Netflix has been churning out compelling true-crime documentaries and limited series from Girl in the Picture to Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story to I Am A Stalker along with films about killer nurses like The Good Nurse. The latest entry is that of a documentary Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste, directed by Sarah Gibson and Sloane Klevin, follows the real-life events surrounding the eponymous sexual wellness brand established by Nicole Daedone — which has been accused of being an “orgasm cult.” It traces the rise and fall of OneTaste, promoted the idea of female sexuality, and “promised spiritual enlightenment and community through 15-minute female orgasms” – until members came forward with disturbing allegations of sexual assault and violence against women, prostitution, sex trafficking, and labor violations.
The hour-and-a-half documentary utilizes original never-before-seen footage from OneTaste’s live shows, interviews, parties, and counseling sessions, to show how it became a for-profit sex cult and fostered a culture where women were disabused of their notions about rape and abuse by subjecting them to said atrocities. This eye-opening documentary from the perspective of the former members as well as staff shows all the grounds for the allegations and how Nicole Daedone’s overall vision of utopia was simply hell for others.
This article discusses in detail the collapse of OneTaste, with special emphasis on the practices of the brand, the experience of its former members, the rationale for the accusations, and the current state of affairs. The article includes explicit content that might be triggering, so proceed with caution. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Refrain from reading the article and save it for later if you haven’t watched the documentary.
ORGASM INC: THE STORY OF ONETASTE (2022) Plot Summary & Documentary SYNOPSIS:
WHO IS NICOLE DAEDONE?
Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste begins with the words of Nicole Daedone during a 2011 TED talk, where she says, “There’s a pleasure deficit disorder in this country… human connection is beginning to dissolve… and the cure is the female orgasm.” She also talks about how the Internet and orgasm same fundamental goal, that is, human-to-human connection. Nicole Daedone is introduced to us as a successful and powerful orator as well as the founder of OneTaste Urban Retreat Center. She was once the darling of this women-led sexuality-focused wellness company and was seen as the spiritual leader of the brand that placed a near-exclusive emphasis on female orgasm.
In 2004, Nicole Daedone and her partner Robert Kandell established a female sexuality-driven organization OneTaste in San Francisco, California. It was dedicated to teaching the practices of orgasmic meditation and slow sex. The former members of OneTaste talk about how it helped them feel safe and open with another being and how they became more conscious of their power in their sex. Ellen Huet, a reporter for the Bloomberg Businessweek, calls her a skilled craftsman who seems to know what people gravitate toward. She is very compelling with her words, and when she says, “We want to be loved, be loved, see, be seen, know our purpose and feel a connection”, people identify with and relate to her. Ellen talks about Nicole’s personality as warm, open, and friendly and someone who puts others at ease when she was around them, and her special gift was setting a vision that people were excited about and were willing to do a lot of things to help advance.
WHAT IS AN ORGASMIC MEDITATION/OMING SESSION?
OneTaste is centered around a practice known as Orgasmic Meditation, shortened as OM, that integrates sexuality and spirituality. It is a mindful practice in which the object of meditation is finger-to-genital contact, specifically to stimulate the female clitoris. It was “a way to connect to yourself, connect to your partner, and to feel more in your body.” Nicole demonstrates how OM is practiced in pairs wherein a woman would lie on a bed and be “stroked” by a practitioner on the upper left-hand quadrant of the other’s clitoris, apparently to experience a 15-minute-long orgasm. According to Nicole, the upper left-hand quadrant is the location they have found, scientifically, to have a bundle of nerve endings. It was a combination of mindfulness and orgasm in which they focus their attention on the sensation with the stated goal of developing “connective resonance” between pairs. OM changed the life of several people as they found a seemingly unreachable connection and it changed their life. It helped them experience sexual pleasure that was unattainable to them and embrace their body rather than feeling ashamed.
Ken Blackman, a successful software engineer in Silicon Valley except in his personal lifens, had been with Daedone since the founding of the community and exemplified what it meant to be a “master stroker” of OM sessions. He was five foot tall and was a counterexample to all the men who thought they have to look a certain way to have a good relationship with women. He considered OneTaste as a place where they were increasing human connection and was also researching human bonding and what happens when someone is vulnerable.
HOW DID NICOLE BECOME THE MASTER OF THE VAGINA?
With the rising popularity and success of OneTaste, Nicole got the opportunity to evolve into an author and published Slow Sex: The Art and Craft of the Female Orgasm in 2012. The book was a practical guide to improving the pleasure of the female orgasm through the popular practice of Orgasmic Meditation. It turned things around a lot for Nicole as now she was garnering media attention. The OneTaste Urban Retreat is not just a yoga studio, but something that promised 15 minutes of female ecstasy.
It became an overnight sensation when the brand started expanding internationally. They utilized the statistics of 30% of women not reaching orgasm when they want to become the driving force of the organization. They conducted weekend-long conferences with thousands of attendees and also started collecting a lot of money from the sales of courses. They also started selling memberships which cost around sixty thousand dollars, who can take courses they want over the whole year. By 2017 rolled out, the company collected 12 million dollars in revenue and was listed on a list of fast-growing startups by Inc. magazine. To make it visible to the mainstream, it was promoted by celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow (who interviewed Daedone on her Goop podcast) and Khloé Kardashian.
HOW DID ONETASTE TURN INTO A CULT?
As an inspiring and charismatic personality, Nicole set a vision and lifestyle for OneTaste. We see how she breaks down boundaries while trying to blend sexuality and spirituality, which leads to the manipulation and avoidance of people’s feelings and emotions. She asks members to speak openly about details of their sexual experience which was either a turn-on or discomfort. From the interviews and accounts of the previous clients, staff, reporters, and instructors, we understand how Nicole was putting her desires and reflections onto people; psychologically manipulating them into wanting what she wanted. Ellen Auerbach, a former member, gives insights about how Nicole locks eyes with the members and gazes into your soul, somehow transferring one’s deepest secrets. When Ellen says that she wanted to have a baby, she is manipulated by Nicole into saying that she wants a demo, an hour-long orgasm in front of everyone, live.
The documentary shows several clips from the archival footage as well as the interviews of the former members that imply that OneTaste was a cult. In some of the footage, we see Nicole performing reiki, a process of moving energy in the body but with extreme touching. Public orgasm demonstrations were also part of OneTaste culture and there was also a demo where Nicole used her body for the transmission of the experiences that have been given to her. In the demo, she masturbated in front of people, with snakes around her, and people were invited to come to touch her thigh. And they share that they could feel the energy of the experience. Nicole’s orgasmic demonstration under aesthetical conditions eerily resembles that of a cult.
Not long after that, the priest ceremonies began. The five-day ritual practice called “Magic School” featured temporary ceremonial piercings and performers who danced with snakes draped over their shoulders. They were wearing a black face covering wraparound and below that, nothing. and Daedone named a handful of men and women “priests and priestesses of orgasm.” The new clergy, dressed in white, conducted a group OM overseen by Daedone in front of the hundred or so attendees. The priest is someone who is stepping into a different level of life and it was a way for the members to feel bonded and connected and super committed. It is a celebration of the Goddess, the female force and a ritualistic initiation of men as servants. And some of the priests felt the power of sacred female sexuality. The ex-members claim that she was putting together a “sexy Illuminati” and was getting paid for it.
WHAT BARBARIC MESSAGES DID NICOLE TELL ABOUT VICTIMS OF RAPE?
When a man complains about the need to tighten up the practice sections to protect women from unwanted abusive acts, Nicole retorts and says that the idea of “protecting women” makes her a victim, and being “protected” doesn’t make her take responsibility for herself and her sexuality. She does not consider the possibility of exploitation or mistreatment of women as her idea of sexual violation was non-existent, a switch that can be turned off. Nicole reduces the act of rape to essentially being a victim story. Nicole says, “I have a story, and I am no victim. The problem with the victim story is it takes away your power.” And she says disturbingly that the real way “to deflect rape is to be turned on 100%. Because then there’s nothing to rape.” The barbaric messages Nicole spouts let you in on the darkness that she has and that she came from.
At one point, she says, “Trauma is just stuff that stuff that’s stuck in the body that needs discharge. This is gonna be my suggestion every time is, that you OM a lot. As you OM, whatever is in there begins to come out. It just progressively and gently opens you and releases, and then you can just face and be rid of… just notice your capacity to sit in pain decreases, and you just gotta get that shit off that, and then you’re clear again.” Nicole didn’t believe in victims of rape and advises victims of sexual abuse to have more OM session more to get rid of the trauma. Having no value judgment to rape and the predatorial men made the members not safe participating in sexual acts.
Nicole further openly admits that her father was a child molester and using young Nicole as bait is eye-opening and makes us realizes her desperate need for freedom. However, her redundant ideas about the resultant trauma of sexual abuse make her disturbed and messed up. Since she got out of the abusive behavior of her father and forgive everybody in the whole experience, she is insisting others do the same. In her biography, she talks about working as a stripper. The ex-members claim that she used to be a highly-paid call girl who would play around socially with people and mess with their heads.
As Nicole’s cult grew, she started seeing herself as a spiritual head or God-like figure and would borrow ideas from Scientology and the Eastern philosophy of Buddhism. The idea of OneTaste came from Buddha as Buddha said, Just as the ocean has one taste, the taste of salt, so also this teaching and discipline have one taste, the taste of liberation.” The ex-member Ellen Auerbach talks about how the courses at OneTaste were male-heavy and how they had staff to partner with the men so that all the men would have partners. She also admits that Nicole would charge men to have sex and perform sex acts on women with very blurred consent, and she would shame the women who didn’t want to take part. There’s a clip of someone being sexually harassed, and this was acceptable as Nicole didn’t believe in victims or rape. It was a secret thrill for Nicole to have control over people and have them perform extreme acts and it was hurting people badly.
Nicole made her staff watch lions hunting in a pride ripping apart and identified it with human behavior. She normalized the “beast” and the violence within people and encouraged them to be psychologically brutal with each other. Nicole confesses that her father died in prison with 52 counts of child molestation, but she never took on the idea that he was a bad person. In her crooked state of mind, she thought that he was just expansive and fourth-dimensional and that he couldn’t confine himself to the arbitrary laws of the three dimension.” Her opinion that sexual predators are just “love bugs” crying for love confirms the twisted and perverted idea of what victims and perpetrators mean to her.
WHAT WAS CHRIS KOSLEY’S EXPERIENCE AT ONETASTE?
Chris Kosley had heard of OneTaste previously as women and relationships were a mystery to him after the death of his mother when he was just 13 years old. He went to an in-group meeting at OneTaste and at first, he was baffled to find the big, open space with a warm, friendly vibe and was suspicious about whether it was real. Chris ended up meeting Nicole whom he knew from his research on the internet and ended up talking about integrating sexuality and spirituality. The conversation with Nicole provided Chris with the impetus to join and made him wonder about the benefits of joining OneTaste. Chris becomes interested in the different forums of the organization and read about the frequent sexual activities that the members allegedly participated in. He could scarcely believe it and his insecurity made him believe that even if everything was true, he would not be allowed to participate in any physical activities.
He was aware that many people, who were part of the organization, lived together in a warehouse. Soon, he also started living in the same place with 40 other people. Living in his new residence, he was transformed, a nerdy-techie guy by day fixing people’s computer problems and by night, he will be in the middle of craziness exploring sex. Not long after, he was sharing a bed with his “research partner.” Slowly, he became a fully-fledged man. he found the stroking practice in the OM session phenomenal. It opened up channels to him as a man that he never thought would be accessible to him. He felt connected through physical intimacy. He was not only actively participating in Orgasmic Meditations but also instructing others in the art of BDSM, something he was passionate about. He even quits his job to work as the guy behind the camera for many of the videos made by the organization. When OneTaste opened up a Magic School, Chris was inducted as one of the priests.
WHAT WAS THE JOURNEY OF RUWAN MEEPAGALA AT ONETASTE?
Ruwan Meepagala’s decision to join OneTaste occurred apparently after watching Nicole Daedone’s TED Talk videos on the internet. He rewatched the video at least 20 to 30 times and was captivated by her idea of deep human connection. As someone who struggled with debilitating anxiety in high school, Ruwan found the idea of sexual freedom and connecting with people liberating. In OneTaste, through OMing, he learned how to put his attention on other people’s feelings and needs. He came across Nicole for the first time when he attended a class organised by Nicole with several other people where she was giving impromptu coaching aka “strokes.” He was impressed by her ability to cold-read people with accuracy. When Nicole asked everyone present in the class why they were there, he blurted out that he wanted to connect with people for real to capture her attention. But, Nicole observed him and then stated that the reason why he couldn’t form a connection was that he was hiding behind the facade of the super cute frat boy and beneath the mask, he was a dark, dangerous man. Ruwan felt that it was the most resonant thing he ever experienced as he was putting on a facade so that everyone liked him, but inside he was angry and frustrated.
Gradually, Ruwan became a part of the organization, but as a freelance writer, he couldn’t afford the membership. But the people in the sales try a communication tactic that doesn’t allow him to refuse and he ended up buying a membership on his credit card, starting a cycle of debt. He also starts working for the company in the sales department and helped sell memberships. He talks about how OneTaste expanded the definition of orgasm as “the energy that flows through the universe and flows through you” rather than the common man’s definition of a sexual climatic experience. Nicole reiterates that orgasm is her religion. And Ruwan says that in his OM classes, towards the end of his sessions, God became synonymous with orgasm and orgasm was Nicole.
While working for OnState, he was allegedly promised that he would get 20% of the revenue made by the organization’s New York branch. But it got divided among several people inside the organization. He also confesses that Nicole and others made him feel bad for focusing on money. He opens up about the OneTaste culture where the staff and members were encouraged to do emotionally challenging or uncomfortable things for their growth. It was called “aversion practice” which allows someone to gain power and expand their orgasm by performing sexual acts they don’t want to or with someone they find disgusting. In one instance, when he had tension with one of his coworkers, they were asked by their manager Rachel to go and have sex, which he considers an awkward and uncomfortable experience.
He also shares an experience of a process called “killing” in which Nicole would use her “skillful scalpels” to get under people’s skin and say things that could dismantle them emotionally. Ruwan described an event that involved a girl who was being groomed to be the next manager. She was hammered by Rachel and other members openly scrutinizing her and saying things that were so biting that she looked dead. He regrets not backing her up as he believes that it was abusive but stayed silent convinced that it was for her own good. After working for several years, he left the establishment in 2014. He took a blue-collar job and is also facing a lawsuit now.
WHAT DID EX-ONETASTE MEMBER AUDREY WRIGHT EXPERIENCE?
As a queer woman, Audrey Wright struggled with societal pressure that forced her to be either feminine or masculine when she was younger. Thus, her confidence and her overall sex got affected and left her “timid and shy.” It was the driving force for joining OneTaste as a member in 2010. Over her four years living and working at OneTaste, Audrey became more relaxed and social and it was acceptable to receive attention from men at work. She became friendlier to men and her career took off. She owes that to learning a lot about men at OneTaste as it encouraged her to see the soft, sensitive, emotional sides of men.”
However, she also admits and acknowledges that it wasn’t always this way and there were negative extremities as well. She considers Nicole a master manipulator as she would indulge in the complex psychological process of inserting her desire into the members telling them that those desires are theirs. There were no boundaries between anyone involved in OneTaste and there were direct orders from executives to engage in sexual acts with customers, managers, and colleagues alike when they couldn’t find pairs for the OM sessions. They were supposed to talk about crass nitty-gritty explicit details of their sexual experience so that it will turn people on. She felt the need to fix herself as she was given the impression that she was not feminine enough for OneTaste. She was teased for being woman enough and for being masculine.
There was also a philosophy that if any staff/member is not getting along with someone or rubbed them the wrong way, they were supposed to have an OM session with them. She gets upset and confesses that if they didn’t perform it, they wouldn’t feel important or get attention. And since Audrey wanted to be in the higher level of management at OneTaste, she performed some acts that were suggested. And she also opens up about Nicole’s no value judgment to rape and predatorial men and even a sense of support toward physical/sexual violence. That’s the reason why she didn’t hesitate to speak to the FBI officials about the rape of Ayries Blanck and even rethinks and questions her experience at OneTaste. However, there were also times when she had gone back to OneTaste, and confirms it to be a cult saying, “it’s like I know I was in a cult because I automatically feel like I’m back home and I want to stay there forever… but they never cared about me.”
ORGASM INC: THE STORY OF ONETASTE (2022) DOCUMENTARY ENDING EXPLAINED:
WHO IS AYRIES BLANCK? WHAT HAPPENED TO HER AT ONETASTE?
OneTaste was encouraging women to appreciate the predatorial nature of male sexuality and considered it an evolved practice. And they used the term “skillful violation” to represent the idea of letting out the beast and being a savage where the practitioners express their anger and rage. It was considered a healing practice for the so-called “Nice-Guy Syndrome.” Autymn Blanck tells the story of her sister Ayries Blanck’s experience with the cult OneTaste. Autymn and Ayries were raised together in a very traumatic childhood and experienced sexual abuse, which left them struggling with severe trauma. Ayries found trouble building connections, finding pleasure, and maintaining a community, and that’s why she was drawn to the orgasm-driven OneTaste. Ayries entered the world of OneTaste in the hope of healing from her past, but there was no reprieve or release from the trauma of her childhood.
OneTaste executives would need to sleep with multiple men and OM four to five times a day to heal her past trauma. After getting out of OneTaste, Ayries started sending journals to Autymn as part of her therapy. From the journal, we get to know the misuse and abuse suffered by Ayries. Autymn reads out part of her journal to show the extent of abuse her sister had endured at OneTaste. She expressed that even though she fought several times, she had never thought he would go this far. She continued, “I found little sympathy. This, I was told, was my fault. I had forced him to do it. His beast was only fulfilling what my body had asked him to do. Since I was a survivor of childhood domestic violence, this was my pattern and what my body was asking for. He was only doing as my body asked, and now I was shaming and blaming him for doing what I’d asked for. I was told that sometimes our soulmates must do violent things to help us grow. It was only a way to condone violence. [OneTaste] did not want me to, one, go to the authorities and, two, have my boyfriend leave and take his money with him.”
DID ONETASTE ENDORSE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN?
In another journal entry, Ayries tells about how a community member once “let his beast out” by picking her up with her arms pinned to her sides before shaking her in front of everybody else. “Nobody did anything as he screamed at me how he would like to rape me, beat me, use me; that he knew where I slept and he would find me in the night. I was reprimanded afterward for showing fear in the face of his beast. A true turned-on woman would have taken his beast’s cry for help with grace and love.’” Ayries also claims that OneTaste recruited from Tinder to help “release” Ayries’ orgasm. Ayries admitted to Autymn that she had been forced upon multiple people and her boyfriend beat her.
Later, Ayries writes a journal in which she reveals that she “never wanted to OM with other people. I never wanted to have my body touched. It all was forced, and my body feels filled with shame and disgust. I remember being told not to go to the hospital, that all the shaking, the vomiting, the weightlessness, the sickness was just an orgasm. It was me alchemizing trauma and pain from when I was younger; that if I just stuck with it, I would ascend to my next level of awakening and freedom.” The sexual assaults, the beating, and the manipulation of OneTaste traumatized Ayries even more. When Ayries tries to confront Nicole about the abuse and how it functions as a cult, she acted innocent and confused, concluding that she is deeply twisted and very sick to use, abuse, traumatize, and destroy others’ lives. Autymn decided to tell her sister’s story because she wanted to speak for those who have been silenced and pushed under the rug and to potentially stop the abuse her sister endured indefinitely.
WHAT DROVE ONETASTE FROM UTOPIA TO HELLHOLE?
When Ellen Huet published her story, “The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company” in Bloomberg Businessweek, Daedone and her business partner Robert Kandell was besieged by allegations of cult-like behaviour, predatory sales methods, claims of prostitution, fraud, sexual abuse, trafficking as well as misuse of labour emanated, leading to the firm shutting down nearly every location in 2018. Nicole’s previous disturbing comments on rape and the “beast” within people that need to be let during OM sessions, indicating her belief nothing was wrong with such violence, didn’t help matters either. It is also revealed that Nicole and her team engaged in “love bombing” to attract the targetted people to the company and in one instance, she utilised it on a staff who was about to leave OneTaste.
One of the former members of OneTaste confesses that the group “went from utopia to a hell hole” when Nicole turned into a cult and when she became acceptive towards abuse and violence against women, giving authority to mento let their “beasts out.” The people who joined the organisation to achieve sexual pleasure and deeper and meaningful human connections as well as those recovering from trauma fell into the traps of a sadistic and vicious woman. Nicole Daedone, the founder of this multi-million dollar company, is nothing but a skilled seller, which is obvious from her words, “You can’t sell God because you can get God on Amazon. What I’m selling is sex, because you still can’t get that.”
Even though Nicole sold off her stake in OneTaste in 2017 and went abroad, the company still exists rebranding itself as “The Institute of OM.” The FBI is actively investigating the allegations but no charges have been brought against the company yet. One of the interviewees and a former member of OneTaste, claims that Nicole Daedone currently stays at “The Land”, which is a farming house where many members of OneTaste now live. The documentary also claims that Nicole is currently looking for a ghostwriter to collaborate on a book about “cancel culture.”
