I Can’t Stop Thinking About the Fake NXIVM Lesbians

Warning: spoilers & unsettling cult stuff

In my twenties, I was a prime candidate for a cult. I had no self esteem and was constantly in search of someone to make me feel seen, loved, understood. This is why it’s too depressing for me to watch documentaries about people in this same position, who get tricked into joining cults because they think they’ll find a sense of purpose, of belonging, but instead they’re forced to play night volleyball with some psycho, be fucking branded, given an eating disorder, and repeatedly sexually assaulted. Unfortunately, my girlfriend likes to watch these documentaries and she told me about the fake NXIVM lesbians and now they’re all I can think about.

If you haven’t yet watched HBO’s The Vow, it’s a docu-series about a cult in upstate New York called NXIVM, ran by a man named Keith Raniere. His right-hand woman, who helped him recruit for his cult, in which he sexually assaulted, trafficked, and branded members, was former Smallville actress Allison Mack (who has since plead guilty to charges of racketeering in relation to the sex trafficking case.)

While they haven’t addressed this in the documentary yet, my girlfriend discovered via a disturbing Google search, Mack was at some point allegedly convinced by Raniere to marry fellow cult member, and former Battlestar…