Frank Parlato
In the past, I have written about OneTaste – a San Francisco company founded by Nicole Daedone in 2004 and sold to new owners in 2017 – in less than flattering terms. I called it “the fingering cult” because it places a heavy emphasis on Orgasmic Meditation, a timed 15 minute practice performed by a “stroker,” usually a male, stimulating the clitoris of a “strokee,” a female, with a finger inside a rubber glove. The practice is legal, provided it is done by consenting adults. No one has alleged anyone connected to OneTaste was underage or failed to consent to the practice.
The media narrative about OneTaste that broke in June, 2018 — riding the coattails of NXIVM’s Keith Raniere’s arrest — painted the company as a NXIVM-like predatory cult masquerading as a sexual and spiritual wellness company, with Daedone as its cult leader-guru. The 2023 federal indictment of Daedone and her sales manager, Rachel Cherwitz, uses a theory of forced labor similar to the 2018 indictment and conviction of Raniere, and others of NXIVM’s leadership. The same office brought both indictments: the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
It should be another slam dunk conviction. But there are some important differences. Because I wrote about the group in the past, and while I am not a fan of the practice I examined the indictment and found it woefully lacking in due process that, to use a term often found in legal papers, “it shocks the conscience.”
OneTaste’s founder, Nicole Daedone
A Case of Conjecture
The indictment of Daedone and Cherwitz alleges a single count of forced labor. But the prosecution fails to allege what the defendants allegedly forced anyone to do. The indictment does not name a single victim, not even a “John or Jane Doe” followed by a number to protect the anonymity of accusers and suggest a list of rising numbered Does waiting in the wings.
Of the company and its controversial practice, the prosecutors write:
“OneTaste promoted itself as a sexuality-focused wellness education company, which offered hands-on classes on ‘orgasmic meditation’ (‘OM’), a partnered practice typically involving the methodical stroking of a woman’s genitals for a period of fifteen minutes.”
As I said above, the prosecutors do not allege the stroking practice is illegal, or that anyone was forced to do it, or that anyone under the age of consent ever practiced it. In fact, the company, group, or cult, whatever you care to call it, was scrupulous to keep all who might be under the age of consent out of the classes, including requiring identification of anyone they did not know who they had the slightest doubt about.
This is not a sex crime case. It is a case of forced labor.
Forced Labor or Forced Fiction?
The federal prosecutors allege that forced labor occurred at least once during a 12-year period, when Nicole and Rachel forced a person or persons unknown to perform labor unknown. That’s right, the public, and based on filings made by the defense, the defendants, Daedone and Cherwitz, do not know what labor they forced anyone to do or even when it happened – other than on some day or days, or all days, “In or about and between 2006 and May 2018.”
That’s 12 years to choose from, but not one date is listed in the indictment of when any alleged forced labor occurred.
Even more striking is that what the unknown “victims” were forced to do is entirely absent from the indictment. Did the unnamed and unknown victims work in a sweat shop, or slave in cotton fields? Did they wash Nicole’s car or run an errand for coffee, scared of the consequences if they put in too much cream? We have no way of knowing.
Mystery Accusers: The Anonymous Allegations Against OneTaste
Historically, American prosecutors tell defendants who their victims are. This indictment is a year old, and the defendants still do not know.
In this bizarre and, I believe, unprecedented indictment, the prosecutors do not tell them who. They do not tell them how many. They only narrow down from the universe of potential victims, from the 8 billion people of Earth, to “a group of OneTaste members.” But what are members? How many are there? Are every one of the 35,000 people who took a class considered a member? The indictment does not say.
The indictment reads that Rachel Cherwtiz and Nicole Daedone subjected one or more members “to economic, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse; surveillance; indoctrination; and intimidation.” But, throughout the indictment, these conclusory allegations exist without an iota of specificity.
OneTaste Attendees Above Average
This Orwellian kind of allegations prompted me to investigate. Why would the prosecution be so vague about specifics if they had a real case? The NXIVM indictment was anything but vague. Raniere knew from the day of the indictment the names of every victim and what he had allegedly done.
So I investigated.
Unlike NXIVM, OneTaste has not been shy about openly discussing its practices, or for that matter its company. OneTaste have repeatedly said its records show that OneTaste participants generally had more education and a higher income than the national average. Almost 40 percent had graduated with a bachelor’s degree from college – compared to the national average of 26 percent. More than 25 percent had post graduate degrees, compared to the national average of 16 percent.
This was an educated group of more women than men. According to public disclosures, company records show that of those who took the advanced and more expensive coaching classes, 837 were women, and 721 were men. Some 98 percent of the women who attended the advanced classes paid for their own courses and had incomes above the national average. How did Daedone and Cherwitz economically abuse the members of this educated, generally successful group? The prosecution does not say.
No Sex Crimes
As for sexual abuse, there are no allegations of rape, sexual assault, groping, or sexual harassment, which is not bad considering 16,000 people paid for classes that taught the genital stroking practice called “Orgasmic Meditation.”
Not only does the federal indictment not allege sex crimes, but there appears to be no single state criminal sexual complaint during the 18 years of OneTaste’s existence by or against any employee, student or member, including Daedone and Cherwitz. Compare this in scale to the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, or the average workplace of American businesses.
The Absurd Accusations
The indictment accuses the defendants of surveillance of members. But how? Was there a hidden camera? A private detective? Did they rummage through garbage? The prosecutors do not say.
The prosecutors allege Daedone and Cherwitz “intentionally recruited individuals who had suffered prior trauma to participate in OneTaste.” But they offer no statistics. How many people who took classes suffered prior trauma? Is it more than the national average? If it is not, then where is the proof that they recruited such individuals? How could they have known?
The indictment seems to try to explain. It reads, the defendants “advertised that OneTaste’s courses and teachings could heal past sexual trauma and dysfunction.”
The prosecution however cites no examples of such marketing. But advertising is public. It is in print, broadcast, online. , I searched the company’s advertising and found no instance where OneTaste advertised it “could heal past sexual trauma and dysfunction.”
If it ever did, it was a rarity, and not OneTaste’s common method of attracting students.
OneTaste Case Based on Media Reports
As I continued to read the indictment, I realized it was based largely on conclusory allegations made by a small group of detractors who have appeared in the media. The prosecution built its case based on media reports, it seems. Though the prosecution does not name any victims, they seem to be relying on six or seven individuals who have appeared in the media to complain about their experience with OneTaste:
- Michal Neria
- Chris Kosley
- Ken Blackman
- Ruwan Meepagala
- Hamza Tayeb
- Audrey Wright
- Ayries Blanck
With that in mind, I was able to tentatively identify an accuser.
Debt, Drama, and a Detractor: The Story of One Accuser
The indictment reads that Daedone and Cherwitz “induced the OneTaste members, including OneTaste employees, to incur debt, and at times facilitated the OneTaste members in opening lines of credit, to finance expensive OneTaste courses that the defendants knew the OneTaste members could not afford.”
That’s one hell of a mouthful of conclusory allegations, all packed in a lunchbox with a baloney sandwich. It should be easy to prove. But prosecutors again offer not a single statistic. They do not allege OneTaste worked with a banking affiliate, like car dealers, to pressure people into buying courses on the spot.
How many of the 16,000 people who paid for a course borrowed to pay for it? The preliminary course costs less than $200, so I would say almost none.
However, company records show that about 1600 people took the more expensive ten-month coaching course, costing more than $7,000. Ninety eight percent of the attendees paid for their courses themselves. Since these attendees were above average in income and education, and One Taste offered no financing plan, it is unclear how that model would get people to borrow over their heads.
It is of course possible that some people borrowed money to pay for a course, but the company would not necessarily know if they did not arrange financing.
It seems this entire allegation is based on one individual: Ayries Blanck, who claimed to the media that Cherwitz may have encouraged her to explore financing for a course she wanted to take.
Blanck’s problem with One Taste seems to have started not from her borrowing a few thousand dollars, but rather from her wealthy boyfriend. He also took OneTaste classes, met another woman at OneTaste, and chose to leave Blanck.
Blanck went ballistic when she learned and tried to imprison her boyfriend by locking him in a room. But kidnapping will only take you so far, and murders are hard to clean up, besides he had not yet made the will over in her favor. Consequently, the boyfriend made a blessed escape. Embarrassed, he did not press charges.
Blanck was depressed. She just lost her ticket to a life of luxury and ease, because her boyfriend met another woman at OneTaste.
She saw one way out. If she could intimidate the new girlfriend into leaving her rich boyfriend, he might return. She stalked his new girlfriend, and when intimidation did not work, Blanck punched her out.
I rather suspect Blanck, who is the face of OneTaste detractors, may be the prosecution’s star witness, and possibly its only witness.
If so, I would like to give the prosecutors a word of advice. Perhaps they will think to offer her money contingent on a conviction in restitution. My word of advice is this: if you don’t give her what she thinks she should have, be careful. To pin the case on her might be a mistake.
Unforced Error
But the prosecutors may have no choice. Who else do they have? In a future post, I will go over the veracity of some of the other star OneTaste accusers the media trotted out, and from whom the prosecution seems to have got its initiative, like Audrey Wright, the thief and notorious drunk behind the wheels, whether a bike or automobile. She’s drunk, she’s savage, and she’s dangerous. Like Blanck, she is willing to say almost anything, even if her words are slurred or she falls down drunk on the witness stand to get a payday. I bring this up because I am concerned the prosecution is betting on some pretty sketchy characters who the media has paraded as victims.
A Sour Taste of Justice
Although I have been critical of OneTaste in the past, I am uncomfortable with the indictment. If we cannot distinguish between illegal and distasteful, we end up with a flimsy indictment like this.
There is no report of sexual complaints. There never was an allegation that a student or employee was under 18. There are no reports of any filings of labor violations with any Dept. of Labor, state or federal.
OneTaste employees and any conceivable “member” who might have done some work for the company were not third world immigrants or non-English speaking people. They were legally working Americans, the vast majority white and middle class or upper middle class. There is no allegation that a single person was paid off the books.
Sure, I understand. Blanck blames Daedone for the loss of her sugar daddy, and Cherwitz for suggesting banks do make loans, but is that enough to make a federal case of forced labor?
I may not be a fan of OneTaste, but I am no fan of prosecutors humiliating themselves. As much as one may disagree with the practice, it is not illegal for consenting adults, even women, to allow their genitals to be stroked, even if it drives Ayries Blanck ballistic because she did not get the rich strokes she wanted.
Prosecutors stepped into this one, and probably the only way out is a dismissal.
In an upcoming story, I will examine the astonishingly conclusory claims in the indictment, and why it cannot pass for due process. I also explain why, if the prosecutors’ plea bargain bluff does not work, they are better off dismissing the indictment, rather than ending up embarrassed at a trial resulting in either a directed verdict of acquittal or a jury acquittal, followed by guffaws bellowing from the general direction of the media in the very definite direction of certain prosecutors made ridiculous.
Victimless Prosecution
Misplaced faith that the public will be outraged and a jury will convict on utter legal nonsense, just because some well-educated guys stroke some equally well-educated women’s genitals for 15 minutes and call it meditation, may lead to catastrophic career dead ends for a couple of otherwise nice prosecutors with otherwise nice career paths ahead.
Of course, I suspect there is a reason why the prosecutors do not name a single victim in their indictment. There are no victims. They may have bet on Ayries Blanck and her motley retinue. But even good natured prosecutors being taken in by deceptive accusers and bolstered by their prudish positions cannot afford to look ridiculous. The sad thing is that as this case unravels, they will look ridiculous. It is no doubt the reason the defendants have gone to court to find out the names of alleged victims and what they are alleged to have done.
This is something so simple, such a fundamental part of due process, and frankly, I do not think there is another indictment like it, where no one – not even the defendants – know what they are alleged to have done and to whom.
If they have to guess by what appears in the media, it would seem that the presence of the prosecution in this case is simply superfluous.
Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.
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They lost the Netflix defamation case and will be heading to trial the beginning of next year. Have you spoken to the people with the evidence? No you’re not allowed and the people named are a small fraction of those waiting inline to bring charges. Looks like you got the points in this article directly from Nicole’s defense lawyer and this reads like an advertisement for the group. Very disappointing.
Also this article sums up the case of defamation pretty well. Honestly Frank you’re quickly losing integrity on this one. I’d take it down if I were you. https://web.archive.org/web/20240513142836/https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/onetaste-netflix-documentary-lawsuit-nicole-daedone-598537-20240513
This is a rich account of the behind-the-scenes problems in this case. I’d like to read more!
This trial should concern everyone, deeply.
This era of cancel culture seems to have expanded to the extent that it is now weaponizing the court system. If the contents of the article are to be believed, i.e. the absence of due process and the anonymous allegations, then there is a potential threat to our democracy that needs to be taken seriously.
We need to be cautious of the legal precedent this case may set. What we know is that there are a handful of members who felt wronged and mistreated, from which Netflix took the opportunity to stoke the fires of a hate. The result of this is that two people have to stand before a Grand Jury without having any details concerning the allegations held against them. This in itself should be alarming to everyone.
Finally, a journalist that is actually looking at the truth and serving the truth! I was in Onetaste for several years, very interconnected with the work and all of the teachers, I came and went as I pleased, and I often did, I was always paid for my work, I was never coerced into anything and consent and safety was #1 priority always. Over the years since the Bloomberg article came out, I’ve watched lie after lie after lie put out into the world from people I knew very well. When Netflix stole the footage from courses that I was in where you can clearly see my face, it was a major violation and in my opinion the media is straight up lying for profit or views. I’m grateful to see that someone from the media can actually sift through all the nonsense to bring out the truth because the actual story is way more exciting than what the media and government has been portraying.
I’ve reflected over the years just how big of an impact OneTaste and OM has had on my life, and the more time passes the more I realize I would not be on this planet anymore. I would have unalived myself. It wasn’t until Nicole helped me understand my beautiful rich feminine energy is needed and loved that I found my own internal reason to live.
I have ptsd and head trauma which I very rarely discussed with anyone at the company. If they were legitimately trying to take advantage of peoples trauma wouldn’t that have been something that was asked about from jump?
I did membership and 4 intensives with Nicole.
I have empathy and a lot of love for the people that did not have such a huge beneficial experience. Trauma is real and it can make seeing reality so difficult. I know because I have battled that internally my entire life.
AND the attempted take down when so so many people had a positive experience feels gross to me. It’s not encompassing the entire experience the thousands of us had.
I did 4 years of journalism in highschool and was the editor in chief of my yearbook staff my senior year. I really really wish journalists now a days had more integrity and were more interested in telling the truth.
Thank you for investigating!
But Amber: what you’re missing is: almost ALL of us had C-PTSD. Almost ALL of us were also neurodivergent. That, from where Nicole and Rachel sat, was a feature not a bug. We were much easier to manipulate. We could absolutely hyperfocus. We likely didn’t have the supports and resources around us that we deserved, so we were much easier to exploit. And, partially as a direct result of the culture that Nicole created, several folks DID unalive themselves, precisely BECAUSE they got further and further alienated from legit peer-reviewed supervised actual mental healthcare that they desperately needed. This unregulated coaching industrial complex/ LGAT bs, which you’re very much still in in different clothes, is more than just shady or a bad idea. It can and has been absolutely deadly.
You’re putting a lot of owness on Nicole and Rachel while describing the literal current social climate in our world right now. It is not an indication of harm to me that many or all of us have PTSD. It’s an indication that we were looking for an alternative and we found it through OneTaste. You have a right to your experience just as much as I do. It seems foolish to argue when I am sharing my subjective experience of OneTaste and Nicole and Rachel. Arguing about it, isn’t going to change what I experienced. And bringing up experiences where people received harm, doesn’t negate my experience in any way and I don’t know why you are insinuating it would. I’m well aware and have been from the beginning that OneTaste is not for everyone. And that’s ok! No part of me is in denial about that.
By this logic, Nicole and Rachel aren’t having a bad time, they’re just having their experience which is their right to have and, if anything, all the people calling the case unjust and accusing the government of wrongdoing are, in essence, trying to rob Nicole and Rachel of that hard earned experience. Why even lift a finger to defend or help them, given that everything they’re experiencing is, potentially, an important part of their liberation, awakening and ultimate freedom?
This is, in fact, what they themselves once taught.
We either live in a relativistic world where no one, ultimately, can make judgments about the rightness or wrongness of others’ actions and experiences, or there are lines that cannot and should not be crossed (especially when someone has put themselves in a position of authority and taken on responsibility for the wellbeing of others) and that when those lines *do* get crossed, those responsible should be held to account in some way.
If you want to argue for the former, that’s totally fine, but then you don’t get to complain about what’s happening in the case or even feel bad about how Nicole and Rachel are the poor, innocent victims of the prosecution, or any of that. You have to simply, in a value neutral way, let them have their experience.
So many of the arguments in these comments basically go like this: “I had a net positive experience, so I deem it OK that whatever bad things happened at OT must not have been that bad or the people who were hurt must not be doing as good a job as me dealing with their trauma, but that’s their problem because that was their experience and they have to take responsibility for it by finding the good in it like I have.”
If that’s the basic premise, then why are Nicole and Rachel being treated according to some different standard?
Sharing my experience is not intended to negate others. I’m sorry if that’s how it came across. That was not my intention. I legitimately meant it’s not for everyone in the sense that some people received harm, I’m not saying I don’t believe them. I really don’t understand where you’re coming from.
And me bringing up the fact that a lot of the complaints I hear towards Nicole and Rachel feel like complaints we all have towards capitalism and the current state of society, doesn’t mean I think they shouldn’t be held accountable? I hold all of my friends accountable. And I’ve actually had deep conversations with both of them where we’ve both apologized for actions from the past. Their willingness to be themselves and also to hold themselves accountable is there and present and in my experience always has been.
I also just cannot see based on my personal experience, that any of this warrants punitive action from the government. It’s ridiculous. I’m also willing to be wrong. I am not in these comments to prove something or to be right. I’m just one of the voices that is impacted by this so I’m speaking my mind and saying what I feel called to say. Again with the willingness to be wrong. Time and the case will tell.
Thank you. I appreciate that a great deal. You are one of the few people in these comments who seems to fully take responsibility for their experience without denying or denigrating others whose experiences were different, or who haven’t – through no personal shortcoming of their own – come out the other side of their time at OneTaste with nothing but praise and unconditional reverence for Nicole and/or other leaders of OneTaste.
Mad respect to you for all the work you’ve done on yourself, for having the challenging conversations you’ve had with the parties involved, and for having the courage to express the willingness to be wrong (which I share with you). I totally agree that time and the unfolding of the case will reveal much.
I hear ya Amber. But there’s a systemic complicity you’re negating here, your way. Your money went toward the harm and exploitation of others. And you don’t HAVE to sit with that, that’s up to you, but I just hear from so many folks who more or less got out (honestly, not really sure you can make that case while sitting at a cultic university) but stopped shy of deconstructing bc it’s really uncomfy. There’s no way Nicole could have done what she did, ran the rackets she ran, without exploiting people, without free, often skilled, labor at every turn. There’s no way people would sign up for these intensives and courses and LGATs without being systemically dysregulated and manipulated at the points of their trauma and neurodivergence. Not at the scale we saw. And you and I were both complicit in that, but only one of us seems willing to acknowledge it. I’m unwilling to say “*I* had a good time. Too bad about Peter though, and Chris, may they rest in peace. Too bad about Ayries. And Michal. And the myriad other folks who have sued her over the years, but she was protected by fancy law firms funded by fraudulent non-profits and YOUR intensive dollars.” I have to look at the ways I was complicit in the system, how I contributed, if I ever hope to heal from the very real and lasting ways it harmed me.
This investigation is an absolute head scratcher given the clear and present dangers facing this country on so many fronts. I was in many of these rooms – having taken numerous courses with OT. I agree with Frank Parlato’s assessment – this was largely an educated, intelligent group of people who had the free time and apparent resources to heal trauma, create conscious relationships and whatever else drew them to OT. We were all consenting adults – there of our own volition. If you didn’t like the ride you could get out at any time. Thank you Frank Parlato for the excellent journalism.
I’m so grateful the truth is being reported so clearly here in this article! I have been OMing for over 10 years and took many courses offered by Nicole and Rachel through OneTaste. I have wonderful memories and experiences of them, having received incredible benefits from the practice and the classes. As a person dedicated to growth and my own spirituality I can honestly say that I have gotten way more than I thought was possible from any other personal development path.
This definitely seems like a witch trial, more like attack against sexuality or women in general than anything based in reality. It’s time to push back and say no, that’s enough.
Thank you for writing this article Frank!
[…] See also https://frankreport.com/2024/04/21/feds-cant-stroke-up-evidence-in-onetaste-case/ […]
I enjoy how thoroughly researched this article is. It was like reading a documentary. It’s scary to think just because the government doesn’t like something it’s automatically made illegal. And they have almost limitless time to find something related or unrelated to justify your arrest. I thought the whole point of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th amendments was to prevent this from happening.
Why is the government going after
One Taste versus the Swami:
1.One Taste has consenting adults and is run strictly by women for women.
2. The Swami raped, sexually assaulted and physically beat women and kept some locked up. Some people may have disappeared, permanently!!!!!
The government is purely going after One Taste because it’s salacious and a headline grabber.
Meanwhile a rapist murderer goes Scot free….
I love Frank, I am pro the prosecution of this. Many con artists and I believe Nicole is one of them. It’s ok to open the conversation. Netflix is on point. She is a predator. Con artist in my opinion. Off to jail she goes. If you had fun good for you, but beating and raping someone? I believe it. Her x husband is believable and so are the others. The frank report opens the door to regular people to tell the truth.
Excuse me but the Netflix doc is a joke and the footage was illegally stolen by a former employee who I knew well. Stealing footage of private coursework where people signed papers stating the footage would remain private, is ILLEGAL and a total violation of trust. Are you saying you are for illegal practices?
Not only that but I could sit with you and watch that doc and tell you in great detail factual information about every single person in that doc, most of their statements were manipulated and footage spliced together to manipulate the narrative to make it look like OT was a cult and that people were forced into buying courses. It’s total bullshit and the media should not be allowed to get away with this and the person that stole the footage should be charged. Are you saying that you are for manipulation?
The truth is, that no one is actually a victim and for the people that refuse to accept responsibility for their experience that is upsetting. So rather than tell the actual truth they are blaming. Onetaste was/is a safe space for people looking to explore themselves, but like any organization there will always be corrupt people looking to take advantage of someone or something but it wasn’t the teachers. Nicole, Rachel and the other teachers are some of the most respectable humans I’ve met and they deserve better.
My own experience with OneTaste and OM has been life changing. I learned so much about my own personal power and for the first time in my life I learned to advocate for myself, and to have a feeling of agency over my own body. Though at times I found the sales team to be annoyingly persuasive (just like almost every personal growth program I’ve experienced), I never felt I was coerced or forced to do anything I didn’t want to do. No identity of a victim equates to no accountability and no case as I see it. Good investigative reporting.
There are way more witnesses than than the potential ones you listed. WAY MORE. Just because you don’t know who they are doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And you don’t have to believe me. You’ll see it when it goes to trial.
You mean, way more witnesses to things that are not illegal, right?
Let’s not conflate onetaste and orgasmic meditation. Orgasmic meditation isn’t on trial, onetaste is. Big difference.
I had an amazing time at Onetaste. Some of the best experiences of my life happened there.
AND
They disrespected my boundaries multiple times and put a lot of pressure on me to work for free. Luckily I heeded the red flags before anything bad could happen to me and walked away.
Those two experiences ARE NOT mutually exclusive.
I’m glad they’re finally being held accountable and that the feds are trying to prevent them from causing further harm.
Accountable for your best experiences and amazing times?
From what I understand, One Taste’s OM-ing was developed in part as a practice to safely contain volatile sexual fire. It was certainly a business, but other than making money (which is legal), I’ve mostly seen the intention of the offering as a gift to a society badly in need of such practices. I can certainly imagine the fire occasionally escaping its container along the way. But what I find very hard to imagine is that the organization’s leaders themselves were guilty of malicious intent. I have known the individuals of this community, including Nicole Daedone quite well for years now, and have witnessed extraordinarily good intentions from them; generosity, compassion and sincere effort, often surpassing what people generally expect of others or even themselves. It has looked and felt a lot like love to me. However intentions don’t appear to be what’s on trial. And despite whatever evidence exists to prove that what was provided was legal, of service and real value, it seems people will continue to indiscriminately judge anything that has to do with sex as guilty by nature. We really are a strange species.
I can’t pretend to imagine what you’ve seen, but what I’ve seen inside was very, very different. I watched twenty-something traumatized women and forty-something men with autism drown themselves in credit card debt while Nicole flitted to plastic surgery and botox appointments and her unpaid assistants panicked around getting her $500 sheet sets for her fancy hotels and four different types of bottled water. I watched sweet, gentle folks who lived in their communities get further and further isolated from legit mental health care they desperately needed in the name of supposedly novel approaches, until they tragically ended their seeking right off the Golden Gate Bridge. I watched ferocious, systemic, and relentless manipulation from Nicole’s inner circle for her financial gain. I watched them start shady non-profits, all operating at an unethical deficit, to hide money and power and improve their image. I watched all manner of mental illness explode on her watch, under her instruction: depression, untreated autism, gender dysphoria, suicidal ideation, anxiety. Absolutely EVERYthing that happened in her walls: nudity, sleep depravation, financial exploitation, racism, forced labor, arranged marriages, sexual exploitation, all of it, were for the sole purpose of keeping us dysregulated.
I feel angry that the taxpayer money is being spent on this ridiculous witch hunt. What a complete and total waste of everybody’s time and resources. Rachel Cherwitz and Nicole Daedone are regular people and not at all dangerous to all of humanity. Can we please stop this insanity already? The world is full of criminal acts and events that need our actual attention. How about we put all this time energy and money to address actual human trafficking of women and children?
If Frank has his facts right, his commentary reflects extremely poorly on the people in the Justice Department handling this case and on the Justice Department in general. Very disturbing!
k frank is loyal to a fault. He’s committed to the story. It’s a good place to see what is happening in society. It’s the comments that we all look for. This story is a. defense. There are many social outlier comments on here. There are many good people in the department of defense. The politicians controlling them I question. The FBI is supposed to be a separate branch watching over things. We need to have confidence in the United States that’s what is happening. Absolutely none of what is happening in the United States is reassuring that. We are in desperate need of transperacy in politics.
I have spent 9 years in connection with Orgasmic Meditation as a student and practitioner. I have been a meditator since I was 18. I spent many thousands of dollars and hours working on finding real joy and happiness in my life. I have had trauma through my childhood. Nobody asked me about that in any course I ever had at One Taste.
During my experience in One Taste classes since 2014 I was made aware of exactly what was going to happen, my personal responsibility and what my saying yes or no meant in any given situation. I could and did at times say no and/or yes to courses, practices and any activities in the community.
The One Taste courses/retreats and programs I attended have changed my life for the better.
Oh man! Where and when did who force who to do what?
I’m one of the educated, professional women who paid for several of her own courses. This practice and the people who teach it advocate for women in a way that is unparalleled in our current discourse. and it’s uncomfortable, because we are creatures of habit, attached to our status quo. As the author says, we ought not confuse legality with our personal tastes.
I am very excited to see the truth coming out about One Taste as a company, and about Nicole and Rachel, two of the most fiercely loving women I have ever met. They contribute to shaping a landscape with greater potential for positive education about the potent force of female sexuality when shame is no longer a factor.
Frank report
It’s a miracle this work has latest this long. If you look at the history of women’s rights and for a woman run company to have existed in our time, to take the risk of being above ground and store front access to learning how to write your own story about your past, to remember who you were before you took on an external and false version of who you are, to stand up right as a woman who has power and access to her genius, her intuition, her own rules on sex and relationships, breaking down some of the most taboo of topics and to say only you have the ability to move past any harm that has come your way or that you created is as vulnerable as an endeavor as putting your bare neck out in front of pack of hunger lions and hope to not get ripped to pieces. It’s no wonder these teachings and this type of radical self development and liberation is kept off the beaten path and inaccessible to all women. People are afraid of what they can’t control. Look into the disappearance of Shere Hite and see what media can do to a woman trying to wake other women up and trying to give our most vulnerable of admissions around our sexuality a voice.
Thank you for your brilliant investigative journalism. It means so much that you have the integrity to dig into a company–OneTaste–based on a practice you don’t agree with–Orgasmic Meditation–and lay out what you’ve discovered about what’s actually going on, namely that there’s been no crime.
Two (or more) people can come away from the exact same situation with diametrically opposing views and with no laws being broken. This is what the whole scenario feels like to me. Some people are upset–very upset even–and everyone has a right to their feelings. This is one of the main things I have learned at OneTaste. Part of being a friend is holding space for other people to have their experiences–whether I agree with them or not and whether their experiences are in my preferences or not.
I have had only growth provoking experiences with both Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz. I came into OneTaste in 2015, and have had many, many experiences with both of them that have been life changing. I have seen things about myself I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. I have matured in ways I didn’t even know were possible before this work. Mostly, I have learned to take responsibility for my life, my experiences, and my relationships. Not only have I explored my own sexuality and discovered nuances and intimacy richer than anything I thought possible, but I have learned my value as a woman. Not as a woman against anyone or anything, but as a woman with a power that comes from love. A love that comes from learning how to soften and melt into my heart when people are being people–as we all are. I am not always at my best. I don’t always say the right thing. I certainly make more mistakes than I would like to admit, but the only thing I have ever gotten from OneTaste is learning how to open to give and receive more love.
Friendly reminder to all who read the article and commenters: Just because you had a good experience with an abuser, doesn’t mean many weren’t abused. Your good experience does not cancel out other folks’ bad experiences.
Second, I was in for many years. There IS a lot of good stuff there. And as with all high control and destructive groups, the pattern of a narcissistic leader who only cares about themselves is very much true at OT with Nicole. She was also very much running the day to day operations since “selling” the company, and you can see she is still very much in charge now that she has this cool new persecution story to sell.
Frank, this is lazy “reporting” and potentially harmful to a lot of ppl. It almost feels like you’re carrying OT’s water for them. Please take the time to read the 22 PAGE rebuttal the US Attorney filed as a response to OT’s weak motion for dismissal and you’ll see most of what you say in this post is not accurate.
Who knows, maybe you’re working for OneTaste now, as you once worked for Keith Raniere? Isn’t this your profession, isn’t this what publicists do, spin?
Pointing to one specific example in this post, your childish logic that if OT didn’t offer financing then how could they know if people were put in to debt over their programs just doesn’t hold up. Many members of the staff at OneTaste suggested and pressured people into taking on debt in order to pay for very expensive programs, even when they had reasonable knowledge that the person could not afford to pay for the program they were signing up for, nor would they be able to pay that debt back in a reasonable amount of time. They actively told people to sign up for high interest credit cards to pay for courses.
The coaching program you refer to was $10K – $15K, but 5 day retreats were $8000, 10 day intensives with Nicole were $25K, “membership” was $60K and there were other very expensive programs to sign up for.
It wasn’t the $200 course the people went into debt over, but you knew that right? You didn’t really mean to imply that if 16,000 ppl didn’t go into debt over a $200 course then it was okay for some other number of people to be pressured into signing up for credit cards or borrow large sums from family members, did you? Cause that’s kinds what it sounds like in your “article”.
So if you’re not going to dig beneath the surface of whatever OT’s PR firm sends you, maybe just don’t publish anything at all.
Oh, speaking of which, OT hired Prince Andrew’s PR firm and Cosby’s legal team. They also hired ex-con/ex private investigator/ex Hollywood fixer Anthony Pellicano as a negotiator and tried to use him to get an ex member to stop working on the documentary before it came out. Look him up if you don’t know who he is. <sarcasm> It’s FOR SURE someone you would hire if you were innocent and actually gave a shit about the people you’ve been harming for the last 15-20 years.</sarcasm>
The issue is not the good the company has done. The issue is that they got the same feedback and were harming people in the same way for over 15 years and they did not stop nor did they change. Malignant narcissists like Nicole don’t know how to change and only operate in ways that satisfy themselves. They don’t stop on their own, they must be stopped.
I have a question: Were these adults or children who borrowed money? I was at a car dealer the other day and they put a lot of pressure on me to buy a car and told me that in 15 minutes they could arrange financing. As an adult I made my own decision. So let’s say they do charge a lot or even over charge in your subjective opinion. Were you forced to borrow the money?
If you have good credit and a bank is willing to lend you money, the assumption is you are an adult not a nincompoop.
If you don’t understand coercive control and undue influence, and that people can fall prey to them no matter their age, economic situation, or level of intelligence, then you have no business reporting on cults and should not be taken seriously. Your reporting is shoddy at best and bought and paid for by Daedone’s deep pocketed backers at worst.
I was in OT for years, know both defendants well and saw multiple cases of abuse and manipulation.There is strong justification for the case. Whether or not the prosecutors are skilled or will win remains to be seen.
Idk… by that logic anyone over 18 who falls for a con deserves what happened to them. Is that your philosophy Frank?
I think a bit of caveat emptor is appropriate. I mean we encourage the victim mentality, and victims are now the highest caste in society. They used to be accusers. Then they became victims, and then, if they weep enough about abuse, they are Brave Survivors. The highest caste in the world.
An old white haired law professor once complained when they first started calling accusers victims in sex cases in federal court – not alleged victims — but victims – from the start of the trial – that this is hugely prejudicial to the defendant, because it assumes a fact not in evidence before the jury. He wrote a letter to the judiciary about how extremely prejudicial this was. It was ignored. Now it has only gotten worse. When they are made anonymous and called Jane Doe or Victim #1 it sends a chilling message to the jury that the defednant is so dangerous that they cannot even use their own names. Accusers have the right to be questioned as vigorously as possible and the new caste system makes it a virtual crime to even doubt the wildest and craziest stories that if it were anything but a sex crime would be laughed out of court.
I do not believe all victims. I do not believe all women. I do not believe all accusers, and I especially do not believe all prosecutors.
But that’s not how coercive control works, and you know that. A car dealer hasn’t spent the day (indeed, at least the week before) prying into my trauma, using nlp toward closing the sale for an entire day (come to mention it, some do… this is some time share shit fr), using staff to conveniently block access to the exits, using more staff to falsely befriend the prospect under the guise of being a classmate… I could go on and on. And buddy, if your redeeming comparison is a used car salesman, maybe you’ve answered your own question.
Did the salesman at the car lot use deeply personal information about you (that had been gathered and shared without your knowledge or consent) concerning your past trauma and pain and then leverage that knowledge to ask you pointed questions and probe in greater depth -around your pain and past trauma? Did they “invite” you to feel into ytour unhappiness and to even really lean into how awful you felt in that moment as you thought about it all? And did they gently shift the conversation toward connecting the purchase of that car with you potentially achieving freedom and liberation from all that past pain, as well as promise that you would *also*, thanks to your wise “investment” in yourself, soon experience the realization of your loftiest desires and goals? Was the car expensive? Well, you tell me, what price would YOU put on the unconditional freedom *that* car was going to bring you? What value would YOU assign to knowing that your ownership of *that* car also came with a set of skills and tools that would equip you to meet and effortlessly overcome any and all FUTURE challenges and difficulties life throws at you? Doesn’t seem so expensive now, does it?
Still unsure? OK, no problem. You’re probably not a good enough driver to handle that car anyway. That, or maybe the pain and unhappiness you’re living in now feels more comfortable to you, so maybe it’s best to just let you keep driving that old bucket we saw you drive onto the lot. “When it hurts enough, you’ll change” is what my teacher used to say, haha!
I’m going to bet that the salesman at that car lot didn’t say anything like that because using sales techniques and tactics like that would be, *at minimum*, wildly unethical, wouldn’t you agree? And yet, I also bet that there’s a group of people who’s faces are, at this moment, getting very red as they read the above because they remember from direct experience a time and a place and a context in which those sales tactics were *standard daily practice* that they had been trained on and were expected to use in order to meet their always expanding sales quotas.
Being “an adult” or not is not the issue. It doesn’t matter if someone is 8 or 80. It doesn’t matter if they’re the world’s biggest nincompoop or if they have a PhD in Physics. NO ONE can give consent to being pressured or exploited by someone who is knowingly leveraging their positional power and authority with the *specific* intention of gaining advantage. And in the absence of consent, what you’re left with is ABUSE. Plain and simple.
60k membership?
Wow, more than NXIVM
Courses..imagine that!
We all need high level sexual education classes such as the unique ones offered here. My sex life is through the roof thanks to the dedication of Nicole and so many others.
As I write this I’m curious how many Americans are in touch with their desires and how to express them in an amicable way, and feel sexually fulfilled as well as limbically connected to their partner?
This is eye-opening. Glad that we have someone doing a deeper dig into the facts. Fascinating to see the underbelly of what seems to be a salacious media-driven indictment. 1 count of forced labor and no clarity on why or how. I don’t get it.
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful article. As someone who has had many positive experiences with OneTaste over the years, I’m glad to see the truth about this organization finally getting more attention.
While OneTaste’s practices may be unconventional, in my experience, they have always involved consenting adults engaging in completely legal activities for the purpose of personal and spiritual growth. The classes and coaching I participated in were tremendously valuable for helping me develop a healthier, more empowered relationship with my body and sexuality.
I agree with the author that the federal indictment against Ms. Daedone and Ms. Cherwitz seems highly flawed and lacking in specifics. In all my years of involvement, I never witnessed anything resembling forced labor or abuse. The OneTaste community attracted an educated, affluent clientele who freely chose to participate. Attempts to portray it as a predatory cult simply don’t align with reality.
It’s unfortunate that a small number of disgruntled individuals with questionable credibility and motives have been able to generate such negative media coverage. But I hope this article and others like it will help set the record straight. OneTaste offered a unique approach to personal development that benefited many people’s lives, including my own. The organization and its leaders do not deserve this misguided prosecution. I hope justice will prevail and OneTaste’s positive contributions will be recognized.
This feels more grounded in facts than any other piece I’ve read about the organization. Thank you for doing the research.
I’m a woman and I had an incredible experience with One Taste. The people there had a big positive impact on me and what I learned changed my life for the better. I can’t believe the government is going after these women so maliciously and I’m glad the truth of the harmful and shoddy accusations is coming out.
This article is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for adding the voice of common sense and what being an adult sounds like!
You’ve got a LOT wrong here, and I say that as someone who was in OneTaste for the better part of a decade. OT absolutely targeted folks with trauma, especially sexual trauma, as well as neurodivergent folks for recruitment. The sales team literally sat in the back of the room during intro events with spreadsheets open doing recon on their marks for later sales discussions while unlicensed and unqualified teachers at the front of the room drew out the trauma stories of the participants using nlp. Said staffers weren’t really being paid. At times they were on commission, but that money wound up coming back to the organization in the form of THEIR enrollment in advanced courses. In the near decade I “worked” for OT, I probably made about $5k. As far as “paying for the courses themselves,” well, I guess, if a young woman goes and sleeps with some socially awkward tech bro 20 years her senior they’re trying to reel in in the intro class, and he gives her cash for her coaching program, and she pays for it, she’s “paid for the course herself.” Sure. Technically. There were all manner of labor exploitation, all manner of sexual exploitation, and just because some of the accusers were in a somewhat vulnerable state at the time, doesn’t mean that their recruitment and subsequent abuse wasn’t very much by design. I have no idea where you drew data on participants education levels, but I can tell you that no one at the cult ever asked us about our degrees, nor our income. Public disclosures? Sir. That data is necessarily fiction. You’re totally off base here, there, and everywhere. Further, the prosecution is under no advantage to roll out their case before trial to the likes of… the Frank Report. Of COURSE there’s a ton you don’t know. That’s the POINT. But if you’ve studied coercive control and LGATs at all, there’s nothing new in the playbook either, down to the completely suss “non-profits,” the money laundering, and all the rest. Still, this “reporting” is embarrassingly weak.
THIS
So you stayed there for a whole decade and now you talk bad about them???
I am not defending them. I am just repulsed by the fact that self appointed victims like you did this for a whole decade and now you talk bad things about them.
You have no excuse whatsoever. It is your own life and your own responsibility to get yourself out of a cult, which didn’t force you to stay there on the first place.
If you had not power to leave, at least take responsibility for owning your staying with them for a whole decade.
Believe me, I’ve gone through many years of intensive therapy, partly directed at examining my own complicity in the cult. But you have no idea what had me in there in the first place, and you clearly don’t understand much about coercive control. Leaving is not easy, and it’s never as simple as the glib decision you purport. I’d encourage you to do more research about cult recovery to contribute to your presently limited perspective.
Well if you were there for so long I probably know you and can probably point out several places where you may be lying and refusing to take responsibility for your experience.
You are not helping anyone by rubbing your trauma all over. No one is a victim. Everyone had a choice to sign up for courses or not. Everyone very clearly knew what the course work was about. Everyone had a choice, every step of the way. And if you are questioning my involvement or what I know, I saw everything and there is zero evidence to support the accusations. Do you actually think the government is helping people here? I spoke to the FBI, twice and the agent tried to coerce me into saying I was a victim and change my statement. Perhaps we should look at the corrupt people that are fueling these accusations because I have not seen even one stand up person from the media or the government come forward. Frank Report may be the 1st journalist who can actually break this down and expose the people who are lying.
What upsets me most about all of this is that I know the people in the Netflix doc very well, I lived with them, I went through deep experiences with them where I remember very very clearly how grateful and happy they were to have found Onetaste and remember them saying how much it changed their lives. Then one of them stole course footage from Onetaste and sold it to Netflix ILLEGALLY and no one is talking about that. Another person I knew very well – who was quite frankly a miserable person and refused everyones help, went on to full out lie on the documentary.
There was no forced labor, I was always paid and any volunteer very clearly knew it was a volunteer position.
I sometimes envy the folks who still live inside the cushioned and carefully managed bubble of “truth” that they choose to let OneTaste curate for them. I certainly remember how safe and certain I felt in there, so I encourage you to remain well within it for as long as you possibly can.
I’m sure we do know each other. Darling, flying monkeys gonna fly. It all looks very different as we deconstruct. I’m sure that’s quite scary for you. Ayries told the truth. Audrey told the truth. Other folks are telling the truth, and I saw it with my own eyes, and you won’t convince me otherwise. You clearly haven’t seen everything. But you’ve seen enough: the assaults, the suicides, the crippling debt, the plastic surgeries, the stuff that’s in-ignorable, for me to say you’ve *chosen* to ignore some uncomfortable truths. Darling, for-profit companies have employees, not volunteers. Flying monkeys gonna fly.
OT was so dysfunctional and dumb they let Chris leave with the footage. That’s different than theft. I didn’t love being in the documentary, unblurred, wo my consent. I would love to erase that time from my life in total. I certainly have concerns about being “outed” and the ethics of cult journalists using evidence of ex-participants who have gotten out, are making amends for their complicity, and are trying to move on with their lives being re-traumatized. So the journalists become the very thing they purport to abhor. It’s a little Wild West these days. One of the only people blurred in that doc was Nicole’s damn boyfriend. It irritated me.
On the other hand. Part of the reason it went down like that is that Nicole sued the folks, directly and indirectly using her flying monkeys, with the footage, that they walked out the front door with, such that they were taken off the project before final cut. So again, who really caused what here? Further, if the impact of the doc getting silenced is that Nicole gets to keep perpetuating harm, well, then I’ve gotta take it on the chin and have the doc be out there, even if it means I’m personally disadvantaged. That’s what accountability looks like, and that’s ultimately helpful in my healing.
Can I get in contact with you? I have questions.
I’m glad to see this article pointing at the government’s overreach in this situation. Just because you don’t like what other consenting adults are doing doesn’t make it criminal. The indictment appears to be a waste of energy and resources. The prosecutors need to get specific or drop it. It’s far beyond time to shit or get off the pot.
Thank you for covering this
This organization changed my life for the better in more ways than I can count. Rachel and Nicole are incredible humans doing incredible work to get people out of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Thanks for keeping us updated. I feel like your article has brought up even more questions for me. Is there any history between OneTaste and the prosecutors causing them to be doing this out of revenge or resentment? Did they get their egos bruised at some point? What’s the smoking gun motive that’s really under the investigation. Would love to hear your investigation and thoughts on it.
It’s so refreshing to read such a clarifying sane lense on this, that is based on the facts and sound thorough research, which has been sorely lacking from anything I’ve read on this case.
The clear and non biased analysis of the indictment illustrates how baseless this case is!
And what a waste of time and tax revenues that could be going to other real issues that do need attention and funding.
Thank you for your excellent reporting
I went as deep with OneTaste as one can go without actually working for the company. I took the coaching program as well as two of the ‘advanced and more expensive classes’ mentioned in the article. I did production for every single Nicole Daedone Intensive for a year and half, was Nicole “handler” for a short period of time (I was in charge of setting up her teaching area, cleaning up after her meetings, making her tea, etc) and I was trained for a period of time to be her assistant, which meant the closest access to Nicole possible. Nicole consistently treated me with so much love and respect. What I learned and the ways that I grew during my time at OneTaste (2013-2016) shifted my life so much for the better and continues to impact me, my relationships, my work and my clients in incredible ways this many years later. I just referred a friend to their new online Eros Platform yesterday because I believe this body of work truly has the potential to shift this world and humanity into Union and cohesion rather than the division we see almost everywhere we look today.
How much were you paid to do production for the Nicole intensives or for your time training to be her assistant?
Can’t stroke up.Cheeky Frank! Ooh er missus.
The media wags the prosecutors dog. Talk about reversing due process.
Something fishy is going on!
So, are they still offering classes?
Yes
Yes, OneTaste still offers in person courses, as well as online and app-based learning on Orgasmic Meditation.
$161? Sign me up. See you in NY on May 4th.
Guarantee I run into Niceguy (with rubber gloves spilling out of his umbros) and Frank (doing research for his next article…)
Not rubber – it’s latex!!!
Netflix did a story on this.
There are several different people coming forward.
The Netflix “story” was a crafted fiction for their cult obsessed audience. The film was made with stolen footage and used innocent naked women’s images by blurring out their faces. These women tried to stop the film. The Netflix lie is what led to the indictment.
One field that OneTaste is consciously or perhaps inadvertently exploring contains the experience of promises and betrayals. My own experience at OneTaste includes the courage to speak to the elephant in the room when it shows up, to tune into the changes of emotional feeling tone and give it voice. This includes not only to own my desire and joys, but also my fears and helplessness. Being able to speak contemporaneously about what is happening inside invites intimacy and connection; it subsides shame. This is taught as the physical, non-verbal practice Orgasmic Meditation. It unfolds into a verbal practice of being able to read yourself, others, and the room—to listen, inviting others to be heard, and to trust realities that are not your own. It tunes into an honesty that is constantly changing, and the responsibility to stay forthright with it. All this is in service to better communication and connection.
The indictment seems to be voicing the emergent sense of promises and betrayal that show up at the beginning of any considered self-examination. The authors of this indictment would do well to better enumerate these grievances with the undertaking and completion of a course at OneTaste.
Crazy sharp. I just hope the prosecution cough up for Onetaste’s legal fees and damages. Surely millions at this point!
Yup, hope that too
The prosecutors might be in for a big surprise when the jury doesn’t hate the defendants like they did Raniere.
I predict it goes all the way. The prosecutors made their bed Not gonna end well for them.
I took the 7-month One Taste Coaching Program from August-2017 to February 2018 in London. The experience was life changing.
For a few of your classmates, it was and almost was life-ending
If we do not like the defendant I do not see the need to tell them the crime. Me, I don’t like witches.
😂
It’s a good thing you aren’t in charge of the justice system
Good article. You make excellent points. Hopefully the prosecutors themselves will read this article and seriously consider it the only thing that would make the article better is if you did a better job of establishing your sources for your information on Ayries Blanck. While she may have deserved to be called out it felt like her story suddenly came in from left field without any explanation as to where the information came from. I think there’s even more of a story there. Just a thought.