Cults not real, cult told cult member

The self-help group that fronted a domineering sex cult was a manipulative members-only club that spread self-serving lies to cover up its evil deeds, a former member testified Thursday.

The first falsehood NXIVM leaders advanced was the notion that cults were fictional, said filmmaker Mark Vincente, a member for 12 years of the Albany-based group whose leader Keith Raniere is on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.

They said there was no such word as “cult,” Vicente told jurors in Brooklyn Federal Court. “There is no definition for it. Anyone who uses it is suppressive.”

By “suppressive,” Vincente said, leaders meant “negative” or “toxic.” Anyone who challenged the doctrine and the tone set by Raniere was labeled “a problem.”

Vincente said he took their propaganda at face value, assuming they were interested in helping people.

“I feel, honestly, stupid that I went along with it, assuming it was all the best of intents.”

Five of Raniere’s co-defendants, including “Smallville” actress Allison Mack and Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman, have pleaded guilty. Mack is a possible government witness at a trial expected to last six weeks.

Federal authorities said NXIVM was a cult rife with female slaves literally branded for the pleasure of its perverse leader; some of the brainwashed women were seared with a symbol that included Raniere’s initials.

Vincente started crying and had to compose himself when he was asked to read Raniere’s “Twelve-Points Mission Statement,” a document detailing NXIVM life guidelines.

Members were forced to read the statement repeatedly at self-help sessions, some of which cost thousands of dollars.

Among the dozen guidelines: There are no ultimate victims, therefore I will not choose to be a victim; successful people do not steal and they have no desire or need to steal; and true success is never at the expense of others.