NXIVM DOS – a unique intersection between base crimes, and grey areas; and India’s dilemma

India Oxenberg may think she is forever ‘branded’ as a fool, as Dr. Dietz hinted in a recent NY Times article.

Known to the world as a branded slave and hence the world’s poster girl for a now-famous scheme of human trafficking, India may think her future is irrevocably hurt.

But we, as a society, are breaking new ground with this NXIVM cult. It is base crime, with the added touch of brainwashing, devised by a manipulative and diabolical leader, Keith Raniere. It may well be new ground legally.

As for India, she can turn her role as victim [or as she may think ‘misunderstood but apparent fool’] on a dime  and become a national heroine tomorrow. She can do this by rescuing herself and showing courage to aid, however and wherever possible, her DOS sisters out of their thralldom, slavery and manipulation.

I conjecture; society is breaking new ground here.

We have had brainwashing and we have base crimes of human trafficking; but here, we have them at an intersection. I am not saying it has not been done before, but here we have the spectrum.

It is possible to be a slave and not admit it. It is possible to be coerced into labor and sex trafficking without  knowing it. This is new territory: With DOS, you have the combination of the knowingly coerced and knowing victims; plus the secretly knowing but afraid to escape and admit it, [more afraid of Keith than law enforcement],  plus the most extremely violated – those who are not yet aware of the magnitude of their victimization. It is more than a mere case of Stockholm Syndrome, where captives come to love their captor and forgive them of their captivity.

This is a potent but sickening stew of deception, extortion, kidnapping, blackmail, sex trafficking, coercion and intimidation which meets encouragement, brainwashing, love bombing, mind control, thought reform, sleep and food deprivation, subtle manipulation, and peer pressure from fellow victims. Mashed altogether, it leads women to hurt themselves in the name of doing something good – which they have been subtly and overtly coerced into doing – and some yet remain unaware of what they are doing and what has been done to them to get them to where they have done what they did.

NXIVM, as it is revealed in DOS, is more than an extreme cult; it is the intersection of true criminality with deceiving the victims of crimes of their victimization and in some instances blurring the lines of victim and crime perpetrator, as Raniere inducts victims then makes them his co-conspirators.

None of this may be unique except that, because of the fallout of  ex-DOS victims who know what was done to them – and have spoken out about it – this may now intersect a place where law enforcement, via the laws of the land, may be able to actually stop it, while yet following due process.

This remains to be seen, but there may be reason to be hopeful.

From a slide at Vanguard Week. Nancy Salzman has been nothing but Keith Raniere’s useful idiot, a woman who has put everything in her name, said to be suffering from cancer, and reportedly eschewing all medical treatment and relying on the so-called ‘tools’ provided by Keith Raniere’s so-called “technology.” Is she a victim and a perpetrator?

Frank Parlato