Allison Mack Did Not Understand Why NXIVM ‘Slaves’ Found Branding Their Flesh Painful: ‘It’s Fine’

Allison Mack is speaking out in the new podcast series Allison After NXIVM, where she shares disturbing details about the branding ceremonies women were forced to undergo within the NXIVM sex cult.

According to Mack, women arrived at the home with very little information about what was about to happen. They were instructed to undress, then restrained by other members while a cauterizing pen burned a symbol above their pelvis — a procedure that lasted around 20 minutes and was done without any form of pain relief.

She said that at the time, she was unable to process why others expressed fear or discomfort. “When other women would say, ‘that’s really painful,’ I was like, ‘what do you mean? It’s fine.’ It was just another day,” Mack recalled, comparing the ritual to a distorted version of sorority bonding.

Mack explained that this reaction came from the survival mechanisms she had developed. She described how she once arrived on her lunch break, underwent her own branding ceremony, and then immediately returned to teach the intensive class she had been leading.

“My body was shaking in shock,” she remembered, adding that she dissociated to cope with the trauma. “I don’t know when or where I developed that survival mechanism.”

She admitted regretfully that the same emotional detachment guided how she treated other women during the ritual. “The callousness by which I handled that and handled myself in that is the same callousness that I had with the other girls,” she said.

Mack also clarified that the brand — which she once claimed included her initials — did not contain them. This contradicts earlier statements that the symbol was a combination of her own initials and those of cult leader Keith Raniere.

One of the women branded, whistleblower Sarah Edmondson, previously wrote in her book Scarred that she was told the symbol represented the four elements — only later realizing it hid the initials “K.R.” and “A.M.”

These branding rituals were carried out on members of D.O.S., a secret female subgroup of NXIVM. The name was a Latin acronym for “Dominus Obsequious Sororium,” loosely translated as “Master of the Obedient Female Companions.” Mack served as second-in-command in that faction, recruiting and controlling women who were required to obey all orders.

Those orders sometimes included sexual acts with Raniere, taking explicit photos, and handing over deeply compromising personal information as “collateral” — material that could be used to prevent them from leaving or speaking out.

Raniere publicly denied involvement with D.O.S., including in a recorded interview with journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis for a New York Times article released before his arrest. In that interview, he also disputed claims that the brand included his initials. Yet audio played in the podcast reveals him advising Mack on the branding ritual, even instructing that women should ask to be branded: “Please brand me. It would be an honor.”

Raniere was sentenced in 2020 to 120 years in prison after being convicted of racketeering and sex crimes and was ordered to pay millions in fines and restitution.

Mack — best known for her role as Chloe Sullivan on the series Smallville — pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for her role in the organization. She was sentenced to three years in prison and served two before being released on parole. She says she has been working to rebuild her life, attending college and focusing on recovery and accountability.

---