A reader, mindful of Raniere’s vengeful nature wrote to admonish me:
“The less you say about where your readers are, the better. If there is one NXIVM member on vacation in Fiji, they know who it is…”
“Ok – I will be careful,” I wrote back, and added sarcastically, ”but really aren’t they allowed to even read?”
But of course I knew the answer.
It is preferable if they do not read anything critical.
And this is classic cult.
I understand the doctrine Raniere would wish his students to believe, which is ‘don’t bother reading stuff about NXIVM on the Internet. It’s all written by “suppressives” with “inverted values.”‘
Raniere may not want his students getting an outside viewpoint, especially one that is critical to him.
Knowing a little about life in NXIVM, I suspect that word has gone out to the teachers in NXIVM to use ‘exploration of meaning’ sessions to ask students if they are reading about NXIVM on the Internet, and specifically my blog, in particular.
An exploration of meaning session is the equivalent of Scientology ‘auditing’ but instead of using E-meters which can detect nervous reactions during probing sessions, NXIVM students have been told that the coaches are so advanced and well trained (in Neuro Linguistic Programing) that they have lie-detection ability.
I suspect if any of the students admit during these exploration of meaning sessions that they have read this website, the teachers will instructed them that this website is a suppressive influence that, if they continue to read it, it will make it harder for them to advance to the next level.
The challenge for Raniere and his organization is that, based on the visitation numbers to this site, it is almost certain that some students are reading this blog, and the Cult of NXIVM stories that run in my newspapers, Artvoice and the Niagara Falls Reporter.
How this will impact any student, past or present or potential students of the future is anyone’s guess.
