Like many members of NXIVM, Edmondson got involved through its more palatable, public offerings: self-help seminars. She told ABC News that she first signed up for a five-day seminar in 2005, at age 27, and was instantly impressed. "I left my five-day, my initial training as if a veil had been lifted, and I could see things more clearly in my life."
Over the next decade, she continued attending seminars, until she was invited to join a "secret sorority" by Lauren Salzman, daughter of cofounder Nancy Salzman. "It is kind of strange and top secret and in order for me to tell you about it you need to give me something as collateral to make sure you don't speak about it," Edmondson told The New York Times that Salzman had said.