As the Nxivm sex cult trial continues, the details emerging grow more and more disturbing.

Keep in mind that we’re saying this after the last set of details included, amongst other things, a shaky moral standing on paedophilia.

Now new witness testimony is unveiling not only what happened while the cult was active, but what cult-leader Keith Raniere planned to implement in the future.

Lauren Salzman, 42, a cooperating witness in the case, revealed in court that she recruited six branded “slaves” and kept someone in captivity for nearly two years, reports VICE.

Salzman also offered up the names of eight women she described as the inner circle of DOS, which included actresses Nicki Clyne and Allison Mack. She testified that the two women were married to each other in 2017, and both had a sexual relationship with the leader.

Salzman said DOS members who did not complete assigned tasks were physically punished for their failures, usually by whip or paddling. She said she knew of one DOS slave master, Daniela Padilla, who was kicked by Raniere while on the ground, apparently because she was acting “prideful.”

Not long before DOS was exposed, Salzman says that the cult was working to build a dungeon in the basement of what she called a “sorority house”.

The house was owned by Mexican media heiress Rosa Laura Junco, a woman described as one of eight original DOS slaves. One of the devices planned for the dungeon was a cage.

“It was a type of surrendering,” Salzman said of the prospect of a cage, which she feared she would one day be locked in for hours or even days. “You were [going to be] in there until whoever was going to let you out.”

Salzman also read from the DOS rulebook that enforced the master-slave relationships.

“Your sole highest desire must be to further your Master from whom all good things come and are related,” read an opening passage of the book, which was displayed to the court.

“The best slave derives the highest pleasure from being her Master’s ultimate tool,” read another passage. “It doesn’t matter what the command is, it matters that you obey. It doesn’t matter that you understand the command, it matters that you obey.”

Raniere apparently envisioned recruiting thousands of slaves, one of whom would eventually be groomed for public office.

Salzman further testified that she learned it was Raniere’s idea that slaves should be branded, despite Mack taking credit for it in an interview with the New York Times Magazine last year. When Salzman asked about it, she recalled Monday, another slave told her: “Who would ever choose it? None of us would ever come up with the idea of branding ourselves. That’s crazy.”

You can read Allison Mack’s story here.

The case just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

[source:vice]