Cult News

“Integrity” is a word commonly used within the group named NXIVM (pronounced nexium like the acid stomach medication). Keith Raniere and his devoted disciple Nancy Salzman founded the organization, which has been called a “cult.”

“Integrity” has become an emotionally laden word commonly used by the group’s “coaches” when they train participants within 16-day so-called “intensives,” using Mr. Raniere’s patent pending “technology.”

But it looks like NXIVM may not practice what it preaches.

In a brochure recently distributed promoting its programs NXIVM touted Forbes Magazine in a seeming endorsement that appears to be deliberately misleading.

The brochure states, “As mentioned in Forbes magazine: ‘There is probably no discovery since writing as important for humankind as Mr. Raniere’s technology.'”

However, this quote was taken out of context and not really attributed fully and/or correctly.

The statement quoted was made by Nancy Salzman within the Forbes article titled “Cult of Personality,” which was hardly a positive piece.

The Forbes reporter actually offered the following appraisal of Mr. Raniere’s teachings. “You might think it pure genius. Or maybe horse manure,” he said.

Don’t expect that Forbes quote to appear anywhere within a NXIVM brochure.

Putting the Salzman quote in context it reads as follows:

“Salzman had just gone through a tough time. She found Raniere to be riveting. He became her spiritual guide, and she became his most ardent follower. ‘There is probably no discovery since writing as important for humankind as Mr. Raniere’s technology,’ she once wrote in a brochure.”

So the quote featured by NXIVM “as mentioned in Forbes” is really nothing more than promotional hype once written by Salzman, NXIVM’s President and “Prefect.”

This appears to be a deliberate attempt by NXIVM to mislead the public in the mistaken belief that Forbes somehow endorsed and/or lauded the group.

The brochure, which is a promotion for Executive Success Programs also lists “presenters,” including Esther Chiappone, who according to the brochure was “primarily responsible for the company’s unprecedented growth in Anchorage, Alaska.”

Readers of CultNews.com may recall that it was during an Anchorage ESP program that one participant, Kristin Snyder, tragically committed suicide.

Ms. Snyder’s last recorded words were, “I attended a course called Executive Success Programs (a.k.a. Nexivm) based out of Anchorage, AK, and Albany, NY. I was brainwashed and my emotional center of the brain was killed/turned off. I still have feeling in my external skin, but my internal organs are rotting. Please contact my parents … if you find me or this note. I am sorry life, I didn’t know I was already dead. May we persist into the future.”

Forbes reported that three other NXIVM participants required psychiatric care and that one was hospitalized.

NXIVM’s brochure also engages in “name dropping,” or rather titles, of notable ESP participants such as a “Former US Surgeon General” and a “Former First Lady of Mexico,” but without any endorsements specifically quoting these people.

Additionally, NXIVM touts the participation of a “CEO from Forbes 400 Wealthiest List,” which appears to be Edgar Bronfman Sr.

However, Mr. Bronfman abruptly discontinued his involvement with the group and said, “I think it’s a cult,” when asked for a comment by Forbes.

Again, this is hardly a ringing endorsement.

Interestingly, Oprah Winfrey allegedly “highlighted” Nancy Salzman “in this year’s O Magazine.”

But of course that’s according to a brochure that cannot always be relied upon for its accuracy.

The NXIVM brochure seems to represent a serious lapse of “integrity.”

NXIVM says on its webiste, “World ethics can be described as a sense of consistency and integrity throughout the world…However, we cannot bring a world like this into fruition without first truly understanding.” And this statement then concludes, “NXIVM represents the possibility for this victory.”

But if NXIVM has problems itself with “consistency and integrity,” how can it “bring the world,” or anyone, into any genuine understanding of those principles?

Note: After this article was posted an O Magazine spokesperson told CultNews, “Nancy Salzman appeared in a June 2003 O, The Oprah Magazine ‘real woman’ fashion story. The story simply listed Ms. Salzman’s title and occupation along with her style preferences. It did not elaborate on her business any further.”