Sarah Berman > Quotes

“Years later, NXIVM would implement a rule that no psychologists or psychiatrists were allowed to attend its courses, a rule shared with Scientology. When a former trainer asked Nancy about this, she said it was because psychologists “ruin the training for everybody else; all they want to do is argue.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Joe O’Hara, the lawyer who’d done consulting work for Raniere and had introduced NXIVM to Interfor, told me that after he ended his contract, his cable and phone lines were cut and the words “You will die in seven days” were spray-painted on his property.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Raniere had a signature way of flirting with women like Bouchey. He handed her a copy of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged and told her she was his Dagny Taggart, the heroine who wants to save unbridled capitalism.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“One way Raniere’s inner circle could atone for their Nazi sins was through yogic enlightenment practices achieved through sex.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“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.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Racists and eugenicists are obsessed with it, which is never a good sign.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Having a dinner party with NXIVM friends meant constantly dissecting your fears and insecurities. If somebody said they didn’t like sharing the food on their plate, for example, other group members would chime in with probing questions in an effort to overcome the block. What would you lose if you stopped the behavior? Is refusing to share holding you back?”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Gina was interested in Eastern religion, shamanism, philosophy, and martial arts, and Raniere positioned himself as a brilliant mentor in all of those fields. Heidi says she now recognizes this as a tactic predators commonly use to groom families into allowing unsupervised contact.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Mack and Clyne had been invited to participate in a “recommitment ceremony.” The plan was to show loyalty to Raniere in the most vulnerable way possible, which might have included group sex had the cops not shown up that day. Under her clothes, each actor bore a scar in the shape of Raniere’s initials, burned into her skin with a cauterizing pen more than a year earlier. It symbolized her lifelong commitment to obeying Raniere’s every request.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Raniere told the reporter that he’d learned to spell the word “homogenized” by reading it off the side of a milk carton at age two, and that he “had an understanding of subjects such as quantum physics and computers by age four.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“In letters to his inner circle he used Scientology terminology and later adapted some of it into NXIVM teachings—though in court battles, he later denied being influenced by Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard’s pseudoscientific theory of mental health.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“He told one of his partners that he required sex constantly, or else spiritual energy might consume him to the point of death.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“From what she’d already seen at NXIVM, Daniela was familiar with this kind of plotting bordering on criminal conspiracy. What stood out most for her wasn’t the hacking plot but the price tag Keeffe attached to it: a steep $24,000 for access to one email account. “I remember it was a very large amount of money they were willing to pay for a password,” she said.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“As in Scientology, NXIVM used the word “suppressive” to describe people and forces that went against the organization’s interests. In NXIVM, a suppressive person was described as someone who had their wires completely crossed, so that good things made them feel bad and bad things made them feel good.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“From that moment on, Raniere became a nonentity when it came to business records. He told his inner circle that because powerful forces were gunning for him, he needed to protect himself by not having a driver’s license, not owning any property or businesses, and basically staying off the grid entirely. Instead he encouraged the women around him to put their names and bank accounts on the line.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“She wasn’t as tiny or striking as some of the women around her, and this was a point of shame Raniere leveraged. He set Keeffe’s weight goal at 128 pounds, and would ask her to report her weight in front of colleagues. Like many NXIVM women, she developed an eating disorder.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“In one recorded interview with Hawaii Five-O actor Grace Park, Raniere even described having memories of infancy and early childhood. “I spoke very early,” he told Park. “By the time I was, you know, a year old, I was asking questions…. I had some really deep, profound thoughts at an early age.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“She wasn’t as tiny or striking as some of the women around her, and this was a point of shame Raniere leveraged. He set Keeffe’s weight goal at 128 pounds, and would ask her to report her weight in front of colleagues.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“On their walks, Raniere would ask Nicole the kinds of personal questions that often appeared on NXIVM worksheets: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? What are you afraid of? What would be the hardest thing for you to tell me right now?”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“Raniere also told Daniela that sex was a tool he used to fix “disintegrations” in women. He claimed to be able to see disintegrations and other weaknesses in people’s bodies, and that he could heal them through sex or through NXIVM therapies.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM

“EACH NEW CURRICULUM and company was an opportunity to bring in more money and people. All the successful ones followed a similar recruitment and pay structure, with 10 percent of dues going back to their “philosophical founder.”
― Sarah Berman, Don't Call it a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM