Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress who became involved with NXIVM, a personal and professional development company. She was just starting out in her career as an actress and wanted purpose in her life. When she was invited to a 3 day course in NXIVM, one where she would learn the tools to gain her potential, Sarah was at first skeptical of some of the stuff they were teaching. But by the end of the 3 days she was hooked. This was the start of her 12 year involvement with the company. Sarah went on to become one of NXIVM's best recruiters, enrolling more than 2000 people, and starting a branch in her city of Vancouver, Canada. But Sarah didn't realize the dark under workings of the company until she was invited to join a secret sisterhood circle of women called DOS, one that would train them to become their very best as a group of women dedicated to each other and to change world. As she tried to justify the red flags with what she had been trained to do for 12 years, her eyes were opened when she was talked into being "tatooed" by her best friend, which turned out to be a painful branding with no anesthetic, and in a moment of realization weeks later she saw she had been branded with not a symbol celebrating nature as she had been told, but by the initials of the company founder, Keith Raniere. He had been using an inner circle of women to recruit other women into a secret master/slave sisterhood while he made it seem this special group had nothing to do with him. That was the start of her journey escaping and blowing the whistle on a company that was quickly gaining traction world wide and which eventually saw the founder, Keith Raniere, going to prison for 120 years for sex trafficking.
This book was so good I read it in two days. I first heard of NXIVM when the news hit of Alison Mack, an actress in the series Smallville, being charged and tried for her part in a sex cult. It stunned me as she seemed so sweet and it sent me down a rabbit hole of looking up what this thing was. Though in places this book can be a little dry as Sarah describes a lot of NXIVM's teachings it is important to the story to understand how all these intelligent, smart, professional people were being sucked into the crazy. Sarah starts the story with the actual event of the branding and then goes back to her start with the company. Her and her husband, who was also a member, have now dedicated their lives to teaching people the signs to look out for and helping those coming out of cults. Very eye opening and interesting story.
Reading Challenge Goal Met: Book off my Library list
3 comments:
This sounds riveting. One of my biggest fears is how people can prey on others' minds. It's scarey.
This book is HUGE in our town as you can imagine. I haven't read it and probably won't since this happened right in the town 1 exit up the ADK Northway from us and his main office was in albany. It's been in our news for YEARS and yes some friends of mine actually saw Alison Mack downtown. Cults are dangerous. The you tube videos are on this topic are very informative. It basically comes down to What does the organization/church/temple/etc etc believe about Jesus CHrist? This of course was a secular c ult and not religion based but how scary to think of how easily people are brainwashed into what they "Think" is "TRUTH." If they c annot answer the basic questions about Jesus as Savior or the Resurrection/holy spirit/coming again questions, it's a fairly good sign they're totally missing Truth. That and there own code of conduct/discpline books/theology made by man vs the Holy Bible. It's terrible what this one man did to persuade all of those women. I drive past the house often on my way to and from a nature preserve. Who would have thunk this would happen in little old ALbany NY??!!
Sounds scary! I'm glad she's trying to help other people avoid such things.
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