Teal Swan: Self-Help Guru or Cult Leader?
Teal Swan is a popular but controversial spiritual teacher, author, and YouTuber whose channel has over a million subscribers. The Deep End, directed by Jon Kasbe, is a documentary streaming on Hulu, that takes a close but extremely critical look at Teal Swan and her organization. While she has attracted more than her share of “haters” over the years, this is the first mainstream coverage/expose of her work. It raises at least as many questions about the intentions and integrity of the media and documentarians as it does about Teal Swan and her organization.
I don’t have strong feelings about Teal Swan one way or the other. I subscribe to her YouTube channel and have watched probably 10 or so hours of her content over the last few years. Some of it is insightful, but I don’t have any urge to attend a live workshop. I watch many people but don’t really “follow” anyone beyond the social media sense of the word. The word “follow” is relevant here because, in The Deep End, they insisted on labeling almost anyone who attends an event a Teal Swan “follower,” which is a loaded word typically applied to cult members. Just to be clear, this is a discussion and review of the documentary The Deep End, and not of Teal Swan and her work. I’m not nearly familiar enough with the latter to have an informed opinion.
