What is NXIVM?
Several people have asked.
NXIVM (pronounced as ‘nex-i-em’) is a company offering courses in the development of human potential. Also known as Executive Success Programs. Its founder is Keith Raniere. Its president is Nancy Salzman. NXIVM followers refer to Ranier as ‘Vanguard’ and to Salzman as ‘Prefect’. The company headquarters are in Albany, New York.
NXIVM claims to be “a new ethical understanding that allows us to build an internal civilization and have it manifest in the external world. It allows us to explore our most fundamental nature and to begin to redirect our power of creation, a power that we all possess in a very human sense. It is a place where humanity can rise to its noble possibility.”
The NXIVM training system is administered through “Executive Success Programs,”.
Details of the programs are hidden from the public due to “licensing and copyright protections.” The training uses a technique called Rational Inquiry.
Here is what former Times Union reporter, James M. Odato wrote on Feb. 20, 2012:
Also known as Executive Success Programs, NXIVM is a company offering courses in the development of human potential.
It uses methods created by Keith Raniere, NXIVM’s founder, called “Rational Inquiry” technology which Raniere has been trying to patent since 2000.
He has said his program is a practice based on how the mind handles data with a goal of ethical behavior.
The program can by purchased like a health club membership to include weekly classes that run year-round, called Ethos, costing about $1,800 annually. Hundreds of modules are offered with names such as “Work and Value” or “Parasite Producing.”
Students must sign a confidentiality agreement to not share materials, methods and information.
Besides the Ethos program, NXIVM offers “intensives” of 16 days, costing about $7,500, where people attend from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; or for five days, costing about $2,700.
VIP intensives can run $10,000 for a five-day program.
Also, one-on-one “EMs”, or exploration of meaning, sessions are encouraged to concentrate on “issues” a person may be dealing with, such as relationships.
NXIVM promotional material describes its “school” as a place to help people develop consistent ways of approaching goals by changing the way students think, make decisions and react.
Students are instructed that all adults have “disintegrations” because they learned to understand the world from the perspective of a small child and NXIVM courses help people to re-examine beliefs.
Sashes of different colors are assigned to NXIVM participants to denote rank, similar to martial arts.
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So why has it received so much negative publicity? Why do people call it a cult? Why does the company initiate many lawsuits?
This is a question we will try to answer in future posts.
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