Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult

That window is where it happened.

I was the first woman

in my group of slaves to be branded.

The smell that came

from the cauterizing pen burning my flesh

was so intense

that it filled up the entire townhouse.

It was torture,

but I still went through with it.

How do you even begin

to explain something like this?

Now, to the new allegations

against a mysterious self-help group called NXIVM.

According to their website,

more than 16,000 people worldwide

have taken NXIVM courses.

The purported self-help group,

many now say, is a cult that sexually victimized women.

The organization included a secret sex society

where the slaves were branded, brainwashed,

and forced to have sex with the group's founder,

Keith Raniere.

- Okay. - Give me one second.

Um, Nancy, could you help me?

Keith's a little bit shiny.

Keith, can you take your glasses off?

Take off your glasses for a second.

Close your eyes.

If we want the world to be less violent,

we need to change our values and principles.

You can see that if people are devoted to materialism,

it takes away from compassion.

It increases objectification of people.

It leads to more violence, n-leads to more war.

It doesn't have to be that way.

We're starting a revolution.

Like, understanding these ideas

and then living them is so noble.

We're changing the world.

One people, one nation,

one body, one soul,

and rise above violence,

poverty, and crime.

The three words I would use to describe NXIVM

are magnificence times infinity.

We are very thankful to Keith Raniere.

He created a wonderful opportunity

for women to grow to the next level,

and we didn't even realize that we could go this far.

I went into this looking for a more purposeful life,

and I thought that these people wanted that, too.

I thought that I found a real deep sense of community.

I felt like someone cared about me.

At first, NXIVM seemed to be a safe space

where we were surrounded by, like, really good people,

because for so long, like,

I just-it w-it felt- sorry, it...

Sorry.

There have been a number of dangerous cults

in American history:

the Waco Davidians,

Jonestown,

the Unification Church,

Scientology, and Heaven's Gate.

And we've seen some of those end catastrophically.

But NXIVM will go down

as one of the most destructive cults in history.

Do you understand how you could rape a baby?

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

Keith Raniere is the most horrific,

abusive cult leader

that I've ever heard of

in my 30-some years of doing this work.

The predatory nature, the cruelty...

It's beyond the pale.

He was the wolf.

We were the sheep's clothing, unknowingly.

Why didn't these women see what was happening to them?

Were you involved in a sex cult?

Actress Allison Mack,

who played Chloe Sullivan

in the Superman prequel series Smallville,

led the recruitment for the group.

Allison, did you help brand India Oxenberg?

Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg

is Hollywood and actual royalty.

She's also a mother who has been fighting night and day

to get her daughter India out of an alleged sex-slave group.

You say they hijacked your daughter.

My-my daughter is a victim of this man.

I did not see it like that.

No.

These people were my friends.

I said, "You're brainwashed," and she said, "I'm not."

I just thought that maybe she lost her mind.

My daughter is not in her right mind,

and that is what Keith Raniere

and this NXIVM cult has done to her.

At that point, it was just,

"No matter what, I have to save India."

I didn't want to be saved.

My name is India.

I was in NXIVM from 2011 to 2018.

For seven years.

I went through something I don't wish upon anybody,

and I'm still trying to figure it out.

How could I have ended up in a cult

where I was sex trafficked

or involved in crimes

that could have put me in prison?

I'm trying to figure out what happened

versus what I wanted to believe happened.

I, uh, Google myself

every once in a while, just to...

check on what's being said about me.

Try not to read everything,

because it can be a little bit overwhelming,

but sometimes it's better to know than to not know.

Typically,

anything associated with my name nowadays

is "branded sex slave,"

"Allison's slave,"

"slave of Keith Raniere."

Like...

it can't get that much worse,

besides "murderer," maybe.

I mean, it just keeps going and going and going,

and it's hard for people who don't know

to distinguish what's true and untrue.

This all started in 2011,

when I heard about this thing

called "executive success programs,"

or ESP.

It was supposed to be this training course

for business and communication skills

that you could then apply

to whatever it was that you wanted to do in your life.

The truth is,

unwittingly, I introduced her to ESP,

which I believed was a self-help group.

I feel horrible.

I first heard about the program

from a friend who I trusted,

who reached out to me and said, "I have just done this class.

"It is the best thing that I've ever done.

"My business has grown exponentially.

You've got to do it."

And India happened to be at the house that evening.

And I said, "Hey, I'm going to this intro.

Do you want to come with me?"

And she's like, "Sure."

So innocently, casually, we get into my car.

We do the 30-minute drive to the program.

Looking back at it,

I think a lot about what would have happened

if we just didn't go to the intro.

At that time in my life, I was 19.

I had spent a year in Boston, going to school,

and decided that college wasn't for me

and that I wanted to work.

So I moved back home with my mom in Malibu

and started to build a catering business.

I always looked at the culinary arts

as sort of a... just a passion,

but I never really saw it as something

that I would turn into a career.

So when I came across ESP, I thought,

"Well, maybe there are certain skills that I'm missing

"that if I acquired,

"I could take my natural talents

and hone them into something more professional."

So when we arrived at the introduction to ESP,

the room was full, and there were several people

that I recognized from the entertainment industry.

[calm music and indistinct chatter]

There were entrepreneurs

and strong, powerful women like Rosario Dawson,

who I just got to strike up a conversation with.

I was impressed.

They said they had had people like Gerard Butler,

Jennifer Aniston take the courses.

Mark Vicente,

who was the director of a documentary called

What the Bleep Do We Know,

was hosting the event with Sarah Edmondson,

a Canadian actress from Vancouver.

I'm happier in my life.

I'm really joyful in my essence.

I'm more successful in my relationships.

I got that because of these talks,

and you can have it too.

Sarah Edmondson said that the program

would give you the tools to conquer