Oh boy - I haven't been covering it much lately, but it doesn't look like Los Angeles' NXIVM cult trial, featuring Clare Bronfman (of the Seagram's fortune) is going well. You can click the link and read Clare's latest confused testimony, but here's a brief summary of what "enlightenment" NXIVM's guru, Vanguard (Keith Raniere) has apparently brought to her life:
"Heiresses to the Seagram liquor fortune say their former financial planner revealed their business secrets by, among other things, enlisting a psychic, and asking him questions about their financial positions while he was in a trance. In their Superior Court complaint, Clare and Sara Bronfman say they fired Barbara Bouchey in May 2009, and she retaliated by divulging their personal financial information, investment history and confidential attorney-client communications to other attorneys and the media.
Bouchey consulted psychic Robert Petro and asked him to 'go into a trance whereby Bouchey would pose various questions to Petro' concerning the Bronfmans' financial positions, the complaint states.
'Bouchey contacted two different Los Angeles attorneys who were representing California investment advisers with whom the plaintiffs had had a dispute,' according to the complaint. 'Bouchey provided these Los Angeles attorneys private and personal financial information about the plaintiffs which had nothing to do with the California dispute, but which if exposed to the public would embarrass the plaintiffs. ... Indeed, Bouchey and said Does were successful, as the embarrassing details of the lives of the plaintiffs were published in newspaper and in Internet locations, and these publishers relied upon information Bouchey provided.'
The Albany Times-Union reported that the Bronfman sisters followed an Albany, N.Y.-based organization known as NXIVM (pronounced "nexium"), and that its leader, Keith Raniere, 'exercised complete control over Sara and Clare Bronfman.'
Raniere teaches his 'Rational Inquiry' system through 'Executive Success Programs' that are 'designed to help individuals develop the practical, emotional, and intellectual skills they need to reach their maximum potential,' according to NXIVM's Web site.
Raniere's students are called 'Espians' and they are instructed to address Raniere as 'Vanguard.'
Bouchey is a former girlfriend of Raniere's and was 'also a consultant to NXIVM for many years before breaking up with Raniere and the group last year,' according to the Times-Union.
Bouchey and others have criticized the organization as a cult."
-- Elizabeth Banicki, making me wonder why all this "if exposed to the public would embarrass the plaintiffs" - the Bronfmans don't deny this form of cultism is the life they've engaged in for years - unless they're admitting, as TMR has always contended, that exposure and shame are the true cures for this behavior, y'know, like being seen as a bunch of rich and gullible idiots, while appearing in the Courthouse News.
And, please, don't anyone ask me why our economy has been doing so badly when this is where rich folks have been putting their money - and trying to convince poor folks to do the same. If you ask me, until the Baby boomers are gone, these are the kind of disasters we'll be plagued with for some time to come. Wanna change it sooner? Fine - read the banner below:
"We just really believe that this group had a lot to do with her confusion. She was looking for answers. She was working to achieve her full potential, and she did that didn't she?"
-- Jonnie Snyder, sarcastically speaking of her daughter, Kristin Snyder, who (for $15,000) got mixed up in "NXIVM" (AKA "Vanguard", see below) and - though no body has been found - appears to have killed herself right before the cult is hosting a visit by the so-called Dalai Lama, according to the Albany Student Press.
