‘Seduced’ Episode 2: 11 More Revelations About NXIVM You Didn’t Know

“The only way you could make money within NXIVM is when you became proctor, which was an orange sash,” India Oxenberg says in Episode 2. “That was the dream, where you could have an actual career, where you can help people.”

Proctors of a certain level made money off of any new recruit they brought into NXIVM. They also made money off of whatever courses those recruits took. That’s why mentors often encouraged their mentees to take more courses even if they knew they couldn’t afford them. They were making money off of these classes.

Mark Vicente and Sarah Edmondson were two of the company’s highest ranking and best paid proctors. “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,” Oxenberg reveals.

Members of NXIVM were told they rose through the organization based on their merit. That wasn’t true.

“The illusion was to be able to rise up in the ranks was a merit-based system. But in fact Keith was really pulling the strings form behind the scenes. So it really had nothing to do with merit but Keith’s preferences,” Dr. Janja Lalich, author and cult expert, explains. “As you might imagine it was the more beautiful, slender women who were chosen to rise up more quickly in ranks. That’s how Keith eventually built up this stable of sex slaves.”

According to Oxenberg, as she became more involved in NXIVM the organization took over all aspects of her life. This included her social circle and eventually her romantic relationships. While in the organization Oxenberg met fellow member Michel Chernitzky. The two started dating, but Oxenberg claims the group’s co-founder Nancy Salzman was opposed to her relationship. She even put a bunch of parameters on them, requiring such things as Oxenberg and Chernitzky splitting everything 50/50.

This intense focus on control is disturbingly common. “Every little part of daily life was controlled one 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,” Dr. Janja Lalich says.

While India Oxenberg was part of NXIVM she was offered a job as Pierce Brosnan’s assistant. Though this news would typically be exciting for anyone, some of NXIVM’s top members tried to make Oxenberg reconsider her job offer.

“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,” Oxenberg recalls.

Eventually top members gave her an ultimatum. “They said I could continue to placate my family or commit to NXIVM and achieve my full potential,” Oxenberg says. She ended up finishing the job then immediately traveling to her second Vanguard week. After this lapse, Oxenberg’s involvement in the organization greatly deepened.

The Vow and other stories about this organization have made it clear that NXIVM was expensive. But few have detailed just how expensive this self-help multilevel marketing company was. There was one two-week intensive that cost a staggering $20,000. One member even went $80 to $100,000 in debt due to NXIVM courses.

“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,'” one former member known one as Tabby recalls. It’s this pattern than landed her further and further in debt.

The Vow has touched on NXIVM’s Jness courses, but no documentary has covered them as fully as Seduced. The intensive focused on relationships between men and women. Not only did these courses regularly abuse women under the guise of treating them “fairly”, but they taught that men weren’t naturally monogamous.

“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 the classes,” Oxenberg remembers. As she went further into Jness, she claims that her own romantic relationship suffered.

“Keith would blur the lines between rape and consent,” India Oxenberg says. Raniere would often teach that rape only counts as rape if the victim chooses to see it that way. This lesson was repeated so many times it started to become normalized in the minds of NXIVM’s members. That mentality paved the way for the most despicable parts of Raniere’s sex trafficking ring.

The way Seduced tells it SOP, also known as the Society of Protectors, wasn’t just an intensive that focused on what masculinity meant. It was a militant workshop that trained male NXIVM members to literally fight for the organization.

Members of SOP would often hit or slap each other in an attempt to get used to the pain. “What you see in NXIVM is the same indoctrination and course of persuasion process used by terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda,” cult specialist and author Rick Alan Ross says. “Where was Keith Raniere really going with all this? Because it appears he was going to weaponize his most devoted followers.”

Similarly, NXIVM’s discussed readiness drills pointed to militaristic aspirations. For $50 a month members would sign up for readiness drills. Their “commander” would then send out the word “Ready” several times a day. This text could come any time, day or night. If members didn’t respond with their own “Ready” within 60 seconds they would have to endure a punishment such as taking a cold shower or getting up at 4 a.m.

Rachel Bernstein, cult exit specialist and therapist, noted that this drill is reminiscent of Jim Jones and the expectations that cult leader had for Jonestown. “You’re not saying ‘OK,’ you’re not saying ‘here.’ You’re saying ‘ready,’ which is like giving your consent. I’m ready for this,” Bernstein says. “He wanted his followers weaponized to take on his enemies.”

In addition to the morally questionable use of hypnosis and traditional therapeutic techniques, there was also an actual doctor in NXIVM’s folds. Dr. Brandon Porter was allegedly brought on to see if NXIVM’s ESP trainings could be used to help people with Tourette syndrome and other disorders. But really what he did was use his position to test the limits of what members could emotionally handle.

According to New York Times journalist Barry Meier, Dr. Porter would regularly conduct an experiment where he would show women horrible scenes of violence. These women would be forced to watch videos of people being slaughtered and mutilated all while Dr. Porter filmed their facial expressions. The alleged experiment would then end with members watching actual footage of a Mexican cartel beheading five women. It wasn’t uncommon for people to have meltdowns during these sessions.

Members would also have breakdowns during NXIVM’s courses on a fairly regular basis. In Seduced, Ana Cecilia tells the story of how a session with Nancy Salzman caused her to have a psychotic break. But the most unnerving story belongs to Kristen Synder.

In 2003 Synder was taking a NXIVM course in Alaska. At some point during the training she started to act bizarrely. “No one ever saw her after that,” Dennis Yusko, Albany Times Union journalist, says.

According to police reports, Synder took a kayak into the Alaska Bay and turned it over, killing herself. In her suicide note Synder referenced NXIVM and wrote, “I was brainwashed and my emotional center of the brain was killed/turned off.” Her body was never found.

Watch Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult on STARZ