Reinventing the Self: NXIVM’s Promises, Secrets, and Lies
By Susan Raine
Department of Sociology, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Abstract1
In this article, I examine the multilevel cultic
organization NXIVM, using Susie Scott’s
(2011) reinventive institution thesis—an
update of Erving Goffman’s (1961) work on
total institutions. Scott’s (2011) work
addresses some of the broader sociocultural
shifts that have fostered a turn inward toward
self-improvement in the quest for new,
transformative identities. Such shifts have
created a proliferation of movements,
organisations, and groups—including
NXIVM—that offer ideologies and practices
that promise to fulfill these reinventive goals.
Offering opportunities for macrolevel and
microlevel analyses, I employ Scott’s model
not only to situate NXIVM within this cultural
milieu, but also to examine some of the
specifics of its structure, the nature of
interpersonal relationships, and the promises
that the movement and its founder, Keith
Raniere, made. Moreover, as Scott’s (2011)
work reveals, attractive as they may be,
reinventive institutions incorporate
structures of power that render them far from
benign. Hence, by drawing on Scott’s
postulations, I examine features of NXIVM
that illustrate both the promises and
problems of reinventive institutions.
Moreover, I discuss those aspects of NXIVM
that have more in common with total
institutions than reinventive ones,
demonstrating that, at least in this case, the
two types of institution may operate within
1
The author would like to thank Ashley McLean MSc., without
whose generosity, this article would not have been the same. By
providing me with copies of the court transcripts of Keith Raniere’s
trial, she allowed me to engage in more nuanced and detailed
60 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020
one organisation. To explore both
reinventive and totalistic characteristics, I
discuss some of the key features of the
following NXIVM organisations: Executive
Success Programs (ESP), Jness, the Society
of Protectors (SOP), and Dominus
Obsequious Sororium (DOS).
Keywords: NXIVM, Keith Raniere,
reinventive institutions, self-actualization,
identity
When NXIVM first gained the attention of
the North American public, the attention was
primarily the result of the salacious headlines
around the branding of “slaves” in what much
of the media labelled a sex cult. Going
beyond the headlines, however, they
discovered that, over the course of the
previous three decades, NXIVM’s founder,
Keith Raniere, had been attracting people to
his business and self-help organisations, long
before the existence of the master and slave
organization, DOS (the acronym for the Latin
phrase, Dominus Obsequious Sororium,
which translates to “master over the slave
women”) (Edmondson, 2019, p. 174;
Oxenberg, 2019, p. 128).
Moreover, most of the approximately 16,000
people (Meier, 2017) who have taken some
type of course or workshop with NXIVM’s
Executive Success Programs (ESP) did so
because they sought to improve themselves
discussions and analyses. I would like also to thank Dr. Stephen
Kent for providing feedback on my draft copy. I continue to benefit
from his wealth of experience and his eye for detail.
and their skills—they wanted to grow and
transform into more competent, happier
individuals, not join a sex cult. In fact, when
Raniere established DOS, even most Nxians2
were oblivious both to its existence and to the
deeply troubling behaviours—and crimes—
that had been occurring in NXIVM’s
epicenter in Albany, New York.3
On October 27, 2020, Judge Nicholas
Garaufis sentenced Raniere to 120 years in
prison (Hong & Piccoli, 2020). Other high-
ranking members of the movement are
awaiting sentencing after being tried and
found guilty in federal court for numerous
crimes. 4 Raniere was convicted of the
following offences: “racketeering and
racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking,
attempted sex trafficking and sex trafficking
conspiracy; forced labor conspiracy and wire
fraud conspiracy” (para. 1). These
convictions speak to several criminal acts
including fraud, extortion, identity theft,
computer hacking, sexual exploitation of a
minor, and both the production and the
possession of child pornography (United
States Department of Justice, 2019). Clearly,
these crimes are at odds with Raniere's own
mission statement, which identifies that “true
success is never at the expense of others”
(item 9; Raniere, 1998).
2
Nxians refers to members of NXIVM. During ESP training
courses, they also were known as Espians. In this article, I use
Nxians when referring to group members.
3 September 2020, Bronfman was sentenced to 81 months in prison
When actor Sarah Edmondson and her husband, actor Anthony
Ames, resigned and left NXIVM, they warned the members at the
Vancouver office that Edmondson operated that they too should
leave. To stymie further abuses, Edmondson contacted women who
she thought may have been selected for DOS initiation. Although
she did not reveal the full extent of what was happening, most
Nxians in Vancouver did indeed leave, trusting that Edmondson and
Ames had good reason to warn them (see Edmondson, 2019, for a
full discussion).
4
NXIVM cofounder and president, Nancy Salzman, pleaded guilty
to “racketeering conspiracy” (para. 9); Lauren Salzman and Allison
Mack (both first-line slave masters in DOS) pleaded guilty to
“racketeering and racketeering conspiracy” (para. 9); Clare
Bronfman, wealthy benefactor and high-ranking member, pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to “conceal and harbor aliens for financial
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
NXIVM has variously been identified as a
cult, 5 a multilevel marketing (MLM) or
pyramid scheme, a self-help group, and, more
recently, as a criminal enterprise. Each of
these labels is appropriate. In this article,
however, I begin by adopting a wider-ranging
approach. Consequently, I examine some of
the broader sociocultural shifts that have
fostered a turn inward toward self-
improvement in the quest for new
transformative identities. Such shifts have
created a proliferation of movements,
organisations, and groups that offer
ideologies and practices that promise to
fulfill these goals and desires. For example,
the Human Potential Movement’s success and
lasting cultural influence speaks to these
developments. Indeed, the Human Potential
Movement provides a window into the allure
of NXIVM. Moving from this macro-level
discussion, I examine the appeal of NXIVM
by examining some of the specifics of its
structure, the nature of interpersonal
relationships therein, and the promises that it
made.
To undertake an analysis that embraces both
macrolevel conditions and microlevel
relationships, I adopt Susie Scott’s (2011)
reinventive institution (RI) 6 thesis—an
update on Erving Goffman’s (1961) concept
of the total institution (TI). In doing so, I
gain,” and also to “fraudulent use of identification documents”
(para. 9); and bookkeeper Kathy Russell pleaded guilty to “visa
fraud” (para. 9; United States Department of Justice, 2019). In
(Hong, 2020).
5
Janja Lalich’s (2004) definition of cult is appropriate here. She
proposes that “A cult can be either a sharply bounded social group
or a diffusely bounded social movement held together through
shared commitment to a charismatic leader. It upholds a
transcendent ideology (often but not always religious in nature) and
requires a high level of personal commitment from its members in
words and deeds” (Lalich, 2004, p. 4).
6
Scott (2011) uses uppercase Reinventive Institution in her work,
whereas Goffman (1961) used lowercase total institution in his. For
continuity, I have elected to use lowercase for both (i.e., total
institution and reinventive institution), except where I adopt the
acronyms TI and RI.
61
propose that NXIVM exemplifies Scott’s RI
thesis. As I illustrate, NXIVM’s promises of
growth, self-actualization, success, and
reinvention represent the transformative
appeal of the RI. As Scott’s (2011) work
reveals, however, RIs, attractive as they may
be, incorporate structures of power that
render them far from benign. Hence, by
drawing on Scott’s postulations, I examine
features of NXIVM that illustrate both the
promises and problems of RIs. Moreover, I
discuss those aspects of NXIVM that have
more in common with total institutions than
reinventive ones, demonstrating that, at least
in the case of NXIVM, the two types of
institution may operate within one
organisation.
To begin, I provide a summary of Scott’s
(2011) RI thesis and outline the way in which
she situates the emergence of RIs within far-
reaching shifts in Western societies. As such,
I summarise her discussion on the evolution
of selfhood and the emergence of movements
in response to these changes, and also the
central components of RIs. Following this
overview, I provide a synopsis of Keith
Raniere’s early life and business ventures,
along with the events that led to his
establishment of NXIVM. Then, I examine
the nature and purpose of NXIVM’s
Executive Success Programs (ESP) and the
7
The trial commenced 7 May 2019 and concluded 19 June 2019 at
the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York.
8
I draw on three memoirs. Catherine Oxenberg’s (2019) book,
Captive: a Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter From the
Terrifying Cult NXIVM, focuses on her daughter India’s deepening
commitment to NXIVM and Oxenberg’s battle to remove her from
the group. Her account discusses the initial appeal of ESP, some
course content, and the protracted and fraught process to bring
Raniere to the attention of authorities. Sarah Edmondson’s (2019)
book, Scarred:The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM the Cult
That Bound My Life, provides an incredible amount of detailed
information. As the head of NXIVM’s only Canadian offices in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Edmondson (the group’s top
recruiter) provides insights into many aspects of NXIVM. She
explains numerous key concepts and courses while detailing also her
own rise within the movement, including her harrowing initiation
into DOS. Finally, Toni Natalie’s (2019) The Program: Inside the
62 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
structure and composition of the “Stripe
Path.” Finally, I examine three NXIVM
organisations: Jness, the Society of
Protectors (SOP), and Dominus Obsequious
Sororium (DOS). This trajectory of analysis
reflects the increasingly restrictive and
punitive aspects of NXIVM and indicates the
necessity to draw not only on Scott’s (2011)
RI thesis, but also on Goffman’s (1961)
original work.
At the time of writing, no academic work on
NXIVM has been published. This article
draws on some primary NXIVM materials;
the court transcripts of Keith Raniere’s trial;7
media accounts of Raniere and NXIVM’s
history; online resources; and on three ex-
member memoirs. 8 Together, these sources
offer a rich and diverse set of research
materials.9
Reinventive Institutions (RIs)
Scott’s RI thesis builds upon Erving
Goffman’s (1961) concept of the total
institution (TI), which he outlined in his
enduring work, Asylums. 10 One of his key goals
was to produce “a sociological version of the
structure of the self” (Goffman, 1961,
p. xiii). Goffman’s total institution is an
insular world, cut off from the rest of society:
institutions that “are encompassing to a
degree discontinuously greater than the ones
next in line” (Goffman, 1961, p. 4). The
Mind of Keith Raniere and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM offers an
important piece of Raniere’s and NXIVM’s history. Covering the
early days of Raniere from Consumers’ Buyline through to the
establishment of ESP and NXIVM, Natalie provides a unique
perspective on the formative years. His former business and
romantic partner, Natalie reveals the extraordinary lengths to which
Raniere went to litigate against her and anyone else he found
threating. Whilst I recognise that memoirs offer very subjective
accounts, in all three cases, much of the information has been
corroborated either across the memoirs, in investigative journalist
accounts, and/or during Keith Raniere’s 2019 trial.
9
At this point, I do not have copies or originals of most of Raniere’s
self-published manuals and books.
10
Goffman’s (1961) work, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation
of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, focuses mostly on the mental
hospital, an institution in which Goffman worked for a period to
understand its effects on its inmates.
people who inhabit these institutions live
together within highly regulated, formally
administered conditions (for example, mental
hospitals, prisons, and monasteries 11 ), and
Goffman’s focus is the social context of the
individual’s behaviour (Goffman, 1961).
Goffman’s (1961) TIs feature coercion and
pressure within a traditional top-down power
structure: The institution foists new identities
and experiences of selfhood on its inmates,
most of whom are rendered powerless by
institutional power mechanisms. In TIs, the
institution controls the members, and they are
aware of this process (whilst knowing also
that private selves exist). By contrast, in the
RI, members have come to terms with their
own personal decision that, due to their flaws
and limitations, they are in need of
improvement, of “self-actualization” (Scott,
2011, p. 38) and reinvention (Scott, 2011, p.
39). Thus, in Goffman’s TI, “the new
institutional identity quashes the individual’s
‘real’ self” (Scott, 2011, p. 2); conversely,
Scott’s RI is founded upon individuals’
voluntary membership as they willingly
choose to modify themselves. In RIs, power
is diffuse and multidirectional (Scott, 2011).
Total institutions still exist in society (for
example, prisons and psychiatric hospitals),
but reinventive institutions have emerged
alongside them, offering “new sites of
biographical identity work” (Scott, 2011, p.
2).
According to Scott, contemporary shifts in
approaches to selfhood and identity have
spurred the rise of RIs, which offer clients the
means to transform in a variety of settings
including religious, educational, fraternal,
and therapeutic ones. Scott defines the RI as
11
Goffman acknowledges that every TI is different, and that TIs do
not share exactly the same characteristics. He notes, however, the
importance of the intensity of the expression of certain
characteristics from an identifiable group of them (Goffman, 1961,
p. 5).
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
A material, discursive or symbolic
structure in which voluntary members
actively seek to cultivate a new social
identity, role or status. This is
interpreted positively as a process of
reinvention, self-improvement or
transformation. It is achieved not only
through formal instruction in an
institutional rhetoric, but also through
the mechanisms of performative
regulation in the interaction context
of an inmate culture (Scott, 2011, p.
3; p. 30–31).12
Drawing on late-modern sociological
insights, Scott posits that RIs have
proliferated in Western societies that have
witnessed a decline in conventional,
authoritative social structures (including
organised religion and traditional forms of
family, both of which clearly and quite
universally stipulated social roles). These
declines are representative of macrolevel
sociopolitical changes that have
consequences for microlevel relationships
(Berger, 1973, as cited in Scott, 2011, p. 34).
The institutionally articulated “self” has
fragmented over the latter part of the 20th
century up to the present day. A constellation
of influences including secularisation,
rationalism, disenchantment, and
individualism have allowed for greater
personal freedoms and choices (Giddens,
1991, as cited in Scott, 2011, p. 35–36).
Furthermore, the perceived problems of our
“risk society” (Beck, 1992) also encourage a
turn inward in an effort to affect some kind of
control over our lives (Scott, 2011, p. 35).
Subsequently, constructing self has become
an ongoing undertaking that is subject to
reflection, questioning, and the idea that one
12
Scott (2011) uses Goffman’s (1961) language of “inmates” to
describe individuals in numerous types of RIs. In this article, I refer
to “members” of NXIVM.
63
must live “authentically” through the process
of personal transformation. Often, this
reinvention of self is born out of persistent
self-doubt and anxiety concerning the nature
and purpose of one’s life (Giddens, in Scott,
2011, p. 36). In response to these new
conditions, new so-called specialists have
emerged, claiming and offering expertise
tailored to guide individuals to pursue their
personal aspirations (Scott, 2011, p. 36).
Within this “culture of reinvention,” (Scott,
2011, p. 34), RIs offer to assist in their
clients’ transformation, presenting
“seemingly altruistic motives that encourage
new recruits to see this as a journey made
under their own volition” (Scott, 2011,
p. 37). RIs craft structural conditions that
guide these journeys of self-regulation in the
pursuit of growth. Scott identifies
performative regulation as a key component
of RIs, defining it as a practice that “demands
the active involvement of individuals in the
creation of their own regimes and adherence
to them, as well as the mutual surveillance of
members by their peers” (Scott, 2011, p. 30).
Performative regulation incorporates three
key features. First, the idea that individual
members of the RI are both controlled and
controlling to the extent that they are subject
to institutional control mechanisms, but their
membership is voluntary, and they contribute
to shaping the environment to which they
chose to belong (Scott, 2011, p. 49). The
outcome of this condition is a shift from a
state of “manifest coercion/latent agency
“found in TIs to “manifest agency/ latent
coercion” of RIs. As Scott articulates, “the
transition from TI to RI implies not simply
the replacement of coercion with
voluntarism, but rather a shift in the relative
balance between the two” (Scott, 2011,
p. 50).
Second, performative regulation involves
mutual member surveillance, whereby
members observe each other’s behaviours as
64 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
they all work toward common goals.
Monitoring each other cultivates horizontal
power in the RI, which coexists with vertical
and bidirectional forms also. This
kaleidoscope of power means that, although
the dominant ideologies emerge from a
leader, power is sustained because the RI
members legitimate it amongst themselves in
numerous ways (Scott, 2011, p. 50). Third,
RIs evolve as a result of the inherent
dynamics between the institution and its
members. The relationship between structure
and agency means that, although members
accept and participate in the first two features
of performative regulation, they also may
question and oppose the RI’s regulations
(Scott, 2011, p. 52). Moreover, members may
privately hold different views from those that
they present to other group members (Scheff,
1968, as cited in Scott, 2011, p. 52).
Scott identifies that RIs thrive in
contemporary democratic societies in which
individualism and self-improvement are
encouraged and valued. Self-focused,
transformative ideologies and practices often
require financial (and other) commitments
from members—and many RIs are capitalist
ventures that recognise the needs of their
consumers, offering services that focus on
“unlocking potential” for their clients (Scott,
2011, p. 37). Scott suggests, however, that
despite their voluntary nature, such
institutions are far from benign (Scott, 2011,
p. 30). Instead, they can foster forms of
control that can result in detrimental
consequences instead of, or alongside, the
positive ones that they promise.
NXIVM encompasses these aforementioned
characteristics and also many other RI
features that Scott discusses. Before
assessing NXIVM as an RI in more detail, in
the following segment I examine the course
of Raniere’s ideas and business practices,
culminating in the formation of NXIVM.
The Birth of NXIVM
Keith Raniere (b. 1960) was born in
Brooklyn, New York. Raniere self-identifies
as a unique individual, stating that he could
speak in full sentences as a 1-year-old, that he
could read at 2 years of age, and that he is a
self-taught, concert-level pianist. Among his
many other claims is that he grasped high-
school math in just 19 hours of study. Raniere
stated also that he graduated with a triple
major in mathematics, biology, and physics,
with minors in psychology and philosophy,
from the Rensselaer Polytechnic in New
York state (Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 34; Meier,
2017; Natalie, 2019, p. 20).
On the now-defunct NXIVM website,
Raniere claimed that he took PhD-level
courses in science and mathematics. Despite
frequently alluding to his own intellectual
brilliance, however, his undergraduate
transcripts reveal that he obtained C, D, and
F grades; was placed on academic probation;
and was dismissed for a period from his
studies. He finally graduated from Rensselaer
Polytechnic with a GPA of 2.26 (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 5131),
which indicates that his alleged genius was
not expressed in legitimate academicsettings.
Evidently fond of self-promotion, hedeclared
also that he had an IQ of 240 (Natalie, 2019,
pp. 14, 108; Parlato, 2017a), and that he was
listed in the Guinness Book of Records for it
(Natalie, 2019, p. 13; Parlato, 2017a). 13 By
the time he began promoting his business
ideas, he presented himself as the “smartest
man in the world” (Bloch et al., 2018;
Natalie, 2019, p. 26).
13
Raniere took a “take-home” IQ test that was not officially
administered or supervised. Therefore, no empirical, independent,
or official evidence exists to validate his claims of the world’s
highest IQ. The 1989 edition of the Australian Guinness Book of
Records did list Raniere has having the world’s highest IQ. He was
not included in subsequent editions (Parlato, 2017). It is not clear
how and why his name was included in the Australian edition for
that year. More generally, IQ tests are controversial and contested in
terms of what they actually measure and what meaning we can
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Moreover, he described himself as “a great
philosopher, an ethical man and a scientist”
(Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 32).
In 1991, Raniere founded his first company,
Consumers’ Buyline, selling cut-price food
and other products to paying members. By
1993, however, the New York attorney
general suspected Raniere was operating a
pyramid scheme and filed a civil suit against
him; Raniere did not concede to this offence
and paid only a portion of the $40,000 he was
charged (Freedman, 2003; see also Natalie,
2019, p. 68). He and his romantic partner and
business associate, Toni Natalie,
subsequently started a supplement and
alternative-health business called National
Health Network—a company into which
Natalie had put a great deal of work (Natalie,
2019, p. 83), but which collapsed for several
reasons, including harassment at the hands of
Nancy Salzman and Raniere (see Natalie,
2019, p. 103–114 for a full discussion).
According to Natalie, Raniere had begun
thinking more seriously about launching a
self-help program after he discovered that the
location of her new business venture,
Awaken, was next door to one of the offices
of renowned motivational speaker, Tony
Robbins, of whom Raniere was a fan(Natalie,
2019, p. 71). Moreover, he was influenced
also by the Amway model of marketing and
by Scientology14 (Bloch et al., 2018).
Critically, in 1997 (Natalie, 2019, p. 91),
when Raniere met Nancy Salzman, a former
nurse and trained neuro linguistic
ascribe to them. With these caveats in mind, one of the most
commonly used tests—the Stanford Binet, identifies that a score
below 70 is associated with mental disability, whereas scores over
130 indicate extremely gifted individuals (Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 2019).
14
According to Natalie, Raniere also read L. Ron Hubbard’s (1950)
Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health (Natalie, 2019, p.
107).
65
programming specialist 15 (Natalie, 2019, p.
85), he found a kindred spirit who admired
his persuasive abilities and his capacity to
make her feel good (Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 34).
Salzman (b. 1954) was a perfect match for
Raniere (Natalie, 2019, p. 90), and in 1998
they cofounded Executive Success Programs
(ESP). Although head of the company,
Raniere deferred ownership to Salzman. As
such, Raniere received no financial
renumeration and possessed no means to
procure money such as credit and debit cards
(Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 34), thus cultivating an
image of modesty and asceticism.
Raniere soon established another fortuitous
relationship, this time with Seagram Liquor
heiresses Clare (b. 1979) and Sara Bronfman
(b. 1976), daughters of billionaire business
tycoon Edgar Bronfman (1929–2013).
Despite their father’s concerns16 that NXIVM
was a cult, both daughters continued to invest
in Raniere and NXIVM (Freedman, 2003).
The Bronfman sisters found Raniere’s
philosophy on money appealing. He
subscribed to writer and philosopher Ayn
Rand’s (1905–1982) perspective that money
is neither inherently good nor bad; rather, it
depends on how it is used. With theBronfman
sisters as friends and investors, Raniere
established an ambitious development
agenda, allegedly focusing on peace,
altruism, philanthropy, science, education,
and self-improvement
(Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 56). Financial security
and appealing course offerings fostered
NXIVM’s expansion in the United States,
15
In court in 2000, Nancy Salzman stated under oath that she was
not a qualified mental health practitioner. This admission meant that
she was not legally allowed to provide therapy to anyone (Natalie,
2019, p. 133).
16
Initially, Edgar Bronfman approved of ESP, but when he
discovered that his daughters were investing large sums of money
(and time) in the group, he became extremely concerned (Freedman,
2003; Yacowicz, 2019).
17
The “inner circle” who were identified as such by the extent of
their “loyalty” and “commitment” to Raniere (United States of
66 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
including New York, Los Angeles, and
Tacoma; several Mexican cities including
Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey;
and in Vancouver, Canada. The company’s
growth saw the establishment of many
women in positions of power and
responsibility (Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 56), thus
promoting an appearance of female
empowerment and value.
Meanwhile, Raniere spent most of his time in
the Clifton Park/Half Moon/Knox Woods
suburbs near Albany, where, from the early
days of CBI, he and several of his associates
(and, as it would emerge, lovers) lived
(Natalie, 2019, p. 129). Over time, and at
Raniere’s behest, NXIVM members acquired
approximately fifty properties in the region
(Natalie, 2019, p. 42). Raniere thus
established a close-knit community of his
most dedicated followers and benefactors,
including the Bronfman sisters; actors
Allison Mack and Nicki Clyne; film director
Mark Vicente and his actor wife, Bonnie
Piesse; and also, individuals who had been
with him from the earliest days, including
Pam Carfritz, Kristen Keeffe, and Karen
Unterrainer. The “inner circle” 17 of elite
members—most of whom had sexual
relationships with Raniere (United States v.
Raniere, 2019, p. 1572, 2447-24478)—lived
in a community that would become the site of
some of NXIVM’s most troubling and
criminal activities.
America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1571) included the following
individuals: Clare Bronfman, Lauren Salzman, Nancy Salzman,
Pam Carfritz, Barbara Jeske, Barbara Bouchey, Karen Unterreiner,
Allison Mack, Nicki Clyne, Dawn Morrison, Kristin Keeffe, Kathy
Russell, Daniella, Marianna, Camila, Loreta Garza, Monica Duran,
Ivy Navares, Jim del Negro, Mark Vicente, Emiliano Salinas, Rosa
Laura Junco, Daniella Padilla, Alex Betancourt and Jack Levy
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1564–1570).
Executive Success Programs (ESPs): The
(Stripe) Path to Reinvention
According to Raniere, NXIVM’s ESPs
offered a scientific approach called Rational
Inquiry that helps individuals cultivate the
“emotional and intellectual skills necessary
to reach their maximum potential in all areas
of life” (Raniere, 2001, quoted in para. 1,
Martin, 2003). Raniere claimed that
individuals should take ESP courses because
of their disintegrations, which, Raniere said,
refer to people’s flawed perceptions of the
world. Flawed, because adults have not
evolved beyond their childhood
understanding of reality. Rational inquiry, he
posited, is the first scientific 18 means of
resolving this problem because it delivers
“‘the necessary tools for human
transformation’” (Raniere, 2001, quoted in
para. 2, Martin, 2003). Thus, individuals
must reassess everything they think they
know about the world in order to
“integrate”—the end goal whereby one’s
“belief system finally aligns to reality”
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 45).
To achieve this end, one must enroll in ESP
“Intensives,” or workshops, (Executive
Success Programs Inc. 2000, quoted in
18
Raniere made many allegedly scientific claims. For example, he
declared that he had devised a mathematical formula that would
prevent global catastrophe by halting the planet’s current destructive
trajectory (Natalie, 2019, p. 142).
19
Martin (2003) notes this influence.
20
Maslow's hierarchy typically is represented as a pyramid, whereby
more basic human needs occupy the lower levels of it, while
increasingly complex needs are at the top. Lower-level needs
comprise physical requirements including water, food, sleep, and
warmth. Once people meet these needs, they can progress to the next
level of needs, which revolve around safety. As people proceed
further up the pyramid, their needs become increasingly
psychological and social: the need for friendship, intimacy, and
love. At the top of the pyramid, self-esteem and a sense of
accomplishment take priority. Maslow emphasized the importance
of self-actualization—the process of personal growth and
development to attain one’s full potential (McLeod, 2018; see
Maslow, 1943, for original article). See Bovbjerg (2010) for a
discussion of Maslow and humanistic psychology’s influence on
business practices.
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Martin, 2003) that help people to reach their
“full potential” (Raniere, 2001, quoted in
Martin, 2003). Raniere’s language—for
example, intensives, human transformation,
and full potential—mirror the argot of the
Human Potential Movement (HPM), 19 a
highly influential movement that emerged
during the 1960s’ counterculture, and that has
inspired myriad self-help and therapeutic
practices since. With the Human Potential
Movement’s focus on self-actualization
(inspired by the work of one of the
movement’s founders, humanistic
psychologist Abraham Maslow 20 [1908–
1970]), one can identify this movement as a
significant—perhaps the most significant—
foundation of the self-help/therapeutic
reinventive culture. Many ESP intensives
adopted the HPM-inspired practice of neuro-
linguistic programming (NLP),21 of which, as
noted, Nancy Salzman was a practitioner.
ESP courses offer the HPM’s promise of
transformation, which implies improvement,
authenticity, and self-actualization. ESP
proposes to rectify personal, interpersonal,
national, and even global issues, but only if
one can commit fully to it (and is able to pay
for costly courses22). Consequently, as an RI,
21
See Edmondson (2019, pp. 21, 63); Natalie (2019, pp. 71, 85, 88–
89, 98–99, and 137–138); Oxenberg (2019, p. 16); and Parlato
(2019) for discussions and examples of NLP practices in NXIVM.
Psychologist Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder founded
NLP in the early 1970s. They claimed that trained NLP therapists
could modify a link between neurological processes, language, and
behavioral patterns to help people attain their goals. Moreover, they
claimed that by modelling highly talented individuals, others could
achieve success (see Witkowski, 2010). They also made numerous
health claims (see Grinder, Bandler, & Andreas, 1981). NLP has
been variously debunked as pseudoscience because it is empirically
unfounded (Roderique-Davis, 2015; Wiseman, Watt, Brink, Porter,
Couper, & Rankin, 2012; Witkowski, 2010). As Witkowski notes,
Bandler and Grinder deliberately avoided any attempts at empirical
testing because of their disdain for science (Witkowski, 2010, p. 59).
NLP also has been defined as a, “psychoreligious” practice in which
the aim is to attain perfection in a never-ending practice of
transformation of the self (Bovbjerg, 2010, p. 118).
22
For example, Ethos intensive training costs $7,500 for 16 days,
and The Ethicist intensive costs approximately $10,000 for up to 10
days (United States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 476). Original
Jness workshops cost $550 per weekend, but the new 2013 Jness
67
NXIVM satisfies contemporary cultural
narratives that focus upon “dissatisfaction
with the fallible self” (Scott, 2011, p. 39),
whilst extending the reach of its
transformative promises to the macrolevel. A
“human potential school” (United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1514), NXIVM
was also a multilevel marketing (MLM)
program from its inception, as Nancy
Salzman and Keith Raniere required also that
new members brought in further new recruits,
who in turn would do the same—and so on
(Natalie, 2019, pp. 91–92; see also
Edmondson, 2019, pp. 50–51, 53).
Raniere’s (1998) foundational 12 Point
Mission Statement outlines the key tenets of
ESP. Participants had to commit the mission
statement to memory, and it was common to
recite it before classes (Oxenberg, 2019,
p. 14). Referring to goals of success,
integrity, responsibility, honesty, honour,
transformation, and a better, peaceful world
free of “hunger, theft, dishonesty, envy and
insecurity,” the statement notes that the
“actualization of human potential by anyone
is a tribute to all humankind” (point 12,
Raniere, 1998). Such goals are attractive to
new recruits, but mechanisms of control are
embedded in the statement. For example,
members read that there “are no ultimate
victims, therefore, I will choose not to be a
victim” (point 9, Raniere, 1998)—a creedthat
came to permeate NXIVM culture. Members
learned also that paying “tribute” isvital, and
that tribute to Raniere is especially valued.
Furthermore, in a bullet that speaks to
Raniere’s financial ambitions, he declared
“tracks” were priced at $15,000 for three 8-day intensives
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 129). All Level Two courses (which take
place in Albany) cost $6,000 (Oxenberg, 2019, p. 53). Members
would spend approximately $100,000 taking the entire curriculum
(Parlato, 2017b), but expenses often were much higher because
sometimes Nxians were required to retake courses, meaning they
had to again pay the course cost and again put in the time (see
Edmondson, 2019, p. 127; Oxenberg, p. 67). Sometimes members
were offered “discounts” if they signed up quickly for other courses
(see Oxenberg, 2019, p. 53; Edmondson, 2019), and high-pressure
68 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
that it is critical that the “money, wealth and
resources of the world” are “controlled by
successful, ethical people.” Members must
then commit to be one of those people in
control (Raniere, 1998). Another
commitment—this time to secrecy—is non-
negotiable. Members cannot share anything
they learn from ESP with anyone else: “Part
of the condition of being accepted into ESP is
to keep all its information confidential.”
Raniere considered infringements of this
stipulation violations of contract (Raniere,
1998), and nondisclosure agreements were
standard practice, although they were not
always obvious to new recruits (Edmondson,
2019, p. 184; Oxenberg, 2019, p. 15).
ESP comprised endless modules and
intensives, all of which used Raniere’s
allegedly “science-inspired ‘technology’” to
“‘upgrade [one’s] programming’”
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 45). Raniere proposed
that 20 modules would “integrate” someone,
but he developed hundreds of them over the
years (Edmondson, 2019, personal
communication). The 5-day intensive had 23
modules, while the 16-day had
approximately 52 (which, when completed,
meant that the member had finished Level
One of the curricula). Members then moved
to Level 2 courses, 23 prior to enrolling in Jness
Weekends, and then completing ten 8- day
Jness Tracks training courses (primarily for
women), Society of Protectors weekends(for
men), and SOP Complete for men and
sales tactics often were used (Edmondson, 2019, pp. 34–36).
Raniere established what he called his “university” program costing
$5,000 per month for enrollment (Oxenberg 2019, pp. 117, 121).
23
Level Two included the following courses: Family Values,
Anatomy of Mind and Body, Breaches, Civilization, Mobius,
Characterization, Human Pain, Ascension, Because Stories, Traps,
and Patterns.
women. Raniere continued to roll out further
courses as he expanded ESP’s repertoire.24
The Stripe Path expressed NXIVM’s
structure and hierarchy. Wearing a coloured
sash around their necks was mandatory for
ESP members, with each sash colour denoting
one’s level on the Stripe Path. 25 Participants
had to earn four white stripes on their sashes
prior to being promoted to the next colour and
level. To achieve stripes and advance through
the sash levels, coaches evaluated ESP
members on proficiency in courses taken, the
number of people a member recruited, and
the number of integrations a person achieved
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 41). Raniere adopted
this “system of promotion” (Edmondson,
2019, p. 22) from martial arts, using sash
colours instead of belts (Edmondson, 2019, p.
22; Natalie, 2019, p. 93). Likewise, he used
the martial- arts practice of acknowledging
the sensei—aterm that refers to the teacher,
master, or onemore learned. As such, Nxians
had to pay tribute—by bowing—to Raniere,
or to a photograph of him when he was not
physically present.
Raniere—or “Vanguard”26—as he renamed
himself, formalised these and other required
behaviours in “Rules and Rituals,” a set of
directives that also served to solidify his
position at the hierarchy’s apex. Despite
some misgivings, Edmondson recalls that she
saw the Stripe path as an opportunity to
consistently devote herself to her “personal
growth” (Edmondson, 2019, p. 41). Many
recruits may have had periodic doubts, but, as
24
For example, Ultima, Eso/Exo, The Knife, Ethicist 1 2 3 4 5, EM
Tech, Reverence, and The Source.
25
From lowest to highest rank, the sash system was as follows: white
sash for all new students, followed by yellow sash for coaches, orange
for the position of proctor, green for senior proctor, blue for
counselor, purple for senior counselor, and gold for prefect—i.e.,
Nancy Salzman (Edmondson, 2019, pp. 41–42).
26
Rainere adopted the name Vanguard from a character in one of his
favourite computer games (Natalie, 2019, pp. 52–53; Oxenberg,
2019, p. 194).
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Natalie (2019) remarks, Raniere’s “utmost
priority” was to “normalize unusual
behavior” early on (Natalie, 2019, pp. 93, 94;
see also Edmondson, 2019, p. 38).27
Raniere’s Stripe Path hierarchy took
inspiration also from ancient Rome. Nancy
Salzman held the title of “Prefect”
(Oxenberg, 2019, pp. 12–13), which Romans
used for high-ranking civil and military
officials (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2019).
Furthermore, Raniere likely derived NXIVM
28
from nexum, a Roman word that referred to
the practice of “debt bondage.” In this
situation, borrowers promised themselves as
collateral should they be unable to repay their
loan. Consequently, thedebtor would become
the loan provider’s slave, working off the
debt owed. When Oxenberg discovered this
information, she realised that Raniere had the
dynamics of DOS in mind long before he
created the group (Oxenberg, 2019, p. 192;
see also Edmondson, 2019, p. 25).
As Scott (2011) has suggested, the RI offers
members the opportunity to actively
participate in the creation of their “voluntary
self-improvement” program. Drawing on
Strauss (1969), Scott identified, however,
that an “authority figure may determine
whether [the member] has met certain key
challenges that demonstrate growth, maturity
. . . or that they have reached the threshold of
a trajectory towards self-improvement”
(Scott, 2011, p. 40). Although Raniere was
the primary authority, the multiple levels of
achievement along the Stripe Path, along
27
Edmondson explains also that, although she found aspects of
NXIVM strange, she felt positive about the curriculum and the
overall goals for betterment. Moreover, she also “accepted the
notion that any discomfort was an area for growth” (Edmondson,
2019, p. 55).
28
Edmondson was told that NXIVM meant “‘a place of learning’”
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 25).
69
with members’ ability to become coaches
themselves (i.e., coaches in training all the
way up to senior coach), likely increased the
perception of control and empowerment they
garnered and offered them the sense that they
contributed to and influenced the process of
growth for themselves and for others. As a
pyramid scheme, however, ESP
programming always worked for the upper
echelons who benefited the most from the
labours of others.29
The Stripe Path offers Nxians the promise of
greater levels of achievement, self-
improvement, and self-actualization—all of
which occur within the specific symbolic
context of the group (Scott, 2011, p. 41).
From the earliest contact with ESP courses,
new adherents are immersed in the rhetoric of
exclusivity, shaping individuals’ meaning-
making processes as they orient their
expectations of themselves and of their peers
in terms of current standing and desired
progress on the Stripe Path—which clearly
conferred elevated growth and status for
those with higher rank (see Edmondson, 2019
for numerous examples of this process).
Many RIs offer environments in which
members “seek to understand [ ] not a
transcendent god or spirit but their own self-
identities, as idealised potential” (Scott,2011,
p. 54). Whilst many RIs are specifically
oriented toward spiritual or religious beliefs
and practices, NXIVM exemplifies Scott’s
identification of those RIs that have emerged,
presenting “new discourses of reinvention
[that] encourage us to believe with religious
fervor in the potential of ourselves: to be
transformed, repaired, improved, even
perfected” (Scott, 2011, p. 59).
This type of self-religion (Heelas, 1991) is
exemplified in seminars of the self (Scott,
29
For a discussion of the commission structure, see Edmondson
(2019, pp. 91–93).
70 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
2019, p. 76). A part of the HPM legacy
(Wallis, as cited in Scott, 2011, p. 76), and
clearly evident in NXIVM, this intense focus
on self-improvement curriculum requires
dedication to growth. As with other RIs
(Scott, 2011, p. 59), Raniere invented new so-
called problems to be solved, and then
offered the means to do so. Critical to the
reinventive model is the members' perception
of active participation in their own growth.
Scott notes that both Scientology and
Transcendental Meditation are alsosuccessful
in this regard. So too, was NXIVM—and
hence, as Scott notes, the subjective sense of
achievement, empowerment, and control that
participants experience. The presence of a
charismatic leader such as Raniere
notwithstanding, members maintain
commitment in large partbecause they have
“invested a great deal of personal energy,
time and money in the process of learning”
(Scott, 2011, p. 77). As a key feature of the
reinventive process, Raniere created the need
for ideas and practices that were meant to help
members to achieve their full potential. I
examine just some of them here.
Raniere’s Rational Inquiry model offers an
allegedly science-based curriculum—or, as
Raniere termed it, technology—for
improving one’s life in all areas. This
umbrella approach incorporates myriad
concepts, including the “foundational
philosophy of ESP: ‘being at-cause,’” 30
which referred to the idea that persons are
individually the cause of “everything that
happens” in their lives. Consequently, each
person must take responsibility (i.e., be at-
cause) for this reality. This NXIVM “way of
life” mandates that members are accountable
and, “choose [their] emotions.” Thus,
someone who is “‘out of cause’” chooses to
30
Mark Vicente identified this term as originating in NLP (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 481).
be a victim (Edmondson, 2019, p. 42),
something that is highly undesirable in
NXIVM philosophy (Raniere, 1998). These
and other propositions clearly confer
members with the sense that they are active
agents in their own growth (Scott, 2011).
They must select and adhere to their
reinventive regimes whilst participating inthe
broader Nxian community.
A key NXIVM goal is to experience
integrations, which, as previously discussed,
refer to belief and reality coming together
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 45)—a form of
epiphany that is reached through ESP
training. Explorations of Meanings (EMs)
involve an individual sitting with a coach in
order to “unhook the emotional chargearound
painful memories in one’s life and dismantle
phobias” (Oxenberg, 2019, p. 18). EMs free
the person from negative associations as they
allegedly break undesirable stimulus-
response patterns (Edmondson, 2019, p. 45).
Senior members of NXIVM discouraged
questioning any aspect of the curriculum:
Those who did question were made to feel as
if they had a problem, an inner deficiency in
NXIVM parlance. This alleged deficiency
kept members committed as they resolved to
free themselves from their shortcomings on
their paths to growth (Edmondson, 2019, p.
124). Furthermore, upper management issued
breach forms to those who failed at their
tasks. These demeaning forms required
members to identify their own faults,
“confess” their problem behaviours, ask for
forgiveness, and take full responsibility for
allowing their own issues to become
obstacles to their growth (Edmondson, 2019,
p. 124). Penances also could be issued for
failures. These punishments—and efforts to
31
Raniere took a strictly heteronormative approach to relationships
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 133).
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
avoid them—functioned to maintain
commitment (Edmondson, 2019, p. 125).
Raniere devised countless other concepts and
ideas that contributed to ESP programming,
and it is beyond the scope of this article to
address them all. Where they are relevant, I
discuss some others in the following
segment.
NXIVM Organisations
Raniere founded several organisations in
which he encouraged Nxians to participate. I
discuss three of them in the rest of this
article— Jness, the Society of Protectors, and
DOS—and examine how each contributed to
the reinventive culture. Moreover, with DOS
in particular, I examine the explicit
manifestation of total institution
characteristics within the broader reinventive
milieu of NXIVM.
Jness
In 2006, Raniere founded Jness, a series of
for-women-only workshops that ostensibly
focused on men and women’s relationships
(Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 56). Raniere added
new curriculum in 2013, offering options for
both women and men (Edmondson, 2019,
p. 129). Edmondson recalls Nancy Salzman
telling her that the new material would unite
women, support their influence in society,
and also tackle issues in heterosexual
relationships (Edmondson, 2019, p. 126).31
Despite initial Jness courses such as “Raw”
offering seemingly helpful ways for women
and men to think through their relationships
with each other (Grigoriadis, 2018, p. 56),
Raniere embedded his deeply misogynistic
beliefs and practices in Jness philosophy—
sometimes explicitly so. Although Raniere
sold Jness as a program to empower women,
the material often did just the opposite.
71
Course materials and lectures claimed that
women are feeble, spoiled, lacking self-
control, selfish, egocentric, and morally
suspect. Furthermore, the program insisted
that women should submit to men’s
polygamous needs and that, despite men’s
polygamy, men are more loyal than women
because “men abide by an honor code, and
women do not.” The program claimed also
that men do not experience intimacy
(Oxenberg, 2019, p. 42–43).
In a 2012 video recorded Jness forum,
Raniere addressed the women present,
maintaining that during his experience
counseling 32 female rape victims, some
women confided that “they never had an
orgasm in their life until they were raped”
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
p. 5169). He explained also that men work
and earn their worth, whereas women achieve
their worth by having sex with men (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 5169).
Raniere drew this observation from “Sex,
Rape and Orgasm,” a module in The Human
Experiment course. In it, he wrote that rape
gives women the “freedom” to achieve
orgasm because they are liberated from the
issue of whether sex is bad or not (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 5170–
5171).33
Evidentially, Jness curriculum pointedly
made the case that women need to change
their attitudes and behaviours. It equated
women’s growth with subservience, whilst
selling an image of empowerment. Jness
shaped women’s views about themselves,
about men, and, critically, about their alleged
inferiority to men. As Edmondson notes,
some of the Jness programming appeared to
establish the basis for future DOS teachings
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 134). Whilst some
32
Raniere does not have the required credentials to provide
counseling to any person, including victims of rape and other sexual
abuses.
72 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
women had reservations about Jness content
(see Oxenberg, 2019) many others appeared
to embrace it as another opportunity for
growth and self-actualization, trusting that
Raniere knew what was best for them.
The Society of Protectors (SOP)
When Raniere devised new Jness
programming in 2013, he also introduced
curriculum for men in a group called the
Society of Protectors (SOP). During his court
testimony, filmmaker and Nxian Mark
Vicente, identified that Raniere established
this “men’s movement” as a means for men
to develop character and to become more
noble, honourable, and capable. Their goal
was to leave behind all traces of boyhood
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
p. 790). Having full authority over SOP
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
p. 791), Raniere implemented “readiness
drills” (United States of America v. Raniere,
2019, pp. 792–793) that functioned as a form
of surveillance. Senior members would text
message to the others inquiring if they were
“ready.” Each member was obligated to
respond via text immediately or face
reprimands. This demanding protocol
ensured that each individual was in a state of
perpetual readiness. The men also had to
provide collateral—cash up to as much as
$1,500 as an assurance to follow through on
a promised act. If members failed to do so,
then they would lose the money (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 806–
807). Like other aspects of NXIVM’s
pyramid structure, men received
renumeration and benefits when theyenrolled
others, but they engaged in much
33
Oxenberg recalls being told during a Family Values week-long
course in Mexico that women who are raped are actually the
“abusers” (Oxenberg, 2019, p. 78).
unpaid labour (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, p. 796-797).34
Just as Raniere introduced some content for
men in Jness, he offered a course for women
in SOP. Titled SOP Complete, it purported to
educate women on men’s experiences
growing up, so that they could better
understand their male partners (Edmondson,
2019, p. 129). As Vicente recalled, SOP
Complete was a highly regulated, 6-day “boot
camp” during which the women were
subjected to intense physical and emotional
experiences and also punishments for
perceived infractions (United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 808–811). The
course required that each woman needed, “to
learn that no matter what you do, you’regoing
to be wrong” (United States of America
v. Raniere, 2019, p. 811). Moreover, Raniere
informed Vicente that the course would
rectify women’s sense of “entitlement” in
addition to their constant “whining” (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 812–
813).
According to Vicente’s testimony, the entire
experience left women like “shells of
themselves.” He stated that they “looked like
they were beaten in [to] submission,”
something that he felt was a deliberate goal
of SOP Complete. Women had to be
completely subservient to men, even when it
was detrimental to their well-being,
“following orders no matter what” (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 818).
These conditions foreshadowed the far more
extreme environment of DOS. Although
designed for men, SOP functioned to
reinforce Raniere’s misogyny whilst
fostering in men a narrow ideal of
masculinity for them to adhere to. Raniere
34
When asked if SOP was a money-making enterprise, Vicente
reported that Raniere informed him that it had generated $1,000,000
at that point (United States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 798).
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
linked reinvented identities to prescriptive
gendered norms.
Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS)
Raniere founded DOS in 2015. A by-
invitation-only sorority, DOS was known
only to a few Nxians (those who had already
joined DOS and those who and been
approached to join); and even within it,
Raniere embedded various levels of
revelation, secrecy, and lies into its structure.
When Nancy Salzman’s daughter, Lauren
Salzman, invited Sarah Edmondson to join
the allegedly woman-centered secret society,
she told her that the sorority’s goals included
advancing the world, along with achieving
the greatest level of “self-actualization”
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 3).
Drawing on Simmel’s (1906) work on
secrecy, Scott has posited that membership in
a secret group alters self-identity to the extent
that members achieve an “insider status,”
whereby individuals are privy to information
not available to outsiders. DOS epitomized
this type of transformation and secrecy.
Likewise, DOS’s unique rules and
responsibilities bound its members (Scott,
2011, pp. 116–117). Thus, despite the
autonomy that secret societies enjoy,
individual members do not experience
freedom, but rather the contractual nature of
commitment to a secret organization (Scott,
2011, p. 18). Whilst Scott includes secret
societies among her list of RIs, DOS, despite
its voluntary nature, frequently has more in
common with a TI.
The real nature of DOS remained hiddenfrom
converts prior to joining. As previously
indicated, Dominus Obsequious Sororium
translates to master over the slave women;
consequently, Raniere even ensconced the
73
totalistic nature of the group in its name.
Enticing select members, Raniere established
an aggressively misogynistic group over
which he had complete control. His most
manipulative practices, ones that reflected his
personal desires (especially sexual ones),
characterized DOS, and they clearly breach
the expectations of RIs. The DOS
environment subjected women to several
destructive practices, including branding,
starvation diets, sexual subservience,physical
and psychological punishments, isolation,
lies, secrecy, and surveillance, eachspeaking
to the reach of Raniere's emotional,
psychological, and physical control over the
women.
Raniere’s initial DOS recruits or first-line
slaves (i.e., those who reported directly to
him) acknowledged him as Master.35 In turn,
the first-line slaves recruited other women,
thus becoming masters of their own slaves. In
yet another pyramidal element of NXIVM,
four tiers of masters and slaves had been
established, although Raniere’s goal was to
continue recruiting. 36 Indeed, Raniere
expected slaves to recruit others as gifts for
their own Masters (United States of America
v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1675). He kept his
position as founder and leader of DOS hidden
from converts (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, pp. 1509, 1602).
In court, Lauren Salzman testified to the
compulsory nature of the master-slave
relationships. She read from the DOS
guidebook Raniere wrote, which states that
“Your sole highest desire must be to further
your Master from whom all good things come
and are related” (United States of America v.
35
Daniela Padilla Bergeron, Lauren Salzman, Allison Mack, Nicki
Clyne, Loreta Garza, Monica Duran, and Camila were Raniere’s
first-line slaves (Ottaway, 2019).
36
According to Lauren Salzman’s court testimony, Raniere wanted
to expand DOS to around 300 members and then to thousands and
possibly millions. He even indicated that a DOS member might one
day occupy a political position (United States of America v. Raniere,
74 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Raniere, 2019, p. 1648). Salzman continued,
“The best slave derives the highest pleasure
from being her Master’s ultimate tool you
surrender your life, mind, body and
possessions for unconditional use” (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1656).
In all matters, slaves had to unquestioningly
obey their masters and derive pleasure from
even the most offensive of commands
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
pp. 1661–1663).
Branding in NXIVM was framed as an
initiation into a secret group in which women
would allegedly “grow in ways [they] can’t
even imagine” (Edmondson, 2019, p. 9).
Whilst being held down on a table to be
branded, each new initiate had to say,
“Master, please brand me, it would be an
honor, an honor I want to wear for the rest of
my life” (United States of America v.Raniere,
2019, p. 2064). Dr. Danielle Roberts, a
Nxian, performed the branding, anextremely
painful initiation into the secret society, with
a cauterizing pen near each woman’s pubic
region. Raniere had the branding ceremonies
secretly videotaped.37
In secret societies, initiation rituals typically
result in subsequent positive status, as
members become part of the in-group and
later initiate others (Scott, 2011, p. 139). In
DOS, this status came with great costs.
During Raniere’s trial, Lauren Salzman
identified that she was forbidden to divulge
both Raniere’s involvement in DOS and the
fact that the brand design portrayed his
initials (United States of America v. Raniere,
2019, p.1602). Branding is a signifier of
property ownership, the origins of which are
2019, p. 1682), presumably to further benefit Raniere’s interests. He
was keen to bring in outsiders too including women who already
held positions of power and influence (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, p. 1620).
37
See Edmondson (2019) for a full account of her experience of
being drawn into DOS and being branded, and also of the aftermath
of these events.
found in the earliest slave-owning societies,
whereby brands denoted the “symbolic
binding of one person to another.”
Contemporary branding often also represents
ownership and sometimes denotes, “a
message of submission” (Rush, 2005, p.
104). Moreover, in many cases, victims of
sex trafficking are branded or tattooed with
their pimp’s, trafficker’s, or gang’s initials
(Shared Hope International, 2019).
The elite group of first-line slaves met three
times each week (for around 10 hours in total)
in a sorority house purchased specifically for
this purpose. Each meeting commenced with
a group photograph (sent to Raniere for
approval) in which each woman had to pose
naked, her pubic brand on view, and looking
happy. On occasion, Raniere attended the
meetings, sitting on a chair above the women
as they sat on the floor below him (United
States of America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 1510–
1511).
Raniere and his first-line slaves secured
secrecy and commitment through the
acquisition of collateral from each new
member (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, p. 1602). Collateral was any
valuable possession or sensitive, revealing, or
damning piece of information (either true or
fabricated38). The key to collateral was that its
value should be so great that the slave would
not want to give it up (for example, the deeds
to one’s property, as Allison Mack did
[Garber-Paul, 2018]39) or have it made public
(e.g., damning claims about familymembers).
Moreover, the provision of collateral was
ongoing. As Lauren Salzman explained, she
had to give Raniere new collateral on a
monthly basis (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, p. 1506; see also Oxenberg,
2019, p. 141).
38
Edmondson reported being videoed stating terrible lies about each
of her family members (Edmondson, 2019, p. 14).
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Other examples of collateral included
banking information, explicit photographs,
and filmed “confessions” (Edmondson, 2019,
p. 9). Raniere penned a book outlining the
purpose and expectations of the DOS system,
identifying in one segment that collateral
“should be so distasteful to break
. . . that they’d rather die than break their
vow” (United States of America v. Raniere,
2019, pp. 1653–1654). Consequently,
extortion and fear of revelation kept the
women compliant with all DOS demands.
Public release could, at the very least, be
humiliating; but at the worst, it could destroy
careers, interpersonal relationships, and
reputations.
Raniere’s proclivity for sexual manipulation
and abuse started before DOS. Although
Raniere claimed to be celibate, he engaged in
sexual relationships with many women in
NXIVM (often each believing she was
exclusive) (Natalie, 2019, p. 149; Oxenberg,
2019, p. 165; see also United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 2094, 2447–
2448). Sex with Raniere was considered
transformative. Oxenberg recalls being
informed that “‘the only way to true
enlightenment is by having sex with Keith’”
(Oxenberg, 2019, p. 96; see also Edmondson,
2019, p. 185). Raniere claimed that, because
of the “mystical” properties of his semen,
women may see a “blue light” after he
ejaculated. Furthermore, in a process that
Raniere termed “working with someone,” he
alleged that when he began having sex with a
woman he contributed to her growth and
could even resolve her disintegrations
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
pp. 2395–2396). One young woman was told
that sex with Raniere was an honor, and that
it would even help her recover from the
39
Lauren Salzman attempted to obtain the deeds to Sarah
Edmondson’s property (Edmondson, 2019, p. 179).
75
sexual abuse that she had suffered
(Oxenberg, 2019, p. 165).
New DOS members typically were tasked
with seducing Raniere, the undertaking
framed as a “spiritual” rather than sexual
experience (Oxenberg, 2019, p. 164). Raniere
even used the language of growth for the sex
cage he planned to install in a dungeon in the
sorority house. He planned to cage women so
that they would submit themselves to
unspecified periods of seclusion and also to
unpredictable conditions to support their
growth. Nipple clamps, handcuffs, and
bondage were to be part of the caged sexual
repertoire (United States of America v.
Raniere, 2019, pp. 1637–1640). Raniere’s
sexual demands were frequent. Given that
slaves had to follow their masters’ commands
and felt compelled to do so as a result of the
collateral held over them (along with other
manipulations), their being tasked to have sex
with Raniere certainly raises questions
around consent.40
In addition to sexual abuses and
manipulations, Raniere integrated a plethora
of regulations as part of the master and slave
structure of DOS. An exhaustive form of
surveillance and obedience, “readiness drills”
(discussed already in SOP) took on extreme
dimensions for the women of DOS. Raniere
and other masters would text, “?” to a slave,
who then had 60 seconds to respond. These
texts occurred at any time of the day or night
(United States of America v. Raniere, 2019,
p. 1606) and were designed to foster
discipline in women (United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1611). Failure
to respond resulted in punishments. Paddling,
whipping, and other physical abuses were
40
Worth noting here is that, long before Raniere’s criminal trial, The
Albany Times Union newspaper reported allegations of rape and
sexual misconduct (Natalie, 2019, pp. 27–28). Other cases of sexual
harassment and assault have been catalogued (Natalie, 2019, pp. 60,
143–144), and Natalie herself alleges that Raniere raped her on
several occasions (Natalie, 2019, p. 86).
76 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
common punishments for women in DOS
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 181; United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, p. 1636-7),
although often Raniere and other masters
exerted cruel psychological torments too.41
DOS members had to ensure complete
secrecy and nondisclosure of the sorority,
whilst promising to a “lifetime vow of
obedience” to their master. These
relationships, couched in the language of
growth, seemed to offer women the
opportunity to engage in acts of
selflessness—to do work for the well-being
of others—so that they might simultaneously
achieve unheard-of levels of self-
actualization. But Raniere’s lies gilded a dark
truth: The women of DOS would be
systematically disempowered as they had to
submit to numerous demandingrequirements.
It appears that the real purposeof DOS was to
provide Raniere with complete control and to
satisfy his sexual demands. It seems likely
that he garnered a great deal of satisfaction
from the cruelties of his operations and the
humiliation and anxiety that they caused the
DOS women.
A full reading of Goffman’s (1961) Asylums
reveals that DOS did not manifest all TI
conditions. For example, in DOS, the masters
as TI administrators and staff were also
simultaneously members (or inmates in
Goffman’s language). In Goffman’s TI this
was not the case (Goffman, 1961).
Nonetheless, his model provides us with
insights into the framework of DOS.
Goffman noted that
A basic social arrangement in modern
society is that the individual tends to
sleep, play, and work in different
41
Edmondson (2019), Natalie (2019), Oxenberg (2019), and
testimonies heard during Raniere’s court trial reveal that Raniere
engaged in numerous malicious psychological strategies that caused
the women of DOS and also other Nxians a great deal of pain and
humiliation.
 places, with different co-participants,
under different authorities, and
without an over-all rational plan. The
central feature of total institutions can
be described as a breakdown of the
barriers ordinarily separating these
three spheres of life (Goffman, 1961,
p. 6).
Whilst DOS did not have the secure
buildings, locked doors and geographical
isolation that characterized Goffman’s TI
(Goffman, 1961, p. 4), it came very close to
it. The members of DOS lived in close
proximity and near to Raniere. They spent the
vast majority of their time together, were
under surveillance, led regimented lives to
the extent that they had to comply with their
masters' needs immediately, and they
certainly lost the barriers to which Goffman
referred. Moreover, they experienced the
overt, top-down authority of TIs; and if
Raniere had fulfilled his goals, he would have
been able to place members in the locked
solitary confinement of a cage.
Entry into a TI entails several “abasements,
degradations, humiliations, and profanations
of self” (Goffman, 1961, p. 14). These
“mortifications” occur even when entry into
the TI is voluntary, because, as Goffman
noted, the individual has “already partially
withdrawn” from regular life (Goffman,
1961, p. 15). DOS, the sorority and ostensible
RI, subjected its initiates to such abasements
and more. The women voluntarily joined
DOS, but the true nature of the group was
revealed only after they had been branded,
humiliated, and collateralized.
Conclusion
Growth and transformation are embedded
within the language and practice of the RI. In
crafting a “better self,” the RI community
becomes the dominant frame of reference,
and so members use it in attempts to resolve
their problems, rendering the members
locked in a cycle whereby they use only the
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
language of the institution to tackle their
growth. Moreover, the nomenclature of the
group contributes to members’ adopted
perspectives as they use insider language to
identify and rectify their perceived
shortcomings. Problematically, “the
implication is that, while members may
believe that the changes they have undergone
are in their own best interests, their
perception of these interests has been
skewed” (Scott, 2011, pp. 42–43, emphasis
added). Raniere told his acolytes what was
“wrong” with them—why their growth was
limited—and then told them how he and
NXIVM could transform their situations. The
only measures of success came from within
the group: advancement up the Stripe Path,
becoming a trainee coach, full coach, or a
proctor, attaining a position of trust,
becoming a member of the inner circle, being
invited to join DOS, being in Raniere’s good
graces, and so forth.
Like their TI predecessors, RIs retain
insularity as a vital characteristic (Scott,
2011, p. 116). Members of NXIVM spent
much of their time with each other, thus
fostering community, commitment, and
comparison with others in the group.
Courses, intensives, workshops, modules,
and other learning activities often required
members to stay for many hours per day in
each other’s company. (For numerous
examples, see Edmondson, 2019; Oxenberg,
2019; and Natalie, 2019.) Other communal
NXIVM activities—what Raniere termed
Humanities Events—served to bond group
members. They included hikes, potlucks, and
other forms of spending time together
(Oxenberg, 2019, p. 70). Likewise, Vanguard
Week (V-Week) to celebrate Raniere’s
birthday, grew from a one-day to a weeklong
(and sometimes longer) extravaganza in
which Nxians would praise and pay tribute to
their leader. Hundreds of members flocked
each year to the festivities and to hear and see
him (see Edmondson, 2019, pp. 71–76).
77
Inner-circle members mostly lived in the
same community near Albany, New York,
where they often shared meals together, spent
time at Clare Bronfman’s farm, and
holidayed at her Fijian Island retreat. Some
NXIVM members dated and married
(Natalie, 2019, p. 139; Edmondson, 2019, pp.
139–140). Raniere’s infamous late-night
volleyball games were a frequent occurrence
that local Nxians attended (Edmondson,
2019, pp. 66, 105). Natalie commented on
NXIVM’s early days: “There was a feeling of
camaraderie, of mutual respect, and initially,
of joy.” Eventually, however, “fear, anxiety,
and self-loathing” replaced these experiences
and feelings (Natalie, 2019, p. 139).
Jness, SOP, and SOP Complete operated to
reinforce dated, conventional approaches to
men and women, ones that reiterated
outmoded normative roles for each
(Edmondson, 2019, p. 131). And, as
Vicente’s testimony reveals, the system was
not just dated, but archaic and punitive. Both
Jness and the Society of Protectors alleged to
offer support, friendship, and growth for
women and men. As is evident, however,
curricula meant to be part of a regimen of
personal growth and self-actualization served
to lay the groundwork for further
manipulation and control. SOP Complete
introduced more explicit and extreme
measures of control and regimentation, ones
that were indicative of more totalistic than RI
practices. NXIVM appears to fit the RI model
of “manifest agency/latent coercion,” (Scott,
2011, p. 50), but Jness, SOP, SOP Complete,
and DOS illustrate a trajectory toward
“manifest coercion/latent agency” (Scott,
2011, p. 50).
42
At one point, Raniere, after placing an apple pie in the refrigerator,
set up a camera to monitor who would eat it (United States of
America v. Raniere, 2019, pp. 2463–2465).
43
Edmondson’s (2019) memoir includes numerous reflections that
speak to the conditions that encouraged her to push aside any
78 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
Other social controls existed, including
dietary regulations and frequent comments
about women’s weight and physical
appearance 42 (Berman, 2018b; Edmondson,
2019, pp. 9, 65, 75, 99, 183; Oxenberg, 2019,
p. 128; United States of America v. Raniere,
2019, pp. 2379–2381, 2394, 2461–2464). As
well, psychological manipulations and
punishments all contributed to Raniere’s
assemblage of social-control mechanisms.
Nxians, eager to achieve their goals of self-
actualization and personal success, appeared
willing (or at least, they dismissed any
reservations they held) to participate in
demeaning and restrictive practices for the
sake of personal growth.
In a self-reflective but competitive
environment, individuals are very much
aware of their own and others’ achievements,
or lack thereof. Raniere taught that Nxians
were to blame for their own problems and
their lack of growth and success—and that
only Raniere and NXIVM could provide
them with the tools to improve and change.
He taught them to believe that there are no
victims (Raniere, 1998; Natalie, 2019, p.
139), and that, if they felt the “‘urge to bolt’”
from challenges, then it was a sign of the
curriculum’s success (Edmondson, 2019, p.
14). Critically, NXIVM taught members not
to question anything (Edmondson, 2019, p.
187). These and other “lessons” trained
members to ignore red flags, creating an
environment in which they put themselves at
emotional and physical risk because they
doubted their own thoughts, perspectives,
and experiences.43
Individuals voluntarily joined NXIVM. This
is a key feature of RIs, and it infers social
agency for adherents (Scott, 2011, p. 236).
reservations that she had and continue on with the demands of
NXIVM. She states, “The curriculum and the tools transcended any
doubts I had at the time. I had also accepted the notion that any
discomfort was an area for growth . . . and I wanted to grow more
than I wanted anything” (Edmondson, 2019, p. 55).
Problematically, however, the centralfeatures
of performative regulation nurture the
evaluative, comparative, and surveillance
conditions as members “monitor each other’s
commitment and evaluate their progress in
relative terms.” This situation can lead
adherents to be “critical, unhelpful or even
downright destructive in their treatment of
each other: encouragement can slide into
pressure, advice into manipulation,
mentorship into competitiveness” (Scott,
2011, p. 237). The process of growth “can
degenerate into an exhaustingly intense and
incessant feeling of obligation to one’s fellow
inmates and shared responsibility for their
fate” (Scott, 2011, p. 237). Thus, Scott
contends that despite the seemingly self-
driven nature of RIs, members do not
necessarily experience “total freedom as
empowered, self-determining agents” (Scott,
2011, p. 237). Members are controlled within
the power structure, but they also exert
control over each other.
The relationship between structure and
agency means that, although members accept
and participate in the power dynamics and
surveillance of performative regulation, they
also may question facets of the RI or privately
embrace different ideas from the dominant
ones. Certainly, the ex-member memoirs and
court transcripts are replete with examples of
former Nxians who did so. For example,
Edmondson identifies that she and her
husband did not agree with the outdated and
restrictive gendered ideas and practices that
Raniere imposed through Jness and SOP
(Edmondson, 2019, pp. 132–134). Still,many
Nxians engaged in practices that made them
uncomfortable, caused them pain, or left
them humiliated. Janja Lalich explains inher
“bounded choice” theory how and why cult
members may make seemingly irrational or
ill-conceived decisions. By explaining the
dynamics of conversion, charismatic
leadership, member commitment (and
“charismatic commitment,” along with
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021
powerful and persuasive worldviews), Lalich
offers great insights into the closed contexts
that influence decision making in group
settings (see Lalich, 2004). Her analyses are
applicable to the dynamics of the reinventive
culture of NXIVM.
In addition to the multidirectional levels of
power that RIs contain, Raniere’s complete
authority and control on all matters permeated
NXIVM, although it remained hidden. It
seems that NXIVM as an RI always had a
shadow-like presence of a TI. Raniere’s
promises, lies, and secrecy worked to
obfuscate this reality from his followers. In
RIs, members are free to leave (Scott, 2019,
p. 53) and for entry level Nxians this
possibility would likely have been quite easy.
Those that became more committed,
however, felt more pressure to stay and had
more to lose by leaving. For those who were
very close to Raniere, leaving was an
extremely fraught undertaking because he
employed litigation and other forms of
harassment (see Berman, 2018a, and Natalie,
2019). The women of DOS were fully
trapped, held by the fear of their collateral
being exposed.
In establishing NXIVM as an RI, I have
focused in this article on aspects of the
organisation’s history, influences, appeal,
and structure. It is beyond the scope of this
article to discuss many characteristics and
components in detail; and, of course, there is
so much that I have been unable to include at
all. Clearly, many further opportunities for
research on NXIVM exist, and I anticipate
that other scholars will contribute their
insights in a diverse array of projects.
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heiress-to-felon-how-clare-bronfman-wound-up-in-cult-like-group-
NXIVM/#395517313ecf

About the Author

Susan Raine, PhD, is an Associate Professor
at MacEwan University in Edmonton,
Canada. She teaches courses on religion,
culture, and society; alternative beliefs: the
paranormal and conspiracy theories; and
deviance and conformity. Her research
interests focus primarily on alternative
religious movements. She has published on a
variety of groups including Scientology,
Heaven’s Gate, and the Children of God/the
Family. Her research projects have explored
a range of themes including self-identity,
sexuality, surveillance, and science-fiction
narratives and influences. More recently, she
has turned her attention to cases of grooming
for sexual abuse in a variety of religious and
other ideological settings.

Diploma in Advanced Studies (D.E.A) from

the University of Zaragoza. Expert in legal
psychology from the University of
Columbus, Zaragoza. Graduated in Law from
the University of Zaragoza. Expert in
criminal organizations and criminal
sectarianism. Legal advisor to RedUNE
(Association for the Prevention of
Sectarianism and Abuse of the Vulnerable)
and to RIES (Iberian-American Association
for the Study of Cults). Outstanding
publications: in e-book format, ´Cults in
Criminal Law: a dogmatic study of sectarian
crimes´ (Las sectas en Derecho penal:
estudio dogmático de los delitos sectarios),
Penal Collection no. 7, J.M. Bosch Editor,
Barcelona, 2020. http://libreriabosch.com/
Shop/Product/Details/35095_las-sectas-en-
derecho-penal?e=1

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