Just watched the first episode of the HBO document-series, The Vow, that features the mind bending, horrific story of a company that fronted as an ethical humanitarian movement... whose founder, Keith Raniere, ended up getting sentenced to prison earlier this year for charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering behind the scenes.
This hit close to home for me, as I took the companies curriculum for a year in 2010-2011 and was heavily involved in the community. I eventually left because deep down at a gut level I never felt like the companies values aligned with mine, despite the hundreds of truly wonderful people I connected with who all genuinely cared to have a positive impact in the world.
Turned out I made a good choice. However, for many of my friends, including my sister, Denai, went far deeper than I did.
People always ask the question, "How do people get sucked into cults? How do they NOT see it coming?"
I was so happy to see HBO produce this story so well tonight for that reason alone. Anyone who was a part of the company (and I still have a lot of them on Facebook) knows the answer to this question.
Go ahead and watch the trailer to get a taste of what NXIVM was all about, and how brave people like Sarah Edmondson, Mark Vicente and many others took a stand against the founder to bring him to justice.