Don’t Call it a Cult: The Shocking True Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

This weeks book was one of my birthday shopping splurge gifts, sort of grabbed as I ran through the true crime section of Barne’s and Noble. And when I was reconstructing my library database after an accidental deletion, I realized I hadn’t actually read any of the books in my true crime section for this channel. So here we are, with Don’t Call it a Cult: The Shocking True Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman.

The story of NXIVM starts and ends with Keith Raniere. Raniere was born August 26, 1960 in Brooklyn New York and as near as I can tell, he was completely average. And not happy with being average. So, quite early on he started inflating his sense of importance, claiming to be smarter than he was. In the 1980’s he took an IQ test called The Mega Society test, which was developed by Dr. Ronald K Hoeflin. This test, which was rapidly ignored by everyone, was not proctored and basically depended on the honor system…no no, I Pinky Swear that I did this test entirely on my own and the results are accurate only to me. In reality, Raniere had an entire team, of mostly women, helping him. So his claim and subsequent crowning as Smartest Man Alive ™ was always sus and after being named as such in the Guiness Book of World Records, that archive tabled the designation. Basically, even Guiness was like…this is sus. We can fight with this dick over the designation. Or we can retire the category.

All of this was pre-interwebs, so his tale of being Smartest Man Alive ™ stood and was used to sucker in followers over the next 30 years. Starting with a genuine pyramid scheme. Now, the difference between pyramid scheme and multi-level marketing is very miniscule. According to thebalancesmb.com the difference between MLM and Pyramid Scheme is that an MLM will not require a large outlay of cash to purchase startup inventory. There might be a small charge, but requiring thousands of dollars of inventory upfront is a red flag. Now, that by itself is not necessarily proof of a pyramid. If the company will buy back unsold inventory for at least 80% of what you paid, then it’s more in MLM territory. Is there a demand for the product? If not, then it's probably pyramid. Is there more emphasis on recruiting new sellers over selling the product. The product should be the selling point. If your primary task is to sign up others, then it’s a pyramid scheme. But the two largest red flags are this: Is the plan designed to make more money by recruiting members over sales of products? And are you offered commissions for recruiting new members?

So it’s a pretty fine line there. But those lines were definitely in place by the time Raniere started Consumer’s Buyline in 1990, which comparatively speaking was short lived, and shut down by the government as a very obvious pyramid scheme in 1996 under a hail of state law suits claiming pyramid scheme, and Raniere was ordered to pay fines to various state governments and reimburse clients.

But it wasn’t completely wasted time, as Raniere had started gathering around him a core of women who would help him to build NXIVM and his Executive Success Program, ESP. Included in the cast of characters are Pam Cafritz and Karen Unterreiner, and joining them shortly after are wingman Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren Salzman.

Raniere suckers all these women into believing he is the Smartest Man Alive™ and they immediately start recruiting more learners, offering discounts if each learner brings in more learners. And gradually, they begin to land some whales. In casino parlance, a whale is a big player who will drop tens of thousands, sometimes millions, at a time. The whales NXIVM manages to land are Clare and Sara Bronfman, two youngest daughters of Edgar Bronfman and heirs to the Seagram’s fortune, of Seagram’s Whisky fame.

So, Sara and Clare Bronfman begin pouring money down the dark well of Raniere’s greed, and despite having convinced them that he was The Smartest Man Alive ™ he began losing money in multiple bad investments. And because the Bronfman sisters were so convinced of his brilliance, rather than suing him for the loss, they’d sue the other investors. So for example, they invested in a real estate deal to build mega-mansions in the foothills of LA and when that went bust, they sued the developer, rather than Raniere who directed them to invest in this project.

And by early 2000’s, NXIVM is full bore. And they keep recruiting. Now, HBOMax released a series on NXIVM called The Vow, going into great detail on the journey of Sarah Edmondson, Anthony Ames, Mark Vicente, Bonnie Piesse and basically an entire cast of survivors. You know who is NOT included in The Vow?

Marianna, Daniella, and Camila, who were three daughters of a family from the Mexican branch of NXIVM. Now, on one level, I get it. Their last names have been stricken from court records as a result of the extreme abuse they suffered. And I will grant that I was only half paying attention to The Vow…but it seems like the show focuses entirely on this inner circle. And I’ll grant what happens to them is beyond the pale, but the abuse suffered by the three sisters, like literally goes against Geneva conventions. But let me back this up a bit.

Now, the entire NXIVM core, including Nancy Salzman, Lauren Salzman, Pam Cafritz, Karen Unterreiner, Barbara Bouchey, and Kristin Keefe, were all insanely loyal to Raniere. I do not know what the appeal was. And it seems like most women fell in to two categories. Those who were spellbound by him tended to stay, and much havoc was wrought upon them. And those who were not spellbound. Some of those managed to escape sans havoc. Some did not. Largely, all of these women believed that he loved them, and all seemed weirdly ok with sharing his love with each other. Even though they were not allowed to have other boyfriends.

As NXIVM’s fame as an executive program spread, they were able to open branches in Vancouver Canada, pulling in more actors through Sara Edmondson…actors like Allison Mack, Kristen Kreuk, and Nicki Clyne, and branches in Mexico through Emiliano Salinas, the son of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. And it seems like part of the appeal of NXIVM was a weird combination of bastardized philosophies, pulling on Stoicism and Objectivism. Like, I was genuinely outraged when the author reported that he pulled from Ayn Rand to sucker women in. I’m like…clearly none of you actually comprehended Atlas Shrugged…assuming you even read it. But he took what Rand expressed and convoluted it to suit his purpose. And Jesus wept. And by the time the Mexico branch of NXIVM opened, these women would blindly do whatever Raniere wanted, with each of them basically assuming that someday, they would be chosen to bear the child of the Smartest Man Alive™.

Like…ew. Why? Why is this seen as the be all end all? All of these women were smart, mostly postmodernist educated, women. And while I agree postmodernism has basically destroyed all joy in life, Raniere was like the opposite extreme. When you dig down in to the philosophy of NXIVM, it wasn’t about objectivism, which has at it’s heart, from the atlassociety.org website “that there is no greater moral goal than achieving one's happiness. But one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. It requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. It requires living by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism.”

Objectivism is benevolent, holding that the universe is open to human achievement and happiness and that each person has within him the ability to live a rich, fulfilling, independent life.

But for Raniere, the only truth behind objectivism was HIS happiness…fuck the happiness of the women around him. His whim’s must be met and reality was what he said it was, not what these women were actually going through. He was excellent at gaslighting, and he did so to extreme effect. As long as he was happy, everything was kosher. And these women…were not happy. They were kept in absolute abeyance to Raniere’s wishes and whims. This is NOT objectivism. He had no moral integrity. But he gaslit the fuck out of the women around him. This was truly sick and twisted to read. So help me Loki, I kind of want to reread Atlas Shrugged now. Just to remind myself that goodness in literature exists. Maybe on vacation. Back to this book.

Into this deluded, twisted, fucked up vision of Randian philosophy, is dropped Marianna, Daniella, and Camila, starting with Daniella, actually. Marianna was the oldest, but Daniella was, arguably, the most abused of the three. Because like all middle children everywhere, they are the most desperate to prove themselves. Daniella, I feel you. Middle children of the world unite!

Daniella was incredibly smart…like for real smart, not fake Smartest Man Alive™ smart. And while she had her sights on finishing out high school in Europe, after being introduced to the NXIVM program, she decided to enhance her mind through learning with…Keith. And since her parents were supporters of ESP and NXIVM, they agreed and she was sent to Clifton Park, New York, where she did office work, data entry, and little bits of computer programming, which eventually morphed into being an amateur self-taught hacker for NXIVM. And she was set to download viruses and hack Edgar Bronfman. Because with his own misdeeds, Raniere developed a healthy dose of paranoia that people were out to get him. I don’t think they were…at least nothing has ever come to light. The most that anyone WAS out to get him was famed cult specialist Rick Alan Ross, who was called in to try and pull someone out of NXIVM. While Ross failed in his effort, he became public enemy number one to the NXIVM crew, who started a concentrated campaign of harassment against Ross that I believe spanned a decade and would have bankrupted him if legal services hadn’t been donated.

So, back to Daniella. Like all very young women…she was I believe 16 when she was delivered to the tender mercies of Clifton Park…she wanted to fall in love. And while I don’t think she explicitly set her eyes on Keith, he certainly had his eyes on her, and began grooming her quite early. Now, as to what has been reported, he did wait to move on her until she was 18 years old. I believe he invited her to his harem on her 18th birthday. Although he did not advise her that she was only one of many. I think she figured it out. And, because the vast majority of women are not happy only being one of many, preferring instead to be someones one and only, several years later she fell in love with another NXIVM member.

And Raniere lost his shit. He badgered her endlessly about her lack of morals, and how could she hurt him, and she wasn’t pure now. She didn’t even have sex with this other guy. She KISSED him. And that was enough for the scarlet letter to be blazoned across her soul to the rest of Raniere’s harem. And he spent several years psychologically torturing her. In 2010 she was placed in a room to think about what she had done, and then denied all human contact for two years. Two years she was kept fully isolated from everyone. And it was particularly pernicious because the door wasn’t locked. She could, technically, leave at any time. But she had been told that if she left that room, she would be sent back to Mexico with nothing, and her family would cut her off. And when she did ultimately decide that it was worth it, her own father was in the car that drove her to the border. NXIVM had managed to drive a very deep wedge into this family, and Daniella was cast out. I believe she was kept in Clifton Park for ten years. She was introduced to NXIVM in 2002. She left in 2012. She lost a decade of her life to Raniere. She was forced to have an abortion by NXIVM fixers. It would not do for Raniere, a professed celibate, to be known to have fathered a child on someone who at this time, was an illegal immigrant, her visa having expired years before she was driven to Laredo, TX.

In the intervening decade, her two sisters had joined her in Clifton Park, NY. I believe they would both go on to become pregnant by Raniere. I’m pretty sure Camila, who was only 15 when Raniere began having sex with her, was forced to have an abortion. Marianna was one of two women to successfully deliver a child. The rest were forced into abortions. Couldn’t ruin his public image with a passel of children. Especially not ones conceived on minor children themselves.

The other child was by Kristen Keefe, who managed to hide her pregnancy until an unexpected premature delivery ensured the child’s safety. Even then, he was not acknowledged by the community to be Raniere’s child. And after some years, Keefe, having finally recognized the evil that is Keith, bolted into witness protection. She eventually reconnected with Barbara Bouchey, who had left several years before. Bouchey had been harassed by the same litigation machine that Raniere was using against Rick Ross, but Bouchey was barely hanging on. When Keefe reached out to her, she thought it might be a trap, and was relieved to find it wasn’t.

Back in Clifton Park, things had gotten darker. Camila was rebelling, Marianna was rebelling, Daniella is already gone, and Raniere thinks (I’m guessing) fuck these bitches…I’m gonna make it so they can’t leave. And he decides NXIVM isn’t nearly cult like enough, he needs the women around him to go in to super secret stealth mode, like Charlie Manson levels of loyalty…they gotta swear lifelong fealty to their master. Who would ultimately be him. So he had several that were sworn directly to him. I believe Allison Mack and Lauren Salzman were among those. Then sent them out to recruit others. So they would go out, contact other NXIVM women who Raniere was interested in… I think. He may not have told them who to recruit, but they definitely recruited with an eye towards pleasing Vanguard. Oh yea…that was his name in NXIVM. Vanguard.

The ”Master” would require two things from the “slave.” 1. Collateral. Even if they had to make it up, the master required a deep dark secret that would destroy the slave if it ever got out. One of the other key witnesses against Raniere lied and said her father had molested her. Because it wasn’t true, the lie would destroy her. And so that collateral was acceptable. 2. They had to promise to do whatever their Master told them to do. A lot of the telling included submitting to forced sex with Raniere and extreme calorie restrictive diets. Like 300-500 calories per day…remember what we learned last week about famine conditions?

Yeah. Raniere liked his women too hungry to argue and too weak from starvation to fight back. What a piece of shit.

And the ultimate shit thing…a literal brand. He branded these women like cattle. And seemed to genuinely believe that having them ASK to be branded would negate his own liability. This argument did not work for Manson. Good news! It did not work for Raniere. Not too long after Sara Edmondson was branded, she left. She took all the risks, along with her husband Anthony Ames, Mark Vicente, and Marks wife Bonnie Piesse. So these four, along with Barbara Bouchey, did survive NXIVM, but barely.

Bouchey was hounded with lawsuits and unlike Rick Ross, her legal fees were not covered pro bono. She has barely survived NXIVM. Raniere and NXIVM almost drove Vicente and Piesse to divorce. Happily, they seem to have survived. And ultimately, everything was brought to a head when the FBI, working with Mexican authorities, arrested Raniere in Mexico in March 2018, along with his inner circle, including both Salzmans, Clare Bronfman, who remained in the inner circle long after sister Sara married and moved on, and actor Allison Mack. Mack I remembered. I remembered seeing she had been arrested and ultimately pled guilty to trafficking. I remember seeing the headline and thinking “well….that’s Hollywood. Bunch of rapist child molesting weirdo’s down there.” While I have seen very little, in the wake of Me Too and following Rose McGowan’s book that I reviewed last year that would change my mind, this…was not that. Mack was key in holding Marianna, Daniella, and Camila hostage and ensuring they couldn’t leave. Mack helped lure in victims to Raniere’s sex slave cult, which was called DOS, Dominus Obsequious Sororium which roughly translates as master over slave women. I have no pity for Mack.

Nancy Salzman pled guilty in March 2019 and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. Lauren Salzman pled guilty on March 25, 2019, two weeks after her mother. Lauren, having testified against Raniere on his RICO charges, was sentenced to five years probation and 300 hours community service.

Clare Bronfman, after setting up a 14 million dollar trust to cover Raniere’s legal defense, was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Allison Mack was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Pam Cafritz had died of cancer well before NXIVMs fall, but not soon enough. She was the fixer that arranged the abortions for Raniere’s victims.  Karen Unterreiner, I’m not sure. I don’t recall what happened to the money manager for NXIVM, although the interwebs indicates she testified for the prosecution, and likely avoided serious trouble as a result. And Keith…he was found guilty of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography in relation to Camila, sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking, identity theft, trafficking for labor and services, forced labor, conspiracy to alter records for use in an official proceeding, sex trafficking conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.75 million in fines.

This book was outstandingly written. It pulls you right in and moves the narrative along at a fast pace. It reveals the horror of what happened with absolute empathy for the victims, while allowing their voices to be heard. It made me really glad that I was not raised in New York, LA, or Seattle, because I am exactly the sort of person who might have been pulled into this. I am VERY glad that I came to objectivism and stoicism in my own time, rather than having Raniere’s pseudo-philosophical bullshit spoon fed to me at the cost of $3000 per module. Seriously….The Atlas Society website is free. So is Daily Stoic. And libraries. Hell, I bought my copy of Meditations at a library sale for 50 cents.

Also, this book introduced me to Rick Alan Ross, who wrote a book on cults. Which I have purchased. Not sure when I will get it on the schedule, but probably sooner rather than later. I want to know more about cults. Like, what leads people to cede their own rational thought to someone else? Ayn Rand would not approve.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on May 22, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.