Teal Swan

Teal Swan
Born	Mary Teal Bosworth (1984-06-16) June 16, 1984 Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Pen name	The Spiritual Catalyst
Occupation	Writer, public speaker
Genre	Spirituality, Psychology, metaphysics
Notable works	"Shadows before Dawn" (2015) "The Completion Process" (2016) "The Anatomy of Loneliness" (2018)
Spouse	Mark Scott (2006-2013) Sarbedeep Swan (2014) Ale Gicqueau (2016-2018)
Website
tealswan.com

Teal Swan (born Mary Teal Bosworth; June 16, 1984) is an American spiritual teacher. Swan's teachings on how to manage mental health issues have often been described as unconventional and potentially hazardous and has received criticism for how she attracts fans. She has been nicknamed "The Suicide Catalyst", a play on her pen name "The Spiritual Catalyst".

Swan and her teachings were discussed in a six-part audio documentary series by Gizmodo in June 2018. She was also the subject of a documentary film, Open Shadow: The Story of Teal Swan, which was released in 2017.

In 2020, Swan released the novel and #2 Publishers Weekly trade paperback frontlist bestseller, Hunger of the Pine.

Biography

Swan was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 16, 1984, growing up in Logan, Utah. She lived in Logan until her teens with her parents and younger brother, Sky. Logan had a high percentage of practicing Mormons in the city at the time, and Swan stated her religious differences meant that from an early age she felt she didn't conform. The religious and cultural differences between family and school life meant she didn't "fit in" at school and was often bullied due to her different beliefs. Adding to the cultural differences, Swan also states that she often spoke and acted differently to other children at the school. This combination meant at times the bullying was intense and had an effect on Swan from an early age.

Aside from the bullying, Swan began to feel physically different from other children she spent time with. According to Gizmodo, Swan first noticed these physical differences when in class and other children didn't react to things Swan was experiencing. Years later, Swan's mother was interviewed for the film Open Shadow where she stated Swan had hypersensitivity while she was growing up, often reacting to sound. Swan has also alluded to this part of her childhood when journalists have asked her about her claims of clairvoyance abilities. Swan has stated in numerous interviews that she was abused, raped and psychologically tortured from the age of six onwards by a family friend. According to an article in Huffington Post Canada, Swan claimed to have been the victim of ritualistic abuse by a satanic cult for over a decade. This was apparently in order to cure her of her supposed extrasensory abilities. Part of this alleged abuse included being sewn into a corpse. In particular TV interviews conducted in 2014 by Chris Oswalt, regarding her ritual abuse, were sent to Fox9, Kivi 6 and Idaho News. Swan claims that she has memories of these events which were repressed, until a Salt Lake City based therapist helped her uncover them. An investigation was opened into her claims before being ultimately shut down due to several accusations being made against her therapist, Dr. Barbara Snow, who incited Satanic Panic.

Her mother said in an interview said Swan had attempted to take her own life in her teens. Both parents agreed to take Swan to see a psychiatrist but stated in the Open Shadow documentary that none of the techniques worked. They turned to eastern medicine when Swan was in her teens, and rather than saying Swan was sick, they said she was gifted and experiencing hypersensitivity. During an interview with Ozy, the journalist noted that Swan's arms were "covered in scars," apparently as a result of the abuse she endured as a child. At the age of nineteen, Swan reportedly was able to reject advances from the cult who had abused her for over a decade and subsequently reported the abuse she had endured to the police.

According to her, she was born with extrasensory abilities such as clairvoyance, "clairsentience", and "clairaudience". She has claimed to be an alien from the star Arcturus. She has also claimed to be the reincarnation of Indian guru Sai Baba of Shirdi and remembers the life as clearly as her own.

Career

In 2011 she released the book The Sculptor in the Sky and started her YouTube channel. After 2012, her popularity grew having followers in several countries. In 2011, Swan hosted one of her first talks in Salt Lake City, Utah with around twenty people attending and was the first she uploaded to her YouTube channel.

The company Teal Eye, according to the website, is meant to create changes in several different areas: alternative education, reforms in the global food industry, justice, animal rights and spirituality.

Swan has focused her ministry on healing others of their psychological ailments, including suicidal thoughts and repressed traumatic experiences. She operates the Philia Center, a retreat center in Costa Rica. Her followers are called the "Teal Tribe."

In 2017, Teal Swan was the subject of a documentary about her life "Open Shadow: The Story Of Teal Swan".

In 2018, a Gizmodo podcast ran a six-part series on Teal Swan and her self-help spiritual teachings on depression and how her techniques "process past trauma in order to overcome it." The host, Jennings Brown, stated that Swan was not like your regular spiritual leader, with both her appearance and how she markets herself. At the time of recording, her YouTube videos had been viewed 55 million times.

During 2015, she received her first major media coverage discussing the use of her mantra, "what would someone who loved themselves do?"

Swan has frequently spoken about the best techniques to deal with anger. According to an Irish Independent reporter that attended one of her seminars in 2016, it was stated that suppression of anger can have dangerous consequences. Swan stated that when she suppresses anger, she becomes a "ticking time-bomb." Swan's theory about anger is deciding on the difference between constructive and destructive anger. Kailash Satyarthi made similar remarks during his TED talk on anger.

Hunger of the Pine

In 2020, it was announced that Swan would be releasing her first novel, Hunger of the Pine. The book follows Aria Abbott, a girl who drifted through the foster care system for most of her young life. The unbearable situation meant she had no option but to run away and live rough on the streets. Her relationship with Taylor leads them to board a Greyhound bus together to pursue their dreams. The novel received mainly positive reviews, with a score of 4.5 on GoodReads.

In October 2020, it became a Publishers Weekly trade paperback frontlist Best Seller.

In popular culture

Open Shadow film

In 2017, Teal Swan was the subject of a documentary about her life "Open Shadow: The Story Of Teal Swan".

Netflix: Explained

In 2019, Swan's teachings were analyzed by the Netflix series, Explained. The episode's general premise was to study online communities and how they influenced vulnerable people to carry out acts of violence or act completely out of character. It studied the vulnerability of the people who moved to Jonestown with Jim Jones, and how rational people could be driven to make strange decisions.

Swan's teachings were first mentioned when severe social isolation was discussed, explaining how people in those situations are often the most vulnerable. Swan was then linked to this online community, as this is the type of person she attempts to assist with her advice and guidance. The commentator then spoke about online communities like Swan's, likening it to tech communities like Facebook groups or Reddit, but also the roles online communities can play in helping vulnerable people.

Others

Teal Swan has been documented in the Gizmodo podcast “The Gateway” conducted by journalist Jennings Brown and the Maximum Fun podcast “Oh No, Ross and Carrie!”

Controversy

Suicide diction and allegations

Teal Swan has said on YouTube "What suicide is, is pushing the reset button... There is nothing wrong with suicide". Additionally, two of Swan's followers have committed suicide, and opponents of Swan's methods have claimed Swan led them to their behavior. Swan's teachings are partly drawn from her own recovered childhood trauma, that she says left her with the same feelings. Her teaching methods sometimes involve participants imagining their deaths, occasionally by suicide. A Refinery29 piece notes that while Swan is not directly encouraging suicide and that she claims to have "the strategy to help people out of suicidal thoughts", nevertheless her "highly-triggering comments and extreme views on suicide that trickle into almost every piece of content Swan produces" are potentially harmful, as evidenced by the way Swan compares followers with suicidal thoughts to "stray cats" and "orphaned children".

Publications

• The Sculptor in the Sky, Authorhouse 2011
• Shadows Before Dawn: Finding the Light of Self-Love Through Your Darkest Times, Hayhouse 2015
• The Completion Process, Hayhouse 2016
• The Anatomy of Loneliness: How to Find Your Way Back to Connection, Watkins Publishing 2018
• The Connection Process, Archway Publishing 2018
• Hunger of the Pine, Watkins Publishing 2020