Jay Shetty’s origin story helped him build a brand fueled by millions of followers, a number of whom paid thousands of dollars for an online coaching course. As soon as you begin looking at the details of his background and business practices, however, Shetty’s claims quickly unravel.
Backing up: Shetty officiated Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s wedding. Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, and Kobe Bryant appeared on his podcast—it was one of Kobe’s last appearances before his tragic death. Accolades from Gwenyth Paltrow and Ellen Degeneres have been given. As “Chief Inspiration Officer” for the popular meditation app, Calm, Shetty has been referred to as a “one-man self-help empire.”
That title comes from Esquire journalist, John McDermott, who recently penned an investigative report on Shetty for The Guardian. McDermott found numerous holes in Shetty’s story, which I’ll bullet point below before asking the question: Why is Jay Shetty so appealing to so many people? (I’ll soon be interviewing John for a Conspirituality Brief that will run on March 23.)
A quick run-down of the reporting:
Shetty’s timeline as a Hindu monk is off. He consistently skews his involvement with ISKON (The International Society for Krishna Consciousness); homemade videos offer a starkly different portrait of his involvement with the group. Shetty’s claims of living as a penniless monk are also in doubt, as most of his study seems to have taken place outside of London, not in Mumbai.
As has been reported before, Shetty’s plagiarism runs deep. Though today he offers credits (even from small Twitter accounts), previous research shows he regularly lifted entire passages from spiritual self-help books and claimed them as his own.
The Jay Shetty Certification School, which costs $7,400, claims to have affiliations with accredited universities. McDermott contacted all of them. Every school denies having any affiliation with Shetty’s course.
Shetty offers mental health advice through blog posts and videos despite having no clinical or medical training. While this is common with some life coaches, it remains inexcusable.
Despite all of these revelations, Shetty remains uber-popular, with 15 million followers on Instagram and 2.5 million on YouTube. As McDermott points out, criticism thus far has been thin—likely due to the spell of Orientalism that’s blinded Americans for generations.
So far, Shetty’s rise has had few critics. When people do question Shetty, they are quickly dismissed. After he appeared on Armchair Expert this March to promote 8 Rules of Love, one of the show’s Instagram followers wrote a critical comment: “Super disappointed that you are platforming Jay Shetty. He is not an expert. What credentials does he hold to ‘help people through their current struggles’?”
Dax Shepard, the show’s main host, answered the comment from his personal Instagram account. “If you listen you will quickly hear that he is an expert in the religions from India. I found it illuminating :),” Shepard wrote. What religions those are, exactly, Shepard didn’t specify.
Though Shepard couldn’t figure it out, mojojojokes on TikTok understands it well. Growing up in India, she was taught to read eyes—that’s where her distrust in Shetty begins.
Ok, a funny social measuring tape. More pertinently, she admits that she’s not Shetty’s target audience. White people freely placing faith in a brown-skinned man claiming to be a monk while speaking in quasi-spiritual self-helpy aphorisms? That’s where Shetty’s star ascends.
Which, as basic as it sounds, offers insight into why this man appeals to so many people. Shetty doesn’t teach discipline. You’re not going to find an attentive monk hitting students with a switch if they twitch while sitting zazen. His approach is more “bro who places his hand over his heart” when greeting someone.
The problem is that his “I did the hard work so you don’t have to” is a form of spiritual bypassing, not proof of higher empathy. A teacher guides a student to learn for themselves. Shetty’s schtick is to pretend to have done the learning, which he can then transfer to you—for a cost.
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