The story of Allison Mack's involvement in the alleged sex cult Nxivm continues to take shocking turns. Last month, the Smallville actress was arrested by the FBI in Brooklyn for her connection to Keith Raniere's controversial group, which recruited and then reportedly brainwashed several young girls. Among the most harrowing details in the story were the accusations of branding with a hot cauterizing pen, with a symbol ingrained in the skin that reportedly contained the following initials: K, R, A M. It was later revealed that those initials belong to both Keith Raniere (KR) and Allison Mack (AM). Now, as more details come to light about Nxivm, Allison Mack claims she was the one who actually came up with the idea to brand the recruited girls.
In Vanessa Grigoriadis' thoroughly-reported recount of Nxivm, its uprise, and its aftermath for The New York Times, the journalist reveals Allison Mack was the one who came up with the decision to brand women, and Mack wasn't surprisingly afraid to admit it either. Here's what Grigoriadis wrote.
In her apartment, I was surprised to hear [Allison] Mack take full responsibility for coming up with the DOS cauterized brand. She told me, 'I was like: 'Y'all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle 'BFF,' or a tramp stamp. I have two tattoos and they mean nothing.' She wanted to do something more meaningful, something that took guts... When the cauterized brand was introduced, it was a scary experience, like any real rite of passage, but some of them kidded around through it. Even if they cried when they were getting the brand; even if they wore surgical masks to help them with breathing in the smell of burning flesh; even if the brand was much larger than they were told it would be and looked like an ancient hieroglyph; even if they were in a state of sheer terror, they were still able to transcend the fear and cry out to one another: 'Badass warrior bitches! Let's get strong together.'
The story claims Allison Mack came to Nxivm and its leader, Keith Raniere, when she was unhappy about her television acting career at 23. Specifically, Mack asked the cult leader to "make her a great actress again." As it was reported in a separate intensive piece about Nxivm a couple weeks earlier, the group sought Mack during a seminar in 2006 in Vancouver, British Columbia, which she attended with fellow Smallville actress Kristin Kreuk, who was a member of the group but recently went onto social media to claim she never recruited anyone into being a sex slave during her involvement.
Allison Mack also spoke out about trying to recruit fellow celebrities like Emma Watson and Kelly Clarkson into Nxivm. Mack claims she tried to invite these high-profile performers, along with several other women, to learn more about her techniques of female empowerment. As more details came to light about Nxivm, it was publicly revealed that Mack sought, found, recruited and controlled women inside Keith Raniere's inner circle, DOS. It means Dominus Obsequious Sororium, which roughly translates to Master Over Slave Women. It was also called "The Vow." Here's what Allison Mack said.
I found my spine, and I just kept solidifying my spine every time I would do something hard. [DOS] about women coming together and pledging to one another a full-time commitment to become our most powerful and embodied selves by pushing on our greatest fears, by exposing our greatest vulnerabilities, by knowing that we would stand with each other no matter what, by holding our word, by overcoming pain.
Allison Mack was arrested on April 20th on charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and forced labor. She was later released on a $5 million bail. We'll continue to cover this story as more details come to light.
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