Women ‘branded and made slaves by self-help cult’
A SECRET sisterhood whose members have included actresses and millionaire heiresses has been accused of branding recruits in a bizarre initiation.
New members – found through their link to self-improvement organisation Nxivm – must submit to a ‘master-slave hierarchy’ and provide compromising details and images of themselves, it is alleged.
These can apparently be used against them if they try to disclose the group’s existence, according to a New York Times investigation.
Nxivm – pronounced Nexium – has offered New Age-style coaching since the 1990s and has boasted 16,000 members. It claims to foster self-fulfilment by eliminating emotional and psychological barriers.
Critics have dubbed it a cult – a charge the group denies. But while most clients take a few courses and leave, recently it has allegedly drawn some women into a clandestine all-female inner circle.
Nxivm has chapters in the US, Canada and Mexico, and has tried to expand to Ireland. Actress Sarah Edmondson, who was a member for ten years, told the New York Times that she and other initiates were told they must get a tattoo and were taken to a house near Albany, New York, Nxivm’s HQ.
She said they were held down by three women, as her ‘master’ – a senior woman in the group – told them to repeat: ‘Master, please brand me, it would be an honour.’
A female doctor used a cauterising tool to sear a 2in sq symbol below each woman’s hip in an agonising half-hour, she claimed, adding: ‘I wept the whole time.’
Members are told the group is dedicated to ‘ being a force for good’ and empowering women, and that the branding is designed to strengthen them.
Two women allege they took part in an exercise run by a doctor and were shown film clips – including of women being murdered – as a brainwave monitor and video camera recorded their reactions.
The brand allegedly incorporates the initials of Nxivm founder Keith Raniere, 57. Ex-members have accused him of manipulating his usually young, attractive recruits.
Critics say the secret sisterhood operates like a ‘bondage pyramid scheme’ in which each ‘master’ must recruit six ‘slaves’, who can then become ‘masters’ by recruiting slaves. In drills, slaves allegedly had to respond to a master’s text messages within 60 seconds. If they failed, they faced enforced fasting or other physical punishment.
They were expected to add com- promising material about themselves each month to an internet ‘dropbox’, it was reported.
Critics claim the group targets impressionable daughters of affluent families. Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg said she ‘felt sick’ after learning her daughter India, 26, had been initiated. She said India became emaciated and when she confronted her ‘she said it was character-building’.
No criminal charges have been filed over the brandings as officials concluded they were voluntary.
When confronted about a secret sorority by a man whose wife had previously been in such a sisterhood, Mr Raniere was allegedly vague and mentioned ‘giving five women permission to do something’, but did not elaborate other than to say he would investigate.
The New York Times said Nxivm and Mr Raniere had ignored repeated requests for comment.