Naked VIPs, on videotape

A new men's movement is taking the country by storm--and it has some past participants in a panic

MSNBC, December 20, 1999
By Jeanette Walls

The Sterling Institute, run by a man named Justin Sterling, has been described as John Bly meets Est. According to men who’ve attended sessions, participants are required to sign agreements saying that they would not hold the group accountable for anything that happens to them. Then, according to several men who say they’ve participated in the rituals, they strip naked and chant and dance — as a sort of male bonding, cathartic experience. According to several of them, the entire sessions were videotaped.

Rick Ross, an expert in cults and religious movements, says he’s received calls from men who’ve attended the seminars, including some…people in entertainment, business and law, who are concerned that the group has footage of them frolicking in the altogether. “I can’t give names,” says Ross, “because of confidentiality, [because someone might] recognize them.” Sterling couldn’t be reached for comment.