From Our Father to The Tinder Swindler, Netflix have churned out plenty of captivating documentaries over the past year. And it’s time to strap yourself in for another almost unbelievable true-life tale: Orgasm Inc: The Story Of OneTaste.
The new series, which was released on 5 November, follows the story of OneTaste, a San Francisco-based sexual wellness company, which ‘promised spiritual enlightenment and community through 15-minute female orgasms,’ according to Netflix.
After launching in the 2000s, One Taste quickly garnered press and public attention for its practice of ‘orgasmic meditation’ but gradually allegations of prostitution and sex trafficking came to light, and a much darker depiction of One Taste came to the fore…
Is Orgasm Inc: The Story Of OneTaste based on a true story?
Netflix’s Orgasm Inc: The Story Of OneTaste is a documentary and entirely centred around the true story of the San Francisco wellness company OneTaste. Founded in 2005 by a woman named Nicole Daedon, OneTaste rapidly rose to popularity for their orgasmic meditation (OM) practice.
According to OneTaste’s 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.’
‘OneTaste built a large client base within San Francisco’s tech bubble and was hailed by the media as a promising health and wellness outlet that would lead subscribers on a path toward fulfillment,’ Netflix explains. ‘However, according to some former members of OneTaste, there was something much more sinister going on behind the scenes.’
By 2018, murmurings about OneTaste had become exposés as Bloomberg published a story detailing allegations from employees that they’d been pressured by senior staff to go on courses and retreats they couldn’t afford. One person even claimed that OneTaste was a ‘prostitution ring’ as staff members were told to have sex with clients and each other.
However, OneTaste told The Independent that ‘all allegations of abusive practices are completely false,’ and the only criminal filing associated with the company was a lawsuit filed by a participant in 2018, which was dismissed by a judge a year later.
‘In 2018, at the height of our success, we were cancelled by salacious media mischaracterizations propagated by Bloomberg Businessweek, Playboy, VICE, BBC,’ OneTaste says on their website. ‘It appears that these will be repeated on a forthcoming production on Netflix.’
What actually is orgasmic meditation?
According to Healthline, orgasmic meditation is essentially a combination of pleasure, mindfulness and touching. To achieve the needed stimulation, a professional wearing a glove will stroke the top left section of the client’s clitoris with their lubricated fingertip for about 15 minutes.
Has OneTaste really been endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow?
Goop’s founder and sexual wellness enthusiast Gwyneth Paltrow has seemingly endorsed OneTaste by interviewing the company’s founder Nicole Daedone on her Goop podcast. Despite the allegations about OneTaste, Nicole’s book Slow Sex is also still for sale on Goop’s website.
What happened to the founder of OneTaste?
Nicole Daedone was the face and founder of OneTaste and her 2011 TED Talk garnered her thousands of fans, fame, investors and celebrity endorsement – from Gwyneth and Kim Kardashian. But after OneTaste’s reputation was tarnished, Nicole sold her shares in the company in 2017.
But, on LinkedIn, Nicole is still listed as the CEO And founder of OneTaste and recently came back from her low-profile living arrangements to sue the BBC in April, 2022, over their podcast series looking into the allegations against OneTaste.
Does OneTaste still exist?
OneTaste still exists but has seemingly rebranded as the Institute of Om, and are running ‘Intro to OM’ workshops in LA, and New York, despite the allegations surrounding orgasmic meditation.
Not only that, but more than 12 people who were participants in OneTaste workshops have sued Netflix over the Orgasm Inc documentary by claiming that the streaming service had used stolen sexually explicit footage in the programme, according to Page Six.
In the filing, the participants claimed Orgasm Inc used footage that shows ‘intimate body parts and acts of sexual intercourse’ as well as ‘nudity and intimate touching as part of instruction of OM’s concepts and methods’ which they had not consented to being published.
The judge assessing the case reportedly said the plaintiffs had ‘offered no evidence that the film includes explicit material showing them...Nor did they show that the film, Orgasm Inc., could irreparably harm them.’
Additionally, one of Netflix’s filmmakers said the video had been legally obtained and had already been publicised by OneTaste and on YouTube or in past investigations of the company.