A reader writes:
It’s not an easy night for the Salzman family.
Their livelihood depends on the Raniere-verse, which seems likely to implode. They may have been complicit, or even participants, in white-collar crime at the multi-million dollar level over nearly 20 years.
They have certainly been participants in duping thousands of psychologically vulnerable victims into the Raniere-verse. This has cost those victims many thousands of dollars each, for knowledge available in $4.95 paperback self-help books, wrapped up with indoctrination of the genius and infallibility of Keith Raniere (and Nancy Salzman).
But in all the criticism of the Raniere-verse in the Albany Times-Union, Forbes, Vanity Fair, and Frank Report, the Salzman family seems to be but minor players.
Sarah Edmundson of the Vancouver BC center and Mark Vicente of the Los Angeles center of Executive Success Program, also have profited from the Raniere-verse, but they are reported to have drawn the line and shut down their centers, no longer willing to be complicit since the DOS revelations of blackmail, slavery, and genital branding.
The Salzmans should follow their example.
I doubt that Post-fect will get off with no charges. My guess is that she’ll probably avoid jail time – and just end up with probation and some sort of fine. Is that fair? Certainly not to all of the people she fucked-up and fucked-over as her part of the NXIVM-ESP scheme. But if she provides the info and the documents that take Vanguard down, then I can live with that outcome. Wonder how her daughters are going to react to Mommy blowing up their lifestyle…
I feel sick….great video clip. I’d say it accurately describes my experience. Only what I went through was done over a period of years and with much smaller lifts. Nothing so on the nose as ‘go take some candy from the store’…more like ‘you want to feel more potent? you want be the kind of person who does what they say they will? then go challenge yourself to be uncomfortable…wake up early or take a cold shower….this will build up self restraint which in turn builds self reliance….etc etc’. And even that was after years of learning to take personal accountability for everything in your life. To be ‘at cause’. It sounded great on paper and actually had a really positive effect of my life. But mixed in there was this idea that this was the best place in the world to work these issues…and in the wording an undertone of dependency on the company to grow or achieve….mixed with the idea that if you weren’t constantly attending trainings you somehow weren’t committed to your growth and dreams. Then you take that and mix it with the slow release of subtle and apparently not so subtle messaging about women having less character and needing to do more of these types of things than men and you get the formation of DOS some 20 years later. No one would have agreed to that insanity on day 1…you needed years to heat that pot up to a boil. My god its embarrassing. I imagine this knowledge (NLP, hypnosis, etc) is how corrupt governments, companies, and media outlets pull off some of their greatest cons.
Blah.
Everyone wants an excuse. These people knew what they were doing for years, especially those in the inner circle. Even all the minor celebrities from Vancouver were involved for years recruiting people, and there was more than enough negative information out there that was telling them this is bad news. Instead of using their minds and trusting their guts, all the powers that be had to do was appeal to their vanity and narcissism via an a exclusiveness which was nothing more than a layered mask to hide the shenanigans of a middle-aged frat boy who just wanted his ego stroked and to fuck women. They kept buying the shoddy “fake news” line like the current president elect keeps spewing as if it was something more than a weak dismissal.
Keith hypnotized Nancy, fawned all over her, gave her the Prefect name, and turned her into his figurehead. He needed her in order to get the whole sham off the ground and running. Interesting that he’s now giving Clare her own “special title” because $he is imperative to keep his sham of a life going.
As everyone who’s been reading this blog knows, Nancy is probably about the 666th person to give up the goods about the illegal and unethical stuff going on. Should Nancy fall on the sword for Keith? Should she play dumb as the walls are clearly falling in and the Fiji plane is warming it’s engine? Should she sit by and watch herself get all the blame because her name is on everything – even though we all know who the lunatic behind the curtain is? What SHOULD she do?
Of course, it’s way more complicated for Nancy than this. I think if Lauren hadn’t been dragged in, Nancy would have jetted a long time ago. I can only imagine her brain getting scrambled as she was coerced into brutally besieging Toni. That’s when it was obvious she had totally stopped thinking for herself and would go along with whatever insane whim the glib whack job concocted. Bottom line – Nancy screwed up.
WHAT IS??? Keith made his own bed and set everyone in his inner circle up for failure, so he could sleep with young skinny girls. He lied to Nancy and everyone else by telling them the mission was to save the world. He wanted to get laid and wanted to have his ego stroked. He’s a master hypnotist. He deserves to go down in a ball of flames for all the pain he has caused. If Nancy is really turning state’s evidence, it’s going to make it much easier to have Keith be held accountable. If she’s doing it to save her family – yeah, it may be selfish – but at least it may help put an end to the evil Ayn Rand character.
Everyone is accountable.
K.A.R. may be the figurehead, the master puppeteer but everyone (including Prefect Nancy) played a role and got something out of it whether it was recognition, a sense of grandiosity, money, status, power etc.
It’s convenient to blame this all on 1 person because that is the neat and tidy way to handle things but that absolves everyone else of responsibility and that is not the case. Everyone had their reason to be there and play their part.
Seriously, giving someone up because you’re going to be behind bars due to the shenanigans you were complicit in for years due to the enhanced material lifestyle and ego fawning, isn’t something to be remotely celebrated. That’s why it’s called “ratting out” and is eventually what law authority relies on from such types of people. Hence the expression, “there is no honor among theives”. Ironically, that’s what the cult teaches all the way from the top on down – me, me, me! – from the biggest “about me” of them all. Of course, all of this is sugar coated with being “ethical” first. You have to massage the conscience first – if you still have one – while making yourself feel good before picking someone else’s pocket. Way to use the authorities as a “tool”. The VanDouche has taught you well Nancy Sleazeman.
She’s ratted everyone out. Not to do the right thing but to save her miserable self. She could have taken Keith down years ago and didn’t. She’s as bad as him and will likely get away with everything because she has snitched.
They have been the absolute definition of boiling frogs. Lauren can sell ice to an eskimo and will be successful in anything she does. Nancy needs to focus on her legal issues.
Lauren and Michelle were big girls who made their own decisions about wanting to join Vanguard in his disgusting bedroom. They were all sucked in to the lies that Keith, Pam, Barbara etc where selling. Once the water started to warm, the Salzmans were then turned into Keith’s salespeople. The $$$ to be made helped blind them and was the excuse to keep drinking what Keith was putting in their cups.
Regroup. Save yourselves. Bounce back.
I have faith in them and look forward to calling them 6 months or 6 years from now to congratulate them on the comeback.
Post-fect should be prosecuted – in the court of public opinion if no where else – for giving away her two daughters to the chubby little psychopath who allows her to live the “high-end” lifestyle she craves. Warning to Nancy: there are no designer clothes in prison. Just basic orange cotton onesies.