Mind Games
Kaleidoscope
What if you could hypnotize yourself into a better you? Or…. secretly hypnotize others into giving you anything you want?
That’s the promise of NLP, which emerged in 1970s California and then took over self-help… in spite of its connection to a gruesome unsolved murder in the late 1980s .
NLP is the secret sauce connecting life coach Tony Robbins, Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, pick-up artist Ross Jeffries, as well as NXIVM, the most infamous sex cult of the 21st century.
Journalists and best friends Zoë Lescaze and Alice Hines investigate the controversies behind NLP, put the techniques to the test on themselves, and ask the ultimate question: is mind control real?
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial did little to stop its rise. The biggest mind game of all? NLP may actually work.
That’s the promise of NLP, which emerged in 1970s California and then took over self-help… in spite of its connection to a gruesome unsolved murder in the late 1980s .
NLP is the secret sauce connecting life coach Tony Robbins, Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort, pick-up artist Ross Jeffries, as well as NXIVM, the most infamous sex cult of the 21st century.
Journalists and best friends Zoë Lescaze and Alice Hines investigate the controversies behind NLP, put the techniques to the test on themselves, and ask the ultimate question: is mind control real?
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial did little to stop its rise. The biggest mind game of all? NLP may actually work.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 27, 2026 • 40min
The Drummer with the Knives
A trip to 1970s Santa Cruz where experimental therapy, commune life, and charismatic persuasion collide. Stories of dramatic group sessions, hypnotic demonstrations, and a controversial trust stunt gone wrong. The birth of a therapy-turned-persuasion practice and the ethical questions that followed.
14 snips
Jan 20, 2026 • 43min
The Guru’s Guru
Nancy Salzman, co-founder of NXIVM and an expert in NLP and hypnosis, shares her transformative journey with Neuro-Linguistic Programming. She reveals how NLP helped her conquer a public-speaking phobia and discusses its surprising influence across various fields, from corporations to the military. The conversation explores the intriguing intersection of hypnosis and NLP, her training with creator Richard Bandler, and the ethics surrounding NLP techniques. With personal anecdotes, Nancy highlights both the power and potential pitfalls of mind-control methods.
Jan 12, 2026 • 3min
Introducing: Mind Games
Mind Games tells the story of NLP and its crazy cast of disciples, including the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune, took it to Fortune 500 boardrooms, and whose gruesome murder trial did little to stop its rise. The biggest mind game of all? NLP may actually work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
