Empire of Orgasm : Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult

As a San Francisco resident, I first read about OneTaste in the late 2000s. The wellness group was famous for naked yoga classes and, later, for their practice of group “Orgasmic Meditation,” or OM for short. Led by a woman and dedicated to the expression of women’s sexuality, OneTaste certainly seemed intriguing and not especially fringe, given the Bay Area’s history of sexual liberation. Fast-forward to 2025 and founder Nicole Daedone and right-hand woman Rachel Cherwitz are in jail as they await sentencing on convictions of forced labor conspiracy. Bloomberg News journalist Ellen Huet investigated OneTaste for six years, and her Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult offers a compelling, deeply researched look into the group’s manipulative and exploitative practices. “For many women,” writes Huet, “orgasmic meditation was the first time they received pleasure without any pressure to reciprocate. They felt free—released of a burden that had weighed down every sexual interaction they’d ever had with another person.” Huet shows how what began as a form of women’s empowerment soon escalated into abuse. As Huet notes, “History is littered with bad ideas that are simply good ideas taken too far.” Behind the scenes at OneTaste, as Huet documents, participants lived communally, practiced OM daily and were encouraged to seek out and change sex partners frequently. People who entered the group as an established couple were often separated. Newcomers, especially wealthy men, were referred to as “marks” and community members were encouraged to sell increasingly expensive OM “courses” to new members. Failure to sell, or refusal of an OM, meant ostracism from an ever more insular group. OneTaste has all the hallmarks of a cult: the charismatic leader, members going into debt to buy courses and young, often vulnerable women required to sexually service men they were not attracted to (this was called “aversion practice”). Nonetheless, Daedone still has ardent supporters who threatened witnesses in the criminal case and even Huet’s own investigation. While the contents of this book are often painful to read, Huet’s journalism is top-notch. The narrative is compulsively readable, while sources are documented in extensive end-of-book notes. Empire of Orgasm will appeal to fans of true crime and cult narratives, and to anyone interested in the dark side of the wellness movement.