Unable to operate under Scottsdale's zoning code, Elise moved the temple to a larger residence near 59th Street and Shea Boulevard. The temple went through two more homes in upscale Phoenix neighborhoods before opening at its current commercial location near 24th Street and Thomas last March. One of Elise's three children, a grown son, also lives in Phoenix and works at the temple.
Six months ago, Wayne Clayton moved from Chicago with his wife to become director of the temple's new learning center, the School of 1 (his wife is the school administrator). He teaches courses such as "Stem Cell Reactivation" and "Spanking as a Healing Modality."
Jamie Peachey
Jamie Peachey
Erotic artwork fills Phoenix Goddess Temple.
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Clayton specializes in "seekers" who have been sexually abused and people suffering from illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease. He's been practicing his techniques — which include role-playing and "yoni release" (yoni is the Sanksrit word for vagina) — for 20 years.
He says he first tried these techniques after surviving years of sexual abuse at the hands of his late father. He tried psychotherapy and says that at one time in his 30s, he was on 37 different medications. None of it worked for him, so he started looking into things like acupuncture, massage, and shamanism. He says they worked for him, and they work for others, too.
But some of Clayton's claims go far beyond therapies, like acupuncture, that are now considered almost mainstream. He says one of his clients in Chicago lost a breast to cancer, and after several healing sessions with him, she grew her breast back. He says another woman in Chicago, this one suffering from cervical cancer and a subsequent hysterectomy, grew her female organs back through energy work. Eventually, she bore children.
"You're a liar and a pervert!"
The naked woman draped across Wayne Clayton's lap screams at him. He's spanking her. It's a sunny Sunday afternoon in January, and they're in the "Red Room" at Phoenix Goddess Temple. This is the role-playing part of one of Clayton's "trauma healing" sessions. He's pretending to be an abusive male figure from her past.
The woman is a 40-year-old "seeker" who says she was sexually abused by her stepfather and grandfather. She wishes to remain anonymous, so we'll call her Jane.
Jane's been having weekly sessions with Clayton for the past three months. Each session lasts two to three hours. The session starts with 10 to 15 minutes of talking before moving to role-playing.
"I'm your father! Have respect!" Clayton yells, smacking Jane's butt. Jane's crying when Clayton strips and they switch roles. Now, she spanks him to let her "anger out."
She smacks Clayton's ass with both hands repeatedly. "I'm 2 years old, and you're rubbing your penis on me!" She screams.
"I'm doing what's best for you," Clayton deadpans.
Jane continues smacking Clayton with tears streaming down her face. "I should have told on you — you ugly, ugly man! I just hope you're burning in Hell! That's all I have to say to you!"
After the role-playing, it takes a while for Jane to calm down. Clayton typically does deep-breathing exercises with her to "isolate energy."
Then he asks Jane whether she's ready to move into the "release" part of the session.
She says she's on her period, but he says that's okay and asks her to lie down and remove her tampon. He gets a latex glove, puts it on his right hand, and grabs his bottle of lubricant with the other. "Can I enter?" he asks.
Jane nods, and Clayton inserts two fingers into her vagina. "Okay, first I'm going to ground your energy," he says. "I'm grounding you to the Earth. I want you to think about the physical release you're going through, and how it will help the emotional release."
He pushes his fingers a little deeper and says, "Now we're going to bridge — feel the sensation? Feel the burning? I'm pushing on your urethra."
Clayton tells Jane he feels her having all these "amazing energy releases," though there's no change in Jane's movements or expression. But twice she does say, "That's too much."
"I'm gonna pull out," Clayton says. "Keep the breathing going. I want you to turn over and we'll do some anal release, get the anger out of there. Then you'll be cooked."Jane says she feels "cooked" already. "We don't want you to leave lopsided," Clayton says, changing gloves.
And so the session ends with Clayton inserting his finger into Jane's anus, holding it there for several minutes and telling her to "feel that energy spot."
After the session, Jane says she feels better. She had a headache when she came in, and now it's gone. Though she hasn't eaten, she isn't hungry. "My body's still vibrating," she says. "I feel energized."
Clayton says he does "yoni work" and "anal release" because those points on the body are important energy channels. He does "cervical work," too. "Every part of your body needs to be touched," he says, "including those inside."
Diane Genco is founder of the AZ Center for Change in Phoenix and a licensed professional counselor who specializes in treating sexual abuse and trauma. She says a licensed therapist would "lose their license in a heartbeat" for touching a patient's genitals, and before a patient can begin to deal with the physical aspects of trauma, a lot of mental and behavioral things need to be addressed. "If these non-traditional healers are not qualified or credentialed in understanding post-traumatic stress disorder and all the things that go with that — the ripple effects of trauma — it could be harmful," Genco says. "If they're just dealing with the sexual aspects of [PTSD], they could do more damage than good."
