Nxivm- America’s Hidden Sex Cult

In what sounds like yet another setup of branding women, owning them; like they are mere articles meant to be used and kept on the bedside table; a horrifying set of interviews have surfaced about a sex cult based in America. Nxivm, (pronounced as Nex-ium and) as per Wikipedia is a pyramid scheme, a multi-level marketing company and an alleged sex cult. While the pyramid structure of the company’s functioning itself is illegal, it has in the past decade been in news for operating as a sex cult.

From An Illegal Company To A Sex Cult

Founded by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman in the year 1998, Nxivm became a company holding executive success programmes along with a range of psychological techniques aimed at self-improvement. What many who got involved didn’t realise was the perversity hidden behind Raniere’s guru-like manners.

The Cult And The Sorority

Allegations of, for the lack of a better word, mental assault have been made against one Dr Brandon Porter, of the Albany suburb, who used to do studies on Nxivm’s behalf. During one such study, a woman connected to brainwave mapping equipment was shown explicit videos of violence including gangrape and dismembering of women. The images, as the victim mentions, still haunts her.  Clearly, women were being tried for obedience and submission. Sessions like these were marked to ensure that the recruited women were rid of feminine temperaments including overemotional responses, victimization, etc.

They were branded with a 2-inch tattoo of their ‘masters’ initials. The Master, who was to recruit 6 members each to the sisterhood, was also to train them. The six were to later recruit there own slaves. The recruited women were required to send ‘Good Morning M’ and ‘Night M’ texts to their masters. Failure to reply to a ‘?’ with ‘Ready M’ invited punishments including starving. They were all being trained to become sex slaves. And it has been said that the community could grow to be a force that could influence events like elections.

Why no one ever spoke a word about the company’s real job is because they were all made to submit a collateral upon recruitment. The collateral was to be something like naked photographs meant to be released in case the sorority’s secret was talked about. The collateral went to a Google Dropbox, and a Google doc listed a timetable for recruiting new slaves.

Ms Oxenberg, starring the 80s TV series Dynasty was worried about her daughter India who too had pledged into the sorority. India, who had not had a menstrual period in about a year and was losing all her hair, was still defensive about the practices of the cult saying how it was a character building experience. And that sure sounds like an extensive brainwash. Or ‘an expensive’ one, as businessman Edgar Bronfman mentioned.

The Mentions And The Verdict

Following a series of articles in 2003, 2006 and 2008 by Forbes and Vanity Fair’s mention of Edgar Bronfman’s ‘I think it’s a cult’ remark, Nxivm had already been in constant controversies. A 2010 Times Union article noted a number of former coaches accusing Raniere of using students as ‘prey’ for his sexual perversities. And finally, early this year, Raniere was arrested and indicted for sex trafficking, planning conspiracy around it and for conspiring to commit forced labour.

In a precedented account of such sorts marking abuse of power, position and obviously the collateral, Raniere had been exploiting women for years. US attorney Richard Donoghue in his verdict remarked how Keith Raniere created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials. He coerced them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information.

It has also been said that Nxivm’s co-founder Salzman was Raniere’s first and foremost slave and it was she who suggested the idea of creating a sorority of this kind