When I fist heard of the gifting circles, I thought it was a miracle! I was so excited and thought the idea made a lot of sense. My sister was the one who told me about it. She had been gifted into a circle by her friend, and my sister wanted to invite me into one (we are both pretty optimistic trusting people). At the time I was trying to raise money for medical treatment and was unable to work due to being ill. I thought that being in a circle would not only make me money down the line, but allow me to have a group of supportive women to meet with weekly.
The woman who was in dessert at the time I joined seemed incredibly nice. She had already been through several circles and made it seem like a surefire way to connect with other women with the promise of receiving the ‘gift’ at the end of the journey. At the time I thought that the secrecy was because of legal reasons, and to also keep the circles sacred. I ended up paying the full 5k to join because I needed all the gift money to support myself.
For awhile I really enjoyed and looked forward to the calls. I was so excited to tell some of my friends about this because it all seemed really authentic. My friends were very skeptical which initially hurt my feelings, but now looking back I can see exactly why they were skeptical. In theory, the gifting circle seemed like such a good idea… all the women were so kind, the calls were very uplifting, but in reality.. the math just doesn’t work out.
The first circle I was in was dragging on and and on… as I was getting increasingly sick, I joined one of the faster circles that was less money to try and at least make my money back from the first circle I had joined.
After both of these dragged on for over a year, I realized I was never going to get my money back. I don’t think that these women were malicious, but it started to feel bad. It would have been nice if some of them would have tried to start paying back some of the women in these groups, especially the ones who had made it through the dessert cycles several times.
As time went on, it was clear that these circles were spreading far and wide… and anyone and everyone was joining. It didn’t feel sacred.. it felt slimy and fake. I see a lot of shadow sides in this emerging culture of new-agey, manifest your life, law of attraction spirituality, the gifting circles being exactly that.
I lost over 6 thousand dollars in these. I wish I could have seen it coming. I ended up fundraising for medical treatment.
Gifting Circle Stories 