THE FALL OF A MILLIONAIRE SEX WELLNESS CEO

NICOLE DAEDONE'S ONETASTE WORKSHOPS PROMISED SPIRITUAL GROWTH THROUGH 'ORGASMIC MEDITATION' - BUT FORMER EMPLOYEES CLAIM SHE RAN HER START-UP LIKE A CULT

- CHRIS SPARGO

CRIMINAL CASE Nicole Daedone (center) at a courthouse in Brooklyn on May 6 at the start of her forced labor conspiracy trial. Inset: With students at the One Taste center in San Francisco in 2017.

"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 One Taste, 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.”

ORGASMIC MEDITATION: WHAT IS IT? OM is a partnered practice that involves the methodical stroking of a woman's genitals for 15 minutes.