WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tackling 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:07.280 something. Well, something that sort of breaks 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.019 the brain a little bit. We're looking at the 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:12.480 story of NXIVM. Yeah. And it's not just a crime 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:14.900 story, is it? It's, I don't know, it feels like 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.280 a glitch in the code of human intelligence. That's 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:19.160 a great way to put it, because we all operate 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:21.960 under this basic assumption that if you're smart, 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.500 you know, if you're successful, you've got money, 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:29.980 you've got status, then you're somehow... inoculated 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:31.739 against this kind of thing. You're immune. You'd 00:00:31.739 --> 00:00:33.719 never have your brain hijacked. Right. It's that 00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:35.719 comforting little story we tell ourselves. I 00:00:35.719 --> 00:00:37.840 would never join a cult. That's what everyone 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.820 thinks. Of course. But then you look at NXIVM, 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.119 and this wasn't, you know, a group of lost souls 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.320 out in the desert waiting for a comet to arrive. 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:48.579 No. This was sold as an executive success program. 00:00:49.130 --> 00:00:51.670 We're talking about C. Graham heiresses, literal 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:54.689 billionaires. We're talking about Hollywood actresses, 00:00:54.689 --> 00:00:57.909 political figures, people who on paper had it 00:00:57.909 --> 00:00:59.570 all figured out. People you would assume are 00:00:59.570 --> 00:01:03.950 the least vulnerable. Exactly. And yet they wound 00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:06.650 up in a suburban townhome in Albany, New York, 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:09.290 holding each other down and branding one another 00:01:09.290 --> 00:01:12.400 with a soldering iron. It creates this massive 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.760 cognitive dissonance. You just can't reconcile 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:19.219 executive success program with sex trafficking 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:21.269 ring. It doesn't compute. And that's what we 00:01:21.269 --> 00:01:22.750 want to dig into today. We aren't just going 00:01:22.750 --> 00:01:25.090 to rehash the timeline. I think most of you listening 00:01:25.090 --> 00:01:27.489 know the broad strokes. You've heard about the 00:01:27.489 --> 00:01:29.170 colored sashes. You've definitely heard about 00:01:29.170 --> 00:01:31.930 the branding. Oh, yeah. Today, we want to actually 00:01:31.930 --> 00:01:34.489 dismantle the mechanism. We want to look at the 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:37.569 architecture of control that this man, Keith 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:40.810 Renier, or Vanguard, as he insisted on being 00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:44.719 called, built brick by insidious brick. And we 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.659 have just a mountain of source material to work 00:01:46.659 --> 00:01:48.500 with. We've got the complete court transcripts 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:51.079 from the federal racketeering trial, U .S. versus 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.920 Ranier, which, I mean, they read like a psychological 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:55.879 horror novel. They really do. We've also got 00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:58.659 the internal NXIVM documents, the reports on 00:01:58.659 --> 00:02:02.099 the secret DOS society, and even Ranier's own 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:04.640 patent filings, which are, well, they're insane. 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:06.920 We'll get to those. Yeah, the patent filings 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:08.960 are a special kind of bizarre. So the mission 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:10.960 today is really to answer one core question. 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:16.409 How did a guy with a mullet and a 2 .2 GPA, convince 00:02:16.409 --> 00:02:19.689 some of the wealthiest and most influential people 00:02:19.689 --> 00:02:22.150 on the planet that he was the smartest man in 00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:24.150 the world. And not just convince them, convince 00:02:24.150 --> 00:02:26.009 them to the point that they would finance his 00:02:26.009 --> 00:02:28.150 crimes, hand over their children, and defend 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:31.330 him even after he was convicted. It's a masterclass 00:02:31.330 --> 00:02:34.250 in the weaponization of narcissism. Okay, so 00:02:34.250 --> 00:02:37.150 let's start where every good myth begins, the 00:02:37.150 --> 00:02:40.490 origin story. Or I guess in this case, the complete 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:42.770 fabrication of an origin story. Because Keith 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:45.349 Renier wasn't born Vanguard. That was a character 00:02:45.349 --> 00:02:47.930 he had to meticulously construct. And the foundation 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:49.530 of that character, the thing that everything 00:02:49.530 --> 00:02:52.289 else was built on, was this idea of his genius. 00:02:52.569 --> 00:02:55.270 It was the hook. If you look at any of the NXIVM 00:02:55.270 --> 00:02:57.750 promotional material, any of the sacred texts 00:02:57.750 --> 00:03:00.590 as they sort of saw them, Renier is presented 00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:04.219 as this. This singular genetic event. The smartest 00:03:04.219 --> 00:03:06.219 man in the world. The famous Guinness record. 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:08.520 I feel like this is the first big red flag that 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.039 everyone just willfully ignored. The claim was 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.139 an IQ of 240, which, you know, psychometricians 00:03:14.139 --> 00:03:16.719 will tell you is statistically meaningless. It's 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:19.639 so many standard deviations above the norm, it's 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:22.020 basically impossible to measure. But he had proof, 00:03:22.139 --> 00:03:24.120 right? He had this listing in the Guinness Book 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:26.860 of World Records. He did. And this is the detail 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:29.520 that always gets me. It was in the 1989 Australian 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:32.180 edition. The Australian edition. Why is that 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:34.800 so specific? It's perfect, isn't it? It's so 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:36.719 obscure that it sounds credible. Who would make 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:38.860 that up? But let's look at how he got that record. 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:41.520 It wasn't, you know, a standardized proctored 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.060 IQ test administered by a team of psychologists. 00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:47.120 No. He took something called the mega test. The 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:49.280 mega test. That sounds like something you'd find 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:51.840 in the back of a comic book. Almost. It was published 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:55.139 in Omni magazine back in the 80s. And here's 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:59.409 the kicker. It was an unsupervised. Take -home 00:03:59.409 --> 00:04:02.509 test. Wait, hold on. A take -home test. So the 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:04.610 proof that he's the smartest man in the world 00:04:04.610 --> 00:04:07.270 is based on a test he could have done with an 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:11.370 encyclopedia, a team of MIT professors, and, 00:04:11.509 --> 00:04:14.620 you know, three weeks of finish. Precisely. There 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:17.120 was no time limit. He could have used any resource 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.920 he wanted. And experts have debunked the megatest 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.439 for years. It has no scientific validity for 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.160 measuring IQs in that extreme range because the 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:28.439 sample size is essentially zero. You can't create 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:30.860 a bell curve. But it didn't matter. It didn't 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:32.839 matter at all. Rainier wasn't after scientific 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.079 validation. He was after a marketing slogan. 00:04:35.339 --> 00:04:38.040 He got the citation. He probably laminated it. 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:40.720 And that one line became the bedrock of his entire 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.259 authority. I am the smartest man in the world. 00:04:43.379 --> 00:04:47.439 Therefore, my logic is superior to your feelings, 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:50.120 your intuition, your entire worldview. You've 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:52.139 got it. That's the core argument. And it's incredibly 00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:55.000 powerful. But then you pull the actual receipts. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:56.800 You look at his actual academic performance, 00:04:57.100 --> 00:04:59.839 specifically his college transcripts from Rensselaer 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.560 Polytechnic Institute, RPI. Which is a very good 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:04.300 school, by the way, a tough engineering and science 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:06.680 school. A very tough school. And when you look 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:09.899 at his grades. The whole mega genius narrative 00:05:09.899 --> 00:05:12.279 just evaporates. I mean, he didn't just struggle 00:05:12.279 --> 00:05:14.519 in a few classes. He almost flunked out. I'm 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:16.319 looking at the numbers here. He graduated with 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:21.000 a 2 .26 GPA. A 2 .26. And it's not like he was 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:24.199 some bored genius just skipping class to, you 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:26.939 know, solve cold fusion in his dorm room. The 00:05:26.939 --> 00:05:29.639 records show he failed upper level math courses. 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:33.660 He failed physics. He was, by all objective measures, 00:05:33.899 --> 00:05:36.759 an average to below average student. So you have 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:40.240 this huge chasm between the reality of the 2 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:44.399 .26 GPA and the persona, the 240 IQ. Most people 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.100 would feel some kind of shame about that gap. 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:49.019 But not Ranier. He flipped it. That's a classic 00:05:49.019 --> 00:05:52.259 guru move. He used his academic failures as proof 00:05:52.259 --> 00:05:55.399 that the system was flawed, not him. The world's 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.360 measurements were too primitive to appreciate 00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:59.720 his genius. The standard rules just don't apply 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.079 to Vanguard. Exactly. And speaking of Vanguard, 00:06:02.259 --> 00:06:04.199 we have to talk about that name. Within the group, 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:07.529 this title was. It was spoken with his hushed 00:06:07.529 --> 00:06:09.550 reverence. Vanguard is coming to the session. 00:06:09.730 --> 00:06:12.790 Vanguard says, it sounds so grand, like a philosophical 00:06:12.790 --> 00:06:16.170 concept or a military rank. You'd think so. But 00:06:16.170 --> 00:06:17.889 the origin, according to the source material, 00:06:18.149 --> 00:06:20.970 is, well, it's a lot dumber than that. It's from 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:22.829 an arcade game. It's from an arcade game, a scrolling 00:06:22.829 --> 00:06:25.490 shooter from the early 80s called Vanguard. Ranier 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:27.970 was obsessed with it. A video game. A video game. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.220 But it's the game's mechanic that's so telling, 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:34.220 so deeply revealing. In Vanguard, you fly this 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.639 little spaceship, and the way you gain power 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:39.899 and become temporarily invincible is by destroying 00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:43.259 your enemies. That is chillingly on the nose. 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:45.540 Isn't it? He didn't pick a name that meant the 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:47.980 teacher or the guide or the enlightened one. 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:51.259 He picked a name that, in his mind, meant I get 00:06:51.259 --> 00:06:53.699 stronger by destroying others. It's a perfect 00:06:53.699 --> 00:06:57.000 window into his psyche. He saw life as a zero 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.980 -sum game. For him to win, somebody else had 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:02.779 to lose. For him to be powerful, someone else 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:05.379 had to be made weak. He saw people as resources. 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.819 as non -player characters in his own game, there 00:07:08.819 --> 00:07:11.120 to be farmed for points. And long before he was 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.819 farming souls inside NXIVM, he was farming wallets 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:17.740 in a company called Consumers Byline. Yes. This 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:19.819 is the chapter from the 90s that often gets overlooked, 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:22.139 but it's crucial. It's the beta test for everything 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.459 that came later. So what was it exactly? On the 00:07:24.459 --> 00:07:26.980 surface, Consumers Byline was a buying club. 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.100 You pay a fee to join, and in return, you get 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:32.379 access to wholesale discounts on groceries, electronics, 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.480 appliances. It sounds incredibly boring. Right. 00:07:35.850 --> 00:07:38.990 But the math didn't work out. The discounts weren't 00:07:38.990 --> 00:07:41.370 big enough to justify the membership fee. So 00:07:41.370 --> 00:07:43.449 the only way to actually make money was to recruit 00:07:43.449 --> 00:07:45.490 other people to join the club. And when they 00:07:45.490 --> 00:07:48.129 paid their fee, you got a cut. So a pyramid scheme. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:50.519 A textbook out -of -the -box pyramid scheme. 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.319 The New York attorney general investigated it 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:56.279 and called it exactly that. It wasn't even subtle. 00:07:56.759 --> 00:07:59.139 Eventually, something like 20 different state 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:01.079 regulators came after him. And the whole thing 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:03.579 collapsed. It collapsed spectacularly, leaving 00:08:03.579 --> 00:08:06.139 thousands of people out of pocket. But you have 00:08:06.139 --> 00:08:08.519 to watch the pattern here. The business fails. 00:08:08.839 --> 00:08:11.819 The regulators are closing in. What does the 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:15.199 genius do? He plays the victim. He claims he 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:17.319 was misunderstood. Always. He signed a consent 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:20.759 order in 1996, which banned him from any future 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:23.000 chain distribution schemes. And he was hit with 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.699 a $40 ,000 fine. But the court records show he 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:29.560 only ever paid about $9 ,000 of it. He pleaded 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:32.360 poverty. This is a man who was constantly boasting 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:34.960 about his incredible wealth and his ability to 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.679 generate millions. And he told the state of New 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:39.759 York, sorry, I can't afford to pay the fine. 00:08:40.279 --> 00:08:42.370 And they let him get away with it. It's incredible. 00:08:42.450 --> 00:08:45.049 And this is also where we see the prototype for 00:08:45.049 --> 00:08:47.009 how he would handle his romantic relationships. 00:08:47.110 --> 00:08:49.629 This is where Tony Natalie comes in. Yes. Tony 00:08:49.629 --> 00:08:51.289 wasn't just his girlfriend. She was a business 00:08:51.289 --> 00:08:54.429 partner. She was actually the top seller, the 00:08:54.429 --> 00:08:57.490 top recruiter in consumers byline. So they were 00:08:57.490 --> 00:09:00.529 a team. A power couple. But the second the business 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:02.309 went under and she tried to end the relationship. 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:05.590 The mask just dropped. The shift was instantaneous. 00:09:05.909 --> 00:09:08.429 From love bombing to total war. He didn't just 00:09:08.429 --> 00:09:11.210 break up with her. He began a years -long campaign 00:09:11.210 --> 00:09:13.850 of harassment against her. We're talking endless, 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:16.950 baseless lawsuits, trespassing, intimidation. 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:20.049 It got so bad that a federal bankruptcy judge, 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:23.330 a man named Robert Littlefield, wrote in a ruling 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:26.809 that Ranier's actions smacked of a jilted fellow's 00:09:26.809 --> 00:09:29.129 attempt at revenge. I love that a federal judge 00:09:29.129 --> 00:09:32.169 actually put the words jilted fellow into a legal 00:09:32.169 --> 00:09:34.389 document. document, but it really highlights 00:09:34.389 --> 00:09:36.690 a key tactic that Ranier would perfect later 00:09:36.690 --> 00:09:39.429 on. Using the legal system as a weapon. As a 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:42.350 bludgeon. He realized early on that the truth 00:09:42.350 --> 00:09:44.730 doesn't matter in court as much as who has the 00:09:44.730 --> 00:09:47.309 deepest pockets. You can bankrupt your enemies 00:09:47.309 --> 00:09:49.929 with legal fees even if you never win a single 00:09:49.929 --> 00:09:52.769 case. It's called paper terrorism and it became 00:09:52.769 --> 00:09:56.129 a core pillar of the NXIVM strategy. You can't 00:09:56.129 --> 00:09:58.649 leave us because if you do, we will sue you, 00:09:58.809 --> 00:10:02.090 your family, your dog into oblivion. So Byline 00:10:02.090 --> 00:10:04.470 is a smoking crater. He's broke. He's banned 00:10:04.470 --> 00:10:06.690 from multilevel marketing. He has a trail of 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:09.730 burned investors and a jilted fellow ruling against 00:10:09.730 --> 00:10:11.590 him. Most people at this point would, you know, 00:10:11.610 --> 00:10:13.450 go get a normal job. Go work at Home Depot, yeah. 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:17.509 But not Ranier. He pivots. And in 1998, he meets 00:10:17.509 --> 00:10:19.850 Nancy Salzman. And Nancy Salzman is the missing 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:22.389 piece of the puzzle. Ranier had the grand narcissistic 00:10:22.389 --> 00:10:26.169 vision, but Nancy had the tech. She had the tools. 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:28.750 Who was she? What was her background? Nancy Saltzman, 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:31.049 who would become known inside the group as Prefect, 00:10:31.210 --> 00:10:34.830 was a nurse and a trained hypnotist. She had 00:10:34.830 --> 00:10:37.990 a deep, deep background in NLP neurolinguistic 00:10:37.990 --> 00:10:40.850 programming. Okay, so what is NLP, for those 00:10:40.850 --> 00:10:43.389 who don't know? It's a controversial approach 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:46.389 to psychotherapy and communication. The idea 00:10:46.389 --> 00:10:48.309 is to change someone's thoughts and behaviors 00:10:48.309 --> 00:10:51.009 by analyzing and mimicking the language patterns 00:10:51.009 --> 00:10:54.000 of successful people. But in the wrong hands, 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.659 it's a toolkit for manipulation. It's a way to 00:10:56.659 --> 00:10:59.120 hack people's brains. That's exactly right. So 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.639 Ranier provided the overarching philosophy, the 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.460 why. But Saltzman provided the delivery system, 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:07.519 the how. And together they form Executive Success 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:10.700 Programs, or ESP. And I think this rebranding 00:11:10.700 --> 00:11:12.919 is why so many people got sucked in. They weren't 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:15.220 joining a cult run by a failed pyramid scheme 00:11:15.220 --> 00:11:17.240 operator. No, of course not. They were signing 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:19.779 up for a five -day intensive workshop for a few 00:11:19.779 --> 00:11:22.159 thousand dollars to help them overcome procrastination. 00:11:22.379 --> 00:11:24.500 and become better public speakers. The bait was 00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:27.399 self -improvement, self -optimization. Always. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.159 And the core curriculum was this thing they patented 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:32.720 called rational inquiry. And on the surface, 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:35.440 it sounds perfectly reasonable. Let's rationally 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:37.600 inquire into your beliefs to see if they are 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:39.700 limiting you. Who wouldn't want that? But the 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.159 way they applied it was predatory. It was essentially 00:11:42.159 --> 00:11:46.720 the Socratic method, but weaponized to dismantle 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.480 your own intuition and conscience. Can you break 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:52.210 that down? How would a session actually go? OK, 00:11:52.289 --> 00:11:54.909 so a facilitator, who they called a proctor, 00:11:55.049 --> 00:11:57.509 would single you out in a group setting. They'd 00:11:57.509 --> 00:11:59.909 ask you about a limiting belief. Let's say you 00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:02.509 feel guilty about lying to a friend. OK. The 00:12:02.509 --> 00:12:04.090 proctor would ask, why do you feel bad about 00:12:04.090 --> 00:12:06.529 that? You might say, well, because lying is wrong. 00:12:06.889 --> 00:12:09.409 They'd ask, why is it wrong? You'd say, because 00:12:09.409 --> 00:12:11.830 society teaches us that honesty is important. 00:12:12.049 --> 00:12:14.870 And they pounce. So you're just a slave to societal 00:12:14.870 --> 00:12:16.850 conditioning. You don't have your own ethical 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:19.139 framework. Wow, so they twist it. They drill 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:22.299 down and down and down until you hit one of your 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:24.519 bedrock moral beliefs like hurting people is 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:27.480 bad. And then they label that belief a disintegration. 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.399 They convince you that your own conscience, your 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:34.259 gut feeling, is actually just a parasite -based 00:12:34.259 --> 00:12:37.500 habit. A parasite -based habit. That is a terrifying 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:41.100 phrase. It's genius in a sociopathic way. It's 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:44.059 branding for amorality. So the next time your 00:12:44.059 --> 00:12:46.720 gut tells you this feels creepy or I don't think 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:48.779 I should do this, Rainier's teaching is right 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:51.659 there in your head saying that feeling is a parasite. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.220 It's a limitation. You need to cut it out to 00:12:54.220 --> 00:12:56.759 achieve your full potential. So over time, you 00:12:56.759 --> 00:12:59.100 replace your own internal moral compass with 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:01.240 Keith Rainier's logic. You've got it. And the 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:03.419 physical environment reinforced this whole process. 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:06.220 There were rituals, the bowing to high -ranking 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:08.580 members, and of course, the sashes. Right, the 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:10.539 stripe path. It was like a martial arts dojo. 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:12.909 Exactly. It mimicked a karate dojo. You start 00:13:12.909 --> 00:13:15.330 with a plain white sash. But you see other people 00:13:15.330 --> 00:13:17.710 with orange sashes, green sashes, sashes with 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:20.769 stripes on them. It gamified the indoctrination 00:13:20.769 --> 00:13:23.929 process. It created this desire to rank up. It 00:13:23.929 --> 00:13:26.870 taps into the sunk cost fallacy. You spend $5 00:13:26.870 --> 00:13:29.450 ,000 on the first course. You get your white 00:13:29.450 --> 00:13:31.970 sash. You really want that orange sash. So you 00:13:31.970 --> 00:13:34.429 spend another $10 ,000 on the next level of courses. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:37.279 And to admit at that point that it's all a scam 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.279 is to admit that you, a smart, successful person, 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.379 were fooled. So you don't. You double down. You 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:45.759 keep climbing the ladder. But climbing that ladder 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:48.519 required a huge amount of money. And this brings 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:52.419 us to the financial engine of NXIVM, Claire and 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:56.299 Sarah Bronfman. The ATMs. I still struggle to 00:13:56.299 --> 00:13:57.720 wrap my head around this piece of the story. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.259 These are the heiresses to the Seagram liquor 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:04.019 fortune. They have access to literally the best 00:14:04.019 --> 00:14:07.639 education, the best financial advisors, the best 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.019 therapists in the entire world. And they handed 00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:11.960 their fortune over to a guy who played arcade 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.299 games and lived in a rented townhouse in Albany. 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:16.559 It's unbelievable. The Bronfman's were the rocket 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:19.600 fuel. Without their money, NXIVM is just a weird 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.799 little local group, a curiosity. With their money, 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:24.799 it became an international organization with 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:26.700 immense power. How much are we talking about? 00:14:26.779 --> 00:14:28.679 The court records showed they poured at least 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:32.039 $150 million into Rarnier's various projects 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:35.279 and legal battles. $150 million. And it wasn't 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:37.179 just for operations, was it? They were covering 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:40.919 his personal mistakes. The smartest man in the 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:44.240 world turned out to be a spectacularly bad commodities 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.220 trader. He lost how much? Speculating on the 00:14:47.220 --> 00:14:52.860 corn market. He lost $65 million. 65. On corn 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:55.639 and lumber futures. He thought he'd developed 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:57.980 a mathematical formula that could predict the 00:14:57.980 --> 00:15:01.139 markets. He was wrong. And the Bronfman's just 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:03.559 wrote a check. They just wrote a check to cover 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.100 it. But even more sinister than covering his 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:08.460 gambling debts was how they funded his aggression. 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.259 Their money paid for the private investigators 00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:14.179 who dug up dirt on enemies. Their money funded 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.919 the endless lawsuits against journalists, whistleblowers, 00:15:16.940 --> 00:15:18.960 and former members. We see this with the group 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.120 known as the NXIVM9. Yes, this was a group of 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:24.299 high -ranking members, including Ranier's former 00:15:24.299 --> 00:15:26.340 girlfriend Barbara Boucher, who tried to leave 00:15:26.340 --> 00:15:29.259 in 2009. They saw the financial mismanagement 00:15:29.259 --> 00:15:31.980 and the ethical problems. And they were met with 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:35.200 a firestorm of litigation funded by Bronfman 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.279 money. It created this impenetrable fortress 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:40.679 around Ranier. You couldn't touch him because 00:15:40.679 --> 00:15:42.919 he had a bottomless war chest to destroy you 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:45.379 with. And then on top of the money, you add the 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:47.419 celebrity veneer. The recruitment of Smallville 00:15:47.419 --> 00:15:50.600 stars. Mm -hmm. Kristen Kruk and, most notably, 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:53.120 Allison Mack. This was a stroke of marketing 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.600 genius, because if you're just a regular person 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.440 in Vancouver or L .A. and you see the girl from 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:01.360 Smallville who plays Chloe Sullivan, this wholesome 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.039 girl next door character endorsing this program. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:06.460 Your skepticism just melts away. You think, well, 00:16:06.539 --> 00:16:08.419 if it's safe and legitimate enough for her, it 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:11.039 must be safe for me. And Allison Mack wasn't 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:13.639 just a celebrity spokesperson. She became a true 00:16:13.639 --> 00:16:16.600 believer, a zealot. The source material suggests 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:18.980 she was looking for a mentor, for structure, 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:21.720 for a higher purpose. And Ranier stepped right 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.679 into that void. He made her feel like she was 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:25.159 part of something that was going to change the 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:28.379 world. Speaking of changing the world, we have 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:31.200 to talk about the Dalai Lama incident. This is 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:33.399 the moment where this simulation really, truly 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:37.759 glitches. In 2009, Keith Ranier, the guy running 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.970 this pyramid scheme sex cult, manages to get 00:16:40.970 --> 00:16:44.370 His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, to come to Albany, 00:16:44.389 --> 00:16:46.669 New York and share a stage with him. How on earth 00:16:46.669 --> 00:16:49.470 did that happen? Two things. Money and corruption. 00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:52.490 It cost them $2 million. $2 million to get him. 00:16:52.509 --> 00:16:55.889 $2 million. And it involved a very, very shady 00:16:55.889 --> 00:16:58.250 relationship with the Dalai Lama's gatekeeper 00:16:58.250 --> 00:17:00.809 at the time, a man named Lama Tenzin Dondon. 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:03.470 His official title was Personal Emissary for 00:17:03.470 --> 00:17:06.069 Peace. A personal emissary for peace who, it 00:17:06.069 --> 00:17:08.470 seems, had a price. There were allegations of 00:17:08.470 --> 00:17:11.089 secret payments, of favors. The Dalai Lama did 00:17:11.089 --> 00:17:13.210 eventually come, though he initially canceled 00:17:13.210 --> 00:17:16.390 the visit after a lot of bad press and then mysteriously 00:17:16.390 --> 00:17:18.950 rescheduled it. But for Rainier, the photo op 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:21.029 was all that mattered. It was the ultimate validation. 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:23.210 He stood on a stage next to His Holiness the 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:25.390 Dalai Lama. In the eyes of his followers, that 00:17:25.390 --> 00:17:27.769 was a divine endorsement. The message was clear. 00:17:28.009 --> 00:17:30.630 The Dalai Lama trusts Vanguard. So who are you, 00:17:30.730 --> 00:17:33.730 a lowly orange sash, to question him? So the 00:17:33.730 --> 00:17:36.170 trap is set. You have the intellectual trap with 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:38.369 rational inquiry. You have the financial and 00:17:38.369 --> 00:17:41.210 legal fortress built by the Bronfman's. And you 00:17:41.210 --> 00:17:43.650 have the social proof provided by Hollywood celebrities 00:17:43.650 --> 00:17:46.269 and the Dalai Lama. The walls are closing in. 00:17:46.369 --> 00:17:48.549 But once you were deep inside, once you were 00:17:48.549 --> 00:17:50.950 in those inner circles, the temperature started 00:17:50.950 --> 00:17:53.769 to rise. And we really need to look at the specific 00:17:53.769 --> 00:17:56.789 methodology of control that was used. This is 00:17:56.789 --> 00:17:59.890 where we move from just unethical influence into 00:17:59.890 --> 00:18:03.289 what are clearly human rights abuses. The control 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:05.630 became physiological. They started messing with 00:18:05.630 --> 00:18:07.930 the most basic biological needs of the members, 00:18:08.170 --> 00:18:11.130 sleep and food. Vanguard doesn't sleep much. 00:18:11.509 --> 00:18:13.650 That was the line, wasn't it? That was the party 00:18:13.650 --> 00:18:16.190 line. He claimed he had transcended the need 00:18:16.190 --> 00:18:18.190 for sleep, that he only needed two or three hours 00:18:18.190 --> 00:18:20.970 a night. So the inner circle, in an attempt to 00:18:20.970 --> 00:18:23.230 emulate his discipline, would try to do the same. 00:18:23.369 --> 00:18:26.349 Which is just a classic brainwashing technique. 00:18:26.569 --> 00:18:29.099 Of course. And then there was the food. Rainier 00:18:29.099 --> 00:18:31.599 had a very specific preference for extremely 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:34.859 thin women, so he enforced these incredibly strict 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:37.920 dietary restrictions on the women in his inner 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.140 circle. We're talking radical, low -calorie diets. 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:44.420 Five to 800 calories a day for years on end. 00:18:44.579 --> 00:18:46.619 When you are chronically sleep -deprived and 00:18:46.619 --> 00:18:49.759 literally starving, your prefrontal cortex, the 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:51.400 part of your brain that handles critical thinking, 00:18:51.579 --> 00:18:55.240 logic, and resistance, it just shuts down. You 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.329 become docile. and highly suggestible. Which 00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:00.849 brings us to the story of Dr. Brandon Porter. 00:19:01.170 --> 00:19:02.990 This is the part of the story that just reads 00:19:02.990 --> 00:19:05.230 like a screenplay for a horror movie. It really 00:19:05.230 --> 00:19:08.109 is. Brandon Porter was a licensed, board -certified 00:19:08.109 --> 00:19:11.009 physician who used his medical credentials to 00:19:11.009 --> 00:19:14.049 conduct horrific, unlicensed human experiments 00:19:14.049 --> 00:19:17.609 on NXIVM members, all under Rainier's direction. 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:20.349 The so -called fright study. I read the descriptions 00:19:20.349 --> 00:19:22.150 of this from the trial testimony, and I felt 00:19:22.150 --> 00:19:24.289 physically ill. He would sit women down in a 00:19:24.289 --> 00:19:26.950 chair. hook them up to an EEG machine to monitor 00:19:26.950 --> 00:19:29.289 their brainwaves, and then, without warning, 00:19:29.470 --> 00:19:32.009 force them to watch violent graphic videos. Not 00:19:32.009 --> 00:19:33.549 just violent, we're talking about snuff films. 00:19:34.029 --> 00:19:37.509 Real videos of beheadings, women being dismembered, 00:19:37.529 --> 00:19:40.450 horrific sexual violence, and he's just sitting 00:19:40.450 --> 00:19:42.829 there taking notes, watching their brain activity 00:19:42.829 --> 00:19:46.529 light up. He claimed it was a study on visceral 00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:49.630 reactions. Let's call it what it was. It was 00:19:49.630 --> 00:19:52.390 desensitization training. It was trauma -based 00:19:52.390 --> 00:19:54.930 mind control. He was systematically breaking 00:19:54.930 --> 00:19:56.910 their boundaries. And that wasn't even his only 00:19:56.910 --> 00:19:59.049 study. There was the Tourette's study. Right. 00:19:59.130 --> 00:20:01.190 He claimed he could cure Tourette's syndrome 00:20:01.190 --> 00:20:04.519 using NXIVM's tech. He took people who actually 00:20:04.519 --> 00:20:07.099 had Tourette's, convinced them to go off their 00:20:07.099 --> 00:20:09.160 prescribed medication, and then subjected them 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:11.779 to these intense, hours -long rational inquiry 00:20:11.779 --> 00:20:15.019 sessions. The participants later testified that 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:17.099 it didn't work at all. It just made their mental 00:20:17.099 --> 00:20:19.720 health catastrophically worse. But the absolute 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:22.599 crown jewel of his pseudo -scientific depravity 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:25.279 has to be the Luciferian test. I still can't 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:27.079 believe this was a real thing that he patented. 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:30.200 He filed a patent, a United States patent for 00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:33.220 a device that could scientifically detect. luciferians 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:36.980 and the test itself was so simple and so insidious 00:20:36.980 --> 00:20:39.640 a subject would be hooked up to a machine that 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:42.079 measured their micro reactions they would be 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:45.140 shown a video of an ice skater performing a beautiful 00:20:45.140 --> 00:20:48.980 flawless routine okay then at the very end of 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:52.900 the routine the skater falls a hard painful fall 00:20:52.900 --> 00:20:56.359 the machine measures your reaction and if you 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:59.099 showed any sign of pleasure or what Rainier's 00:20:59.099 --> 00:21:01.660 machine interpreted as pleasure at the skater's 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:04.220 fall. We were labeled a Luciferian. Meaning you 00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:06.900 were, in essence, a demon. You are someone who 00:21:06.900 --> 00:21:09.099 derives pleasure from the pain and failure of 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:11.839 others. No, just imagine the level of gaslighting 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:14.480 that enables. You watch a video, you flinch, 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:17.400 maybe you even gasp. And this godlike figure, 00:21:17.619 --> 00:21:20.240 Vanguard, looks at a printout from his machine 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:22.420 and says, the data says you are evil. You have 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:24.940 a Luciferian nature. But don't worry, I can fix 00:21:24.940 --> 00:21:27.099 you. It will just require years of absolute obedience 00:21:27.099 --> 00:21:29.000 and a lot more of your money. It's the ultimate 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.259 retention tool. You are fundamentally broken 00:21:31.259 --> 00:21:34.869 and I am the only cure. It's terrifying. And 00:21:34.869 --> 00:21:36.710 all of this conditioning, this breaking down 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:39.049 of the self, it paved the way for the darkest 00:21:39.049 --> 00:21:42.670 chapter of all, for DOS. DOS, the secret society 00:21:42.670 --> 00:21:45.390 within the secret society. It was formed around 00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:49.069 2015. And it stood for Dominus Obsequius Sororium. 00:21:49.269 --> 00:21:51.890 Which is just some badly mangled Latin that roughly 00:21:51.890 --> 00:21:54.890 translates to master over the slave woman. They 00:21:54.890 --> 00:21:56.670 didn't even try to hide it. They put the word 00:21:56.670 --> 00:21:58.549 slave right there in the name. But the women 00:21:58.549 --> 00:22:00.509 being recruited didn't know that name, did they? 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:03.220 They weren't told that up front. No. Absolutely 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:06.819 not. It was pitched to them as a secret sorority 00:22:06.819 --> 00:22:10.160 for the most elite, most dedicated women in NXIVM. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:13.660 One survivor called it a badass bitch boot camp. 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:16.180 So it was about women's empowerment, ironically. 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:19.279 It was sold as the ultimate form of women's empowerment, 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:22.019 a way to conquer your weaknesses and become a 00:22:22.019 --> 00:22:24.940 force of nature. But to even be invited to hear 00:22:24.940 --> 00:22:27.319 the pitch for this group, you first had to provide 00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:29.900 collateral. And this is the lock on the cell 00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:32.079 door. The collateral. It had to be something 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:34.039 that would ruin your life if it were ever released. 00:22:34.380 --> 00:22:36.859 For most women, the baseline was nude photos. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:39.579 But it escalated quickly from there. They were 00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:41.940 required to write video confessions to crimes 00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:44.279 they may or may not have even committed. Right. 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:47.940 I stole money from my company. I abused a family 00:22:47.940 --> 00:22:51.160 member. Sometimes these were true secrets. Other 00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:53.160 times, the women were coerced into completely 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:55.480 fabricating them just to have something damaging 00:22:55.480 --> 00:22:57.960 enough to hand over. And financial assets, too. 00:22:58.470 --> 00:23:00.829 Deeds to their parents' houses. Signing over 00:23:00.829 --> 00:23:03.289 power of attorney. Everything. And the threat 00:23:03.289 --> 00:23:05.950 was explicit and understood by everyone. If you 00:23:05.950 --> 00:23:08.390 ever leave this group, if you ever speak a word 00:23:08.390 --> 00:23:11.049 of this to anyone, we will release your collateral. 00:23:12.190 --> 00:23:15.690 It is blackmail institutionalized. Once they 00:23:15.690 --> 00:23:17.829 were in, they learned the structure. It was another 00:23:17.829 --> 00:23:20.759 pyramid. A pyramid within the pyramid. Renier, 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:22.839 of course, was at the very top. He was the grandmaster. 00:23:23.319 --> 00:23:25.680 Below him were the first line masters, which 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:28.359 included women like Allison Mack and Nancy Salzman's 00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:30.579 daughter, Lauren Salzman. And their job was to 00:23:30.579 --> 00:23:33.619 recruit their own slaves. Exactly. And those 00:23:33.619 --> 00:23:35.700 slaves were then required to recruit their slaves 00:23:35.700 --> 00:23:38.079 and so on down the line. And the life of a slave 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:40.380 was one of total submission. They had to be on 00:23:40.380 --> 00:23:43.200 call 247 for their masters. They had to ask for 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:45.539 permission to eat. The trial testimony included 00:23:45.539 --> 00:23:48.319 text messages. Master, may I have 100 calories? 00:23:48.940 --> 00:23:52.200 Master, may I sleep for four hours? They were 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:54.660 forced to take cold showers, perform menial tasks, 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.039 all as a way to strip them of their autonomy 00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.960 completely. And then came the branding. I think 00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:02.259 for the general public, this is the one detail 00:24:02.259 --> 00:24:07.279 that truly defines the horror of NXIVM, the brand. 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:10.180 It was part of the initiation ceremony. The women 00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:12.819 would be summoned to a house in a suburb of Albany. 00:24:13.210 --> 00:24:15.430 They'd be told to undress. They were blindfolded. 00:24:15.430 --> 00:24:18.329 Then they were led one by one into a room where 00:24:18.329 --> 00:24:20.950 Dr. Danielle Roberts, another licensed physician, 00:24:21.210 --> 00:24:23.309 another licensed physician was waiting and other 00:24:23.309 --> 00:24:24.950 women from the group were there to hold them 00:24:24.950 --> 00:24:27.130 down. They were held down on a massage table 00:24:27.130 --> 00:24:29.950 by their own sisters. Yes. And Dr. Roberts would 00:24:29.950 --> 00:24:32.490 take a cauterizing pen. It's a surgical tool 00:24:32.490 --> 00:24:34.789 that uses heat to burn tissue to stop bleeding 00:24:34.789 --> 00:24:37.430 or remove warts. And she would carve a symbol 00:24:37.430 --> 00:24:39.849 into the skin of their pelvic region with no 00:24:39.849 --> 00:24:42.680 anesthesia. With no anesthesia, the testimony 00:24:42.680 --> 00:24:45.680 described women screaming in agony, the smell 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.920 of burning flesh filling the room, and they were 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:50.440 told, this is a sacred symbol, it represents 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:54.880 the elements, fire, water, earth. But it wasn't 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:57.380 the elements. No, it was a carefully designed 00:24:57.380 --> 00:25:00.259 symbol. If you rotate it 90 degrees, you can 00:25:00.259 --> 00:25:02.759 clearly see letters embedded within the design. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:06.119 K .A .R. Keith Allen Runyer and A .M. Allison 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:09.279 Mack. He was literally branding his initials 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:12.579 onto women like livestock. It is the ultimate 00:25:12.579 --> 00:25:15.180 act of ownership. You are not a person. You are 00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:17.619 my property. And while this was happening, they 00:25:17.619 --> 00:25:19.980 were forced to say, thank you, master. It turns 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.960 the stomach. It's a level of calculated cruelty 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:26.380 that is just. It's hard to comprehend. And we 00:25:26.380 --> 00:25:29.180 can't ignore the explicit sexual component of 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:31.940 all this. Because DOS wasn't just about discipline 00:25:31.940 --> 00:25:34.319 and branding. It was a procurement pipeline for 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:36.960 Rainier. That's right. The masters, like Alice 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:38.859 and Mac, were instructed to assign seduction 00:25:38.859 --> 00:25:41.119 assignments to their slaves. They had to take 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:43.880 and send explicit photos to Rainier. They were 00:25:43.880 --> 00:25:46.240 systematically roomed to become his sexual partners. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:48.859 The story of the sisters from Monterrey, Mexico, 00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:52.279 is just particularly heartbreaking. He targeted 00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:56.589 an entire family. The three sisters. But one 00:25:56.589 --> 00:25:59.109 sister, who is known in court documents only 00:25:59.109 --> 00:26:02.329 as Daniela, suffered an almost unimaginable level 00:26:02.329 --> 00:26:05.069 of abuse. What happened to her? She developed 00:26:05.069 --> 00:26:07.730 romantic feelings for another man who was outside 00:26:07.730 --> 00:26:10.849 the group. When Ranier found out, he became enraged. 00:26:10.930 --> 00:26:13.809 He declared that she had committed a grave ethical 00:26:13.809 --> 00:26:16.410 breach. His jealousy is always reframed as an 00:26:16.410 --> 00:26:18.990 ethical issue. Always. And her punishment for 00:26:18.990 --> 00:26:21.829 this breach was confinement. She was locked in 00:26:21.829 --> 00:26:25.109 a room in her family's home for nearly two years. 00:26:25.250 --> 00:26:27.930 Two years. Two years. She was monitored by a 00:26:27.930 --> 00:26:30.390 camera. She had no contact with the outside world. 00:26:30.509 --> 00:26:33.410 Her family was complicit. It was, for all intents 00:26:33.410 --> 00:26:35.609 and purposes, kidnapping and false imprisonment. 00:26:35.710 --> 00:26:37.490 This is what I mean when I say this morphed from 00:26:37.490 --> 00:26:40.069 a weird self -help group into straight -up organized 00:26:40.069 --> 00:26:42.849 crime. This isn't cult stuff. This is racketeering. 00:26:42.990 --> 00:26:45.470 This is sex trafficking. This is forced labor. 00:26:45.819 --> 00:26:48.660 And yet somehow it remained hidden in plain sight. 00:26:48.900 --> 00:26:51.119 They were still holding executive success workshops 00:26:51.119 --> 00:26:53.160 down the street while this was happening. So 00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:55.759 the House of Cards is built. It's massive. It's 00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:58.599 terrifying. And it seems to be held together 00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:02.099 by this web of blackmail. How did it finally 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:04.700 start to collapse? Because with that much collateral 00:27:04.700 --> 00:27:07.599 hanging over everyone's heads, it's amazing anyone 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:10.640 ever talked. It took the apostates, as Ranier 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:12.440 would call them, people who finally had enough 00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:15.180 and were willing to risk everything. And Sarah 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:17.420 Edmondson is really the key figure here. She 00:27:17.420 --> 00:27:19.440 was a high -ranking member, a top recruiter in 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:22.339 Vancouver. A true believer. And then she was 00:27:22.339 --> 00:27:26.259 invited into DOS. She got branded. And she said 00:27:26.259 --> 00:27:28.660 that something in that room, the smell of her 00:27:28.660 --> 00:27:31.660 own flesh burning, finally broke the spell. She 00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:33.680 looked at the scar on her body and she realized, 00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:37.039 this isn't empowerment. This is evil. And she 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:38.890 did the unthinkable. She went to the New York 00:27:38.890 --> 00:27:41.789 Times. And she showed them the brand. That article, 00:27:41.809 --> 00:27:44.809 which ran in October 2017, was the nuclear detonation. 00:27:45.190 --> 00:27:48.029 Before that, a blogger named Frank Parleto had 00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:50.049 been raising the alarm. But the Times brought 00:27:50.049 --> 00:27:52.809 a level of credibility and the visual proof that 00:27:52.809 --> 00:27:55.369 was impossible to ignore. You couldn't deny the 00:27:55.369 --> 00:27:57.529 photograph of that brand. And we also have to 00:27:57.529 --> 00:27:59.819 give so much credit to Catherine Oxenberg. the 00:27:59.819 --> 00:28:01.839 actress from the show Dynasty. Her daughter, 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:05.660 India, was a slave in DOS. And Catherine didn't 00:28:05.660 --> 00:28:07.680 just sit back and wring her hands. She went on 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:09.799 a crusade. She became a mother bear. A total 00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:12.799 mother bear. She met with the FBI. She met with 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:15.400 prosecutors in New York. She used her celebrity 00:28:15.400 --> 00:28:17.720 status to keep a constant media spotlight on 00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:20.480 the story. She was relentless in fighting to 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:22.839 save her daughter. So the time story breaks. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:26.259 The FBI is now actively investigating. What does 00:28:26.259 --> 00:28:28.980 the genius, the vanguard, the fearless leader 00:28:28.980 --> 00:28:32.140 do? He runs. He flees to a luxury villa near 00:28:32.140 --> 00:28:34.299 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with his most loyal 00:28:34.299 --> 00:28:36.900 female followers. He tries to run the cult by 00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:38.960 remote control from his hideout. But the law 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:42.119 finally caught up with him. March 2018. The arrest 00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:45.220 is almost cinematic. The Mexican federal police, 00:28:45.380 --> 00:28:48.359 working with the FBI, raid the villa. And where 00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:51.099 do they find the smartest man in the world? Cowering 00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.359 in a walk -in closet. Hiding behind a rack of 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:55.759 clothes. It's just the perfect, pathetic end 00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:58.339 to the myth of Vanguard. When the money and the 00:28:58.339 --> 00:29:00.299 lawyers and the psychological tricks are all 00:29:00.299 --> 00:29:02.000 stripped away, he's just a frightened little 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.650 man hiding in a closet. They extradite him back 00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:07.690 to New York. The trial, United States v. Keith 00:29:07.690 --> 00:29:10.490 Rainier, begins. And the charges were just a 00:29:10.490 --> 00:29:13.009 laundry list of federal crimes. Racketeering, 00:29:13.009 --> 00:29:16.170 sex trafficking, forced labor, wire fraud, possession 00:29:16.170 --> 00:29:19.430 of child sexual abuse material, the works. And 00:29:19.430 --> 00:29:22.980 his defense strategy was audacious. to say the 00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:25.019 least. It was incredible. They tried to argue 00:29:25.019 --> 00:29:26.920 that this was all just a consensual alternative 00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:29.200 lifestyle, that these were empowered adult women 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:31.519 who chose to be branded, who chose to be slaves 00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:34.079 as a form of self -expression. They tried to 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:36.380 frame Rainier as just a benevolent mentor who 00:29:36.380 --> 00:29:38.200 was helping them achieve their personal goals. 00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:40.400 I only branded you with my initials because you 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:43.079 begged me to. It's insane. But the jury wasn't 00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:45.200 buying it. They heard the testimony about the 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:47.700 collateral. They heard about the fear, the coercion, 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:50.160 the paper terrorism, and they understood you 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:52.240 cannot legally consent to something. when there's 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.740 a gun to your head, even if that gun is a folder 00:29:54.740 --> 00:29:57.000 full of life -ruining blackmail. The verdict 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:02.099 came down on June 19th, 2019. Guilty on all counts. 00:30:02.299 --> 00:30:04.539 And the sentencing was a moment of real justice. 00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:08.380 The judge, Nicholas Grofus, clearly understood 00:30:08.380 --> 00:30:10.859 the depth of Rainier's depravity. He gave him 00:30:10.859 --> 00:30:13.819 120 years in prison. Effectively a life sentence. 00:30:14.180 --> 00:30:17.160 In his remarks, he called Rainier ruthless and 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:19.779 a predator, and he specifically noted his complete 00:30:19.779 --> 00:30:22.819 and utter lack of remorse. Throughout the entire 00:30:22.819 --> 00:30:25.759 trial, Rainier sat there stone -faced, convinced 00:30:25.759 --> 00:30:28.400 he was the victim. And what happened to his lieutenants, 00:30:28.460 --> 00:30:31.500 the inner circle? They all fell one by one. Allison 00:30:31.500 --> 00:30:34.140 Mack pleaded guilty before the trial and cooperated 00:30:34.140 --> 00:30:37.079 with the prosecution. She provided crucial audio 00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:39.339 recordings of Ranier discussing the branding 00:30:39.339 --> 00:30:41.720 and the master -slave dynamic. She was sentenced 00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:44.920 to three years. And Claire Bronfman, the money? 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.039 She got nearly seven years, a much harsher sentence 00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:50.599 than expected, largely because she showed no 00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:53.440 remorse and was seen as the primary enforcer. 00:30:53.880 --> 00:30:56.740 Nancy Saltzman got three and a half years. The 00:30:56.740 --> 00:30:59.900 entire top of the pyramid was dismantled. You 00:30:59.900 --> 00:31:01.900 would think that's the end of the story. The 00:31:01.900 --> 00:31:04.849 monster is in a cage. The victims are getting 00:31:04.849 --> 00:31:06.809 their collateral back. The judge ordered that, 00:31:06.890 --> 00:31:09.609 thank God. And he ordered restitution to pay 00:31:09.609 --> 00:31:12.210 for brain removal surgery. Right. But there's 00:31:12.210 --> 00:31:15.250 this one final haunting image from the aftermath 00:31:15.250 --> 00:31:17.910 of the trial that just sticks with me. The forgotten 00:31:17.910 --> 00:31:20.549 ones. This is the part that truly proves how 00:31:20.549 --> 00:31:23.650 deep the indoctrination goes. Even after the 00:31:23.650 --> 00:31:26.190 guilty verdict, even after the whole world knew 00:31:26.190 --> 00:31:28.829 about the sex slavery and the branding, a group 00:31:28.829 --> 00:31:31.569 of diehard loyalists remained. This included 00:31:31.569 --> 00:31:33.769 another actress, Nikki Klein from Battlestar 00:31:33.769 --> 00:31:35.769 Galactica. And they would go to the federal prison 00:31:35.769 --> 00:31:38.049 in Brooklyn where Ranier was being held. And 00:31:38.049 --> 00:31:40.569 they danced every single night. They would perform 00:31:40.569 --> 00:31:43.130 these bizarre choreographed dances on the sidewalk 00:31:43.130 --> 00:31:45.730 outside the detention center, hoping that Ranier 00:31:45.730 --> 00:31:48.160 could see them from his tiny cell window. They 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:50.500 were dancing for the man who was convicted of 00:31:50.500 --> 00:31:52.960 branding and enslaving their friends. In their 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:55.180 minds, he wasn't a criminal. He was a political 00:31:55.180 --> 00:31:58.079 prisoner, a martyr. They had a whole narrative 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:00.259 where he was being persecuted by a corrupt government 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:03.559 because his ideas were too powerful and too dangerous 00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:06.680 to the status quo. It's just it's tragic. It 00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:09.490 shows that you can lock up the leader. But you 00:32:09.490 --> 00:32:12.529 can't so easily unlock the minds that he managed 00:32:12.529 --> 00:32:15.230 to capture. And he continues to try to exert 00:32:15.230 --> 00:32:17.309 control from prison. There have been reports 00:32:17.309 --> 00:32:19.809 of him using burner phones, of passing messages 00:32:19.809 --> 00:32:22.410 through other inmates. He's currently housed 00:32:22.410 --> 00:32:26.109 in USP Tucson, which is a maximum security facility 00:32:26.109 --> 00:32:28.609 for sex offenders. And I guarantee you he is 00:32:28.609 --> 00:32:30.849 trying to use rational inquiry on his cellmate 00:32:30.849 --> 00:32:34.390 as we speak. So let's zoom out. At the end of 00:32:34.390 --> 00:32:36.569 all this, what's the big takeaway? Why is it 00:32:36.569 --> 00:32:38.349 so important for us to understand the mechanics 00:32:38.349 --> 00:32:42.470 of how NXIVM operated? I think for me, it completely 00:32:42.470 --> 00:32:45.190 shatters that comfortable myth that intelligence 00:32:45.190 --> 00:32:47.910 protects you from manipulation. We all like to 00:32:47.910 --> 00:32:49.609 believe that if you're smart, you'll spot the 00:32:49.609 --> 00:32:52.650 con. NXIVM proves that if you're smart, you might 00:32:52.650 --> 00:32:55.009 just be better at creating complex rationalizations 00:32:55.009 --> 00:32:57.250 for why it's not a con. That's a great point. 00:32:57.329 --> 00:33:00.500 He targeted smart. Successful, ambitious people 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:02.920 for a reason. Exactly. They had more to give, 00:33:03.059 --> 00:33:05.740 more money, more credibility, more influence. 00:33:05.980 --> 00:33:08.920 And their brains were complex enough to get tangled 00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:11.880 up in his bizarre logic puzzles and pseudoscientific 00:33:11.880 --> 00:33:15.680 frameworks. He weaponized their own desire to 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:18.619 be good, to be ethical, to be disciplined. He 00:33:18.619 --> 00:33:20.359 told them, if you truly want to save the world, 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:22.619 you have to do this incredibly hard thing. You 00:33:22.619 --> 00:33:24.740 have to endure this pain for a higher purpose. 00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:27.400 It's complete corruption of the hero's journey 00:33:27.400 --> 00:33:29.710 narrative. There's a quote from Rainier himself 00:33:29.710 --> 00:33:32.589 that I think sums up his entire worldview. He 00:33:32.589 --> 00:33:35.130 once wrote that his ultimate goal was to, and 00:33:35.130 --> 00:33:37.609 I'm quoting here, ethically control as much of 00:33:37.609 --> 00:33:39.589 the money, wealth, and resources of the world 00:33:39.589 --> 00:33:41.750 as possible. Ethically control. The irony is 00:33:41.750 --> 00:33:44.329 just suffocating. He failed at the world domination 00:33:44.329 --> 00:33:46.529 part, obviously. He's going to die in a concrete 00:33:46.529 --> 00:33:49.309 box. But when I think about those women dancing 00:33:49.309 --> 00:33:52.450 on a sidewalk outside a federal prison, it raises 00:33:52.450 --> 00:33:55.190 a question that I really don't have an easy answer 00:33:55.190 --> 00:33:57.769 to. What's that? At what point does a belief 00:33:57.769 --> 00:34:00.490 system become so completely fused with your personal 00:34:00.490 --> 00:34:04.289 identity that facts no longer matter? If a cauterizing 00:34:04.289 --> 00:34:07.109 pen to your skin, a federal indictment filled 00:34:07.109 --> 00:34:10.170 with horrific evidence, and a 120 -year prison 00:34:10.170 --> 00:34:13.369 sentence don't wake you up, what possibly could? 00:34:13.590 --> 00:34:15.849 That is the terrifying question. And for some 00:34:15.849 --> 00:34:17.510 of them, I'm afraid the answer might be nothing. 00:34:17.730 --> 00:34:19.670 I think you're right. On that rather chilling 00:34:19.670 --> 00:34:21.570 note, we're going to wrap up. This has been a 00:34:21.570 --> 00:34:23.630 deep dive into the darkness and the mechanics 00:34:23.630 --> 00:34:28.039 of NXIVM. Stay critical, trust your gut, and 00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:30.699 remember it's not a parasite, and we will see 00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:31.219 you next time.