When Sarah Edmondson joined NXIVM in her late twenties in 2005 as a struggling actress, she thought she had finally found the key to living a joyful life.Led by self-help guru and pseudo-philosopher Keith Raniere, who often compared himself to Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi, the organisation billed itself as a self-improvement programme headquartered in Albany, New York.But at its core, the NXIVM self-help agenda was merely a guise, concealing Raniere’s greater purpose of presiding over a harem of female ‘slaves’ who he branded with his initials, indoctrinated, and coerced into having sex with him. The year Sarah escaped and became a whistleblower, she had been branded on her pelvis in a brutal initiation ceremony for a secret all-female society within the cult, where women were put on starvation diets and forced into paddling each other as punishment for disobedience.Now, she and her husband Anthony Ames - also a NXIVM defector - dedicate their lives to educating the public about the risks cults pose to us all - even those of us who feel we're entirely immune from their manipulative spell.From yoga classes and vegan forums, to church communities and even romantic relationships, the couple insist that all of these seemingly benign or even positive dynamics can feel cult-like, and crucially, 'people don't have the tools to navigate it'.Together, they host the podcast 'A Little Bit Culty', and in March published a book of the same name - offering readers a step-by-step manual on how to avoid the grasp of charismatic leaders like Raniere, who walk the same streets as us every day.Such figures wield emotional manipulation to keep victims obedient. 'Think love bombing, guilt trips, future faking (the dangling of dreams), and the fear of being punished if you step out of line,' the couple write. Sarah Edmondson and Anthony Ames, survivors of the NXIVM sex cult, now host popular podcast 'A Little Bit Culty', interviewing experts and survivors about abusive communities From yoga classes and vegan forums, to church communities and even romantic relationships, the couple insist that all of these seemingly benign or even positive dynamics can feel cult-like'People need something that can give them recognition of what predators look like, sound like and behave like,' Anthony, 51, tells the Daily Mail from the couple's home in Atlanta, Georgia.'Because they look and sound a lot like you and I do; they're good chameleons, and they're very skilled at what they do, which is why so many of them exist.'As part of the book, they conclude each chapter with a 'Culty Cheat Sheet' on the does and don'ts of navigating communities, including a guide on how to spot a sadistic chief.They ask readers to consider the following questions about leadership figures in their lives: 'Do they claim to have the one and only answer you need? Are they loving one moment and then critical the next? Do they discourage your independence in thought, actions, and emotions?'While Raniere is an extreme example, Sarah, 48, says manipulative leaders can be found everywhere, and she even stumbled across a few in various acting and yoga studios before falling prey to NXIVM.Such figures tend to follow a pattern, often exhibiting traits of narcissism and wielding 'lovebombing, isolation and gaslighting' to finally achieve control, she says.They tend to have a crowd of starry-eyed followers surrounding them, singing their praises and swearing they can do no wrong, and a lot of the time they're excessively charming, staring deeply into your eyes while listening intently to your worries.'There was an acting programme that I was into, and I left because I found it culty,' she says. 'It was insular, the teacher was a narcissist and was pitting students against each other, using all the different tactics we talk about in the book. 'I didn't fall for that acting teacher, I left. I didn't fall for Bikram yoga. But I fell for NXIVM. People have their own weak spots, but I wouldn't even call them weak spots, because it's not weak - it's human.'In November 2017, Bikram Choudhury Yoga, the studio that popularised doing yoga in sauna heat, filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy, dogged by $16.7 million in legal judgements, numerous lawsuits and allegations of sexual misconduct.It came after founder Bikram Choudhury, the Calcutta-born guru who built a worldwide following with classes of 26 yoga postures in rooms heated to 40.6°C, was accused repeatedly of sexual assault by his yoga practitioners, students, instructors and teacher trainees.Manipulative leaders are in 'companies, they're in schools, they're in places that you think are safe, and they look and sound like normal people, even benevolent people at times,' Anthony says, but crucially, 'there is no morality informing them'. Unfortunately, it's not just cult leaders who are at large - their recruiters are also roaming the streets, looking out for their next victims.'You can meet the cult recruiter anywhere: a bar, the library, school, gym, church, neighbourhood - anywhere,' the couple write, and 'the cult recruiter can be anyone: your teacher, your neighbour, your BFF, someone from your past, or your hairdresser.'And you can also meet them at any point in your life, they warn. 'You have already crossed paths with a cult recruiter. It just wasn’t your time. We hope your time never comes.'Fortunately, the couple made a list of traits to watch out for when trying to identify sinister leaders and their devout followers, with gaslighting being a common tactic of control.They describe the process as a 'malevolent mind game designed to make the victim doubt their own sanity and destroy their agency'. Telltale signs of gaslighting can include when a person denies reality, twists facts, manipulates your memory, trivialises the truth, and projects an alternate reality. Lovebombing, or 'intentionally showering someone with excessive affection, attention, and praise,' is also a clear giveaway, they write.Think excessive flattery, numerous gifts, constant attention and overwhelming positivity. 'If someone greets you with, “Welcome to the family!” accompanied by effusive eye gazing... run the other way!' Bikram Choudhury popularised the global phenomenon of 'hot yoga', building a worldwide following with classes of 26 poses in rooms heated to 40.6°CAfter the couple escaped from the grip of NXIVM in 2017 and exposed their story to The New York Times that year, the FBI began an investigation that led to the arrest of Raniere in March 2018.In his trial, it was uncovered that women had been recruited and groomed into entering a secret society within NXIVM called DOS, which stood for Dominus Obsequious Sororium (an incorrect Latin translation that is intended to mean ‘master over the slave women’). In joining DOS, women were promised they were joining an all-female empowerment group, when actually they were designated as 'slaves', branded with Raniere's initials, and forced into having sex with him on rotation.In 2020, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison for racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography possession and a litany of other crimes. While some might blame the women themselves - pointing out that they weren't locked up, and could have just left at any moment - Sarah emphasises how victims were forced into a 'prison of the mind'. 'Terms such as brainwashing and mind control are misused now, but if you can understand how somebody's brain can be hijacked to believe that's what they need to do in order to survive, then you understand how it happened,' she says.In the book, the couple discuss the tactics cult leaders wield to prevent victims from leaving abusive networks - including the fear of punishment and banishment from the community they may have grown to love and depend upon.'We were convinced that if we strayed from the career path, we’d never be successful,' they write.'Emotional control was most consistently achieved through fear of exclusion. If we left, we risked losing our NXIVM “friends and family” forever, knowing that we would be shunned as defectors.' Keith Raniere, NXIVM founder, was arrested in March 2018, and sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020 for racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography possession Edmondson pictured wearing an orange sash, signifying that she was a 'proctor' in the NXIVM hierarchy Now more than ever, the couple argue that young people are extremely vulnerable because of the internet and the growth of social media, which they say are breeding grounds for cultish communities.'It's such a dangerous time right now for people,' Sarah says. 'Right now, we have social media, and we have no real checks and balances for people to create a profile and say they are a doctor, healer, expert, therapist, and they're not. 'There are people out there selling things and saying they're experts on trauma, and they're not even a therapist.'Even without the internet, young people have always been the ideal target for cult leaders, Anthony argues, 'because you're leaving school, you're leaving home, you're open and trying to figure out how the world works'.'If I was a predator, I would know where I'm going to get vulnerable people, and I think college campuses would be a great place to start. I would go to institutions where people are told to be open: it happens in Boy Scouts, it happens in churches, it happens in political movements,' he says.In 2024, the couple interviewed Tom Krumins, one of many whistleblowers who came forward to expose the abuse he suffered within the Boy Scouts of America as a middle-schooler.The organisation is currently compensating more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually assaulted as children by troop leaders in a decades-long scandal, documented by Netflix in 'Scouts Honour: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America'.In Scouts, he enjoyed magnificent campouts in nature and learnt everything from first aid and emergency response to how to give back to community, 'and for the most part, that was the experience', he told the podcasters.But like other communities which 'have a layer of cultiness', while the vast majority of the organisation was positive, 'there can be something really difficult and harmful simmering just below the surface, and for the Scouts, it was a culture of sexual abuse, violence, and the exploitation of children and adolescents'.Sarah and Anthony have also interviewed Ashleigh Freckleton, the chief subject in Apple TV's series 'Twisted Yoga,' documenting former followers of the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA).First seeking self-help and improvement after a breakup in London, she joined the Tara Yoga Centre in 2018 and became quickly engrossed in the sense of calm and healing that the exercises offered her.It has since come out that followers of the movement were gradually manipulated into sex cam work and orgies, groomed by an international network of yoga camps organised by Gregorian Bivolaru, a self-professed guru currently awaiting trial for organised kidnapping, organised abuse of weakness by members of a sect, human trafficking and rape.Freckleton was eventually lured to a secret house in Paris for tantric sex with Bivolaru, as part of a transfiguration ritual in pursuit of the divine - but she changed her mind at the last moment and broke free, escaping the fate of many women. Other guests on 'A Little Bit Culty' have delved into disturbing stories from all walks of life, including Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, ballet and gymnastics programmes, and even real-estate seminars. Romanian guru Gregorian Bivolaru after a hearing at the Romanian Police headquarters in Bucharest, Romania, 2016As Sarah and Anthony write in their book, cultish communities are 'endemic', and won't always raise alarm bells because they might come across as completely normal on the surface.'Manipulation isn’t limited to communes in the desert or robed leaders on mountaintops - it’s as high reaching as the corridors of power and as close at hand as your morning social media scroll,' they write.'Even if you’ve never experienced something culty, odds are high that you are merely a degree or two separated from someone who has.'And intelligence isn't immunity. The most sensational images of cults in our social imaginary - from the 1978 Jonestown tragedy to the robed children of Lev Tahor - are stereotypical examples and promote judgement, according to the couple, disguising the fact that we're all vulnerable.'They allow you to distance yourself and think, “I’d never be that gullible.” Ironically, that judgmental I’m-too-smart-to-be-fooled attitude is dangerous, specifically because you believe that you’re immune to cultic influences. 'Everyone is susceptible. Everyone, at some point, can be conned, tricked, or drawn into something they never intended,' they write. What made Sarah and Anthony open to NXIVM was the fact that they were both 'seekers', which they define as an open-mindedness and a desire to upgrade their lives, but that psychological porousness was exploited by Raniere, who promised to have all the answers. Of course, there were warning signs when the pair first stumbled into the cult in the early 2000s: members had to wear coloured sashes to signify rank, Raniere had to be referred to as ‘Vanguard’, and followers hosted ‘Vanguard Week’, an annual 10-day celebration of the chief’s birthday in Silver Bay, New York, costing each individual $2,000.But all of their legitimate doubts were manipulated by the leaders, labelled as mere insecurities and weaknesses which they would be encouraged to conquer and work through.'If you felt uncomfortable, it became an area of growth to look at,' says Sarah. 'Which is partly true - if you've done any therapy, you'll know that when you're starting to get close to something that's tender and vulnerable, it is uncomfortable. 'But I think what was also happening for most of us is that our inner guidance system was saying: "Get out!"'In the book, they summarise the internal process that stops victims from feeling there is a way to break free: 'Cult leaders play on your emotions: your fears, your insecurities, your desires to belong. But they also play on your strengths: your loyalty, your compassion, your idealism, your intention to make the world a better place.' Sarah Edmondson escaped from NXIVM in 2017 with her husband Anthony Ames and quickly exposed the abuse she suffered to The New York Times, triggering the cult's downfall In March this year, Sarah and Anthony self-published their book, 'A Little Bit Culty'As a tactic of control in NXIVM, Raniere used blackmail to 'control and maintain the loyalty of all the women so that they were living in perpetual fear', Sarah says.'Slaves' recruited to be in his sexual harem were forced into submitting 'collateral' to ensure they kept the secret activities of DOS hidden, including damaging confessions and nude photographs.Pressured by a woman called Lauren Salzman - her best friend in the organisation and a senior member of NXIVM - Sarah was manipulated into handing over explicit photographs as well as false confessions about her husband, mother, father and half-brother.While she never had sexual relations with Raniere, his initials were burnt into her skin with a white-hot cautery in a brutal 'initiation ceremony' alongside other victims, causing her severe PTSD.At the time, she had no idea what the symbol truly meant - having been promised it was a sign related to the 'four elements' and the 'seven chakras', representing her ultimate commitment to the sorority.Even though she safely escaped the clutches of NXIVM and the cult is no more, she has concerns about how various ideological forces are 'hurting the structures of our culture' today.'There's a lot of extremism on the right, where it goes towards religion and nationalism, and extremism on the left hides behind altruism. Their true nature comes out when violence starts to happen,' she says.Her favourite phrase at the moment is that 'every belief system has an extreme version of itself', and offers the example of shifting from just being vegan, to being a militant follower of the dietary philosophy.'That doesn't happen consciously,' she says. 'All of a sudden, you just find yourself feeling strong about veganism, and anyone who's not becomes the opposition, and anyone who says, "veganism is bad," is attacking you.What we eat is just one example. 'You can be a Republican, a Democrat, but at a certain point, you might become extreme about your belief, so that anyone who tests it is an enemy... And that's when it becomes tribalism, and we're naturally susceptible to that as human beings, because it's in our DNA.'Order A Little Bit Culty by Sarah Edmondson and Anthony Ames on AmazonListen to the couple's podcast, A Little Bit Culty, on Spotify