Teal Swan - A Deep Dive Into Her Work

[Ponder]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

My last girlfriend was childhood friends with Teal in Utah.

Pretty cool. 

[UnbornTao]

12 hours ago, Judy2 said:

could you give a few examples of aspects you find culty about her? i'm asking because i haven't looked much into her background/community and mostly just follow her on YouTube.

I won't be able to articulate it very well right now, but to me it isn't really about her character or her story - those are rather secondary. The gist of it, from what I hear in her videos, is a subtext that essentially says: "believe me, admire me." This is the main problem in my view.

The purpose of her videos seems more directed toward serving her own agenda than toward actually communicating an experience, opening up possibilities, or facilitating others. She's creating followers and believers of her way of seeing the world. There's no real questioning or openness - just a stream of "closed-loop" assertions you're supposed to take on faith.

Something along those lines.

I suspect most people won't hear those "communications" that way and will instead get caught up in the content, delivery, or their own reaction to it. It's basically: "trust me, believe me. This is how reality is - because I say so." I could elaborate, but one could ask oneself: What is she up to? Beyond the entertainment, validation, and how it makes me feel, what is the communication directed at? What is its purpose? What is it really accomplishing? 

Edited yesterday at 12:34 AM by UnbornTao

[How to be wise]

15 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

My last girlfriend was childhood friends with Teal in Utah.

Was she the one from 10 years ago?

[Natasha Tori Maru]

32 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

I won't be able to articulate it very well right now, but to me it isn't really about her character or her story - those are rather secondary. The gist of it, from what I hear in her videos, is a subtext that essentially says: "believe me, admire me." This is the main problem. 

The purpose of her videos seems more directed toward serving her own agenda than toward actually communicating something, opening up possibilities, or facilitating others. She's creating followers and believers of her way of seeing the world. There's no real questioning or openness - just a stream of assertions you're supposed to take on faith.

Something along those lines.

I suspect most people won't hear those "communications" that way and will instead get caught up in the content, delivery, or their own reaction to it. It's basically: trust me, believe me. This is how reality is - because I say so. I could elaborate, but ask: What is she up to? Beyond the entertainment and validation and how it makes me feel, what is the communication directed at? What is its purpose? What is it doing? 

The Youtube clip I posted on the Mormon Stories podcast goes into her backstory that would support this view. It paints a behavioural and psychological picture illustrating how that backstory could be responsible for the 'believe me, admire me' theme she plays out.

@Emerald has seen her and been to one of her live seminars also, I believe she had some insight into Teal's general vibe in real life.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, How to be wise said:

Was she the one from 10 years ago?

No

[Miguel1]

Thanks for all the input, keep them coming. I will respond here soon, when I have time.

[Bogdan]

@Miguel1 imma write this and go to bed, but tomorrow I'm looking forward to reading all of you guys' thoughts

 

From what I've seen, she might have useful stuff for people who are on the brink of suicide. I personally know someone that claims Teal's videos helped her in not making that decision.

But honestly, I think Teal is too lost in her own imagination with some stuff.

She claims she has extra sensory perceptions, which.. fair enough.

But then she makes claims about different types of aliens.

And also about AI being a sort of being from another dimension..

She keeps having opinions about how WW3 is already happening blabla.

She told some person attending a retreat that their friend (or someone else) is possessed by an alien

 

... where muh epistemology at? 😆

 

I seeing a lot of new agers parroting this type of stuff, and I suspect a lot of it originates from her.

People that follow her tend to believe she is a super special being, sent to be a sort of high level priestess of this world, and I think she perpetuates this narrative.

 

Also I personally found some of her ideas about trauma, and therapy harmful for my journey. But probably that's not on her, but on me.

So I am currently finding too much of her content wacky, schizophrenic and not nuanced enough.

Too much noise vs signal.

Edited yesterday at 12:28 AM by Bogdan

[Judy2]

@UnbornTao thank you for elaborating:)

[Bogdan]

I just read what y'all have replied on this topic. I find it interesting how all of us have more or less the same view on Teal.

Makes me curious about why that is!

 

I wanna add this regarding Teal's teachings - from what I understand she is big on not bulldozing aspects of self. Not letting one need or thought dominate another.

She seems to be dogmatic about there always being a 3rd common ground option, and that there is no need for "zero-sum games". And that bulldozing always leads to repression or something.

I think the paradox there is that this common ground option ends up dominating over zero-sum games in your worldview. It's a damned if you do or if you don't situation.

At the time I was searching for advice that would help me with my crippling weed addiction. And for me this kind of advice was not useful at all. The opposite, even.

One super important thing that ended up helping was Leo clearly communicating that sometimes you just need to fuckin use brute force, keep focus, vision and fuckin bulldoze through. Some things just require that.

So thank you Leo for that also. 💪😎

[Sugarcoat]

I haven’t watched much of her so I can’t say much 

But some thought is that when someone adopts and develops very elegant mental models about reality it might cause them to be really bought into them because it seems to make a lot of sense, but in a way they become just as stuck in their mind as anyone else could be

She seems very intelligent tho, both intellectually and emotionally,  anyone can’t just speak like her.

Also it’s almost unavoidable but when you’re very intelligent and developed it could cause you to create a lot of identity out of that because it feels good and creates stability for you, which can harm epistemology because you feel more sure in yourself than maybe you should, and it all just sounds so good to you it’s easier to get caught up in it and questioning and reevaluating might become more secondary to you. 
 

 

Edited yesterday at 03:14 PM by Sugarcoat

[UnbornTao]

13 hours ago, Judy2 said:

@UnbornTao thank you for elaborating:)

Anytime.

[Breathe]

On 12/3/2025 at 10:53 PM, mmKay said:

Documentary for background context. Pretty serious sh*t

So, in the I article that I read, this story was debunked. She made this whole thing up.

The author interviewed people from her childhood and said that she did not grow up in a cult.

She is a chronic liar. She is an extremely fucked up person.

[Breathe]

On 12/3/2025 at 8:59 AM, Judy2 said:

i think it's fair to say that her teachings on relationships and mental health can be valuable regardless

Choose your mentors wisely.

[Leo Gura]

7 minutes ago, Breathe said:

she did not grow up in a cult.

Mormons are a cult. My girlfriend was in that too.

[Breathe]

On 12/4/2025 at 1:44 PM, UnbornTao said:

The gist of it, from what I hear in her videos, is a subtext that essentially says: "believe me, admire me."

She's an attention seeker for sure.

I know I'm commenting a lot on this thread but I only saw a couple of her videos many years ago. That said, I was fascinated by the extremely long article that I read. I think I had googled something about "cults" and the story about her came up. I was not surprised by what I read.

I am not a Teal Swan expert but she's 100% ego.

[Leo Gura]

Just now, Breathe said:

I had googled something about "cults" and the story about her came up. I was not surprised by what I read.

Dude, the same would be said about me.

[Breathe]

Just now, Leo Gura said:

Mormons are a cult. My girlfriend was in that too.

I meant that she did not grow up in a satanic cult. Sorry for the confusion 

[Leo Gura]

Just now, Breathe said:

I meant that she did not grow up in a satanic cult. Sorry for the confusion 

Well that I can't speak to.

[Breathe]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

Dude, the same would be said about me.

The difference between you and her is that your words are verifiable.

I could be mistaken but I don't recall you saying that you were an alien or that you grew up in a satanic cult.

Come clean now LEO!

Edited 10 hours ago by Breathe

[Leo Gura]

Just now, Breathe said:

your words are verifiable.

Verifiable to whom?

That's so subjective.