Made by an anonymous creator - whom no one has been able to identify as of yet - the Bambi Sleep files first appeared online in 2017.
Our sources had not brought formal criminal charges against James at the time of publication and BuzzFeed News has chosen not to name him.)
(BuzzFeed News is using pseudonyms to refer to the people in this story to protect their identities, due to their fears about potential retaliation and the nature of the traumatic events discussed in this article. When 31-year-old Ava was first introduced to the Bambi Sleep files in summer 2019 - under the guidance of someone we’re calling James, a self-described hypnotist whom she’d met through the website Seeking Arrangements - she thought it was going to be fun.
