Nicole started to teach women how to orgasm. It ended with a sex 'cult'.

Listen to this story being read by Katie Stow, here.

You may have spotted a new documentary series popping up on your Netflix homepage. One that sounds like it could be a cheeky look into something saucy. One called Orgasm Inc.

But this show is far from a light watch, as it maps the growth and demise of a business that sold sex, pleasure and a promise of fulfilment and delivered everything but.

The docuseries centres on the company OneTaste and its founder Nicole Daedone. If those names are familiar to you, it may be because you've seen a certain viral TED Talk hosted by Daedone. A video that has amassed over 1.5 million views and recounts her origin story: one that says she met a monk at a party who showed her a masturbation technique, and how she developed that technique into a global brand.

Watch the trailer for Orgasm Inc. Post continues after video.

On the flipside, Orgasm Inc tracks the demise of that global brand and the allegations levelled against Daedone and OneTaste.

Here's what you need to know about it all.

Is Orgasm Inc based on a true story?

It is. All of this really (allegedly) happened. The 'allegedly' will make more sense later on when we unpack the legal claims levelled against the sexual wellness company.

But, in summary, OneTaste was founded in 2005 by a woman named Nicole Daedone, and it claimed to be able to generate ecstatic lifelong fulfilment all through the power of "orgasmic meditation". 

The company itself was wildly popular in its heyday, and according to its website by 2018: "Over 35,000 people had participated in our in person events, over 16,000 had taken classes and workshops. Over 1,300 completed our Coaching Program and tens of thousands of people worldwide had learned to OM (orgasmic meditation)."

What did OneTaste do?

When you read through the original mantra of the business, OneTaste seems like a brilliant concept – at least on paper. It was dedicated to teaching the practices of orgasmic meditation and slow sex, prioritising in particular the female orgasm. 

Sounds great, right? Wholesome even?

Unfortunately, moving the concept from paper to practice is where things get a little more sinister. Firstly, orgasmic meditation needs to be practised in pairs – it's not a process that can be done alone, at least according to Nicole.

What is orgasmic meditation?

This phrase is intrinsically tied to Nicole Daedone, as she actually coined the term, but we can still unpack what it supposedly is and what it does to the human body.

Orgasmic meditation (or OM as it's often referred to) mashes the practices of pleasure and mindfulness using a very specific touch technique. How that plays out is usually with the pleasure giver wearing a glove and utilising lube on their fingers, stroking and massaging a clitoris for 15 minutes straight. Why it's so specific is because you're only meant to touch the upper-left quadrant of the clit in a controlled up-and-down motion. 

Daedone described her own work as "one that places a near-exclusive emphasis on women's pleasure – in which love, romance, and even flirtation are not required". Instead, the focus is on the orgasmic outcome and the euphoria which often comes with that release. It's also 'best practice' afterwards for both partners to discuss their experiences verbally.

Again, this in principle is not necessarily a bad thing – particularly when it occurs within the boundaries of a consenting relationship. However, when the practice is stretched to a wider community and monetised, is where things can get rather murky. 

What has OneTaste been accused of?

For those who have watched the docuseries, you'll know that OneTaste ran into some troubles after their peak in 2018. 

Accusations were levelled against the company from employees within the business who claimed they were pressured by management to enrol in expensive courses or go to retreats they couldn't afford. But then allegations became a lot darker.

Bloomberg were the first to break the silence on OneTaste. They published an exposé that tracked the allegations made against the business as well as in-depth accounts from the staff members involved. 

The article followed one woman's experience in particular, who says that buying into the 'cult' of OneTaste left her with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and a husband she wed in a fever-dream-intensive weekend with the company's founder, Daedone.

Michal was constantly surrounded by people who were her colleagues, roommates, sexual partners, and, suddenly, closest friends. She was also $20,000 in debt from buying its classes. She was married during a two-week, $36,000-a-person retreat called the Nicole Daedone Intensive. By the time she and her husband left OneTaste a few months later, they’d spent more than $150,000. "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 says. "I knew I was losing control. In OneTaste, I’d done that again and again and again."

The course debt referred to in this segment is one that affected many members of OneTaste – particularly those who worked in the sales department. This is thanks to the pyramid scheme style setup of the company structure, where staff were expected to attend and purchase course tickets in order to then sell those courses to non-staff members. 

As you can see, these courses were far from 'budget friendly'. While a potential student's first interaction with OneTaste may have been a complimentary one, costing them nothing out of pocket, things would quickly escalate. 

Bloomberg reports that customers were quickly upsold to the $199 'Introduction to OM' class, before being advertised a $499 weekend course, a $4,000 retreat, $12,000 coaching program and a $16,000 'intensive'. In 2014, OneTaste even started selling yearlong memberships for $60,000. 

Within the selling of those courses is where things became darker yet again. 

Many former staffers and community members claim that OneTaste resembled "a kind of prostitution ring". Staffers were expected to flirt and use sex to lure in "emotionally vulnerable targets" to buy tickets, and some employees claim that their managers ordered them to have sex with or OM with each other or with customers. 

It should be noted that OneTaste disputes the claims made by former staffer and community members. They state that they have never required any employee to engage in a sexual act. There are a number of legal cases at play between OneTaste, Daedone, and various publishers, broadcasters, and streaming platforms – including an ongoing one with Netflix following the release of Orgasm Inc. 

What happened to Nicole Daedone?

The CEO and founder of OneTaste is still currently listed as such on her LinkedIn. She's based out of San Francisco and is still doing occasional talks and demonstrations for the business. 

Does OneTaste still exist?

It does, but under a different name. The company has rebranded to be the 'Institute of Om' and is growing, recently launching a new app. You can snoop at their website here.

Feature Image: Netflix/Mamamia.