Definition
NXIVM was a US-based new religious movement engaging in illicit trafficking behaviors and abuse under the guise of personal and professional self-help.
NXIVM (pronounced “nexium”) began as a multilevel marketing organization in 1998, founded by Kieth Raniere and Nancy Salzman in Albany, New York. The group was initially presented as a self-help business that offered “Executive Success Programs (ESPs),” which were advertised as seminars capable of nurturing Oscar-winners, Olympic athletes, and general success (Cutler, 2022). Raniere, who claimed to have one of the highest IQs in the world (and a 1989 Guinness World Record to support the claim), and Salzman, a nurse and trained practitioner of hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming, aimed to create a program that could foster personal growth through unlocking human potential (Edmondson, 2019).
The “curriculum” of NXIVM was a mixture of scientific, philosophical,...
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References
Cutler, M. (2022). Cults: Inside the world’s most notorious groups and understanding the people who joined them. Simon & Schuster.
Edmondson, S. (2019). Scarred: The true story of how I escaped NXIVM, the cult that bound by life. Chronicle Prism.
Grigoriadis, V. (2018, May 30). Inside Nxivm, the ‘sex cult’ that preached empowerment. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/magazine/sex-cult-empowerment-nxivm-keith-raniere.html
Hays, T. (2021, June 30). Actor Allison Mack gets 3 years in NXIVM sex-slave case. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/allison-mack-religion-sentencing-entertainment-arts-and-entertainment-8788f420e18b6d48cf255aa8c3b5fe13
Meier, B. (2017, October 17). Inside a secretive group where women are branded. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html
Neumeister, L., & Hays, T. (2020, October 27). NXIVM guru gets 120 years in prison in sex-slaves case. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/keith-raniere-nxivm-120-years-prison-bfb00a8c6660b35e169b60d9a0b275ff
Odato, J. M., & Gish, J. (2012, February 11). Secrets of NXIVM. Times Union. https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Secrets-of-NXIVM-2880885.php
Oxenberg, C. (2018). Captive: A mother’s crusade to save her daughter from the terrifying cult NXIVM. Gallery Books.
Singular, S. (2020). Killer cults: Stories of charisma, deceit, and death. Sterling Publishing Group.
United States Department of Justice. (2020). United States of America v. Kieth Raniere, Clare Bronfman, Allison Mack, Kathy Russell, Lauren Salzman, and Nancy Salzman. Case 1:18, pp. 1–19. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-nyed-1_18-cr-00204/pdf/USCOURTS-nyed-1_18-cr-00204-15.pdf
United States Department of Justice. (2023). United States District Court (New York) v. Kieth Raniere, et al. Case 1:18. Document 1194, pp. 1–11. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-nyed-1_18-cr-00204/pdf/USCOURTS-nyed-1_18-cr-00204-23.pdf
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Dabbs, C.R. (2024). Cults: NXIVM. In: Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38971-9_1416-1
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