This was mentioned before, but it deserves a second look.
There is a thread at DontDateHimGirl.com about OneTaste.
What is interesting is she mentions all of the LIES RIGHT TO HER FACE, deceit and mind-games going on.

This man from OneTaste she dated also WRITES A BLOG...hmmm, wonder who that could be?
RK1? (they love initials and numbers at OneTaste)

Obviously this guy was simply trying to lure her into the OneTaste group, and also wet his whistle at the same time.
The amount of freaking dishonesty and lying from these OneTaste people is almost unbelievable...most of these groups use deception. but these OneTaste folks are off the lying charts. That is something that needs to be looked into, the incredible level of dishonesty at OneTaste.

Notice how they target younger females, and try to use the parental wedge method. Even Robert Kandell is using the parental wedge method on himself in his blog, or more likely, writing about it in his blog to use as a template for others.
There are other people in this world, who also use the method of targeting troubled teens/people with serious problems with their parents. They used to hang-out at bus stations.

But this is to create a "new family" dynamic within the live-in group system, like the OneTaste "Residency", for example. Very crude old-school methods, but they can work.


(below are some exerpts for reference)
_______________________________________-

[dontdatehimgirl.com]
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:16 am
Post subject: One Taste Is a Cult

Hello Ladies. I want to leave this post today to help you see the clear cut signs of someone who is in a cult. In this case I unfortunately ran into a man who is involved in a group based in San Francisco and now has opened in NY and is growing (groan) in NY -- the group is called One Taste.

I am sure there are similar groups. This one is soley based around the fake idea of spirituality and sex and intimacy. I say fake because that is not the truth behind this group. I am all for spirituality and being free to explore sexually as you wish and to grow as a human being and learn how to relate and communicate with your partner.

What this group does however is feed on a person's insecurity that they somehow aren't good enough. They will pry into your personal life in a very cohersive way and then get you to feel that your parents are somehow responsible for why you live as you do and that they can show you a better happier more free way.

I found the following online:
Dr. Barbara Singer is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading world expert in mind control tactics and cults. [...]

When I first started to date this man he did some very odd things. They weren't mean things just strange. I am in my 30's and have been around. I know what is normal for men to do basically within reason. When I asked, ""where did you learn that? or How did you know to do that?"" I was met with anger and scolded harshly, ""I don't like to be questioned! Don't ask me, just accept.""

[...]
I was subjected to jargon, but didn't realize that is what it was at the time. I just thought it was strange to hear: I would be happy to partner with you to help you discover yourself sexually and spiritually. PARTNER WITH ME?

This man posts a blog and when I read up on this cult I found jargon from the group leader that he used as if his own when writing about his failed relationships. Everytime I thougth my jaw could not drop further...it did!

Please be careful. If a man won't answer your questions and then turns around and tells you that you are pushing and trying to start a fight or tells you not to question him or not to ask questions, don't question yourself, JUST RUN as fast as you can in the opposite direction. This is a mind control tactic. If you stay he will begin to withold his attention as another mind control tactic to get you to conform to the behaviors his leaders have told him he must do.

This group is into group sex, masked as OM___fillin in the blank. Basically what they do is get you in a room with other people. Some come as couples and some are PARTNERED up. You are in robes and then you watch the men pleasure the women while the group leader instructs you on what to do.

They encourage that you have research partners and not to be jealous. THey have a commune in NYC and SF. This is where they live and screw together, changing partners to learn.
[...]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:46 am Post subject:

No one tried to convince me to have group sex. You are not understanding this post. They do not come right out blantent [blatant]. They do this with mind control and games and lies and hiding. Do you think I got this information on the first date? I got NOTHING. I asked questions and got nothing to let me know this was happening. It was and is a slow process and I am trying to show the way it happens and how to protect yourself.

----------------------------------------------



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 02:55AM by The Anticult.

Quote
The Anticult
There are also some links at this site, Mobissimo.
It looks like Reese Jones is Nicole's one and only MobiFriend. Press PEOPLE.

Nicole Daedone and Reese Jones
[mobishare.mobissimo.com]

Same with Kandell and Reese
[mobishare.mobissimo.com]


Reese Jones and Robert Kandell
[mobishare.mobissimo.com]

Reese Jones Nicole Daedone
[mobishare.mobissimo.com]

There are some notable names from the Internet/tech world in Reese Jones's Mobissimo network. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Howard Rheingold, writer of early books on cyberculture. Some of the other names seemed familiar also.

there are pages of big names in the world of the internets gazillionaires, of which Reese Jones is a member.
His company Netopia was aquired by Motorola recently.

"Netopia NTPA was acquired by Motorola in 2007 for $218m"
[www.linkedin.com]


Even Kevin Kelly is on the Mobi-list, and Robert Kandell had some reference to a guy KK, that attended a Seminar with him and N, which is Nicole Daedone, one assumes. Don't know if KK is Kevin Kelly....it could be.
But one of Reese Jones major interests is the Long Now Foundation, in which Kevin Kelly is on the board.

Reese Jones facebook
[www.facebook.com]



(excerpt from the Robert Kandell vanishing blog of censored factoids, with the boring bits redacted)
_____________________________________________
[74.125.95.132]
Robert Kandell’s Blog
Day 90: Enjoy the Silence
November 24, 2008 at 1:11 am · Filed under Uncategorized

I am enjoying the silence being broken only by the distant sound of the ocean while sitting in the downstairs apartment of the Stinson house. It is the eve of the first day of my meditation retreat up at Green Gulch. At the closing, the instructor Ed Brown, made the request that we observe silence for the next three days and even though its only been about an hour since I started, I am already feeling the difference. No, that’s not right. I’m not sure where the change occurred but I can feel it viscerally in my body right now.
[...] But, it is a skill that I want to learn so I signed up and made my way to this very beautiful and quiet place above Mill Valley on the road to Stinson Beach. KK and I arrive a little late and sit to hear Ed’s introductory lecture. He’s an interesting man to me. He’s quiet and likable with a strong wisdom and joker’s heart to him. He doesn’t seem to take Zen seriously at least in my expectations of Zen. But, his dharma is impactful and sincere and I really like his way of being. The first one day sit I did with him about 2 months ago really shifted my life and lead to me breaking up with J and starting this next adventure. And that was only one day. Now, we’re here for three.
[...]

N, KK and I head over to the dining hall for a delicious meal of fried rice, hot and sour soup and broccoli. How wonderfully simple and tasteful the meals are up here. The three of us sit around and engage in our usual banter. Its funny to think that I’ve known him for over 5 years now and how many times the three of us has joked like this. There is a comfort of old friends and I the union of this triad, which has taken so many forms, there is beauty. People often talk about wanting comfort in their lives. I state that this is a bad thing to ask for, who wants to be comfortable. But, in the easy, practiced ways that we are relating. It seems that this is exactly the sensation that I am looking for.

[...]

I think of my relationship with P2. As we were leaving, she said she was going to miss me and I respond back that I will miss her as well. I don’t want to admit this to myself. I don’t want to admit how important this new connection is to me. I email back and forth with R4 in NYC about it and she asks me if I am avoiding something by going into this. Or am I avoiding going fully into it since I am scared of having those feelings again. I created this new, fun person in my life. Why can’t I accept it without making such a big deal about it. Why can I have what I want and create? I don’t know the answer. P2 remains without a definition. It is not about inviting someone into the OneTaste world or dating for purpose sake. It is, simply, fun.

The retreat ends and KK and I head back to the car. He is whispering to me a bit and I don’t answer. I really want to try this silence thing. The quiet feels different and I can hear the toy-like sound of the purple car. I like the ability to not talking. There feels like there is something important there. I head back to the Stinson house noting my desire to talk on the phone or turn on the radio. Instead, KK and I drive in complete silence.
...
________________________________



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 09:55AM by The Anticult.

probably some former members of the San Francisco area underground sex-party, swinger, orgy scene might be able to shed some light on this.

There is an article where Daedone talks about being in Hawaii in a sex-community, one assumes that is Vic Baranco's sex cult in Hawaii.
Notice also the tuition is $12,000.
With special arrangements for "work trade". (take a wild guess on that one).

Notice the Orwellian Newspeak...Daedone calls her other groups..."sex positive cooperatives".
Is that what OneTaste is?
No it is not, its a profit-seeking corporation aquiring real estate assets and human capital. Its not a commune, its a corporation.

The word-twisting that comes out of these peoples mouths is truly unbelievable.
They are so self-righteous about constantly banging the drum about being "sex-positive" about everything.
How about "truth-positive" for a change?
Why not start with stopping constant word-warping and lying about everything?
Why not try some Honesty-Positive just for a kick?

One can see how some people can get their minds twisted around by all of this.


_______________________________________
[commongroundmag.com]
The Spirituality of Sensuality
SF’s One Taste fuses Buddhism and Theosophy with the orgasm to forge “Urban Monks” in SOMA
By Todd Spencer and Chandanni Miglino

Whether for Buddhist monks or Catholic priests, the monastic life of spiritual seekers over the centuries has been rooted in denial of the carnal. As Jews regard the pig as an unclean animal, the world’s major religions have viewed sex and lust as mire-splattered interlopers.

The Urban Monk Program at San Francisco’s One Taste Urban Retreat Center sees things as completely inverted from that ancient precept. Sex and sensuality, instead of being denied or purged, are isolated and then focused upon in the pursuit of a personal or a kind of spiritual transformation.

Marketing material promoting it describes it as “an integrated program that takes care of your whole being … by expanding the delicate and potent energy of orgasm.”

Pop theologians like Stephen Mitchell have widened the definition of prayer from “talking with God” to include everyday pursuits like concentrating deeply on a math problem. Similarly, Nicole Daedone, founder of One Taste, views sensuality as one of many circuits to the divine — or at least to liberation from societal “hangups.”

The Urban Monk Program offers its acolytes a range of programming from lectures on communication to 12-step inspired “sensual recovery” to hands-on “stroke clinics” and “orgasmic meditation (OM).” The tuition runs upwards of $12,000, or $2,000 per week, “with special arrangements for work trade.”


Thirty-nine-year-old Daedone opened One Taste on Folsom Street in SOMA in 2004. Daedone studied semantics at SFSU and theosophy on her own in The City before living in a series of sex-positive cooperatives in Oregon and Northern California. Together, the two experiences gave her the spark for One Taste, which takes practices from underground sex communities and brings them to the public.

[...]

Common Ground: Can you explain a little bit about how One Taste came about?

Nicole: I lived in a [sex-positive] community in Hawaii, I lived with a community in the Klamath River, near Oregon, and … there came a point where my original teacher said, “How do you want to pass on what you’ve learned? In what arena?” ...

CG: Tell us about these “communities” you lived in.

Nicole: Everyone was very underground, everyone was teaching sort of privately but … none of us seemed connected. Here we are, all these sensuality people and yet nobody really felt connected. [Eventually] I went back home and we had this little [sex-positive] community of 17 people in San Francisco. And for the first year and a half after we opened One Taste we were losing $10,000 a month, and we didn’t have any idea what we were doing. Now we’re 40 people, we have five buildings, four buildings on this block and we just got one right around the corner. And then we’re kind of looking to open a house in the East Bay and I’m looking to open another place in New York. So it’s…

CG: growing like crazy, sounds like.

Nicole: Yeah. We lost as much as you could feasibly lose every month and then, right at the two-year mark, everyone here started getting really turned on and individually stepping up as leaders in their own field.

CG: What do you attribute the traction to?

Nicole: We have tried some of the craziest things to get it off the ground. And then we really did stop trying. I actually closed the center, basically, and just started doing a teacher training program [20-some people are now qualified to teach Urban Monk programming], and then all of a sudden it started filling up. I mean, we refused to go off path, which is sensuality.

CG: It sounds like this is where you enter in a little bit, Beth, with the Urban Monk Program.

Beth: The current Urban Monk that we’re in is a three-month immersion program, residential. Starting in February we’re going to a six-week length. So, it changes by desire just like everything else around here.
...

CG: How did you come up with the curriculum?

Nicole: Some really salient ideas were put in by those teachers [in Hawaii and Klamath], but then we operate on appetite. And so it grew organically out of what was happening here.

...
...

CG: Where does your program differ from, say, seeking out a sex therapist?

Nicole: It’s integral — it isn’t solely focused on sexuality, it simply includes sexuality.

CG: So it’s more holistic.

Nicole: Yeah, it’s holistic. And I think a sex therapist — and this is just my assumption — would begin with an idea that there was something wrong, and I don’t necessarily think that anything’s wrong with anybody [who enrolls in the program]. What I hear most people who come here say is that they’re interested in either connecting or reconnecting with different parts of themselves at a much deeper level. We show people how to move through the powerful value judgments that they normally collapse into, and to walk into that fire.

CG: And with a sex therapist, you’re sitting there for 90 minutes or an hour and then you’re going home.

Nicole: This is complete immersion. There are people who come and take a one-day course, but being in a community you are polished by having other human beings witness you in different experiences.

CG: That’s something I’ve noticed a lot about San Francisco: We do a lot of sex and sensuality in public. And your classes could also be in private, but they’re not.

Nicole: When we take what’s on the inside and put it on the outside all of these elements like shame begin to fall away. Because we find out, we get to experience, “Oh wait, you have that thought too? Ah right…” and those I think are just things that keep us shrouded in unconsciousness. If I’m living an extreme private experience, there’s a lot more opportunity for me to take those things that I feel are bad or wrong or shameful about myself, and to go into a private room — I call it the fungus garden — to go into the fungus garden and just begin to nurse those things and never actually bring them to light. Being witnessed is the help that we need. In Buddhism, you have the observer, the witness inside of you and when you allow the witness to reign, clarity comes. And that can occur in an interactive way as well: Simply being witnessed can completely transform a life.

...

CG: People don’t need to be having sex or not having sex in order to find some “answer.”

Nicole: Andrew Korn wrote, “Sex is value neutral. It just is.” It’s just an incredibly powerful force. A friend of mine said, “Nicole, you’re always trying to live on the top deck of the Titanic, but it’s really the people on the lower deck who are having all the fun.” And that’s kind of what sensuality has been to date. It’s been sort of hedonistic. And it’s kind of like the kids in the smoking section have a certain level of freedom, and that’s what sensuality has been. My desire is that it actually be recognized on every level.

CG: One last question. Why is it attractive, this public manifestation of these different forms of sexuality and expression in San Francisco? Even the group “swinger” events, which are just another one of these smoking rooms you were talking about, is just another place for people to express themselves.

Nicole: We’re actors and we want to act in all different kinds of movies. I think when you enter those realms you become equipped with the script, the implied rules of the location, and the sensations that go with being in that field. And so you get to have this whole experience, and for me, I want to have every experience that I can possibly have. The trick is learning how to get in and how to get out. Those are things I’d like to explore. I don’t want to live there — I want to live a constantly moving life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 10:49AM by The Anticult.

These people truly are unbelievable, but believe it. They certainly have no shame, or even the most basic level of ethics or disclosure.

One wonders what the price for an article in Common Ground is?

Chandanni Miglino, one of the "writers" of the above Common Ground advertising article pretending to be a real article, is a follower of the Golden Guru OSHO-Rajneesh, who ran another sex-drug-cult, and who some have alleged introduced the Ecstasy/MDMA drug to the west.

Osho / Rajneesh Cult Introduced Ecstacy to the West
[forum.culteducation.com]


Osho/Rajneesh
[www.culteducation.com]


Chandanni Miglino
[consciouslifeexpo.com]
Chandanni Miglino is an actress, currently the publisher of Common Ground Magazine in San Francisco , and a yoga teacher. She has been practicing yoga and meditation for almost seven years. ...She has studied yoga with Gurmukh since the year 2000 and is a certified Kundalini yoga instructor. She incorporates the teachings of many spiritual teachers in her classes, including Osho and Swami Vishwananda whom she is touched and guided by.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 01:05PM by The Anticult.

Regarding the article from CG quoted above by Anticult:

Quote

Nicole: Yeah, it’s holistic. And I think a sex therapist — and this is just my assumption — would begin with an idea that there was something wrong, and I don’t necessarily think that anything’s wrong with anybody [who enrolls in the program].

"and this is just my assumption."

here ND is, presuming to speak of what sex therapists do, and admits it is just her assumption.

Wanna know WHY a professional sex therapist would be interested in whether anything could possibly be 'wrong' with a prospective client?

To determine whether sex therapy is the best treatment for that individual and whether the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks!

The Prime Directive for any professional, is 'above all do no further harm'--that is, do not add any new injuries or hang ups to what a person is already burdened with.

And to figure all that out, you have to do an intake interview and you have to have the training to know enough to ask the right questions.

Two, professional sex therapists are accountable to an ethos of care.

First, confidentiality is required. The professional is legally obligated to protect the client's privacy, especially when the information is potentially embarrassing. One has to be safeguarded from blackmail. Records have to be kept but in a secure place.

**Here is something to consider: Suppose a young person goes and lives at One Taste. Later in her life she may find out she wants to aim for high political office. But...can she be sure that her time at One Taste will not later become tabloid fodder? Is One Taste set up to ensure that people will be protected from such an outcome?

You cant know in your twenties what your actual long term
talents could be. It is easy to do things on impluse that could
hinder your range of options when you are older. In your twenties you may never imagine you could someday want to enter a line of work
where you would need to pass certain kinds of security clearances.

Confidentiality is important.

Other ways professionals arrange confidentiality:

Clients cant be videotaped or recorded without permission and unless consent forms are signed.

Professionals recognize that POWER is involved. Clients are vulnerable in relation to them. This isnt an egalitarian situation. It is a speical, BOUNDARIED situation designed to benefit the client, not to serve the whims of the professional.

That is how professional sex therapists do it. They try to find out if anything is 'wrong with you' because they dont want to add any more problems to whatever problems you might already have!

This gambit of insinuating that ethos of care infantalizes adults and insults us by suggesting we are childish enough to need to be protected is a very common theme.

This argument flatters our sense of autonomy while denying the real and very sad truth that our autonomy is actually a fragile thing and can be undermined under certain conditions--as demonstrated by Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment, and Stanley Milgram's obedience to authority experiments.

It should be noted that one result of this ground breaking experiment was that the American Psychological Association was alarmed by the potential for harm and put safeguards in place so that no further experiments of this kind could be done again.

The potential for harm was deemed to outweigh what could be learned and this association of professionals chose to police itself.

Professionals do ask not only what could be wrong with someone but what could GO WRONG and DO FURTHER HARM.

This kind of 'negative thinking' is done to increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.

Professionals are also trained to think very clearly about boundaries. And the conditions under which their own capacity for adult empathy could become impaired.

A lot can go wrong in just a 50 minute hour if a professional regresses.

Repeat, 50 minute hour. This is much more circumscribed than a residential setting.

A professional including a sex therapist, is trained to understand things like this:

Here is information of the mushy thinking that can happen when a professional therapist slips into boundary violation. The difference between powerholder and client becomes denied.

Going on this article, a professional (and this involves sex therapists) does very much more than assume something is wrong with us.

That person is trained to be accountable to boundaries, and to understand the power differential between client and therapist and that the therapist has to maintain a stance of balanced attention throughout a session and above all, remain adult and empathic.

Richard S Epstein tells us that one early warning sign of boundary blurring is precisely when someone who is supposed to be custodian of the boundary regresses and begins to insist that the realtionship is egalitarian, NOT one of caregiver and client needing protection:

"The therapist temporarily or permanently loses the essence and purpose of the role of caregiver....Metaphors are treatedas if they are reality. The loss of perspective is a sign of a defect in the therapists ego boundaries. It represents the beginning of a form of madness involving an increasing domination of the therapists behavior by primaryprocess thinking.

'For many professionals who engage in boundary violation, the process often begins with a denial of the very real power differential that exists between therapists and patients. The therapists position in relation to the patient becomes one of apparent equivalence.

"You and I are equals. I am here for you and you are here for me.'

"This faulty reasoning involves a disavowal of the ethos of care and the fiduciary role so intrinsic to the act of accepting a patient for therapy.

"Respect is fallaciously equated with equality."

Later on, Epstein notes:

"Role reversal almost always involves a change from the originally stated treatment goal--a "bait and switch". PP 98-99 Richard S Epstein Keeping Boundaries, American Psychiatric Press, 1994"[/quote]

This disavowal of ethos of care appears to covertly permeate a lot of New Age therapies

Quote

"New Age therapists adopt the strategy of placing the counselor on the same plane of responsiblity as teh client or completely outside of the circle of responsiblity, in the role of neutral advisor. Such an argument shifts the responsiblity for choice of methodology from therapist to client.

(So what is identified by Dr Epstein as a risk factor becomes part of the ideology permeating an entire social scene--one that feels initially empowering, but leaves clients vulnerable to exploitation without their recognizing it.C)

Another arguement frequently advanced by New Age therapists s that they are merely "counselors" who have been sought out by potential clients for advice. Thus, the therapists services were obtained as a result of the clients free choice* , and the client made that choice of methodology based on his or her needs and beliefs.

Therefore, the argument goes, the therapists conduct should be measured solely on the basis of the clients choices.

From page 192 'New Age Therapies' from Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology, edited by Lilienfeld, Lynn and Lohr, Guilford Press 2003

A final reflection on Common Ground

The December 2008 issue had a feature on Andrew Cohen

[commongroundmag.com]

Cohen has has a turbulent life, and is well documented for his harsh treatment of people.

A Google search could have turned up the following items

An article on Freedom of Mind that has been up for years

Two books: one by Cohen's mother, published in the mid nineties covering the period 1985-1995

[www.themotherofgod.com]

Enlightement Blues by Andre van der Braak, first editor of Cohen's magazine who was there from about 1986 to 1997/8,

[www.monkfishpublishing.com]

An article on the joys of communal life a la Andrew Cohen:

[www.freedomofmind.com]

It ignored this blog, owned and run by a former editor of Cohen's magazine.

[essentialwhatenlightenment.blogspot.com]

(these two articles describe a distressing situation)

[whatenlightenment.blogspot.com]

[whatenlightenment.blogspot.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2008 12:40AM by corboy.

A tip to researchers:

Anyone who wants to educate themselves as to the kinds of questions to ask when researching any sort of in-group that claims it is cutting edge, and re-arranges sexual boundaries as a way to create a new society, should get and read People Farm by Steve Susoyev.

The events described happened thirty years ago and the group no longer exists.

Half the battle is learning to ask the right questions and this book will
educate researchers on exactly what questions can be asked.

Quote


"A profound and ethically challenging tale. . . Reminds us of the corruptibility of good intentions."

— Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide

[www.peoplefarm.com]

The events described happened thirty years ago, and the group no longer exists.

The author, himself a former member, stated that one of his greatest ethical challenges in writing it was how to do so in a way that protected the privacy of the many members who had moved on to live new lives and did not want anyone to know their ties to this group.

That is why confidentiality is of the utmost importance and why professionals, including sex therapists, must take that into account--professionalism is very much more than as ND stated in the Common Ground article, "begin(ing) with an idea that there was something wrong.'

Being a professional, including a professional sex therapist, means being trained to prevent things from going wrong--and that means protecting confidentiality so as to ensure that what is done in session and in our twenties can never at any time become a matter for regret in our forties or compromise our employability and social mobility.

A thought experiment for our readers:

Consider a political figure whom you admire, who has demonstrably done great good.

What if that man or woman had, in his or her twenties, become involved with something that seemed like a wonderful Breakthrough in Communal Living, and later realized that it was something very different?

Something that was tabloid fodder.

And because they'd been in that group, they could never pass a security clearance.

Or bear heavy media scrutiny.

And would have had to opt out of politics and never have become the person whose career you admire today..

For Mr Susoyev reported that friends who had been in the group with him had jobs and families years later, and begged him to protect their privacy.

What had seemed liberating in thier twenties, looked very very different when they were parents and had jobs.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2008 11:14PM by corboy.

Red Flag List from Heartless Bitches International Website

The devil is in the details. This list gives 156 Red Flags.

Scroll down and read #156.

Then, go to the top and read your way down.

[www.heartless-bitches.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 12:14AM by corboy.

The People Farm reference is important in this story.
On the People Farm homepage, there is the quote that the Ranch is a "human relations laboratory."

That is the exact same language as Nicole Daedone, and Vic Baranco. There is so much going on its hard to sort it out. But they claim they are doing "sexual research" for many reasons. One is to try and give everything a veil that they are doing "experiments", like a science project. But in reality, there are no social science studies going on at all.

Its a for-profit corporation. Its about making money for the owners of the company, Nicole Daedone, and her silent partner/investor.

Also, by saying its "research" they are able to further depersonalize people's sexualities.
And as stated above, modifying people's sexual boundaries...that is powerful stuff.
They have specific methods and techniques to do this, only a few of which have been exposed so far. Hopefully we can hear more about what goes on in the OneTaste Residency on a day to day basis, and what happens at night, and at retreat parties, etc. (do they invite special "guests" to the offsite OneTaste parties? Is there video-taping going on that people are even aware of?)

Nicole Daedone does admit she has been involved in sex-communities for many years, although she hides which one's. Some info did leak out she was involved with Vic Baranco for 7 years, and they appeared to have copied most of his methods. But there are other techniques in there too, they seem to be drawing from the Landmark LGAT too, and many others.


Its important to remember that this thread originally began with a post from someone who's 23 year old niece had grown estranged from her best friend who got involved in OneTaste SF.
[forum.culteducation.com]
There are other reports similar to this in this thread, and a number of similar reports online, young women getting lured into OneTaste and then breaking away from family and friends and going MIA.


On an equally serious note, there is a report at Yelp from a female who says she "had to physically make an escape" from OneTaste SF.

This shows what appears to be strong coercive techniques to prevent desired members from leaving, right up to the point of physical restraint. Many of these groups do this technique, as many people who are more passive will back down and not leave at that moment. Of course, they generally have the rule to not physically restrain people, as that is illegal.
(If anyone has been physically restrained against their will while trying to leave any group, call the police).

But they are trained to block the exit doorway with their body, stand in their way, group hug people, take you to a private room, and many other behaviors that are right on the edge of criminal restraint. That is very common, when they don't want to lose a good recruit.
Even Scientology has done things like that in the past...stand in front of the doorway in the recruiting room and tell you they want you to sign the paper for classes before you leave. These groups will do this right up to the point of a physical fight, in hopes that you will back down. The sad reality is that most people will back down, and this gives the culty group another chance to keep the desired recruit, in which they have invested so much time already.
(of course, they also use reverse psychology sometimes, and threaten to throw people out, to make them stay).
The comment "had to physically make an escape" is below.

________________________________________
(Yelp review excerpt)
[www.yelp.com]

11/5/2007
While pausing to write this review i noticed the categories included, "Adult, Day Spas, Yoga"

The Yelp people should really consider adding a "Cult" category to the selective choices because thats what this place fucking is.

This hot mess of weirdness really should just go for the gusto and rename itself the One Tase Urban Cult Center.

Straight up Waco shit going on in there, just with more group sex and yoga.

Dont ask me how i know these things, please.

But in all honesty if i ever felt the need to have sex with a wide variety of people in a single setting i'll take the Power Exchange, because at least i can leave at the end.

All i can say is that I never thought I would ever have a story to whip out at parties about how i got temporarily trapped in a cult, referred to as "an outsider",and had to physically make an escape.

Well now i do.

Thanks, One Taste Urban Cult Center.
_______________________________



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 02:15AM by The Anticult.

Just wanted to say "great work!", AC. You are really digging into some core stuff here. It is a bottomless pit. Keep it up.

Several tips: the Norcal fusion of the military/industrial complex, the psychedelic counterculture, and "sex cults" of the One Taste variety is a long and sordid history. You are not finding something "new", but simply the way things work in the Bay Area, SF in particular. Remember: it was SF's politicians who backed and protected Jim Jones for YEARS, yet they all escaped any comeuppance. Gavin Newsom appears to be keeping up the legacy.

futher topics for study if you're interested:

-Esalen and its connections to the intelligence community. Google "hottub diplomacy".
-Institute of Noetic Sciences and its similar connections.
-Yogi Bhajan, who is responsible for the popularization of Kundalini yoga, and was a HUGE influence on Western sex cult leaders, and who was eulogized as an asset of US intelligence by Bill Richardson, who is currently in the news. Richardson flew the flag at half-mast in New Mexico when Bhajan bought the farm. Bhajan was originally head of customs at the New Delhi airport, before he came to Sunset Strip and started recruiting followers. In later years, some of his core leaders were busted for being involved with drug trafficking on boats in the Bay Area. I suspect he had a "free pass" for his work with CIA. Also, scraping the bottom of the barrel, he was operating a "boiler room" operation in LA where his workers were calling Canadians and saying "you just won the Canadian lottery!... but you need to send us 10,000 dollars to claim the prize." And, yet, despite all of this, his church still owns a security company that has contracts with Homeland Security, among others.

Rick wrote a great piece on this guy...

[www.culteducation.com]

[www.culteducation.com]

"Calling Yogi Bhajan his "personal friend and peer'', the Governor remembered his more than two-decades-long association with Yogi Bhajan and narrated he had turned to Yogiji when he lost his bid for the US Congress in 1980. "He advised me to shake every hand.'' That was a real lesson in the art of politics which stood him in good stead, the Governor said, adding that the holy man had later advised him on international issues when he (Richardson) was America's ambassador at the UN.

Yogi Bhajan was a multi-dimensional personality, the Governor said. He was a great spiritual master, a knowledgeable political leader and a savvy businessman whose Sikh Dharma today runs more than a corporations across America. Yogiji brought not only spiritual wealth to New Mexico, but also material wealth, Richardson said.

The Governor told the gathering how US intelligence, through him, had approached Yogi Bhajan for advice during the India-Pakistan tensions in south Asia. ``He was a man of peace. he hated war.. he was very blunt, but always right. He was a leader beyond the Sikh community....,'' he said.

Describing Yogi Bhajan as "a friend of the entire political leadership of this state and the entire political leadership of America," Richardson said he exerted a strong influence on all leaders.

Just two months ago, Richardson, along with three ex-Governors, had attended Yogi Bhajan's 75 birthday which is celebrated as International Peace Day. "This was an important event, not just for New Mexico and the Southwest, but an important event for America and the world.''

Messages from the Indian Prime Minister, US president George Bush and UN secretary-general Kofi Annan were read on the occasion"

END OF EXCERPT:


-The Burning Man Festival and its connections to the same Norcal corporate elite.

General overlaps between these groups: life-extension advocates (Alcor for example), space exploration (privatized), the "singularity": artificial intelligence outstripping human intelligence. The singularity people seem to advocate for uploading human brains onto computers for an exodus from Earth. All of this is very "rich white people escape from Earth" to my thinking.

good intro to it. Why the secrecy? Could it be some of us don't WANT to be taken over by AI or have our brains uploaded?

[www.roughtype.com]