Tim Ulinger

Oh, it's great to see you, Blayne.

It started as apparently a self-help group.

You know, they began offering classes on self-improvement and said they could provide tools to help your career and your relationships.

And they apparently had about 17,000 clients worldwide.

Their leader was a man named Keith Ranieri.

And by the group, he was treated much more like a spiritual leader or a guru than a teacher.

Yeah.

In this podcast done by the CBC, she, you know, at the time she was in her mid-20s.

She was working in Vancouver as an actress.

She was feeling a bit lost and the teaching to her clicked.

And after a few years, she moved to Albany to take classes directly from Keith Raniere.

Yeah.

Das, D-O-S, is short for a Latin phrase, Dominus Obsequius Serrarium.

And it roughly translates as a master above female slaves.

And it basically meant that small groups of women who called themselves slaves were led by a female master, and the master required absolute obedience from their slaves.

But Ranieri was calling the shots, and he was the grandmaster.

Yes.

Max says she was only allowed to eat about 500 calories a day, meaning that she was, you know, practically starving all the time.

She also had to get Ranieri's permission to travel and do anything.

Yeah.