Phillip Scott is a cult leader (Ancestral Voice)

Phillip Scott is a spiritual teacher offering native american ceremonies in the Bay Area. He is a known fraud and dangerous cult leader. An entire thread dating from 2007 regarding him is available here. I created this dedicated blog to share my experience as an ex-student of Phillip and in the hope that a separate domain will have more visibility and hopefully protect the people who might be googling his name.

I am sharing today to help prevent new people from being abused by Phillip Scott in the way I and others have been. This is not a comfortable piece to write as I love him and am very grateful for the precious moments I have spent with him, but after consistently demonstrating his inability to receive feedback and change, I feel it is my duty to inform future potential students about what they are getting themselves into… especially since he still recruits people with public ceremonies at a tea house called “The Center” in San Francisco. I am also confident he has not changed since my years of working with him because I keep hearing more noise about his abuse. It often involves psychological abuse and/or grooming young women.

I am sorry to have to do something like this, which will likely feel like a betrayal to him, but his unwillingness to take responsibility, be in communication and defensiveness using gas lighting tactics have completely closed my ability (and that of other students) to communicate with him and help him see the pain he causes to others. Many of us have had to completely stop communicating with him because of this. If I follow the principles he himself praises, it is my responsibility not to stay silent.

My name is Louis. I was one of his closest students for 2.5 years. I showed up to pretty much everything. I helped with a lot of ceremonies and I think it’s fair to say that I was a key component of this community. I loved and cared for this community and man. During these years, Phillip became one of the most important people in my life.

But as time passed, I started waking up to things I had previously overlooked. A year and a half ago, I decided to leave his “student” program (it had been 2.5 years, my initial commitment was 1 year). This is when all hell broke loose and I discovered the many gnarly layers I had not fully woken up to yet. I announced my desire to stop being a student but still show up to the ceremonies. He totally lost it on me and was remarkably inappropriate. I was fully in my right to leave since my commitment was over, and still had the intention to come to the ceremonies. I just didn’t want to keep paying $250/month, and be forbidden from doing ceremony with anyone else. He was outraged, name called me, tried to guilt trip me, gaslight me, make me submit, force me to admit that I was disrespecting him and that I was being ungrateful. He was very deceptive and tried to distort everything I said. It lasted one hour. It was completely inappropriate for any human but even more so for anyone with a position of healer/teacher. He was acting straight up like a cult leader trying to force me into submission. He tried to leverage all the insecurities he knew from working with me against me to make me submit, apologize and stay. It was horrendous. He made gross comparisons like “you wouldn’t cheat on your partner? Then why would you want to go fuck some other medicine men?” He tried to make me believe that my commitment was not 1 year, but “forever” because “that’s an implicit part of becoming more advanced on the path.” It made no sense. I was like “so it’s an agreement I made without being aware of it? How can that be a consensual agreement?” He kept distorting and making illogical jumps. I was weeping, in utter disbelief at his reaction and behavior. He kept coming at me. Our session ended with him yelling “can’t you be a man for once and recognize that you fucked up?!” (By telling him I wanted to end my studies). I declined. He kicked me out of his house and in a textbook gaslighting 101 fashion uttered: “I don’t know why you’re doing this to yourself.”

I went back to my car and cried uncontrollably as I drove to a friend’s house.

Within 5 min of driving, he was trying to call me and texting me.

For a whole week, he texted me many times per day, harassing me, intimidating me and doing everything he could to make me submit. In the meantime, he tried to set up everybody against me by telling the community I had overreacted and got upset because I put him on a pedestal and couldn’t handle his humanity. Big difference between hearing someone’s anger/sadness and letting them bully, gaslight and harass you. If that’s the humanity he was referring to, then yes, I obviously refused to handle it.

I asked him to leave me alone and give me time to think. He didn’t and kept harassing. I realized proper mutual closure was not available. He wanted me to come and seat in the lodge with a canupa to do just that, but everything in the tone of his messages was guilt trippy, intimidating and indicated that he was wanting to take advantage of the ceremony to spiritually bypass his horrendous behavior and abuse the power of the canupa to coerce me into pretending that we’re good. There was only one way forward.

I terminated our relationship and blocked him. He started emailing. I blocked him there too.

Within 7 months of me leaving, 8 people left under similar circumstances. Most of them went through the same abusive conversation, albeit with varying degrees of intensity based on the depth of their relationship with him. Most of them ended up blocking him. Many of them called me months later like “I understand you now! I’m sorry I didn’t believe you sooner.” Most of them are a lot happier and healthier now that they’ve taken their distances from this man.

Let’s bring some positive: Phillip’s ceremonies follow ancestral protocols to the letter. He does an excellent job at informing people of the necessity to respect lineages, to not appropriate and do things the right way. He is one of the strictest people out there. He teaches people a really good, disciplined way of approaching ceremony that I still cherish to this day. So much goes into the ceremonies. He asks people to make their apprenticeship with him their priority, which ensures people don’t show up with a consumeristic mindset, but are sincerely wanting to make the ceremonies their way of life.

All this is actually so beneficial, that it’s easy for newcomers to overlook red flags. Phillip also does an impeccable job at disguising them by depicting himself as a misunderstood man. He regularly talks about the newagefraud forum in his ceremonies. He doesn’t like it. He once asked me if I knew of any way to hide the forum in the Google results. He depicts himself as a victim of the forum where awful things are said about him. He’s talked about this in the middle of tipi meetings while people are vulnerable and on medicine to get them to vouch in his favor. He’s used these ceremonies to ask his followers to be his guardians, to protect him from all the bad people out there trying to tarnish his reputation. He also labels himself as a selfless servant of the Creator, saying things like “I don’t do anything for myself, I contractually can’t, I vowed to serve.” These statements impress gullible minds into seeing him as some kind of misunderstood martyr. From this image of the misunderstood man, he can then justify pretty much any behavior. He subtly messages to you that if you feel puzzled or hurt by his behavior, it’s most likely your fault for not understanding him, the sacred way, or resisting your own awakening by projecting. 

He talks a lot about colonization, which he weaponizes against anyone who disagrees with him. If you don’t do what the “Chief” says (that’s how he wants people to refer to him - never his name), you are an entitled colonized person who has issues with figures of authority. Because people come in his circle wanting to look at their blind spots and decolonize themselves, it’s easy for many to trust his judgement over their own. He heavily guilt trips people by turning any disapproval of his commands into a disrespect of the Way. His attachment to traditional manners is refreshing to many seeking more grounding (especially in the Bay Area) and the last thing newcomers into a traditional way of life want to do, is disrespect anyone. He leverages people’s trust and willingness to heal to enforce his abusive patterns.

He's a good man and has good intentions, but he is riding a power trip and has no awareness of it. He is adept at gas lighting, guilt tripping, controlling insecure people and bonding with individuals most prone to Stockholm's syndrome.

Being in that community, I have witnessed again and again people complaining about his rudeness, manipulation and hurtful comments. Nothing was ever done about it. People were complacent and kept finding justifications for why it's "not too bad" or "more good than bad." I was one of those people myself. Many times I’ve had to tell other community members “let it go. It’s just how he is. There is nothing you can do.” We went as far as saying things like “he holds heyoka medicine, he’s probably teaching us how to be more confident by treating us badly.” People are afraid of bringing things to him because he takes no ownership, drops all respectful composure and seeks to assassinate the character of anyone who dares to question his behavior.

He doesn’t take no for an answer. What starts with a beautiful request for spiritual commitment by asking you to make the ceremonies your first priority, progressively spirals into him basically requesting authority over your life. The more you give, the more he wants. And he’s never going to have enough or signal to you that you’ve given enough, which is a perfect hook for people who look up to him. Because they think he’s some kind of advanced spiritual master, they want him to approve of them, and he uses that to make sure they never feel good enough about what they provide… so they’ll keep on giving. It doesn’t have to be this way but that’s the dynamic he produces through his grasping for control and his obsessive fear of being abandoned. He doesn’t do it equally with all people so it’s easy for some to not get the same treatment and disagree with this view. The last thing he wants is to be exposed, so he actively treats people who are less indoctrinated and more on the outskirts of the community with a different tone, particularly other Sundancers or people from other communities, because he cares greatly about his reputation and doesn’t want those less indoctrinated to see the way he really is — it’s similar to how some people can be violent with their family, but appear all nice in public or when an outsider is present.

But most people who get close will progressively be expected to show up whenever and wherever he wants in the name of "being a warrior." God, they’ll even do his dishes at his home because he’s such an advanced Master he has no time to do it himself! (I am not joking). But it’s never good enough, and belittling comments are consistent. Even when it’s done his way, he makes up new rules and finds ways to make people feel like crap about themselves. He pretends to be aware of his own imperfect humanity, but rarely ever apologizes when it is obvious that he was mistaken. Of course it’s all done under the pretense of breaking the person’s self importance and ego, but what it really does is break the person’s self respect so they become more malleable. No matter how well you show up, how religiously, how much you invest, he will always find a way to make you feel like you haven’t invested enough and will do so by actively using belittling techniques. He’ll justify this control as being necessary for spiritual growth, and tell you that one has never finished awakening, there is always more that can be done…. Which is all true, but the devil really hides in the details here. The way he does it does not always serve spiritual growth, it often serves his narcissistic desire to feel admired and followed. In other words, his control is camouflaged by the principles of the spiritual warrior, but it effectively serves his insecurities. All in all, he treats the people who are the backbone of his community, ceremonies and livelihood like… excuse my language… shit.

In the name of not treating them like customers, but like family, even though they’re also his main income source - he treats them like shit, and the familiarity with which he does it somehow seems to justify it for many.

Those who eventually question him are faced with two options: 1/ to back off, submit to his anger, and never do it again or 2/ to interrupt the relationship. 

There is usually no change or agreement possible. He preaches conflict resolution through sacred communication and ceremony but practices none of it. His way of resolving conflicts is by forcing people back into submission or gaslighting his way around the origins of the conflict - essentially weaponizing the container through which the resolution is supposed to take place. His fake conscious communication is worse than unconscious communication because it pretends to be something it isn’t, and aggressively seeks to undermine people’s trust in themselves. People who I’ve seen pretend that they had found an agreement with him to treat them differently were often treated the exact same way a couple weeks later, did nothing about it, and even made excuses for him. Others just stay in the loop “yeah it sucks. Oh yeah it sucks.” and find comfort in gossiping about it ALL THE TIME but don’t have the courage to leave or confront him. I am not exaggerating here. Most of what community members in my days talked about outside of ceremony (and inside!) was his hurtful behavior. He knew it, and hated it, frequently mentioning that he was deeply hurt by the gossips and that he’d prefer people to come say things to his face (which of course doesn’t work for all the reasons just mentioned). Old timers said they tried a “group intervention,” that didn’t work either. The cause seems lost, and people either realize it and leave or lie to themselves.

This creates a divide between people inside the community and people outside of it. The denial inside creates a bubble. In this bubble, you judge people on the outside. You think they left because they’re not sincere enough. You think “It’s ok, being a spiritual warrior is not for everybody,” you trust your misunderstood spiritual leader. After all, has anyone ever done anything meaningful without being vastly misunderstood and projected upon?

This bubble also means that when you leave, you usually have to leave behind the entire community.

… which can be a difficult thing to do since Phillip actively asks people to relinquish any thing, commitment or relationship that stands in the way of ceremony because, you know, ceremony is sacred, and *are you a real spiritual warrior?* Some people follow him very religiously, and would sacrifice anything to be of service to him and the community. For those people, and with the frequency of ceremonies taking place and the work involved to prepare them, it’s very easy to have very little social life outside of the community. (Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was a healthy community)

On top of that, as a student, you are not allowed to attend any other ceremony from any other community, including anything remotely related to spiritual development. So you don’t have the external perspective of how things are done in other circles, and no room for feedback from other leaders, teachers and helpers. You’re forbidden to use medicine plants (even coffee) on your own or with other communities, too, so you can’t get perspective in that way either.

Thus, it’s not only denial that keeps people in, but the sober reality of their isolation, the disconnection they feel from themselves with all the gas lighting, and their resistance to facing the loneliness on the other side.

But many like me have had the strength to do it and found help on the other side. We found therapists who helped us understand that we were in a cult of personality. We found other communities and realized what was good in Phillip’s community as well as what was terribly wrong. We saw that in other communities people aren’t limited to one closed circle - but have experience with other communities, which brings freshness to the ceremonies and greater personal responsibility to its participants. We saw that other communities are much more decentralized and treat people like responsible adults on their personal spiritual journey, not children that need a new parent or some kind of structure over them to show them the way. We saw that other ceremonial leaders conduct beautiful ceremonies without oppressing their participants, without making them feel inferior, without trying to control them, what they drink, eat, who they see… AND MOST IMPORTANTLY without trying to recruit them. 

Because you see, one of the biggest loop Phillip is on, is that the ceremonial world is a possessive place where medicine people try to capture each other’s apprentices. In reality, he’s one of the few who do that. Most people are here to pray, not to collect authority, emails and monthly payments. He gives people the impression that he is protecting them from some possessive maniacs out there by restricting their lives when he is in fact the possessive one who’s already holding them captive. He plays out his abandonment wound on people who come to him for help, and hooks them up in codependency, giving them no room to leave his contracted control. 

Nobody has tried to recruit me since I left. He is the predator he warns people about. He is the one going around fishing for new income. Often he says things like “I happen to have new openings for students if anyone is interested” presenting it like it’s a limited special offer when it’s actually a permanent one. He also repeatedly asks people if they want to become students, even after they say no or that they’re not ready. He pretends it’s some kind of joke, like “come on, come be a student.” No other ceremonial circle I’ve been to have I heard a ceremonial leader trying to recruit their participants into some kind of monthly payment and exclusivity commitment. He only gets away with it because many of his students are completely new to these ways and haven’t experienced the humble, friendly, detached way things are done elsewhere.

Another way he keeps people under his control is by frequently implying that other communities don’t follow the protocols as cleanly as he does, and thus put people in harm’s way. He says he doesn’t believe in evil spirits, but simultaneously uses the dichotomy between good and evil to create superstition and reduce personal sovereignty. He talks frequently of people suffering from misfortune after participating in other people’s ceremonies. The subtle messaging is that when ceremonies aren’t run by him, they are riddled with parasitic entities. While this is something that does happen, he greatly exaggerates it to give people the impression that the community is the only safe place, that everything outside is dangerous and impure. 

And then, finally, of course, the moment you leave you become an enemy, a threat! Most of the students I know who have left have been bombarded by texts and calls. Once you slip out of his control, you see his real colors. He starts acting like a needy teenager and texts you intimidating and patronizing messages morning, afternoon and evening. I know… it’s hard to believe I’m still talking about the same person who is also such a gifted healer, road man and sundancer. When you don’t respond, it spreads to loved ones and sometimes even family members if he has their numbers. I’d have lots of stories to tell here regarding how extreme and ridiculous some of his acting out can be - but many don’t involve me personally and I don’t want to share the stories of others without their permission. I’ll let them come out in their own time. Just know that it’s bat shit crazy - and completely out of character with what he portrays publicly. He just spits venom uncontrollably and desperately when he feels like you’re piercing through his veil.

On top of the harassment you receive for leaving, he demonizes you in the eyes of the community by spreading lies to reduce the likelihood that you will be able to convince others of your experience. Anyone who left when I was in the community was demonized. They were called too sensitive, entitled, colonized. Some reason was made up to make them look like the bad guy. It always involved some kind of disrespect. They were no longer honorable. We were told to no longer interact with them in some cases. We were told we could no longer trust them… that they’re no longer warriors, that they’ve lost their way. (We’re talking about people who, the month before, were key supporters of the community, and who sometimes contributed financially for years thousands of dollars). I can clearly recall an occurrence where he asked like 6 of us men to drop out from a men’s gathering community we had signed up for with an ex-student, explaining that the ex-student was “no longer a warrior” and we were not allowed to frequent him. But of course, he’s not the bad guy, they are. So he would wrap all those lies with something along the lines of “I have nothing against them. They are still welcome at this altar. When they come back I will still be here. I am of service, I will always be here when they come back. People may turn their back on me, but I’ll never turn my back on them!” Add a few tears to the mix, and his inner circle is convinced. I was. What a better way to make yourself look like the good guy than to publicly pretend being open to resolution when you’re privately forcing the other party into submission or rupture.

This is the reality of how Phillip Scott runs his ship. Because he’s such a talented healer and a good man in his heart, it’s often very hard for people close to him to see how toxic and dangerous he is.

Some people have suffered intense mental health difficulties after leaving his field due to the amount of manipulation involved. Those who have consulted therapists got confirmation that this man is a cult leader. This has become my impression as well. One therapist has even mentioned having received multiple of his ex-students. His is a cult of personality, one that fundamentally operates around psychological manipulation. It’s much more subtle than a sex cult but can still be devastating, especially when people surrender so much of their sovereignty to a single person in profoundly sensitive and intimate realms of spiritual work.

There has not been a post on this thread in 5 years, but I can guarantee you that in 5 years dozens have had the unfortunate experience I am sharing but don’t talk. I also haven't been able to post there yet due to technical issues with their signup process. Before posting this, I reached out to a bunch of ex-students. Most of them told me they started writing something but never mustered the courage to post it. I’ve heard people be afraid of being pursued by him after leaving (while I do not think he is physically violent, it speaks to the level of hurt, fear and control they felt). Most people who left have had to block him because he had become completely unsafe to be around or communicate with. I’ve heard people wanting to end their studies past the end of their commitment but telling me they can’t get themselves to doing it because they’re terrified of his reaction. I’ve heard of inappropriate words spoken to young women, inappropriate touches and leaky ambiguous attitudes that reveal a concerning tendency of grooming young women less than half his age. While I don’t think he’s ever succeeded at gaining sexual favors, multiple women have reported being extremely uncomfortable about his behavior and sometimes straight up traumatized by it. At last, I’ve witnessed the consistent shaming of members, sometimes in front of their kids or spouse. I’ve seen these same members engage in Stockholm’s syndrome, protecting him and finding excuses for him. I’ve seen them project their Stockholm’s syndrome and encourage others to stay quiet and question their own judgment.

Phillip Scott is not merely an imperfect human, a symbol of false humility he likes to use as cover. He is an imperfect human who happens to systematically leverage his spiritual authority to abuse vulnerable souls. It is wrong because it is systematic and involves him abusing a power differential. It is wrong because because he’s been accused many times, but always deflects and demonizes his victims. He has the right to make mistakes and have shadows, but he cannot keep abusing people in the same exact ways for decades, keep exonerating himself for being human and accusing others of projecting.

If people feeling less like themselves, constantly gossiping about his abusive behavior inside his own community, being scared to leave or stand up to him, and having to undergo serious mental health recovery after leaving don’t all ring the bell… I don’t know what can.

This is a cult of personality by someone who abuses his position as a leader and teacher of a sacred way to personally fulfill his own toxic needs for control, admiration and superiority. He’s a good man, but his unwillingness to be humble has made him a toxic leader who is unconsciously acting out and hurting people when they’re most vulnerable.

This has been happening for over a decade, probably closer to two.

When you talk to the old timers, they’ll tell you people have been coming in and out in cycles of 1 to 3 years for over a decade. It’s always the same story: they meet him, get excited, ignore the red flags (like the obvious fact that people don’t stick around), get to know him better, then leave. With every round, he gets triggered by people leaving and refuses to see why - further validating his story that people abandon him and that he must hold tight to his controlling ways.

This is all so subtle that in many ways you often can’t “get it” unless you’ve experienced it. Cults aren’t always obvious. In fact, they rarely are.

Phillip Scott is a sick and dangerous man who found in the character of a disciplined spiritual warrior an elaborate justification for his controlling and abusive ways.

Phillip is adept at gas lighting, in a complete power trip and is unaware of it. The greatest lesson he teaches is how deeply abusive words and behaviors can become when mixed with emotional and spiritual intimacy. They can cut your soul like nothing else can. For me that’s the bottom line. Anyone who doesn’t see this, or thinks it’s “not too bad” has more to learn. I pray for them that they don’t have to learn it too harshly. If they already did, I pray for them to have a graceful healing and to find the gratitude and medicine in all of it. If they’re still stuck in it, they must remember their right to depart any abusive relationship at any moment without any explanation, and seek help from qualified therapists and/or rediscover their own spiritual sovereignty through personal practice. 

We’re worthy of love. We’re worthy of respect. We’re worthy of freedom. We are worthy of awakening to our true nature. Nobody has the right to disrespect us. Nobody has the right to dim our light. Nobody has the right to abuse us even when it seems to be “more good than bad.” We don’t have to settle for less. We’re worthy of the Creator’s infinite blessing just as we are. All of who we are is welcome, with no need to compromise any inch of our integrity. In fact, we can only wake up in integrity. In love with ourselves. In respecting ourselves we respect the Creator who made us and all of Creation.