CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/27/2026

[Patrick Ryan]

NXIVM, New Age, Deepak Chopra

AETV: NXIVM Leader Keith Raniere: His Life Today After Starting the Cult

From self-help guru to convicted cult leader, Raniere’s exploitation of women ended with him in a maximum-security prison and no hope of release.

" ...Raniere formed Executive Success Programs in the Albany, N.Y., suburb of Colonie in 1998 with Nancy Salzman, a former psychiatric nurse. They eventually rebranded the program as NXIVM—an acronym whose meaning is unclear but is pronounced NEX-ee-um— marketing it as an elite training program for members to achieve their full potential in exclusive personal-development workshops and seminars. 

The workshops cost between from $6,000 to $10,000. Thousands, literally, bought in: An estimated 18,000 men and women ultimately joined NXIVM.  

A hierarchical indoctrination system sustained member loyalty. Participants paid thousands more dollars in escalating fees to advance, driven by intense pressure to rise through the ranks by recruiting peers and making increasing financial commitments. Raniere shamed members who threatened to quit.

Inside DOS, the subgroup in which women were abused, Raniere required female members to provide personal information that could be used as blackmail against them if they left."

DANIEL PINCHBECK: The New Age Is Dead

The hyper-consumerist, hyper-individualist, apolitical secular neo-religion of the West has finally bit the dust. What comes next?

Deepak Chopra was one of many celebrities and influencers who got busted in the latest tranche of Epstein files. I doubt Chopra’s reputation, like Chomsky’s, can recover from this. While we can marinate in the specific details of his fall from grace (Chopra responding “Good” after proactively asking Epstein whether a victim had dropped a civil case stemming from allegations that both Epstein and Trump had sexually assaulted her when she was thirteen), I believe the more important message is about the failure of the “New Age” movement as a whole.

Born in 1946, Chopra is a central figure and avatar of this often-ill defined movement, known for bestsellers like Ageless Body, Timeless Mind and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success that sold millions of copies around the world. He made endless appearances on television and at conferences. Chopra melded a user-friendly version of Eastern metaphysical tropes with an optimistic message that fit with the finance and entrepreneurial Capitalism of the 1980s - 2000s, as well as stereotypical Baby Boomer solipsism.

Conspirituality’s Matthew Remski functions as our contemporary Voltaire, philosophically undressing those who claim spiritual authority for personal gain. In a recent video, Remski focused on Chopra, highlighting a quote from one of his letters to Epstein: “God is a construct, cute girls are real.” He used that as a jumping off point to rip apart Chopra decisively. I thought I would quote Remski at length, to mull on this:

“I think it sums up a lot of the cultural labor of the New Age, which was to run cover for the crisis of predatory capitalism, while enjoying its benefits… Now, all of the commentary out there so far saying that [Chopra] was obviously always full of shit, a charlatan of woo, a pseudoscience huckster, all true, no notes. But I want to zoom out and talk about the work he performed on behalf of neoliberalism and why it wouldn’t be surprising to me if he was trading meditation tips and tricks with Epstein for sex with trafficked women.

The main cultural and political work of New Age spirituality was to lock in the depoliticization of an anxious generation of post 1960’s liberals to get them focusing on the Self Project, rather than class solidarity. So what does that sound like? High vibrations, crystals, manifesting. Who needs feminism if you have the “divine feminine”? Take my course and find your flow in order to thrive in the Precariat. …

Yoga means union, but not the labor type. Can’t afford rent, Millennial Starseed? Your home is the universe. All a cheesy attempt to sell people on the lie that everything would be all right in the end times of capitalism if you bought products to perfect your body.

Deepak’s version of this bullshit was cloaked in a cloud of quantum orientalism and medical quackery, suggesting things like Ayurveda was as good or better at treating cancer or diabetes than chemotherapy and insulin… This all is fascist adjacent not only because of the anti-intellectualism, but also because claiming that reconstructed and gentrified spiritual practices are actually the futuristic technologies of ancient seers is a cultural pillar of Hindu nationalist soft power.”

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