Alaina Huffman didn’t take up Allison Mack’s offers to join NXIVM when they starred on Smallville together — but she can totally see why other women did.
Speaking to Us Weekly at a special screening of The Perfection on Tuesday, the 39-year-old opened up about her experience with being recruited to join what would later be exposed as a “master/slave”-style sex cult.
While Huffman said that Mack invited her to “several meetings,” she (fortunately) wasn’t able to attend because she was too busy raising her kids at the time. Looking back on it, however, she remembers feeling there was “always a little something off” about the organization.
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She explained to the outlet:
“Interestingly, when I look back on it, I had been invited to several meetings, and because I had two little kids at the time, I never really had the time and our schedules never really lined up, so I never ended up attending. Honestly, there was always a little something off about it.”
Despite her better instincts to stay away from NXIVM, which disguised itself as a self-help program, Huffman said she can understand why Mack was able to lure many others into the group, adding:
“But I can see the appeal. Here was this successful young woman who was living a great life, and it was intriguing. I can see where people got recruited.”
While, at its core, NXIVM was founded on sexist beliefs that men and women are wired differently, many women were drawn to the organization for its philosophies on how one could become a “badass” — the group’s term for a self-actualized individual.
As we reported, one of these techniques involved members performing Scientology-esque sessions called “Explorations of Meaning,” where a senior member helped a junior member dive deep into childhood memories and confront their fears.
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According to NXIVM founder Keith Raniere, the goal of these sessions was to rewire the emotional self and become someone who was “not only rich but emotionally disciplined, self-controlled, attractive, physically fit and slender.”
Sounds great… in theory.
But as we would come to learn, the organization contained more exclusive groups within itself: for men, it was the “Society of Protectors” and, for women, a much more controversial sub-group called the “Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS).”
Women who wanted to join the DOS needed to pledge much more than the men hoping to join the SOP. These women were reportedly forced to give Raniere naked photos of themselves or even deeds to their homes.
The women brought into DOS were called “slaves” while the woman bringing in the new member, like Mack, was the “Master.” These masters would force slaves to commit acts of “self-denial,” like counting calories, cold showers, and abstaining from orgasms.
DOS members were also allegedly forced to be branded by red-hot metal — a violent ritual Mack apparently came up with herself.
Of course, Huffman didn’t know any of this when Mack tried to recruit her. But the actress still remembers having a bad feeling about it, as she explained:
“It was just a feeling, and I was like, ‘No, I’m good,’ and I stayed away. I don’t know if that’s because I had my own village, I wasn’t very susceptible or vulnerable. I had a great group of friends, at the time I was married, and I had my kids.”
Eventually, Huffman would discover NXIVM’s dastardly inner workings with the rest of the world in April 2018 when Raniere and Mack were both arrested in Mexico on charges of sex trafficking and forced labor.
Huffman says everything added up after this all came to light, revealing:
“I wasn’t surprised, but I was shocked. I was kind of like, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, that makes sense.'”
The FBI found enough evidence to claim that Raniere displayed “a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves….within this unorthodox pyramid scheme.”
Back in April, Mack pleaded guilty to manipulating women into becoming sex slaves for Raniere. The 36-year-old reportedly cried as she apologized to the women who were allegedly exploited, saying in court:
“I must take full responsibility for my conduct. I am very sorry for my role in this case. I am very sorry to my family and to the good people I hurt through my misguided adherence to [NXIVM leader] Keith Raniere’s teachings.”
Mack was charged with racketeering conspiracy and racketeering, and she faces 20 years in prison.
[Image via FayesVision/WENN]
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