It’s an interesting story that discusses something previously discussed here about Raniere’s many patents.
Keith Raniere’s NXIVM “Sex Cult” Was Patent Pending
“How NXIVM’s founder exploited a common misconception about a tedious bureaucratic process to spread the gospel of his genius.”
It offers a nice overview of how Raniere may have used his many dubious patents to impress followers
A couple of fun quotes [and points] in the story.
The New York State licensing board charged Brandon Porter, an Albany-based doctor, for moral unfitness to practice medicine, negligence, gross incompetence, and more. He had administered something called a “fright study,” [showing women] graphic content from films like the curb-stomping scene from American History X and the gang-rape scene from The Accused. The “study” culminated in ostensibly authentic footage of men dismembering four women with machetes. He allegedly filmed … reaction[s], all without … informed consent. [Jen] Kobelt estimated Dr. Porter subjected ‘as many as 100’ to the test.”
A patent filed in 2007 described… , how “the Luciferian can be rehabilitated”:
The writer Kenzie Bryant makes a fine point: “show a subject videos of gruesome things—snuff films, dismemberment, worse—and monitor how they react”.
In other words, Dr. Porter’s human fright experiments may have been conducted to determine whether women were Luciferians.
Of course, the secret that perhaps only Raniere knew was that he may have been looking for Luceferians that could not be rehabilitated – for membership in DOS.
The abstract of Raniere’s patent gives us the clue that Dr. Porter may have been a useful idiot for his Vanguard:
Determination of whether a luciferian can be rehabilitated
An aspect of the present invention is a method for determining whether a Luciferian can be rehabilitated. The method includes stimulating the Luciferian with a first stimulus and recording a first physiological response by the Luciferian to said first stimulus. The method includes determining, from the first physiological response, a first polarity of the Luciferian’s response to the first stimulus. The method includes stimulating the Luciferian with a second stimulus and recording a second physiological response by the Luciferian to said second stimulus. Further, the method includes determining, from the second physiological response, a second polarity of the Luciferian’s response to the second stimulus. The method includes comparing the first polarity to the second polarity to determine whether the second polarity has a greater value than the first polarity; and determining, from said comparing of first polarity and second polarity, whether the Luciferian can be rehabilitated.”
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Getting back to Vanity Fair – here are a few more items:
[Raniere’s] patents, which range from a simple “find my iPhone”-type device to a sleep-guidance system, played a subtle, but vital role in NXIVM. For an aspiring movement leader aiming to build credibility, they were fundamental building blocks.
One of Raniere’s lawyer Paul DerOhannesian spoke to Vanity Fair:
He is quoted: “Many independent, smart, curious adult women participated in a search for happiness, fulfillment, and meaning exercising the freedom of choice enjoyed by every United States citizen. The prosecution advances an adventuresome legal theory without precedent to assert the emotionally charged crime of ‘sex-trafficking.’”
Another of Raniere’s lawyers (He’s got 5 of them – which is not bad for a guy with no income and no assets), Marc Agnifilo, added, “Mr. Raniere will fight these groundless charges and will prevail.” He could not comment on the patents..
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Raniere’s bio says he has “147 international patents, including 47 in the United States, in a variety of technical fields.”… [But] V.F. [only] found about 40 U.S. applications, a little over half of which were granted
[Hasn’t Vanity Fair learned that Raniere, the ethicist, is the world’s greatest ethical liar? He only lies when he thinks it is ethical for him. And ethics begins at home.]
Taken together, the patents are meant to convey that we have a great intellect—and a benevolent one—on our hands.
One former member. … said that patents were “always a conversational piece” among members. They “…were touted all the time as, not just what is he working on, but why is he great and why is he so amazing. He’s so humanitarian that he’s building all of these things to help the world…. You hear that and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, not only is he one of the smartest people in the world, he’s using that for good, and in such a diverse field,’” she said. “To hear that he’s helped someone’s parent he knows because he wanted to out of the goodness of his heart? . . . It made me think of him even more altruistically and made me think of him as just someone who devotes his thoughts and energy towards individuals, whether they ask or not. He just knows that they need help, so he does.”
According to Daniel Nazer, attorney and Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “If your whole shtick is going around and convincing people that you’re this genius, then the patent system is a way to buttress that. Because [the United States Patent and Trademark Office] will hand out nonsense to people like Keith Raniere.”
Raniere might be a “patent troll”.
[His] “Method Apparatus for Improving Performance,” is apparently a way of increasing performance on a treadmill by increasing speed over time. Laymen might recognize this approach as “exercise.” “The examiner, in this case, literally rejected it six times. [Raniere] just [keeps] coming back,” Nazer said. “My opinion, having reviewed the prosecution history, is that if you just play that game for long enough, you can eventually get a patent, even when the underlying application is just a pile of garbage.” The U.S.P.T.O. granted that one in 2016.
“It actually is an attractive nuisance for people with really inflated senses of their own brilliance, in that, you can get a patent even if it’s something completely dumb, like this Method Apparatus for Improving Performance,” Nazer said. “Then, you can wave it around and tell people, ‘Oh, you have patents,’ as if that’s some sign that you’re brilliant.”
Jeff Trexler, lawyer and associate director of the Fashion Law Institute, … was struck by an overlap in Raniere’s patent habits with those of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. “What L. Ron Hubbard realized—and what Keith realized—is that when you accumulate patents you’re not just accumulating assets,” Trexler said. “It’s a rhetorical move. It’s a way of saying, ‘Look, [the] United States government has looked at me and says that I am an original thinker, I’m a scientific thinker, I am authority. You need to believe me.’”
Raniere went through an audio phase, applying for “System for videotaping and recording a musical group” (granted) and “Method and device for analyzing resonance” (pending) and “Method on indexing a recordable event from a video recording and searching a database of recordable events on a hard drive of a computer for a recordable event” (pending).
And finally one last word. I am considering applying for a patent myself. It is called “How to identify a Luciferian on sight.”
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