General

Vancouver’s Last Man Standing: Lucas Roberts’ Letter of Support of Keith Raniere – ‘Nxivm Helped Me Be as Joyful as Possible Along the Way’

10/21/2020·

Frank Parlato

The letter filed with the court [below] in the case of Keith Raniere was written back on December 1, 2019.

It is from Lucas Roberts. I have written a bit about Lucas back in the day before Keith Raniere was arrested. It was not flattering.

He seems to be the very last man to stick with Nxivm at the Vancouver Center and a lot of what I wrote was to encourage him to leave the group. He never did. Every other man in Vancouver left and all but three or four of the women.

From hundreds of Vancouver members to Lucas and a few women.

Lucas writes to the Honorable Nicholas G. Garaufis that his faith in Keith Raniere in intact. He has withstood an awful lot of disclosure.

Many of his fellow Nxivm members who left after they found out that Keith was leading a sorority that branded women and took collateral to ensure their silence told Frank Report that Lucas’ old girlfriend [who returned to him] kept him in the cult.

She was a former DOS member, a fellow DOS member said, and suddenly came back into Lucas’ life when the exodus was ongoing in the summer of 2017, after I broke the branding story, and Sarah Edmondson was confirming the truth of the story.

Several woman said that his girlfriend came back in order to keep him from fleeing like the others. Lucas then became the leader of Nxivm in Vancouver.

Here is what he had to say about Nxivm and Raniere:

***

Dear Your Honor,

My name is Lucas Roberts and I am writing this letter because my experience of NXIVM, Executive Success Programs (ESP), and other companies Keith Raniere created was very different from what is being portrayed in the media.

I was not present in Keith’s interactions with his accusers so I can’t speak to any of that. I can only speak to what I have seen and experienced first-hand, from being in classes he created or helped create and from watching him interact with other people. I also have second-hand experience of Keith being helpful to me, as one of my coaches was being mentored by Keith and many times spoke to Keith about my struggles and challenges. My coach often reported back to me with Keith’s very helpful advice or perspective.

I do not believe Keith is a menace to society. My goal with this letter is to share, as accurately as possible, a small slice of the good I have experienced from his efforts in the hopes of righting very negatively-biased public opinion, and in the hopes of him getting the lowest appropriate sentence permitted under the law.

I have been an entrepreneur since December 2008. I own and operate a Vancouver-based IT consulting business specializing in Mac and Apple technology. I’ve trained over 50 consultants and have served thousands of clients in several cities. I’ve had a Mac tips and tutoring YouTube channel for the past 4 years and the videos I’ve made have been watched 1.7 million times.

In July 2009, I did my first ESP intensive, which was one year after starting my company, Macinhome. I’ve been either a student or a coach in 30-40 NXIVM and ESP programs. Part of the reason I loved (and still love) the NXIVM knowledge base, tools, and methodology is that I was able to immediately apply what I was learning, and get wonderful results in my business and in all my relationships. I became a coach approximately one year after joining, and became a proctor (lead coach) approximately 6 years after joining.

As a result of my time in NXIVM, I received many benefits; too many to list in one letter. Here are a few specific examples:

Through my time in NXIVM, I learned that people become better by making mistakes and learning through effort, trial, error, and compassionate analysis of the error. As a result, I became more patient and understanding with my consultants if they made mistakes. Their performance and morale improved dramatically.

Through the NXIVM coaching and proctor path, I learned how to be present, compassionate, and inquisitive with the students I was coaching. As a result, I became a better listener with my clients and in all relationships in my life. I stopped interrupting people and started asking more questions and being quiet to truly understand what they were saying. I also learned practical and emotional tools for leadership and management. As a result, I became a much better leader and mentor to my staff. I became less pushy of my own agenda and became good at asking others what they want and helping them get that.

Through ESP, I learned techniques for enjoying work and working on teams, so I felt an increase in my enjoyment of my work and a big increase in the warmth and care I feel for all people. My relationships with my family improved and I began spending more time with them. I started to get consistent 5-star feedback from our clients, as did the consultants I trained.

Through my time in ESP, I corrected a quick descent into the red and got my company repaying debts steadily and consistently. It was hard-earned, and it was not easy, but it was thanks to what I was learning in NXIVM and ESP and my efforts to apply my learnings.

I have been so happy with the improvements in myself, in my life, and in my business. I made several video testimonials through Keith’s various intensives and programs I took over the 9 years I was involved. They will be somewhere in the video archives. I stand by all of them.

Best of all, these results have withstood the test of time, and my results continue to improve.

I was part of the Vancouver commerce and intro team. We were responsible for inviting – and helping our students invite – new members into our classes and intensives. I personally invited many of my friends, family, and contacts and had several of them join. In that commerce team, we were extremely well-intended and truly wanted to help people with their lives and their goals, and I believed and still believe we were doing a good thing. I stand by this as well. I only regret having been too pushy with a few people I invited, and was always thankful to hear their feedback so I could apologize and do better.

Results aside… I looked forward to going to class in Vancouver, and especially in Albany and Clifton Park. I looked forward to seeing my friends or making new friends. I genuinely enjoyed – and always got a lot out of – being around the kind, curious, and helpful people of our community. Our yearly retreat V-Week was and would still be the thing I look forward to most every year.

I thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of seeing Keith speak in front of groups of 30 to 200+ people, or on video. He was always thoughtful, helpful, insightful, and compassionate with every interaction I observed. Several times he was posed a challenging question and took the time to answer it in a gentle and helpful way, tailored to the individual needs of the person asking the question. For example, one time in a forum of a couple hundred people, I grabbed the mic and asked him: as a very “in-my-head” intellectual fellow, how could I get better at feeling the emotions and feelings in my body? He recommended that I learn to allow the feelings, and get used to some more movement in my body. He recommended that I try dancing even if it is me alone in a room dancing like a wounded water buffalo. I found this to be both insightful and hilarious because I believe he knew that I would not want other people seeing me dance to “learn how to feel.” I proceeded to dance every day for 3 years and it has been tremendously helpful – not to mention fun! – in my life.

Many of the leaders, entrepreneurs, and mentors in our NXIVM community were people I looked up to and wanted to be like “when I grow up.” In times of conflict or disagreement, the people involved would have open, honest, and responsible conversations about issues to work them through face-to-face and come to productive outcomes. We even had specific coaching classes on how to give people feedback and address issues head-on in an honest and compassionate manner. For example, I was a coach in an intensive one time and responded sharply with a student. A lead coach (proctor) gently took me aside and asked to speak with me. They asked me if I was okay and what was going on for me such that I was being reactive with the student. They helped me work through it and gain new insight. On the next break before lunch, I walked up to the student and apologized for being sharp with them. We bonded and had a good chat over some trail mix.

I believe that the high quality of the people I interacted with in the NXIVM community was an effect of Keith’s efforts over time. In my experience, his teachings brought good people into the organization from the beginning onward. Those people brought in more good people, and I got to benefit from all of that.

I loved what we were learning and the results I’ve experienced in my life. I truly miss it. Despite unpopular opinion, I still find the teachings of NXIVM to be timeless, practical, uplifting, and tremendously valuable. I wish I could get back to learning and working hard with the NXIVM community helping to hold me accountable and be as joyful as possible along the way.

Sincerely,

Lucas Roberts

Comments (25)

Add Your Comment

Natashka10/21/2020

Where to start on this gem! 'second-hand experience of Keith's help' , 'small slice of good'. The really great bit was 'Through my time in NXIVM I learned that people become better by making mistakes and learning through effort, trial, error, and compassionate analysis of the error'. Is this not what we learn in preschool? It took thousands of your dollars and lots of mind mangling to realise this? Keep em coming, Frank. I love the entertainment.

Jane Smith10/21/2020

Yes – it seems to be a KR thing – make people think they are dreadful, full of problems and then sort the problems out (which probably were not even present in the first place).

Anon10/21/2020

While I can understand these followers being brainwashed enough to still support KR after the DOS business, I cannot understand how any one of them would want to be associated with a person who is a proven pedophile. I think if many of Lucas's clients knew he was supporting a child abuser, they would seek another consultant for their businesses.

Anonymous10/21/2020

The use of the word ”compassionate” reminded me of the book “Compassionate Capitalism” by Rich DeVos, one of two Amway co-founders. DeVos was much like Raniere, a con-man. Most of the book reviews on Amazon are very positive, probably from then-current Amway IBOs who have most likely since quit Amway and (like Roberts): 1. Didn't have first-hand experience with DeVos (Raniere), nor 2. Were they aware/understood how Amway (NXIVM) works behind the scenes: https://www.amazon.com/Compassionate-Capitalism-Rich-DeVos/product-reviews/0452270510/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_next_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=2 Read the review by “sentient being,” which accurately states, “Here is the kind of compassionate capitalism you can expect if you become an Independent Business Operator for DeVos' company, Amway: The Average Monthly Gross Income for “Active” Amway distributors in 2006 was $115. That's the income for about 40 hours of work before deducting personal expenses, fees for meetings, cost of multimedia tools and travel. More importantly, that average does not include “Inactive” distributors, the over 99% who have given up after losing too much time and money. It's not a question of if you will lose money, but how much. Frequently it's thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Distributors are taught to distrust and cut off relationships with naysayers, to ignore the internet and trust only their “uplines” who tell them success is just around the corner if they put in more effort. They spend their own money to attend rallies where they are enticed with visions of wealth and independence. When success doesn't materialize for them, they are blamed for their failure and laziness and eventually give up in shame. The lesson of Rich DeVos is not the power of capitalism and compassion, but the power of deception and manipulation.” The sycophants making responses sound very much like the Raniere/NXIVM defenders, and it's no wonder, Raniere was in Amway before starting Consumers' Buyline and NXIVM, and learned the Amway “way” very well. LOL

EM Tech10/21/2020

It's a beautiful letter, and certainly a letter very similar to something I myself may have written in support of Keith in the beginning of this in 2017. Very few of us had a true experience of NXIVM – most of us were people that signed up for the Executive Success Programs 5-day or 16-day “intensive”. It is that coursework where the vast majority of people with positive things to say, like Lucas here, refer to when speaking positively of Keith. Here is the missing information that the majority of people are missing: 1. It is hypothesized that Keith does not feel feelings inside – he is an expert actor, has amazing discipline, and is an expert salesperson. It is hypothesized he is a sociopath. Keith is not acting out of love – he acts out of self interest, and plays a long game that most people cannot see or fathom. 2. Keith is a proven pathological liar. There is plenty of evidence to support this – what I have observed is that, rather than look at the data, “believers” in Keith will ignore the evidence, and challenge a person “accusing” Keith of lying to show the lie or prove the lie. This is a sign of sociopathy, because in these cases, a person is ignoring evidence of harm to people, and defending a person demanding evidence in order to level what they perceive as an interloper's accusation. 3. Keith and the inner circle, including Nicki and Michelle, actively sold a false image of Keith to the ESP community. The image they sold was Keith as a monk-like renunciate, working tirelessly to improve the world. The truth is, Keith is mentally ill and has a sex addiction, including child rape, and made very few inventions that worked, and zero defendable patents. While it is true that Keith struck gold with his assemblage of Rational Inquiry, the negative impacts to society he has been found guilty of far outweigh the positive impact of Rational Inquiry. Nicki and Michelle can't see they are the arms and legs of Keith's lie to the ESP community, and it was not Frank Report's coverage of facts that disrupted the community, but Nicki and Michelle and the inner circle who all knew they were selling a character of Keith that was partially true, and partially not just a small lie, but a huge criminal coverup involving sexual blackmail and child rape. I feel that if the Nxivm-5 and other “believers” would read the above 3 facts and really let them soak in, the world would be a better place and everyone would be able to move on and begin healing more effectively.

Nutjob10/21/2020

I'm confused. Is it OK that I dance like a wounded water buffalo? Or should I feel ashamed and only dance solo in a locked room?

Natashka10/21/2020

He should be dancing outside the MDC albeit wounded buffalo style. See if the prisoners bang their pipes to that.

Nomin Jerabek10/21/2020

Think about the principle and the purpose of dancing…

Nutjob10/21/2020

Hmmm….still confused. Natashka thinks the purpose of my dancing should be to make men burp the worm. I always thought the purpose of dancing was to meet chicks. Niceguy only believes in lap dances and thinks we're both right.

John 110/21/2020

“Your honor, you must understand that before I knew the Fuehrer, I was trapped, as were many others, in the narrow confines of a local community. But with the introduction the Volkswagen and the Autobahn, the Fuehrer bestowed upon us the gift of mobility, dramatically changing our lives for the better. Without the Fuehrer's vision of a People's Car and a modern highway upon which to drive it, where would we be today?” Oh, these poor deluded people.

Heidi Hutchinson10/21/2020

“He recommended that I try dancing even if it is me alone in a room dancing like a wounded water buffalo.” That’s a rather unique turn of phrase “wounded water buffalo” that friends of my sister, Gina, will instantly recognize. She used it often, those exact words with that nice alliteration on “wounded water,” to describe this technique she used to get in touch with her body — dancing alone in her room for hours. She, sometimes, recorded herself dancing or, using early ICU tech, video streamed out while dancing to a very select few friends. The point being, made repeatedly by myself and others from a (nearly) bygone Raniere Era, is that Raniere and his cohorts patterned himself (his Vanguard image) and his pontifications or “tech” on the (generally) young people he exploited. Hate to break it to you, Lucas, if you haven’t caught on yet, but you can probably count yourself and your persuasive GF among them. One point you make that I concur with is that the people in NXIVM, to varying degrees, were and are NXIVM. While you’ve been trained to credit Raniere and his ‘tech’ for every last bit of your success — for everything you are EXCEPT your “failures” and flaws, disintegrations what have you — no, as a NXIAN or ESPIAN YOU must own all those (exaggerated) flaws and perpetually work to fix with Keith and Nancy’s costly, invaluable product — to earn your stripes with NX. Would it help if I told you that to her dying day Gina credited Keith for his “profound effect” on her life? She sacrificed like it was a good thing. How’s about YOU own and take back your own accomplishments, and your “good” instead of giving that away to NXIVM while being stuck with that worthless disintegrating self Keith and Nancy shat out after eating you alive?

Cesspool Buffoonery, LLC (formerly Vanguard's)10/21/2020

Those aren't letters of support; just more billable hours, c/o Marc Agnifilo (or possibly Steve Coffey) Héctor (Daniela Padilla's father) & Nicki Clyne's (Mrs. Allison Mack) letters to the judge are overwhelming non-personal & paraphrased. Their letters, specifically, read arrogant, technical. “𝙸 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝙰𝙱𝚂𝚄𝚁𝙳 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙴𝙽𝚂𝙸𝚅𝙴 — 𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚆𝙾𝙼𝙰𝙽 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙽𝙴𝚁 𝚘𝚏 𝙺𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑’𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚊 𝙳𝙴𝙲𝙰𝙳𝙴…” according to Clyne. 【ｅｍｐｈａｓｉｓ　ｍｉｎｅ】 “𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙂 (𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙏𝙒𝙊 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙍𝙎) 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙤 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙖’𝙨 𝘿𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙐𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙏𝙐𝘿𝙀; 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙍𝙀𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙎 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙈𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙎,” Héctor claimed. '…𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙨.' ??? srsly They're not even pantomiming credibility. Nicki's recollections of intimacy are most clinical / masculine. It's as if they're both filling out the same questionnaire or Federal application, each question limited to three lines of written text. A proctor prompted they '…𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 (𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴) 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘰𝘳…' in the short amount of space allotted for each answer.

Jane Smith10/21/2020

Well, he certainly drunk the cool-aid – danced alone for 3 years because KR said it might help him be more in touch with his feelings (not that that necessarily is always a good thing anyway). He probably did learn some useful things and, even if they all just seem common sense to me, perhaps hearing them at a course helped him but that does not mean KR should get a light sentence.

Anonymous10/21/2020

Totally brainwashed. Bet KR would have laughed his ass off knowing he took the dancing advice . I like the part where he said he enjoyed the trail mix with a student.

Lenny Wood10/21/2020

Was Lucas' pussy branded by force? Otherwise pajama boy should just shut up.

Anonymous10/21/2020

What a sad, dim bulb. If you know the charges and you know there are victims and you stick around to give letters of support, you deserve every hardship and expulsion from decent society. Currently, male journalists are getting skewered for supporting Jeffrey Toobin for jerking off on a work meeting zoom call. “With statements such as “It didn’t happen to me, so it’s perfectly acceptable”. The abuse of women is not important to the men dismissing it and trying to minimize it as normal. It’s sociopathic and misogynistic.

SparkPug10/21/2020

I got to Dear Your Honor and then the laughs started. Honestly, I couldn’t finish this kid's letter. It just started to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher, scraping the bottom of the Nxivm barrel. One would think with all Clare and Sara’s money, arrangements could have been made for better letters from more influential people. I’m not saying…I’m just saying.

Nice Guy10/21/2020

Lucas Roberts- I am sincerely attempting to help you. Extremely Important & Disgusting : You are dating a woman, who now bears the mark of Vanguard i.e. HPV. Human Papilloma Virus can cause throat cancer. All of the women who lay with Vanguard contracted HPV. Ever notice all the women who had sexual relations with Vanguard developed cancer? It’s rumored Nicki Clyne had a mastectomy. https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/basic_info/hpv_oropharyngeal.htm If you perform oral sex on your lady friend and contract HPV you are looking at throat and mouth cancer. “HPV is thought to cause 70% of oropharyngeal [throat and mouth cancer] cancers in the United States.”— CDC Ask your girlfriend to be tested by a gynecologist. Ask to see the results. BTW: 57% of men who contract mouth or throat cancer die. Take care.