Former Participants of OneTaste Brace for Netflix’s Orgasm Inc Debut

• OneTaste is an “orgasmic meditation” group that promotes sexual wellness.
• Netflix plans to release a documentary about the group using footage obtained by a former employee.
• Former OneTaste participants are now bracing themselves for when the series airs Saturday.

Former participants of an “orgasmic mediation” group are experiencing heightened anxiety as they await the Saturday release of the upcoming Netflix docuseries “Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste.”

The reason? They have no idea how much footage of them participating in some of the sexual-wellness group’s classes will be shown, and they say Netflix has kept them in the dark and ignored their objections.

A last-ditch attempt to keep the docuseries from airing as-is was shot down Friday by Los Angeles Superior court judge who cited free speech and unconstitutional prior restraint, newsworthiness (including the fact that OneTaste is under investigation by the FBI) and the delayed date plaintiffs filed for the temporary restraining order.

“There’s incredible anxiety waiting up to that,” Paul Boylan, an attorney representing some of the former members said about Saturday’s release date. “And Netflix must know that they’re suffering mental anguish and emotional distress because Netflix has decided to be silent about this.”

Netflix declined Insider’s request for comment, but based on previews, some people believe their faces will be shown in the series, Boylan said.

A former OneTaste participant named Louisa, from Peru, who did not want to share her last name due to privacy, said she was notified that shots of her nipples would be included by a OneTaste instructor who recognized her after watching a preview.

“I feel kind of sick and I feel very unhappy and a deep sense of injustice,” Louisa told Insider. “I have been violated.”

Louisa said she signed confidentiality agreements with OneTaste and was assured her privacy would be protected.

There were reminders “before every course, every event, and every class,” Louisa said. “What happens in this room stays in this room. You don’t talk about this.”

The only caveat, she said, was that video footage could be used for educational purposes.

While Louisa is not one of the plaintiffs, the person who shot such educational video is one now of the defendants in a civil suit filed by 15 people associated with group over the production, which is billed as true crime docuseries about allegations against OneTaste.

Netflix, Gibson, and Chris Kosley, a videographer once employed by OneTaste who was fired in 2016, are all named as defendants. The suit, filed  late last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court, says Gibson and Kosley worked together to compile a “sizzle reel” of footage to shop around — and Netflix bit but never notified the 15 OneTaste participants that it was going to use them in its series.

On September 6, prior to the trailer debut of “Orgasm Inc.,” some former and current OneTaste members  — including the plaintiffs — delivered a cease-and-desist demanding Netflix not use any footage or picture of them “blurred or otherwise” in the docuseries.

But Netflix went ahead with it, and some people recognized themselves in the footage. Now they are preparing for much more.

 

 

Courtesy of Netflix

 

OneTaste was founded in 2005 by Nicole Daedone, a San Francisco Bay Area-based yoga instructor. Its core teaching revolves around “orgasmic meditation,” a wellness practice that focuses on female orgasms. The mission of OneTaste is “to provide people with teaching and trainings into living a desire-based life, rooted in a felt-sense of connection,” according to its website.

The company landed a New York Times spread in 2009 and an endorsements from celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian and actor-turned-wellness-guru Gwenyth Paltrow.

Gibson, in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, said the footage in the series “was all legally obtained by us and much was already public and had been distributed by OneTaste themselves, or on YouTube, or in past news reports.”

“No one’s rights have been violated by the footage we used,”she added.

OneTaste, however, provided Insider a statement saying Netflix was violating the film’s subjects.

Kosley said in a text message that OneTaste is trying to “silence my voice and to silence the voices of others with a valid story to share with the public.”

“When all is said and done, I am simply a former member of OneTaste who, after having been an integral part of the group for over 10 years, wanted to share my particular perspective and past experience and inform others,” he wrote.

For her part, Louisa said she plans to watch the series with a friend, but only so that she is “prepared.”

“It’s not because I’m going to enjoy watching it,” she said. “I need to be prepared against if there’s going to be attacks on me or whatever, wherever this goes, I need to be prepared to defend myself and also to protect myself.”