Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - 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

Camp site media. 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, pass the car wash and the pawn shop and the fast food drive thruze,

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 place that many once considered an oasis. When you walk in, 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 their sunlight was coming right through her general area. It's just a big burst of light.

It was all dim lights and pastel colors and candles and incense and got a statue 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 creepy 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. In 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 him for a little bit, so I made him feel comfortable. And I said, just lay on your stomach. See, when I wore, it was like jeez string underwear, and like a sheer wrap that tied above my breasts. And I remember taking my sheer cloth off and running it 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 that going back and forth of the flashlight. And I thought, who's out there? Then I heard it. Bam, bam, bam, open up, please! And the guy is like, what should I do?

I said, put your clothes on, put your clothes on. Bye, bye, bye. And then, they pretty much bang the door open. On the ground, on the ground. A SWAT team enters. Rebecca's 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 birthday 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 and I'm like, you know what, if I'm going to police station, can I please go get my clothes on? And I can see far away, like, camera crews. Details about a sting operation evolving 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 a so-called sex church. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music I'm gonna do some gel time. So what is the Phoenix Goddess Temple? This place with the women in G-strings and the creepy 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 prostitution, they call it a church.

And illegal. The inexplicable 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 E. Leece, 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 church than Cuba's fantasy island. I'm Leah Henneck, and I'm Katie Henneck. 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 in a Terran Universalist. Our mom grew up going to a disciples of Christ Church, Noctua Homa, which is Protestant, and our dad's a Jewish atheist from New Jersey. So somehow they landed on you, you 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-or-own-adventure situation. But let's be honest, it was pretty

light 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 Pooh book, The Dough of Pooh, 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 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 campsite media and Sony music entertainment, you're listening to Witnessed Mystic Mother. Episode 1. Afro-Diety. You're listening to Witnessed, Mystic Mother. Before you dive into the story, we wanted to let you know that you can listen to the entire season, add free, right now, with the subscription to the binge.

That's all episodes all at once. Start your free trial to the binge by visiting the witness show page on Apple podcasts or get the binge.com. Otherwise, you can catch new episodes every week. Enjoy the show, and thanks for listening. 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 pea-sign necklace, and lots of bracelets. If you want to think about that bracelet, Oh, is this one? Yeah. Yeah. I'll take my glasses on. Rebecca says she remembers coming across some kind of an ad or an article about the temple one day in 2009.

It 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 of churches, non-denominational and kind of kick 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 still something missing and I thought, oh, this is going to be the answer. For Becca 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, dip strawberries. That's all this exotic food. I was kind of in shock,

kind of be a wilderness, 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 collode and her smile. And she was just like an angel. She looked at me and she said, do you know your goddess embodiment? She made me feel like I was somebody. This angelic glowing woman was Tracy Lees, 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. Uncover from CBC Podcasts brings you award-winning investigations year round. Infiltrate an international network of neo-Nazi extremists. Ranted with racist language.

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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 God is. Rebecca was in church, she could believe in a literal goddess. She was in church, 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 was a Christian God, but I couldn't imagine that there was a God with me at all times when I got raped and molested from five years old to 17 years old. When I looked back on that, I said, I would think there's no way there's a God that what watched that or was guiding me or guiding him or 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 or in 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 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's just like a church getting together for the holidays. I remember a 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 were very concerned about making sacred the body, everyone that comes to the mother's temple received 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 other 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 are 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 in 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. Soy Laura, y quiero ser una profesional 360. El doble grado en comunicación y comunicación digital me ayudará a conseguirlo. Doble grado en derecho ya de fisioterapia, de porte, más de 30 años formando profesionales de éxito. Centro universitario San Isidoro, has criado la Universidad Pablo Dio la Vide de Sevilla. Entran Centro San Isidoro.es y prepárate para el futuro hoy.

And on that first night, with the belly dancers and the chocolate dip 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

and intimacy department, and that, I don't mean in the sex department, because the sex was very good. It's just intimacy. It's like talking and kindling 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 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 was a fireplace in there. It was black and red, very 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 them to unclothe, and then she got it at the top of his head, and she was, 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 sense that he felt uncomfortable in the beginning, but it's like closure eyes just feel, 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 a massage in him and she was saying things. It was just about healing past, you know, if he had trauma or healing, whatever's in his life that he wants to heal. And then, I remember her, you know, 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 Rebecca followed. And it, 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 goddess before. I thought, oh wow, she really sees something in me that, you know, not a lot of people see. I just had such a low self as steam. 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 the Kevin's not seeing in me or something like that. She made me feel special. That's where 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, as you go in, and you spiritually do whatever you do to somebody, and you're sitting 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 the agatus. You can't do that. You're gonna have to make a choice and she did. I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna do this. And yeah, we split, 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 huge blow. I mean huge. But it was really a great lesson for me in boundaries because it was real. 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 talked to them and get to the root of the cause of why they're even there and what's wrong in their marriages. 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 name 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 like 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, everyday, just like clockwork. I treated 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, two, three hundred dollars, four hundred dollars in possession, 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. It's a fancy practice. portal. You're running a business dance practice. Tracy, you're running a business. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you so much for being like, I hate to church. I hate that word applied to what we're doing, but.

OK. In case you miss 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, and a 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 word of love. Yes, God bless. This season on witness, Mystic Mother. I knew there were going be problems, and I wasn't sure it was gonna 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 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 light but usually it's not black and light. It's almost never black and light. I think Tracy saw herself as kind of a martyr almost. I think she was really trying to angle for a brown versus a fort 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 God is temple will rise again. our new podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts. All ad-free. Plus, every month subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That's all episodes all at once. Start your free trial to the binge by visiting the witness Mystic Mother Show page on Apple podcasts or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. If you or someone you know has experienced

sexual assault or abuse you can find help and resources at rain.org. That's r-a-i-n-n-n.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 Henneck and me, Leah Henneck. This series was reported by Sarah Ventree and written by Sarah Ventree and Emily Martinez. Additional reporting by Katie and Leah Henneck. Sarah Ventree 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 Sidney Fleishman, additional production assistants from Mo LaBord and Ron Warner.

A huge thank you to Rebecca Ross, our legal researcher. Our theme song was composed by Betsy Gans and Chris Norby and performed by Betsy Gans, Chris Norby, and John Rouse House. It was recorded and mixed by Michael Krasner and mastered by Chris Norby. The series was sound designed and mixed by Claire Mullin. Our recording engineers are Mike Delay and Gavin Reign at Real Voice LA. Special thanks to Campside Studio Manager and Mix Engineer, Ewan Lyte Ramouin and Campside Producer Johnny Kaufman. Our fact checkers are Sarah Sneeth and Kali Hitchcock.

Additional research from Alex Yabwan. Thanks to Debra Don, Hugh Urban, Susan Starritz, Rianne Isler, Sphrana Borkataki-Varma, Phoenix Khalida, Natalia Winkleman, and Miriam Wasser. And thanks to Tracey Elise, who gave Campside permission to use videos she created. The Pat McMan show is a production of K-A-ZT TV, and a special thanks to our operations team,

Doug Slaywin, Alia Papers, and Allison Haney. Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriotis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Shere. If you enjoyed Mystic Mother, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts.