Teal Swan, an American self-proclaimed spiritual teacher, was discovered to encourage thousands of followers on social media to commit suicide.

Pencil drawing of a charismatic long-haired woman has long appeared in Sarahs house in northwestern United States, but she did not notice because this is one of the paintings of talented daughter talent and passion for painting, Casey.

Sarah only started to notice this painting after realizing Casey posted online with the caption "This beautiful woman is Teal Swan, revered spiritual master."

Casey committed suicide a few months ago. The pain of losing her only daughter makes Sarah nearly devastated and determined to learn everything about Casey before committing suicide, especially the mysterious woman in the picture.

Sarah started with her daughter's social media accounts and discovered Casey had joined a secret group on Facebook called "Teal Tribe". Sarah joined the group and was horrified to learn that Casey had published an article about trying to end her life with a picture of a woman pointing her finger in the head like an image of a gun.

A video of Teal Swan titled "I want to kill myself (What to do if you want to commit suicide)" appears in this secret group. In the video, Swan advises anyone who wants to commit suicide to seek medical assistance but says that with their experience, this option has no lasting effect on some people. Swan sees suicide as a reset button to "reborn" life with the argument that this view makes people put the idea of suicide aside and focus on doing things to help them feel good. feel better.

Swan also suggests some exercises that require people to lie down and imagine a scary death as possible. "Spiritual masters" believe that in this way people appreciate life more. Swan also emphasized that suicide will cause family members to suffer, saying, "You don't want to die. What you want is just ending your pain."

This video of Swan was later included in the top search list on Google related to suicidal terms.

Sarah does not know if Casey has seen the video or whether the suicide decision has been affected by it, but in the post before her death, Casey mentioned many words that Swan once said, including rebirth.

Two weeks after the first post of intent to kill himself, Casey died by shooting himself in the head. What makes Sarah feel indignant is that no one in this secret group called the police or tried to contact the family when she learned about Casey's suicidal intent.

"The opportunity to save her was missed and this is a mistake," Sarah said. "I know there are many reasons for her death, but it's hard to believe that Teal Swan's share doesn't affect the suicide decision. The advice in that video is like rehearsing for death. ".

To learn more about the "Teal Tribe" group, the BBC correspondent joined the 27,000-member secret group and discovered many posts and discussions by group members about suicide. They talk about their suicidal intent and receive advice from group members. Occasionally, discouraging discussions will occur, but most of Swan's video content and advice from members only focus on what to do when they want to commit suicide. And Casey was one of the two members of the suicide group after those posts and discussions.

The BBC correspondent met Teal Swan, "revered spiritual master" as the team members called "Teal Tribe".

Teal Swan, whose real name is Mary Teal Bosworth in Utah, USA, proclaims himself a spiritual teacher, "revolutionary changes man" or "spiritual catalyst" and organizes courses, seminars on spirituality in the US and Central America, with a ticket price of 200 USD per session.

Swan has hundreds of thousands of followers on personal websites, and a Youtube channel with 97 million viewers. The courses or videos Swan shares are mostly aimed at people who are depressed and want to commit suicide, with advice drawn from their own life experiences. Swan affirmed her purpose is to help those in crisis in life and many of Swan's students agree with that. Some say Swan is helping "change the world", others even call her "a genius of connection and understanding of human relationships".

Meanwhile, many critics accuse Swan of encouraging suicide, while mental health experts consider her help to be "dangerous" and "irresponsible."

"It was ridiculous," Teal Swan told BBC correspondent over the alleged suicide incentive.

Swan felt angry when asked about the two "Teal Tribe" suicide members and demanded that she be responsible for that.

"It is crazy to ask me to be responsible for those suicides when they were suicidal before they came to me," Swan said. However, Swan also acknowledged worries about the operation of the "Teal Tribe" when run by a number of untrained volunteers and said that this was "the worst thing in his career".

After a meeting with a BBC correspondent, Swan posted a video confirming her purpose to help people, and discouraging people from committing suicide, while saying they would avoid discussions about suicide on social media. Personal social networking site.

However, the claims of Swan are not enough to make experts feel less worried.

"When I heard Swan speak of suicide as a way of" reestablishing life, "I was really worried," said Dr. Jonathan Singer, President of the American Association for the Study of Suicidal Behavior. . "This is no different than saying you can kill yourself and things will start better again."

Ged Flynn, CEO of the Anti-Suicide Charity in the UK, also felt concerned after watching Swan's suicide video.

"Encouraging people to imagine their deaths in any case is not beneficial, on the contrary, it leads to bad things and even suicide. Those advice are irresponsible." , Ged Flynn asserts.

According to experts, social network regulators like Facebook should do more to prevent negative content from appearing on their platforms and negatively impact users.

In response to the BBC's investigation and the reaction of the public, Facebook decided to close the Teal Tribe forum, while the video of Teal Swan's death was also removed from Youtube.

Sarah hopes that sharing the story of her ill daughter can help other people avoid similar traumatic events.

"Life is a gift. It is very valuable and never has a" reset button, "Sarah said.