No Proof, All Whine: Gottlieb’s OneTaste Accusations Fall Apart, Revealing Comic Stupidity

The OneTaste accusers are all the same: They are liars, and stupid ones at that.  Take the case of Mark Gottlieb,  76, a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against OneTaste.

The following may seem a little rough on old Mark, but when he comes out publicly, lying, trying to make money, and trying to put people in prison for his greed, malice, and lack of honesty, he becomes fair game. This is one calculating rascal and just because he claims to be a victim means nothing. He is an accuser and a false one at that. Read on and see what I mean.

In a tearjerking complaint, Gottlieb accused OneTaste of:

“coercive and manipulative tactics to isolate Gottlieb from his family, and friends, indoctrinate Gottlieb in the protocols of OneTaste, and ultimately to wholly enmesh Gottlieb’s livelihood with that of OneTaste.”

As we will see, his claims fall apart under scrutiny and are revealed for what they are: a transparent and dishonest grab for money he does not deserve, and, as I think the facts suggest, a bid for attention that a lonely old man desperately wants.

While I sympathize with his lonely sorrows, my sympathy ends with his lies.

Gottlieb Was No Prize

Gottlieb, then 63, was unemployed, living on disability payments, alone in an apartment when he first attended a OneTaste event in 2011. 

He had been employed decades ago as a health physicist for the California Department of Health Services, but his diagnosed bipolar disorder made it dangerous for him to oversee the safe handling of radiation and radioactive materials.

According to Jewish Weekly, “Gottlieb was a promising scientist who suddenly found himself battling bipolar disorder and began thinking of himself as a ‘bum on relief.’ The shame was staggering, he told an audience during a (2001) Jewish community mental health conference at Temple Beth Jacob in Redwood City.

When Gottlieb came to OneTaste, he was “in a 12-step program for people with emotional dependence issues.”

But he loved to talk about himself and eagerly told OneTaste teachers and students that he was on a regimen of antidepressants and unable to achieve an erection. He hoped the sexual wellness practices the company taught might help him.

Loved to Blame Others, and Had Anger Issues

In a 2016 email to OneTaste co-founder Nicole Daedone, he wrote it was OneTaste’s fault he failed.

He wrote, “I am angry because you perceived very early in my involvement … that I was a man that would have few relationships with long periods without them, and I never received helpful advice from anyone… about how to deal with this.”

OM-ing

OneTaste teaches a practice called Orgasmic Meditation (OM), which is conducted between two people who follow a predefined set of detailed instructions. The training involves one person stroking the clitoris of the other for 15  minutes while both are instructed to focus on the point of contact and notice what they feel.

Students chose their partners from members of the class. No one was required to participate. But Gottlieb was eager.  Women were unwilling. He found himself the odd man out.

He wrote to Daedone in 2016, “I am angry because I was rejected for so many OMs by women at OneTaste.”

Money Confusion

In his often contradictory lawsuit, Gottlieb said OneTaste required “Members to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and fees.”

But Gottlieb did not pay anywhere close to “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” He admitted in the lawsuit that he spent “more than $30,000” over six years – an average of $5,000 annually.

He would have paid much more, but OneTaste refused to let him attend classes more than once. The reason for this was partly because he was disruptive.

During classes, Gottlieb would raise his hand to ask a question. When recognized, he would not ask any question, but rather talk about himself, usually in a deprecatory manner, whining about how women did not like him. In time, teachers ignored his raised hand, knowing his true intent was to hijack the class.

Gottlieb wrote to Daedone, “I am angry because I was not recognized once at several (classes) when I was the only one raising my hand.”

OneTaste co-founder, Nicole Daedone told him he was taking classes for the wrong reasons. She said, “You can’t keep buying programs. You don’t actually want to change or grow. You are buying a place to be noticed.”

In 2016, the oft-angry Gottlieb complained to Daedone about how she would not let him spend his money: “I am angry because I feel that I was marked for a small game at One Taste, when I wanted to play big.”

Though they stopped him from paying more, Gottlieb contradictorily alleges in his 2024 complaint that OneTaste “depleted his life savings and retirement funds, and suffers from PTSD.”

Free Labor and Discounted Rent

For almost three of the six years Gottlieb took classes, he lived in community houses with OneTaste students in Berkeley and San Francisco.

At the OneTaste house at 1080 Folsom St. in San Francisco, which was full to capacity and had a waiting list when Gottlieb applied, he paid $800 for rent and $300 for food monthly. According to online rent records, he would have had to pay between $1500 – $2000 per month for room and board in that high-rent district for similar accommodations.

His savings equaled around $15,000. This rent savings made his “life-savings-depleting” $30,000 investment for six years of classes, with rent discounts, closer to a net cost of $15,000.

The rules of the community house, however, required everyone to keep their room clean and help with cooking. Gottlieb did not like to clean his room and when he was alone in his apartment where nobody visited, he never had to clean. He did not have to cook.

Gottlieb said OneTaste coerced him to clean his room, which resembled a pigsty, and to keep his word, and like the other roommates, cook when it was his turn. Gottlieb, who being unemployed had nothing else to do, eagerly volunteered to help during classes “without compensation.”

He now claims OneTaste forced him. Not with guns or threats, but Gottlieb perceived that if he did not keep his room clean, or do his fair share around the house, he “would be ostracized from OneTaste and the Members, which… had become his entire life, and would endure psychological, financial, and reputational harm and other harm.”

Gottlieb, in his parade of contradictions, claims he was not paid, and then admits he was paid, saying in the same lawsuit that OneTaste provided him “his principal source of income.”

Silence 

In agonizing strains, Gottlieb wrote he was afraid to speak out because:

“OneTaste and the Inner Circle would publicly reprimand him, leaving him humiliated” and “Members would not be permitted to have any communication with him, leaving him rudderless, virtually alone, without his support network, and without employment.”

“Rudderless, virtually alone, without his support network, and without employment?” If that sounds familiar, it is because that was his exact condition when he first came to OneTaste.

Though Gottlieb claims he was terrified to speak out, he contradictorily admits in his lawsuit that he did. In his complaint, he said he “created and served as an administrator for a page on Facebook to protest OneTaste’s policies and practices.”

On Facebook, he also contradicted his claim that he was afraid that OneTaste would humiliate him.

On Facebook he told his OneTaste story, admitting he was physically unattractive (omitting the part about his cowardly and incessantly whiny personality) and complaining about women who broke their OM appointments with him, women who preferred any other man than him for OM-ing and all the women who ignored his OM requests.

An Unsolicited Study

Though unemployed for decades, Gottlieb told OneTaste that as a “health physicist” who had focused on radiation, he was qualified to evaluate the practice of Orgasmic Meditation (OM) scientifically.

According to the complaint, Gottlieb did “research” on “the effects of OM and concluded that it could be physically and mentally unsafe.”

He concluded that OM could cause “anxiety, depression, insomnia.”

Gottlieb reported his “findings” to OneTaste leaders and recommended that OneTaste announce his finding of the “risks of OM to Members.”

Co-founders Daedone and Rob Kandell, knowing Gottlieb was not an expert in psychology or medicine, declined to make Gottlieb’s inexpert opinion the company’s official position.

Gottlieb wrote to Daedone, “I am angry because I feel my talents and abilities were never seen or encouraged when I was at OneTaste.”

Later, Gottlieb admitted he was 100 percent wrong about the risks of OM, writing publicly, “I stayed for love of OM and the science behind it.”

Forced to Have Sex

The crucible for Gottlieb, however, concerned sex. 

Gottlieb wrote in his complaint,:

“OneTaste introduced ‘Male OM,’ during which a woman manually stimulated her male partner’s penis.”

At a coaching weekend in San Francisco, every one of more than 100 participants paired except Gottlieb and a woman who said, “I am not stroking him.”

Gottlieb was eager to try the Male OM and whining that no one would stroke him.

Gottlieb had asked every woman living in 1080 Folsom St. to have sex. Most declined.  In an email Gottlieb wrote to Daedone, he said:

“I am angry because I never had sex during the two years I lived at 1080.”

However, in the same email, he told Daedone he had sex with a woman who worked for OneTaste.

He wrote:

“I am angry because one staff member publicly humiliated me by asking me if I wanted to have sex with her, and then said she would have sex with anything.”

In his lawsuit, Gottlieb reveals he had too much sex.

He claimed, “Rachael Hemsi and another member of the Inner Circle entered his room unannounced and performed oral sex on him on numerous occasions. Gottlieb was coerced into engaging in these sex acts.”

The other woman was Joanna Van Vleck.

Though Gottlieb now claims Hemsi and Van Vleck forced him to have sex, years ago he published a very different story.

He wrote about the woman “who liked to come into my room unannounced with another woman, and they would both suck my cock. She … had a desire to suck the cocks of men who were unattractive and weird. I called her on this, and suggested we have a lunch together and talk. She might not find me so unattractive and weird as a human being if she did. She never cared to do that.”

Gottlieb also revealed he did not mind Van Vleck’s attentions. In an email, he wrote to Van Vleck:

Dear Joanna,

Would you like:

A) incredible sex (it’s been awhile for me, but I have great fantasies),

B) passionate love affair (I might surprise you),

C) talk about my desires for the science efforts at One Taste (I am devoted to this and desire an opportunity to share my ideas with you and hear yours),

D) all of the above!

Please let me know a good time to get together.

Mark

Van Vleck declined to take him up on his offer.

He Escapes

Finally, after six years, Gottlieb had enough.

As he said in his lawsuit, he “escaped from OneTaste.” And to this day, he has never been forced to have a blow job again.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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