Hello there Beauties,

I know I started with reviewing the “Bridgerton” tv show. From the first episode I am not as intrigued to want to continue to review it. I will try my hardest to get through it because I made a rule with myself to not leave something unfinished. Although I do have a handful of books I started reading and haven’t finished them. (Oops! :P) I will eventually!… I hope! I will finish my reviewing at a slow pace. Each episode at a time. I heard from other fans of the show that the second season is way better! Maybe they are right, maybe they are wrong…. Who knows???

Anyway, I found something that kind of caught my eye by its trailer. I have both Netflix and Hulu streaming accounts, and while I was on Hulu I came across this trailer about “The Deep End.” All I knew about it was this “cult leader,” and was believed that she was this dangerous individual. It interested me, because it at first looked like a tv show about cults and this cult leader. I like reviewing things that seem to be related to real life. It tends to go in the journey of asking the question, “Is this relatable?” I don’t have a problem reviewing fantasy stuff, but it is easy to come up with a setting with made up worlds and made up names, and talk about powers. I can comment of cool CGI, and the anticipation of what’s to come in from made up drama, but it lays down an opinion that is either “like” or dislike.” Where if I talk about real life I can talk about my own personal experiences, and my own personal opinions of how I would do things, and it will make it more REAL in having a healthy viewpoint.

When I looked up this “show,” I got information back that it is a real documentary of sorts. Usually when people talk about cults it is usually described in this overly done documentary.

The “cult leader” is called “Teal Swan,” and she has her own YouTube Channel, and then her own website. I saw the channel, and saw that Google confirmed that the people involved in the Doc series and Teal are real.

//www.youtube.com/c/TealSwanOfficial

//tealswan.com/

 

 

Episode 1

“The Lost Toys”

Let me start by saying this…

I would have made each episode a review entry, but the case for this show I have to literally share the first two episodes within this review. When watching this very first episode I have to say that I couldn’t gather an opinion about this episode. I was going rather confused that caused me to move back and forth about a few things that were introduced in this episode. I tried to understand the flow of this show so far.

In the boring sense of this episode I have to refer to the notes I have written. I was pretty focused on when the show starts off with a pretty surreal kind of cleansing of some sort. This scene itself lasted a little longer than it should have been.. I keep thinking in the back of my mind that it is a start of a horror movie or show. Teal is in the middle of this pool with another follower, and cleansing her follower. She was coaxing her to live through her trauma. It was a little strange for me when watching. I am understanding the power of spirituality, and how certain groups or cults believe in doing these cleanings of sort to renew a person, but it just confuses me.

I even made it up to the minute 10:37, and noted that even at this point in the episode I was still trying to figure out what the direction this episode was going.

This episode almost luminated that its a, “too good to be true” scenario. What I mean is all the methods that were expressed was that what Teal does and says is PERFECT. I could easily say that if any other person would watch this can be convinced by how she reaches to someone in a spiritual sense. Her methods in convincing people are absolutely flawless. I have to admit that it caught me off guard a few times on how she reaches people. A lot of other “tribes,” “cults,” “groups,” that are presented to the world already have mistakes in the process that are easily shown by the naked eye. With Teal’s methods you literally have to hardcore investigate to see within the imperfections. The good thing for me in my nature is that I learned if it is too good to be true, it usually is, and I don’t fold so easily. 

I found it interesting to me that this is a leader of some sort, and she makes it quite clear to me that she isn’t a spiritual person. So my question is that, “Teal isn’t a spiritual type of person so why is she a spokesperson for it?” That should be an obvious finding. She wants to “help” people by promoting writing books, making handmade paintings to “heal”, making videos to guide people, but she isn’t spiritual or she doesn’t like the field. If you don’t like it, why are you a part of it? My only thought is the reason why she is doing this is.. MONEY. What other reason can there be?

I like to think I am a spiritual person, and by being spiritual I have this selfless love to want to help people too, but I don’t push my spiritual beliefs on other people for profit. A lot of people that I have come across are either Atheists or don’t believe in spiritual things. So when people come up to me for help I help them through FREE advice from personal experiences. Anyway….

 

So what was described in this episode is that Teal likes sharing the “truth.” Now I believe in sharing the truth, but not the extent of receiving money. Her truth in expression is basic common sense. It is common sense that I learned a long time ago when I was a kid, so I don’t understand why she has a huge following for “common sense” advice. The few little clips they show I agree a bit of what she says about certain things, but it doesn’t excite me to the point where I would follow her teachings.

 

There are some things I have been questioning like:

>What is this “Completion Process?” > What is the point of it? > A completion for what?

>Teal is like Jesus? > How so?

 

I understand that she wants her followers to face their fears. I get it that once fears are faced it becomes like a lifting experience, and with experiencing that it makes life a little bit easier. What I mean is that drama events can be handled in a calm way instead of cowering behind insecurities. The thing I don’t get is.. Why do these “followers” have to go to a retreat in order to “face their fears?” The whole process of it seems unrelatable. It just seems like an uncomfortable situation, because everybody is “happy-go-lucky,” with their creepy smiles and hugs.

 

I do have to say that I like this Simon follower at the retreat. He seems like a very intelligent individual. You can tell that he wants something more in the spiritual sense, but also he has a practical mind in terms of following Teal. He challenges her with his perception, and you can tell from this communication back and forth that she doesn’t like to be questioned. Teal from this back and forth is easily seen as a person that likes a sense of control, and when she saw that she didn’t have FULL control over Simon she got really defensive. She threw back some jargon to shut him up.

I like the sense of Simon having a sense of reality ingrained. He plainly put that if she isn’t the person she claims to the world that might be an issue for him in terms of believing. Obviously if she got defensive with him,  she isn’t being true to what she is expressing to the world. After all, she expressed that she wasn’t spiritual or doesn’t like the field she is in. People like Simon are the kinds of people that want the person they are supporting to be authentic inside and out. They don’t want to find that the person they are following to have these skeletons in their closet that offsets their whole brand that they share with the world.

 

The relationship with Teal and Blake was an unorthodox relationship. They met each other long time ago when they were teens. They dated for about a year or so in their youth. Now in their adult years they aren’t together, but they live together. It is described in so many words that Teal has her point of view when it comes to the people that are in Blake’s life. Mainly if Blake has someone that he is interested in a romantic way she expresses her disapproval. The disapproval isn’t direct, it is more of a “read between the lines.” In particular there is this lady named Juliana that is interested in Blake, and she is a new follower of Teal. I questioned if Teal is jealous or Juliana is fan crazy for Teal when she is introduced in the documentary.

My full belief though at the end of the interaction is that Teal shouldn’t be telling Blake what to do.

 

There was a claim toward the end of this first episode that Teal is some sort of cult leader that is taking advantage of people in their weakened state. A young teen took her life after listening to Teal. Is it Teal’s fault or not? It was claimed that she has this overseeing power that influences people, and with that influence that she has control. I can personally see that Teal is a controlling person.

ex. Issue/relationship with Blake

ex. Situation with the follower Simon

I questioned about claims that are made against Teal. Once claims are made against Teal she will fight the person back with long explanations by gaslighting, perhaps?

 

Episode 2

“The Safe Space”

I had personal opinions about certain things that transpired in the first episode. I questioned a few things due to trying to understand the flow and direction of it. It wasn’t until the second episode that I saw things a little more clearly. I was able to have more of a viewpoint of the direction of this documentary by the time I watched the second episode. My mind wasn’t as fuzzy.

 

It kind of starts off with having brief cut scenes to the small group of people that didn’t have a direction in a spiritual way. This small group started off by being volunteers for Teal’s “group,” “tribe,” “cause” to actually working for her. Something that kind of stood out for me was that her one worker than was originally named “Matthew” changed his name to Cyan. It was strange to me that it was believed through the teachings of Teal that it over crossed boundaries in terms that people like “Cyan” feels that his actual name “Matthew” isn’t who he is. “Matthew” doesn’t define him, and the person he wants to be, so therefore he changed his name. I am not sure how I feel about that. I just don’t understand that.

I am not fond of my name Sandra, but I never changed it. There was a reason behind my name. My name has a history. My name has meaning to my mom mostly. She literally has a story behind it, so therefore I have kept it because the story is who I am. Also by looking up my name for sense of meaning it is described that I am a “defender of mankind.” That is 100% accurate. Ever since I was little when a situation arises that I don’t agree with I will defend a person and give them my 100% support. Even if no one is following behind me, I stand my ground to clear one’s name. Just saying..

 

It continues on where Juliana comes to Blake physically. (Considering of the fact that their relationship was mainly through video calls and messages back and forth) A meeting/intervention of sorts ended up happening with Teal, Juliana, Blake, and a few other workers. The whole scene was super awkward. It was like Juliana had to gain permission to date Blake with this meeting. Its like a test of sorts to pass Teal’s approval. I was wondering, “Why do they need to have a “group” meeting about this?” What business is it to anyone? It is about Blake and Juliana, no one else. Juliana takes in the experience with no issues. I think she just wants to fit in by a normal sense.

 

The main focus of this episode was introduced with the constant threatening emails and messages the “Inner Circle”/Teal has been getting. People have said very unforgivable things on top of Teal being called a “suicidal catalyst.”

 

Pretty early on in the documentary I wrote that I would like to see another doc series to see the point of view of why people are sending negative messages. (Little did I know that it isn’t needed because it opens up the point of view more and more as the episode goes on.)

 

I reached a major >RED FLAG< by minute (16:06). By this minute it played a video that is on her YouTube channel that it has her saying to imagine your own suicide. My thought process was that overstepped major spiritual boundaries. I composed in my notes, “It’s one thing to face your fear by dealing with the trauma and getting passed it…..but that oversteps boundaries when you are telling suicidal people to imagine your <you’re> committing suicide.”

 

At any rate, the “Inner Circle” hired a PI to investigate the whole source of why they are being threatened. This PI impresses me. She has been in the field for the longest and proudly mentions she is this old lady that still uses a rolodex for her passwords. Even though she is in the older aspects of people it doesn’t discredit the fact that she is a very thorough and intelligent PI. She dives far to get the information that she is looking for.

 

So then it cuts to the retreat with Teal. I thought it was rather interesting how it is handled by this new follower Amir. He is finding himself, and comes off rash in terms of trying to figure out why he was there. He isn’t sure if it was a sexual way or having a crush, etc. Teal gets easily offended and while talking to him belittles him a bit. With her triggered reaction it doesn’t help the situation. She pretty much tells him that he is a lost cause. She steps away in a room with her workers, and flies off the handle about what was talking about with Amir. Once again she keeps talking about how she hates the spiritual field. Although she continues to expand her brand… my only question is.. “Why?”

In order to help Amir he needs closure from his passed mother. With this scene I am totally against. They bring in Juliana for Amir’s mother to come into her body to tell Amir a message. With this kind of activity with messing with the supernatural is a serious thing. Dabbling with these forces isn’t something that should be done lightly. Spoken from growing up with mediums and talking to them it isn’t a toy to dabble with. My thought is that they don’t know what they are doing! They don’t know if they are opening an evil portal or bringing in demons into the mix.

 

After the séance of sorts ended the PI came up and showed her findings. She first started by interviewing followers, and they gave all positive encouragement about Teal’s teachings. Until she came across to a FORMER follower named Jared. Jared opened up a lot of his experiences with this “Inner Circle.” In detail he explained that Teal uses manipulation to get her control. I surmised that she was controlling, but Jared pretty much confirmed it. The manipulation kind that she uses is by using the famous guilt trip. She would constantly say things like, “You are going to leave me.” When she would make the statements it would cause Jared to feel bad, and reassure her that he won’t leave her or the cause of the tribe. If that worked for Jared, I can only imagine how that worked on other fellow followers.

While Jared was enthralled with this following she would ask questions like, “What are you willing to do for the cause?” (The cause is to make the world a better place.) Jared would go far in saying that he would murder someone for the cause. He wanted to follow and believe in something so much. He was convinced easily to follow what Teal says and does, because what she says and does is the right way. It is the right direction. No opposing.

So it led to the point where he explained about when he finally had the courage to leave the tribe as a member. They pretty much locked him in a room with Teal and other followers, with Teal degrading him as a person. She pretty much said to him that it would be better for everything if he would kill himself, all because she didn’t have the control over him anymore.

 

At the end of the episode it showed that Blake and and Juliana got married. From the look on Teal’s face I could see the jealousy written. She is looking from a distance about how upset she is. I can easily speculate that in the near future she will overstep her bounds and disrupt the relationship Juliana and Blake have. I believe that she has Blake wrapped around her finger in order to do what she wants. If something does in fact happen to disrupt things I know it will be an ugly situation.

 

While looking at the trailer for the next episode I can see that the PI finds that Teal and the “Inner Circle” were involved with illegal stuff. I am very intrigued to know what Teal has done that is considered illegal.

I also saw that because of difference of opinion Juliana and Teal are going to be in bad terms, and it has Teal making a comment about how they have an issue now.

 

My final thought about this doc series is that it feels like I am watching an actual tv show. There is tv show drama being placed. It is actual people involved. So watching this makes me go back and forth between non fiction and fiction. it is a surreal situation.

 

You better believe I will finish up this doc series. I am really intrigued of what is discovered and shown!

So until the next time!

Peace Out!

Sandra M. Dorazil

 

P.S. Time to display notes.