In November 2024, SEEK was proud to present the SEEK Safely summit, a day of reflecting, brainstorming, and imagining what a better, safer self-help world looks like. We gathered together self-help industry professionals to discuss tools for seekers and self-help practitioners, to find and facilitate more ethical self-help. In this episode of the podcast, Glenn and Jean chat with Anne Peterson, SEEK friend and author of “Is this a Cult” about her experience in Landmark, who facilitated the Summit event.

SEEK plans to make the Summit an annual event–learn all about it so you can join in 2025! You can also buy a ticket to gain access to the November 2024 event recordings.

Show Notes:

Learn more about the Summit, here (buy a ticket to access recordings)

Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website

Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown

Donate to support SEEK’s mission

To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org

Jean and Glenn chat with India Oxenberg, author, producer, and activist whose escape from NXIVM is documented in the Starz series “Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult.” India was an executive producer on the series. India also shares her story in her memoir, “Still Learning.”

The conversations focusses less on the sensationalist aspects of her cult experience, and more on the self-help nature of NXIVM as an organization, and what attracted India to the group in the first place.

More about India:

India produces ‘Still Learning’ the podcast, which engages its audience with ongoing conversational advocacy through interviews with compelling guests. She is one of the founding members of Healix 180, an online healing hub for recovery. India is a supporter of psychedelic therapeutics and is passionate about public speaking. In 2020, she was awarded for her production work by WIN (Women's Image Awards) in 2022 by the Colleges in Beverly Hills as a "Champion for Children" for her advocacy for survivors.

By sharing her personal story, she helps to raise awareness about the insidious nature of coercion and psychological manipulation. India resides in Key West, Florida with her husband Patrick and their two cats. In her free time she enjoys immersing herself in the wellness community, cooking, painting and yoga.

Show Notes:

To Watch:
“Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult” on Starz
“The Vow” HBO Series about NXIVM

To Read:
“Still Learning” by India Oxenberg
“Captive” by India’s mother, Catherine Oxenberg
“The Program” by Toni Natalie

To Listen To:
Audiobook of India’s Memoir, “Still Learning”
Still Learning podcast, produced and hosted by India

Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website
Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown
Donate to support SEEK’s mission
To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org

In this episode, Dr. Doyle and Jean return to the underlying discussion of the self-help industry and the flaws within it that drive SEEK Safely’s mission. It was after Kirby Brown’s death at the 2009 Spiritual Warrior retreat that the Brown family discovered some of the rot at the core of this multi-billion dollar industry. This drove the family to found SEEK Safely, recognizing that the impulse to seek is not the issue—it’s the unethical, unregulated self-help providers that are the issue and the source of potential harm. Empowering and protecting seekers has always been, and remains, SEEK’s ultimate goal.

Show Notes:

To Read:

Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale

Tragedy in Sedona by Connie Joy

Cult Education Institute, website of Rick Alan Ross

Stanley Milgram Authority experiments

To Watch:

School House Rock: How a Bill Becomes a Law

Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website

Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown

Donate to support SEEK’s mission

To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org