On episode 3 and this is so poorly done that it is becoming difficult to watch. We're getting almost no information about Teal Swan's methods or philosophy. For example, we see 2 people doing an exercise in which one of them is pretending to be? Becoming? Channeling? -another person who caused trauma in the other person's life. Speaking as if they are the trauma-causing person, almost as if in a trance. We are not told what is going on here or how this person is supposedly able to do this. We're told that there is a "process". Desperate fans/followers go to a retreat and are supposed to be having this life-altering process. At no time are we told what the steps of that process are or how Swan developed them. We don't know what Swan's educational background is. We don't know how Swan's methods are different from a million other cultish methods that we have heard of before-purging trauma in dramatic ways in front of a rapt congregation, unearthing abuse both real and imagined, cutting off toxic people from one's past. We've heard all this before. We see what looks like sage burning, something about frog poison (which makes someone throw up), a follower blubbering in a pool held tenderly by Swan. Anything goes, it seems.
The episodes drag on. Way too many mentions of how the group is a "community", and a "family". Yes, we know, you just said that 5 minutes ago.
As for the subject matter itself, this "family"has every indication of being a cult. A narcissistic, controlling leader with no apparent qualifications to treat people with possibly serious psychological and emotional problems? Check. Methods that are ambiguous and possibly dangerous? Check. Followers urged to cut off off people in their lives? Check. Pandering, unquestionning followers who crave their leader's approval? Check. How about the woman from Germany who marries Swan's closest associate? She's being told by Swan that it's not acceptable that she keep up her relationships with friends and family. Why on Earth would this German lady accept this?? It's also so obvious that Swan is completely jealous that Jake got married.
And of course Swan's reaction to someone listening to one of her presentations, someone who merely brings up the possibility that someone might disagree with her-she reacts with obvious anger and derision. And if I recall correctly, she compares herself to the Dalai Lama. Nobody's higher than her. How dare anyone disagree with her?? Swan has bren drinking too much of her own Kool-aid.
As a documentary, it doesn't tell us anything or bring us closer to understanding who Swan is and what she's developed. And as for the person herself, she is a cult leader. Plain and simple.
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