The OneTaste CEO is trying to grow a controversial wellness organization while fighting to prove that its founder was prosecuted in error.
By: Emily Carter
Anjuli Ayer does not have the luxury of running an ordinary health and wellness company.
As CEO of OneTaste, she is responsible for growing an organization built around Orgasmic Meditation, or OM, a structured 15-minute partnered attention practice. At the same time, she is working to prove that OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone and former executive Rachel Cherwitz were prosecuted under a theory that ignored the truth about the company and its participants.
Ayer and her partners acquired OneTaste in 2017, and she became CEO the following year. She was not a detached investor looking to rescue a damaged brand. She had experienced the practice herself and believed it deserved serious study.
Her job now has two parts: build a credible organization around OM through research, education, consent standards and responsible growth, while challenging the public narrative that now surrounds the federal convictions of Daedone and Cherwitz.
They were convicted in Brooklyn of conspiracy to commit forced labor. They were not convicted of sexual assault, prostitution or sex trafficking.
Prosecutors argued that psychological, emotional and financial pressure caused certain participants to perform labor they otherwise would not have performed. The defense maintained that the participants were adults who joined voluntarily, worked within the organization and were free to leave.
Ayer believes the government transformed unconventional beliefs, demanding work relationships and later regret into a human-trafficking prosecution. The convictions are now on appeal.
The Science Continued
While the criminal case dominated the headlines, scientific research into OM continued.
Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University used functional MRI and PET imaging to examine the neurological response associated with the practice. Their findings suggested a hybrid state containing characteristics associated with both meditation and sexual stimulation, rather than a conventional sexual-arousal response alone.
Additional research has examined interpersonal closeness, emotional affect and mystical-type experiences reported during OM.
A small Phase 1 clinical trial also studied the practice among people experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Participants reported a 47 percent reduction in measured PTSD symptoms over the course of the study.
The trial was preliminary, small and uncontrolled. It was also connected to a foundation supporting OM research. It does not prove that OM treats PTSD, and the findings require independent replication.
Ayer’s position is not that the science has settled the matter. It is that the results justify further investigation rather than ridicule or dismissal.
Combat veterans Bob Sabado and Andy Garcia have described the practice as helping them reconnect with emotions that trauma had shut down. Garcia, who served a 13-month combat tour and was medically discharged with PTSD, said OM helped him stop feeling like a machine.
Those accounts are testimonials, not clinical proof. They nevertheless complicate the idea that the practice can be understood only through the most sensational portrayals of OneTaste.
A Narrative That Survived Its Evidence
Ayer’s concerns about the prosecution deepened after questions emerged about journals attributed to a key government witness.
The journals had been presented publicly as contemporaneous accounts and appeared in the Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc. Before trial, it was revealed that they had been recreated years after the events they described.
Prosecutors did not use the journals at trial and did not call the witness. The case continued anyway.
The government maintained that other witnesses and evidence independently established the forced-labor conspiracy. The jury agreed. Ayer believes the collapse of such prominent evidence should have caused investigators to reconsider the narrative that shaped the case.
Work Beyond OneTaste
The wider influence of Daedone’s work has continued through nonprofit programs.
Unconditional Freedom says its Art of Soulmaking curriculum has reached more than 250,000 incarcerated people across more than 1,500 facilities in 48 states through prison tablets.
Its Prison Monastery program combines meditation, writing, yoga, gardening and restorative-justice practices. It began at Mendocino County Jail and later expanded to the Central California Women’s Facility.
Another related initiative, Free Food Harlem, serves 600 to 700 chef-prepared meals each week at Emanuel AME Church. Guests are seated at tables with cloth tablecloths, flowers and restaurant-style service. The program also provides culinary training and employment pathways for people affected by the justice system.
These initiatives do not determine whether the criminal case was legally sound. They do challenge the claim that Daedone’s work was primarily about exploitation, personal enrichment or control.
Building What Comes Next
Ayer’s challenge is to make OneTaste strong enough to survive both its history and the verdict.
That requires more than expanding courses or reaching new customers. It means maintaining clear consent protocols, supporting independent research, creating credible teaching standards and separating genuine health inquiry from exaggerated marketing claims.
It also means acknowledging that not every former participant describes OneTaste positively, without allowing criticism from a small number of people to erase the experiences of thousands of others.
Ayer refuses to rebuild the company by distancing it from Daedone.
She believes Daedone and Cherwitz were prosecuted in error and that the government stretched forced-labor law to cover influence, persuasion and voluntary participation in an unconventional community. Religious-freedom scholars have raised similar concerns about whether the theory could eventually be applied to spiritual or intentional communities.
The appeal will determine whether the convictions survive.
Ayer’s larger task is to ensure that OneTaste survives long enough for the research, the public-service work and the people who continue to practice OM to be evaluated on their own merits.
For Ayer, building OneTaste is no longer simply a business challenge. It is a test of whether an organization can survive a verdict, defend the people it believes were wrongly prosecuted and still build something credible enough to be judged by what it does next.
Orgasmic Meditation has not been approved by the FDA to diagnose, prevent or treat PTSD or any other medical condition. Research into its potential health effects remains preliminary.
