Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste

The only thing that ever heals, the only thing that ever awakens

is connection.

I do think we have a pleasure deficit disorder in this country.

It's getting faster and faster, our world is getting really hyper-connected,

but human connection is beginning to dissolve.

I do think, though, that there is a cure,

and that cure is

female orgasm.

Hi. My name is Nicole Daedone,

and I'm the founder of OneTaste Urban Retreat Center.

She really was a celebrity to me. Like, I'd seen her TED Talk 30 times.

I have this vision

that someday you'll see yoga and meditation and orgasm

all on the same bill.

Welcome to the Orgasm Is pop-up shop.

Is. Orgasm Is.

Yeah.

Hi!

People began to flood into our doors,

person after person after person.

That's one reason why I love living in Silicon Valley.

Every single option you could imagine available in this city.

It was all about exploring orgasm, exploring pleasure.

To feel that open and that safe with another human being,

every single woman should know she can feel that.

I'm a lot more conscious just of my own power in my sex.

The next thing we knew, we were invited into all of these tech circles.

She wants to have this elite group

of turned-on, hip men and women.

I was a lonely, nerdy guy.

OneTaste opened up a world I didn't even dream was possible.

That feeling that had driven me my whole life,

seeking or trying to connect in relationship or sex

or any of those things, it was like…

"This is it."

It went from, like, utopia to a hellhole.

She would just become fascinated with what she could get people to do.

That was kind of, like, her secret thrill.

People were getting hurt.

People were getting hurt badly.

She thought she was

saving the world by taking people's money and messing up people's emotions.

Welcome to hell.

When you look at orgasm,

what I found is it has the same fundamental goal as the internet,

and that's human-to-human connection.

OneTaste was a fast-growing startup

in the health and wellness, and sexuality space.

It was started by Nicole Daedone.

Having spent a lot of time thinking about Nicole,

I think of her as a very skilled craftsman.

She seems to know what people will gravitate toward.

People wanted to hear from a woman.

People wanted to see a woman like her at the top of a company like this.

This was really women-led,

and I think that was important based on what OneTaste were teaching.

Orgasmic meditation is a way to connect to yourself, connect to your partner,

to feel more in your body.

I'm a lot more physically close to people and less afraid of more affection,

and it's teaching me to really ask for what I want

and say the vulnerable thing that might be scary to say.

At the fundamental level, we all want the same things.

We want to love, be loved, see, be seen,

know our purpose and feel connection.

Nicole is very compelling.

She's someone who put others at ease when she was around them…

We love you all. Happy birthday!

…and whose special gift was setting a vision that people were excited about

and were willing to do a lot of things in order to help advance.

Go ahead and take a moment to really feel where you are

and the people that came here tonight,

maybe noticing, "Oh, I want to talk to that person later."

Making contact.

Maybe you're avoiding contact.

Noticing

the patterns.

Women and relationships were always a mystery to me.

And I didn't understand how to, like, find a girlfriend.

But I wanted to get laid,

and that was, like…

this, like, fly in the ointment, you know?

I'd heard about OneTaste,

and then finally, a friend of mine at the time was like,

"Oh, we're gonna go to an in-group at OneTaste."

"Do you wanna come with us?"

The building was at 1074 Folsom.

We walk in, and it's like this big, open space.

Everybody's hanging around, talking, like,

kind of like a cocktail party, almost.

It's just, like, a warm, friendly vibe,

which, to me at the time, is, like, odd, almost suspect.

I was used to all the cocktail parties in the whole tech scene,

where, you know, everybody's aloof.

But this was totally different.

Warm, open, friendly, and the person I'm sitting next to,

there's this kind of presence that you feel,

and then I look at her and I go, "Oh."

'Cause on the website was the picture of the woman that founded OneTaste,

Nicole Daedone,

and I'm like, "Oh, you're Nicole."

And then we just immediately started talking

about the idea of integrating sexuality and spirituality.

I don't think that there's anything…

of a higher order than having my body feel so good

that I emanate a good feeling…

…and that that good feeling can catch on to you,

and that we can begin to pass it on to each other.

And when we feel good, strangely enough, we act well.

So, there's this way that, it seems to me, all there really is to do is to be happy,

so happy that it overflows and I have enough for you,

and I want to share it in any way I possibly can with you.

What happens in the face of really intense sensations

is that the mind wants to go either toward really good or really bad.

And that's what we tend to do with sexuality.

It's either beautiful and beloved,

or it's this nasty, evil thing.

But we don't know how to move

in the dynamic reality that occurs in between those poles.

Hi.

We are redefining what orgasm is.

Everything you see on the wall is written by somebody who just came in

to write what orgasm is for them.

OneTaste would have really low-key events,

and the people who were working radiated this happiness or attractiveness.

They invite you to do yoga with them,

they invite you to help them run another event,

and you get sort of swept up in it.

Orgasm is awesome, orgasm is amazing, orgasm changed my life.

Not only were all these happy, friendly people I was hanging out with

part of this organization, they all lived together.

Whoo! OneTaste rocks!

Welcome to OneTaste San Francisco.

I'm gonna take you all on a little tour inside the building. Come on in.

This is Alicia, and she does orgasmic haircuts.

Hi, guys. Hi.

My, how she uses her hands.

There's some yoga going on.

Maybe we could take a quick little peek inside.

-You can't film that. -This is the front of our warehouse.

A little messy right now.

Who left their laundry here?

And this is our center during the day.

I started reading online. There was, like, an online forum

where people would post their comings and goings,

like threesomes, foursomes, n-somes.

So-and-so having a make-out with so-and-so,

and so-and-so watching someone making out.

I was like, "What is going on? Like, this can't be real."

"This has gotta be all made up. I'm sure this isn't actually happening,

and if it's happening, there's no way they're gonna let me in."

But then, sure enough, no, it was the real deal.

One night I was living on a boat by myself,

and the next night I was living in a warehouse with, like, 40 people

and sharing a bed with my "research partner."

I was, like, this nerdy techie guy by day, you know,

fixing people's computer problems,

and then I'd go home at night

and, you know, be in the middle of this craziness.

Welcome to OneTaste.

Tell us, how do you do it, Alicia? How do you stay so sexy?

I use my Amorepacific Treatment Cleansing Foam.

Is that your secret? I thought it was orgasmic meditation.

I OM…

I OM every day and I use Amorepacific.

I OM and I don't eat any sugar.

And I always tell the truth.

What does it mean to say that I'm a practitioner of orgasmic meditation?

For purposes of simplicity, I'm going to describe it as a man and a woman,

just so that I can say "he" and "she,"

but it can be all different, crazy configurations.

Nicole is certainly a genius.

Brilliant idea to name it an OMing session.

An orgasmic meditation.

Because there's so many seekers, so many spiritual seekers in the Bay Area

and around the world.

You've turned this sex practice into a spiritual practice.

She will lie down.

There'll be a pillow underneath her head,

a pillow underneath each leg.

She'll butterfly open her legs.

And then he will get his finger onto her upper left-hand quadrant of her clitoris.

The upper left-hand quadrant is a location that they have found, scientifically,

to have a bundle of nerve endings.

Some say 8,000, some say 800,000, I don't know.

But they cannot find any reason for this bundle of nerve endings

other than pleasure.

The thing that will prevent you from knowing you hit the spot

is hoping you're hitting the spot, not sure you hit the spot.

"What's the spot? I'm never gonna find the spot. It's impossible."

That will be the thing that will stop you

from the natural human intuition of feeling this little, slightly electric…

You'll also know because she'll go…

…and she will not, in any way, at all,

move her hips.

She won't be doing weird moans.

She'll just be what we call "nailed."

So, then you will just stroke up, down,

up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

-What am I gonna say next? -"Up, down."

There you go. For 15 minutes.