Comeuppance: how an orgasmic ‘cult’ ended in a prison term for its founder
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Clitoral stimulation as a path to spiritual connection, mental clarity and emotional wellbeing has been practiced for millennia. After being convicted on forced labor conspiracy charges related to the practice (and getting sentenced to nine years by a Brooklyn court last week), Nicole Daedone was given the opportunity to address the court.
Known as the “The Oracle” of OneTaste, a trademarked orgasmic meditation enterprise that extolled the benefits of hours of arousal, Daedone, 57, swiveled her chair toward the public gallery, smiled broadly, and said: “No.”
Outside the court, supporters described Daedone’s conviction as wrong and dangerous. Some said the seven former adherents of OneTaste, co-founded by Daedone in 2005, who testified against her at trial did not account for hundreds more who said they were indeed satisfied.
Anjuli Ayer, the current CEO of OneTaste, called it “a terrifying day for freedom. If persuasion can be a crime and consent doesn’t matter, then no one is safe.” Rori Montali, a wellness practitioner and intimacy influencer, argued that orgasmic meditation had helped her recover from trauma.
“It helped me get back into my body and know that it is safe to feel and not be afraid. It taught me that it’s OK to touch and feel alive again through what God gave us,” she told the Guardian.
But orgasmic ecstasy was not the lens through which federal prosecutors viewed the principals of San Francisco-based OneTaste when, in 2023, they charged Daedone, OneTaste’s founder and former CEO, and Rachel Cherwitz, its former head of sales, with forced labor conspiracy.
Prosecutors claimed Daedone and Cherwitz “used psychological, emotional, and financial coercion to control their victims and extract labor and services for their own benefit”.
After their sentencing, US attorney Joseph Nocella said, “Coercion disguised as wellness or empowerment is still exploitation and it is a crime that causes harm to vulnerable victims,” adding that the defendants had combined forced labor with sexual exploitation to cause trauma to the victims “in ways that extend beyond lost wages or long hours”.
OneTaste has recently been the subject of a 2022 Netflix documentary called Orgasm Inc and the 2025 book Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult by the Bloomberg reporter Ellen Huet.
Read more https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/05/orgasmic-cult-onetaste-nicole-daedone
Content retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/05/orgasmic-cult-onetaste-nicole-daedone.
