Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult

My entire life became NXIVM-related.

I was taking so many courses.

It is a vision. It is an understanding.

Our intent is to make a better world.

He was this great philosopher.

I felt like I will die for Keith.

Hi.

They said, "Keith... he's a renunciate."

You know, "He's like a monk. He doesn't have sex."

If I had an issue with any one of their rituals,

they accused me of being defiant.

That, to me, was like a... a giant red flag.

People bond through pain.

Allison pulled me aside

and told me about DOS,

this secret society of women

in which she would be my master and I would be a slave.

It was a lifetime vow of obedience.

Every woman needs this.

Allison said,

"Your assignment is to seduce Keith."

It's strange to think who lives in these houses now.

I stand out here, and I...

...just think of, like, the years that I spent here.

Part of me thinks I really wish

that I would have taken another path.

Like, I wonder what my life would have been like

if I had just stayed in college...

...pursued a career, had a boyfriend,

things like that,

but then I also...

...wonder if, like,

in some strange way, I needed to do this,

like maybe I needed to know these things.

Maybe I would have always been very sheltered

from this kind of stuff if I had never experienced it.

Maybe it would happen later, or, like, maybe to my daughter.

I don't know. It's hard to say.

Like, maybe things happen for a reason.

In February 2016,

I had been in NXIVM for five years,

and I had been in DOS for a couple months.

I was living in Los Angeles, working as a coach,

but I was going to Albany constantly

to take more classes.

I was in Albany when Allison told me

that I had to seduce Keith.

It kind of sh... just put me into a state of shock.

She told me, basically,

I would be having some encounter with Keith

where I would feel vulnerable and rejected.

She said that pushing past my comfort zone

would make me stronger and more capable

in all areas of my life.

I believed that Keith didn't even have sex,

so I didn't assume that I had to have sex with him.

I didn't think that that was gonna happen then.

I didn't think that was going to happen ever.

The seduction assignment

had different variations.

These women who are already collateralized

were tasked by their masters,

by another woman, with seducing Keith Raniere.

Everyone's assignment wasn't the same,

but the end game was the same:

some sort of sexual contact with Keith Raniere.

Allison told me that I needed to have Keith

take a naked picture of me and send it to her

as proof that the assignment was completed.

This was Allison Mack's townhouse,

and this is where Keith picked me up.

He drove me to the next set of buildings.

It's so close.

We walked in.

I tried to make small talk

to just kind of calm my nerves.

He talked to me about what I wanted

and how he could help me.

I just tried to get the assignment done.

I asked him to take a naked picture of me.

I kind of, like, blurted it out nervously.

I remember him standing there and staring at me.

I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable.

I didn't feel like I had a choice.

I just wanted to get it over with.

So I took off my clothes,

and I sat on the edge of the bed,

and I just sort of leaned back,

and he took a picture of me like that

and sent it to Allison.

I felt like I was in some kind of altered state.

I did feel like it was weird,

but this was a practice for me to push against my fears.

I thought that this was gonna help me.

Then Keith said that he was Allison's master

and my grandmaster.

And I thought, what the hell does that mean?

The way that DOS worked was

a pyramid structure, basically,

and the person that was actually the puppet master

of this entire thing was Keith Raniere.

Next Saturday, we will have a larger group,

and we will start doing enslavement... um,

exercises amongst people.

So any... no more questions?

Shop.

Tomorrow, we need to get together.

Yes. Sure.

Keith Raniere,

like many other destructive cult leaders,

used women as an extension of his needs

for power and control,

and it all comes out of a malignant,

narcissistic self

that's incredibly insecure.

They're acting out their insecurities

on everybody else.

Yes, when do you want to talk?

Whenever...

When are you available?

Now.

- You're free right now? - I'm free right now.

Right now, what else... when else?

I don't have anything else going on tonight.

How late are you up?

As late as I need to be.

Allison told me I would have to stop going back and forth

between LA and Albany.

It wasn't really much of a decision.

It was more like a command.

Keith Raniere's most devoted members

would move to Albany and live near him.

That was pivotal in making

a really intense commitment to NXIVM.

If you drove through the area of Clifton Park

where Keith and many of his followers lived,

you would think you were in

just some nice suburban neighborhood,

but the cult could be right next door.

And that's a form of the control.

If you do something against the rules,

someone has surely seen you,

and they're gonna report on you.

So it sets up a very tight structure

for people to be living in.

I remember the day that India told me

she was moving to Albany

like it was yesterday.

She was so excited, it broke my heart.

She said Keith was gonna mentor her

in this business that he was giving her, and...

everything just felt wrong about it,

but she was 24 years old.

There was nothing that I could do to say,

"No, you can't go."

It was all of them on her.

I had zero influence, basically.

She let go of all her furniture.

She let go of her apartment.

It was literally like she was leaving the planet.

I just felt, like, this wellspring of despair.

I had no idea that the worst was about to happen.

I moved to Clifton Park in the spring of 2016,

and I actually lived with Allison in her townhouse.

I paid her for rent occasionally,

but most of what I did was take care of her home,

kept it clean, cooked for her,

managed anything that she needed.

And I became more integrated into Allison's life

and the community.

My life became very much like her life.

It was all about having this rigorous lifestyle.

I was taking classes as a student

and working in others as a coach,

but I hadn't gotten to a rank

where I could be paid for any of the coaching.

Allison kept me very busy with these so-called goals.

I had to be accountable to achieving these goals,

and there were consequences if I didn't.

In the beginning, it was sort of the punishment

of disappointing her.

Like, I would forget to say "Good night, master."

She would send me a sad face,

and it was like little tiny disapprovals.

Later, the punishments got more severe.

I had to do planks, ice cold showers,

standing in the snow at 3:00 a.m.

You had to be okay with it. It was part of the program.

This is The Sports Barn,

where Keith and other community members

would play volleyball a couple times a week.

It was, uh, late night volleyball games.

Allison was always pressuring us to show up and watch Keith

because there was some kind of competitive nature

between her and the first-line DOS slaves,

and having us be there meant that she was the most devoted,

the most committed.

I wanted Allison and... and Keith to be happy with me,

and so I made it a point to try to come as much as I could.

Keith started paying more attention to me.