OneTaste ‘orgasmic meditation’ firm was forced-labour cult, trial told
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The leaders of an alleged sex cult accused of encouraging followers to masturbate in group “orgasmic meditation” sessions to treat trauma went on trial in New York on Tuesday.
Nicole Daedone, 58, the founder of OneTaste, and Rachel Cherwitz, 45, the company’s former head of sales, were indicted on charges of running a conspiracy involving forced labour and face a six-week trial at a federal court in Brooklyn.
Daedone, who led OneTaste from 2004 to 2017, touted it as an educational organisation teaching women to raise their consciousness and sexual empowerment through sexual pleasure.
Thousands attended OneTaste’s courses, which could cost up to tens of thousands of dollars, with the women promising they would help them achieve higher meaning, deeper universal connection and heal their trauma.
Prosecutors told the jury of six women and six men on Tuesday that Daedone and Cherwitz used abusive and manipulative tactics to gain control over some of the participants when they were unable to pay the fees.
“They recruited vulnerable women to perform sexual labour for their benefit. What did they gain? Power, prestige and money,” said Sean Fern, a US attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “They came seeking personal growth and left as shells of their former selves.”
The name OneTaste, Daedone’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told the court, derives from a Buddhist expression, which translates as “just as the ocean has one taste of salt, so does the taste of liberation”.
The organisation began as a retreat in California but quickly expanded operations across the United States, including in New York, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, as well as one in London, UK. Daedone built it up to a $12 million-a-year business with celebrity fans including the wellness gurus Gwyneth Paltrow and Khloé Kardashian.
Members lived under constant surveillance in homes on the retreat near San Francisco, once overseen by Daedone and Cherwitz, according to prosecutors. They went into debt if they could not pay the fees for the courses and it is alleged that OneTaste leaders forced them to settle these debts by working without pay — in some cases seven days a week.
Daedone continues to have a substantial following. Her supporters, who filled two rows of the Brooklyn court, twirled wooden beads. One sat on the floor of the public gallery in a yoga pose. “You look great, as always,” one woman told Daedone, who was wearing a camel-coloured cape, before the court session began. “Go get ’em!”
Content retrieved from: https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/onetaste-orgasm-cult-trial-nicole-daedone-rachel-cherwitz-q5rjwvdrq.
