Fellow conspiracy realist. Tonight, we returned to you with a classic episode about how things can go wrong in the pursuit of fame. We've talked a lot about cults. We've talked a lot about cult like or cultic organizations, and not too long ago we learned about something called how would you pronounce this? Nexium?
That's it?
Yeah, it kind of reads like kind of Roman numerally you see at the end of a movie, which may well be by the by design because it is a very hollywoody cult. We covered this pretty early, not to be all right, we found out about it first, but it was kind of weird how early we found out
about the story, and then it became a documentary. We actually ended up interviewing somebody a little later, Sean Bright, Yeah, who was kind of a person who had escaped this cult, and he had some very interesting things to say about it, and I think for me that was one of the most illuminating in terms of what it's like inside of cult interviews that I've ever been a part of. But this episode here is more of a primer on the whole deal.
Hey, let's get into.
It, from UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know.
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt nol Is on Adventures.
And they call me Ben. We are joined with our super producer Paul Bolo Decand that's a little bit of an inside joke. I don't know if we'll explain it in this episode.
But yeah, speaking of Bolo, be on the lookout for more specific information about the tour that we're going on in October.
Yes, the rumors are true. We are coming to a town hopefully near you, on our first ever US tour, So check out. We'll have some more information. We'll also have probably some promos running for it. You can hit us up directly Conspiracy HowStuffWorks dot Com with any specific questions. In the meantime, you are you, and you are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know.
All right, we're here, this is the thing, it's happening.
Yeah.
I wonder how many of you had had dreams of becoming famous or an actor or maybe a famous actor. Usually you don't have dreams of becoming an unknown character.
Actor, right, There are very few people who say grew up in acting dynasties and you know, they were a Barrymore or a Coppola or something, and then they decided, I hate living up to my parents' expectations. I'm gonna run away and be a CPA and chase my dreams, you know what I mean. Yeah, So this is an interesting question too, especially here in the US, where the desire for fame is commodified, it's idealized. It's so common that it's an accepted part of stories in almost any
genre of fiction. And you know, most people, it's similar to when we ask the question about whether or not you wanted to be an astronaut when you grew up. Oh yeah, a lot of people do. A lot of people did, and a lot of people do. And fame in its own way is very similar. Many many people aspire to fame through one avenue or another, and many of those people, the vast majority of those people do not end up attaining what they see as fame.
Yeah, and for a long segment of time, to be famous, you needed to have your face and your name on a screen somewhere, and a lot of times that was on a television inside someone's home or on a giant screen where your projected image becomes either the fantasy or the usually the fantasy and some right of the people who are viewing and looking at your face. And now that screen has moved to the palm of our hands as we walk around in different ways. Now you can
be Instagram famous or YouTube famous. It's interesting how that has moved, but nothing about getting famous has really changed.
That is absolutely true. So we find that the rough categories of fame, as we understand, and let's just define fame very very broadly as being known or familiar to a large number of your fellow human beings, yes, for one reason or other. Right, So there are a couple of different categories for this. There's fame in the realm of politics. A president of the United States is always going to be famous. They'll meet that definition of celebrity because a ton of people know who this.
Person is and they're on screen a whole lot.
And they're on screen a whole lot. And then there are people who are famous in some sort of religious or spiritual sphere. The pope is always going to be famous, always, right, And you could argue that that sphere has lost a little bit of power in an increasingly secular world, or a little bit of prominence, you know what I mean. But it's still an avenue of celebrity, right, or fame.
And then of course there's the world of entertainment or the and you could you could say that famous athletes qualify as well in the world of entertainment.
Oh, I would absolutely argue that.
So I think they're related genres of that category. And then there is the much more controversial category that again people would say is in some cases very American. That is the category of infamy. Serial killers are often romanticized right there. Definitely they reach some status akin to that of fame, right, and other great criminals.
Yeah, people who find themselves in the news for one reason or another.
And by the way, when we say great in this sense, we just mean they have committed crimes of an alarming magnitude. We don't mean they're the kind of people you want to hang out with at your local Applebee's and get that two for twenty.
Which Paul is salivating right now thinking about that. By the way, go to your neighborhood Applebee's. It's a place to gather your friends and family for one of those special occasions or just on a Tuesday apple Bee's, you're going to find the finest beers on tap and some of the most delicious chicken things around and oh riblets, oh in riblets. Oh god, yeah, the ribblets. How could I forget the ribblets?
So we want to be a clear Applebee's is not a sponsor this show. This is a this is an ongoing Paul said. Yet yeah, say yeah, this is an ongoing thing with us off off Mike, and maybe one day we can explain it in full. Maybe if we are on the big screen one day in an interview, we can say, David Letterman, that's a great question. But first let me tell you about our running inside joke regarding apple beans.
Well, see, I just see you driving around in a car with Jerry Seinfeld, and then you guys should show up at an Applebee's and that's where the rest of the episode takes place.
Why aren't you guys there first? That's also a fantastic idea. I wonder what his uh, what his opinion on Applebee's is, hmmm, because you see, he did attain fame.
These levels of fame beyond most others.
Right, he's one of the most famous, well known living comics, which places him squarely in the entertainment industry. And today, while we're looking at fame, we're focusing on the concept of acting. Quite a few of us when we were growing up, or quite a few of us listening today have aspirations to become actors, right to be on screen talent and the entertainment industry, or are working actors now to one degree or another. And it's no secret that
this industry in particular is brutal. We did an episode exploring some of the darker aspects of this industry that have recently and thankfully finally become the subject of public scrutiny. We'll see how long it lasts and whether there's any actionable punishment or consequences for the people involved.
Yeah, And we looked at an article from Wired twenty thirteen to get some kind of statistics about the state of the business of being an actor, I guess, and also the probability of someone becoming famous.
Yeah, yeah, so brace yourself. In this article for Wired, a mathematician named Samuel Arbsman attempts to quantify the ratio of famous people to the ratio of non famous people, anonymous people, sure, regular old people, regular old people aka us us everyone. Yeah, And he believed that an easy way to find the probability of anyone becoming famous in the most broad sense would be to note the number
of Facebook entries in the category living people. And on January fifteenth, twenty thirteen, when he pulled this number, that category was six hundred and four thousand, one hundred and seventy four. Then he divided this by the world population, which on that same day, January fifteenth, twenty thirteen, was a little over seven billion people, and so on that basis he concludes that point zero zero zero zero eighty six of the world population, or about one in ten thousand people, is famous.
Okay, one in ten thousand. That's still a lot of famous people.
Still better odds than the lottery though.
Yeah. But here's the thing. Most of the people that are watched on screen internationally, in let's say big Box office movies or in HBO shows or something that's been translated into other languages, they speak English.
Ah, yes, good point. Most famous actors, most of the most famous actors, we should say, do speak English. So we need to correct for that. The total of English speaking persons on the planet. It's twenty thirteen was only one point four to nine billion, which means that point zero zero four one, or about point zero four percent of the English speaking world population is famous, or about one in two thousand. Okay, Then then back to actors.
How many actors do we have in the States. Typically, one of the best ways to get statistics on a given profession in this country is to check with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Oh, the old BLS.
The old BLS not to be mistaken with BLT, not near as delicious. The BLS estimates that the number of actors for twenty seventeen was thirteen thousand, five hundred and sixty. That works out to about two hundred and seventy one actors per state, which we know is obviously not true.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's gotta be a lot higher than that. Even I feel like that number of people is just in LA. There are that many actors just in LA, I want to say, or at least twice more or three times more. So. If we take another group, the Actors Equity Association, they had over fifty one thousand members associated with them in twenty sixteen. So there you go. A lot more.
Yeah, many, many more, And these sources don't agree. One of our questions has to immediately be when we're comparing sources, what gives?
Right? Yeah.
One reason for the BLS's underestimation of the number of actors might be because they only count you as an actor if you have a current acting job.
Okay, that would make sense. So there are thirteen thousand employed actors at any given moment.
And they also just as side note, Well almost visited this one, Matt. How much does the BLS estimate working actors make per hour?
Oh?
Man, I can't believe we missed that. The BLS says the actors make an average of seventeen dollars and forty nine cents per hour.
Again average.
Yeah, so that's that is what Tom Cruise's numbers lumped in with the one extra that got paid I guess one hundred dollars or fifty dollars.
Day or something.
Yeah.
Yeah, so these averages are dangerous. These are far from accurate numbers. But according to the Actors' Equity Association, which you mentioned earlier, Matt, fewer than fourteen percent of actors were employed in twenty sixteen, and the statistics on actors not known to belong to the Actor's Equity Association is still an ambiguous, nebulous number. But that number would likely be considerably worse because there's not really a point to
joining Actors' Equity if you are unemployed. So let's just do a thought excerpts. Well, besides the networking associated with that, oh, which is huge. That's a great point. That's a fantastic point. Okay, So bracketing that, let's do a thought exercise. Okay, if we multiply that labor and statistic number by say, let's just say ten, dream big, say ten, we can say that they were around one hundred thirty five six hundred actors in the US, which still seems like a low
number to me. And if we multiply that number by point zero zero four to one, or by point zero four percent Arbsman's estimate of the percent of English speaking people who are famous, we can conclude that they're about fifty six English speaking actors currently working who are considered famous. There's a pretty off the cuff estimate, and it sounds kind of low to me. It sounds very low, to be honest with you.
But that many actors in all of the TV shows right now there, and some of them would not be considered famous really unfortunately.
But there have to be there. There have to be way more in that way, more, especially with the explosion of high quality television.
Especially if you're looking at streaming services in all of the original content with new actors. Yeah, right, I would agree.
And also if we're looking at you know, Instagram famous or YouTube famous, people who are famous on a specific platform.
Yeah.
So this is a situation where the final number is probably much higher, and that's great, that's a good thing. But the number of aspiring, non working actors we have to remember, is probably much much higher as well. What we're saying is, any way you slice it, the odds of success of reaching fame and the world of acting are very very extremely low.
Way lower than you even think.
Way way lower, way lower. Even with that, even with those numbers we just throughout there, you're it's still it's not as bad as like winning the power ball at the lottery. True, it's not that tough, but that's a horrible comparison. It's very difficult to demanding and brutal industry because it's an industry fraught with obscucation, sexism, racism, and agism. Those are all acknowledged too, They're part of the business. And then especially I'm not gonna get on the soapbox here.
I'm sure longtime listeners, I'm sure you know what I'm going to say. It's fraught with nepotism, which is a terrible thing and makes for worse end results.
And there's this element of pay to play and all of these other things that you can get into.
Well. For instance, considered people who aspire to work at, for example, a publishing house or a high quality fashion magazine, they will typically enter into that realm through a low level position, often an internship, and that internship may be located in Los Angeles or in New York, and they will have to find some means of financial support just
to afford rent in a terrible apartment. And this means that there's a built in, as you said, Matt, there's a built in pay to play aspect here that commonly pops up. And I want to take a note to say I really fundamentally enjoy a lot of movies featuring the actor known as Nicholas Cage.
Okay, I'm on board with you there.
His real last name is Copola, and yes, related to the same Francis Ford Coppola. And one of the questions someone asked me off here somewhere, I can't remember why. I was talking about how I just love the insanity of the fight scenes, face off or whatever, and they said, do you believe that Nick Cage would be a famous actor if he were not in the Coppola dynasty? And I couldn't answer that question.
I will answer that question, Okay, absolutely, there we go. There is a Nick Cage quality that you cannot get from anyone besides that, man, I'm.
Telling you, And it sort of it speaks to the way in which we judge the performance of American actors. Right, Oh sure, have we mentioned this on the air before, the difference between European and American actors.
No? Okay.
So American actors often by and large are praised for their ability to consistently be themselves or their own brand in whatever film you see them in. Right, and even you know ones who are serted completely amazing masterclass actors. Al Pacino, for instance, is always some version of al Pacino, Right, A lot of those, A lot of those nuances that we see when he assumes different characters are still him doing the character.
You're still getting pacino.
You're still getting pacino.
Yes, and that's arguably what you're paying for as a studio, right.
And in the European sphere, often actors are lauded for a very different reason, their ability to be chameleons, right to be so completely different from one fictional world to the next. So by that logic, for instance, Liam Neeson, despite being a European actor, fits into the American idea of a fantastic actor. What about some Idrisilba, Idrisilba, It's a different question. I haven't seen enough of his stuff to say, but most of what I've seen, he's recognizably Idris Ilbah.
No man, I don't know if I agree, but let's go with it.
No, I, you know, I this is just an opinion.
I'm telling this is.
Just an opinion. But but so the people who become a list, actors who despite the odds or because of the nepotism, reached that fabled position in the American zeitgeist, in the Western pantheon of entertainment, they will have not perfect lives, but they do have a position in life that many, many people aspire to reach, and we have to ask ourselves it's it's such again, it's such a trope. What have people done to get on this path? What
have they done to get access? Just to get noticed by a director, by an agent, by someone they think they can provide them with opportunities. It's the age old question what would you do to be famous?
And what would you allow to happen to you to reach that level?
Right, however, reluctantly, however, against your better judgment, what would you feel coerced into doing? Granted, we don't want to make it look impossible, some people do luck out. Those stories of you know, someone just being recognized in them, all those things happen. Harrison Ford I believe, got cast as Hans Solo when he was doing some carpentry work on a set. And some people work hard, just not just in the right place at the right time, but
they're determined, they're tenacious. They are doing eighty hours a week of legwork, auditions, practicing Chara character yeah yeah, yeah, and over and over. And in that case it's it's I would say it's disrespectful for the Bureau of Labor and statistics to consider them unemployed. Yeah, that's a heck of a job, you know, and probably one of the most demanding.
And some reason I want to put Steve Ashmi in there, but I don't know if it's right. Somebody who's just been doing roles forever and then finally like, oh, I actually get a show now in like twenty ten. Big fan of his. Yeavy too.
So some people also network, As we mentioned, they're looking for opportunities and access they could not otherwise find on their own. Today's episode, Fellow Conspiracy Realist is about one of these groups, a group that purports to provide great opportunity to provide personal and professional awakening, a group called Nexium.
And we're going to dive deep into their origins and how it became a thing after a word from our sponsor.
Here are the facts, So, Matt, we dug around and we went to the primary source to describe Nexium itself. It's spelled in XIVM, but it's pronounced nexium, yes. And what exactly are they? What's their deal?
Well, according to the splash page on their website, it's a company whose mission is to raise human awareness, foster and ethical humanitarian civilization and celebrate what it means to be human. That sounds nice, inspirational. Yeah, it sounds familiar to other groups that we've discussed before on this show, especially within the context of acting. It's making me think a little bit about scientology.
I see. Yeah, the idea of self realization ultimately.
And helping an actor become them their true selves in order to become the best actor possible.
And if that sounds a little vague, they do go into further detail.
Oh yeah. Nexium is a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human. The Nexium philosophy is expressed through a series of companies and initiatives, all of which were designed to broaden the way we currently think about problems and help create solutions for a kinder, more sustainable,
ethical world. With unique tools that facilitate success both internally and externally, Nexium helps people realize the potential that exists within them.
Okay, admittedly sounds pretty vague, right.
Yeah, I don't really get anything. There are techniques that are going to help me become me to my full potential.
So we if we were to spitball and speculate, we could say that one of the seminars or sessions might be something about confidence in social or business functions.
Right, yeah, perhaps just in any interaction whatsoever? How do you display yourself?
Little body language, some public speaking, some maybe some ideas about how to frame what information you present? Sure, how to manage your reactions? Scientology does it a lot of that as well, but so do a ton of other things. We often call them life coaching stuff.
Right Benino Massaro had some of that stuff.
Sure he did. I'm sure he did or does. But on balance this seems pretty harmless. Sure believe in yourself? Yeah, what's wrong with that?
We'll teach you how to do it for whatever money?
Right? Right? It does have a price tag attached. So where did Nexium come from? It is the brainchat the founder Keith Ranieri, which is how we found it pronounced the multiple media sources Rnieri, And it evolved from his earlier work with something called the Consumers Byline Incorporated. That's buy lne.
That sounds familiar, consumers byline, you know why?
Why's that?
Because a byline sounds like an upline or a down line. Do you know why because it's a multi level marketing scheme. It was broken up when it was investigated for being a pyramid scheme.
Yes, yes, so. Keith was born back in nineteen sixty in New York. He graduated Rocklands County Day School, a private school, in nineteen seventy seven, and he was thought to be a very intelligent young man. In nineteen eighty two, he graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with three separate Bchelor degrees.
Wow.
Shortly thereafter he joined Amway.
Oh, another one of those byline wayline uplindalens.
He is considered a boy genius at the time, a title he really leans into later in life.
Yeah. He once had on his website that at the age of one, he was speaking in complete sentences, which is a huge achievement and good for him.
Yeah, I'm skeptical, but sure, sure, sure, it's possible.
He taught himself how to play concert level piano by age twelve, which is a possibility.
Also a possibility, possible. So. He's spent about a year from nineteen eighty eight to nineteen eighty nine working at the New York State Parole Board as a programmer for around thirty two thousand dollars a year, and then he left to become a sales trainer for something called pre Paid Legal, which was a marketing okay, okay, and then in nineteen ninety he opens the consumers byline that you had mentioned had some problems.
Yeah, it was a marketing club and it would hook its members up. It would just give him all these discounts on all kinds of different consumer goods. And his partners at the time were Karen Tarranner terrainer not exactly shroud to pronounce her name, and Pam Kaffritz. Now, at this time, Pam is his longtime girlfriend. Pam. I don't know if they're still together or not. I don't keep
up in the celebrity news. Unfortunately, I'm not sure at this time in twenty eighteen when we're recording this, if Pam was still his girlfriend.
I like that he may have evolved past that. Oh yeah, I like how you bring that idea of celebrity back, right, the true one of the huge religions of our current society. Right, there's money and then there's fame.
Yeah. Right.
By nineteen ninety four, multiple agencies are investigating consumers byline, because, as you said earlier, Matt, they believe it is a pyramid scheme. By nineteen ninety six, Keith and his partners settle with the New York State Attorney's Office to end the probe of consumers byline. They don't admit any guilt, Nope, but they do agree not to promote, offer, or grant participation in an illegal chain of distribution scheme.
Oh well, that's nice, she said.
We're not guilty. We also promise not to do these things anymore. And as part of the settlement, Nier agreed to pay a forty thousand dollars fine.
Yeah, forty thousand dollars not that crazy. Who knows how much money they were actually raking it.
Right right there? Are No, I don't know. I'm sure the courts found something, but I don't know what the real amount is.
Yeah.
And then everything changes in nineteen ninety seven when he meets a person who later becomes influential in his life.
Yeah, Nancy Salzman. She's a psychotherapist who was running the International Center for Change, And basically Ranieri became her mentor, and he started teaching her these methods that he had been I guess thinking about or maybe was coming up with at the time, and he called them rational inquiry. Yeah, yeah, she was, well, she was kind of like subject zero for what would then become Nexium.
Right, and we're at that point in the timeline. In nineteen ninety eight, ornier A creates Executive Success Programs or esp OH, and it's later going to be named Nexium. Nancy Salzman is president, and Karen and Pam also join up as partners. By October twenty seventeen, Nexium states that its seminars and programs have provided tools, coaching, techniques, and training to sixteen thousand people across thirty different countries. Rnier A becomes a niche celebrity of his own, especially within
the organization. He meets with the Dalai Lama on May sixth, two thousand and nine. The Nexium Group purchases multiple buildings in the Albany, New York area.
But what is it?
Exactly? From their own copy and from your accurate description, Matt, it sounds like Nexium is a life coaching organization, but critics and legal filings have referred to it as an MLM, a scheme, a pyramid, yeah, a multi level marketing scheme.
No.
Yeah.
In twenty twelve, the Times Union, which is based in Albany, publishes a report wherein experts argue that rnier A is not a life coach and more of a cult leader.
Yeah, not even an MLM, just top of the chain guy and actual cult leader is what this paper is saying. And you can read this article right now if you google it.
And it's pretty good. But it definitely takes that stance. And I think there was an earlier article in the two thousands from Forbes that had some of his supporters say they had attended seminars or sessions and found it worthwhile. Oh yeah, so we do want to be fair in that regard, so when they say he's a cult leader, they don't just throw the C word out and then let it play. They have some specific accusations against him.
Yeah. The article is titled Secrets of Nexium again spelled NXIVM, and they go into allegations of all kinds of different sexual manipulation, both of adults and also people who are under age women specifically they're also they go into these murky possibilities about illegal financing financing schemes within the organization.
There are multiple interviews with people who have been involved at one time or another with Nexium, and we have Oh, they also speak about a relentless intimidation of anybody trying to break away from the organization. Does that sound familiar to any of the other organizations we've discussed in the past, Sure, specifically people who are questioning the internal practices of Nexium, people who know how it functions.
Or claimed to yes. So maybe this is just a hip piece. Perhaps, perhaps let's hold off judgment for a moment. We have to pause here and introduce another character in the story, one of Vernire's most high profile followers in Nexium. Her name is Alison Mack.
If her name sounds familiar, that's because she's an actor of somewhat of note. And let's talk about her backstory. So she was born on July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty two, in West Germany. She has been an actor for most of her life. Her first major role was in the Warner Brothers series one that you probably remember if you were my age just turned thirty five, seventh Heaven, and she played a teenage cutter, which was a thing that
I had never seen before in my life. When I was at that stage watching it with my family, and I actually remember that wow, because it wasn't a huge role.
Yeah, but it was a I guess, a groundbreaking or influential role in the public discourse. And she continued as a working actor. Again, She's on the way, She's on the path to which so many people aspire. In two thousand and one, she landed a role as Chloe Sullivan, one of Clark Kent's best friends, in the popular series
Smallville that went on and on for multiple seasons. In two thousand and ten, then Alison Mack reportedly joined the Vancouver chapter of Nexium, along with another Smallville colleague, the actor Kristin Kruk. Mac rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the organization's top recruiter, attempting to recruit other actors of notes such as Emma Watson or entertainers like Kelly Clarkson and feminist writers into what she described as a quote
human development and women's movement organization. Many young actors were joining up in hopes of attaining further personal and professional success. After all, Alison Mack is a star, right.
Yeah, she's got to be doing something right. I should follow in her footsteps. Let me listen to what she's got to say. But then rumors of even more salacious occurrences within the Nexium organization begin to surface. So again, what exactly is happening within this organization at the events, maybe behind closed doors. We'll get into that again right after a quick word from our sponsor.
Here's where it gets crazy.
It's time to peek behind the curtain of Nexium. As it turns out, Alison Mack was one of the top recruiters for Nexium, but she wasn't just recruiting for Nexium in general, and she was not just hooking people up with acting gigs or promising them the sort of personal realizations that would lead to more success in the entertainment industry. She was recruiting for two other inner groups, just for women.
One was named j NES capital j lower case ness like locknest, monster Us, Janus, and this was the recruiting pool for something else, an organization. Outsiders were never supposed to know about a secret group, and these recruits who went through Nexium went through JNS and joined this other group where a varying ages they were entering a secret sisterhood sometimes referred to as dominos osequious sororirium or dos.
Dos okay, or the vow.
The dos. The Latin there means something like the obsequious sisters okay, and it's a loaded term. In a groundbreaking report from October twenty seventeen, writing for The New York Times, journalist Barry Meyer details what women had to do in order to gain admission into this group. We do want to tell you ahead of time what we are about to discuss in this in this segment may be disturbing for some audience members.
Yeah, if you've had any experience a kin to abuse in this realm, just go ahead and either skip forward or maybe just listen to the next episode. Here we go. So, the first thing that happens is that they become or they call themselves and kind of take a vow to become slaves with the person above them, the woman above them, within their hierarchy, and that person is going to be considered their master. And there are six of them generally
how it functions in a cluster. So there's one master and then six slaves.
So seven people total, and these potential slaves, in order to join the organization or to join DOS, they were required to give this master, whomever that person might be, always a woman in this case, they were required to give this person collateral, that's what it was called. These would be in the forms of naked photographs, sexually explicit photographs, or other compromising material.
And some people wrote down just past transgressions, things that they had done wrong, that they knew were wrong, that would harm somebody else if that information came out.
Right, things that could harm their own reputation as they pursued celebrity, or things that could harm the reputation of their loved ones. And the expectation here the implication was that should they break the valve of silence, should they say anything about this group, that information would be exposed, leaked to the public. The word for this is blackmail.
Yeah, but ben trust goes both ways. You know what I'm saying.
I yes, I don't agree in this case, but yeah, I know what you mean.
Yeah, I don't agree either that. It's just that's scary. And again it harkens back to another group.
To the audit system, right, yeah, or the rundowns.
Yeah, we're going to record everything that you say when we were going through your darkest, deepest past.
Just in case, just for our records.
Yep.
So at this point some of the people entering into this organization had heard they might receive a small tattoo in the process. Instead, they were told to disrobe and lay on a massage table and they were ordered to say, master, please brand me. It would be an honor.
And that's a quote that's not like a you say something like this, that's the value take.
Yeah, it's verbatim. Female doctor. Allegedly, a member of Nexium named Danielle Roberts would use a cauterizing device to seer a two inch square symbol below each woman's hip. And this procedure took about twenty to thirty very very painful minutes.
Yeah. And in some of these articles you can read some of the women who joined this group described the process where there are at least three other women holding down their legs in their arms while they're in this device this chair or the massage table, I guess, and then the process of just screaming and disassociating as it's going on because they're in so much pain. It's rather horrifying.
And this one with Danielle Roberts is this is the one we know about, right, because there are groups, there are nexium groups all over in so many countries, in Canada and Mexico and the United States and other countries. This is just the one group that we're aware of where this process took place.
Exactly. And what we find is that after being branded several of these women, multiple women allege that when they were in this dominant submissive relationship with their quote unquote master in a super organization, they were coerced into sexual activities with Keith Ernire himself. Who oh wait, they don't call him Keith by the way, in the group.
No, they call him the Vanguard.
Which I think is a lame, lame name. Lame nickname, the Vanguard.
I would have really liked it if I was still playing EverQuest like, I would have thought, Man, that's a cool name, the Vanguard. I like that.
In addition to sexual exploitation for the pleasure of the Vanguard, other women and survivors of this situation say that Mac and other members required them to do forced labor or menial task. They had to do this without question. Yeah, it didn't matter what it was around the house, chores, guard work, et cetera. And for this Allegedly, the Vanguard would then pay mac or other masters. So if we're keeping count right now, that's sex trafficking, blackmail, blackmail right
and forced labor. If we're being held by the US legal code rather than the vision of the Vanguard, I just can't say that name with a serious tom. But there's more right. Additionally, he had very very rigid opinions on how people should conduct any aspect of their lives. Obviously a lot of cult leaders tale as old as time, are very controlling people. So what was one of his other conditions that came out?
More trigger stuff here if you've ever had an eating disorder or something to that effect, or just know we're going to talk about some of that right now. So the Vanguard apparently liked women to look emaciated. That was his thing, so he would he preferred extremely thin women. So so the slaves had to stick to these extremely
low calorie diets. They would document every piece of food that went into their mouths, and as punishment for not falling orders, women would, we are a lot of the times forced to attend these classes where they had to wear fake cow utters over their breasts, and people would call them terrible names and make fun of them for wearing it, and then they would even be threatened to be put into a cage because they can't fall orders. They're not doing the right thing and treated like cattle.
They're being suppressive or they're being an obstacle to their own success.
An sp right again.
Yeah, and Nexium, by the way, did, or at least the Vanguard did use the term suppressives when he was getting into people's heads. At this point, it's not clear who Innxiom was aware of these activities, nor how many people were branded, because you know, it's the inner circle of an inner circle. However, we do know they ca
himself was certainly aware. He sent a text message to a female follower discussing the branding, wherein he noted, quote not initially intended as my initials, but they rearranged it slightly for tribute, adding if it were Abraham Lincoln's or Bill Gates initials, no one would care. We should mention that the appearance of the brand it's yeah, let's talk about it. It's his initials in a It's a stylized K and a stylized R.
Yeah. I'm looking at a picture from the New York Times. It's a woman named Sarah Edmondson who came forward with some of these I guess you have to call him allegations, but who came forward to discuss these things after she was branded. She showed hers on the New York Times website. And it just it looks almost like an X in a way that has some extra little flourishes to it. But it looks just like a terrible wound. Essentially, it's all right, it's awful.
Yes, And so far there hasn't been a conviction for this yet, so you are a correct amount.
We do.
We do need to say that these are allegations. Technically, yeah, just got to hold back the vomit a little bit. So there's another controversy here. Like many organizations of this type, Keith and his followers spent a great deal of time attempting to turn or compromise wealthy and powerful and most importantly vulnerable.
People and possibly influential.
And possibly influential right, and that is again a textbook, textbook move from organizations that are like this. Two of its most notable successes in this regard are the Bronfman sisters, Sarah and Claire. They are believed to have squandered as much as one hundred and fifty million dollars of their inherited fortune on the organization. They are the heiresses to the Seagrum's fortune, the gin mm HM, and multiple other things.
What we can imagine this one hundred and fifty million dollar price tag or heist of their family's fortune included sixty six million dollars allegedly used to cover Rnire's failed bets in the commodities market, thirty million to buy real estate in la and around the Albany area. Eleven million for a plane a jet actually, excuse me, Canada Air CL six hundred. That's a twenty two seat, two engine jet.
Nice ride. Yeah, millions more to support the barrage of lawsuits that Nexium would wage against people who wronged Keith and so excuse me, the Vanguard in some way or were seen as a threat.
Yeah. And the father, mister Bronfan, he's a billionaire and his name's Edgar Edgar Bronfman. He attended an Exium session and after a little while he came out strongly against the organization, and he himself referred to it as a cult. Which is something to note here because the sisters who I believe are his daughters. Yes, came out and you know, are shelling out all now, I don't want to say his money, but the family's money, just shelling it out for this group that he believes as a cult.
And you'll hear people allege that what the organization, when next him itself, was doing was exploiting or leveraging the problems that existed in the Brafmann family's inner relations. God should dislike of their father, right, he's a billionaire, he can't. That's one of the closest things a human being in this current system can have to godlike powers.
Right.
So the idea then is that their agency has been removed, they have been brainwashed somehow into supporting this guy, and that they are I mean, that's an interesting legal point. Are they complicit in these situations? We're about to find out.
Yep, we know.
We mentioned that excellent piece by Meyer in the New York Times in twenty seventeen. Ranier noticed it as well. He read it and then he fled for Mexico.
Yes he did. By the way, it's called inside a secretive group where women are branded.
And he was he was partnering with some of his followers, who already lived in a Mexican outpost for nexium with some again notable, high profile followers, and he was found shortly thereafter in a Puerto Vieta luxury gated community living with several women. Authorities took him into custody on a US warrant. Investigators said the women got into a high speed car chase. At this point, we don't have more information about that, but we can only imagine they were
also apprehended. And so when he was arrested, he was transported to Texas and officially charged with sex trafficking. We shall also mention that numerous sources state he was involved with three women who were under the age of sixteen at the time.
Yeah, which is a whole other I was going to say bag of badgers, but let's not tante it off. It's a whole other thing.
Let's at least save that one.
Yeah.
So now he and Dallas and Mack face a minimum of fifteen years each if convicted. That's a minimum of fifteen, but it could go all the way up to life. It probably won't because there's still a ton of money involved.
He Yeah, I should be noticed that noted I think I'm not sure we even said it that Alison mac is also caught up in the illegal stuff. That's like you're saying they're both facing charges.
Right, Yes, absolutely, And at this point here in twenty eighteen August, as we record this, the case is still ongoing. We do have the official statement from Nexium. They are on pause. Ranier released a letter responding to these allegations as well at some point, but this is the official statement from Nexium on their current operations.
It is with deep sadness that we inform you that we are suspending all Nexium ESP enrollment, curriculum and events until further notice. We will be in touch with more information for anyone currently enrolled in upcoming events and programs. While we are disappointed by the interruption of our operations, I believe it is warranted by the extraordinary circumstances facing the company at this time. We continue to believe in the value and importance of our work and look forward
to resuming our efforts when these allegations are resolved. Okay, all right and.
Short, simple to the point. Yeah, of course they're going to allied the details of the specific accusations.
That's the word of your day, Allied, Ben Bolin, tell us what the what the word means?
Okay, Allied e l ide means to leave or strike out to omit perfect. So he didn't lie, but they did elied. There you go the details, Okay. So Claire Bramffman was also arrested and in late July, just the month before we recorded this, she put up twenty five million dollars in cash and several high end properties, including a stake in a private island in Fiji, which is amazing to just own a private island as collateral on
her one hundred million dollar bond. She faces racketeering charges in connection to her role in the Nexium functions, according to the court documents, So she's going down more for financial shenanigans, of which there are quite a few. You can read more about that in an excellent article from Oh Gosh way back in twenty ten Vanity Fair. It's called the Heiresses and the Cults.
Yeah, and there's something really important we have to mention here, Ben. There are a lot of people who would consider themselves members or are members of Nexium who had absolutely no knowledge of any of these things that were going on, and didn't even know that or didn't feel at all like this, like this company did anything besides help them.
Right, Yeah, Because again, sixteen thousand or so people participated. The majority probably just attended a handful of seminars and then left, perhaps feeling better about themselves, perhaps and more confident. Maybe the classes even have measurable positive impacts on their lives. Of the victims who've come forward, we also have to note that they're likely more who, for one reason or another, are too intimidated to take these stories public.
Yeah, and perhaps they can feel emboldened in a way or empowered by having some of these stories come out. And you know, perhaps you were a victim and there you can be supported.
Now And what about the future for Ranierre, mac and more. As we said, there is still a ton of so much money at play, and it maybe some time before anyone gets convict. Did both of these individuals, Alison and Keith pled not guilty. One note about Ranieri's finances. That's going to be a huge issue for his legal team, because apparently he did not have a bank account, yeah,
nor driver's license. And of course he started encrypting email and tossed his phone as soon as the new York Times article went live, and.
It is fascinating how much she, I don't know, tried to give himself plausible deniability about some of that stuff.
Right exactly, tried to be in the operative phrase there. Alison Mack, as we record this is currently out on bail, paid a five million dollar bond and she is living at her parents' house. At this point. Observers suspect mac will likely attempt to plea bargain. This would not be out of the realm of possibility. She could claim that she, like her victims, was psychologically manipulated courst and therefore controlled
by the Vanguard. And it's an argument that prosecutors or a jury may well accept.
And there's something to be said there perhaps. I mean, we say it's an argument because that's the way you would frame it in a court of law, but psychologically there's some probably truth to that.
Oh, absolutely absolutely. And then we have one more tidbit about Keith Ranier himself.
Oh yeah, his lawyers requested a ten million dollar bond and he was completely denied bail.
And that was denied. After June fifth of twenty eighteen, they filed it. Then he was arrested on March twenty sixth of this year. That's when they got him in Mexico and brought him to Texas. Mac Also, interestingly enough, in an earlier interview, she told The New York Times magazine that the branding was her idea. Yep. And their trial is set to begin on October first of this year, so there will be more to come. This is an ongoing story.
There's a lot coming out right now. The day that we're recording this, Catherine Oxenberg, who was a star on the show Dynasty, just came forward discussing her daughter who got caught up in the organization. So yeah, it's going to keep happening.
It's going to keep happening. There's going to be more news hitting the airwaves soon regarding this situation, and we would like to stay up to date. We'll almost certainly have to do an update once the trial goes through to see how that all shakes out. We'd also like to hear from you, especially if you are an aspiring actor a working actor. First, congratulations, it is a very difficult industry. Second, have you run into things like this?
Have you seen organizations promising you some sort of access or influence or greater personal self realization. If so, what are the names of those organizations? Do you think their aims were legitimate? Do you think there was something else at play?
Yeah? Is there anything we could look into?
Send it our way, and we'd like to thank you so much for listening. NOL, like all of us, is working on any number of secret projects. We can't wait to tell you about those. Paul, Matt and I will at some point get to an Applebee's made a covenant. We did for the record. We did for the record, if you follow us on social media, we did show up to that mof ON meeting.
Yeah we did.
Yeah. Matt and I went to the Georgia chapter of the Mutual UFO Network and I'll admit it, man, I was surprised by how packed it was.
It was crazy packed. You walk into the library in Tucker, Georgia, you hang a left and there's a big meeting room. Most of the chairs are filled and people were being very cordial and just listening. The meeting was run very well. When you maybe it's just the vision that I have sometimes when you were talking about a group of people who collectively have some belief in the unidentified flying objects in aerial phenomena that perhaps we're all a little bit strange.
I'm including myself in this group. By the way, the human beings that were there in that room, assuming they were all human beings, huh, I mean, it was so refreshing that I felt like we were all just regular people. Is that weird?
No, I don't think so.
It was crazy refreshing. Lots of good people there.
Too, and so we would like to follow up in the future with some of the details about Muffin in a separate episode, maybe bring somebody from there to talk a little bit about their experiences there. Who doesn't love a good UFO story. And then we found some other things that we thought would be of immense.
Interest to you, some specific cases.
Some specific cases, fellow listeners. If you'd like to hear a little bit more about mouf On or what we ended up doing there on that Saturday, then check us out on social media. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We particularly like to recommend Here's where it gets Crazy our community page, which is sort of enough about us, what about you kind of thing where you can meet with the most important part of this show,
your fellow listeners. We've got some excellent moderators. The meme game on that show, M E M E is a plus plus double good top of the line.
Yeah, and if you know you do hit up in Applebee's, don't forget to get a Mucho frozen Strawberry Summer Squeeze. They're only there for a time.
You guys.
He's googling the menu.
Yep, chickens fingers are still there. The shrimp wanton stirfries to die for, So just don't don't forget it so interesting And that's the end of this classic episode. If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, you can get into contact with us in a number of different ways. One of the best is to give us a call. Our number is one eight three three st d WYTK. If you don't want to do that, you can send us a good old fashioned email.
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