On January 4, Teal Scott and Sarbdeep Singh Swan were wed.
The Artist will henceforth be known as TEAL.
There's a story in the Marine Corps, perhaps apocryphal, about something a senior officer wrote in a FITREP for one of his junior officers: "His Marines will follow him anywhere, if only out of a morbid curiosity to see what he'll do next."
TEAL has many followers. Only some of them are fans. Or so I learned when I wrote a blog post articulating my questions and concerns about the self-described "spiritual catalyst." Shortly after posting the piece, I started getting comments from some of her fans and detractors -- mostly detractors. About a month later TEAL responded to my post.
Last night on my way to the bathroom, I peered into Blake’s room and noticed that he looked incredibly distressed. [Doesn't anybody knock?] I asked him what happened and he explained that a blogger named LaVaughn (Celestial Reflections) had dedicated a ten page itemized article slamming me for every aspect of my career and personal life that she could get her hands on. He also explained that he was receiving e-mails from people asking me to refute her outrageous claims [Pssst. I didn't make any claims.] because they “no longer knew what to think”. [I believe what we have here is the need behind the need. Her response is an attempt at damage control.] It was by far and away the most “anti-Teal” material we’ve encountered to date. Blake was livid. He wanted me to write an entire counter article to put people’s minds and hearts at rest. But it didn’t feel good to me. On top of the fact that many of her claims were too off base to even be worthy of address, [Did I mention that I didn't make any claims?] I could not get my energy behind the idea of dedicating time to defending myself against a random person who crawled out of the woodwork to gain popularity and attention by slandering me. [Dear God, could this woman be any more vain?]
It is profoundly out of alignment [Alignment with what?] to design an entire piece of writing around resisting someone or something, which is what this woman did. She does so from a place of bitterness and fear and therefore pain. I would not seek to increase her pain by attacking back to defend myself. [Aaawww. How sweet.] It seems that what people wanted from me was proof that she is wrong about what she said about me. Proof is a difficult thing because there is ultimately no way to create solid proof that could not be refuted. [I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that this is the real reason she won't defend herself against the many claims I didn't make. She can't.] I could refute each piece of her evidence, the same way that she is refuting mine, but what would be gained? I will not convince her that I am good. I would not be doing so for any other reason than my own need to be approved of by everyone. And I do not distrust the discrimination of the people who enjoy my material. People do not need my proof to know what is good for them or right for them personally. What they need to do is trust themselves. And whatever answer they receive about me, is right for them at that time. [Aahh. So I didn't so much critique TEAL as I insulted the judgment of her many, many fans. Did you hear a dog whistle? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I heard a dog whistle.] I do not wish to prove skeptics wrong. I gain nothing by resisting skeptics. As my fame increases, [Dear God...] there will be more and more skeptics. I gain only by continuing to do what makes me happy and hoping that what brings me happiness, brings other people happiness. I understand how hard it is when you distrust yourself, to navigate a world full of opposing perspectives. When you live without self-trust, the world seems to be full of people who are out to get you. And so, you don’t know who to trust. [I believe that should read "whom to trust" but I probably shouldn't play grammar noodge with TEAL. That game has no end.] But you can trust yourself. And by not refuting every skeptic that comes up against me, I am in essence giving people the opportunity to consult their own feelings and their own personal truth, and thus learn to trust themselves. It would be a great world though if the people, who were inspired to write ten pages on one person, did so from a place of loving that person. All too often, the only people full of enough bottled up energy to write ten pages on one person, do so from a space of hating them. [Yup. I'm a hater. Haters gotta hate, yo.]
To sum up, I did not make any claims in my previous post. I simply subjected some of TEAL's claims, statements, and documented history to a little scrutiny. Or, as a commenter on her own blog put it:
This information is out there for the world to see and you can’t make claims and then not be prepared to back them up when you specifically call yourself a ‘teacher’. You clearly enjoy the fame aspect of this and your team have posted on Facebook about wanting to get you on TV…….and you think this post was bad!?
This woman has executed the piece well and with ALL your own work, so the argument for lies and slander is very weak.
As I said in that post, TEAL doesn't really go after her detractors often. She has people for that. And as even some of her own fans noted, her post served as a signal to her "army" to attack me. And so they descended like so many winged monkeys.
In one of those delicious Jungian synchronicities, of which I am so fond, the night before all hell broke lose on my blog, I had watched a South Park episode called "The Hobbit." In it, righteous, little feminist Wendy points out the elephant in the room -- that Kim Kardashian is an extensively photoshopped fantasy creation who really looks like a hobbit. She is crucified for being a hater and threatened with a transfer to the "jelly school" for the exceedingly envious. So I found it incredibly hilarious that the very next day I was attacked mercilessly for being sooooo jel of TEAL's incredible good looks, sexiness, and success. Because if a woman raises concerns about another woman it's always really about petty jealousy, right? We gals are just shallow like that.
But then something kind of funny happened. More of TEAL's detractors showed up -- and more, and still more. It turns out there are a lot of people following her blog and numerous Facebook pages who share some of my qualms. Many of them have long been frustrated by their inability to raise these questions on her pages without having their comments deleted or lost to the black hole of eternal moderation.
The comments on my original post are, as of this writing, upwards of 400. The vast majority of those comments are critical of TEAL. Many of them are from people expressing relief at having their concerns heard and validated instead of shut down or hidden from sight. This is to say nothing of the many emails and phones calls I've gotten from people who just wanted to say, "Thank you."
I think it's safe to say, at this point, that TEAL's attempt to have her minions pound me flat rather backfired. What has evolved instead is effectively a crowdsourced analysis of TEAL's contradictions, questionable behavior, and outrageous statements. It makes for a fantastic read, filled with links, commentary, and penetrating insight.
I could never, in a single post, encapsulate everything that has been uncovered by the still growing number of commenters who've contributed to this analysis of TEAL's record. But I would like to address here some of the things that gave me particular concern about her practices, statements, and attitude.
TEAL Is So Vain
She probably thinks this post is about her.
As noted above, she seems to see my previous post about her as the attempt of some sad sack (me) to ride her glorious coattails. Because she's famous. She's very, very famous. And her fame is growing. We know this because she says so. A lot.
Who on earth refers to herself as a renowned "luminary?"
"I'm the extrasensory luminary who is known
around the world as the spiritual catalyst."
Or describes their own writing as "poignant?"
TEAL. That's who. It seems there is no title or glowing description she won't arrogate to herself. Just recently, for instance, we learned that she is a "leader of the New Age."
Yesterday I was forwarded an anti New Age movement video and I was asked to express my opinion on it. The basic argument made was that the New Age Movement is just opiate for the masses (what scientists have been saying about religion for years) [?!?!?!] and that it is just an excuse to boost book sales and enhance the personal careers of people like myself who are in essence convincing people they can manifest money so that we can make money off of those people. I don’t usually feel compelled to respond to videos or comments that are offered by people who are in a space of extreme resistance, because there is no desire in them to find a meeting of minds. Where there is no receptivity, no meaningful conversation can take place, so it is just better to allow them to feel exactly how they feel and line up with the results of that perspective. But this time, I am compelled to comment because on a worldwide level, I am considered a leader of the New Age. People give me titles and associate me with things all the time, but being called a leader of the New Age is a title I resonate with and agree with. [All emphases mine]
Loathe as I am to delve into TEAL's ahistorical and otherwise incorrect factoids -- another game with no conceivable end date -- it was Karl Marx who described religion as the "opium of the people." And the idea that science and religion are at odds is an artificial construct. But I digress.
Even some of TEAL's regular readers balked at her gleeful adoption of this "title."
Wow…just wow…LOL
With all due respect, Teal, but there are so many other admirable people nowadays who are doing a great deal for humanity and have huge followings…and yet don’t call themselves “A worldwide leader”…of sorts. Someone needs to get a grip, just a little..
Whatever TEAL's finer qualities may be, humility is just not one of them.
For instance, did I mention that she's pretty? I'm sure I did, but I needn't have bothered because she will tell you and tell you and tell you. In fairness, Teal is not just pretty for herself. She's pretty for the betterment of humanity.
In this interview, starting around the 9:00 minute mark, she explains how crucial her physical attractiveness is to getting her message out to people on "every single continent." TEAL, it turns out, is pretty by design. An Arcturian panel "projected" her this way so that their message would be heard 'round the world. Homely women can't get attention to their ideas, apparently. People just innately like pretty things. So TEAL had to be pretty -- prettier than black women for sure. Because even a woman who is beautiful by African standards would be seen as "pretty ugly" here in the US. To reach the whole world with a message of spiritual evolution, you just have to be a pretty white girl. That's all there is to it. And it helps if you tell people that while you're lounging around in a slinky peignoir, in front of Nanny's Messy Bed. It just drives that message home, I guess.
It would appear that transcending superficiality just isn't part of the Arcturian's grand vision for planet earth. It sure isn't part of TEAL's. For instance here we learn that physical beauty is one of life's little reminders of the divine feminine.
I did an interview with a budding self-help expert Laura Marie today. Watching her on the other side of the screen was quite soothing for me. She was like a work of art to behold; porcelain skin that folded across the structure of her face and hair like spun silk. She was full of vigor for life. Her words, lightly tinted with a French accent. I couldn’t stop thinking after the interview was over, about women in general. It is so important that as women, we are out in the world setting an example of what it looks like to fully embody and express ourselves. It is time that those of us who were born female, release our resistance to our own gender and begin to embrace and express our feminine essence. Women have been in resistance to the divine feminine within themselves for far too long just like human society has been in resistance to the divine feminine for far too long.
One wonders if a woman less pretty than Laura Marie could possibly inspire TEAL to wax rhapsodic about the divine feminine -- one of those ugly girls from Africa, for instance.
Teal Bosworth Scott Swan
You can see why she'd want to simplify. But for the full explanation of her new moniker, you'd need to look at one of her many Facebook pages.
Hello all,
Thank you so much for the beautiful wishes! I figured i'd explain how this name change is going to work. On a professional level, we are going to drop the last name all together because TEAL is a stand alone name like Oprah or Osho etc. But I have officially changed my last name to Swan. There is deep spiritual significance to this decision. It is a more exalted name. Sarbdeep is from India and there, the swan has great spiritual significance. Teachers who have the ability to fly between the realms of matter and spirit are given the title Paramahamsa which means supreme swan. click this link to read more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahamsa
Perhaps the adoption of this new title is also a transition into a new phase in my career as well.
LOVE YOU!!!!
TEAL
Except that Osho is not a name. It's a title. Like Paramahamsa, in the Hindu tradition, it's an honorific bestowed for a certain level of spiritual attainment in Zen Buddhism. These are not titles you hold because you get married or decide to change your stage name.
Oshō (和尚 oshō) is a Buddhist priest (in charge of a temple);[1] honorific title of preceptor or high priest (esp. in Zen or Pure Land Buddhism).
. . .
Oshō is the Japanese reading of the Chinese he shang (和尚), meaning a high-ranking Buddhist monk or highly virtuous Buddhist monk. It is also a respectful designation for Buddhist monks in general and may be used with the suffix -san.
The only instance of Osho being used as a name that I'm aware of was the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who just decided to start calling himself that at some point. He was a controversial figure and considered by many to be a cult leader. He was famous for collecting Rolls Royces, owning around a hundred at one point.
Osho's ideas on sex, marriage, family and relationships contradicted traditional views, arousing anger and opposition around the world.[79][210] His movement was feared and despised as a cult; he lived "in ostentation and offensive opulence", while his followers (most of whom had severed ties with outside friends and family and donated all—or most—of their money and possessions to the commune) might live at a "subsistence level".[89][211]
I first became aware of Rajneesh when I was living in Montclair, NJ, where he and his followers were ensconced in a nearby mansion. I even knew a guy who lost his wife to this cult. As he described it, he came home one night to find her dying all her clothes orange in the kitchen sink. A short time later she was gone. She'd relocated with Rajneesh and his other followers to Oregon. There was an ongoing issue around him being unable to find and divorce her so he could move on with his life. It dragged on for years and caused a great deal of suffering.
I mentioned this in a comment on my previous post and learned, to my horror, that TEAL is an admirer of the late Bagwan Shree Rajneesh, or Osho. And she had expressed during one of her Shadow House broadcasts that he had been unfairly maligned. So what if his followers wanted to express their devotion by giving him Rolls Royces!
Did I mention that TEAL likes gifts? I did. I did. She really likes gifts.
TEAL's Sad Christmas
Gifts are TEAL's "love language" so no gifts equals no love. Poor TEAL.
This is a weird Christmas for me. It doesn’t feel much like Christmas. The intentional Community I live in has all decided to forego getting each other gifts this year in favor of saving money to use towards moving to Europe. My son, Winter will be the only one getting presents this year. The space under the tree, which is usually overflowing with presents, is empty for the first time in my life. Except of course for cosmos, my cat, who has selected it as his own personal nest. He lies there purring, lazily batting at ornaments with his paw. I don’t know how to feel about this Christmas. I don’t even know what I’m going to do today or tomorrow except travel to a recording studio to do a television interview tonight on charitable giving and cook for everyone. Gifts are my love language, so the holiday feels empty of love this year. But I’m still utterly in love with the energy of Christmas and how happy everyone seems in the spirit of giving and community.
One of the things we learn as adults is that it is "better to give than to receive." And one of the things we learn as parents is that there is no greater joy at the holidays than seeing our children's delight when they open their presents. And is there some reason her cat's name isn't capitalized? Strange. So TEAL was feeling unloved this Christmas because love is best expressed with material things.
Not all gifts are equal, though. Strap in. A TEAL story follows.
I could sum my mother up in one word… activist. This means that when a foreign restaurant opened in town, my mother was eager to support them immediately, being full aware that the rest of the Caucasian, Mormon demographic in town would be wary of foreigners and thus avoid the restaurant and make them feel ostracized. Mormons like to think of themselves as good, open armed, inclusive Christ loving people. But the reality in the rural towns of Utah is that most of them are the exact opposite of that. The demographic of the area is nearly entirely Mormon and so they never have to interact with people that aren’t Mormon, much less people that are from a different race. The truth is, Mormons can be some of the nastiest, most exclusive and racial people you will ever come across. Long story short, when we walked in, true to form, we were the only people there. The entire family that owned the restaurant was lined up at the entrance, with enormous smiles on their faces, ecstatic to be doing business. Having only just immigrated to the United States, they barely spoke English. They waited on us hand and foot, practiced speaking English and when we finished the meal they explained that someone in town had told them about the tradition of giving gifts on Christmas, so they brought out presents to the table. They seemed so proud of themselves to have fit in with the tradition in a foreign country. Only, when we unwrapped the presents, they turned out to be edible underwear! It turns out some complete jack ass person in town had wanted to run them out of town by telling them that giving people edible underwear was a tradition on the Christmas holiday, knowing full well that even the average lax Mormon that showed up, would be horrified and boycott the business.
Where to begin... Mormons are some very white people on the whole, it's true. But they are also missionaries, traveling all over the world. There are Mormons of many races and that includes Chinese. But that aside, does anyone believe this story? Show of hands. Anyone? Anyone? Chinese entrepreneurs who don't know that edible underwear is not a gift you would give a family with children having dinner in your establishment? Anyone?
I have to admit, I find the whole thing a little implausible. What it suggests to me is more along the lines of an excuse to insert a little gratuitous nudity, give the reptilian brain a little jolt, get the old pulse racing. With TEAL there just aren't enough opportunities to talk about SEX. Not just sex, mind you, but SEX.
So in that one post, she's fired up the animal drives of her readers, pulled on their heart strings with her tale of loveless woe, and asked for money. (DONATE!!!) Will someone please give this woman some money? Things are tight. She moving to Europe. And she has no gifts. She feels so unloved. Will someone please put a Rolls in her driveway, maybe, with a nice big bow on it?
TEAL's Story
Some of the negative feedback I got from TEAL fans, aside from the fact that I'm just jel, had to do with my relentless focus on TEAL's history. They don't care and they just don't want to hear about it. Why, why, why, am I so obsessed with TEAL's nudie pictures?! Why?!
What's funny about that is that TEAL's modeling history, and how it complicates her CV, comprised a very small portion of a fairly long post -- roughly three paragraphs out of what is, according to TEAL, ten printed pages. So if you read that post and took from it that I'm obsessed with TEAL's pornographic history, you might want to consider that it's not me who's so singularly focused.
Some folks were also not terribly amused that I put her story of ritual abuse under a microscope. What surprised me most about that, though, was how many people don't think that history matters either. As one commenter on her blog put it:
One of the biggest criticisms people have of you is the confusion of timelines. Maybe you could shed a little light on that?... Let’s say hypothetically that your past is a bit fabricated. It’s pretty clear from a lot of the comments most people don’t care. What resonates with them is how your teachings make them feel. Your followers will still love you, and in truth, you might find yourself reaching even more people by opening up and removing some doubts, one way or another. You can, are, and will do a lot of good in this world. Be brave.
This is a fair reflection of some of the feedback TEAL received in light of my post. Another commenter, for instance, wrote:
I must admit that even being a big fan of Teal for almost a year, i too had doubts about her history ( simply because i didnt understand how her story of abuse can be merged with the story of her modelling career and traveling the world, the timelines seemed confusing to me ). But I never cared for this too much ,just because i FEEL her message, she has brought so much wisdom to me and launched my personal growth , I`ll forever appreciate this <3
I read that blog and it was a really mean one. Sarcastic and mean, it didnt feel good to read it. But i`ll say this – the author has missed one very simple point : lets assume that Teal`s story is false, does this make her message any less useful? Who cares about things that dont add up if she brings more happiness and joy to so many people?.
Said another:
And if it happens that you should not be genuine...then it's the most fabulous falsity man has ever had the privilege to experience!!!!
So it would seem that many of TEAL's ardent followers don't really care if her story of ritual abuse at the hands of the psychopath with DID (???) ever happened. If the story for which she may be interviewed by "one of the biggest TV shows in the nation" turns out to be fiction, so be it. No biggie.
Now, look. I'm a grown-up. I know that it's far from uncommon for professionals of all stripes to pad their resumes a little, to embellish here and there. But is it really too much to ask that a healer, or catalyst, or whatever exactly TEAL defines herself as, not have a life story that isn't a giant fiction? Really?
Episodes from this story are part of a very long, ongoing narrative. They constitute a big chunk of her blog. And she whips this story out whenever she needs to justify an outburst or emotionally blackmail her critics into silence.
More to the point, it is TEAL herself who makes the case that her abuse history is seminal to her work.
I was on the America Tonight show with Kate Delaney today. It was a short interview, but a poignant one, entirely about my past and the ritual cult trauma. As I was doing the interview, it became obvious to me that I am being set up to be a spokesperson and poster child for ritual abuse. When I think about it, I know it is a position I was born to fill... I get at least one e-mail every month from people who have experienced ritual trauma first hand. Here is an example of one:
Dear Teal Scott,
9/14/2012
I have grown up in a cult. My dad was part of it. When I was ten my dad sold me to lots of mens and I couldn’t get away from them so I got away in my mind. I am older now and I ran away from home and lived on the street for a little. It was cold there and I got addicted to meth and sometimes I had sex for the drugs. And then I tried to kill myself and when I was in hospital I decided I want to live. I started cleaning up my life and someone I met in AA told me to watch your videos and I love every one of them. I love them so much that I looked up your website and seen that you have the same past as me. And I fell on the floor and I just started crying cause I cant believe that you look as happy as you look and have gone through the same things as me. I cry because I was sad and then I cry because I was happy. Because you exists in the world, I have hope for myself. I believe that I can do it too. I see a bright future ahead of me and I feel like you do not know what you do for me. You are the voice I do not have and am too scared to have about what I saw and felt. I could crawl on hands and knees and never do enough still to tell you how much thankful I am. I love you. You saved me and because of you, I believe in myself and that myself can heal.
How would this woman feel if it turned out she was taking her hope and inspiration from someone whose story was entirely fabricated? It seems to me like there is a lot riding on the veracity of TEAL's story in terms of her healing mission.
So now the producers, and presumably the lawyers, for a national television show are scrutinizing TEAL's story of ritual abuse. This could be a very big deal. If TEAL can really demonstrate that she was abused by a Satanic cult, hers will literally be the first independently verified case. According to the FBI, there is no proof to date that Satanic ritual abuse has ever occurred. According to Kenneth Lanning, every reported case fell apart under scrutiny. This despite the fact that stories of such abuse have ruined lives... of the accused, that is.
As I wrote in my previous entry, I found it rather strange that TEAL could have witnessed children being murdered and have no interest in seeing their murderers prosecuted. As I began reading her post on Crime and Punishment, I thought she might walk that stunning position back a little. But no. She doubled down.
People seem to enjoy revenge. They call revenge justice so they can feel better about wanting it. But the truth is, pain begets pain. I gain nothing by watching my abuser suffer. There is no justice in this system. Even if you locked away every abuser you could find on earth in a jail cell, you could not save people from their own creations. Victims are not exempt from this creation process. They too create their reality. We live in a society that does not yet recognize the vibrational reality that directs and dictates and trumps everything that is physical in nature, so no one wants to hear it when I say this… But locking up the perpetrators does nothing to improve the powerless state of those who sit squarely in a vibration of victimhood. It changes nothing about them at all. And so they remain a match to what comes as a result of that vibration. They will be victimized by something no matter how hard you try on a physical level to prevent it for them. You could not physically do enough to save them from their own point of attraction.
I agree with TEAL on this one narrow point. Our criminal justice system is too focused on revenge under the guise of justice. I think we would be much better served by a system focused more on the protecting the public from criminals aspect of jurisprudence. TEAL, though, doesn't think that's a good enough reason to put people who kidnap, rape, torture, and murder children behind bars. It's a conundrum for sure because it could mean more young girls will endure what she did. It leaves her "between a rock and hard place." But TEAL would have you know that there's no protecting the public from the law of attraction anyway, so...
To her credit, TEAL is just following the principles of law of attraction ideology to their natural conclusion, something many adherents are unwilling to do. As I asked here, if we're all just getting back what we put out in a just universe, what is the purpose of the criminal justice system?
But TEAL is also displaying exactly the same inconsistency that James Ray's devoted fans did.
Like Bob Proctor, Charlene D seems incapable of recognizing the inconsistency of blaming the victims of bad acts for their deaths while simultaneously absolving Ray of responsibility for the legal predicament he finds himself in. In the topsy-turvy world of this rabid "law of attraction" set, people who are hit by drivers who run red lights aren't victims. They're responsible for everything that happens to them. But those felonious drivers are being victimized by those who prosecute them and it's all just horribly unfair.
Why is it only the victims of crime who law of attract their misfortune? Why not the perpetrators who are caught and prosecuted? The people in prisons aren't responsible for what they put out into the universe? I will just never understand why so many of these law of attraction folks are so invested in protecting people from the real world consequences of their actions.
How TEAL Treats People
On some level I think TEAL's willingness to expose her shadow side to the public is quite brave. We all have a shadow and I think "making the darkness conscious" is crucial to our realization of wholeness. I also think that work is in sharp contrast to much of the law of attraction ideology advanced by Abraham/Hicks, The Secret, and their ilk. These approaches don't blend well. You can't on the one hand tell people not to focus on the negative because attention to it will expand it and on the other tell people to explore the uncomfortable bits they're stuffing into their subconscious.
That process of uncovering the shadow is certainly messy and none of us would look too grand if all of our "stuff" were out there for public viewing. This openness of process was the very thing that initially intrigued me about TEAL. But I saw pretty quickly that she is much more about shadow projection than self-realization. Her vicious attacks on other people come with a certain regularity, the humiliation of Fallon Dobson being one of the more dramatic exhibitions.
One of the things I learned after my initial post, not that it surprised me overmuch, was that I was not alone in being very disturbed by TEAL's public attack on Fallon. She diagnosed him as a psychopath and delved deeply into his "pathology" -- something for which she is not remotely qualified. And she made him a target for communal retribution. It was hideous. 'Nuff said. But Fallon is not the only person to find himself, or herself, in TEAL's sights.
By her own admission, she is capable of profound hostility, bitterness and envy. She can be really jel, is what I'm sayin.' Who inspires this tremendous ire? Notably women who have fairly smooth pregnancy and labor and gals like Elizabeth Smart who have parlayed their nightmares of kidnapping and abuse into social embrace and career opportunities. The people who've kidnapped and enslaved them, though? She doesn't seem to have much hostility for them... or think they should be prosecuted. So it's strange. She also seems far more contemptuous of the women having babies than she does the abuser who forced her to abort his progeny and gave her oxytocin to trigger premature labor causing her to expel twin fetuses alone in the bitter cold of a snowy hellscape. She also really hates Disney princesses, but they're not real people, so...
TEAL doesn't seem to have any compunction about holding people up to public ridicule as she recently did with her former mother-in-law.
For the sake of humor, I have to begin this blog entry on a similar note to my last entry about racism because Sarbdeep and I encountered our most uncomfortable racist moment yet, yesterday morning. Sarbdeep was born and raised in England. Now, it’s important to understand that he doesn’t have a cockney British accent. Instead, he speaks with the familiar dignified British accent that we associate with English politicians. Both his way of speaking and his mannerisms are stately. Which is about to make the discomfort of this story even worse. Winter’s Grandmother on his father’s side (who despises me by the way) came to visit yesterday. She is a devout Mormon woman, who turned out to be even more ignorant than one would expect a patriotic, religiously isolated woman to be. When she was introduced to Sarbdeep, you could feel her level of discomfort at interacting with someone who was from a different race. She went stiff and started trying to force herself to be nice, which is a coping skill that many Mormons employ when they are trying to deal with the discomfort of associating with someone who makes them nervous to be around. It was as if she was meeting an outer space alien.
As they shook hands, Sarbs explained that he was born and raised in London, England. She spent a good two minutes trying to pronounce his name and then made it a point to express the fact that she has never and would probably never have the desire to travel outside the United States. Then, she put the cherry on top of the moment by saying, “You speak such good English” as if Sarbdeep should be proud of that fact, him being brown instead of white and all. Sarbdeep and I both looked at each other; wide eyed with those smiles that said to each other “you’ve got to be kidding me”. I was so embarrassed for her in that minute that I wanted to crawl out of my own skin. Part of me understands that her racial and religious isolation has not permitted her the education that would enable her to know better. But the other part of me is frustrated at the fact that she does not have the desire to educate herself better with regard to the rest of the world and feels like sometimes there is no excuse for such a level of racially prejudiced ignorance. But the humor inherent in an American (who happens to speak Utah hick English), telling someone from London, England that they speak good English solely based on the fact that he has a dark skin color is going to ensure that we never forget this interaction. I’m sure it will be a joke we share for years to come.
LOL. And now we're all in on the joke... at this poor woman's expense. It's not funny. It's cruel. This woman's real mistake appears to be in "despising" a former daughter-in-law with a public platform. Winter's grandmother is a private citizen who did not choose to be dragged into the public sphere so that she may be mocked and ridiculed. But if you know TEAL, you're not entitled to a private life so don't expect one.
TEAL will have you know that she is not racist like that ignorant Mormon hick. She is merely bigoted against Mormons. She is also classist. "Sarbs" may have dark skin but he's not some low-class, cockney git. But racist? TEAL? No. She loves the way her new husband's dark skin is offset by white fabric. I don't know if he would appeal to people on "every single continent" but he's pretty handsome. And stately. Don't forget stately.
The other thing we learn about Sarbdeep in that post is that he's not exactly comfortable about having his personal life discussed in public.
Sarbdeep finds it extremely uncomfortable and vulnerable to expose his vows to the world, but I have informed him that the discomfort is a sign of expansion. So, I am going to include both of our vows for you now...
What Sarbdeep must learn, like everyone else in TEAL's world, is that he's not entitled to a private life so he shouldn't expect one.
Even more disturbing is that TEAL just knows what's best for everyone and will act accordingly, whether they like it or not. She has all the occult knowledge of the Arcturians or Adonai or whatever. She's a Eucharist. So if TEAL decides that your discomfort is what's best for your personal growth, suck it up, buttercup. You're just gonna have to be uncomfortable.You can thank her later.
One of the things I've learned in my years of practice as a psychic intuitive and healing facilitator is that listening is more important than talking. I see our job as one of support and facilitation, not of ramming our egos down our clients' throats. It's something I feel pretty strongly about -- that whatever insight we may have, it never trumps that of our clients. When I was studying with Cherokee Mystic Virginia Sandlin, she put it this way. From my perspective, I am the source of my reality and you are my reflection. But from your perspective, you are the source of your reality and I am your reflection. You can never really heal anyone else because that would mean that you are the source of their reality. All we can really do is support others in their own process of self-discovery and we can't do that if we're imposing rather than offering our own vision. So I found TEAL's anecdote about her suicidal client really stunning.
At around the 53:00 minute mark TEAL relays the following:
I actually, interestingly enough, lost my first client to suicide this last year. And this was a woman who was absolutely miserable. I'm talking every moment of her life was a nightmare. And so we had that very serious sit-down talk where we had to say, alright, we're either committing or not committing to life because every time I gave her a suggestion she'd stop in two days doing the suggestion. So then we have to ask the question do we really want this to work. And what's interesting is that when she asked herself that question the answer was, "No. I'm done." There's nothing that any healer could ever do for that type of vibration which is totally fine. From source energy there's nothing wrong with death from that perspective. So, she chose to commit suicide. Interestingly enough it took her about two days before she was reincarnated again. (audience laughter) Yeah. Not only that, two days before she was reincarnated to another family situation that mirrored the one that she had already chosen.
Taking that story at face value raises a number of troubling issues and ethical concerns. TEAL offered this client some tools. She didn't stick with them and her situation was not improving. TEAL deduces not that perhaps she hadn't hit on quite what that client needed, but that the client had reached a point of decision between life and death. "To be or not to be." So TEAL is so infallible, so perfect, that she couldn't possibly be failing to meet that client's needs. The problem had to be with the client, not TEAL.
Worse, it appears that TEAL knew the client was suicidal and did nothing to stop her because of her own belief that it's not wrong to kill yourself. The universe doesn't care if you live or die and TEAL is totally dialed in to that "source perspective." Worse still, it sounds like she not only knew her client was suicidal, but actually helped her along to that conclusion. All because she wasn't following through on TEAL's recommendations and wasn't improving.
So this client, at TEAL's prompting, concludes that she just doesn't want to go on. Does TEAL say, gee, you might need more help than I can give? Does she recommend or refer her for therapy? Does she do anything at all to stop this woman killing herself? No. TEAL has decided that because she couldn't help her, no one could. She knows for a fact that no healer could possibly do anything with this woman's vibration. And since TEAL understands "source perspective" she knows that it's perfectly fine if this woman kills herself. I mean, after all, TEAL knows for sure that she reincarnated two days later, so it's all good.
It's just remarkable hubris and it may have actually cost a woman her life. But we already know that TEAL is remarkably cavalier about death from her commitment to the forgive and ignore psychopathic child murderers who have escaped prosecution. It's a strange set of priorities.
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