Guangdong police raided a house on remote Luofu Mountain, near Huizhou, where a man held 'experimental camps' that were said to help people achieve spiritual growth through sexual encounters.
The two-storey farmhouse was where Qin Mingyuan offered expensive psychological training courses suspected to involve activities such as wife-swapping and group sex, the Yangcheng Evening News reported yesterday.
Qin remains at large but a female assistant was detained.
In the raid on Tuesday, police found a list of followers on the woman's computer that indicated that hundreds of people from across the mainland and even Macau had joined Qin's camps.
Seized documents showed the camp and the courses were designed for people, especially women, who were in unhappy marriages and would help them achieve sexual, emotional, spiritual and institutional liberation.
The report said 17 people had paid 100,000 yuan (HK$122,800) each for a 21-day course in August at the farmhouse, which has only five bedrooms.