What Is The Orgasm Cult? Inside The Pyramid Scheme That’s Being Investigated By The FBI
Another day, another MLM.
song_about_summer / Shutterstock If you thought you’ve heard of every pyramid scheme out there, then sit down folks, because MLM company OneTaste’s “Orgasm Cult” is about to blow your socks off.
The FBI is currently investigating OneTaste over “allegations of sex trafficking, prostitution and violating labor laws,” which, to put it lightly — big yikes.
OneTaste denied the allegations, saying, “any allegations of abusive practices are completely false."
While the company is being probed by the feds, they’re not allowed to offer any “OM” classes — or Orgasmic Meditation — until the investigation is completed.
What is the Orgasm Cult?
Read on for all the details about the OneTaste pyramid scheme, including a personal account from one of the MLM’s former members.
OneTaste was co-founded by Nicole Daedone in 2004.
Referred to as a “messianic leader,” Nicole Daedone co-founded the California-based company in 2004, claiming that women’s sexual arousal could “change the world.”
"For years there have been rumors that OneTaste is basically a sex cult, complete with a messianic leader who everyone adored and worshipped and who expected full allegiance," journalist Nastaran Tavakoli-Far said on the Orgasm Cult podcast.
How do OneTaste classes work?
Both men and women sign up for OneTaste classes and workshops, and during them, the men — referred to as the “strokers,” while the women are referred to as the “strokees” — begin touching the women.
The act, which lasts about fifteen minutes, is called “Orgasmic Meditation,” or OM for short, and supposedly produces the same effect normal meditation has in the brain.
Tavakoli-Far described the practice on the Orgasm Cult podcast, saying, "It involves a woman undressing from the waist down, lying on a nest of pillows, and having her clitoris stroked, usually by a man, very precisely on the upper left-hand quadrant, the so-called 'one o'clock spot.”
"A timer goes off after 15 minutes," he added.
A former OneTaste staffer spent $150,000 in just a few months on OneTaste.
A woman named Michal detailed her experience with OneTaste in a 2018 article, saying that after she started taking classes, she became part of the MLM’s sales team and lived in a crowded communal house, trying to sell seats to OneTaste classes.
“The deeper I went, the more courses I did, the more I worked for them, the closer I got to Nicole — I knew I was doing something that later would be very difficult to unravel,” she revealed.
“I knew I was losing control. In OneTaste, I’d done that again and again and again.”
She also revealed that by the time she and her husband left the company, they had spent over $150,000 and were more than $20,000 in debt.
How much do OneTaste classes cost?
At the time the article mentioned above was published, students would pay “$499 for a weekend course, $4,000 for a retreat, $12,000 for the coaching program, and $16,000 for an ‘intensive.’”
In 2014, OneTaste reportedly started selling year-long memberships that cost $60,000, and those with the membership could take any class they wanted to.
Reddit users shared their own experiences with OneTaste.
“Has anyone heard of the MLM called OneTaste? I was approached by a woman at yoga class the other day who told me that she holds ‘orgasmic meditation’ retreats where a group sits in a circle and partner up,” one user wrote.
“One partner strikes the other's clit for precisely 13 minutes and then they press down on the vag for 2 minutes,” they added, describing the way the classes worked.
“Of course, it's ~$200 to get certified and every ‘OMer’ gets a kickback from recruiting others. It's a full blown pyramid scheme involving culty-sex rituals,” they said.
Another Reddit user said that OneTaste’s classes sounded like “prositution,” writing, “That sounds like a form of prostitution wrapped in spiritual mumbo-jumbo. At the very least it's exchanging sex acts for money, which is illegal in most states.”
OneTaste’s Yelp reviews are ... bad.
One scroll through OneTaste’s Yelp reviews should be enough to deter anyone away from the now-closed business.
“No matter how eager these OneTaste people seem to be your friend, no matter how much they seem to have something you want, they are salespeople first and will drop you like a hot potato if you don't buy expensive workshops and coaching sessions from them,” one former OneTaste member wrote.
“Nobody will admit it's like a pyramid scheme, but that's what I saw.”
Olivia Jakiel is an editor and writer who covers celebrity and entertainment news. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her zingers on Twitter.