Sarah Edmondson, a former NXIVM member, says she joined the organization in 2005 believing it was a wellness programme. She later alleges that NXIVM’s leadership used coercive methods to control members, including branding with a hot iron and forcing some women into a position she describes as “slave” status. Edmondson also claims that women were instructed to have sex as part of the organization’s system of control and that members were required to follow rules enforced through threats of punishment. In her account, she describes an environment in which compliance is maintained by fear and intimidation, rather than voluntary participation. She further alleges that members were told to harm or torture each other if they broke the rules, framing those actions as a mechanism for discipline within the group. Edmondson’s recollections, as reported by the outlet, characterize NXIVM as an organization that hid its alleged abuses behind a wellness-focused exterior. Her testimony is presented as personal disclosure of events she says she experienced over a period of years before she understood the alleged nature of the organization.