Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Orgsm: Inside the Matriarchal Cult of OneTaste chronicles Ruwan Meepagala’s personal journey inside OneTaste, the controversial organization that built its entire philosophy and business around “Orgasmic Meditation” (OM). The memoir follows Ruwan from a chance encounter with a cryptic invitation to a New York meetup on the “Female Orgasm,” through his immersion into OneTaste’s matriarchal, cult-like structure, and his eventual disillusionment and departure. Throughout, Ruwan explores his own desires, insecurities, and search for meaning, as he’s swept up in the promises and manipulations of the charismatic founder and her inner circle. The book is both an insider exposé and a coming-of-age story, as Ruwan confronts the blurred boundaries between pleasure, power, community, and exploitation, emerging with hard-earned self-knowledge. How can what promises magical delight become a tool of psychological control?

I found Orgsm to be a one-of-a-kind memoir; unfiltered and utterly raw. Ruwan Meepagala discusses sexuality, consent, gender, and agency. OneTaste’s matriarchal “feminine” power structure is depicted as both liberating and coercive, upending traditional gender roles but also using the rhetoric of spiritual growth and “awakening” to justify emotional and sexual manipulation. Ruwan’s candid self-examination reveals how easily self-improvement can become self-abandonment, as he and others sacrifice boundaries and critical thinking in pursuit of belonging, ecstasy, and enlightenment. You’ll meet intriguing people in the memoir: Nicole Daedone is equal parts guru, entrepreneur, and cult leader; the “Sister Goddesses” shift between sisterhood and rivalry; and men in the group experience a fraught terrain between service and submission. Critical questions emerge: Can sexual practices ever be separated from power dynamics? Where is the line between healing and harm, empowerment and exploitation? What does it mean to “wake up,” and at what cost? There is no way you will read this book without thinking hard about brainwashing, cult psychology, and what it means to take control of yourself after experiencing what the author went through. A very inspiring memoir.