When Spiritual Wellness Becomes Spiritual Warfare: The OneTaste Trial No One's Talking About

Chapters

• 0:00 The Forgotten Trial
• 4:35 OneTaste and the OM Culture
• 7:41 Horrifying Trial Testimonies Revealed
• 11:03 Media Double Standards and Silence
• 14:08 The Truth About Spiritual Predators
• 18:57 Final Thoughts on Intimacy and Healing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Let's be real for a minute. While the world was glued to the headlines about Diddy, cameras outside the courtroom, hashtags flying and social media investigators analyzing every angle, another trial was quietly unfolding. No TMZ, no Nancy Grace, no law and crime channel breaking it down minute by minute. Trigger warning this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse, spiritual manipulation, psychological coercion and forced labor. The content may be triggering for survivors of trauma or individuals sensitive to topics involving exploitation, cult dynamics and abuse of power. Listener discretion is strongly advised. Please prioritize your emotional well-being while engaging with this episode. Two White Women prioritize your emotional well-being while engaging with this episode. Two white women, nicole Day-Done and Rachel Cherwitz, were just convicted of orchestrating a years-long operation involving forced labor, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and spiritual manipulation. Under the banner of healing and wellness, they ran an empire called One Taste, promising women healing through orgasmic meditation, only to exploit their trauma, control their lives and even use them to sexually service investors. The entire case mirrors the same patterns of power, silence and abuse that mainstream media claim to care about in the Diddy case, but this one Crickets. Well, let me backtrack. Small articles on CNN, new York Times, a few others, but again very minimal and almost like a whisper, and while Diddy was taken into custody and forced to fight from the inside, these women were granted bonds and freely enjoyed their lives while waiting on trial to start. They were eventually found guilty. Both women are set to be sentenced in late September. Each faces up to 20 years in prison Interestingly, only 20 years. So we have to ask why isn't anyone talking about Nicole Daydone and Rachel Cherwitz? Why was their trial handled with such media delicacy, almost invisibility, and what does this silence reveal about whose abuse matters and whose doesn't? I was actually scrolling YouTube and dropped in on Willie D and was like what?

Speaker 1: 2:15

Welcome back to Life Points with Rhonda, the podcast where we talk about love, life, relationships and everything in between, especially the things they don't want you to know. I'm your host, rhonda, and today we're diving into one of the most disturbing and quietly handled court cases in recent memory. Nicole Daydoan, the founder of OneTaste, and Rachel Cherwitz, her head of sales, were just found guilty of forced labor conspiracy, a case involving coercion, sexual abuse, emotional control, spiritual manipulation and financial exploitation. It reads like a cult, it operated like a cult, and yet somehow it avoided all the media spotlight. Meanwhile, the mainstream media has made an entire cinematic saga out of the Diddy trial, splashing headlines across every tabloid and podcast feed. And listen, I'm not here to defend Diddy, but I am here to call out the silence that conveniently surrounds people who don't fit the stereotype of a predator.

Speaker 1: 3:22

This episode isn't about gossip. It's about double standards. It's about media control. It's about race, class and the spiritual abuse that goes unchecked when it's cloaked in yoga mats, tantra circles and overpriced courses. So let's talk about what really happened inside the One Taste empire and why this story should have been breaking news.

Speaker 1: 3:45

If this kind of deep dive into real injustice, spiritual manipulation and media silence matters to you, I need you to support this work. Join me on Patreon for the unfiltered conversation where we'll go deeper into the trial testimony, the psychological tactics used by Dayton and Cherwitz and the eerie silence of feminist organizations and media watchdogs. Subscribe, rate and share this episode with your community, because we can't heal from what we refuse to face. Follow me everywhere at Life Points with Rhonda, youtube. At Life Points with Rhonda, podcast. Life Points with Rhonda on all streaming platforms. Email rhondaatlifepointscom. Email lifepointswithrhondaatgmailcom. Support on Patreon patreoncom. Slash. Lifepointswithrhonda.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Background on One Taste and OM Culture. Let's start with what One Taste was supposed to be On the surface. It was a sexual wellness company founded in 2004 by Nicole Daydone. Based out of San Francisco, it branded itself as revolutionary, avant-garde, the Tesla of Tantra the promise that women could heal from trauma, unlock empowerment and experience profound spiritual elevation through a practice called OM or orgasmic meditation. Now let's pause here. I know the language already sounds a little woo-woo, and that's intentional. This is how coercion begins not with violence, but with carefully constructed spiritual seduction. Om was marketed as a 15-minute meditative practice where a usually male partner stroked a woman's private orgasitative practice, where a usually male partner stroked a woman's private orgasmic section in a specific, slow, non-goal-oriented way. They claimed it wasn't about climax, it was about presence, awareness and energetic release. It was medicine for the soul, they said. The practice was framed as empowering, healing and deeply spiritual. And to someone dealing with trauma, disconnection or years of emotional pain, the practice was framed as empowering, healing and deeply spiritual. And to someone dealing with trauma, disconnection or years of emotional pain, that promise sounds like salvation, but, as we now know, it wasn't.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Behind the poetic language of connection, energy exchange and expansion was an empire of manipulation, coercion, unpaid labor and exploitation. One Taste wasn't just teaching techniques, it was grooming its members, many of whom were women seeking healing from past sexual abuse, to hand over not just their trauma but their autonomy. Members were encouraged to live communally, give up jobs and even go into deep financial debt to afford one-tastes, extremely expensive programs, some costing tens of thousands of dollars. And once they were in, they were told that any discomfort, fear or resistance they felt was just resistance to growth, that their shame was blocking their healing. This is where the psychological abuse became spiritual gaslighting. Women were told to override their boundaries, ignore their inner voice and lean into their discomfort, all under the guise of transformation. Nicole Day-Done positioned herself as a spiritual guru, a kind of erotic messiah who had figured it out. And Rachel Cherwitz? She was the hard-hitting saleswoman, not just selling courses but pushing members to max out credit cards, open new lines of debt and prioritize one taste over everything family, jobs, relationships. One Taste's teachings blurred all boundaries between consent and coercion, between spirituality and control. And, what's most chilling, they made it feel like you were the problem if you questioned it. This was not just a company, it was a cult, and not just any cult, a sex cult disguised as wellness, packaged in feminist language and New Age spirituality, sold mostly to women, and somehow still allowed to grow unchecked for over a decade.

Speaker 1: 7:48

The trial's horrifying testimonies and the truth behind the curtain what came out in court wasn't just damning, it was devastating, and yet somehow it still didn't make the evening news For five weeks. In a quiet Brooklyn courtroom, survivors stood up and spoke the unspeakable. They testified about the ways their bodies were used. Their minds were broken and their lives were stolen under the guise of healing. They weren't just victims of a scam. They were victims of a psychological assault that blurred every line between trauma, recovery and spiritual slavery. One of the most haunting testimonies came from a woman who said she was forced to become a handler for One Taste's first major investor, a man who was also Nicole Day-Done's boyfriend. That title handler sounds harmless, but in reality it meant she had to live with him, perform humiliating sexual acts at his command, cook his meals and exist solely to satisfy him. That wasn't an isolated case. It was part of the business model.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Multiple witnesses said they were coerced into performing sex acts with potential clients, investors and staff members, not for their own healing, but for one taste's profit. And if they refused, they were told they were resisting growth, not spiritually evolved or worse, that they would be kicked out of the group, entirely shamed and blacklisted. They were sleep-deprived, watched constantly, spiritually and emotionally gaslit until they didn't trust their own instincts. Some were encouraged to open credit lines. They couldn't afford sinking into debt just to stay in Dedone's orbit. And let's be clear, the trauma wasn't just emotional, it was physical, it was sexual, it was systematic.

Speaker 1: 9:36

The prosecution revealed that Deddone and Cherwitz built their entire empire on the unpaid or underpaid labor of vulnerable women, women they specifically recruited because of their histories of trauma. They didn't just prey on the weak, they manufactured weakness, broke down their members' sense of self and rebuilt them in one taste image. They promised healing, they delivered exploitation. And while Day-Done walked stages and gave TED-style talks about orgasm as a spiritual path, her company was funneling coerced sexual services to high-paying men behind the scenes. That's not empowerment, that's trafficking. By 2017, daydone had sold the company for $12 million, a company that, by multiple accounts, was sustained through unpaid labor, coerced sex acts and cult-like psychological warfare. Let that sit for a moment. She walked away with $12 million and a trail of shattered lives behind her. She walked away with $12 million and a trail of shattered lives behind her.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Yet, even with all of this laid bare in a courtroom, we didn't see Nancy Grace. We didn't see TMZ parked outside. We didn't see breaking news alerts from law and crime, like we did with Diddy. Why? Why does a sex cult built by white women abusing mostly white and Asian women under the illusion of wellness, get a pass from the public eye? The silence is the scandal, media double standards and why this matters for every survivor.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Let's talk about what's really going on here, because the silence around this trial wasn't just an oversight. It was intentional. While cameras and pundits were dissecting the Diddy case from every angle, nicole Dedone and Rachel Cherwitz were convicted of some of the most grotesque forms of spiritual and sexual exploitation in recent memory, and most of the world didn't even know it was happening. This wasn't some low-level scandal A five-week trial, a case that involved forced labor, coerced sexual acts, financial ruin and psychological manipulation. A modern-day cult operating out in the open, recruiting women under the banner of feminism and wellness and then destroying them from the inside out. So where was the coverage? Where was the outrage? Where were the viral think pieces? The answer is hard, but it's necessary Race, image, privilege, proximity.

Speaker 1: 12:09

Daydone and Cherwitz didn't look like what society thinks a predator looks like. They're white women, soft-spoken, spiritual, they speak in affirmations and wear linen dresses. They aren't rappers or moguls with flashy lifestyles. They sold healing, not hip-hop, and that's why their crimes didn't fit the media's usual narrative of scandal. In other words, they didn't make good TV.

Speaker 1: 12:34

And this is the danger, because when we only spotlight certain types of predators, we create blind spots where the worst abuses can hide. It's easy to point fingers at a powerful Black man in the entertainment industry and, let's be clear, if he's guilty he must be held accountable. But if we're really about protecting survivors and exposing abuse, then the playing field has to be even, because silence is complicity. Let's be honest. Had Daydone and Sherwitz been two black women coercing white women into sexual servitude in the name of spirituality, the media circus would have set up outside the courthouse. Had this been marketed as sacred sensuality coaching for men, with male employees being coerced into sex acts for investors, the outrage would have been deafening. But women exploiting other women, especially when it's dressed up in the language of empowerment, slips right under the radar. That silence tells every survivor, especially women of color your pain has a value and that value depends on who harmed you. This case matters because it challenges every assumption we've been fed about what abuse looks like, who causes it and what healing truly means. It demands that we ask harder questions about the wellness industry, spiritual bypassing, performative feminism, and how easy it is to hide coercion behind inspirational quotes and chakra charts. And if we don't talk about it, who will?

Speaker 1: 14:03

My final thoughts, unapologetically let's stop pretending the media just missed this story. They didn't miss it. They buried it. Because, at the exact same time, nicole Day-Done and Rachel Cherwitz were on trial for running a spiritual sex cult. What were we seeing on every major media outlet? Black men being dragged through the dirt Diddy Fat Joe, tyler Perry and Chris Brown. And whether guilty, innocent or somewhere in the middle, every single one of them has been paraded through the public square, judged, dissected, memed and devoured before trial dates are even set.

Speaker 1: 14:40

And yet two white women ran an empire that coerced women into sex acts, lied to them about healing, kept them in debt and used their trauma as a business model. And somehow the press found their silence. And, by the way, this is what the RICO Act looks like Not a daily update from law and crime, a few very quiet cameras in their faces, no nightly breakdowns from CNN or ABC, no daily passionate outbursts from Nancy Grace. And let's not forget, this wasn't just some local issue, it was a federal case. So what's the difference? You know the answer, we all know the answer. It's image, race, proximity to whiteness, respectability politics and the media's endless need to protect the illusion of innocence when it's wrapped in pale skin and soft voices.

Speaker 1: 15:33

And I'm not here to defend predators. I'm here to demand equal outrage, equal coverage, equal justice, because if we're going to break cycles of abuse, then we have to stop letting white femininity be a shield and black masculinity or femininity be a target. If a black man had created a company like One Taste, where women were allegedly stroked for meditative practice, forced to have sex with investors and told it was all part of healing investors and told it was all part of healing he'd be under the jail. But Daydon Sherwitz, they got time, they got grace, they got the benefit of silence. And that silence is violent, that silence protects predators, that silence tells survivors your pain only matters when it fits the script. So on Life Points with Rhonda, let me make it loud and clear we see through the script, we're flipping the page, we're writing our own and we will never stop calling it out.

Speaker 1: 16:28

Ready to dive deeper, my Patreon community will be breaking this case all the way down the racial double standard in public outrage, the psychology of cult grooming in modern day healing circles, how to protect yourself from spiritual predators in the wellness world, and what real soul-led healing actually looks like. Join me at patreoncom. Slash lifepointswithronda. Stay connected. Lifepointswithronda at gmailcom. Wwwlifepointswithrondacom. Instagram, tiktok, facebook. Youtube at lifepointswithrondacom. Instagram, tiktok, facebook. Youtube at Life Points with Ronda YouTube channel. Life Points with Ronda Podcast. Life Points with Ronda how the One Taste case ties into relationships and why it belongs on Life Points with Ronda.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Abuse of intimacy disguised as healing. Abuse of Intimacy Disguised as Healing. This case reveals how vulnerable people in search of emotional intimacy, healing or connection can be manipulated by someone using spiritual or romantic language. These women were promised empowerment, transformation and sexual liberation the very promises that many people also look for in personal, romantic and spiritual relationships. But instead of healing, they got coercion. Instead of connection, they got control. And the language used to trap them. Surrender, trust, openness are the same terms used in toxic romantic dynamics, where boundaries are broken under the guise of love. Remember family. Healing should never come with control and empowerment should never come at the cost of your voice. Stay discerning, stay grounded and never let silence be the reason. The truth stays buried Until next time. Take care of your heart, protect your spirit and keep living your life on purpose. No-transcript.