The Dark Side of Sexual “Wellness”

They Called It Empowerment. Former Members Call It Control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omi0WL87b6I

Dr. Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind || Cults and high-control groups often use sexuality to access and manipulate a person’s emotional regulation. Some cults, like the Moonies, used it to create a barrier of fear and shame surrounding sexual thoughts or actions. Ellen Huet’s new book Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult explores how OneTaste, Inc. and its founder Nicole Daedone used the topic of Orgasmic Meditation to challenge boundaries and minimize taboos through coercive practices and were ultimately convicted of a forced labor conspiracy.

Ellen Huet is an award-winning investigative journalist currently writing for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. She also hosts the narrative audio series Foundering, from Bloomberg Technology. In recent seasons, she has worked on topics such as WeWork and OpenAI, as well as examining the trustworthiness of OpenAI’s leader, Sam Altman. The 2022 Netflix documentary called Orgasm, Inc.: The Story of OneTaste featured her investigative journalism about the group. Her reporting has also been cited in news outlets such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Slate, and many others.

From San Francisco Startup to Federal Indictment

We began our conversation by discussing how Ellen became familiar with OneTaste and the practice of Orgasmic Meditation, also known as OM. She described working at Bloomberg News in 2017, where she covered startups, including WeWork, Uber, and Lyft. She received a pitch from a wellness group selling courses on the OM practice. “I had vaguely heard of orgasmic meditation before, but I wasn’t that familiar with it. It’s obviously an eye-catching subject, so I was curious, and I had a meeting with the people who were running OneTaste at the time,” she said.

The pitch they gave her was about what OM could do for a person and how it could change their life. “We’re like the Whole Foods of sexuality, the organic, good-for-you version of sexuality,” she recalled that they had told her. Concurrently, she also began conducting her own investigation with former members. “They were saying that they had had experiences that were really predatory and really damaging. They said that they had been pressured to take on debt to buy more and more expensive courses, and that they felt like they’d been pressured to have sex with customers, other employees, and an investor, in order to … help keep the business running. Some of them called it a dangerous cult,” she said. In 2018, she wrote an investigative piece examining the company’s practices. OneTaste would later go into a type of hibernation mode and would eventually come to be investigated by the FBI. The company’s founder, Nicole Daedone, and her former head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, would be indicted on forced labor conspiracy charges in 2023, and were convicted in a jury trial in June of 2025.

Behind the Scenes at OneTaste

“Essentially, the company had two layers to it. There was this outward-facing, wellness mainstream-ish business in which they were selling courses about orgasmic meditation, and doing similar things that a startup might in the 2010s,” Ellen said. She noted that Nicole had been on the TEDx conference stage, spoken at South by Southwest, and had multi-day conferences in San Francisco. For those who got more involved, however, the experience became more immersive, cult-like, and predatory.

She described how people got initially pulled in. “What that pattern often looked like was, let’s say you were someone who heard about OneTaste and were intrigued, and you went to one of their introductory group evenings where everyone stays fully clothed, but you might play some communication games and learn a little bit about the orgasmic meditation philosophy and how it can change your life,” she said. This would then often lead to another course for sale. Eventually, there would be an introduction to Orgasmic Meditation involving a very prescribed practice of genital stroking from a clothed partner. Attendees or members would subsequently be encouraged to try this and other practices of a sexual nature under the guise of wellness education.

Sexual Assignments Under Pressure

Part of the course’s teachings involved assignments, sometimes lasting for a month, that featured more extreme acts outside the person’s comfort zone. These assignments were sold as a way to further personal growth. “There was this culture in which people were pressured to have sex with co-workers or potential customers as a way to keep the business going,” Ellen said. I had mentioned a similar practice in the Osho Rajneesh cult surrounding pushing individuals to try sexual acts or acts they were averse to or resistant to as a supposed way to further spiritual growth. We then talked about the psychological and emotional breakdown or reprogramming that occurs when an individual breaks their normative values at the instruction of a leader.

“A key part of what I’ve learned from studying brainwashing and cognitive dissonance and everything else is if you can make changes in behavior, we rationalize, we justify, we bend to make it okay,” I had explained earlier to listeners. We also discussed the continuum that exists within groups of experiences. One person may be a fringe member, and that can yield a very different perspective on the group than someone closer to the guru or leader’s inner circle. Ellen noted that she had examined the sentencing court paperwork for the OneTaste leader and found around 200 letters of support, detailing how Daedone had changed their lives and made a positive impact on the world. “There are lots of people who support her, despite there being also people who have been quite clear that they feel like she has abused and exploited them,” Ellen said. We also discussed how Nicole may have potentially been a victim of abuse herself at one time.

Changing Cult Dynamics of the Future

Noting that Nicole Daedone didn’t fit the stereotypical profile of a cult leader, Ellen asked whether I felt that the face of cults would continue to change in the future. We discussed the role of AI and algorithms in the age of deep-fakes and increasing radicalization. “Be in your body. Be in real life. Have trustworthy friends and reality tests the whole lot,” I recommended. Ellen agreed, noting her recent reporting on concerns over chatbots being in the role of charismatic leader. “I actually see the opportunity for a whole different shape of cult dynamics to show up, between you and a digital entity, or a digital conversation, so not even like humans using AI to recruit other people, but AI being the embodiment of some sort of … charismatic leader,” she said.

As we were closing out, I reminded listeners that we need real, in-person family and friends, trust-based pods, and to remember the importance of listening to experts with legitimate experience, academic training, and journalistic integrity. I also reminded everyone to check out Ellen’s book, Empire of Orgasm, to learn more about the OneTaste group and to continue exploring ways to stay grounded in the future.

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