So it looks like Teal Swan is finally being exposed.

[Michael Jackson]

36 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

And don't comment on my journals when I kept requesting you not to 

 

You keep bullying me and act surprised when I react or feel triggered. 

Then maybe don't violate my boundaries. 

@Preety_India After you told me you don't like it that I comment I appologized and deleted my comment. I never commented after that, nor do I intend to do that.

Please stop spreading drama about me.

Also, I never bullied you. It's annoying to hear that, I literally never did that.

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Michael Jackson

[Ulax]

1 hour ago, Preety_India said:

Even people with histrionic personality can act like that. 

Even people with ptsd can act like that 

 

Stop abusing my mental disorder. 

 

I don't see how I'm abusing your mental health disorder, nor do I quite understand what you mean by that.

But, I'd rather park that discussion for now.

[Preety_India]

@Michael Jackson stop talking about me and stop commenting on me and leave me alone. 

Leo already told you to drop it 

 

[Leo Gura]

Locking this for now. I might re-open it later after people cool off.

Anyone making posts here that do not pertain to Teal will start receiving Warning Points, so watch what you post. This thread is not about you guys.

[jimwell]

On 6/21/2022 at 5:41 AM, jimwell said:

I also have not seen the documentaries. But regardless of what they expose, I still appreciate and respect Teal's trauma and childhood wounds Wisdom. She is still much better than all or almost all psychiatrists, therapists, and psychologists. 

But I detected a problem with Teal a few years ago. I could see she lacked embodiment or implementation of her own deep insights. She teaches full time and runs a community. Those alone restrict her from doing serious implementation work which requires much alone time, experimentation, introspection and contemplation. 

Having deep insights about childhood trauma and mental-emotional brokenness is good, but surely not enough for very significant healing. Implementation is the other half of the challenge. 

The documentaries must have some significant truths in them. Not my intention to sound pretentious, but Teal is still significantly broken. I can tell just by watching her speaking.

I have watched all 4 episodes.

Here is Teal's response to episode 4, defending herself.

 

I could see that the documentary makers are biased against Teal. For example, when Blake was burying his goldfish, they flashed a powerful, evil-looking image of Teal. That gave me an impression that Teal killed the fish or Teal cursed Blake for leaving her community.

But the things I said in my earlier post (quoted above) were correct. After watching the documentary, the exact type of brokenness Teal has became clear to me.

She hasn't embodied her own deep insights. She lacks integrity, self-honesty and self-awareness. She has the tendency to gaslight when cornered. She is also codependent, which means she relies too much on her core group for mental-emotional support and stability. I also saw a few "the dark triad" characteristics in her. And it is better if Teal develops her feminine side more.

She needs to prioritize working on her brokenness instead of continuing what she has been doing if she wants to be a better healer and teacher (and of course, to further heal her damaged soul).

To all mentally-emotionally damaged people who look up to Teal, planning to attend her workshops, or wanting to get close to her; do the things she says, not the things she does, and maintain a healthy emotional distance from her.   

Edited June 26, 2022 by jimwell
added one more idea

[Brittany]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:09 PM, Leo Gura said:

That's one of the core problems I see with her teachings. Her teachings are all about human connection, but you cannot ever satisfy yourself with human connection because the love humans give you will always be finite and selfish, creating suffering. Teal's whole approach will create enormous attachments to humans and to community which will prevent and pervert the deepest levels of spirituality.

The real question is: Why does Teal need a new close group? What is she lacking that she feels she needs those attachments?

There is good reason why the most awakened people are ascetics and hermits with very loose social bonds. Social attachments create suffering and deepen Maya. Community is not about Truth, it's about survival. And you see how her community is struggling with survival in the documentary. That survival will corrupt any spiritual pursuit.

On a practical level Teal can cultivate a group of friends who she doesn't live with and who aren't her employees, but are her peers. This would be the healthy way to do it. This is what most humans do. You don't need to crawl up inside the asses of your friends. Keep a healthy distance. The problem is that Teal seems to want friends who are more like servants and emotional tampons rather than equals.

At least that's what I get from the documentary footage. How accurate the footage is I cannot say.

19 hours ago, jimwell said:

She is also codependent, which means she relies too much on her core group for mental-emotional support and stability. 

This is a tricky topic with Teal Swan.

She is actively against hyper independence in the spiritual community.

Teal doesn't like the whole "All I need is myself" mentality in spiritual circles.

Her teachings encourage emotional dependency on others.

In my opinion, emotional dependency causes you to need another person in order to feel peace within. Without their support, you are emotionally starving and start acting manic.......which can be seen from the documentary.

But I also understand where she is coming from. If there is no seperation, and there is no self and there is no other...... then our division between "my love" and "their love" collapses. 

It seems like her shadow work integration and non-duality integration is strong. But her awareness vs. object integration (stuff Rupert Spira teaches) is weak. With awareness vs. object integration, emotional dependency will literally turn off.

She is also weak in the metaphysical stuff that Neville Goddard teaches on imagination. Because this also shuts emotional dependency off. 

Some videos where Teal promotes dependency:

Video teaching that you need external love from others:

Video on "Using People" to Get your needs met:

Video on "Resourcing People" in order to get our needs met:

 

Video on how wanting to be alone is often unhealthy:

Video against hyper individuality in the spiritual community:

Video on the trap of spiritual teachers attempting to transcend their humanity (which I respect her take):

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Brittany

[Jodistrict]

The hyper individuality in the spiritual community she refers to is a blind spot of Anglo culture, more than being a trait of any particular personality.   My experience in Mexico has been much different.  It is just assumed that healing is done in groups and within the tribe.  For example, an Ayahuasca ceremony is a tribal healing and the mantra is “We are the medicine”.

[Leo Gura]

Of course being a loner can be dysfunctional, however so can needing others to make you feel complete, loved, and grounded.

A healthy balance must be struck. And when it comes to spiritual work, the most serious work is best done alone. The problem is that other people will distract you from awakening with their human bullshit.

[Brittany]

I agree.

Teal just takes on a very unique approach of saying "having our needs met by others, is having our needs met by ourselves".

 

[Leo Gura]

The core problem with using others to meet your needs is that others are inherently selfish and unreliable, and so you will never be satisfied. There will also tend to be a very strong drive to manipulate others in order to get them to meet your needs in the ways you want. Which is exactly the problem we see in the Teal documentary.

And even deeper core problem is that others are imaginary, so who are you kidding?

Self-reliance is an important value in this work. Don't use others do things you can do for yourself. You shouldn't need others to emotionally ground you because you can do that for yourself.

Telling your employees that they cannot have children or spouses because you need them to emotionally support you -- this is the problem of Teal's approach.

[ZenAlex]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The core problem with using others to meet your needs is that others are inherently selfish and unreliable, and so you will never be satisfied. There will also tend to be a very strong drive to manipulate others in order to get them to meet your needs in the ways you want. Which is exactly the problem we see in the Teal documentary.

And even deeper core problem is that others are imaginary, so who are you kidding?

Self-reliance is an important value in this work. Don't use others do things you can do for yourself. You shouldn't need others to emotionally ground you because you can do that for yourself.

Telling your employees that they cannot have children or spouses because you need them to emotionally support you -- this is the problem of Teal's approach.

I don't completely disagree as I agree you shouldn't rely too much on others, but viewing others as completely selfish and unreliable is a bit pessimistic.

You can gain great pleasure from helping others and some people are genuinely empthatic and reliable for support, but I agree there's limitations to that, and you can only expect so much from people.

[How to be wise]

Extroverts NEED other people for their energy, otherwise they will be drained, just like introverts are drained by being with lots of people. Why else do you never see Peter Ralston or sadhguru alone? You won’t.

[ZenAlex]

46 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

Extroverts NEED other people for their energy, otherwise they will be drained, just like introverts are drained by being with lots of people. Why else do you never see Peter Ralston or sadhguru alone? You won’t.

This is B.S. Sadhguru often advises spending a considerable amount of time alone.

An introvert can deal with social situations but will simply have less social energy overall.

 

[How to be wise]

2 hours ago, ZenAlex said:

This is B.S. Sadhguru often advises spending a considerable amount of time alone.

And when have you seen sadhguru not around others.

[Leo Gura]

5 hours ago, How to be wise said:

Extroverts NEED other people for their energy, otherwise they will be drained, just like introverts are drained by being with lots of people. Why else do you never see Peter Ralston or sadhguru alone? You won’t.

This is so silly.

By definition, when they are alone you never see them.

By your logic Sadhguru never takes a shit because you've never seen him shitting.

[How to be wise]

23 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

This is so silly.

By definition, when they are alone you never see them.

By your logic Sadhguru never takes a shit because you've never seen him shitting.

Compare how many times we see them with other people, and how many times we’ve seen you with other people. 

Anybody can be alone for an insignificant amount of time. But on a day to day basis, an extrovert simply can’t live without hanging out with others. 

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, How to be wise said:

Compare how many times we see them with other people, and how many times we’ve seen you with other people. 

Anybody can be alone for an insignificant amount of time. But on a day to day basis, an extrovert simply can’t live without hanging out with others. 

1) Where did you get the idea that Ralston is an extrovert? He has spent a lot time alone. You just have no idea. At one point in his life he lived by himself in the jungle in Hawaii. If you think Ralston needs people to be happy, you don't understand Ralston.

Sadhguru runs a gigantic organization. He's busy 24/7. Of course he is with people a lot. But I'd bet he would also have no problem being alone for years on end.

There is a big difference between what Ralston and Sadhguru are doing and the way Teal uses her inner circle for emotional support. There is a difference between being around people and not needing them for your happiness vs keeping people around to support you emotionally, and if they leave you want to kill yourself. The issue is one of attachment vs detachment. You can be around people in a detached way and it's no problem. Or you can get very attached to people to the point where it destroys you when they leave. This is a problem.

2) Introverts like to be around people too. It's not like an introvert will be satisfied all alone. Introverts socialize, they just do it on a difference scale.

3) My work is primary online. I don't run a spiritual retreat center.

[puporing]

Lol maybe Teal should start an online forum instead ...

[How to be wise]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

1) Where did you get the idea that Ralston is an extrovert? He has spent a lot time alone. You just have no idea. At one point in his life he lived by himself in the jungle in Hawaii. If you think Ralston needs people to be happy, you don't understand Ralston.

Ralston is definitely an extrovert. And you don’t know that he spent a lot of time alone. Even if he was in a solo retreat, he could still go to restaurants and cafes and socialise there. 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

But I'd bet he would also have no problem being alone for years on end.

You bet wrong. Extroverts will be drained if they aren’t talking to others. People are their battery.

 

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

My work is primary online. I don't run a spiritual retreat center.

Because you’re an introvert. Other people will drain your batteries. For extroverts, lack of people will drain their batteries. Which is why they can’t live like you. 

[LSD-Rumi]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

if they leave you want to kill yourself

How on earth does a spiritual and a self help guru like Teal Swan who teaches self help, healing traumas and detachment from things, still depend heavily on an inner circle and still manipulate and abuse people emotionally. I cannot get it. A guru needs to be fake to do such things but her content is solid tho.