Don't Call it a Cult by Sarah Berman

Author:Sarah Berman [Berman, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2021-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

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IN JANUARY 2008 Bouchey decided to step down from NXIVM’s executive board. One of her top concerns was that the business model wasn’t working: enrollment was sagging and people weren’t properly advancing through the “stripe path.”

NXIVM coaches worked for no pay until they advanced far enough to become proctors. Coaches would arrange for participants’ food, facilitate the training exercises, and pay for their own travel, essentially just to maintain their standing within the company. It was only by hitting an exceedingly tough recruitment goal—developing six new coaches with at least two students under each—that NXIVM lifers could actually start making an income.

“Nobody got to the proctor level,” Bouchey says. “Over nine years, only twenty or so people made it to proctor, and what that meant was we had a couple hundred people at the coach level who weren’t making any money. In my opinion, that was a fatal flaw in the business model.”

There was more going on that Bouchey didn’t like. She thought Nancy Salzman was abusing her power at times, and that there was too much pressure for members to work on the “inner deficiencies” they identified in coaching sessions. For Lauren Salzman, her issue was that she indulged in sadness too often, earning the nickname “Forlorn.” For Nicki Clyne, it was always needing to be right. “I never saw a group of people work harder on their issues—to root out any issues of anger and fear and lack of forgiveness,” Bouchey says. “These people were amazing at this.”

But Bouchey’s biggest concern was that Raniere seemed to be abusing his position as leader in order to sexually manipulate women in the company. At the time, Bouchey, Loreta Garza, Lauren Salzman, and Karen Unterreiner were all on the executive board and secretly maintaining sexual relationships with Raniere. Edgar Boone was the only board member who wasn’t also a sex partner. Bouchey thought Raniere was leveraging these relationships, and that it was affecting day-to-day decision-making.

Bouchey stopped enrolling new students, hoping the financial pressure might encourage Raniere and Nancy Salzman to address what she called the “elephants in the room.” But her plan backfired. She noticed her ideas were being shot down in every facet of NXIVM activity. When she criticized how Raniere ran the business, others in his inner circle would jump to his defense, telling Bouchey, “How dare you speak to him that way.”

For the next two years, Bouchey claims, Raniere’s most loyal followers, including filmmaker and Vancouver center cofounder Mark Vicente, waged a smear campaign against her. People whispered horrible things about her—that she was a troublemaker and blamer and might have an undiagnosed mental deficiency. NXIVM taught that it was an honorable thing to keep a secret, so the damaging rumors were spread quietly. Bouchey had no idea what was coming her way.

“What Keith Raniere is masterful at is using secrets and lack of transparency to not allow people to know the whole story, or to discredit someone who might,” Bouchey says. “NXIVM was all about teaching people how to be more honest, honorable, forthcoming, and genuine.

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