01x03 - Enslaved

[bunniefuu]

My entire life
became NXIVM-related.

I was taking so many courses.

[Raniere] It is a vision.
It is an understanding.

Our intent is to make
a better world.

[cheers and applause]

[menacing electronic music]

He was this great philosopher.

I felt like I will die
for Keith.

[woman] Hi.

They said, "Keith...
he's a renunciate."

You know, "He's like a monk.
He doesn't have sex."

If I had an issue
with any one of their rituals,

they accused me
of being defiant.

That, to me, was like a...
a giant red flag.

People bond through pain.

[India] Allison pulled me aside

and told me about DOS,

this secret society of women

in which she would be my master
and I would be a sl*ve.

It was a lifetime vow
of obedience.

Every woman needs this.

[India] Allison said,

"Your assignment
is to seduce Keith."

[menacing electronic music]

♪ ♪

It's strange to think
who lives in these houses now.

I stand out here, and I...

...just think of, like,
the years that I spent here.

Part of me thinks I really wish

that I would have taken
another path.

Like, I wonder what my life
would have been like

if I had
just stayed in college...

...pursued a career,
had a boyfriend,

things like that,

but then I also...

...wonder if, like,

in some strange way,
I needed to do this,

like maybe I needed
to know these things.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

Maybe I would have always been
very sheltered

from this kind of stuff
if I had never experienced it.

♪ ♪

Maybe it would happen later,
or, like, maybe to my daughter.

I don't know. It's hard to say.

Like, maybe things happen
for a reason.

♪ ♪

In February 2016,

I had been
in NXIVM for five years,

and I had been in DOS
for a couple months.

I was living in Los Angeles,
working as a coach,

but I was going
to Albany constantly

to take more classes.

I was in Albany
when Allison told me

that I had to seduce Keith.

It kind of sh... just put me
into a state of shock.

She told me, basically,

I would be having
some encounter with Keith

where I would feel
vulnerable and rejected.

She said that pushing
past my comfort zone

would make me stronger
and more capable

in all areas of my life.

I believed that Keith
didn't even have sex,

so I didn't assume that
I had to have sex with him.

I didn't think that that
was gonna happen then.

I didn't think
that was going to happen ever.

[woman] The seduction assignment

had different variations.

These women who
are already collateralized

were tasked by their masters,

by another woman,
with seducing Keith Raniere.

Everyone's assignment
wasn't the same,

but the end game was the same:

some sort of sexual contact
with Keith Raniere.

[India] Allison told me
that I needed to have Keith

take a naked picture of me
and send it to her

as proof that
the assignment was completed.

[disquieting music]

♪ ♪

This was Allison Mack's
townhouse,

and this is where
Keith picked me up.

♪ ♪

He drove me
to the next set of buildings.

It's so close.

We walked in.

I tried to make small talk

to just kind of calm my nerves.

♪ ♪

He talked to me
about what I wanted

and how he could help me.

♪ ♪

I just tried to get
the assignment done.

♪ ♪

I asked him to take
a naked picture of me.

I kind of, like,
blurted it out nervously.

♪ ♪

I remember him standing
there and staring at me.

I felt embarrassed
and uncomfortable.

♪ ♪

I didn't feel
like I had a choice.

I just wanted
to get it over with.

♪ ♪

So I took off my clothes,

and I sat
on the edge of the bed,

and I just sort of leaned back,

and he took a picture of me
like that

and sent it to Allison.

♪ ♪

I felt like I was
in some kind of altered state.

♪ ♪

I did feel like it was weird,

but this was a practice for me
to push against my fears.

I thought that this was
gonna help me.

Then Keith said that he was
Allison's master

and my grandmaster.

And I thought,
what the hell does that mean?

♪ ♪

[Cangro] The way
that DOS worked was

a pyramid structure, basically,

and the person that was
actually the puppet master

of this entire thing
was Keith Raniere.

Next Saturday, we will have
a larger group,

and we will start doing
enslavement... um,

exercises amongst people.

So any... no more questions?

Shop.

Tomorrow, we need
to get together.

Yes. Sure.

[menacing electronic music]

♪ ♪

[Hassan] Keith Raniere,

like many other
destructive cult leaders,

used women as an extension
of his needs

for power and control,

and it all comes out
of a malignant,

narcissistic self

that's incredibly insecure.

They're acting out
their insecurities

on everybody else.

[Allison whispers]

Yes, when do you want to talk?

Whenever...

When are you available?

Now.

- You're free right now?
- I'm free right now.

Right now, what else...
when else?

I don't have anything else
going on tonight.

How late are you up?

As late as I need to be.

Allison told me I would have
to stop going back and forth

between LA and Albany.

It wasn't really
much of a decision.

It was more like a command.

♪ ♪

[Ross] Keith Raniere's
most devoted members

would move to Albany
and live near him.

That was pivotal in making

a really intense commitment
to NXIVM.

[Lalich] If you drove through
the area of Clifton Park

where Keith and many
of his followers lived,

you would think you were in

just some nice
suburban neighborhood,

but the cult could be
right next door.

And that's a form
of the control.

If you do something
against the rules,

someone has surely seen you,

and they're gonna report on you.

So it sets up
a very tight structure

for people to be living in.

I remember the day
that India told me

she was moving to Albany

like it was yesterday.

She was so excited,
it broke my heart.

She said Keith
was gonna mentor her

in this business
that he was giving her, and...

everything just felt wrong
about it,

but she was 24 years old.

There was nothing
that I could do to say,

"No, you can't go."

It was all of them on her.

I had zero influence, basically.

She let go of all her furniture.

She let go of her apartment.

It was literally like
she was leaving the planet.

I just felt, like,
this wellspring of despair.

[melancholy music]

I had no idea that the worst
was about to happen.

♪ ♪

[India] I moved to Clifton Park
in the spring of 2016,

and I actually lived
with Allison in her townhouse.

I paid her for rent
occasionally,

but most of what I did
was take care of her home,

kept it clean, cooked for her,

managed anything
that she needed.

♪ ♪

And I became more integrated
into Allison's life

and the community.

My life became
very much like her life.

♪ ♪

It was all about having
this rigorous lifestyle.

I was taking classes
as a student

and working in others
as a coach,

but I hadn't gotten to a rank

where I could be paid
for any of the coaching.

Allison kept me very busy
with these so-called goals.

I had to be accountable
to achieving these goals,

and there were consequences
if I didn't.

In the beginning, it was
sort of the punishment

of disappointing her.

Like, I would forget to say
"Good night, master."

She would send me a sad face,

and it was like
little tiny disapprovals.

Later, the punishments
got more severe.

I had to do planks,
ice cold showers,

standing in the snow
at 3:00 a.m.

You had to be okay with it.
It was part of the program.

[shoes squeaking]

This is The Sports Barn,

where Keith
and other community members

would play volleyball
a couple times a week.

It was, uh,
late night volleyball games.

Allison was always pressuring
us to show up and watch Keith

because there was some kind
of competitive nature

between her
and the first-line DOS sl*ves,

and having us be there meant
that she was the most devoted,

the most committed.

[onlookers cheering]

I wanted Allison and...
and Keith to be happy with me,

and so I made it a point to try
to come as much as I could.

Keith started paying
more attention to me.

It started with us just walking

around Clifton Park and talking.

♪ ♪

[Vicente] You know,
I asked him once,

"How do you come up
with some of these things?"

He says, "Yeah, I walk a lot,"
and I go, "What do you mean?"

He says, "Well, I walk
and I walk and I walk.

And I said, "When?"
And he says, "I walk at night,"

you know,
and then I found out recently,

he sometimes walks, like,
the whole night,

and he problem-solves,
and he thinks and he thinks

and he thinks.

[India] Sometimes he would talk
about philosophical concepts.

We would also talk about
being dyslexic,

'cause apparently
he was dyslexic too.

So we would kind of bond
and connect over that.

[Raniere] So what would have
been most meaningful,

deep surrendering,
focusing, for you?

[India] The seduction
assignment was behind me,

and I never thought
anything like that

was gonna happen again.

I thought that Keith
was gonna mentor me

on building a new business,

so we would walk and talk
about that

and achieving
my goals and dreams.

[Raniere] Do you know
what your strengths are

and what your weaknesses are?

[India] I felt like
when I was with him,

all his attention was on me,
and that felt really good.

♪ ♪

[Ross] Raniere used these walks
as a way of controlling

and manipulating the women.

They would confide in him,

and he would pry things
out of them.

[India] Keith was like
a charismatic friend,

like someone
who just listens to you,

and you feel engaged with them,

and I felt like I could
share anything with him.

He was someone
that I really trusted.

Allison instructed me to take
a picture in my underwear

and send it to Keith.

He decided that I had
to be 106 pounds.

I couldn't remember the last
time I weighed 106 pounds.

I thought maybe when I was 12.

Allison said I could only eat

500 calories or less per day.

Half a cup, 90 calories.

And then before eating anything,

I had to ask permission,

so, "Master, may I please
have 90 calories?"

It was supposed to be
a practice in discipline

and self-restraint.

My entire day was
about how much I could eat,

how little I could eat,
how hungry I was.

And I had no time to think
about anything else.

...Seven, eight.
A hundred calories.

[Hassan] Control of sleep,
control of food,

control of access
to information.

What is being done to you

is actually
a mind control regime

to reprogram your beliefs
and to foster obedience.

[India] I was also sleeping
very little

and having to exercise
on top of it,

and I would always reach out
to Allison.

I would be like, "Oh,
I'm feeling really hungry."

Like, "My stomach hurts,"

or "Feeling really tired."

And she would just
kind of, like, text, like,

"You said that you were
committed to this weight goal.

What is it gonna feel like
if you break your word?"

[Kelly] At the time,
I didn't know about DOS,

but when I was taking
some classes in Albany,

I noticed that Allison
and many of the women there

were losing weight like crazy,

and they were putting food
either on their hand

or on a plate
and taking pictures,

and I thought
that was really odd,

and I said, "Why are you
taking pictures of your food?"

"Oh, I just wanna keep track."

[disquieting synth music]

[India] It was
basically starvation.

We were being
deprived of calories

we needed to function.

After a few months,
my hair started falling out.

I talked to Clare,
Nancy, and Allison

because I wasn't getting
a period.

They were telling me that
similar things

happened to them

when they were on diets.

Allison didn't have her period
for ten years.

♪ ♪

I trusted them.
They were my authority figures.

Keith wanted to advise
and instruct people

to do what he wanted them to do,

but really, it was more
about his sexual interest

and his personal desires
to have women be thin.

♪ ♪

What did DOS even look like
to you from the outside?

What did you think was going on?

- Like...
- I just remember in Albany,

when I was there in the center,

I could tell you weren't eating.

I could see it in your hair,
in your face.

As a mom, and my kids
being around your age...

...I wanted to call your mom.

I wanted to call some adult
in your family

to tell them that-
that something wasn't right.

I sat down with you,
and I'm like, "Are you okay?"

And then someone came up.
She's like, "She's fine.

She's just fine. She is fine."

- And I was like, "Okay, okay."
- Jeez.

I, like, didn't even realize
that all of that

was going on around me.

I feel bad for not pushing.

[India] I know. I can...

I mean, I didn't do anything,

but what I didn't do
is what I feel bad about.

I wonder if I would've
even heard it or listened.

- I just don't know.
- Oh, yeah.

I could have made it
more of an issue,

although it would
have been shut down.

I think I could have,

and I'm sorry I didn't.

I'm sorry. I know.

- [India] That's okay.
- I know, I know.

I know it's not.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

[India] I had been living
with Allison and in DOS

for several months,

and I thought that this was
just me and Allison,

and then she revealed to me
that she had other sl*ves,

and that I would get
to meet them.

She described it like
they would be my sisters,

like we were
in this sorority together.

♪ ♪

There were three other women
in Allison's pod.

Dr. Danielle Roberts
was an osteopath.

[Porter] You're, like,
the first doctor

that I've enrolled,

and it's like, "Holy moly.
And now you're a coach."

[India] She was a coach
in NXIVM...

And exhale.

[India] ...and she ran
a fitness and health program

that Keith created
called Exo/Eso.

Michele was a coach
from New York City,

and so was Nicole.

She was pretty new to NXIVM.

I felt instantly bonded to her.

When we were
then given permission

to really speak to each other,

it was such a relief,

because it felt like a layer

of the burden of secrecy
had been lifted.

Like, I finally felt
like I had friends

that I could talk to.

♪ ♪

[Mack] There's a magnificence
to women

that is totally untapped.

It's that essence,
that something,

that each woman carries with her

that makes her unique.

[man] There was a...

a pernicious fly
in the beginning.

Pernicious lie? Which is...

- [man] No, a fly.
- Ah, damn.

Damn, damn.

I was like, "A lie, okay.
That's possible, I do that."

[India] Sometimes, Allison
would be totally fun

and like, playful,

and then other times,
she would be like a viper

and just sort of berate you,

and you didn't really know
what to expect.

[low electronic music]

♪ ♪

[woman] I remember seeing
Allison in the community.

She just always seemed
so exuberantly happy.

It's almost like she was always
on stage, performing.

I'm an actress.
That's what I've always done.

Actually, it's more
than what I've done.

It's who
I considered myself to be.

It's what I identified myself as.

[India] I think that Allison
was most comfortable

when she had a role.

From the time
she was three years old,

she was a working actress.

And I think that Keith
probably saw that

and gave her this role...

- [Tabby] Yeah.
- ...and she flew with it.

How was Allison with you
when you were in NXIVM?

Allison definitely
treated me poorly,

just constant,
putting me in my place.

- Like a power play.
- [Tabby] Yeah.

She even told me many times

that she actually liked
the role of master,

and she... she would transform.

Like, she would take that on,

and she would become
a different person.

[woman] Okay, let's go.

Okay.

From my vantage point,
in my experience,

Allison seemed to struggle
with authenticity,

and I think
she completely lost touch

with who she was
outside of being a performer,

and Keith took advantage
of that.

How far do you allow yourself
to go into a character?

And with the worry that,
"Oh, my God, that's really me."

Yes, it is really you.

I can't do it.

No, I'm sorry, I can't.
I just can't...

[woman] He took probably
the most malleable person

to push to very extreme lengths.

She not only made India,

but other women,
into commodities for Keith.

[singers vocalizing]

I'm only flesh and blood.

♪ ♪

But I can be anything
that you demand.

[India] V-Week 2016

was the first V-Week
since I had joined DOS,

and you could tell that Allison

really wanted to please Keith.

♪ ♪

♪ More than you'll ever know ♪

[India] I remember
sitting in the audience

and I knew that for her,

it was as if she was singing
a love letter to him,

but that no one else would know,

and they would think it was
just a song.

No one within the community

was supposed to know about DOS.

It was a secret.

In the fall of 2016,

Allison took the pod

to the Berkshires
in Massachusetts.

It was Danielle Roberts,
Michele, Nicole, and myself,

Allison called it
a bonding trip.

We would just get
to spend time together.

We would hang out,
we'd take walks,

maybe do a little bit
of DOS-related studying.

We actually had a nice day.

[electronic music]

After dinner,
Allison sat us down

and told us that the trip
was not just for fun.

♪ ♪

Allison instructed us to take

what she referred to
as a family picture,

which meant all of us girls
standing together fully naked

while Allison took a picture.

♪ ♪

Allison then sent the photo
to Keith,

and I saw his response.

♪ ♪

Nicole saw the text,
and she was furious,

and she said to Allison,

"If they're supposed
to be for us,

"like, why is Keith
even getting these texts,

"and why is he sending
a devil face emoji

if he's supposed to be so holy?"

She asked Allison
if he was getting off on them.

Allison then defended herself,

"How dare you accuse me of
something perverted like that?

"He's not getting aroused
by these pictures.

"This is your problem
and your projection

"that you think
that he would actually think

or feel like that."

Like, she got
totally reprimanded,

and myself and the other girls
were kind of paralyzed.

Like, we didn't know
what to do or how to respond.

♪ ♪

Allison was angry,

and she said, "As a punishment,

"I'm gonna take
up-close pictures

of your pussies."

So I took off all my clothes
again and stood in line...

...and we just went one by one.

♪ ♪

And Allison said to Nicole,

"Are you still throwing
a fit over this?"

♪ ♪

I was really uncomfortable,
and I was sort of frozen,

but I just wanted
to get it over with,

and I didn't want her to think
that I was being defiant,

so I just shut up.

You really don't know
how you're gonna behave

or act in a situation like that.

You want to think that
you're gonna be brave

and stand up against
whatever injustice is going on.

But at the time, I couldn't.

[Lalich] You're living in
a world of fear, essentially,

and so it's very difficult
to say no

or be any kind
of oppositional force.

If you're doubting
or you're standing up,

it just shows how much
more discipline you need.

[India] We were instructed
by Allison

to give monthly collateral,

and if we missed the deadline,

we would have consequences.

♪ ♪

There came a point
where we didn't even know

what to submit
as collateral anymore,

so Allison

or the higher-ranking members
of DOS

would just tell us to just
make sh*t up and send it.

For instance, you might have
to make a video

accusing your father
of molesting you,

even if it wasn't real.

It was often worse,

because it could be
even more damaging

than the things
that you said that were real.

So a lot of us started
to just send

more and more explicit
photographs

because the burden
kind of fell on you.

It didn't compromise
anyone else.

[Lalich] Turning over
this collateral...

well, that would make it
really hard to leave

or really hard to say no.

Collateral was demanded,

and it was held
over people's heads.

So it was an absolute threat
that people lived under.

It was purely
a blackmail situation.

I mean, you can hardly call
that free will.

[India] It was like
the compounded amount

of collateral
that you were giving

and had behind you.

It was the credit card,
the photos,

the videos, the recordings,

the demeaning messages
about your loved ones.

It was everything
that was always with you,

I feel, like, on top of me
all the time.

Of course you're not
gonna do anything wrong.

Of course you're not gonna
want to mess up anything.

I would get random texts
from Keith

all hours of the day.

He started to demand
explicit photographs,

mostly up-close pictures
of my vag*na.

[uneasy music]

The first time this happened,

I said to him, "Well,
I'm in the car," and he said,

"Well, find a place
to pull over.

Do it now."

If the picture wasn't explicit

or close up enough,

or I didn't look happy,

he would make me
do it over again

until he said
it was good enough.

♪ ♪

I was very uncomfortable
with the fact

that he was asking me
for these explicit photographs,

but Keith told me that sending
these pictures was a practice

in pushing myself
out of my comfort zone.

So if you're comfortable,
you're not pushing.

So if you're uncomfortable,
maybe you're doing it right.

[Lalich] Even though this
is incomprehensible to us

on the outside,

we have to remember
that these women

were in a very closed reality,

and everything around them,

every input, was reinforcing
this one belief:

do everything to make
Keith happy.

So even doing
something shocking,

like taking a photo

of your vag*na to send to him...

they truly believed
at that point

that that was
the right thing to do.

You were conquering, you know,
one of your greatest fears.

Right? This was making you

a better, stronger person.

[Catherine] When she was
living in Albany,

she became more distant.

If I tried to pin her down

about what she was doing,

seemed a bit vague,

but maybe I didn't want
to admit to myself

how much she was drifting away.

I'd been to Albany,
and I had seen

that there was
this group of women,

women who were in their 40s,


who had given up
everything in their lives

to serve Keith
and the organization,

and I would...

I just couldn't wrap my head
around that this

was gonna be
my daughter's future.

I felt sometimes like my mom
was judging or prying.

It was easier for me
to just ignore her

than to actually have to discuss

what was going on
for me in Albany.

[desolate music]

Allison told me that I
should ask Keith

to work on what she called

my problems with sex.

I didn't think I had
any problems with sex,

but saying no to her
was not an option.

It's hard to put myself
back there

where I would
just say yes to that,

but I believed

that the things
that they were having me do

were, at their core, good.

Everything.
I didn't question it.

♪ ♪

And if Keith was going
to initiate

that kind of relationship
with me,

I knew that
I had to participate.

♪ ♪

That's the...
that's the library.

The library was one
of Keith's many townhouses

in Clifton Park.

It was sort of his office.

Keith told me he would
meet me there

at some point in the evening.

He instructed me to remove
all my clothes,

and I was just sort of lying
up there in this loft,

just waiting.

He asked me a few questions

about certain sexual experiences

that I had had,

and then he began

to what he referred to
as working on me,

which was him performing
oral sex,

which felt like hours,

and I just sort of lied there.

Didn't feel good.

I actually felt
kind of paralyzed.

♪ ♪

And there was a lot of fear
about what might happen next,

and then it... it was over.

And I remember even, like,
reaching my leg

a little bit down

so I could see if he was
maybe aroused,

and he wasn't,

which in a way
was kind of reassuring,

because it made me think,

"Oh, maybe he is just doing
this for me and my own benefit,

and he's not getting anything
out of it sexually."

That's what made it
all the more confusing.

It continued for a year.

I didn't know that he was doing

these same things
to other women.

I had no idea.

[somber music]

He was just really good at
having people keep his secrets.

♪ ♪

Later, I found out that he
was doing

even more disgusting,
demeaning sexual acts

to other women in DOS

and was threatening to release
their collateral

if they said anything.

♪ ♪

I definitely lost myself
for a little while, like,

believing that what
we were doing was good for me.

♪ ♪

My experiences with Keith...

they didn't feel good, ever.

Really weren't sexual.
They were manipulative.

[India] No, they felt,
like, clinical,

like I was going to the doctor
or something,

but I wasn't getting "better."
[laughs]

Like, I kept thinking,
"Why do I still feel so awful?

Like, why does this hurt?"

Or "Why am I not getting
anywhere

with your teachings
or with your techniques on me?"

I thought that I was
pretty screwed up.

And I would say to him, "Hey,
whenever you go down on me,

I get this massive ball
of, like, pain in my chest,"

which kind of felt like...
like this hot,

like, shaky thing right here,

and I asked him,

"Can you help me
get rid of that?"

And he said,
"No, that's your problem."

And I thought...

"f*ck, like,
what do I do with this?

How do I...
how do I get rid of this?"

And I actually thought maybe
I would be like that forever,

maybe I would never be able
to enjoy sex or pleasure

or my body.

[Wise] All of this is

psychological and physical r*pe,

in that case with the tongue.

[India] Is that a...
is that a term,

psychological r*pe?

[Wise] Yeah.

Everybody in cults
are psychologically r*ped,

and there's no consensual sex,
however you want to define it,

in a cult.

So what do you think
the sensations in the chest

at that time
were trying to tell you?

[mournful electronic music]

[laughs weakly]

Now it makes me feel sad,
because I think that it was

more, like,
my own warning system

that I was just ignoring.

♪ ♪

[Raniere] Uh-oh.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What do you think you're doing?

[man] Rotate that one set?

Oh, the lights.
Yes, lights are fine.

[India] One of the things
that we were told

was that Keith was celibate,

but really, he was sleeping

with all the women
in his inner circle.

[Lalich] Controlling someone
sexually

is the most intimate way

you can have influence
over someone.

People are vulnerable
at that point.

They're giving themselves over.

They may think they're in love.

Even if they know
there are other partners,

it doesn't matter. You're...

you know, you're...
you're having sex with God.

My goodness.

[India] Keith had this agreement

with all of his sl*ves
that they knew

that they were gonna be
monogamous with him,

but he was polyamorous.

[Ross] Keith Raniere
could never get enough.

He could never get enough women.

He could never have enough sex.

A woman could never submit
to him enough.

He wanted to see
how far he could push it,

and that led
to another escalation

in his t*rture of women.

[eerie music]

[India] No matter what rank,

no woman was immune
from punishment.

It was part of the program.

I was forced to watch
Dani Padilla,

a first-line DOS sl*ve,

be paddled by Allison.

They asked me to film it

so that they could have
a witness.

It was actually
Allison's penance

because she had failed
on her diet.

She had to paddle Dani.

♪ ♪

I remember
just standing there...

sort of frozen.

♪ ♪

I knew after seeing that

I never wanted that
to happen to me.

♪ ♪

[Cangro] These first-line sl*ves

that were directly under Raniere

had to hit each other
with these paddles.

Raniere would sometimes
be there,

or he would get images

or videos of them doing this.

[Penza] There are people
who engage in this sort

of extreme sexual behavior,

but you have to take
into account

the importance of consent.

In DOS, there was no safe word.

You had your collateral.

There was no way
out of the situation.

[India] Dani Padilla
was the first sl*ve

Keith actually started
to experiment with.

It later came out

that she had ordered
these things online.

♪ ♪

Thigh sling wrist cuffs,

a remote shock puppy trainer.

Heavy-duty steel bar
suspension kit.

[Cangro] Keith was at the top
of all of this,

forcing punishments
through t*rture

and also physical abuse.

He had one of these women
purchase BDSM items

like a dungeon, an actual cage,

and women were encouraged
to put their sl*ves in there

for however long they wanted
to punish them for.

None of us consented
to this type of thing,

especially with Keith.

I thought that everything
that we were doing

related to vulnerability
or related to submission,

related to our personal growth,
was for us,

but really it was all just tools

to prepare us
for something like this.

[Lalich] When you're in a cult,

you're in a social system

that, over time,
closes in on you.

You essentially
internalize the cult.

You get to the point
that you yourself

become kind of a microcosm
of that self-sealing system.

You can basically function
on your own

without the cult having
to tell you anything to do.

You chastise yourself.

You don't need anyone else
there to criticize you.

You're holding
yourself accountable

because you have internalized
all this.

[India] Allison had this band
that she would wear

to punish herself.

It's called a cilice.

It's these tiny
needle-type things

that you can strap to your body,

and it's very itchy
and painful and sharp,

and she would wear that

when she felt like
she needed to be punished.

♪ ♪

[Cangro] One of the most
extreme examples

of Keith's cruel punishment

is what happened to a young
woman in NXIVM named Daniela.

Her entire family

all moved to the Albany area
from Mexico

and became deeply involved
within NXIVM.

Keith coerced Daniela into
a sexual relationship

in 2010, when Daniela
had expressed

a crush for someone
that wasn't Keith Raniere.

Keith told Daniela

that she had to remain confined

inside of a townhouse
until she made amends.

Lauren Salzman,
Nancy's daughter,

was in charge
of monitoring Daniela

and enforcing that confinement.

Food was even left
outside of the door for her.

Daniela was inside that room
for almost two years.

[India] I've been in this house
many times, because...

- [Cangro] Have you really?
- Yeah.

I realized the other day

that when I was in Albany
in January 2012,

she was still c*ptive
in this townhouse.

I had no idea.

It was like she didn't exist.

[ominous electronic music]

[woman's voice]
I can understand the ethics

of the consequences.

They need to exist
because it is right.

But the cost is so high.

I feel panic. I feel horror.

I can't even think straight.

♪ ♪

I feel dread.

I really feel
like I'm in a nightmare.

♪ ♪

I can relate to a lot
of her confusion and her pain,

because I go back and I look
at my old journals or notes,

and they're totally, like,
scattered and deranged

and a lot of self-hatred,

like, "I'm doing this wrong.

"I'm doing this wrong.
I need to fix this in myself.

"I need to be better
for Allison.

I need to be better for Keith."

Like, all of this sort
of constant... just spinning,

this just over-consuming guilt
of basically nothing

And thinking...
yeah, and thinking

you actually really did
something wrong.

And that you deserve this.

♪ ♪

[Lalich] So Daniela was
in this room for two years,

but the room had no lock
on the door.

Why would she stay in the room?

Why didn't she just get up
and walk out?

And I think this is
where we see the power

of the whole system
of controls and influences

that get a person to the point

where they believe that
that's the right thing to do.

And they believe that
if they go against that,

the world is gonna come
crashing down.

I mean, it really is...
for that person,

it's a life-and-death situation.

[India] What do you know about
what it took

for Daniela to leave here?

Basically, she was taken
to the Mexican border

without her paperwork,

and she was kind of just
let off.

- No identification, no money?
- No identification, no money.

So cruel.

[Ross] People that understand
sex criminals,

pedophiles, rapists, know
that it's not about sex.

It's about power and control.

[woman] I met Keith Raniere
around 1990,

when I was about 12 years old.

My mother became involved
with a company he ran

called Consumer Buyline.

During that time,
I got to know Keith.

He offered to tutor me
in algebra and Latin.

Shortly after
the tutoring started,

a sexual relationship

began between Keith
and myself at the age of 12.

It happened mostly
in his office,

at Rome Plaza, in the elevator,

and also at the house
at 3 Flintlock Lane.

[uneasy music]

♪ ♪

The thing, for example,
with sexual abuse.

In some states,
it's their... their ages.

There's the age of consent.
Some states, it's 17.

Some parts of the world,
it's 12.

Some parts of the world.
That's right.

So what's abuse in one area
is not abuse in another.

But what is it, really?

Abuse is, does the person...

is the person a child,

or is the person adult-like?

Some little children
are perfectly happy with it.

[Cangro] Daniela, who was kept
in a room for two years,

says she was sexually abused
by Keith,

and so were her two sisters.

All three of them became
impregnated by Keith Raniere

and were encouraged
to get ab*rtion.

Let's talk about
really gross things

like raping children,
raping a baby.

Can you imagine
what it would be like

if you were just a primitive,

someone who just
was of the body?

It's not a baby.
It's just something

that feels good.

What if it was
just a lump of flesh?

I'm gonna be
really crude, but...

"Oh, feels good to stick
my d*ck in a steak."

[growls]

"Oh, yeah. Here's another flesh.

Oh, it's a baby."
That's what it's like.

[Cangro]
We don't know the full scale

of how many victims
there could be out there.

You look back, and you see
all of these cases,

and you see that there
have been media reports

on all of these things,
and nothing was done.

And a big reason was because
NXIVM had a lot of money,

primarily from the Bronfmans.

The Brockmans made
political contributions

to local elected officials,

and they also had
a robust legal team.

All of that made people

reluctant to speak out
against NXIVM.

[Ross] They spent millions
and millions of dollars

on litigation,

private investigators,
and surveillance.

[woman] When you have money
and you have power

and you have resources,

it's very easy to delay justice,

and I think
that's what happened here.

You had a litigious target
who was willing to fight back

and spend money to do so
and lawyer up

and do all the things you can do

to keep the situation
under control.

I mean, you see the same thing
with other powerful defendants:

Jeffrey Epstein,
Harvey Weinstein.

It took decades
to get to those guys.

♪ ♪

[India] By this time,
I had been in NXIVM

for five and a half years

and in DOS for nearly a year,

and daily life

was just getting more
and more intense.

I was doing DOS check-ins,
calorie restrictions,

taking classes,
doing readiness drills,

giving collateral,

late-night walks,
and sessions with Keith.

This was a whole new level
of exhaustion.

And just when I thought

that this
was all I could handle,

there was always something new.

[electronic music]

I was on a walk with Allison
and Keith in Clifton Park,

and they told me directly,

"You need to enroll
your own sl*ve."

And I remember thinking,
"I don't want to."

[Cangro] DOS really started
ramping up around 2016,

which is when all
of the sl*ves within DOS

were told that they needed
to bring other members in.

The way that Keith Raniere
envisioned DOS

was that it would be
thousands of women,

and that one day, they'd be able

to have a DOS member

as an elected official.

He wanted to have power
at every single level,

and that included government.

[Raniere] The sl*ves
should look also

to really find

women of influence.

I imagine, for example,

we could change
the presidential vote

of the United States
in four years or something.

[Cangro] He thought
that he would have

all of this power
and all of this control

because of all of the collateral

that he would have.

I started to realize

that DOS was much bigger
than I thought,

and it started to grow quickly

'cause they were
not moving slow.

There was active pressure
to enroll all around me.

[Debora] My coach flew in
to LA, and she said,

"Well, I've been
actually wanting to meet you

to tell you about
an amazing woman's group."

A person that I was close with

within the organization
approached me.

It didn't feel like it
was something I had to do,

but it sounded like something
that I might want to do

because she kept saying that
these women were exceptional.

[India] Allison instructed
myself

and the other girls in my group

to create lists of people

that we thought
we could enroll into DOS.

She instructed us
to get pictures of their faces

from social media

and send them to her
for approval.

We didn't know that those
pictures were going to Keith.

My first question actually was,
"Is Keith behind this?"

Because he was part
of everything,

and she was like, "No."

So I go, "Okay, is ESP
behind this?"

And she said no.

[dramatic electronic music]

And I was like,
"Well, who are these women?"

And she said, "Well, I can't
really tell you much more

"unless you give me
some kind of collateral

so that I know you
will keep this a secret."

And I thought,
"Okay, that's kind of strange.

And I said, "Well, you know,
I want to think about this."

She says, "No problem.
No problem."

You know,
"Go ahead and think about it."

[India] There were punishments
to me

and the other girls in my group

if we weren't actively trying
to enroll people into DOS.

[woman] It was painted

as if we didn't reach
certain enrollment numbers

by a certain date,
we would be failing my master.

And that she might even face
the consequence

if we don't enroll faster.

Just told me directly,

"Will you work
with all the women

"and figure out, you know,
who they know

"and who they're trying
to enroll

and project out at what date
we'll get to 100?"

[India] I'm trying
to understand why I kept going

when others said no.

I remember Allison
and, I believe, Lauren, too,

coming to me and saying that

[bleep] tried to enroll you,

- Mm-hmm.
- [India] And I was like,

"How did it go?"
And they're like,

"It didn't go well."

No.

Once she started the pitch,

she kept looking down,

like, literally like this,
talking to me,

if you were me, like...
and not looking at me.

And I was very like,
"Hmm, that's weird.

If you're so great,
why can you not look at me?"

Right.

And then that night,

the creepiest thing happened.

I went into the bathroom,

and you know how
the phone's open

and the text messages are open?

And I was washing my hands,
and a new text came in,

and I looked down,
and I saw, like,

"I love you, my master."

And I was like, what is this?

Wow.

It was really eerie.
It felt very bad,

like here,
like in my gut feeling.

My alarms went off

and I was like,
"No, I don't want to do that."

I wonder that if one
of the warning signs are,

"Are you overriding

the feelings that you're having
in your body or your gut?"

Yeah, I think it is.

So I'm trying to learn that.
I'm trying to get better.

I'm so proud of you.

Thank you.

[uneasy music]

I did not want
to recruit people into DOS,

but there was a lot of pressure

from Keith and Allison,

and when I resisted,
they would tell me,

"Go get an EM on that."

If there was any issue
that you had with the diet,

with collateral,
with recruitment, with DOS,

you were sent to go get an EM

so that you would eliminate
your reaction to it.

So I would constantly
be getting EMs

until eventually,
I just felt numb.

♪ ♪

I ended up having
three sl*ves under me,

and I was strictly instructed

to not tell them
that Keith was involved.

I had to ask them
for collateral,

the same that I was giving,

damaging things
to their reputations,

to their careers,
to loved ones or family.

One of them sent me

a very explicit video

that I then sent to Allison,

and I assume
that it went to Keith.

♪ ♪

Now I feel horrible
that I lied to them,

but at the time, I thought

we were doing practices
for our own good.

♪ ♪

One of my sl*ves was someone
that I knew from Los Angeles,

and we had a couple
mutual friends.

I did not like her
calling me master.

I didn't like referring
to her as a sl*ve.

I didn't even really like
giving her assignments

or practices.

A majority of what I had her do
was just journal.

Allison would tell me
that I was too soft on her,

that I let her walk all over me,

that I had to become
a stronger master.

I felt uncomfortable
disappointing Allison,

but I felt more uncomfortable

giving those types
of commands to my sl*ves.

Allison demanded that I give
my sl*ve, who was my friend,

the seduction assignment,

but I kept putting it off.

I didn't want to give it to her.

♪ ♪

[Penza] In these types of cases,

we often see that the line
between victim and victimizer

is not quite clear,
and that was true within DOS.

You have women
who have been victimized

recruiting other women

into the sex trafficking
organization.

♪ ♪

[Catherine]
India is my most sentimental,

family-oriented child,

and she loves holidays.

She's the first to call me
on my birthday.

She's the first to call me
on Mother's Day.

And so when she let me know
that she wasn't coming home

for Christmas 2016,

I was really worried.

This is my porch!

It's very, very snowy,
very Christmas-like,

and I love you guys,
and I miss you,

and I'm sending you a big kiss.

[Catherine] That video was all
we saw of her that Christmas.

I watched it
over and over again.

Her eyes were vacant.

It was as if
there was nobody home.

She was beyond my reach.

Love comes not from
the satiation or the comfort.

It comes from the sacrifice
and the pain.

That's how we know it.

When we most feel love,
we feel pain,

and the depth of pain
that we feel

measures that love.

[India] In January 2017,

Allison told me that there
was gonna be a ceremony

that I was gonna have
to be a part of.

She said it would involve
a mark on our bodies,

and that it would be
a permanent commitment

to DOS.

Allison and
the other first-line sl*ves

had already done it,

and now it was
the second line's turn.

We were going to be branded.

That window is where
Allison's bedroom was

and where we had
the branding ceremony.

[Jill] I was told by my master

that I would need to be branded,

that this was part
of the sorority.

Literally, you would have
these reminders on your body

every day that this is not only
a lifetime serious vow,

but it's also

the most important
relationship in your life.

[Ross] The women who entered
into DOS

felt that what they
were demonstrating

is their absolute commitment
to each other

and to the philosophy

that Raniere had indoctrinated
them to believe.

In that environment,

accepting the brand
becomes logical,

it becomes reasonable,

and they simply see it
as their commitment

based on all the training
that they've gone through.

[India] Maybe a week before
we actually got branded,

Allison started to talk
about the details

of the branding ceremony.

I was told that the brand
was going to be a symbol

of the elements,

like fire, earth, water, sky,

and that it would be
a bonding experience

for myself and the other women

and the practice
of building character.

[Jill] My master told me
it was very small,

like held up her fingers

like... like that,
like... like a quarter.

So it freaked me out,
but I honestly thought,

"Well, it's gonna be stamped on.

This will be seconds
of my life."

None of us really had any...

idea what this was
gonna be like,

and so Allison

brought out these videos.

[man]
One, two, three, four, five.

[India] And I remember
watching it and thinking...

- [man] Here we go.
- [India] Wow, that looks awful.

[man] One, two, three, four.

But I made no connection
to the fact

that that was gonna happen to me

and that it was gonna happen
to me

within the next couple of days.

Dr. Danielle Roberts,

who is in my pod,
was taught how to brand.

[man] Three, four, five.

I had listened

and watched Danielle practice

on oranges in the bathroom,

and it looked scary.

The day of the ceremony,

I began to feel a lot more fear,

and I even remember saying,

"Are you sure
we have to do this?"

And Allison was like, "Yes."

[uneasy music]

We walked one by one
into Allison's bedroom,

fully naked.

I was instructed
to lie on the table.

I had Michele holding my feet,

and Nicole held my hands

so that I wouldn't convulse.

Allison was reading
the ceremony script,

[woman] The best sl*ve
derives the highest pleasure

from being
her master's ultimate tool,

independent of use.

[India] Danielle put a stencil
on my skin,

and then she began
to trace the stencil

with the cauterizing pen.

♪ ♪

I was the first woman that
Danielle Roberts ever branded.

[flesh sizzling]

The smell that came

from the cauterizing pen
burning my flesh

was so intense

that it filled up
the entire townhouse.

I didn't feel the pain

of what was happening to me
right away,

but then, when the pen would
reach the edges of the line

and close to my bone,

that shocked me.
Like, I felt jolt... a jolt.

I wasn't screaming.

I was just kind of watching
myself experience this...

...and I just remember...

I felt like
I was out of my body.

♪ ♪

At that point,
I could tell that this

was gonna be
much larger than a quarter.

♪ ♪

I kept looking up at Allison

while she was repeating
these words,

and I don't even
really remember much

except for one line,

which was "Feel the pain,
feel the love,"

and she had us
repeating that to her.

[women] Feel the pain.
Feel the love.

Feel the pain, feel the love.

Your greatest joy
is to surrender completely...

all things in all ways.

I surrender my life,

mind, body, and possessions
for unconditional use.

[India] The branding lasted
for about 30 minutes,

and then I had to watch
the other women

have that done to them.

[distressing musical crescendo]

After all the adrenaline
came down, came the pain.

♪ ♪

When Keith first saw my brand,

he commented
on how well it had healed.

He would touch it.

He would say things like
he liked how tiny I looked.

He seemed pleased
with the brand.

At the time, I felt positive
about the brand.

For me, it represented
something that was challenging

that I had done with women
that I loved and cared about.

And then Allison announced

that it was time
to brand my sl*ves.

[dark music]

[Catherine] I always felt that
India would wake up on her own

and that she would leave
NXIVM of her own volition.

But in April of 2017,

I received a phone call
that changed everything.

It was from somebody who
had defected from NXIVM,

and she said to me,

"You have to save your daughter.

"You have to save India.

She is in grave danger."

[uneasy music]