WTF is on my Mind?!
WTF is on my Mind?!
Mark Vicente
Author, Speaker, Whistleblower and award-winning Director Mark Vicente was behind the sleeper hit “What The Bleep Do We Know?!” Several books have been written about the film’s remarkable grassroots marketing campaign, which led to its unprecedented success.Mark was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965. Taking his first photograph at age four, he quickly discovered his passion for being behind the camera. After attending film and drama school in South Africa, he began working his way up the ranks of the camera department, from Assistant to Operator to Cinematographer. His first big break came as Director of Photography on the musical “SARAFINA,” starring Whoopi Goldberg. In 1992, he set his sights on Hollywood and relocated to Los Angeles to shoot his first studio picture for Disney;  “FATHERHOOD,” starring Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry. At the age of 26, he became one of the youngest cinematographers to shoot a big-budget studio picture. Over the next few decades, he went on to shoot an additional 14 feature films and numerous documentaries, music videos and commercials. Mark soon found there were in him, untold stories he desperately wanted to express as a Director. He was driven by the conviction that tales of greatness, nobility and introspection could be exciting and financially successful. Perhaps because of the very obvious race and class iniquities in South Africa, he found himself propelled to question certain fundamental assumptions at a very young age. Beliefs about human behavior, cosmology, religion, existentialism and mysticism. Along the way, he stumbled into a few situations where leaders with malignant pathologies (masquerading as saintly philosophers) spoke the talk of self-improvement but did untold damage to their followers... and him. Looking back, he can now say he has been in at least two cults. His last foray into personal growth and his defection from NXIVM was chronicled in the HBO series “The Vow”. Mark and a few plucky whistleblowers exposed the criminal activities of the organization, resulting in multiple arrests and indictments. He doesn’t consider himself a cult expert, but by his own admission, “I’m an expert in being screwed over, waking up, and knowing how to spot them.” He’s got a pretty salty approach to most things and is fascinated by the myriad patterns in the human psychodynamic that create the best and the worst in civilization. Join Mark as he unpacks a whole range of topics to do with: Psychology, Consciousness, Morality, Narcissistic Abuse, Spirituality, Cults, Propaganda, Science, Filmmaking, and Philosophy.You never quite know what you’re going to get, as it really does depend on… WTF is on his mind?!
They Believe Their Own Lies: A Neuroscientist Explains Narcissism w/ Dr. Heather Berlin
I've been sitting with a theory for a while now: that dissociation isn't just what happens to survivors; it might be the actual cornerstone of narcissism itself. Not just what a narcissist does to the people around them, but something disconnected inside of them too, from their own shame, their own actions, maybe their own humanity. Watch Narcissist's Playbook: https://narcissistsplaybook.uscreen.io Join the Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/MarkVicente Dr. Heather Berlin: https://w...
Aug 9
1 hr 2 min
Narcissistic Abuse Recovery: Dr. Ramani on Self-Blame, Grief, and Trauma Bonding
Narcissist's Playbook is out now and available to rent at https://narcissistsplaybook.uscreen.io/ From July 24th to 26th, we held our Narcissist's Playbook launch weekend, and Dr. Ramani Durvasula was one of our featured speakers. I got to sit down with her for this conversation, and this time we didn't talk about the narcissists. We talked about the survivors and the road back to themselves. PLEASE NOTE THE EMAIL MENTIONED IS NOT AVAILABLE NOW. THAT WAS ONLY FOR THE LIVE WEEKEND. We get in...
Aug 2
1 hr 13 min
"My Jaw Was on the Floor": Dr. Jamie Zuckerman on the Narcissist's Playbook Film
Dr. Jamie Zuckerman and I sat down to talk about our film, Narcissist's Playbook. https://www.drjaimezuckerman.com/ Dr. Zuckerman is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in narcissistic abuse, and she's seen the film. In this conversation, we get into why my team and I spent five years making it, my own experience in NXIVM, and how it shaped this project, and why we brought self-aware narcissists into the film alongside survivors and clinicians. Dr. Zuckerman brings the clinical s...
Jul 12
58 min
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 12 - The Toxic Text Messages Part 3
This is episode 12 of Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro, an ongoing deep dive investigation into the world of Dutch spiritual influencer Bentinho Massaro and the people inside it. Gaby Petris Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@UCvHpiQAiTKxoodufKO5_Viw The text messages continue. This episode is mostly Jade Alectra’s, and what you're going to see is her mind and her instincts getting dismantled in real time. The sequence involving pillows alone is a masterclass in how intermittent reinforcement work...
Jun 28
1 hr
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 11 - Silvana
Silvana was working at Gaia, deep in a healing process, surrounded by a spiritual community, when she was introduced to Bentinho Massaro through what looked like an ordinary birthday dinner. Within days, there was a yoga class, tacos, a hot tub, truth or dare, and a text message she describes as the most manipulative thing she has ever read in her life. She didn't fall for it. But in this episode, she explains exactly how close she came, and why. Silvana's story is different from the ones yo...
Jun 21
1 hr 11 min
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 10 - The Toxic Text Messages Part 2
This is episode 10 of Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro, an ongoing deep dive investigation into the world of Dutch spiritual influencer Bentinho Massaro and the people inside it. The damning text messages continue. This episode is Keilan McNeil's. He reads through two text threads that show a side of Bentinho Massaro that his followers rarely, if ever, see. The first is a group chat in which Bentinho systematically dismantles his then-girlfriend Alison in front of the inner circle, including tel...
Jun 14
1 hr 2 min
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 9 - The Text Messages Part 1
For the next few episodes, our three defectors, Jacqueline Graham, Keilan McNeil, and Jade Alectra, are going to read out their private text messages with Bentinho and the group. What you're going to see is the side of him that his community never sees, the version that exists behind closed doors. This episode belongs mostly to Jacqueline. She reads through a cascade of messages sent to her at an airport, after she told him one simple thing: that she was afraid of him. What follows is a prol...
Jun 7
1 hr 27 min
Evan Rachel Wood: A Wolf in Wolf's Clothing
Evan Rachel Wood has been through it. The abuse. The smear campaigns. The legal battles. The silencing. And she came out the other side still talking. We sat down shortly after she watched the latest cut of Narcissist's Playbook, my documentary film that she is featured in, and we didn't hold back. www.narcissistsplaybook.com The conversation covers how narcissistic abuse actually works at a mechanical level: love bombing, grooming, isolation, gaslighting, and why it doesn't just happen to ...
May 31
1 hr 22 min
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 8 - Aaron Abke "Behind the Mask"
One of the recurring defenses from people still inside Bentinho Massaro's circle is that the people who have spoken out, Jacqueline, Keilan, and Jade, simply didn't understand the Law of One teachings. That they weren't advanced enough. That if they had truly grasped what was being offered, they would have seen things differently. So we spoke to someone who knows the teachings well. Aaron Abke grew up as a pastor's son, earned a degree in Music and Theology, spent a year as a full-time wors...
May 24
1 hr 43 min
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 7 - Jade Part 2 “Leave Your Body”
We pick up where we left off in Part 1. A kitchen in Ecuador. Two women looking at each other across an island with empty eyes. What follows is five months of Jade Alectra's life across four countries: Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Yucatan - and through experiences that are among the most disturbing in this entire series. In Part Two, Jade describes the second r*pe, a meditation played loud, a voice telling her to leave her body, and the moment she felt she had achieved something when it...
May 10
1 hr 8 min
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