Teal Swan is a spiritual teacher, author, and YouTube influencer with a net worth of $2 million. With a staggering 188 million views on YouTube, she has the influence she needs to reach the masses and connect with people who share her belief in reincarnation.
The Origin Story
Mary Teal Bosworth, who now goes by the name Teal Swan, was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 16, 1984. When she was a child, she and her family moved to Logan, Utah. Teal was a troubled kid and received therapy throughout her childhood from famed therapist Barbara Snow. Snow was a key figure in what became known as the Lehi child sexual abuse scare in the late 1980s—where she was accused of coaching children to accuse adults of abuse.
When Teal Swan talks about her childhood, she often references abuse and suffering at the hands of adults, including satanic rituals and sadomasochism, that increased from the time she was six years old. She also states that she would be regularly taken by an adult to perform “cult rituals.” Fortunately for Swan, she believes that without her tough childhood, she wouldn’t have “a real grasp on […] human suffering or how to heal it.”
A Rising Star
By the time Swan had reached her late 20s, she had begun to craft her path in life—as a spiritual teacher, author, and YouTube influencer. She released her first book in 2011—The Sculptor in the Sky. She also launched her YouTube channel and invited her viewers to attend her first official event—a Salt Lake City based synchronization workshop. Her second book—Hunger of the Pine—would be released in 2020.
Her first speaking engagement attracted only 20 people. It wasn’t long after she made her social media debut that Swan started attracting some mainstream attention. In 2015, a columnist from Cleveland wrote about Swan’s teachings. She was also the focus of a 2017 documentary called Open Shadow: The Story of Teal Swan.
Courting Controversy or Misunderstood Mystic?
With more mainstream attention came more reporters digging into Swan’s work—and not all of it had a positive outcome. In 2019, respected BBC journalist Lebo Diseko penned an article about Teal Swan. In the article, he pointed to Swan’s use of visualizing death as a form of treatment. Diseko went undercover in the Teal Tribe Facebook group—where Swan has more than 27,000 followers—to take the pulse of the core of her teachings.
Throughout that time, Diseko noted that much of the content posted was “disturbing,” although the journalist did point out that there were often prompts to contact support hotlines for mental health sufferers.
When questioned for the BBC piece, Swan explained that she felt “a lot of anxiety” about not being able to moderate the Facebook group more thoroughly, and admitted that her demographic was “an unstable group of people.”
Teal Swan – The Final Word
Despite the controversy surrounding her work, Teal Swan is a respected spiritual teacher, author, and YouTube influencer with an estimated net worth of $2 million. She has won over hundreds of thousands of social media followers by speaking to those in search of mental health advice—those suffering from depression, anxiety, and even some who find themselves in the midst of a mental health crisis. Her unique approach, which is polarizing to some but inspiring to others, has allowed her to make a positive impact—even if it sometimes courts controversy.