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Revision as of 20:10, 11 October 2011 editChrisrus (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Rollbackers13,598 edits Undid revision 454884741 by GoCubs88 (talk)"local news reports" distorts and downplays the truth. Mcleans, forbes, and others are not local. If it were only local we wouldn't have an article← Previous edit Revision as of 01:21, 12 October 2011 edit undoGoCubs88 (talk | contribs)213 edits Undid revision 455093581 by Chrisrus (talk) It is way overkill here. Include it elsewhere in the article, but it poisons the well. I suggest we take a break until we have an administrator see.Next edit →
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'''NXIVM''' ({{pron-en|ˈnɛksiəm}} {{respell|NEKS|ee-əm}}) is an ]-based organization offering classes and seminars designed to allow its clients to pursue self-discovery.<ref>{{cite web|title=NXIVM Personal Development|url=http://www.nxivm.com/personal_1024.php|accessdate=31 March 2011}}</ref> NXIVM has been called a successful executive coaching program by its successful supporters<ref name=Fairbanks>{{cite news|last=Fairbanks|first=Phil|title=Local developer tangled in legal battle|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article377475.ece|accessdate=19 April 2011|newspaper=Buffalo News|date=27 March 2011}}</ref> and a "cult" organization which is most notable for being described as a "cult" or "cult-like organization" in ] <ref></ref>, the ] <ref>http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/poor-little-rich-girls] </ref>, ] <ref> </ref> , ]<ref> ]<ref> </ref> , ] <ref>Albany Times Union 21.November 3, 2005 Ex-aide calls Nxivm `extremely dangerous' </ref>, the ], <ref> </ref>, ] <ref> </ref>, ] <ref> </ref>, and ] <ref>[http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article377475.ece| http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article377475.ece</ref>.<ref name=Odato /><ref name=Tkacik>{{cite web|last=Tkacik|first=Maureen|title=Poor Little Rich Girls: The Ballad of Sara and Clare Bronfman|url=http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/poor-little-rich-girls?show=all|work=The New York Observer}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news|last=Odato|first=James M.|title=Ex-NXIVM student: 'I think it's a cult'|url=http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ex-NXIVM-student-I-think-it-s-a-cult-645823.php|newspaper=Times Union|date=7 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Odato|first=James|title=Papers reveal NXIVM secrets|url=http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Papers-reveal-NXIVM-secrets-985662.php|newspaper=Times Union|date=31 January 2011}}</ref> '''NXIVM''' ({{pron-en|ˈnɛksiəm}} {{respell|NEKS|ee-əm}}) is an ]-based organization offering classes and seminars designed to allow its clients to pursue self-discovery.<ref>{{cite web|title=NXIVM Personal Development|url=http://www.nxivm.com/personal_1024.php|accessdate=31 March 2011}}</ref> NXIVM has been called a successful executive coaching program by its successful supporters<ref name=Fairbanks>{{cite news|last=Fairbanks|first=Phil|title=Local developer tangled in legal battle|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article377475.ece|accessdate=19 April 2011|newspaper=Buffalo News|date=27 March 2011}}</ref> and a "cult" organization by former members and local news reports.<ref>{{cite news|last=Odato|first=James M.|title=Ex-NXIVM student: 'I think it's a cult'|url=http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ex-NXIVM-student-I-think-it-s-a-cult-645823.php|newspaper=Times Union|date=7 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Odato|first=James|title=Papers reveal NXIVM secrets|url=http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Papers-reveal-NXIVM-secrets-985662.php|newspaper=Times Union|date=31 January 2011}}</ref>


==Description== ==Description==

Revision as of 01:21, 12 October 2011

NXIVM Corporation
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryPersonal development
Founded1998
FounderKeith Raniere
Nancy Salzman Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersAlbany, New York, US
Key peopleKeith Raniere (founder)
Nancy Salzman (president)
ProductsSeminars
Websitehttp://www.nxivm.com

NXIVM (Template:Pron-en NEKS-ee-əm) is an Albany County-based organization offering classes and seminars designed to allow its clients to pursue self-discovery. NXIVM has been called a successful executive coaching program by its successful supporters and a "cult" organization by former members and local news reports.

Description

NXIVM claims to be the turning point in human evolution, which has "clearly demonstrated tendencies that sway between awe-inspiring rises and cataclysmic falls." These sways, according to NXIVM, have become more extreme with each rise bringing mankind to new heights, and each fall a destructive act and a mindless regression.

NXIVM advertises itself as having developed a scientific and psychodynamic understanding, an educational program, and the technology for humanity to alter the course of history, offering a new ethical understanding that would allow mankind to explore its fundamental nature and begin to redirect its power of creation towards rising to mankind's noble possibility.

NXIVM offers additional classes geared toward business professionals called "Executive Success Programs" (ESP). The program costs as much as $7,500 for 16-day seminars called "Intensive Trainings." Students refer to the two leaders of NXIVM, Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman as "Vanguard" and "Prefect", respectively Some 12,000 people have attended the classes since its founding in 1998.

Some of its clients include Linda Evans, Richard Branson, the Cafritz family, and actress Kristin Kreuk. According to Forbes magazine, some 3700 people have taken part in ESP, including Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET; Antonia Novello, former U.S. surgeon general; Stephen Cooper of Enron, and Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of the former Mexican president.

NXIVM was founded by Keith Raniere and is run by Nancy Salzman, NXIVM's current president and a former psychiatric nurse.

Mission

NXIVM's stated mission is to "help transform and, ultimately, be an expression of the noble civilization of humans." The ongoing struggle against opposing interests and beliefs limits mankind's ability to experience itself and the world, and this struggle has thrived for as long as humanity has existed; NXIVM believes it can reverse this trend through a set of consistent and universal principles in which all humans can participate. These principles are said to be apart from any mystical or religious notions and "allow for life to persist and uphold a diversity of beliefs." NXIVM hopes that by creating a new understanding, it can help mankind utilize its potential to live and work together and bring human existence to a new level—a goal that can only be reached through raising awareness, fostering an ethical humanitarianism, and celebrating what it truly means to be human.

Controversies

NXIVM has been called a cult by columnist Jeane Macintosh from The New York Post and by billionaire philanthropist Edgar Bronfman, Sr., a former participant and the father of NXIVM's two biggest financial supporters, Sara Bronfman and Clare Bronfman. Responding to such claims, Raniere has stated that "there's nothing in his operation that makes it a cult, and indeed, many enrollees see Executive Success as a good coaching program and nothing more."

In 2003, NXIVM sued the Ross Institute alleging copyright infringement for publishing excerpts of content from its manual in three critical articles commissioned by Ross and posted on his website. The manual was obtained by Ross from former member Stephanie Franco, a co-defendant in the trial, who had signed a non-disclosure agreement not to divulge information from the manual to others. The case has been cited in a number of case law books as an example of a case in which fair use is affirmed despite the copyrighted material having been obtained in violation of a non-disclosure agreement. When Rick Ross posted a psychiatrist’s assessment of NXIVM’s “secret” manual on his website—the report called the regimen "expensive brainwashing"—it launched a USD10 million federal trade-secrets suit that has yet to be resolved. One year later, NXIVM hired Interfor, a security consultancy firm headed by Juval Aviv to investigate Ross. Ross claimed that an actress posing as the concerned mother of a NXIVM devotee approached him about a rescue. Accepting a retainer, he later saw the plan scrapped after he informed the woman of his policy never to be left alone with a cult member during a deprogramming.

On April 24, 2009, a letter was sent to Raniere and Salzman that was signed by nine women, including the Bronfman sisters’ financial planner, Barbara Bouchey, and that demanded 'they be paid $2.1 million by midnight.'" In a sworn declaration, Clare Bronfman stated that the letter also included the threat, "'or else they would go to the press with information they deemed harmful to my sister and I.'" In a state-lawsuit filed against Bouchey, NXIVM alleged that Bouchey made more than one disclosure of NXIVM's confidential and proprietary information to members of the press and various third parties, including the Times Union. The suit also alleged that Bouchey breached her fiduciary duty to NXIVM and misused trade secrets.

In 2011, Barbara J. Bouchey, a former financial planner for NXIVM, had her bankruptcy case dismissed. The case began after Bouchey broke NXIVM in 2009. In his decision concerning the case, Judge Littlefield stated that "Debtors have to take responsibility for their own actions or inactions." William F. Savino, the Bronfman sisters' lawyer, accused Bouchey of "reckless disregard for the truth." Bouchey claims that the errors were caused by a combination of ignorance by her and poor guidance by lawyers she ended up firing. Bouchey has been engaged in a contentious legal battle with NXIVM.

Membership

NXIVM's current members include Clare and Sara Bronfman, Seagram distillery heiresses, who work as coaches in the group.

See also

NXIVM Corp. v. The Ross Institute

References

  1. "NXIVM Personal Development". Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  2. Fairbanks, Phil (27 March 2011). "Local developer tangled in legal battle". Buffalo News. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. Odato, James M. (7 September 2010). "Ex-NXIVM student: 'I think it's a cult'". Times Union.
  4. Odato, James (31 January 2011). "Papers reveal NXIVM secrets". Times Union.
  5. "What is NXIVM?‎". 2003.
  6. "NXIVM Executive Success Programs". Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  7. ^ Andrews, Suzanna (November 2010). "The Heiresses and the Cult". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  8. "Intensive Trainings™". Espian.net. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  9. ^ Nicholas Kohler (September 13, 2010). "How to Lose $100 Million". Maclean's. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  10. ^ Freedman, Michael. "Cult of Personality". Forbes Magazine. New York. Retrieved 2003-10-13. Cite error: The named reference "Freedman" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. "The Top Executive Coaches - Nancy Salzman". Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  12. "NXIVM Corporation NXIVM Mission".
  13. Odato, James (6 June 2011). "NXIVM flexes legal muscle". Times Union.
  14. Odato, James (14 April 2011). "Ex-NXIVM official loses bankruptcy bid". Times Union. Retrieved 16 May 2011.

External links

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