We open with India Oxenberg, daughter of actress/model Catherine Oxenberg, walking towards the townhouse where she was branded. She points in the direction of the window of the room where it happened. We then quickly cut to her sitting in a blue bedroom, I guess at her mom’s house in Malibu, giving us a little detail of what happened.
Right off the bat, one of the big issues I had with this doc was the clearly rehearsed interview segments with India. Her delivery is stilted and when she is expressing emotions, it’s like watching an untalented amateur actress. I never doubt what she is saying is true. It’s just how she is saying it is too scripted to create much of a feeling of empathy in me. Fortunately, there are a few segments where she isn’t talking like she’s giving a bad audition and they are more effective.
India was the first of the women in her group to be branded and a cauterizing pen was used. The stench of burning flesh was intense. She calls it torture and says she doesn’t even know how to explain how something like this happens.
We are told that the series contains footage from anonymous sources and some of it was never meant to be seen by the public. Well, let’s get going.
We cut to footage of Nxivm cult leader Keith Raniere lecturing a large group of people about the problems with materialism. I don’t really care what Keith has to say about it so I won’t bother to recap this blurb. We then cut to footage of shiny happy people at Vanguard week which will be explained later.
India says she got into Nxivm because she wanted to lead a more purposeful life. We cut to a former member named Naomi who says at first she felt like she had found a deep sense of community with caring people. Another former member, Ashley, says at first, Nxivm felt like a safe space with really good people. Ashley starts to cry and you realize that far more people have been hurt by Keith Raniere than we’ll ever know.
India tells us while her mother saw her as a brainwashed victim of Keith’s, she did not see it that way. We see some segments from when Catherine Oxenberg went on a publicity offensive to draw attention to the cult. Megyn Kelly introduces Catherine on her show as “Hollywood and actual royalty.” I see why that was a selling point for the Megyn Kelly show, I don’t see why that segment was included for this doc.
We cut to India doing a Google search about herself. We get a nice shot of her engagement ring which I don’t think is accidental. All the articles call her a “sex slave,” “branded sex slave,” “Allison Mack’s slave” and so on. “It just keeps going and going,” India says. She says the only thing worse would be if she was a murderer or something.
Intro to ESP
Catherine tells us she introduced India to Nxivm by taking her to Nxivm’s 5-day training course for a program called ESP. Catherine had heard about the organization from a trusted friend who, from the sound of it, gave her a bit of a hard sell: you have to take this course! It’s the best thing I’ve ever done! So, Catherine decided to see what all the fuss was about and invited India to come along. It was a very casual thing.
As Catherine talks we see a glamour shot of India. We will see lots of glamour shots of her throughout the series. While it’s obvious “Seduced” was meant to take back and reshape the narrative about India, at times, many times, it’s an oversell. It’s like, is this a doc series or an ad campaign? It’s both.
India was at a bit of crossroads in her life at this time. She didn’t feel college was for her and she had thoughts of maybe starting her own catering business. We see some glamour shots of various food India has made, captioned “India’s Cuisine.” Not sure things like custard tarts and coconut cake are considered “cuisine,” but I’m getting off topic. India thought maybe this course taught skills she could apply to her career.
When India and Catherine arrived at the venue the room was full, Catherine tells us, and there were some recognizable faces from the entertainment industry such as Rosario Dawson. They were told other celebrities had taken the course too, like Jennifer Aniston and some others. Cult expert, Dr. Christine Marie Katas tells us celebrity endorsements serve as a sort of “Okay, this is legit” message to the brain.
Catherine tells us Mark Vicente, a successful filmmaker and Sarah Edmonson, an actress (who were both featured on “The Vow,”) were the hosts of the event. The program was pitched as an opportunity to “upgrade [your] operating systems,” and improve all areas of your life, India says. This does not surprise me at all. Keith Raniere, being an unfeeling sociopath, seemed to view human beings as nothing more than computers whose software could be changed as desired.
The ESP program, offered by the company Nxivm, was really hyped to the attendees. Big names from politics, entertainment, business and even the Dalaï Lama were said to be connected to Nxivm in some way or another.
Catherine says the 5-day course was offered at $3,000 per person. She wondered at that amount what exactly were they paying for? Catherine then goes into this long spiel about India asking her mom to please loan her the money and to put it on her credit card and Catherine asked, are you sure? 3,000 dollars is a lot of money, but India really wanted to do it. India is not spoiled, okay? She had to pay for this herself. Anyway, seeing it as a chance to spend some quality time with her daughter, Catherine agreed.
India tells us she felt very loved as a child. She has always been really close to her mom whom she describes as a bit of a “seeker.” Anyway, she too, saw the intensive as an opportunity for some quality time with her mom.
All About ESP: The 5-Day Intensive
If you have seen the “The Vow” you already know how day one goes down. Video of Nxivm co-leader Nancy Salzman is shown to the attendees and she gives an intro as to what the whole program is about. India was separated from her mom at that point and put into a different group. Apparently, separating members from family and friends was standard. People are more moldable that way.
India found the courses, or modules as they were called, interesting and she was enjoying herself. Catherine found the rituals they had to learn—the special handshakes, the scarves they had to wear, the bowing—weird and stupid.
India especially liked the module “at cause” that taught you are not a victim and you have the power to choose how you feel in any given situation. India found that idea liberating. Going through the modules made it feel like it her head was getting scrambled which was kind of exciting. Catherine was told she was being defiant when she challenged any of the rituals or concepts.
The attendees were given a bio of Keith Raniere, the founder of Nxivm. That he was the smartest man in the world, a scientist, a judo champion, a concert level pianist and all sorts of bullshit. His official title was “Vanguard.” Former member Debora says she was told it was to show Keith respect and give him tribute for having created the curriculum.
The “Exploration of Meaning” (aka EM) was the “grand finale.” One on one, people would sit with a coach to work on various issues, from fear of heights to stuttering. “Almost everyone had a profound emotional experience,” India tells us.
Right before Catherine was to do her EM session, Nancy Salzman showed up in person. A very big deal. Cult expert Dr. Lalich tells us that was no coincidence. Catherine and her daughter would have been “high value recruits.”
Nancy conducted the EM session with Catherine who chose her audition anxiety as the issue she wanted to address. Despite the resistance she had felt through much of the 5-day intensive, Catherine felt she had a breakthrough during her EM session. She describes the experience as profound and cathartic.
Cult expert Rick Ross tells us that it’s dangerous to share deeply personal details to people who aren’t licensed professionals. That’s exactly the kind of stuff that predatory organizations use to manipulate you.
After you have a successful EM, it feels like you’re on a high pretty much, Catherine says. And that is when you are pushed to sign up for the next course.
India did not have any high inducing breakthrough though overall she found the 5-day intensive pretty cool. India’s whole family got into ESP so, she ended up going further into the course work. She found that what she enjoyed most was feeling understood on a personal level by the people she met.
The Beginning of Nxivm
We see a video clip of a chubby dorky Keith conducting some sort of class in front of a small group of attendees. Journalist Jaclyn Cangro tells us Keith ran a business called Consumer’s Byline before he started Nxivm. He got in trouble with the law because it was a pyramid scheme. He was sued, had to pay a fine and it was shut down.
Jaclyn is a former news anchor and even when she’s interviewed for the doc she speaks like she’s giving a newscast. It’s just kind of unintentionally funny.
Not too long after Keith’s business was shutdown, he met Nancy Salzman and they started Executive Success Program, ESP for short. It was a self-improvement methodology that he and Nancy eventually packaged to be sold to individuals.
The ESP program was comprised of a lot of ideas cobbled together from other sources, Rick Ross tells us. A little Amway, a bit of Scientology, some stuff from Ayn Rand, a bit from Erhard Seminars Training, a chunk of Neuro-linquistic Programming, a type of hypno-therapy that was Nancy’s specialty and God knows what else. All of it thrown together and scrambled like an omelette. Just like they did with people’s brains.
We see a very telling video clip of Keith saying “Most folk, even people you call sociopaths, are well-intended folk. You know, we… we all pretty much come out the same way.” Keith has never been in denial about what he is. He’s just in denial that most people are nothing like him.
Other self-improvement organizations were started under the Nxivm umbrella additional to ESP and satellite ESP centers sprung up all over the world. If you wanted to participate in other stuff like Jness (woman’s group) or SOP (men’s group) you had to be in Albany, New York. Albany was the main hub of Nxivm and where Keith lived.
We meet India’s grandmother Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia. She’s a really cool lady, but I’m not interested in the royalty stuff. All you really need to know is India has royal blood. Rick Ross tells us Keith went after the children of prominent people, because they had good connections (and often lots of money) as well as a strong desire to forge their own identities. He thinks that was a large pull for India, too.
Catherine tells us she ended up taking all of level one of the program. Then Nancy called Catherine and asked if she would be willing to host a Jness weekend? Jness was the Nxivm women’s group that was supposed to be about female empowerment. Being a feminist, Catherine was open to it and agreed. India and Elizabeth attended the weekend, too.
Jness: The first women’s movement created by a man
“A very unique man,” gushes Nancy, in a promotional video. “A very amazing man in many, many, many, ways.” She gets teary eyed saying Jness is the most amazing thing she has ever done. Cut to Elizabeth who says, “I thought it was complete rubbish.” She thought Nancy was an idiot.
We see video of Nancy saying women don’t realize how men are responsible for the world and for women, too. India tells us the group was taught men are more linear and logical than women; women lacked structure and character. Exactly the kind of stuff you expect to hear in a woman’s empowerment group, lol. I’d love to know what Catherine thoughts were listening to this regressive bullshit.
Dr. Lalich says Jness was pure misogyny disguised as empowerment. But India got into it and signed up for more Jness classes that met once a week. Former member Ashley found the group supportive. A community of women from all stripes of life.
We see footage of Nancy saying “Women feel, men think.” That old stupid trope. India tells us it wasn’t so much the topics covered in the meetings that appealed to her (well, thank God for that) as it was about the women she met and the feeling of community.
India told Catherine she planned to become an ESP coach. Members began by volunteering and were told with enough training, they could eventually earn money from it. India wanted this to be her career. “At a gut level,” says Catherine, “I knew this was a bad thing.” From her perspective, India was being consumed by the program with no time for anything else.
Catherine was becoming a bit disgruntled with ESP by this time. However, she had already paid in advance for some level two courses. It was a lot of money and she felt reluctant to just walk away. So, she and her husband at the time, Casper Van Dien, headed out to Albany to take the advanced class that was only offered there.
In Catherine’s book, “Captive,” she explains that no one taking ESP courses was allowed to meet Keith until they completed all of level one. It’s not that Catherine cared about meeting him, but she realized in hindsight, newcomers needed to be primed (so to speak) before they met him.
As said above, she and her husband Casper had traveled to Albany to take an intensive and that’s when they met Keith. At the Sports Barn. The gym where Keith and his ESPians gathered to play volleyball.
Casper and Catherine watched as woman after woman, such as actress Allison Mack, went up to Keith and gave him a full body hug and kiss on the lips. He’s having sex with all of these women, Casper said to Catherine. She couldn’t believe it. Keith was kind of squat and very underwhelming. What was the attraction?
Casper observed that none of the women exuded any sensuality either. He thought it was strange. Catherine had observed the men seemed to give off “beta” energy. They all seemed to be vaguely submissive, which she found strange as well.
Reading that made me wonder if Keith had effectively shamed all the women for any signs of sexuality or sexual confidence. As shown in The Vow, women were constantly being told they were “princesses who lacked character.” Women liked to play victim and use their sexuality to manipulate men to get their way. Over time, I’m guessing the women learned to turn off any signs of sexiness or sensuality so as not to be criticized.
I imagine the men were submissive, because whether they were aware of it or not, that was what Keith demanded. Everybody had to submit. Anyone seen as being prideful or arrogant were criticized, because those were big flaws in character. So, I wonder if the beta energy stemmed from that, too.
It was really interesting to read about Casper and Catherine’s overall first impressions of the Albany ESPians in Catherine’s book.
Back to the episode. Catherine heard about an exposé in the Albany Times Union, alleging Keith had sexually molested girls as young as 12. She was officially done with Nxivm. She discussed the article with India who dismissed it as a smear campaign. Catherine backed off and wondered if Keith was genuinely guilty, why had he not been charged?
Vanguard Week
As a coach, India was obligated to attend Vanguard week. Held in a resort in upstate New York, it was like adult summer camp. It was also a week long tribute to Vanguard a.k.a. Keith for his birthday. Can you imagine? I feel like on some level I would feel it was bullshit to have a week long tribute to such a dweeb. Keith is dangerous too, I know, but he’s also a giant dweeb. We hear Mark Vicente in voice over call Vanguard week “an extraordinary experience” to get to hang out with Keith. Ew, gross.
In present day, India takes us to the YMCA resort in Silver Bay. She walks through the various rooms explaining how the week would begin with ESPians from all over the world all coming together for V-week. As she is talking we see flash cuts of happy ESPians from back in the day. I really like this part of the doc where we go to the various locales where events took place and walk around.
We cut to footage of Keith giving a lecture. He describes V-week as a coming together to share a vision for the world or some jazz. It honestly doesn’t matter, because it’s all horseshit. Then we see a promotional video for V-week with clips of various activities that go on with words across the screen like “creating a civilized, non-violent world” and “building an ethical community.”
Former member Kelly said all the activities during V-week were called “objectives” and you could sign up to do a wide variety of things. We can see from the promo video that they really did run the gamut. Former member Elena describes the week as “exhausting.” India says it was “incredibly exhausting.” The whole point of these objectives was to push yourself beyond your limits. India said it felt like they were all building something greater than themselves.
Dr. Lalich tells us V-week was a “high arousal” event that creates an addictive “feel good” state where people are more open to influence. We see all these fast cuts of people bouncing around like little kids drunk on Coca-Cola and pixie sticks. Some of the clips remind me of what you’d see at a rave.
We see footage of Nancy Salzman in an auditorium telling the audience today is V-day of V-week. Keith’s actual birthday. The crowd cheers. India tells us for a lot of people it was the first time they would meet Keith and there was a lot of hype and build-up.
India wasn’t impressed with Keith the first time she met him. No one ever is. I can’t help but wonder if that was by design. This unimpressive, squat, soft spoken weirdo was the opposite of threatening. People drop their guards around unthreatening people. Perfect for a predatory con to snake his way in. Regardless of Keith’s lack of charisma, he was the creator and leader of the organization and was seen as this super awesome genius. So, India decided to just go with the flow.
The night of V-day was called Tribute Night where everyone performed for Keith. We see the Los Angeles ESP group, including India, give a pretty cringe inducing performance of the Beach Boys’ “California Girls,” but some of the performances were pretty good. India tells us all the centers practiced for months for this night. We see individuals stand on stage and express their gratitude for Keith while he sits in the audience with this expression on his face of… I don’t even know what. He looks a bit gleeful.
Former member Debora tells us meeting Keith for the first time “felt in a weird way… intimate and connected.” He got up close to your face and gave you his undivided attention. Then there was that kissing on the lips thing Keith did to everybody. No matter who you were, you got kissed on the lips in greeting by Keith. Even if you had never met him. No respect for boundaries at all. Naomi preferred to kiss on the cheek, but she admits it was awkward to do since Keith would zero in on the mouth. Plus, she wondered why she had a problem with it when no one else seemed to. India tells us anyone who had a problem with the kissing thing was told they weren’t far enough in the curriculum to be evolved. Naomi asked who Keith was involved with and hilariously, she was told he was a renunciate.
We cut to Keith giving a lecture how in ancient Greece older adults had sex with children sometimes as young as six to eight years old as a “type of sexual apprenticeship. It was common,” he says. It wasn’t common, but yes, it was accepted in certain pockets of society for a period. Typically involving teenagers. Not that it makes it okay, but he is deliberately misrepresenting certain elements to normalize child sex abuse.
Continuing in this vein, Keith tells the story of a girl he knew who had a sexual relationship with her father when she was a child and “really loved it.” He goes on with this for a bit more. It’s just so offensive and nauseating. Keith says it was only when the girl was told it was abuse by society that she had a problem with it.
Rick Ross says Keith was good at desensitizing people so they could do increasingly horrific things without feeling anything about it. Catherine tells us her daughter had been in the presence of such evil. India says it has taken her 50 hours working with a therapist to even admit that “something sexual did happen” with Keith.
We cut to footage of V-week where a group of people are singing, ” All we are saying, is give Keith a chance.” Ew. And end.
Next episode: Episode 2 “Indoctrinated.” India takes part in Jness Tracks and SOP Complete. We hear more about some of the shitty things that were going on in Nxivm that wasn’t covered in “The Vow,” like these fucked up brain experiments. Allison introduces India to DOS.
Recapulet 
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