The Binge Crimes: Deadly Fortune - Mystic Mother | 3. The Article

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

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Campsite Media. It's spiritual. Even though there's confusion about what we're up to, I think that the need in society is much greater than the fear around that we might be doing something. You know, we're a church. We're not breaking any laws, and we are a church. But it's not so black and white for everyone. We do sex work and we bring a spirituality to it. But in Tracy's mind, it was either or. We do sex work and we bring a spirituality to it. But in Tracy's mind, it was either or. This is Tara. That was her goddess name at the temple.

I think in a way she felt like she had to try to make it digestible for people in some way. There is a problem in our culture and Tracy was trying to change it. I don't agree with how she went about it, but she at least was trying. Sex can be as mundane or as sacred as you want it to be. It's just the intention that you're bringing to it. It's more like therapy with a happy ending. It's what sex work really is. Tara was one of a handful of goddesses who identified as a sex worker. She says she understands why Tracy felt the need to make these distinctions between sex work and what happens at the temple. But she also thinks it does more harm than good.

Sex work has been so demonized and stigmatized. I think the general population probably has a hard time like even comprehending that, right? Every culture you go to, there are problems with sex workers. Like you're less than, you're a whore, so it makes you dirty. Tara says that stigma makes her work dangerous. Since it's criminalized, sex workers can end up working alone with clients in isolated places.

And there's risk of violence or sexual assault. There's literally nowhere safe to go. So for some goddesses, the temple was a refuge. Tracy provided all of us with, I think, probably the safest space you could provide for women. What made it safe? There were a shit ton of people there all the time. You can come out of a session and go get the other women and say, see that dude right there? Don't do a session with him. And you have somebody taking calls for you. That's like an added layer of protection.

The temple also seemed to offer a layer of protection from another threat, law enforcement. Since the temple was operating out of an office building, goddesses could practice behind closed doors, out of sight of patrol cars. And by 2011, the temple had been operating very publicly, and without consequence, for three years. Until one cool February morning. The moment I got to the temple, my personal cell phone started blowing up. So I finally picked one of them up, and it was one of my clients who said, you need to pack all of your shit up, and you need to get out of that temple right now.

Take everybody with you that you can. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, you're listening to Witnessed, Mystic Mother. Episode 3, The Article. I'm going to go. Take Brittany. After years of unsustainable diets, Noom helped her lose 20 pounds and keep it off. I was definitely in a yo-yo cycle for years of just losing weight, gaining weight, and it was exhausting. And Stephanie. She's a former D1 athlete who knew she couldn't out-train her diet, and she lost 38 pounds. My relationship to food before Noom was never consistent. And Evan. He can't stand salads, but he still lost 50 pounds with Noom. I never really was a salad guy. That's just not who I am.

Even through the pickiness, Noom taught me that building better habits builds a healthier lifestyle. I'm not doing this to get to a number. I'm doing this to feel better. Get your personalized plan today at Noom.com. Real Noom users compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, a typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. You had mentioned before that you knew about the Phoenix Goddess Temple. I was just wondering what you knew about it and what the reputation was.

It was just like this little laughing thing to us, ourselves, among sex workers of color. And we thought, well, you know, it's like, it's a bunch of white people enjoying their life and using their privilege to work in this way. And we were like, go for it. But it did not directly impact us. This is Monica Jones. She's a former sex worker and is now a sex work activist in Phoenix. She says she's not at all surprised the temple was able to operate so freely. Look at who's running it. There was no way that a whole bunch of trans women could open up a goddess temple and be open for as long as they were.

Most of the goddesses at the temple were white cis women, including Tracy. For many white women, especially older white women who engage in sex work, it's sexual healing, it's these crystals, oh I do massage, it's tantra and all this other stuff. But if a black woman is engaged in sex work, she's just a whore. Monica is describing a concept that is sometimes referred to by sex workers as the whorearchy. It's the idea that some types of sex work are better and more respectable than others. And sex workers who work on the street are usually at the bottom of that hierarchy. They're often trans women and women of color who are most likely to experience poverty, racism, transphobia, incarceration, and violence. So the experience of a Black trans sex worker is very different from a temple goddess. Many, many sex workers who I've spoken to over the years,

you know, when I ask them about violences that they experience as a result of the work that they do, they often point to police. This is Crystal Jackson. She's an associate professor at Texas Christian University who studies sexual labor and sex worker rights. There's a lot of evidence that trans women of color, particularly Black and Latina trans women, are constantly targeted by police, harassed by police, assumed to be engaging in prostitution by police. This type of profiling is actually legal in many cities across the country. In Phoenix, there's an ordinance called manifesting prostitution. This basically means police can arrest anyone they suspect has an intention to engage in sex work, even if they haven't done it. For example, if you're stopping strangers to talk to them or hailing a car, or if you ask someone if they're law enforcement, if you're doing any of this in public, you can be suspected of manifesting prostitution.

This is often referred to as the walking while trans law. Because the law is so vague that the way someone is dressed or walking or talking can be cause for arrest. And it becomes very easy for police to target trans people. Anyone who's walking, especially a woman, a trans woman, walking down the street dressed in a certain way can be charged with this manifestation. It's in specific neighborhoods, low-income neighborhoods, predominantly people of color,

that they say, well, oh, this is a non-prostitution area. We are going to tack on this manifestation ordinance here. And these laws are reminiscent of sundown laws during the Jim Crow era, where they are used to funnel people into the prison industrial complex. And so it is this privilege of being white and engaging in what you're saying as a healer

and being a Black woman who engaged in it as a means of surviving, right? It's the same thing. From where Monica was standing, it seemed like Tracy might have found a way through the system. After the TV and radio interviews, the heated meeting with the city counselor, and the Backpage.com ads, police definitely knew about the temple.

They had stopped by to scope it out a few times. They even brought one male member of the temple in for questioning. But as far as we can tell, they hadn't made any official arrests. And that ability to run the temple with very little interference, without the constant fear of arrests or threat of police violence, made it possible for goddesses like Tara to enjoy some semblance of protection. Protection women like Monica just don't have. Monica says if all it takes to have that extra safety is being part of a goddess temple, she'd be down to convert. Kudos to them for having it open so long. I love their logic of like, yes, this is a religion. And so it was brilliant, but it was just, it was not for us.

So the temple was flying under the radar. But Tracy didn't want to just fly under the radar. She wanted to expand. She was looking to grow the brand, and I think that was all in pursuit of bringing this out into the open because she thought it was helpful to people. If you have a business like that, you probably want to keep it kind of quiet, but she just wanted to be out there.

Tracy was even trying to create a reality show, because what better exposure could there be than a sexy cable TV series? Eventually, the show fell through. We don't know why, but we do know it would have made the temple even more public, and not everyone was comfortable with that. Plus, you couldn't exactly show whole body healing sessions on TV. But Tracy wasn't going to stop there. And one reporter was about to give the temple more exposure than Tracy ever dreamed of. I don't remember exactly how she told all of us that a New Times reporter was coming to the temple. This is Tara, who we heard from earlier. By New Times, she means Phoenix New Times, an alt-weekly newspaper.

It has a reputation for being counterculture and more edgy than other local publications. But it can also be snarky and contrarian. So when goddesses heard that's who was coming, they didn't quite know what to expect. But everyone we talked to said the same thing. She said that they were going to create an article about fun things to do for couples on Valentine's Day. What I remember is the New Times article was supposed to have come out on Valentine's Day. Some Temple members were really nervous about this, and according to Tara, there was a Temple meeting, and people tried to convince Tracy to back out.

But Tracy was fearless. And stubborn. She had so much confidence. There was no, like, intimidating her. There was no even really pushing against her very much. Like, when you got into her space, it was her space. I just remember leaving that meeting and being like, this is not going well. Like, whatever's happening, this is not a good idea. I don't like it.

Like, that kind of thought process. This article was important. It was a chance to really show the world what the temple was about in a newspaper that would end up all over town. Most goddesses assumed Tracy would do the interview with the reporter. But Rebecca Carrara, a.k.a. Aphrodite, says at the last minute things changed. I remember the night before, she asked me, would you do an interview? And I said, sure. Because I say sure to everything.

Sure, sure. Yeah, okay. So the journalist came and went. And it seemed like everything had gone well. Everyone just kind of held their breath and waited. And then the article didn't come out. And it didn't come out. Until a few days after Valentine's Day. I'd just gotten off work that morning at 6.30 in the morning and was getting ready to drive home.

This is Les. He was one of Rebecca's seekers. And I saw the New Times was out and I had known it was going to come out, but I didn't know which issue. And I got it and I read it there in the parking lot and I just about had a heart attack there on the spot. That's after the break. I love when the sponsors of our programs are selling products I already use. And that's why I'm very happy to say that Quince is a sponsor of the show. Finding the perfect gift can be really overwhelming, especially at this time of year. I like to give people things that they actually want. And so this year, check out Quince. It's a perfect spot for timeless gifts made from premium materials. I absolutely love the iconic Mongolian cashmere sweaters. I have them in like

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So I went to the temple that morning, and the moment I got to the temple, my personal cell phone started blowing up. So I finally picked one of them up and it was one of my clients who is a very successful businessman in Phoenix. And he said, you need to pack all of your shit up and you need to get everything in that building that has your picture on it out right now. And I said, what are you talking about? And he goes, you haven't seen the New Times article yet, have you? Then the phone rang again. Another client who I think was a lawyer said, pack up your shit, get everything that has your picture on it out of that building right now.

And again. And a third client. Ah, this is not going to end well. Get out of that temple right now. So the article wasn't about sexy things to do with your partner on Valentine's Day. It was an expose, and it was on the cover. On the front page of New Times, Phoenix Goddess Temple, religion or New Age prostitution,

I believe is what the headline said. This is Nadine. She practiced at the temple when the article came out. And she's close. The headline was actually, Phoenix Goddess Temple's Sacred Sexuality is More Like New Age Prostitution. In it, the reporter wrote that the temple, quote, claims to offer touch to the sexually wounded and disenfranchised.

But really it appears to be nothing more than a New Age brothel practicing Jack's psychology techniques. The reporter also details her experience watching a 60-minute session between Rebecca and a man who was a practitioner at the temple named Wayne Clayton. So I did a session on Wayne. I did a session just like I did all my sessions. So I was showing her what I did with the oil

and the heart chakras and all that stuff. So just a heads up, things are about to get explicit. Rebecca starts the way she normally does, with Wayne laying naked on his stomach as she massages his back. They like that. As I'm telling them things like, you're a good person, whatever I've talked about in the very beginning

to kind of find out why they're there, I'll just give my thoughts that come up at the moment and try to reinforce that they're a good person, even if they're probably cheating on their wife. But, um... And then I ask the client to turn over. And then, um... most of the time, I lay on them with my arms out and, anyways, do some of the massage techniques. And then I get up,

and then that proceeds to have the happy ending. So we did a complete session there. She watched everything. Rebecca also gave Wayne a prostate massage. Right there, in front of the reporter. But that wasn't even the end. After that, Wayne did a session with Rebecca. I don't even know why she asked me, really.

But, I mean, she should have done that because I flubbed it up. Rebecca says she didn't feel prepared to do all this in front of a reporter, and she wasn't the right person to do it. Because I wasn't as spiritual. I didn't know the words. I, you know, it didn't sound right. Rebecca says that if anyone should have done this, it should have been Tracy. Tracy says in one of her YouTube videos that Rebecca and Wayne jumped at the chance to share their healing methods, that they had overcome their own trauma and wanted to show how this was possible. But like Rebecca said before, she remembers Tracy coming to her. And Wayne confirms this.

She didn't coach me or anything. She didn't say what to say, what not to say. Goddesses felt like they were told the story would be about one thing, but it was actually about something else. And it painted the temple in a really damaging light. That experience was bullshit. We reached out to the journalist who wrote the article to ask about this, but she didn't want to talk with us. Neither did her editor.

And we reached out to the Phoenix New Times, but we didn't get a response. We don't know what she told people the article was going to be about or if this was just a game of telephone. We just know that everyone felt betrayed. And some people, like Tara, started to panic. So, like, I had a little bit of a meltdown, got myself together, and I started going and talking to other women. And by then, the temple was getting phone calls. Other women whose seekers had their personal phone number, they were getting phone calls.

And so I'm talking to women like we have to leave. And they just, none of them wanted to believe it. They all believed that they were going to be safe and that everything was going to be okay. That's because all along Tracy had assured them that it was okay. The temple wasn't a brothel. It was a church. And because it was a church, what happened there wasn't prostitution. It was sacred and protected by the First Amendment. Tracy was also running another temple in Sedona. There, they were also expressing their beliefs

openly. Very openly. We've seen people on that front patio, not in the pool area, bouncing up and down on a rebounder completely naked with headphones on and doing airborne yoga. This is a city council meeting in Sedona a few months after the article came out. The man speaking is one of the temple's neighbors. He's asking the city council to get the temple off his street. Here's another neighbor. Let them hold their gatherings, let them have their parsonage, let them do whatever they want. But by God, keep it away from my house. Where is the practical application of averting your eyes? Tracy steps in to set the record straight.

And I have to say that worship of the sun laying naked outside is part of our religion. I just want to say that. When Tracy says this is our religion, it puts Sedona's then-mayor Rob Adams in a tricky position. He doesn't want to come across as discriminatory or limiting anyone's religious freedom, so he has to be really careful. You know, the allegations that have been made against the Sedona Temple are very concerning. But the fact is, is that it's been stated that this is an unconventional spiritual institution. So our hands are tied to a great extent in terms of what we can and can't do. The allegations against the temple went far beyond naked yoga.

There were serious concerns that a brothel was operating in a residential neighborhood. Here's what the mayor said when we interviewed him. It just raised a lot of red flags in the neighborhood, and I completely get that. To actually prove something that would be illegal, like prostitution, we needed proof. Actual proof. More than just an article or complaints from the neighbors. We just didn't have that proof. So I think that the city probably erred on the side of caution in terms of allowing them to operate here.

So from Tracy's perspective, this challenge by the neighbors fails. They're still able to operate exactly as they had been. Nothing changes for them. And the freaking mayor says he's not going to intervene because of the religious freedom issue. And all of this reaffirms Tracy's belief that the temple hasn't been shut down because it can't be shut down. Even though this was a win for Tracy, that New Times article left the temple really vulnerable. It was the kind of article that could and did change the way people saw the temple on the outside, and on the inside too.

Tension started to build around the temple, quite a lot. This is a former goddess who wanted to remain anonymous, so we're going to call her Nicole. I could see there was a big shift in the energy. All of a sudden, the freedom and what felt like initially was a breath of fresh air, now everything was changing. And there was a lot of fear, and there were a lot of practitioners leaving. And I hadn't been around the temple prior long enough to really understand what was happening. I'd only been there for a few weeks. But the classes stopped, basically. I would show up at the time where the classes were supposed to be happening,

and then there would be no class. And I'd just be sitting there at this temple, just wondering what's going to happen. Nicole says the tension was palpable. It was thick. It was like you could cut it with a knife in the air. There was a lot more frustration, a lot more anger. At the beginning, I didn't know how bad it was going to be for Phoenix Goddess Temple.

This is Rebecca again. I was like in fairyland. Like I would just float, like through the halls with my long dresses on. And I was in denial and I was in a fairyland there, but I should have known. That's after the break. Hello, it's your beauty and wellness BFFs. And we're here to answer all your burning questions. Skincare, makeup, parenting, and more.

We have got you covered. Oh, yes, we do. We'll speak with industry insiders, celebrities, and our close friends. And give all our honest and unfiltered thoughts always. Listen to Lipstick on the Rim now on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. I was in a session.

I was actually working there on that day. And I remember having a new client come in and he was kind of uncomfortable, like, what do I do? And I remember taking my sheer cloth off and running on his body, and I hadn't even got the oil or anything like that. And the room's kind of dark because you light candles, so you can see, but it's dim enough to where it's kind of dark in there. And then all of a sudden, I looked over and I saw light, like a flashlight underneath the door. Like going back and forth, a flashlight. And I thought, what the heck is that? Then I heard, bam, bam, bam. Open up, please.

So the guy's like, he got up, he goes, what should I do? I said, put your clothes on, put your clothes on. So I got my wrap and wrapped it back around me, and then they pretty much banged the door open, and then they're on the ground, on the ground. And they had their helmets on, like all the gear, like the SWAT team or whatever. The temple was being raided.

Rebecca was handcuffed and taken away. So they started interrogating me, like, you know, what are you doing? What's going on? And then I just thought, do exactly what they say, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't scared. I think I was in shock. All the practitioners who were in the temple at the time of the raid were arrested, and warrants were issued for others, including Tracy.

And at this exact moment, Tracy was over 100 miles away at the temple in Sedona, where she was living. That temple was also being raided. It turned out that police had been investigating the Phoenix Goddess Temple for months. Some of the seekers who had come to the temple were actually undercover cops. Next time on Witnessed, Mystic Mother. It's Detective Campbell with Detective Herman. We are going to the temple to meet with the gatekeeper about our employment status there. There were conversations about how she was going to rub me down with coconut oil. I was actually handed the Phoenix New Times article multiple times from different sources

and everybody inquired as to whether or not we were going to investigate. I want people to remember that there were no victims. If an adult wants to become a sex worker, that should not be a crime. I don't care what they want. You want to call it a donation, a fee. Accepting money for sex is against the law. To be continued... Katie Hennick. And me, Leah Hennick. This series was reported by Sarah Ventry and written by Sarah Ventry and Emily Martinez. Additional reporting by Katie and Leah Hennick. Sarah Ventry is our managing producer.

Our story editor and executive producer is Emily Martinez. Additional editing by Mike Meyer. Produced by Katie and Leah Hennick. Associate producer, Sidney Fleischman. Additional production assistance from Mo Laborde and Ron Warner. A huge thank you to Rebecca Ross, our legal researcher. Our theme song was composed by Betsy Ganz and Chris Norby and performed by Betsy Ganz, Chris Norby, and John Rauhaus.

It was recorded and mixed by Michael Krasner and mastered by Chris Norby. The series was sound designed and mixed by Claire Mullen. Our recording engineers are Mike DeLay and Gavin Rain at Real Voice LA. Special thanks to Campside's studio manager and mix engineer, Ewan Lai-Tremuin, and Campside producer studio manager and mix engineer, Ewen Lai-Tramuen, and Campside producer,

Johnny Kaufman. Our fact-checkers are Sarah Sneath and Callie Hitchcock. Additional research from Alex Yablon. Thanks to Debra Dawn, Hugh Urban, Susan Stieritz, Rhianne Eisler, Sfrana Borkataki-Varma, Phoenix Kalita, Natalia Winkleman, and Miriam Wasser. And thanks to Tracy Elise, who gave Campside permission to use videos she created. The Pat McMahon Show is a production of KAZT-TV. Monica Jones is the founder and CEO of The Outlaw Project, an organization that builds tiny homes for trans women of color in Arizona. For more information, check out theoutlawproject.org. And a special thanks to our operations team, Doug Slaywin, Aaliyah Papes, and Allison Haney.

Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriotis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher. If you enjoyed Mystic Mother, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts.