I'm Going to Lay on the Table, I'll Show You How It's Done

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"I just went into a disassociated, like when you're kind of floating and like, and then I was thinking about my son and giving birth to him," she said. "The more you moved, the more painful it was." She says that while there were lots of truths in Janessa and SOP, Keith was planting his own misogynist hatred of women. "[Keith] had this belief that women are flaky and we don't uphold our word [and] we're always looking for the backdoor," she added.

1. How attending a personal development training at a Holiday Inn led to Sarah being branded in a sex "secret sisterhood" initiation ceremony.

2. Her path from top recruiter to the whistleblower who helped take down the cult and its leader Keith Ranieri.

3. Why we’re all susceptible to cult culture – the need for belonging, the temptation of simplification, and how we’re trained to deny our gut instincts.

CW: Discussion of cult culture and sexual coercion

About Sarah:

Sarah Edmondson is an actor, podcaster, author, and cult-recovery advocate.

Sarah has starred in a number of TV series, yet she is most recently known for her real-life saga escaping the multi-level marketing company NXIVM – and DOS, a “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM – which can also be seen on HBO’s The Vow. Sarah’s memoir Scarred shares her true story from the moment she joined NXIVM, to her harrowing fight to get out and bring its founder to justice. Sarah co-hosts the podcast A Little Bit Culty with her husband Anthony ‘Nippy’ Ames, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons.

TW: @sarahjedmondson

IG: @sarahedmondson

Sarah’s resource page: https://www.sarahedmondson.com/resources

Steven Hassan’s BITE model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/

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