Two months ago I published a review of the mini documentary series The Vote, which deals with the same subject, revealing the ins and outs of the cult that manipulated and turned into sex slaves a group of women who believed in the madness of the leader, Keith Raniere. At the end of the post I will leave a link for you to read.

Seduced: Within the NXIVM Cult is the new mini series that complements The Vow. There is new visual material that was not seen in the other series. There are also contributions and testimonials from other affected women, as well as opinions from different experts, including psychologists, lawyers and cult experts.

In the documentary, in mini-series format, the main story and the one that serves as the thread of the story is India Oxenberg, who joined the organization at the age of twenty. She was part of the NXIVM for seven years, becoming very close to Keith Raniere. India became totally involved in the organization, she was the slave of Allison Mack, the famous actress who was also accused after the fall of the sect.

India was one of the first girls to be marked on the skin, near intimate areas. With the symbol that represented the initials of Raniere, and that all those who joined the DOS (a group that was part of the NXIVM organization) had to submit to being marked as cattle. They would have a Master. And those who managed to recruit would be their slaves, forming a chain of masters and slaves, but the supreme leader of all of them, was Raniere, as absolute master and the majority who formed part of that intimate circle, maintained sexual relations with the leader.

_Source

The documentary shows Catherine Oxenberg's testimony to get her daughter out of that sect. We also see it in the other documentary (The Vote). She was one of those who lobbied and achieved many of the objectives, when a group of former members came together to expose all the irregularities of the organization. The sect had separated her from her daughter, who did not believe the accusations and even when Raniere was arrested, India still defended him and he had bad relations with his mother.

On several occasions, I think the documentary tries to clean up the image of India Oxenberg She and her mother have regained their good relationship. She has completely separated from the cult, and even married a chef named Patrick D'Ignazio and now lives happily. Although the shadow of the sex cult will haunt her for life, she is an activist for the Oxenberg Foundation, to help women who have been victims of something similar to what she experienced.

Her mother, Catherine Oxenberg, still has feelings of guilt, because it was she who encouraged her to participate in a talk by the Executive Programs, and then both did the initial $3,000 training. The organization captured Oxenberg in India, captivating her, making her interested in becoming a coach, by moving to Canada, where the headquarters were located and close to where Rainiere lived.

India Oxenberg was a girl who never lacked anything, she had a childhood of plenty, she was intelligent, rich, with ties to the Hollywood world and even to royalty, but the sect convinced her anyway, to move away from her mother, to believe in leaders, to be a slave, to be marked and even to have sex with Raniere.

When the Oxenbergs enrolled in the introductory course, the sect saw them as potential high-level members. It was important that they be recruited. If they couldn't do both, at least one of them. Why? Because their profile matched the type of people the cult needed and sought.

There were several actresses and famous people who were involved at some point with some of the executive program courses that the NXIVM taught. Some retired on time, but others gave themselves to the organization full time. For example, the most notable case is that of Allison Mack, who was brainwashed and fell so much in love with Raniere that she now suffers the consequences of her actions.

Clare and Sara Bronfman, multimillionaires, heirs to the fortune of their father Edgar Bronfman, who was president of Seagram, were staunch supporters and financiers of Raniere in the formation of the organization. Meanwhile, they paid the Dalai Lama $1 million for a conference where a photo would be taken with Rainier, giving prestige to the NXIVM.

Clare has been sentenced to six years in prison, while Sara is missing, an escapee from justice.

_Source

But, some may wonder, who is India Oxenberg? Her fame comes from her mother, Catherine Oxenberg, who was a well-known actress in the 1980s, when she played Amanda Carrington in the series Millionaire People: Dinasty. At that time, it was one of the most popular series. She was briefly married to the famous Hollywood producer Robert Evans and years later she was married to the actor Casper Van Dien. In addition, her mother Catherine (grandmother of India Oxenberg), is Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, whose ancestry is linked to several royal houses throughout Europe, being second cousin of the current Prince of Wales.

Elizabeth appears in the documentary, her statements are very direct and funny. With her experience in the intrigues and the European aristocracy, she always had a bad feeling about the organization that recruited her granddaughter. She says that when she met Nancy Salzman, one of the leaders, she knew she was talking nonsense and was an idiot.

For me it was enough with the documentary The Vow, this new mini series of four episodes, I see it more as a publicity strategy of the Oxenberg family. Catherine Oxenberg has also published a book, whose title is Captive: a mother's crusade to rescue her daughter from a terrifying cult. It's good that everything that happened is told from different points of view, but I feel that the moment has been taken advantage of. I think it's a product created by a public relations company. The documentary "The Vote" feels better made and more honest.

The documentary is created by Cecilia Peck and Inbal B. Lessner. India Oxenberg is one of the producers and the direction of the four episodes is in charge of Cecilia Peck, who is the daughter of the famous actor Gregory Peck. She has previously directed another documentary, Brave Miss World, about the kidnapping and rape of Isarael Linor Abargil's beauty queen, two months before she was crowned Miss World in 1998. That documentary received good reviews from people who have seen it.

Trailer

_Source

POSTER

_Source