Reporter: Tonight, we’re uncovering some dirty details
from the investigation of the so-called sex church.
What exactly was happening behind those closed doors?
This was no more a church than Cuba is Fantasy Island.
And look at how angry they are.
When you have a culture where sex is that repressed,
you get the most angry culture.
Katie: The Phoenix Goddess Temple
was created in Phoenix, Arizona, by Tracy Elise,
who is also known as the Mystic Mother.
Tracy: When I found tantra,
I knew that I could be a priestess of the mother.
Leah: The temple celebrates
women’s sexuality in a really radical way
that most religious institutions don’t do.
Got my crystal lingam to teach men how to bring this into service
for the women in their life.
Tracy was running what she believed was a place of worship.
It’s not about sex. That’s a smokescreen.
To others, this place was a brothel in disguise.
Reporter: Police accuse a church called the Phoenix Goddess Temple
of running a house of prostitution masquerading as religion.
Leah: This is a story about someone who believes
that their spiritual practice involves sex
and what one person’s willing to do to defend their beliefs.
I’ve done nothing wrong, and I’ve done nothing illegal.
I have done my faith.
Is this place a temple or a brothel?
Is Tracy a priestess or a sex worker?
We wanted to know what was really going on.
[Dramatic music playing]
My name is Leah Henoch.
I’m the co-creator
and co-host of the podcast
I’m Katie Henoch.
I’m the co-creator and co-host of the podcast,
and Leah is my sister.
So Leah had read this article
about the Phoenix Goddess Temple in Phoenix, Arizona.
I remember becoming really fascinated about the temple
and about its founder, Tracy Elise.
Hi, I’m Tracy Elise, Mystic Mother of the Phoenix Goddess Temple.
Tracy calls the Goddess Temple a neotantric temple.
Neotantra is an Americanized Western interpretation of tantra.
It focuses on the healing powers of sexual energy.
Tracy had published a lot of videos on her YouTube page
of her explaining certain things about the temple.
Tracy: Some people are confused, and they will phone up and ask,
“Do you do massage?”
We do not offer massage.
We offer whole-body healing.
Katie: Tracy is striking.
She’s this really charismatic, larger-than-life figure.
Tracy: Men have so much power at their root.
Well, a lot of things go wrong
because men don’t know what to do with that magnetic power.
Tracy thought she was making the world a better place
through this worship of the sacred feminine.
And, of course, the mother’s triangle
is the downward V
through which all living things enter the physical plane.
They had sex ed classes, Sunday worship services,
and the main offering were these one-on-one sessions.
These sessions were performed by what they called “goddesses”
and involved touch
and some sort of sexual act, usually.
We scoured records we could find
to try and get in touch with some of the goddesses.
A lot of the goddesses we spoke with described her as charismatic
and that when they first met her,
there was this energy around her
that made them feel a certain way.
The people receiving the sessions were called “seekers.”
They were mostly men.
A lot of people have looked at what’s happening at the temple,
and they think it’s about sex.
It’s not about sex.
[Mystical music playing]
That's a smokescreen.
So prostitution is defined as
the exchange of money or goods for sex.
It’s criminalized in the United States
except for certain counties in Nevada.
A lot of people thought Tracy was using her beliefs and spirituality
as a cover for being a madam and running a brothel.
“Phoenix Goddess Temple offers sacred sexuality,
but it’s more like New Age prostitution
with a psychological slant.”
It didn’t totally help her case
that the temple had what they called “a suggested donation”
for any whole-body healing.
It was $204 for an hour, $303 for 90 minutes.
Katie: Tracy and the goddesses advertised on Backpage.com,
which was an adult classifieds website
where sex work services were advertised.
That doesn’t seem super religious or spiritual in nature
that they’re posting those kinds of ad.
They kept operating unbothered.
But what was happening was the police had launched
an undercover investigation into the temple.
Reporter: And police accuse a church called the Phoenix Goddess Temple
of running a house of prostitution masquerading as religion.
Leah: In early September of 2011,
the Phoenix PD and SWAT team stormed the building.
Police found envelopes full of cash,
binders labeled “seekers,” “sex toys.”
Reporter: Cops in Phoenix and Sedona busted about 20 people on Wednesday,
saying their temples are nothing more than brothels.
Many of the goddesses felt not only was it traumatic,
but it was this excessive show of force.
So at this press conference,
the police shared their findings.
Instead of Johns, they were called “seekers.”
Instead of sexual intercourse,
it was called “sacred union.”
Katie: They said, “This is prostitution,
and it’s breaking the law.”
Thirty-three people were indicted.
Everyone took a plea deal except for Tracy.
I’ve done nothing wrong, and I’ve done nothing illegal.
I have done my faith. I have done my religion.
[Dramatic music fading out]
Morning, world.
It’s Tracy Elise, and I’m here in Phoenix
about to go to court today.
Tracy really felt that the state was infringing
on her right to freely practice her religion,
and so she was going to take this to court.
Tracy represented herself.
There’s a lot of videos of her preparing for the trial.
Yeah, I’m just going to show all the legal stuff.
Oh, my gosh, there’s the boxes.
I’ve got eight of those boxes.
So the trial was 48 days long.
Our team listened to almost all of that court audio.
The prosecution was trying to prove that
money was being exchanged for sex.
She wanted to take a stand for the goddess.
[Atmospheric music playing]
Three days in court in a row just about fried my matrix
because everything is proof-based,
and none of it's based on the truth of your soul.
This question came up a lot of who is the victim?
Tracy maintained that
all the women there were consenting adults,
that there were no victims.
The state was trying to prove that
some of the goddesses had bad experiences at the temple
and felt coerced or manipulated by Tracy.
There’s this idea in our society when we talk about sex work
that no one would choose to be a sex worker.
You’re forced or manipulated into becoming one.
It’s especially a paradox when the victim
or the supposed victim is is then criminalized.
What we found was that for some women,
this idea of a goddess temple,
a place where sex was sacred and free of shame,
was a dream fulfilled.
And another woman we spoke with
felt like they were coerced into doing whole-body healing sessions.
It’s not simple.
It's not black and white.
Reporter: Just into our newsroom,
a guilty verdict in the so-called Goddess Temple trial.
A jury finding Tracy Elise guilty on all 22 counts.
Katie: Tracy was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
There's a lot of questions that were brought up.
Who decides when a religion is valid or not?
And why is sex work criminalized?
A lot of the women we talked to expressed that
the most traumatic part of their involvement
with the Phoenix Goddess Temple
were their interactions with the police
and the impacts of their criminal charges.
Tracy was released from prison in 2019,
and she continues to appeal her case.
And she’s still just as passionate about her beliefs.
Goddess bless.
[Ambient music playing]