http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:58:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25423/ex-nxivm-trainer-students-are-prey http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25423/ex-nxivm-trainer-students-are-prey#comments Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:18:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25423 NXIVM depicts the cultlike group as a self-help and ethics school that is secretly a place for its leader to explore opportunities for sex and gambling money, the Albany Times Union reports.

Susan Dones, a trainer who ran the Colonie-based company's former Tacoma, Wash., center, told a bankruptcy court last week that Keith A. Raniere, the creator of the teachings used in NXIVM's self-improvement courses, may have motives beyond the education of human potential.

Dones said NXIVM presents Raniere "as the most honest, ethical, Nobel (sic), man who had the answers to mankind's problems" yet his training sessions are "used as a venue to stalk their students ... who might fit into Raniere's profile of sexual conquest and who might be willing to 'give' Raniere money to feed his gambling problem."

The NXIVM business, also known as Executive Success Programs, treats Raniere, 50, of Clifton Park as its intellectual guru.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25423/ex-nxivm-trainer-students-are-prey/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25066/ex-nxivm-student-i-think-its-a-cult http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25066/ex-nxivm-student-i-think-its-a-cult#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:48:33 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=25066 During most of her 25 months as a student of self-improvement programs run by the Colonie-based NXIVM organization, Becca Friedman felt like she was in a dream, but, she said, it became a dreadful nightmare.

Her story, she said, may be useful to people proposing to join or already studying at NXIVM, something she would not recommend.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/25066/ex-nxivm-student-i-think-its-a-cult/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24872/tyke-3-raised-as-shady-gurus-son http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24872/tyke-3-raised-as-shady-gurus-son#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:48:59 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24872 A motherless, 3-year-old boy is living in near-isolation at an upstate "cult" compound — as the heir of the group’s shady svengali, who feeds off the Seagram’s booze fortune, sources told The New York Post.

He was brought to Keith Raniere — the controversial leader of the Albany-based "behavior modification" group NXIVM that counts two Seagram heiresses among its devotees — by a longtime member who claimed that she was given guardianship when the child’s mother died, sources said.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24872/tyke-3-raised-as-shady-gurus-son/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20246/nxivm-6 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20246/nxivm-6#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:19:35 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20246/nxivm-6 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20246/nxivm-6/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19700/nxivm-5 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19700/nxivm-5#comments Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:58:11 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19700/nxivm-5 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19700/nxivm-5/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19590/nxivm-4 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19590/nxivm-4#comments Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:36:51 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19590/nxivm-4 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19590/nxivm-4/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19531/nxivm-3 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19531/nxivm-3#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:42:03 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19531/nxivm-3 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19531/nxivm-3/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19530/nxivm-2 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19530/nxivm-2#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:37:30 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19530/nxivm-2 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19530/nxivm-2/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19529/nxivm http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19529/nxivm#comments Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:16:54 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19529/nxivm http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19529/nxivm/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17857/ex-nxivm-adviser-faces-larceny-counts http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17857/ex-nxivm-adviser-faces-larceny-counts#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:34:29 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17857/ex-nxivm-adviser-faces-larceny-counts http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17857/ex-nxivm-adviser-faces-larceny-counts/feed 0