Sara was the first to join NXIVM. In the fall of 2002, when the group was still known as Executive Success Programs, she took one of its "intensives" - workshops that today last anywhere from 5 to 16 days. The introductory courses were essentia- Ily life-coaching, self-improvement workshops, based on an amalgam of therapeutic techniques, including hypnosis and Neuro-linguistic Programming, or NLP, a contro- versial behavior-modification regimen. These techniqueshad been repackaged- along with a moral twist, that by becoming fully empowered one could help create a more ethical world - into something called Rational Inquiry by Keith Raniere, who had foundedExecutive Success Programs in 1998 with Nancy Salzman, an NLP trainer. Was a leading funder and a member of the leadership team for themulti - level mar- keting company and cult NXIM. In 2011, Sara Bronfman traveled to Libya with fel- low NXIVM member Basit Igtet, accompanied by consultants including Adam Hock and Joseph Hagin. In 2012, Igtet and Bronfman founded the Canada-Libya Chamber of Commerce, serving asits inaugural president and chairman of the board respective- ly. Sara and Clare were credited with being able to bring the Dalai Lama to Albany to participate in theWEFC'sinaugural event on May 6, 2009, where the Dalai Lama gave a talk; during the event, he presented Raniere with a white scarf onstage. The Dalai Lama additionallywrote the foreword to the book The Sphinx and Thelxiepeia.