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We are told the rendezvous was a secret. Five women summoned to a house outside Albany, New York one night this past March.

Sarah Edminson says she was one of them willingly participating in a strange initiation ritual led by a woman who told everyone to take off their clothes and put on a blindfold.

Let us in blindfolded and sat us in a semicircle, buck naked, no clothes on a cheap skin rug.

Edminson told authorities that she thought they were going to get tattoos. Instead, she says they found out they were all going to be branded.

What was that like? It was worse than childbirth. Imagine a hot, laser dragged across your flesh for 30 minutes without anesthetic.

At this point, you're probably wondering how in the world did this happen? Sarah seems so normal.

She lives in Vancouver where she is a wife and mother with a successful film and television career.

Do I know you? I don't think so. Oh no, no, I never forget a face.

But her life changed after she crossed paths with a secretive self-help group called Nexium and its charismatic leader, Keith Ranieri.

I'm an interesting person. I'm a controversial person, but most importantly, I'm an unconventional person.

At the heart of Nexium training is something called Intensives, which former members say are like group therapy, running as long as 14 hours a day and up to 16 days.

Edminson says she attended her first one in 2005. She says it cost over $2,000.

I left my five day in my initial training as if a veil had been lifted and I could see things more clearly in my life.

In promotional materials and videos, Nexium claims more than 16,000 people worldwide have taken its courses, but participants are required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

So what do we actually know about this secretive self-help group? According to former members, Nexium has its own lingo.

And the sessions came to involve practices such as chanting, a special handshake, even bowing.

Former members like Mark Vicente say anyone unwilling to go along with the rituals would be scorned.

If you question Keith Reineri, the f*** hits the fan.

You are, you are prideful, how dare you don't you realize you owe everything to him?

Hello and welcome to Real Crime Profile. This is Jim Clemente, retired FBI profiler former New York City prosecutor and writer producer of CVS is Criminal Minds. And with me today is...

Laura Richards, Criminal Behavioral Analyst, former New Scotland Yard and campaigner and Laura former on coercive control and stalking. And I am so pleased today that we are joined by two incredibly special guests.

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