Obsessed: Spiritual Guru and Alleged Arcturian Alien Teal Swan

Welcome to OBSESSED, in which I provide you a reading list / media consumption list that speaks to my primary hobby: doing obsessive amounts of research into a singular topic or story for no reason. This week I finished the Freeform documentary “The Deep End” about Teal Swan, a dangerous spiritual guru with a massive following.


Who is Teal Swan?

Teal Swan sells herself as a “spiritual catalyst” with unique gifts that enable her to help people move through suicidality, uncover and process past trauma and heal their psychic pain. Since 2011, she’s been attracting followers through her YouTube channel and websites, gaming SEO to make her the number-one hit for topics like “should I kill myself?” She’s designed her internet presence so impeccably that it takes an unusually long time to find information on Teal Swan that isn’t from Teal Swan herself.

Refinery29 describes her as “a tall, Amazonian woman with piercing blue eyes and long, dark hair, is a well-spoken wellness guru for the Goop generation.”

She describes herself as an “International Speaker, Best-Selling Author and survivor of severe childhood abuse.”

Teal Swan believes she is the smartest person in the world and a “medical savant” who can see your food digesting through your skin. She identifies as a multi-dimensional Arcturian alien. She grew up in Utah, knew she had special gifts from a young age, and claims to have spent 13 years in a Satanic Cult but also somehow allegedly spent those same years working as a highly successful international runway model in locations including Fiji and Milan, although no evidence exists that she ever modeled professionally (or was in a Satanic cult).

She claims that her childhood mentor, who she describes a sociopath with multiple personalities, sewed her into a human corpse for 12 hours, an act he followed up with eating the dead man’s thigh muscle. He also forced her to lure immigrants over the border for ritual child sacrifices, although none of these alleged murders were ever reported.

She has referred to death as a “reset button,” encourages suicidal people to visualize their own deaths, and insists suicide hotlines and mainstream medicine lack the tools she uniquely possesses to help suicidal people.

Teal Swan has 1.25 million followers on YouTube, over 607,000 on Instagram, and 771,000 on TikTok. She has published five books of non-fiction and one novel. She hosts speaking engagements all over the world, such as her signature Synchronization Workshops, where for $99.99 you can “connect with yourself on a deep level and expand out of your comfort zones towards new horizons.” She hosts week-long $5k “Curveball retreats” in Costa Rica where Teal Swan will personally show you the truth about yourself and your life. She will also bully you if you challenge her or ask questions she doesn’t want to answer! She sells meditations and e-courses online, as well as a plethora of merchandise, much of it featuring her objectively visually offensive “frequency paintings.”

The core of her practice is a “Completion Process,” an 18-step visualization that walks you through an emotional trigger towards an early memory, enabling you to resolve your unmet childhood needs trough the mental visualization of resolution and awareness through an adult perspective. This process controversially involves, often, summoning the dead to resolve past trauma or “uncovering” buried trauma. Which brings us to…


Teal Swan and Satanic Ritual Abuse

HYDE PARK, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2021/06/26: A 'Stop Baby Sacrifice' placard held by a protester during the demonstration. Protesters gather together in Hyde Park, London to expose Satanic Ritual Abuse. The group want to bring this type of child abuse into the open and expose high ranking Satanists that they say hold powerful positions in the UK. (Photo by Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

HYDE PARK, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 2021/06/26:  Protesters gather together in Hyde Park, London to expose Satanic Ritual Abuse. The group want to bring this type of child abuse into the open and expose high ranking Satanists that they say hold powerful positions in the UK. (Photo by Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Some of the childhood abuse Teal says she experienced was Satanic Ritual Abuse, repressed memories she uncovered while working with therapist Barbara Snow, a central figure in the Satanic Panic of the 80s. Snow has been accused of employing scientifically unsound techniques to inspire children to testify they’d experienced Satanic Ritual Abuse and popularizing the concept, a situation that lead to the wrongful imprisonment of many (like these four Latina lesbians in Texas). To add insult to injury, the fact that doctors like Snow were found to have summoned false memories through questionable practices (like offering children candy to agree they’d experienced certain things) has since been weaponized by people attempting to discredit survivor’s true allegations of abuse when their memories of what happened aren’t crystal-clear.

This article from Vox talks about how the Satanic Panic never really ended and is now being re-invigorated through various QAnon conspiracy theories.

One thing is for certain: investigating repressed memories of abuse is an undertaking that requires extensive education and care, but Teal Swan has no professional background or education in psychology. She often tells people she just met that she can sense they’re burying specific traumatic memories, and then subjects them to the Completion Process to address them. She also certifies Teal Tribe members to orchestrate the Completion Process themselves! It’s very reckless!


Freeform’s “Deep End” Documentary Exposes Teal Swan as a Manipulative Monster

Screenshot from Freeform's "The Deep End"

Although I doubt Teal Swan’s ability to safely and carefully restore memories of traumatic abuse, “The Deep End” solidified her ability to trigger memories of emotional abuse in me personally. Teal Swan is simply such a manipulative narcissist that I felt second-hand emotional terror just bearing witness to it.

Teal Swan’s team, supporters and followers worship her, desperately seeking her approval and attention. That includes Blake, the Teal Swan LLC Operations Manager who she dated when she was 19 and has considered her “safe place” ever since. He’s dedicated his entire life to spreading the good word of Teal Swan’s high vibrational frequency, but as the docuseries begins, Teal’s feeling threatened by his new relationship with Juliana, another Teal fan who left her perfectly lovely family in Germany to be with Blake.

In Episode Two, Teal informs Blake that their relationship will be a problem if Juliana ever has “a truth that opposes [Teal’s] in any way,” and tells them both they’re prohibited from traveling to meet Juliana’s family unless it’s somehow business-adjacent. In the final episode, Teal brings Juliana to some kind of demented team meeting to publicly shame her for bristling against some of Teal’s behavior. Teal calls Juliana an adversary, and asserts that it’s a contradiction for Julianna to value Teal’s work and also criticize it — because with Teal, you either pledge undying and unquestioning loyalty to her every thought and plagiarized quote, or you are an adversary. You can watch this entire scene here.

Later, Blake and Julianna are packing to leave, and Teal pulls out all the stops to stop him from getting the hell out of there. She seethes that he promised her that they’d do “this” together forever. (“This” = whatever Teal wants with no regard for his personhood.) Getting no reaction, she digs the knife in further. “I think you’re weak,” she says. She continues that he lacks bravery and honor, and will not achieve greatness on his weak path. She calls him a “fucking absolute loser.” Everything he’s given her for 18 years is nothing, now. It’s classic splitting. Crying, he manages a “love you,” which she refuses to return. You can watch this entire scene here.

Also in this episode, you can find Teal gaslighting the private investigator she hired to determine if Teal Swan’s group could be accurately described as a cult. This is typical, she generally says what works in the moment with little concern that she’ll ever be held accountable for it in a different moment.

She then assembles her team, post-Blake-departure, to further cement their commitment to her by signing a pledge. They need to “keep her safe” by agreeing only have partners who are enchanted by Teal (although she’d prefer they don’t have partners at all) and promising to never have children. (Teal herself has been married three times and has a son.) You can watch that scene here, it starts about halfway through.


Podcasts About Teal Swan

The Gateway (Gizmodo Podcast) My introduction to this batshit universe happened with this podcast in 2018. In six parts, journalist Jennings Brown travels to Utah and to her retreat center in Costa Rica, talking to Teal, her followers, her detractors, and going through the “completion process” himself. A main focus of the podcast is Teal’s controversial views on death.

Conspirituality: Traumatic Influence – Beginning at around the 48 minute mark, they get into Teal Swan’s “suicide-teasing trauma psuedo-therapy,” Barbara Snow and Satanic Ritual Abuse.

A Little Bit Culty: A Little Bit Culty: Bigger Than The Pope – Jennings Brown on Teal Swan & The Fellowship of Friends (Part One) – Jennings Brown on Teal Swan – This podcast is about cults and is hosted by two former NXIVM members who are now married! They talk to Jennings Brown about Teal Swan and make a lot of interesting parallels. This also came out while the documentary was airing.

Oh No Ross and Carrie: Ross and Carrie Synchronize With Teal Swan (Part One) – This is definitely the most light-hearted approach to the topic if you don’t wanna get too dark! There’s lots of jokes, particularly about her art, and Ross and Carrie take a funny little journey to a Synchronization Workshop in Los Angeles.

Reality Life: The Deep End – Teal Swan Docuseries Director Jon Kasbe and Sarah Edmonson (of A Little Bit Culty) talk to show host about Teal’s practices and persona.

Cult Faves: The Regina George of Cults – This one I’ve not listened to yet, but I did read the article that came with it!


Testimony From People Who Knew Teal Swan

Growing Up With Teal Swan: Okay this is um, four hours long, but — Diana Hansen Ribera grew up with Teal Swan and was one of her only friends through childhood and adolescence. (Warning: there is some discussion around the 30-33 mark of Diana not seeing any “physical evidence” of Teal’s abuse. Many abuse victims show no external signs so these claims are irrelevant.) Her insights and memories are revealing, and as a passionate debunker of fantastical tales, I appreciated her getting into some of the seemingly minor technicalities that invalidate many of Teal’s stories. Diana also struggled with self-harm, suicidality and an eating disorder as a pre-teen and teen — all situations that Teal herself began experiencing shortly after Diana did. The podcast host said one thing that really stuck with me:

“Between the fact that her mission is the most important thing on the earth and the fact that she’s been through so much trauma and pain, there’s no space for anybody else’s emotions or opinions or feelings or thoughts.”

An conversation between Cameron Clark and “Doc”– So Cameron Clark, a former member of Teal’s inner circle, and writer John Anderson, tracked down the family friend Teal has accused of abuse and being the leader of a Mormon Satanic Cult, and had a very long conversation with him. Honestly, I don’t trust this man entirely so I hesitated to even include this here, but… it was an incredibly interesting conversation, the most captivating thing I read about Teal. YMMV. It’s a really long post that also includes eventually a debunking of Teal’s claims about her career as a potential Olympic skiier, confirmed by the President of the US National Telemark Ski Association president.

Leaving Mormonism to Join Teal Swan’s Cult – Jared Dobson, an ex-boyfriend of Teal Swan, talks about his experience joining her cult, falling in love with her, and finally leaving the Teal Tribe.


Teal Swan Miscellany

Teal Swan, a glam guru for the YouTube Age with controversial views on death – A summary of who Teal is, released around the same time of the podcast.

Teal Swan Doesn’t Get It & Other Problems – A deconstruction of her views on suicide.

I Think About This a Lot: The Beauty Habits of This Possible Cult Leader “I Googled Teal Swan, and discovered that she is a stone-cold hottie with perfect skin. This still didn’t explain anything, but I did find myself wondering how she gets her skin so good.”

Teal Swan’s Model Mayhem Profile is a real journey!

Swan vs. Associated Newspapers – Her lawsuit against The Daily Mail. They settled out of court for The Daily Mail to agree to take down the article.

Teal Swan Exposed – An entire blog trying to expose Teal Swan.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3271 articles for us.

59 Comments

  1. ‘objectively visually offensive “frequency paintings.”’

    Sent me 😂😂. Thank you for this!

    • I’m sure this will get censored because it doesn’t fit your narrative.But this is obviously a smear campaign.

      You could not be further from the truth!
      I hope you get sued for defamation. I am disgusted by the ignorance of this post.

      And to anyone else reading this, I implore you to go watch teal swans actual videos for yourself. Stop letting tell-a-vision programming prevent you from developing an educated opinion for yourselves.

    • You take the series for the truth!! I ask you to investigate a bit more. Even she triggers you as a serious journalist you have the responsibility to listen what the accused says about that and what people who were filmed and attended those workshops say. Some are really angry because there are words put in their mouths they never said!! So take a closer look before you jump in such kind of certainty! Thank you.

  2. OHHH Teal Swan! I for real grew up with Teal, our families were both part of the Quaker (not Satanic) community in UT back in the day. They weren’t as involved past elementary school, and she’s a few years older so we weren’t close or anything. But they all seemed like fairly normal Utah hippies, for what it’s worth. Every so often I get together with old friends from UT and Teal comes up, and everyone is baffled but also impressed by what she’s done with herself. Good times! Watch out for aliens!

    • That’s so interesting!! That’s what Diana said too that their family was very hippie

    • Dude, I know her too!!! We both had eating disorders and were in a live-in group home for 9 months together. No cutting marks, no talk of torture… The sad part is I really was abused. Barbara Snow and her Satanic painic…giving kids candy if they said bad things happened. Ugh, 😝

    • Okay, I get that, and I’m sure she has helped people, though I question her methods, not being educated to treat trauma, and the fact that she lied, or embellished her past at the very least. My issue isn’t with her followers, even the ones that go through the “completion process.” My issue is with her inner circle, that she turns into her disciples. Those “non negotiables,” now that’s that’s seriously culty! They aren’t allowed to have a life outside of worshipping hers, bowing down to her every word, whim etc. But it’s a free world, they’re all adults, and they have every right to be in the inner circle if they choose to, with the knowledge that if they ever want to leave that they will be deemed weak, losers, and their lives will never be worth anything outside of being all in with hers.

  3. I’ve been watching this and I don’t like to say this about people. But I hate her. She is so narcissistic. She’s a bully. And on one episode I’m pretty sure she convinced a woman she was abused. Not based on anything. I don’t know seemed reckless. She’s horrible.

    • Yes absolutely I know the woman you’re talking about, she took this huge leap based on nothing and now this woman has all these traumatic memories that probably aren’t real !

    • That lady clearly has mental health and has successfully manipulated individuals who has experienced trauma to believe the stuff she she is brain washing them with.

    • The series is a cut and copy fiction no documentary!! You know what a Disney company does when you tell the people to free themselves? They will try to destroy you!! That’s the series aim. Or do you still believe JFK was shot by Oswald?

      • The documentary LITERALLY has video of her talking uncut. She says/said these things. She’s. On. Video. Just because YOU don’t want to believe something doesn’t mean it’s not real. They literally hired a PI to figure stuff out and even SHE- the person they hired- said she’s basically a cult leader.

  4. I’ve studied her material for years (all of which is free on YouTube) and she’s one of the best teachers I know. The documentary is not representative of her or her work. But I can also see that it takes time and effort, as well as an open mind, to truly understand what she teaches. And I’ve seen that so much of it is taken out of context or simply misunderstood and judged way too quickly. I urge you to listen to her material with an open mind or at least, if it just isn’t for you (which is perfectly fine), please don’t judge and belittle the people who do get a lot out of it and whose lives she has changed for the better. Thank you.

    • I do not think people are really criticizing her teaching as much as her narcissistic behavior. Requiring people to give up their own self to protect her, to be part of her inner circle…well that’s quite fucked up. Watch any other documentary on a known cult and there are many similarities there..

    • i mean, you might note that i didn’t really focus on whether or not i believe her philosophies on life or whatever spiritual ideas she shares in her videos or “teachings.”

      what is clearly wrong here is:
      + lying about her past
      + using those lies as the foundation upon which she is qualified to provide mental health treatment to others
      + employing a scientifically unsound practice of therapy without the professional background or education necessary to “recover traumatic memories,” which is in and of itself traumatic
      + bullying her team members, exploiting her followers for free labor, and psychologically manipulating her friends and co-workers
      + refusing to engage in any discourse that challenges her idea of herself as all-knowing, using completely bananas metaphors (like the “fastest runner” thing to the guy in her workshop who asked why she didn’t look up to anybody or have any mentors or heroes) to reinforce her authority and silence dissent

    • I believe you that her work can be helpful. She’s repackaged a lot of pre-existing ideas but she speaks directly to you. It’s quite impactful.
      The adaptations of therapy techniques also appear helpful and dangerous.
      People are not channeling the dead. That’s a messed up way of healing people, giving them false abuse memories that alienate them from family.
      She is not the wisest person on earth. That claim is ridiculous. Only uneducated people wouldn’t recognize she’s created a new age stew from old ingredients. Even the alien stuff has been spreading in new age circles for years.
      The way she treats people in her inner circle is cruel. No enlightened person is so reactive and egotistical. Her sense of grandiosity has grown from Open Shadow to the Deep End.

  5. Riese, thank you for this article. I found out about Teal Swan literally just yesterday. I watched many of her videos and can say that nothing she is teaching in any of these videos is new. I’ve heard it all before, decades ago, from many different people. It’s the same new age stuff that’s been around forever.

    The problem with her teachings is that she’s confusing psychological development work with spirituality. They are not the same thing at all.

    As far as her personality and behavior – she’s a tough girl, a bully, and definitely seems narcissistic. And remember – deep down narcissists have low self esteem. It’s sad that people believe they need her and people like her for psychological or spiritual growth. They’re giving their power away to her.

    • My thoughts exactly. I met & lived with Teal as a teenager in a group home for at risk youth.

      She’s attenion/power hungry and she needs to go to college, DO THE WORK in with her supposed 191 I.Q. and study Psychology/Transcendental Psych. with spiritual influences and stop thinking she can heal the world. She literally said “some would say I’m more influential than the Dali Lhama or POPE St. Francis… I mean…?!? Seriously.

  6. I wonder how Teal is coping with this documentary . She is obviously a very sick individual. I hope she finds the help she needs . That being said , I hope this helps the people who have been being manipulated and used see the reality of the situation. Light love and healing energies to all my brothers and sisters

    • After watching the docuseries I had the same question.

      On her FB page (I’m not willing to give her youtube or webpage my IP) she has linked to her responses of each episode.

  7. Excellent work — thank you. Teal’s therapist/coconspirator Barbara Snow is herself bizarre piece of work. I blog about wrongful prosecutions from the “satanic ritual abuse” day-care panic of the 1980s and early ’90s. Littlerascalsdaycarecase dot org

  8. Whatever one thinks of Teal, her popularity shows that the materialist approach to mental health just doesn’t cut it for a lot of people. Fix that, and you’ve fixed the problem.

    • Snake oil pushers have been around for a lot longer than our current system.

      And if you think she’s not making tons of “materialist” money off this scam, I have a bridge to sell you.

  9. Very simply Teal “Swan” is a sociopath. Reminds me of Ted Bundy in front of a judge. Well balanced article. Yes Teal works in the moment with no personal accountability. Find it difficult to believe, however, that it was not obvious to everyone that the docuseries was painting a very ugly picture. So was this in anyway a documentary?

    • Hey Riese I hope you realize bad PR is still PR. I didnt know about her until you and I am definitely interested in her work ;)

  10. Thank you for doing the leg work for me on this crazy lady. I had so many questions about her after watching the documentary and while I still have tons of questions, you have I believe answered as many as can be answered lol. Also, for validating so many of my thoughts after watching this lunacy.

  11. Teal almost killed me with her meditate on how you would off yourself meditation. Healing led me on a path of researching her stuff way before this show came out. She has so many victims and it’s sad Tealers ignore that. I hope her son Winter gets the help and support he really needs. I hope all of her past victims get support and don’t get drowned out by people who support an abuser.

    • I am so sorry to hear that and also glad that you managed to get support ❤️ Her methods are unquestionably absurd and dangerous.

      • Not to mention the fact that “an evil cabal who steals and molests children” is rooted in anti Semitic rhetoric.

  12. I’ve learned a lot from Teal Swam. I’m really grateful for her work, truly been helpful. Of course, not everyone has to like her or believe she is some awesome whatever. I find it unfortunate that she is being stoned like this with the new doc. But that happens, it happens all the time and it’s always happened. When someone goes out and speaks uncomfortable truths and offers new ways of seeing things it is dangerous for that person. I am not claiming Teal Swan is THE truth but I do believe she shares truths. Hopefully some will open their minds and question what they’re hearing.

    • Uncomfortable truths or manipulation?
      The most recent documentary, even with creative editing shows a deeply abusive teacher.
      She is taking pre-existing ideas and therapy techniques and tweaking them, some for positive and some for negative ends.
      Telling an open person that someone channeled their parent and they were abused is not healing, it’s fucking them up. It’s easier to plant false memories than people realize. But there is plenty of science to back that up.

      Both can be true, she can help some and deeply harm others. Practicing therapy without any oversight is irresponsible.

  13. The Doc thing has always bothered me. All of her allegations are completely absurd so I’m not sure what people would believe?
    He sewed her inside of a human corpse? He would drug her and make her run in the forest so him and his friends could find and torture her.
    She even made allegations that Doc would abuse all the kids on his block. Research showed that he has lived in the same house for decades and he has no neighbors.

    Why believe Doc is an abuser, but Jared is not?
    The Gateway podcast was really strange in saying they thought Doc’s response to their molestation question was weird. the interviewer asked if he was a child molester multiple times, what is the correct way to respond to that??? Maybe he is a sick child abuser, she just lies about so many things why would he be the outlier?

    I’m linking a YouTube video that outlines more of Barbara Snows misconduct.

    https://youtu.be/ACS3Az7TZxI

  14. I watched the documentary, I did not know who Teal swan was never heard of her. At first I had an open mind because I myself am very spiritual. I was trying to understand her process. When Julijana arrived I was happy for Blake. I understand Teal is running a business but to have your “team” go through lengths of not being able to have children or have relationships is so selfish. How is it she can get married 3 times birth a child and other people can’t have a life outside of her business plan. Seems very controlling. I felt bad for Julijana when she basically got attacked by Teal and her followers. I’m glad Blake stood up for himself and his wife. The way she cut into Blake was so evil, and through it all Blake went and embraced her and said I love you. I really think his love for her is unconditional. Teal whole business plan is to help people, but who is helping her cause she does need it. Teal your not healed, I think you get off on building yourself up on the backs of whoever will follow your trance. I hope you take a good look at yourself, your behavior to others and really work on yourself. 🙏🏽

  15. I’m sure this will get censored because it doesn’t fit your narrative.But this is obviously a smear campaign.

    You could not be further from the truth!
    I hope you get sued for defamation. I am disgusted by the ignorance of this post.

    And to anyone else reading this, I implore you to go watch teal swans actual videos for yourself. Stop letting tell-a-vision programming prevent you from developing an educated opinion for yourselves.

  16. lol nothing makes me feel more out of place with the gays than when some woo-woo bullshit pulls commenters out of the woodwork to support someone who’s transparently emotionally abusing people.

    and despite your warning, Riese, I was also emotionally traumatized by watching the clips from the show! my own fault for underestimating her, and I’m really enjoying this column!

  17. Okay, I get that, and I’m sure she has helped people, though I question her methods, not being educated to treat trauma, and the fact that she lied, or embellished her past at the very least. My issue isn’t with her followers, even the ones that go through the “completion process.” My issue is with her inner circle, that she turns into her disciples. Those “non negotiables,” now that’s that’s seriously culty! They aren’t allowed to have a life outside of worshipping hers, bowing down to her every word, whim etc. But it’s a free world, they’re all adults, and they have every right to be in the inner circle if they choose to, with the knowledge that if they ever want to leave that they will be deemed weak, losers, and their lives will never be worth anything outside of being all in with hers.

  18. What rock did this inhuman chromosome crawl out from to be so evasively cruel condescend narcissistic authority on the how the why and let’s not forget the when you became broken!
    Are we a doctor? Are we educated? Do we have any degrees?
    What a crock of garbage. The IRS, the Feds Attorney General Office needs to shut it down. Your throwing your money your character in the trash with this Cult!
    Wake up people if it was so good and so true why is she the only one saving everyone?
    I thought NXIVM was delusional barbaric
    But this Chic has that beat!
    Wake up America take your money save it go for a long walk everyday eat healthy be a kind human being and do one good deed everyday!
    It’s not that hard ! We always want what we don’t have and cannot see!
    This chick is dangerous and needs to be shut down !!

  19. I find it fascinating that many of Teal’s supporters are saying that the documentary took her words and situations out of context. There is NO CONTEXT where Teal’s behavior would be acceptable. The things she said to Blake and his wife were horrific. Yes they all live together, but this is also their place of work. Can any of us imagine being spoken to and treated as such in our place of work? OMG. That is some serious harassment.

    I had never heard of Teal before watching the documentary. I clicked on it because I’m interested in spirituality and psychology, and began watching with an open mind. But immediately I saw she doesn’t practice what she preaches, and she is harming everyone she comes into contact with. She reminds me of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz.

    • Exactly, regardless of context her words are enough. And how she spins everything.

      How she reacted to Blake/Juliana, the investigator and anyone who challenged her is enough.

      Almost none of her ideas are original. She’s repackaged or adjusted old ideas and therapy techniques. Some may help but they clearly do harm too.

      Her inner circle are totally in a cult. Mind control tactics a plenty.

  20. Amen! I found this article described my experience watching the docu series perfectly. Triggered memories of teenage female narcissistic personalities that I randomly crossed and thanked the lord I wasn’t zeroed in on.

  21. We can see through your lies. We can see how you are demonizing good people and glorifying bad people.
    This documentary and article cannot be more ridiculous.
    This is obviously another one of those propaganda to destroy someone telling the truths and actually helping people. Like they did Michael Jackson.
    We can see through your lies.

  22. What really strikes me about the documentary (besides the blatant manipulation) is an understated look of the inner circle– their eyes look dead. They look vacant, desensitized. They have, over time, given up their own selves, opinions and even personalities.

    It was so scary to see in the scene where she made everyone talk about Julijana, after she set the example of cutting her down. The way they watch Teal berate people with a vacant, detached look is terrifying and so sad. It speaks to how brainwashed they had become until they were just a shell to be filled with whatever Teal decides whatever their “truth” is.

    • Yes! The eyes. That was the first thing I noticed about in her rebuttal to The Deep End – in the film crew, their eyes were flat too.

      I’m learning about non-verbal communication and the expressions of the inner circle could be a freaking dissertation.

  23. I become obsessed with random internet things and do deep dives.

    What’s fascinating to me beyond the mind control tactics and made up new age-pseudo-therapy is how Teal became Teal Swan tm.

    I’ve found written accounts by former members over the years, watched the puff piece Open Shadow, and listened to the more recent podcasts covering years of her developing into a guru.

    Having read a lot on religion, psychology and therapy techniques I can almost see the evolution. Diana’s interview kind of cemented it.

    (I’m of the Agatha Christie/Miss Marple view that a deep study of people in a small town can apply to most folks.)

    It’s obvious she made up the satanic abuse, but people seem to think the only way a child can be a pervert is if someone exposes them to it as that is most often the case. In some strange turn of events (growing up on an island of 180 people) I was intimate friends with girls who were sexual at young ages. There is a difference between someone who was sexualized by experience and someone who’s interests and perhaps the reaction of others lead them to be “ahead” of their peers. I think Teal is the later.

    The girls I knew who were sexually abused reacted in a few ways: they avoided anything sexual all together, or it was normal, they subconsciously signaled their abuse to predators, and some learned to use it for male attention.

    The people I knew who were just perverts didn’t know what they were doing, they just liked it. One girl growing up showed me a giant teddy bear she then proceeded to fist fuck (she’d made a hole) while grinding naked on it. She was obsessed with Dirty Dancing. This was before the internet.

    Teal was drawn to dark, sexual shit. Like the cutting, I think a part of her was attracted to the shock factor in those around her. She learned to weaponize victimhood, but nothing in her personality has the actual tenor of a victim. She’s the aggressor, the powerful one, the sex fiend.

    She uses ‘Doc’ to prove she overcame the worst trauma and learned things that she just read and borrowed from. If you watch the Open Shadow, which I would not call a documentary, she is less egotistical and grandiose. She even says people should take and borrow from many sources for their spiritual practice.

    Fascinating case study for sure

    • I can’t believe that teal would actively participate in the freeform doc seeing the end result if she couldn’t see how bad that was gonna make her look like!?! Was she just happy to be having a Doc made abt her or what was her motivation and angle on this whole thing?

  24. On September 6, 2022, I posted this comment that I wrote onto Teal Swan’s official website. https://tealswan.com/teals-blog/an-explanation-for-my-non-response-approach-r590/page/8/?tab=comments#comment-37377

    The link I have included is to a blog post Teal made on May 16, 2022, where she attempts to explain to her followers why she has refused thus far to directly face her haters and critics, and then offers an apology for not doing so. I am surprised that “Blake” the manager of her content and former dating partner has not taken it down. I personally have grown to despise Teal Swan after I initially had a good impression of her back in 2013 when I stumbled upon her website. I was impressed because she dealt with topics such as suicide and mass murders such as was committed by Elliott Rodgers in 2014, and other unpleasant topics that no other new age teacher would address. And then she stopped doing so and more or less returned to tame topics and dealing with women’s issues. In my comments below I berate her as a Pussy Level teacher only wanting a life of ease, prosperity, and comfort, and accusing her of abandoning what she once said was her mission, and that was rehabilitation and transformation of the mental health system and the criminal justice system. She has long abandoned this mission in favor of seeking fame and avoiding criticism. I inform her in my comments, that she will never escape criticism and hatred by others while she continues to tell lies and make up preposterous stories of past abuse that never occurred.

    Teal:

    I lost all respect for you many years ago. As long as you are part of your team led around by your Effeminate Master Blake, you will be useless to yourself and the world at large. And by the way, you are not Famous, except in your own mind. So put that delusion to rest once and for all. You alone are responsible for all the hate and resentment directed at you because you turned away from your original path of helping the mentally ill, the criminally insane, talking about people like Elliott Rodgers and mass shooters. Instead, you chose a pussy level life of ease, prosperity, and became the lowest of the lowest by becoming a Hay House pussy level teacher. Pussy level Hay House teachers and their level of thinking will always counsel you to not engage with the enemy because Hay House teachers are gutless cowards only concerned about the comfort of their bodies, finances, and minds. And that is what Blake your effeminate master has led you to become. And it was your choice to be led and collared by him and follow his pussy level wishes.

    Your top priority is to look pretty in your fancy new age dresses while sitting on stage in front of starry-eyed followers who worship you. All you give a fuck about is comfort, financial wellbeing, and being loved by others. And that makes you fucking useless to all the people lost in hatred, resentment, and those consumed with the desire to destroy you and bring you harm. These are the people you claimed in 2013 when I first discovered you that you were here to help. You cannot serve two masters, the pussy level Wayne Dyer type of masters along with Louise Hay and then say you are in service of helping the downcast members of society consumed in rage and their own personal trauma. Essentially you have become fucking useless and deserve all the attack that can be garnished against you. Every time you file a lawsuit to silence your haters and critics, expect the level of attack to increase a thousand-fold, just as it should. The message of “attack against you” is that you have failed in your mission as a spiritual teacher. As long as anyone is trying to undermine you, it means you failed to do your job and believe me when I say, you have failed long and hard. As long as you are part of this useless team led by Blake, your master and keeper, you will always be hated and attacked by thousands who want to bring you down. And yes, they should be allowed to continue with their unbridled attacks, just stopping short of physical violence against you. If you employ security officers at your events, then that means you are a hypocrite and do not trust in the universe or God to protect you. The only reason you would need security officers is because you have failed to do your job in the past.

    Your entire blog post on this subject is just one big complaint where you whine and complain that you cannot fly around in planes to faraway places and not have people who hate and attack you. You are delusional if you believe you are so special that you somehow do not deserve this. You deserve the hate and attack because you actually love it and could not thrive without it. You love being embroiled in controversy and criticism. From the day you told your outlandish story of being raped by your family vet and then refusing to expose him to law enforcement for prosecution, is the day you became a fool and set yourself up for a lifetime of attack and criticism. You should bask in this realization. You created it all, all the reasons people hate you, all their bizarre attacks. Yes, you alone are responsible for it all.

    There is no excuse at this point for not knowing how you should respond to your many critics. You put off making the decision because you allow Blake to be your Master and keeper and parade you around as his personal parrot squawking his own truth, but not yours. As long as you remain a part of his team, you will always be a useless teacher.

    The only people you should ever pay attention to and respond to are your critics and especially those who are the most savage. You state that “they are not mentally well”. I would say a woman who allows herself to be raped for 10 years and then refuses to prosecute the offender is more mentally unwell than any of your critics. You have no room to criticize any of your detractors and haters.

    You learn nothing from your pussy level mostly female followers who hang onto and adore your every word. You learn nothing from those who love and adore you except how to be more of a pussy level useless teacher like every teacher and author at Hay House is. I lost respect for you years ago when you started bragging about how much you respected Jerry Hicks, a man who lied about his cancer and tried to convince the world he was suffering from a spider bite. I lost all respect for you when you did not write or comment about the Las Vegas shooting where Stephen Paddock shot and killed over fifty people. The last time you discussed a mass murder was when Elliott Rodgers killed those people in 2014 in California due his sexual frustration and inability to connect with women.

    The only people who have anything of value to teach you are your haters and critics, not your pussy level followers and tribe who hang onto your every word. You sadly turned into a pussy level Hay House level teacher because of “Blake” and his influence on you. He is the reason you have failed as a true spiritual teacher. Your attraction to effeminate men has been your undoing. Anytime in your past you encountered a true Alpha male, your relationship did not last two months, and never will. You are incapable of having a real relationship with a real man, mainly because you are a weak woman with no true power of your own. Although you speak of healing on a regular basis, it is so sad and ironic that you remain as unhealed as the day you started out on your journey. If you were truly healed, none of these haters and detractors would even exist. Haters and detractors are always an indicator that you are living a lie and are a hypocritical teacher to say the least. Your haters and detractors will never leave you in your current lifetime. Your haters resent you because they are jealous of your success, fame, and adoration that you receive from your followers. They have a right to feel this way, because the success that you have obtained, you did not earn, and you do not deserve. It is manufactured success crafted by your Master Blake and his team of puppeteers. The only reason you are successful is because of your team led by Blake who is only concerned with financial wellbeing and wellbeing of the body. You would never be successful at all on your own merit.

    All forms of avoidance will eventually bring you down in the end as a pathetic and useless teacher. To avoid people who hate you is actually a direct attack against them. To ignore another’s anger and rage at you makes you far lower than what you perceive them to be. You are not the “better person” as you claim to be. The people who hate you are far above you in integrity and honesty because they are not afraid to be perceived for who they are. You on the other hand are afraid and timid all the time. Anytime you listen to Blake and your useless team, you will always end up a loser in the end. You cannot escape the wrath of those who hate you, because YOU are that wrath and every word you have uttered, and every action taken since the day of your preposterous “I was raped for nine years by our family vet story”. has sealed your fate. Quite frankly, people do not respect you except your pussy level followers and worshipers. You have chosen your fate. You decided you wanted to rank along with Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, Tony Robbins, Louise Hay, Esther Hicks, and every other Pussy Level teacher on the planet in a feeble attempt to avoid attack. How has it served you? Blake and your team are your worst enemy of all and you do not even see it.

    Hey Teal, I thought you were a teacher of contrast. You know, where you state we cannot have expansion without the negative contrast to inspire us to want a better and happier life. With that being said “from you and your idols Abraham and Esther Hicks”, YOU need to stop your whining. YOU cannot just have followers who love you without having followers who hate you just as intently. That is what your Master Blake wants for you, a perfect life of ease and followers who love you. Maybe one day in the future, you will finally get around to healing the only person that matters, and that is YOU! However, I will not keep the light on for you while waiting. I personally will not accept any apology you have to offer and will offer you no forgiveness on a subject you should have handled on your own years ago. I also know YOU will never read a word of what I have just written, because Master Blake will make sure you never see my words. It does not matter what heavy weight professionals you have engaged to help you sort out this matter which is all bull shit. Only you and you alone are responsible for the mess you are in and only YOU will find a solution which in the end will involve total honesty which you are currently incapable of exhibiting.

  25. My experience was with a man that claimed he wa a member of Mashall Lever’s spiritual group – and had 3 passports and claimed he was an incredible mathematician. Actually he was a chronic liar. His ex wife says he lived a double life and put her through hell. His two ex partners didnt want to talk about him at all but one said – ‘youve never met a better liar’ and the other said – ‘ i feel sick’ im still trying to get over the financial abuse’ but she wouldnt say more. His lies were really good and he seemed so nice and encouraged me but some time later, i realised he had poisoned me against my friends. I thought everyone liked him – i had only introduced him to a few people as i didnt know him long, but after I got out of his grip most told me they didnt like him. He now patrols Sydney for more women to use.

    Frederick Toscher.

Comments are closed.