I would try to hurt you

or exploit you or do
something violent against you?"

[sniffles] And I thought,
"How stupid am I?

Like, how stupid
am I to think that of her?"

And I actually, like, felt
really bad

that I even had that thought,

and right after that,
I told her that I was in

and that I wanted to be in DOS
and that I committed.

That moment
is, like, so significant for me

and where I felt like
I really didn't trust myself.

Like, I really--
I had an instinct.

I had a feeling
that told me that...

maybe this wasn't good,
and I...

I denied it,
but she also lied to me.

Like...

[sighs] Like,
I actually convinced myself

to trust her.

[sniffles]

[foreboding music]

♪ ♪

[Ross] The women
who were recruited

were literally worn out

by the training
and all of the coursework

and the intensives

and everything that these women
were subjected to,

so that when they came
to that point

of making a commitment to DOS,

their critical-thinking
faculties

and their ability
to judge that ask

was not in place.

They were not the same people
that they were

when they came through
initially

into the coursework at NXIVM.

♪ ♪

I was giving my all to NXIVM.

I was doing everything

that I thought I could do
to progress,

and I was not moving,

My master just looked at me
and said,

"There's another way."

She told me DOS
was not a part of NXIVM,

but that it would help me
achieve my goals in the group.

She said, "Well,
you're already a slave,"

like, "You're a slave
to your fears and attachments.

"Wouldn't you rather be a slave
to something that's more noble

"and to your actual values?

This is the training program
to teach you how to do that."

The term DOS wasn't told to me

until after I joined
the sorority.

My master said
"It's called DOS."

It stands for
Dominus Obsequious Sororium,

which kind of translates
from Latin, um,

to "master-slave sorority."

And I was like, "Well, that--
yeah, that makes sense.

It describes exactly
what we're doing."

-[man] And to come...
-[woman] Oh, good idea.

Is that good?

[woman]
It's, like, right here.

[India] Allison started me
on little activities

that began to make DOS
more and more real.

You have an experience
of what it feels like

to be committed to something
beyond what's convenient

and what's comfortable

and all of the benefits
that come from that.

My role was the student
who had to humble myself

in order to learn and to grow.

Allison would send me articles
that Keith had written,

and I had to journal

about how they
all impacted me.

She required me
to share something with her

that I felt vulnerable about
every day.

[uneasy music]

She was especially interested
in the things

that I felt uncomfortable with

that were sexual
or that felt intimate.

She referred to us as bonding.

♪ ♪

Allison told me
that I needed to lose weight

because it was a practice
in building character

and self-restraint.

If I couldn't meet
the weight requirement,

I would have to spend
30 days in Albany,

and that happened.

I had to make up
a bunch of excuses

to why I wasn't coming
back home.

but Allison told me that
my relationships to my family

were just examples
of where I was dependent,

and I needed to separate
myself from them,

is what I was being told.

What you learn
is the art of life

and how to be
a true student of that

and practice that every day.

♪ ♪

[man speaks indistinctly]

[India] Allison ordered me
to start texting her,

"Good night, master,"
and, "Good morning, master,"

every day.

It felt very uncomfortable
for me to do that,

and I started
to abbreviate it to an M

so that I could feel

a little bit more normal
about it,

but we knew what it meant.

It wasn't
like I was gonna sit there

and object to Allison.

At the time,

I was still living
with my boyfriend, Michel,

and Allison told me
that my relationship

was one of the things
that was keeping me

from getting stronger
and more empowered

and encouraged me
to end that relationship.

So I did.

It was implied
that you would be celibate

as a way to practice
self-restraint and discipline.

It seemed to be
a major focus for her.

[cell phone vibrates]

She would tell me,
"Everything I do,

I do for your own benefit."

"Everything I have you do
is for your own good."

[Keith]
Look, Mark.

Did you notice one of the women
wasn't wearing panties?

[Mark chuckles] How do you
notice those things?

[Keith] And all these weddings
that say it's official.

You know, you can say
a woman's official to...

to tease a woman
about her odor,

saying that she's...

About fish.
She's "a fish hole."

[Mark]
Mm-hmm.

[both]
Official.

[laughter]

[Keith]
She's official.

[Mark] Yeah, I like the way
you led me there.

[India] I was sitting
on Allison's bed with her,

and she told me, "I have
a new assignment for you.

It's about leaning
into fear and discomfort."

She made it sound different

than anything
I had ever done before,

but I knew
that whatever it was,

I would have to do it.

She told me, "Your assignment

is to seduce Keith."

[electronic music]