NEW YORK — Keith Raniere kicked, whipped and planned to jail women in a "dungeon" for what he viewed as their indiscretions as part of his secret "master/slave" club, former NXIVM official Lauren Salzman testified Monday.

"He said (the jail cell) was for the people most committed to growth. They would get locked in a cage," the 42-year-old told jurors.

In her second day of testimony at Raniere's federal racketeering, sex trafficking and forced labor trial in Brooklyn, Salzman walked jurors through the practices behind the club — called Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), which translates as "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions" — including Raniere's embracing of "sex torture things" such as nipple clamps, handcuffs and a net.

Salzman said Raniere, 58, formerly of Halfmoon, invited her to join the club when they were attending a memorial for longtime NXIVM leader Pamela Cafritz, who was another of Raniere's many girlfriends and who died in 2016. (One of the criminal counts against Raniere alleges that he continued using Cafritz's credit card and bank accounts after her death.)

The group met regularly in what was called a "sorority house" on Milltowne Drive in Halfmoon, Salzman said. It was near the Knox Woods complex off Route 236 where many NXIVM higher-ups were living.

Salzman said Raniere imposed a strict punishment on members of DOS who incurred his wrath. She said he had kicked a "master" in the group, Daniela Padilla, as the woman was on the ground, an experience that Padilla later described to Salzman as painful. She said Raniere also paddled that woman and that other masters paddled their slaves while they were naked.

"It didn't sound like anything I ever wanted," Salzman testified in response to a question from assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar. "These things started to become scary for me. I was concerned about failing."

She said Raniere maintained that acts of penance in the club "should be something that really hurts." Raniere told DOS members that snapping the wrist the appropriate way could successfully mete out more pain, she said.

Salzman would later tell one of her slaves following an indiscretion: "If you want to use that again for failures, penance should be modified to three (HARD) whacks. If you snap the wrist right, it should really hurt."

She said she had six "slaves" below her who were branded at a ceremony following a gathering at her house. Before being branded, Salzman said, DOS members would chant: "Master, please brand me. It would be an honor, an honor that I want to wear for the rest of my life."

The act of branding was "frightening to see. It scared the other girls," Salzman testified. She said the first woman branded, named Jimena, was left squealing in pain.

Salzman said Raniere was later excited that one woman, Sarah Edmondson, had become her slave. She said Raniere told her she now ranked in priority above Edmondson's husband and child and, "If you tell her she has to have sex with another man, she has to do that." He said she would have another man's child, too, if commanded.

Many of the women were branded with the initials of Raniere and what appeared to be that of fellow DOS member Allison Mack, a former television actress and longtime NXIVM member who has also pleaded guilty in the case. Salzman said Monday Mack's initials were not part of the plan.

Salzman said in June 2017, she was in San Diego and learned from Mack about what she called “the assignment” – an order for slaves to seduce Raniere.

Salzman said she learned Raniere was having sex with slaves. That month, she said, Edmondson’s husband also confronted NXIVM members after he heard his wife had been branded with Raniere’s initials. Salzman said reports -- by blogger Frank Parlato – soon came out, which prompted Raniere to deny his involvement in DOS. She said Raniere issued a party line that branding was a college-type sorority symbol.

“Was that true?” the prosecutor asked.

“No – he started DOS,” Salzman said. “I lied to everybody about it.

Salzman said NXIVM tried to discredit reports about the branding.

“There were very real and very valid allegations being made about what was true and we were lying about them,” she said before leaving the witness stand for the day, “and here we are.”

Salzman also testified Monday that Raniere floated the idea of the women also getting tattooed in addition to the cauterized brands with symbols indicating their rank within DOS, the number of slaves they controlled and other membership information.

Salzman said she did not want to be branded, and said that after Raniere's arrest in March 2018, another DOS member rejected the notion that the women in the club had come up with the idea.

"The women didn't choose it — who would ever choose it? ... That's crazy," the woman told Salzman.

Salzman confirmed that to join DOS, women had to offer "collateral" such as naked photos of themselves or false information that they had been prostitutes. But he also suggested they "stage crimes" and videotape them to incriminate themselves — all to ensure they maintain their vows to never leave.

Exposure of one real incident was ruled unsuitable collateral, Salzman said. She explained that a NXIVM student had a "psychotic" breakdown at a volleyball game and, in her opinion, needed to be hospitalized. Instead, the woman was taken to a friend's house and force-fed Valium, a powerful sedative. The next morning, Salzman said, she was secretly given more Valium in her scrambled eggs.

"If she went to the hospital, it would make NXIVM look bad," Salzman testified.

Salzman said she wanted to use her involvement in the incident as collateral but was rejected because it could also hurt Raniere.

The society demanded a "lifetime of obedience to your master," Salzman said. References to a master, even in pronoun form, all needed to begin with a capitalized letter. In one message shown in court, Salzman referred to Raniere as "Him."

Raniere, known for his nocturnal activities, demanded members of the club adhere to strict rules which required they be available to respond to "readiness drills," even in the wee hours of the morning, within 60 seconds. Many DOS members slept with alarms at full volume due to the chance Raniere, known as the "supreme master" and "grand master," might deliver a command, Salzman said. She said she once drove across four lanes of a highway to answer Raniere.

As a "first-line master," Salzman said she would need to communicate with other members of her rank and the six slaves she commanded. They, in turn, would need to communicate with the slaves beneath them. The communications were sent on the Telegram and Signal messaging apps and encrypted, she said.

Salzman said she answered directly to Raniere in the slave-master club, though his involvement was meant to remain secret. She said Raniere wanted DOS to recruit new members, including "people in positions of power and influence."

She said Raniere had her edit a DOS guidebook of sorts, which referred to women as "miraculous excuse finders."

The first lesson in the book stated: "Your sole highest desire must be to further your master, from whom all good things come and are related." It asked the members to surrender their lives, minds and bodies for "unconditional use."

One part of the manifesto reads: "You should be a hungry dog for your master."

On March 25, Salzman, one of Raniere's five co-defendants in the case, pleaded guilty and admitted that she had recruited women into DOS for him. All of Raniere's co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

Salzman, who served as the organization's education director, acknowledged when pleading guilty that she had threatened to release damaging information about those women if they did not perform tasks or tried to leave the group. Her mother, NXIVM President Nancy Salzman, also pleaded guilty in March to racketeering conspiracy.

Prosecutors said some of the women were groomed and coerced to have sex with Raniere. His defense team has argued that the the NXIVM guru — who was referred to in the organization as "Vanguard" — and the women in DOS engaged in consensual sexual activity.

On Friday, a California bondage device salesman testified that a NXIVM member had ordered ankle shackles, a steel "jail cell" and other fetish devices from his company.

Salzman is expected to be on the witness stand until at least Wednesday.