In an interview with New York Times Magazine conducted this winter but published for the first time this week, Allison Mack, the former “Smallville” star who was recently arrested for her involvement in an alleged “sex slave cult,” admitted that the horrific branding ritual for initiates in the secret sorority of the NXIVM “self-help” group was her idea.
The Times’ newly published piece includes interviews with former members of the sorority (DOS, which stands for “dominant over submissive”) as well as with the leaders of the cult, including Keith Raniere (called “Vanguard” by followers) and Mack. The piece offers an inside look at the group not previously granted by its leaders.
Mack, who was arrested in April on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor, for which she is reportedly considering a plea deal, told the Times that the “sorority” was really about “female empowerment.”
DOS, she said, is “about women coming together and pledging to one another a full-time commitment to become our most powerful and embodied selves by pushing on our greatest fears, by exposing our greatest vulnerabilities, by knowing that we would stand with each other no matter what, by holding our word, by overcoming pain.”
She said that through the group, she was able to find her “spine” and the “sorority” is designed to help other women take on challenging things to develop their own backbone. “I found my spine, and I just kept solidifying my spine every time I would do something hard,” she said.
The idea of branding initiates with a cauterizing pen, she said, was her idea. “I was like: ‘Y’all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a tramp stamp,” she said. “I have two tattoos and they mean nothing.'” By branding each other, they would be able to better demonstrate their commitment to the group.
The brand contains the initials of Raniere and Mack: KR and AM. Below is an image posted by the NXIVM whistleblower site Frank Report:
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Mack was one of the leaders of DOS as well as one of it biggest recruiters. As The Daily Wire noted, over the years Mack has attempted to reach out to other female celebrities to draw them into the group, often presenting it in feminist terms (in fact, here are the messages she sent to Emma Watson and Kelly Clarkson).
One of the former DOS members to come forward publicly is actress Sarah Edmondson (pictured below in 2009), who recounted in shocking detail the brainwashing techniques and the tortuous initiation process she experienced in a piece published by Vice in November 2017.
What started out as a self-empowerment group took increasingly darker turns after the leaders implemented their new “collateral and penance” program for “level two” members of NXIVM. “For women, penance was largely about calories. I remember there was one woman I saw once on a 300-calorie diet, because of some breach she had done,” Edmondson writes.
The process soon became explicitly sexual, with the “collateral” often being nude photos of the women along with other sexually related blackmail material. Then Edmondson was introduced by her mentor Lauren Salzman to the new group that would eventually be headed up by Mack, the alleged “sex slave” sorority. After completing 10 eight-day training sessions, Edmondson was invited to receive her “tattoo.” Here’s her account of the brutal initiation:
The concept of the master/slave relationship was weird for me, but the main thing was that I didn’t want to get a tattoo. I don’t have any tattoos, and I don’t have any piercings other than my ears—I didn’t want to get a tattoo. And Lauren just said, “We’ll work with you on that—you just have some fears.”… I put the blindfold on, and I hear movement in the house. I know the other girls are coming. And then there I am sitting with four other women. All of them I knew from Nxivm. Not well—I hadn’t seen them naked. And now we’re just sitting there cross-legged, very much exposed, and very vulnerable. We all thought it weird, but Lauren just said, “Guys, get over it. Get over your body issues. It’s no big deal. We’re a sorority. We’re a sisterhood—relax.” …
And then Dr. [Danielle] Roberts came in, who I also knew from Nxivm. We took turns holding one another down—three would be on them and the fourth would be filming. This is all on camera somewhere. The first woman lay on the table and then the other women and I were sitting on her holding her legs down. With the first cut of her flesh—they burned her flesh—we were crying, we were shaking, we were holding one another. It was horrific. It was like a bad horror movie. We even had these surgical masks on because the smell of flesh was so strong. I felt petrified. I felt—every part of my body was like: Get out of here. Run…
The entire time I was thinking, I don’t have a car. I’m naked. I’m in Knox Woods, Clifton Park. What am I going to do, text my husband? Then I’m going to blow this thing up, and I can’t do that, because I made a vow of secrecy… How do I do this? And then I just said, F**king do it, just do it. So I watched two other people, then I went. I really believe that the only way to get out is to do what I did—disassociate. I wasn’t present mentally. I went somewhere else. I thought about giving birth to my son, I thought about how much I loved him, and I thought about being strong, and I just focused on that. I just brought up a loving state, a really strong loving state. And the pain [of the burn] oh my God, imagine someone taking a lit match to your crotch and drawing a line with it.
Related:
Report: Another ‘Smallville’ Actress Allegedly Once Connected To NXIVM ‘Cult’
More Disturbing Details Come To Light About ‘Sex Cult’ Tied To ‘Smallville’ Star