Nicole Daedone’s Orgasmic Meditation Workshops Promised Spiritual Growth—Employees Called it a Cult

“Would you like some tea?” Nicole Daedone asked a reporter on June 1 after introducing two employees at the Harlem offices of the Institute of OM, formerly OneTaste, the company she cofounded in San Francisco in 2004.

She motioned toward a table set with plates of macaroons, nuts and dried fruit and sat down for a discussion of orgasmic meditation, OM for short, the 15-minute sexual stimulation practice that Daedone, 57, turned into a multimillion-dollar business.

OM represents the radical idea that women’s bodies hold wisdom, not shame,” she said, “and that we can train our attention through pleasure.”

The practice claims to unlock a woman’s full spiritual and physical potential and even heal past sexual trauma. Daedone said she has taught OM to tens of thousands of people over the years while growing a community of devoted followers, some of whom viewed her as their spiritual leader.

“I decided from the beginning I was going to run this company as a woman, and it would be designed in a feminine way so I didn’t have to separate my life and my practice from my work,” she said. “That’s why we have the community—I designed it like that.”

What Daedone described as a collaborative community, however, was a business that some former employees have likened to a cult.

In April 2023 Daedone—who sold her stake in OneTaste for $12 million in 2017 but remains a consultant for the rebranded company—and former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz, 44, were indicted on a federal charge of forced labor conspiracy by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

“Under the guise of empowerment and wellness, the defendants are alleged to have sought complete control over their employees’ lives, including by driving them into debt and directing them to perform sexual acts while also withholding wages,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. 

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Prosecutors argued that Daedone recruited employees by promising to heal their trauma with her teachings and then made them dependent on her and OneTaste for basic necessities such as food and shelter, isolated them from friends and family and in some cases instructed them to engage in sexual activity with individuals despite their objections or resistance.

In addition ex-employees have accused Daedone and Cherwitz in civil lawsuits of sex trafficking and forcing them to do OM with potential investors. 

Daedone and Cherwitz have denied liability in the civil suits and pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. But after a five-week trial, a Brooklyn jury on June 9 found them guilty of forced labor conspiracy.

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“The defendants built a business on the backs of a select group of women who they targeted, abused and exploited,” prosecutor Nina Gupta told jurors in her closing statement. “They claimed they would free them.”

As Daedone told it, her venture began with a happy coincidence.

Born in California and raised by a single mother, Daedone graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in semantics and gender communications and was studying to become a Buddhist nun when she met a fellow guest at a party who told her about OM.

She said she spent years studying the practice before launching OneTaste on a shoestring budget.

“We had people sleeping on couches, working for passion rather than maximizing paychecks, because they believed in the vision,” she recalled. “It was Silicon Valley energy applied to human consciousness. The combination was electric.”

The start-up was a financial success, offering OM workshops and retreats that cost as much as $60,000 per person. But some former employees say they were exploited for profit.

“I was really, really lonely. I really wanted community, and OneTaste offered that in such a clear way,” an ex-sales team member, who went by the name Becky Uma at work, testified in federal court on May 7. But she said her monthly salary barely covered the cost of the communal space with a shared bed she rented from the company and the OM courses she was expected to take. 

Becky told jurors she lived in a state of constant surveillance from peers and higher-ups and endured verbal and sexual abuse from Cherwitz.

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“It was the expectation that I would be open to OMing with anybody off the street,” Becky testified.

Lawyers for Daedone and Cherwitz argued that Becky, who was ultimately terminated by her bosses at her own request in order to receive unemployment benefits, could have left her job or moved out of company housing at any time. 

Each facing up to 20 years in prison, Daedone and Cherwitz plan to appeal the case.

“This was not justice—it was the criminalization of regret and a retroactive rewriting of consensual experiences,” Daedone said. “The government turned ideology into prosecution, targeting female sexuality and freedom of expression.”

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. had a different take: “The jury’s verdict has unmasked Daedone and Cherwitz for who they truly are: grifters who preyed on vulnerable victims by making empty promises of sexual empowerment and wellness only to manipulate them into performing labor and services for the defendants’ benefit.”

Nocella added that he hopes “future charlatans think twice.”