Thursday, December 29, 2022

(8) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

 Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism



Influences on NXIVM beliefs and practices, sourced from Natalie et al (2019), rendered in the mode of W.S. Bainbridge, e.g. Bainbridge 1978. |NXIVM teachings drew upon diverse influences, including Ayn Rand ("parasites"), L. Ron Hubbard ("suppressives"), Milton Erickson's hypnosis, Isaac Asimov's science fiction, Rudolf Steiner, Tony Robbins, and neuro-linguistic programming. NXIVM incorporated elements of multi-level marketing and practices from judo, with colored cloth for rank and bowing.


This is the eighth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book. 


"What would you lose if you were to stop coughing?" 

 (Scarred page 33) This was a remark by Mark Vicente.

Scientology has several auditing procedures that have questions like this, in fact I have seen the same exact thing asked in Scientology. 

Several practices have a philosophy of magical thinking and allege that medical conditions and the state of the physical universe are created, controlled, and influenced by our thoughts and attitudes. 

Scientology is jam packed with ideas that are similar to NXIVM.

Here's one: "service facsimile" this term is used in Scientology and I believe the definition is from Ronald Hubbard himself.


Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

"service facsimile: a consideration that one must be consistently in a certain state in order to survive. This consideration will cause the individual to deliberately hold in restimulation selected parts of his reactive mind to explain his failures in life. For example, a person may keep an old injury in restimulation so that his family has to look after him."

This shows that both NXIVM and Scientology hold in common the principle that illnesses and handicaps are created or persist because of mental states.

A quote from Ronald Hubbard that has appeared in tapes and magazines is "Intention is cause" and it has dire implications in Scientology. It is often used to treat Scientologists as if EVERYTHING they do or experience is not caused by anything other than themselves! This includes negative effects and violence and illnesses and accidents. 

This is remarkably similar to the idea in the Mission Statement:

"There are no ultimate victims; Therefore, I will not choose to be a victim." Keith Raniere


Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

"Just like the book I'd read had argued, all I'd needed to do was set my intention to begin to meet the kind of people who would help me find my purpose. Could it be so simple?"  (Scarred page 34) 

To be fair, the book referenced here was not a NXIVM book but one Sarah Edmondson was reading on her own. It shows that the magical thinking and "intention is cause" idea is not exclusive to Scientology and also part of new age beliefs. It's found in lots of cults, but certainly not all and every person or group that has this belief is not always cultic. 


It was an idea that fit in with the mindset of people who joined NXIVM.

"Keith had started NXIVM (pronounced " NEX-ee-um"), a community of humanitarians who were spending their time and resources to shift the state of humanity. " (Scarred page 34) 

Humanitarians? Shift the state of humanity? This sounds very familiar to anyone in Scientology!

“There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves.” Ronald Hubbard

This quote is one of the most frequently cited in Scientology and used over and over.

“A handful of us are working our guts out to beat Deadline Earth. On us alone depends whether your kid will ever see sixteen or your people will ever make it at all. A few of us see the world has got a chance if we don’t dawdle along the way. Our chance is a thin chance at best. We are working as hard as we can in Scientology. And, the only slim chance this planet has rests on a few slim shoulders, overworked, underpaid and fought – the Scientologist. Later on, if we make it, what will be your answer to this question? Did you help?” (“Five Years”, 1967, Auditor Mag #9, Ronald Hubbard)

So, both groups claim to be people helping humanity!















Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

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