At the end of the day, the case against the Temple turned on several issues: whether Elise was a “spiritual leader” or a “brothel madam,” whether the Temple “goddesses” were “priestesses” or “prostitutes,” whether “orgasm” was part of path to a transcendent “spiritual/healing experience” or “sex for hire” masquerading as religion, whether the money that was exchanged between “goddesses” and their “seekers” was a “fee for sexual service” or a “donation” to the Temple and its spiritual “healing” and “therapy,” and whether the Phoenix Goddess Temple was a legitimate religious “temple” or a “brothel.”
