By a Long Time Observer:
ESP follows the standard LGAT (large group awareness training) model that Werner Erhard’s “est” made famous in the 1970’s (but he copied from many previous emterprises). The model has been tuned to reliably convince anyone that goes through it that they have made breakthroughs in self-knowledge and power.
Sarah Edmondson and Anthony Ames had the expected reaction to their first Intensives: “This was wonderful, I am eager to encourage everyone I know to sign up.”
It’s hard to believe that they did not know that Mr. Raniere was ‘boffing’ every attractive young woman that he could get to Albany. But there isn’t much evidence that the sex was not consensual (although not necessarily above the legal age of consent). The “consent” likely involved “brainwashing,” but the legal system isn’t equipped to deal with that.
And reasonable people could disagree about the moral or “ethical” issues….
Personally, I can’t blame them much if they made money funneling other people through the entry-levels that had helped them.
“Higher” levels of ESP seem, in my judgment, to reverse the usually positive results of the entry level trainings. “Exploration of meaning” sessions “discover” new “issues” faster than they resolve old ones. This is by design, to induce dependency, and thus continue the cash flow.
People like Anthony and Sarah were somewhat naive and/or gullible if they did not realize this was not happening. And they deserve blame if they did realize it but continued enrolling people for personal profit.
There isn’t enough public evidence to make that call.
Whether DOS really was just Allison Mack’s idea, or if Raniere was on board from the start, I can believe that Anthony and Sarah were kept in the dark about the blackmail, slavery, and genital branding of DOS for quite a while. Why tell them?
Of course, the reaction of an adult with actual ethics to revelations about DOS blackmail, slavery, and genital branding is “This isn’t right, you need to stop, right now. And if you don’t, I’m disassociating with you, right now. ”
All available evidence is that Anthony Ames and Sarah Edmondsen did exactly that.
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
Please give the people who brought people in and who have now left a break. Do you think they’re not ashamed of what they participated in? Please remember they were also lied to and cheated-more than you. They gave their lives to something that was empty and not what it was made out to be. NONE of them are rolling in the dough. They were ripped off like the rest of us. To suggest THEY should pay back the funds for the courses they enrolled people in is a misunderstanding of who was profiting. Likely even Clare Bronfman is not profiting. If she is funneling so much money in, do you really think she is earning ANYTHING?? Yes she needs to go to jail for the way she continues to participate. But justice must be brought against Keith Raniere. NO ONE would be doing the things they’re doing without his manipulations and fraud.
Please stop pointing the finger at the people who have left and are trying to do the right thing. Please stop shaming them and ask how you can help. Don’t just be a judgmental asshole watching from the sidelines.
This comment raises some very interesting questions for all the “good people” who got duped into becoming coaches and proctors:
– Do you have an obligation to go back to the people you recruited – and tell them the truth about NXIVM, Raniere, Salzman, etc.?
– Do you have an obligation to pay back the funds that you talked others into spending on NXIVM courses?
– Do you have an obligation to pay taxes on all the unreported income (and free classes) that you received while you worked for NXIVM?
– Do you have an obligation to go the local law enforcement officials and report what you know about NXIVM’s various illegal activities?
What say you, readers of Frank Report?
Do you have an obligation to go back to the people you recruited – and tell them the truth about NXIVM, Raniere, Salzman, etc.? YES
Do you have an obligation to go the local law enforcement officials and report what you know about NXIVM’s various illegal activities? YES
Do you have an obligation to pay taxes on all the unreported income (and free classes) that you received while you worked for NXIVM? LET A COURT OF LAW DECIDE.
Do you have an obligation to pay back the funds that you talked others into spending on NXIVM courses?
UNLESS COERCION OR DURESS CAN BE PROVEN NO. We have to assume the intial enrollments were based of the enrolles free will. Besides IMO I don’ think anyone other than the HIGH RANK, EM PRACTITIONERS, GREENS and Center of the Onion made money. The Bronfman $$$ kept this thing going a lot longer than it should have. Baring jail time they should lose everything. Keith deserves solitary confinement in a strait jacket (so he cant rub one out). Perhaps a double brand to the buttocks with ASS on one check HOLE on the other?
Doesn’t matter what anyone knew or didn’t know. If you brought people in (like I was brought in with other actors who went broke on these courses), then you owe a big debt to help return people’s money. The more people enrolled by a person, the bigger the debt. Many people who got out still owe that debt because they enrolled so many people. What’s being done to return people’s money by those who enrolled us?