The Binge Crimes: Lady Mafia - Mystic Mother | 1. Aphrodite

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

When Rebecca discovers a new kind of church, she goes from seeker to goddess. Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of Mystic Mother, ad-free right now by subscribing to The  Binge — All Episodes. All at Once. Plus you’ll unlock brand new stories, dropping every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Mystic Mother show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just a note before we get started. This episode deals with some sensitive subjects, including sex and sexual assault. Please take care as you listen. If you drive down 24th Street in Central Phoenix, past the car wash and the pawn shop and the fast food drive-thrus, you'll come across a nondescript office building on the west side of the road. Nestled between the bustling traffic and a wide, slow-moving canal, there's a big picture of a goddess, and she's standing with her legs open, I think her hands up in the air, and the sunlight was coming right through her genital area,

like just big bursts of light. It was all dim lights and pastel colors and candles and incense and goddess statues and the sounds of falling water, little fountains and that sort of thing. I think there was about eight rooms, but each room was different and had its own name. The orange room was the Hindu room. The rainbow room was the Persian room. Everything was swathed in crepey cloths and it was really very serene, peaceful. So there were some different areas where they go and pray. The ceiling was painted with sky, just really beautiful. And the massage tables were gorgeous. They had lights underneath and lots of sheer fabric,

and maybe sometimes they'd twinkle. This is Rebecca Carrara. And one day in 2011, she was at the Phoenix Goddess Temple in one of those rooms with the massage table and a man. And he was kind of uncomfortable, like, what do I do? And I talked to him for a little bit, so I made him feel comfortable, and I said, just lay on your stomach. See, what I wore is like G-string underwear

and like a sheer wrap that tied above my breasts. 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 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, who's out there? Then I heard, bam, bam, bam, open up, police. And the guy's like, he goes, what should I do? I said, put your clothes on, put your clothes on. And then they pretty much banged the door open.

On the ground, on the ground. A SWAT team enters. Rebecca is pulled outside where her picture is taken. In the photo, someone's holding a white piece of paper in front of her with her name and birthdate handwritten in black marker. It looks kind of like a mugshot, but instead of a cold, gray room, Rebecca's standing in the sun

before a tall plant with bright red flowers. She's wearing just her sheer orange wrap around her chest, her nails are painted bubblegum pink, and her wrists are cuffed. I wasn't scared. You know, I do really good in emergency situations. I'm the one that puts the pressure on the wound or whatever. But I'm sitting there and I'm like, you know what, if I'm going to the police station, can I please go get my clothes on? And I can see far away, like, camera crews. Details about a sting operation

involving dozens of people accused of running a brothel out of a so-called religious temple. Exotic stories about undercover cops, sex, spirituality, and money. We're uncovering some dirty details from the investigation of the so-called sex church. Rebecca and 17 other people are arrested that day. And that was just the beginning.

It sunk in later. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm going to do some jail time. So what is the Phoenix Goddess Temple? This place with the women in G-strings and the crepey cloths and apparently a SWAT team? That depends on who you ask. For some, the temple was a spiritual home. A place set apart from the rest of the world that felt validating, safe, and freeing. For the first time in my life, I'm being told, by being a woman, you have your own power and you have your own beauty and this is what it is

and you're more powerful than you ever knew. For others, it was offensive. We've seen people on that front patio bouncing up and down on a rebounder completely naked doing airborne yoga sacrilegious instead of a brothel or a house of prostitution they called it a church and illegal phoenix police department's vice unit concluded a six-month-long investigation into the goddess temple the owners and its employees for years have engaged in acts of prostitution under the guise of religious freedom. This investigation was huge. In total, almost three dozen people were indicted. The temple's founder, Tracy Elise, could face dozens of felony charges and decades in prison.

Tracy maintained the whole time that this was her religion and that the state was infringing on her First Amendment rights. Hi, I'm Tracy Elise, mystic mother of the Phoenix Goddess Temple. We believe at the temple that the soul is sacred and the body is holy. And that when we put the soul and the body together, that we can heal ourselves and we can find peace and love and beauty in the world. But those in positions of power said,

actually, this isn't a valid religion. This was no more a church than Cuba is Fantasy Island. I'm Leah Hennick. And I'm Katie Hennick. Katie's my sister. We're both actors and writers, and we've been making things together

since before Katie could talk. Ever since I first heard about the Phoenix Goddess Temple, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Or talking about it, specifically to me at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night. Well, I had just gone through a breakup and I needed someone to talk to about it, so. Lucky me. We were raised Unitarian Universalists. Our mom grew up going to a Disciples of Christ church in Oklahoma, which is Protestant, and our dad's a Jewish atheist from New Jersey. So somehow they landed on UU as a compromise. It's made up of people from lots of different faiths. Yeah, whenever holidays came around, it's sort of a choose-your-own-adventure situation.

But let's be honest, it was pretty late on the actual religion part. I remember one Sunday service, we were asked to get up and read our beliefs in front of the congregation. I think I talked a lot about nature or space. I think I quoted from that Winnie the Poo book, The Tao of Poo. That tracks. The point being, our idea of religion or spirituality was pretty open. But when we heard about the goddess temple, it still seemed radical. It celebrates sex and sexuality in a way that most religious institutions just don't do. And the woman at the center of it, Tracy Elise, she has so much confidence in her beliefs, in her body, in the power of her own sexuality, and she has no shame around any of it. That's just not been my experience as a woman.

So we started to dig into this story. And as we did, we realized it's a story that challenges our own beliefs about sex, religion, and power. And it brought up a ton of really big questions. Like who gets to decide whether religion is valid or not? What is and isn't allowed in the name of belief? Why is sex work criminalized? And who stands to gain or lose when all of this plays out in court? From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, you're listening to Witnessed, Mystic Mother. Episode 1, Aphrodite. To be continued... Daphne Park, the spy who killed the prime minister. As the Belgian Congo gains its independence,

Officer Park sets out to build a spy network. Together, they're about to go to new extremes to keep Congo free of communists. Follow The Spy Who now wherever you listen to podcasts. We wanted to really understand what the temple was about, so we started by reaching out to people who were a part of it. People like Rebecca Carrara. When we met with her, she was wearing a long, flowy dress,

a big silver peace sign necklace, and lots of bracelets. If you want to take off that bracelet. Oh, is this what it should be? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll take my glasses off. Rebecca says she remembers coming across some kind of an ad or an article about the temple one day in 2009. I was browsing through my phone, and I thought, what the heck is that?

She'd been searching for a spiritual community for a while, but she'd never found anything that really fit. I went to a couple churches, you know, non non-denominational and kind of kicked back. I wanted some kind of a place to bring in some spirituality into my life because I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. So Rebecca was curious. And then she noticed that they offer healing sessions. And I thought, wow, that would be really great to get like kind of a two-for-one, get my spirituality and maybe work on some traumas that I had in my childhood. I've done so much therapy and counseling and workshops, and there was just still something missing.

And I thought, oh, this is going to be the answer. Rebecca calls the number listed, and the woman who answers invites her to a gathering. So I remember it was dark and there's music and smells flowing through the house. And I looked around and said hi to a couple people, just trying to work it out to where, am I in the right place? Rebecca had wandered into a fancy home. It was one of the temple's early locations.

We walked by it, and it's pretty incredible. It's a huge two-story white house with a Spanish tile roof, a massive yard, a pool, and a seven-car garage. So yeah, this isn't your average church. And when Rebecca walks in, she's transported to another world. These girls came in and they're belly dancers. They came in with these long flowing skirts and no shoes with little jingle bells on their feet and jingle, jingle, jingle as they walked. They had chocolate dipped strawberries. They had all this exotic food.

I was kind of in shock, kind of bewilderedness, like looking around at everything. And later in the night, everyone sits around in a circle, and they talk. They talked about, you know, nourishing yourself, self-care, dancing, you know, eating good food. Rebecca loved it. It was sensual and exciting. The people she spoke to were warm and open-minded.

And there was one person in particular who really stood out. I remember Tracy walking up to me with her flowing gown and her drapes and all this. She was radiant, and she glowed, and her smile. She was just like an angel. She looked at me, and she said, Do you know you're a goddess, your goddess embodiment? She made me feel like I was somebody.

This angelic, glowing woman was Tracy Elise, the founder of the Phoenix Goddess Temple. Lots of women said Tracy saw something in them. And that's because she did. Tracy believes in the goddess, the feminine aspect of the divine. And she believes that sex can be sacred and used for healing. That's after the break. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopan. And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history.

This season, we are looking at the life of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. It's fair to say he's a complex and controversial character. Almost 150 years since his birth, how does his legacy hold up today? Follow Legacy now wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge entire seasons early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. From the award-winning creators of the hit podcast Father Wants Us Dead comes the stunning new true crime series In the Shadow of Princeton. In 1989, a prominent woman was found stabbed to death in her Princeton home.

With no clear motive, it's a chilling mystery that vexed investigators for years. Was the culprit a young outsider the police said was a serial attacker? Or someone in her family? Or even well-heeled students at the renowned Princeton University? He had a ski mask in his possession and a knife.

She was familiar enough with them and trusted them enough that she turned her back on. And that was her mistake. One investigator sees a conspiracy. Is he way off base? Or does privilege help you get away with murder? In the Shadow of Princeton is available wherever you get your podcasts. Or you can binge it ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Rebecca felt a connection with Tracy right away. But she didn't fully understand what the temple was all about.

So there's God in the world and then goddess. Rebecca wasn't sure she could believe in a literal goddess. She wasn't sure she could believe in anything. She's been questioning the existence of God since she was young, after she was sexually abused as a child. This is the trauma she mentioned earlier, that she went to decades of therapy for. The God that I grew up with was a Christian God, but I couldn't imagine that there was a God with me at all the times when I got raped and molested from 5 years old to 17 years old. When I look back on that, I would think, there's no way there's a God that watched

that or was guiding me or guiding him. So I started getting out of the belief of religion and God and just getting more spiritual. As a mom in her late 40s, she was ready to try something different. I was in the middle. I was in the place of not believing, I'm believing, just as a seeker, trying to discover the truth about religion. And I thought, you know, be open. Rebecca was and is remarkably open. She told us that she says yes to a lot of things. And she saw the value the temple could bring to her life, even if she wasn't 100% on board with the goddess. Religion can be about more than just belief.

It can also be about purpose and community. And in this way, the temple felt like a lot of churches. They even had Sunday services. Here's how some temple-goers remember it. We'd talk about certain spiritual insights or questions, things like that. It was more of just this open, flowing conversation anybody could participate in. I loved that. And it was just a real family feeling because, you know, prayers and deep sharing.

And, you know, it was just like a church getting together for the holidays. I remember Thanksgiving where, you know, it's like open to the public. Let's have a Thanksgiving at the goddess temple. And Tracy herself was the one cooking the, you know, like the turkey. But instead of Wednesday night Bible study, the goddess temple offered sex ed classes on Friday nights and workshops on everything from kundalini yoga to the metaphysics of tantra. There were also those healing sessions that Rebecca heard about. As the mother's temple, we're very concerned about making sacred the body.

Everyone that comes to the mother's temple receives loving touch for their entire body. Here's Tracy on an online radio show. What can be called sometimes nurturing or therapeutic touch in the outside world, we have what we call whole body healing. Okay, so for now, here's what you need to know. At the temple, the people who provide whole body healing are called practitioners or goddesses. And the people who receive the healing are called seekers.

And it's not just for trauma. Tracy says it can heal lots of different spiritual, sexual, and emotional problems. The temple's philosophy is that whole body healing can change lives. This is a video Tracy posted on YouTube of a seeker who says he was struggling after his time in the military. I was so alone. And at the end of the day, I came home. And I couldn't sleep with the light out.

And I bought a shotgun. Not so much as something that I intended to use. It was more like a security blanket that I knew that if anyone came in the middle of the night, I had that. But all that changed when he found the temple. I had someone that would care for me. At this point, it was like a therapist. All of the things that I was thirsting for and hungry for were pretty much fulfilled. Some of the people we talked with said that when they found the temple, they were having

a hard time. They were out of work or struggling with a relationship. It wasn't everyone, but it does seem like this promise of healing and empowerment appealed to people who were missing something, who'd been searching for a place to feel valued. And for a lot of them, it seemed like the temple could fill those needs, including Rebecca. She wanted to know more about Tracy and the temple and those whole body healing sessions. She tried to ask about it, but the answer was never quite clear. Like, what is a session? What is a session?

Well, you'll see. That's after the break. You know what's great about ambition? You can't see it. Some things look ambitious, but looks can be deceiving. For example, a runner could be training for a marathon, or they could be late for the bus. You never know.

Ambition is on the inside. So that road trip bucket list? Get after it. Drive your ambition. Mitsubishi Motors. You hear there's no such thing as the perfect murder. Well, that's not true. Because I had a lot of perfect murders.

In episode seven of Denise Didn't Come Home, I finally talk to this guy. Nobody knew what happened to her. Even the police, they didn't have no idea. I'm the only one that knew exactly what happened. The man who says he murdered Denise Velasca. And I find out what really happened that terrible night. The only two people that know what happened that night is Denise and him. He is the one that has answers, believable or not. Now, one of the top series on Apple Podcasts, Denise Didn't Come Home.

In another week, you can listen to all the episodes wherever you get your podcasts. This call is from an inmate at a New Jersey state prison. Hey, I have some pretty important questions for you. I can't wait. On that first night, with the belly dancers and the chocolate-dipped strawberries, Rebecca says she saw people coming in and out of a room. Like, kind of a lot. I wonder if something more is going on back there than belly dancing.

She was right. Rebecca says there were whole body healing sessions happening. But she wasn't sure exactly what happens during those sessions. It was never talked about, really. It was just kind of skimmed over the surface. Tracy offered to show her, by guiding her through a session with Rebecca's boyfriend, Kevin. They loved each other, but they were going through a rough patch. We were having some problems in our relationship in the intimacy department.

And that, I don't mean in the sex department, because sex was very good. It's just intimacy. It's like talking and cuddling and stuff like that. Rebecca thought a whole body healing session would be the perfect birthday gift for Kevin. Rebecca and I have always done things to be closer and not necessarily having to do with sexuality, but we've always done things to be more open and more close. And, you know, of course, when Rebecca and I were younger, we were a little bit wild. So, you know. So Rebecca told Tracy, sure, let's do it.

And they came back to the temple together. I remember the room. It was called the fire room. And there's a fireplace in there. It was black and red, very, you know, exotic and seducing. We went into the room and we all sat in a circle and she kind of gave me an idea of what was going to happen. We meditated for a little bit, we did some eye gazing,

and I don't know if you've ever done eye gazing or not. It's really great. And it's actually a lot harder than people think it is. And it's very connecting. So she asked him to unclothe and then she got at the top of his head and she goes, "'Okay, you get on his feet and just hold his feet. "'We're gonna do some energy work.'"

And she got his head and kind of cradled it. That was uncomfortable for me. That was an uncomfortable moment. I sensed that he felt uncomfortable in the beginning. But it's like, close your eyes. Just feel what it feels like to have touch on your arms. Then there was a literal massage session, which was very nice, with both of them.

It was like a forehand massage. And we continued massaging him. And she was saying things. It was just about healing past, if he had trauma or healing, whatever's in his life that he wants to heal. And then I remember her putting her hands over his penis without touching it, just putting like, doing energy work, I believe.

And then Tracy went beyond the bounds of what normal massage would be like. And then, and Rebecca followed. And it, and, and she brought me to Climax. Tracy did. And it was great. It was great for Rebecca, too. The experience made her feel closer to Kevin, and she felt really supported by Tracy.

Tracy made Rebecca feel confident and seen. No one had ever called her a goddess before. I thought, oh, wow, she really sees something in me that not a lot of people see. I just had such low self-esteem. And coming from somebody so high up, I thought, you know, that she's a priestess and all that, that she must know what she's talking about. Like, she must see something in me that I'm not seeing in myself or that Kevin's not seeing in me or something like that.

She made me feel special. That's what I felt like. Tracy told Rebecca she had the potential to perform whole- body healing sessions herself and become a temple goddess. She would spend at least four days a week with seekers, who are mostly men. And she thought, I could do this. If that's all it is, is you go in and there's, you know,

you spiritually do whatever you do to somebody in your session, that I could do that and still have a relationship because it wasn't about love. She wanted to see where this path could lead her. But the thought of Rebecca doing sessions with other men, Kevin wasn't so sure about that. When she said that she wanted to become a goddess, my reply to that was, you know,

you're free to do whatever it is you wish to do, but that doesn't work for me and you can't live here with me and be a goddess. You can't do that. You're going to have to make a choice. And she did. I thought, you know what, I'm just going to do this. And yeah, we split up. Rebecca and Kevin had raised five kids together. They were a blended family. Now Rebecca was choosing the temple over their relationship. For a male ego, that is a huge blow. I mean, huge. But it was really a great lesson for me in boundaries because boundaries were something I really never had done successfully before in my entire life. So I drew a line. I stuck to it. Kevin was hurt. He didn't speak to Rebecca for months after this, but he also understood that

her decision wasn't about him. She was determined to do this for herself. She'd already been studying at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. She also told us she's a certified hypnotherapist. So being a healer at the temple felt like a really great opportunity for her. I just thought, you know, this is my calling. I can help people who have been in the same position that I have and talk to them and get to the root of the cause of why they're even there and what's wrong in their marriages.

Because most of the people that came in already had a relationship. And I just really, from my heart, wanted to help them. Rebecca decided to give herself a year to figure out if this is what she truly wanted. She started taking classes, and then she picked her goddess name, the one she would use at the temple. And no one had Aphrodite, and I thought, wow, what better, you know, name for, you know, the goddess of love and beauty. She had her pictures taken, and she was added to the temple's website, where people could book appointments with Aphrodite for whole body healing sessions. It was pretty organized. We had a gal at the front who knew the system really good and knew

how to talk with these men. The gal at the front is called a gatekeeper. She's the one in charge of taking calls and setting up appointments for sessions. First-time goddesses would usually start by doing a session or two with another, more experienced goddess, before practicing on her own. Soon, Aphrodite was working with seekers. I'd come in, I'd have people lined up. It was very smooth. Every day, it's just like clockwork. I treated it like a job, but it was a spiritual job and I was helping people. At the end of each session, the seeker places cash on an altar in the room. Okay, can we talk about the money for a second? When I first heard about this, it made me think,

oh, it's not just a temple. This is like a business. Yeah, and this is really important because Tracy says the money is a donation or offering of support to the temple. She's really adamant about this. She actually talked about it a lot, like in this interview. These sessions, people say, well, these are kind of expensive, $200, $300, $400 per session, private coaching, private touch, private guidance. That's a lot of money. And what I invite people to view the session is as actually a magical,

mystical portal. You're running a business. Tracy, you're running a business. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you so much for being my guest today. It's a church. I hate that word applied to what we're doing, but. Okay. In case you missed that, Tracy jumps in to clarify, this is a church. It's not a business. But a lot of people don't buy this. And she was constantly being questioned about it. Like, how is this not prostitution? The only question that I have is the question that a police officer would have, or the vice squad would have, and that is why it is that if you and I at your doorstep agree on a price for your services, why you are not a bordello.

Yes, Godic Mother. I knew there were going to be problems, and I wasn't sure it was going to work out just as well as Tracy thought it was going to. It's amazing to me that this story started about a decade ago and that it's continuing the way that it is. It's impacted people's that this story started about a decade ago and that it's continuing the way that it is. It's impacted people's lives irreparably. I guess you'd say I was in denial.

I was so in love with the hope and the promise that the temple brought to my life. I was very attached to that and I knew I needed it. I think it was more part of her delusion that she believed that she would go unscathed throughout this whole thing. People tend to look at things in black and white, but usually it's not black and white. It's almost never black and white. I think Tracy saw herself as kind of a martyr almost. I think she was really trying to angle for a Brown versus Board of Education kind of

outcome where it would be rights changing, like constitutional rights changing. It's kind of like the coming of Christ in Christianity. The goddess temple will rise again. This week on This Is History in Conversation, join me, Dan Jones, for an interview with the man, the myth, the legend, Stephen Fry. We'll be talking about the impact of Greek myths on the Middle Ages and get stuck into our favourite and least favourite heroes of legend. Aeneas is a very annoying hero. The word that's always attached to him is pious. Whatever the

gods tell him to do, whatever a prophet tells him to do, he does it. Search This Is History wherever you get your podcasts. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault or abuse, you can find help and resources at rainn.org. That's R-A-I-N-N dot org. Or call their 24-7 confidential phone line at 1-800-656-4673. Witnessed Mystic Mother is a production of Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment.

It's hosted and created by me, 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 Henick. Associate producer, Sydney 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 Raine at Real Voice LA. Special thanks to Campside's studio manager and mix engineer, Ewen Lai-Tramuen, and Campside producer, Johnny Kaufman.

Our fact checkers are Sarah Sneeth and Callie Hitchcock. Additional research from Alex Yablon. Thanks to Deborah Dawn, Hugh Urban, Susan Stieritz, Rianne 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. 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.