Sarah Edmondson, Actor and Former Member of NXIVM

The Confessional with Nadia Bolz-Weber

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.6 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I essentially told her to override that very important internal compass called your gut instinct. And I told her that that wasn't accurate. She was just scared and that this is normal, that you hit up against fears that are going to stop you from your true potential … I told her to trust me, and I just, I wonder where she would be now if she’d just stayed in Vancouver and not done ESP.”

Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress who has starred in the CBS series Salvation and more than twelve films for the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. In 2019, Sarah published Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult that Bound My Life, with Kristine Gasbarre.

She and her husband Anthony “Nippy” Ames host the podcast A Little Bit Culty.

sarahedmondson.com

Instagram: @sarahedmondson
Twitter: @sarahjedmondson

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was only last week that I did the math and realized that in 2020 I watched four different
0:17.6	documentary series about three different cults.
0:21.4	And when I say I did the math, I mean, I spent 23 hours and 17 minutes of my life mesmerized
0:28.5	by the rise and fall of these high control groups.
0:32.8	That's a lot of TV hours, even in a pandemic.
0:37.0	So I've been wondering why.
0:39.0	I mean, there's no way I would spend that long watching a show about people who joined
0:43.4	the Lions Club, but give me a long form show about people who joined the Rajneesh free
0:49.4	love group in Oregon or the Heavensgate UFO cult.
0:53.2	And I won't do my dishes for two days just to finish watching.
0:57.7	I think what separates these shows from say like a tennis documentary is the way I've
1:02.8	vacillate between two very different responses.
1:06.8	At first, I think, man, this is completely nuts.
1:09.8	Like, why would anyone throw their life away for this?
1:13.1	And then I think they all look so calm and happy and content.
1:18.0	Maybe I do see the appeal.
1:19.9	And then I think, how can they not see that the cult leader is a monster?
1:24.2	And then I think the community they built is so beautiful.
1:27.6	I want to live with others who share my values and my spiritual practices.
1:32.5	I judge them, then understand them, then judge them again.
1:38.0	15 years ago, my guest Sarah Edminson was drawn into one of these groups.
1:43.5	She was a young actress struggling to launch her career.
	...

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