What We Know About The NXIVM Cult's Horrific Branding Ceremonies

The evidence from Allison Mack revealed that Keith Raniere (pictured above) wanted the branding of slaves to be recorded on video. He also requested that the women be branded naked and held down in a certain position: "Laying on the back, legs slightly, or legs spread straight like, like feet, feet being held to the side of the table, hands probably above the head being held, almost like being tied down, like sacrificial," he said, via Vulture.

As Sarah Edmondson describes in an interview with The New York Times, she had originally been told that the initiation ceremony would include getting a tattoo — and that the branding proved to be something far more horrifying. According to Edmondson, each branding would go on for more than 20 excruciating minutes, while the smell of burning flesh filled the room. The ritual was the wake-up call that Edmondson needed to leave the NXIVM cult. The New York Times described how the brand is designed to resemble the initials of Raniere himself, and that the women were coerced to hand over naked pictures of themselves as "collateral" prior to the branding.

In court, Mack has apologized effusively for the role she played as a facilitator in the horrifying ordeal that saw multiple women disfigured for life. She also said that she has "come to terms with the pain my actions have inflicted on so many people I love," per Vanity Fair.