Turns out it’s
not exclusively dudes who do this. Cult researcher and California State
University prof Janja Lalich assures me there are many women cult
leaders, and destructive ones too. A New Age spiritual guru named Teal
Swan has sparked a particularly heated debate after at least one former
student died by suicide. Teal claims to have super-sensory powers, to be
able to see what’s happening inside people’s bodies, and to help people
recover repressed memories of childhood trauma. She was recently the
subject of a six-part Gizmodo podcast called The Gateway.
Though Teal has denied cult allegations, her massive social media influence and controversial practices around depression and suicide—sometimes encouraging students to imagine their own deaths in detail—have placed her on the dangerous side of Lalich’s cult radar. And with nearly a half million YouTube subscribers and hundreds of videos on everything from skincare to relationships to cryptocurrency, Teal doesn’t immediately fit the (gross, dated) profile of a cult leader. In the past, female gurus like Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Judy Zebra Knight made headlines building doomsday shelters and claiming to channel ancient spirits, but Teal Swan brings in a new level of 21st century internet literacy as she uses YouTube and SEO to find desperate people.
To better understand what a present-day woman-led cult looks like, I called up Gizmodo reporter Jennings Brown, who visited Teal Swan’s retreat centre in Costa Rica. Brown mostly avoids the cult label in his reporting, and acknowledges that Teal is serving a need for shame-free conversation about taboo subjects like child sexual abuse and suicidal ideation. But he also shares concern for the people who devote their lives to her “dark brand of spirituality” without professional oversight or accountability.
“When she finally arrives, it’s very theatrical,” Brown recalled of their first in-person meeting in Costa Rica, where students had paid upwards of $2,000 to work with Teal. “She descends this stone staircase, and she has two close followers on either side, and she’s perched higher than everyone else. And one of the first things they do is a death meditation, where she said ‘we’re all going to get suicidal for a moment.’”
Brown told VICE he was caught off guard when Teal instructed people to envision exactly how they would end their own life. But the participants seemed unfazed by the exercise, already familiar with Teal’s intense video style. In clips still available on YouTube she has suggested suicide is a reset button, feels like a relief, and that suicidal thoughts are a valid reaction to bad situations. In comments below viewers express their fear and shame about wanting to go through with it.
Brown found Teal’s unconventional approach doesn’t line up with suicide research. A new study on suicide contagion released this week found mention of suicide methods in media increased the chances of subsequent suicides. “That’s one big thing with Teal, she tells people they have to decide whether they’re going to commit to life or not,” he told VICE. “That doesn’t match with how humans behave… The data says nobody is 100 percent committed to living or death—even in the middle of a suicide attempt, there’s still part of you that wants to live.”
Though Teal has denied cult allegations, her massive social media influence and controversial practices around depression and suicide—sometimes encouraging students to imagine their own deaths in detail—have placed her on the dangerous side of Lalich’s cult radar. And with nearly a half million YouTube subscribers and hundreds of videos on everything from skincare to relationships to cryptocurrency, Teal doesn’t immediately fit the (gross, dated) profile of a cult leader. In the past, female gurus like Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Judy Zebra Knight made headlines building doomsday shelters and claiming to channel ancient spirits, but Teal Swan brings in a new level of 21st century internet literacy as she uses YouTube and SEO to find desperate people.
To better understand what a present-day woman-led cult looks like, I called up Gizmodo reporter Jennings Brown, who visited Teal Swan’s retreat centre in Costa Rica. Brown mostly avoids the cult label in his reporting, and acknowledges that Teal is serving a need for shame-free conversation about taboo subjects like child sexual abuse and suicidal ideation. But he also shares concern for the people who devote their lives to her “dark brand of spirituality” without professional oversight or accountability.
“When she finally arrives, it’s very theatrical,” Brown recalled of their first in-person meeting in Costa Rica, where students had paid upwards of $2,000 to work with Teal. “She descends this stone staircase, and she has two close followers on either side, and she’s perched higher than everyone else. And one of the first things they do is a death meditation, where she said ‘we’re all going to get suicidal for a moment.’”
Brown told VICE he was caught off guard when Teal instructed people to envision exactly how they would end their own life. But the participants seemed unfazed by the exercise, already familiar with Teal’s intense video style. In clips still available on YouTube she has suggested suicide is a reset button, feels like a relief, and that suicidal thoughts are a valid reaction to bad situations. In comments below viewers express their fear and shame about wanting to go through with it.
Brown found Teal’s unconventional approach doesn’t line up with suicide research. A new study on suicide contagion released this week found mention of suicide methods in media increased the chances of subsequent suicides. “That’s one big thing with Teal, she tells people they have to decide whether they’re going to commit to life or not,” he told VICE. “That doesn’t match with how humans behave… The data says nobody is 100 percent committed to living or death—even in the middle of a suicide attempt, there’s still part of you that wants to live.”
"Drunk at the matinee" is a collection of candid poetry about stupid shit that we all experience from day to day.
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