The episode starts with the intro footage and then we cut to footage of India talking to her therapist. She feels she was robbed because of her years spent in Nxivm.
We then cut to India flying out to Albany, New York to check out Nxivm headquarters. It’s closed down and looks a bit neglected now.
We then do a quick cut to archival footage of Keith giving a lecture. He says that a sociopath has no empathy. Such a person just does what feels good. “…raping a person, raping a cat… You know, whatever it is.” This guy is so fucked up.
We cut back to India who says she is feeling a bit wigged being back here. She peers through a window and sees the lights are still on in some rooms, as if people left in a hurry.
As I said in the previous recap, this was one of the things I liked about this doc. Throughout, India takes us to various locations where certain events took place. It does add something to the experience of learning about the culture of Nxivm. It would have been interesting to have been able to explore the inside of the building, too.
The Stripe Path
India tells us the only way to move up in rank in Nxivm was to recruit people and to take courses yourself. The stripe path was Nxivm’s ranking system. Colored scarves indicated rank, just like in martial arts. It was called the Stripe Path because you had to earn a certain number of stripes on each scarf before being promoted to a new level.
India tells us it felt good to rise in the ranks, because you believed you were working for this great humanitarian organization. But while you had to recruit people to take courses as well as pay for courses yourself to earn your stripes, you couldn’t earn any money until you got to the level of proctor. The dream was to get high enough in rank so you could turn working for Nxivm into a career.
I heard in a “A Little Bit Culty” podcast that unbeknownst to most ESPians, there was only a small amount of people who were promoted to the level needed to actually earn real money from their work for the organization. India explains that it was basically your standard pyramid scheme, and that type of set up isn’t actually profitable except for those at the very top of the pyramid.
Dr. Lalich tells us on the surface it all looked like a merit based system, but in reality, it was up to Keith to decide when people would be promoted. She says, unsurprisingly, the skinny, hot women rose more quickly in the ranks than others. Eventually some of these women would become part of Keith’s “stable of sex slaves.”
We cut to a creepy video clip of Keith:
“With respect to motivating mules, I just set up the circumstances. Most of the time if they’re motivated for the first time in their life, they go too far. Which is fine… yeah.”
His facial expression when he says this is so self-satisfied. Gleeful.
In 2013, India tells us she had been in Nxivm for about two years and been training to be a coach for about one. She had put in hundreds of hours of training time, but she was still not earning anything as a coach. To make money she would pick up odd jobs that came her way as long as they fit around her training at Nxivm. Her entire circle of friends and her new boyfriend, Michel, were part of Nxivm too.
Nancy Salzman interjected herself into India’s relationship with Michel, because she did not approve of Nxivm members dating each other who were not of equal rank. (Equal rank?? So insane.) Nancy created all these parameters for the two of them. Michel and India had to split everything 50/50 when out to dinner, for example. This was to discourage India from becoming dependent on him because being dependent on people was one of India’s “problems” she needed to work on.
An opportunity for India to work as an assistant on a Pierce Brosnan movie came up. In Catherine’s book “Captive,” she admits she was the one who arranged the job for India. Though she adds that India “secured the job on her own merit” by doing an interview with Pierce. Okay, Catherine. But really, her intent was good, in my opinion. She wanted to remind her daughter there was something outside of Nxivm since more and more India was so enmeshed.
Sounding bitter, India tells us Mark Vicente laid a heavy guilt trip on her for “bailing on her ESP team” by leaving the country for this work opportunity. He even cried to her about it, she says. “There was so much guilt-tripping about doing anything that Nxivm didn’t want you to do.”
That does sound so ridiculous. She’s putting in hours of work without making a dime, but when she gets a job to earn actual money she’s criticized for it. I bet this was Keith’s strategy to ensnare India further by sabotaging any chances she had of independence outside of Nxivm. I bet he directed Mark to act as his enforcer in this situation.
While India was away working, she was getting a lot of feedback she was “a shitty coach for her lack of commitment” to ESP. Eventually she was given an ultimatum. She needed to come home and fully commit to Nxivm to “achieve her full potential.” Otherwise she might as well give in to her dependency issues with her family and stay stuck. India stayed on and finished the job anyway, but once home in LA, she was ordered to head to V-week. From there she was to go to Albany for three weeks for intensive training sessions.
Jness Tracks
It was suggested to India she take part in a program called Jness Tracks. Oh no, not this bullshit. Jness was a women’s empowerment group. Jness Tracks was the same idea except men were invited to participate. We see video of Pam Cafritz (one of Keith’s harem) saying even though Jness has been around for awhile it wasn’t until they focused on “understanding the men’s side of things” the group became “life changing.” Omigod, totally, because what is a woman’s empowerment group for but to understand the male perspective?
India tells us the purpose of Jness Tracks was to understand gender roles and improve relationships between men and women. We see a promo video of Mark saying he feels more like a man since taking the course. We see footage of Keith hitting on a woman while telling her how great Jness Tracks is in regards to understanding male sexuality. Jesus, this guy.
Former member Kelly tells us one of the things taught in the course was men are not naturally monogamous so wives and girlfriends shouldn’t question their partners about fidelity. We then see footage of Nancy giving a lecture at a meeting where she says men are capable of being serious with one woman while having sex with others, whereas a man knows a woman isn’t capable of the same. This shit is so damn tired, honestly.
India told the group she wasn’t down with the whole open relationship for the man idea and was promptly told she needed to get an EM so she would get over it. As you may recall, EMs are supposed to resolve any issue you may have about pretty much anything.
We see a promo video where Michel somewhat arrogantly says thanks to Jness Tracks, he has learned to “exercise his free will.” I guess he means the free will of his dick? I have no idea. I’m just making a joke. He and India didn’t break up or anything, but India makes it clear he wasn’t faithful. Needless to say, the intensive did not help with their relationship. India says at the time, she was not able to see this.
With the culture of Nxivm being so permissive, for men anyway, there was a lot of pushing of norms for relationships and sex. A lot of swinging from the sound of it. India tells us these ideas and blurring of boundaries “were repeated constantly in all of the classes.” We see clips of “testimonials” from ESPians saying how much they got out of taking Jness Tracks. Allison Mack says she learned “true empowerment.”
We cut to footage of Keith talking about how the screaming of abuse is abuse in itself. (You may remember that from season one, episode eight of “The Vow.”) India tells us one of the topics covered in Jness Tracks was about rape. It was taught that rape wasn’t actually rape if the victim didn’t choose to see it that way. That idea became normalized, because it was taught over and over.
We cut to Keith giving a lecture where he says he knows being molested or abused “wasn’t that bad,” because everybody sitting in the room who has experienced it is still here. There are so many things I could say to that, but what’s the point? This guy is a sexual predator and a sociopath. Welcome to his world view.
We cut to more footage of Keith who says, “The person that’s the victim, self-victimizing, is abusing. The person who is complaining is abusing.” Naomi, a former member, tells us talk about rape and sexual abuse triggered her due to traumatic events from her childhood. She wanted to leave Nxivm as a result, but at the same time she didn’t. The community of ESP was a large part of the pull for people and inadvertently, one of the ways these ideas, however objectionable, became normalized. When you are sitting in a room full of people—your community— and you are the only one who has a problem with what is being said, it is very hard to trust your own judgement.
We then cut to some footage of men and women working out in a gym doing martial arts stuff. One weird bit shows a group of men standing in a circle and each man punches the other man hard on the arm as they go round. Former member Ashley says one of the most horrifying programs in Nxivm was SOP (Society of Protectors), because it was so militant.
SOP Complete
We see Nxivm member and SOP group leader Nippy Ames (Nippy is a family nickname) tell an audience about how most movements are lead by men grabbing their pitchforks or their muskets. Imagine potentially millions of men “fortifying the principles that we stand for.” India tells us SOP started off as the male counterpart to Jness. We then hear an audio recording of Keith leading a SOP forum where he is talking about how men are “hungry fuckie beasties.” Men want to “fuck, fuck, fuck” and women want to be conquered.
We cut to that circle of men in the gym again and this time they are taking turns slapping each other in the face. Cult expert Rick Ross wonders what Keith’s ultimate goal was with all of it, because it looked like he was weaponizing his most devoted followers. We cut to footage of Keith saying “people bond through pain.”
India tells us next, Keith developed the SOP Complete program which invited women to take the curriculum with men. Former member Ashley tells us it was a six-day intensive where women would see what it was like to be treated like little boys. India tells us she took the course and found it be “one of the more disturbing programs offered through Nxivm.”
Ashley tells us the women were required to wear the baggiest clothing possible so as to not to draw attention to their bodies. India tells us the women were not allowed to eat, drink or go to the bathroom without permission. Frankly, that sounds like every little boy and girl in grammar school. How the fuck is that unique to little boys? I know, I know. I am looking for logic in something created by a woman-hating sociopath.
India tells us the women had to hear “100% feedback” from the men. The leader of India’s group told her when she wore her pink converse sneakers it made him think about fucking her. India felt “humiliated and embarrassed, like I had done something wrong.” If Nxivm hadn’t been brought down it would only have been a matter of time before Keith had the women wearing burqas. I’m not entirely joking.
Ashley tells us the women were mocked and demeaned. There were punishments for talking back such as having to wear a crown or a mask. Or in one case, Clare Bronfman had to wear a jock strap. The women were given nicknames and mantras, too. India’s mantra was, “I am nothing and I have no real emotions.” If you wanted to speak you had to say the mantra first, sometimes over and over. Ashley did her best to comply because it was the safest thing to do to avoid humiliation. India tells us the freakiest part was that at the end of the intensive you would feel such love and gratitude towards your male mentors. She doesn’t get why that is.
No doctor or cult expert offers us an explanation, which is too bad, because I would love to know why, too. Maybe it was a form of trauma response. After spending 8+ hours a day, for a week, in an emotionally threatening environment, maybe the body releases feel-good hormones to cope. Don’t quote me on that, but it’s a possibility.
Another theory I have is that while it was abusive and scary, everyone involved felt their participation was leading to personal growth. Getting to the end of it might have resulted in an almost euphoric sense of relief and accomplishment. Pondering this stuff is part of why I’m here, people.
Ashley tells us for $50 a month you could also choose to take part in what were called readiness drills. Covered in “The Vow”, readiness drills were literally just being texted “ready?” at any time of the day or night and you would have one minute to reply. If you failed to respond in time you and your teammates would have to do some form of penance, like take a cold shower and stupid shit like that.
Ashley said the readiness drills kept you on edge constantly since you never knew when they were coming. I can imagine! I would be tense all the time. Not because I feared penance for myself, but because it would be the kind of thing that I would hate to “fail” at when it’s something I signed up for, was paying for and seemed so simple. Add the element of your entire team being given a fail for your own mistake would really add to the pressure. The point of it all was to “build character.” Rick Ross says it was about, “Don’t think. Just react.” Obedience.
Journalist Dennis Yusko says in 2003, Forbes magazine published an article on Keith. In it, Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire owner of the Seagram’s company and father of ESPian members Clare and Sara, said Nxivm was a cult. As a result of the article, Keith successfully turned the two sisters against their father. The article changed nothing for Keith and Nxivm, says Yusko.
The Bronfman sisters spent a great deal of money going after critics of Keith through the courts. Rick Ross had a $10 million defamation case brought against him when he publicly criticized Keith on his website. They also harassed him and put him under surveillance among other things. Nancy told India that Rick Ross was a suppressive person. He was like the devil.
We cut to India meeting with Rick Ross. She tells him she is embarrassed for having believed all the negative shit said about him. She tells him about SOP and that she was very depressed after training. She says that Mark Vicente told her it was normal.
India also recalls experiments where brain activity and emotional reactions were measured while doing certain things like taking an intensive or doing an EM. A man named Dr. Brandon Porter joined Nxivm and was responsible for creating these crazy ass pseudo-scientific experiments.
One involved having women watch scenes of violence while measuring and filming their brain waves and reactions. These scenes involved watching actual footage of extremely violent murder. The participants were not warned in advance that what they would be watching would be extremely upsetting.
Former member Elena tells us watching the videos was traumatic. Dr. Lalich says what Dr. Porter was doing was unconscionable. Rick Ross tells us because there were no boundaries as to what could be done to you in Nxivm, the impact on some people was severe.
Watching things like that can create a trauma response. I know this from experience. I once watched a documentary that left me shell shocked for weeks. (Thank God I was seeing a therapist at the time.) Dr. Porter lost his medical license, by the way.
Dr. Hassan explains those in the psychiatric profession must take an oath to do no harm, but people like Nancy and Keith had no ethical obligation. They freely used things like hypnosis and NLP to manipulate and fuck with people’s heads.
[Respectfully, I am leaving out certain segments that pertain to some of the traumatic responses people had to ESP training.]
Ethics Intensive
In 2015, India moved in with her boyfriend Michel. She had continued her training to be a coach, but advancing to the next level on the Stripe Path was feeling increasingly out of reach. Michel pressured her to take an ethicist course being taught by Keith. Keith teaching ethics. Oh, the irony!
The course centered around people sacrificing themselves for a greater cause. The participants watched a lot of movies centered around this idea, like “Passion of the Christ and “Gandhi.”
“In some cultures,” we see Keith tell a group, “people want nothing more than to die for their cause.” India says at one point during the course she was beginning to feel like she would die for Keith. She saw him as godly. I could make a joke about if wanting to die for that doofus is not proof right there Nxivm was brainwashing people… but you get the gist.
We cut to a woman named Rosa Laura Junco on stage during Tribute Night in 2015. She tells the audience about all of Keith’s accomplishments, such as having a 240 IQ and being known as The Man With the Highest IQ in Recorded Human History®. Known by ESPians. Nobody else would have ever heard of him. And how Keith was RPI’s (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) first triple major graduate. He actually did have three majors with two minors, which is just idiocy. He graduated with a 2.26 GPA, though. I mean, let’s be real, he is no dummy, but he’s not a genius, as he has claimed, with a 240 IQ, either. Journalist Jaclyn Cangro tells us as a child, Keith was labeled as “gifted” and his childhood friends say he developed a superiority complex as a result. He must have been such an insufferable snot.
We cut to Catherine who tells us in 2015, she invited India to join her and her mother Elizabeth in Tulum for Catherine’s birthday. She had recently separated from her husband Casper van Dien. While in Mexico, Casper filed for divorce and Catherine feels she was too distracted as a result to fully take in what was going on with India. India tells us she still had a shit ton of work she had to do while on vaca and her mind was never off of Nxivm. She was working hard so she would advance to the next level of her training.
India tells us in 2015, she was traveling to Albany constantly to take more classes. She would stay at Mark and his wife Bonnie’s house or with actress Allison Mack. India describes Allison as expressive, outgoing and fearless. We see some little clips of Allison where you can see she’s energetic and quite charming. These were things India felt she lacked to a degree.
Allison taught a series of advanced classes that India took. Allison was also progressing up the Stripe Path really fast and had been promoted to proctor. India looked up to her for that. When Allison asked India how she was doing, India admitted she felt scared and frustrated. She had invested so much time, energy and money yet she wasn’t advancing.
India tells us by that time, she had blown through a trust her grandfather had “generously left me to pay for college.” In Catherine’s book “Captive,” she calls the amount a “hefty” sum and says India becoming “wealthy” was part of her appeal to Nxivm. So it was more than just to pay for college is my point. I don’t care either way about India’s wealth, but I noticed at this point in the doc, there were details adjusted here and there to minimize India’s obvious privilege so she wouldn’t come across as spoiled. The main point though was that whatever the amount of her trust, she had spent it all on ESP courses. Yet, she still had not been promoted to the level needed to turn being a coach into a viable career despite promises she would be. India admitted to Allison she was feeling pretty desperate with her lack of advancement. Allison reassured India she knew what she should do next that would help.
Cult expert Dr. Bernstein says the method of stalling your sense of advancement/growth is designed to break you down. That way the organization can offer a helping hand to pull you back up. Keith must have been watching India for years. Just waiting until she was primed to be preyed on.
Allison told India she would need some collateral –something important to India–before Allison could tell her about anything else.
DOS
India decided her collateral would be some family secrets. She was told to write it in letter format addressing a news organization of some kind (like NBC or CNN) then to get it notarized. She complied.
Once India handed over the collateral, Allison began telling her about a group called DOS. It was a secret women’s empowerment group that was like nothing else in Nxivm. Keith had nothing to do with it. That’s a selling point right there. No Keith? Thank the Lord! Anyway, it was women mentoring women in a specialized deep way. India said it felt heavy, like she was privileged to be hearing about it.
Once back in LA, Allison starting calling India a lot so they could talk about DOS. Allison wanted India to make a vow of obedience to her. What does that mean? India asked. It meant India would need to ask Allison for permission to do anything in her life she wanted to do. Further, their relationship would be master/slave. India says she had a visceral reaction to that and Allison told her that was normal. She suggested India reframe it for herself as mentor/student.
India expressed fear Allison might use the collateral to hurt her. Allison shamed her for thinking that way. After all, India knew what Allison stood for and what her values were. She had taken many intensives Allison had taught and even stayed at her house. India felt guilty and told Allison she was in and committed. She tells us in that moment she chose to override her gut instinct that was warning her.
Allison started giving India small tasks to do. One task required her to read articles written by Keith and then journal how they had impacted her. (Read the titles. They are so stupidly pretentious. So Keith.) Additionally, every day India was required to share something personal. Allison was especially interested in anything that pertained to sex or intimacy. India was also told to lose weight and if she failed she would have to go to Albany for 30 days. India failed and off to Albany she went.
India was told she was too dependent on her family and needed to work on separating herself from them. Further, India needed to end her relationship with Michel as Allison felt it was holding her back. India did as she was instructed with a promise she would continue to be celibate. She tells us it seemed to be very important to Allison.
Yeccchh. We cut to a weird segment where Keith is talking to Mark in his office:
Keith: (flipping through someone’s wedding album) Look Mark. Did you notice one of the women wasn’t wearing panties?
Mark: How do you notice these things?
Keith: And all these weddings that say it’s official. You know, you can say a woman’s official to… to tease a woman about her odor, saying that she’s… about fish. She’s “a fish hole.”
Mark: Hmm. (Then he gets the joke.) Oh, hahaha.
Keith: She’s official.
Mark: Yeah, I like the way you led me there. *ominous music plays*
It kind of amuses me the doc wants this moment to be very dark and reflective of Keith’s (and presumably Mark’s) pathology when to me it’s just more proof Keith is a giant fucking dweeb (albeit a dangerous dweeb) and Mark is his brainwashed sidekick. Stupid and gross, though.
We cut back to India who tells us Allison gave her a new assignment. It was to seduce Keith. End.
Next episode: Episode 3 “Enslaved” India, now in DOS, is assigned the task of “seducing” Keith. She starts to disintegrate and Catherine is warned her daughter is in danger.
Recapulet 
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