SLAVE TO THE GURU

Hiding beneath a facade of self-help, unscrupulous operators are exploiting the vulnerable for profit, power and sexual gratification. Now, the victims and their families are speaking out to raise awareness and caution others.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON

When India Oxenberg talks about having her pelvic skin branded to indoctrinate her into a sex-slave ring, what she remembers most is the smell. As the granddaughter of Princess Elizabeth of the former Yugoslavia, and daughter of actress Catherine Oxenberg, India does not seem the type to be enticed into a cult. Yet she was the first among her group to voluntarily remove her clothes and lie down while her “sisters” gripped her ankles and wrists so a symbol could be seared into her skin one wintry afternoon in 2016.

India recalls how the smoky, singed scent of burning flesh seeped into every room of the suburban house in Albany, New York, where the ceremony took place, and how she convulsed as the red-hot needle approached her hipbone. But she endured the pain because, at the time, she believed she was doing something brave and strong.

A rising television star with a blonde bob, Allison Mack stood nearby reading incantations as India was admitted into a group known as DOS, which stands for Dominus Obsequious Sororium, or “master over slave”.

“I saw it as a positive thing,” India, 29, says now. “When [Allison] invited me into DOS, I felt special and singled out. It was like a sorority. A secret sorority. I liked the idea of a sisterhood. We live in a world where there aren’t a lot of spaces for women to learn and feel safe. I thought that this was going to be that for me,” she explains in her documentary, Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.

With her royal blood and Orange County upbringing, India’s pedigree made her the ultimate prize for a cult that promises success and self-improvement. Her country-town beauty-queen looks also made her irresistible to grandmaster Keith Raniere, who used members for sex.