The Deep End has us ready to dive in.
Spiritual teacher Teal Swan and her questionable practices are the subject of Freeform's documentary series The Deep End, premiering May 18. Swan, who calls herself a "spiritual leader," has more than 602,000 followers on Instagram and over 145 million views on YouTube.
In the trailer for the series, Swan's followers compare her to Jesus and she jokes about one day becoming "more spiritually influential than The Pope." Swan, who says she was born with clairvoyance, has been accused of targeting depressed people with her unconventional methods surrounding death.
When asked to respond to allegations that she's advocated suicide, Swan claimed she was uniquely equipped to handle those sorts of conversations given her own history.
"Those things are going to be said by people who have absolutely no idea what it's like [to be suicidal]," she told OZY in 2017. "What you don't need is somebody to be shaming you because of your family members or telling you that it's fu-king wrong. What you need is somebody who's like, ‘You know what? I know it.'"
"If you want to come within 50 miles of me," she says in the trailer, "you'd better be ready for the deepest end of the pool."
The trailer features former members of her Teal Tribe, who say they were "awestruck" upon meeting the self-described guru. "I was so washed," one former follower says. "I'd be willing to kill someone and bury them in the backyard."
A private investigator is also featured who says it's "my job to try to figure out if this is a cult or not." The series will follow that journey, while attempting to get to the bottom of how exactly Swan has managed to gain such a strong hold over so many people.
While former devotees say onscreen that Swan has "started something that's grown beyond her control," she appears to remain unfazed. "I feel like I am this spokesperson for every lost toy," Swan says.
If you think The Deep End sounds familiar, you're not alone. The 2021 Hulu limited series Nine Perfect Strangers starred Nicole Kidman as the fictional Masha Dmitrichenko, the founder of a wellness resort called Tranquillum House. The resort, of course, was not as it seemed and the teachings of the supposed guru took twists and turns eerily similar to those of Teal Swan.
We suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery-even in the world of alleged cults.
The Deep End premieres May 18 on Freeform.