I'm only halfway through watching this, but don't know if I can continue. I have had the unfortunate experience of a "high control environment" with one of my adult children and although my child's experience was more "mainstream", so many things mirror things on this show; including this group's teaching of kind of ganging up on each other to keep others in line and keep the group's leaders being in control. It is one of the most heartbreaking things that I've ever witnessed or experienced.

I am disgusted by these people, and also still tying to grasp how easy it is to prey on vulnerable people. Pure evil in my opinion.

I am literally sick to my stomach seeing how this progressed.

Anonymous wrote:The woman is a pig with lipstick. FULL STOP

This was unnecessarily misogynistic. We can talk about what she is doing wrong without irrelevant and cruel commentary on her looks.

The woman is a pig with lipstick. FULL STOP

Anonymous wrote:I think Jeff is purposefully following the Scientology playbook. It’s 80% moneymaking scam, 20% sadistic control of others.

I think that is a good analogy when you look at their shared crimes - but even Scientologists don’t require members to have sex change operations and transition into opposite gender to protect their bottom
Line.

Scary in terms of legal possibilities though - Hubbard and Co were merciless with victimizing their victims even more in court by countering any critics with vile accusations …

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Jeff is purposefully following the Scientology playbook. It’s 80% moneymaking scam, 20% sadistic control of others.

It’s actually more comparable to Mormonism. It’s not a coincidence that there are a lot of their followers from Utah/Idaho.

I dunno about that - have met a lot of normal Mormons although there are fringe cults within that religion… Mitt Romney is way more mainstream than many evangelical Christian nationalists

Anonymous wrote:I think Jeff is purposefully following the Scientology playbook. It’s 80% moneymaking scam, 20% sadistic control of others.

It’s actually more comparable to Mormonism. It’s not a coincidence that there are a lot of their followers from Utah/Idaho.

Every time a cult doc comes out, I think “Wow, it can’t get any crazier than that.” And then the next one comes out and shocks me again. I can’t get over how many people are taken in by people like this. Convincing someone to transition and enter into an arranged marriage is bananas and straight-up evil. And then to sit on stage telling people they’re the reason you’re wearing Chanel! Mind-blowing. Absolutely mind-blowing.

I think Jeff is purposefully following the Scientology playbook. It’s 80% moneymaking scam, 20% sadistic control of others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone watched the new Netflix documentary series on the Twin Flames cult? Thoughts?

I was in equal measures fascinated and increasingly infuriated with the cult leaders. Many of their outlandish pronouncements and demands were cartoonishly funny but tragically believed and followed … many parallels between their supreme leader and the Sarah Lawrence dad in terms of sucking vulnerable people in before controlling and exploiting them.

You summed it up well. Yeah, it really was cartoonishly funny and tragic at the same time. Obviously these people are/were not in their right mind, most of us cannot relate to listening to someone who suddenly tells you that you need to switch genders immediately, or who your chosen partner is (regardless of whether it is reciprocated or not).

I was very surprised that they're still going strong. I'm not sure what laws they're actually breaking, but I'd imagine if nothing else a case could be made for income tax evasion.

Unbelievable -
Many of the new members are around the world and perhaps they dis not see the bad publicity and investigative journalism?

Apart from tax evasion:

Fraud - ponzu schemes are illegal and misrepresent potential earnings

Labor law violations - not even paying minimum wage

Psychological abuse - some of ex cult members said it will take them years to recover

domestic violence

Alienation of affections (isolating cult members from families)

Local police said they could not prosecute and handed case over to FBI - doubt that domestic violence and psychological abuse is part of their jurisdiction but they could possible go after the tax evasion and fraud.

Maybe they will refer to Michigan AG office?

Will be interesting to see what they decide - so much will depend on will to prosecute …

Anonymous wrote:Anyone watched the new Netflix documentary series on the Twin Flames cult? Thoughts?

I was in equal measures fascinated and increasingly infuriated with the cult leaders. Many of their outlandish pronouncements and demands were cartoonishly funny but tragically believed and followed … many parallels between their supreme leader and the Sarah Lawrence dad in terms of sucking vulnerable people in before controlling and exploiting them.

You summed it up well. Yeah, it really was cartoonishly funny and tragic at the same time. Obviously these people are/were not in their right mind, most of us cannot relate to listening to someone who suddenly tells you that you need to switch genders immediately, or who your chosen partner is (regardless of whether it is reciprocated or not).

I was very surprised that they're still going strong. I'm not sure what laws they're actually breaking, but I'd imagine if nothing else a case could be made for income tax evasion.

Anonymous wrote:Were there any men in the group at all? Seems like it was all women who worked for them and involved in the pyramid scheme part of it.

The idea of pursuing someone relentlessly and the mirror exercise were both preposterous and dangerous.

They were a sinister, strange couple. I also couldn’t believe Megan’s transformation along the way. She was kind of fresh-faced and cute with medium-brown curly hair and ended up with straight black hair, bad makeup and awful designer clothes, plus gaining a lot of weight. They were difficult to look at and listen to.

After a while I began to wonder if he were gay. He sort of pinged to me. They did not seem affectionate; more like a business arrangement.

He just seemed a flat out con artist pretty obviously using people to make money and creating a church for tax status. She was harder to read (because she would literally sit in the background on some videos and say nothing and he was undoubtedly abusive to her).

Some of the craziest, creepiest stuff I’ve ever seen.

Good catch about the gradual negative transformation of Megan/ Shaleia - tragic …

Yes Jeff is a sociopath conman for sure.

There were a few male members mentioned in the documentary but not sure how many of their current 67k membership are men.

It is bizarre that their membership continues to grow despite warnings from Vanity fair article over two years ago, pod cast and now Netflix series highlighting their hyper controlling multi level marketing cult dangers …

Jeff and Shaleia continue to run the Twin Flames Universe and Church of Union from their Michigan home and are still accepting new members. They don't seem to have slowed down at all, and as of November 2023, their Facebook group has over 67,000 members.5 days ago

https://people.com › escaping-twin-...
'Escaping Twin Flames': Where Are Jeff and Shaleia Divine Now?

Were there any men in the group at all? Seems like it was all women who worked for them and involved in the pyramid scheme part of it.

The idea of pursuing someone relentlessly and the mirror exercise were both preposterous and dangerous.

They were a sinister, strange couple. I also couldn’t believe Megan’s transformation along the way. She was kind of fresh-faced and cute with medium-brown curly hair and ended up with straight black hair, bad makeup and awful designer clothes, plus gaining a lot of weight. They were difficult to look at and listen to.

After a while I began to wonder if he were gay. He sort of pinged to me. They did not seem affectionate; more like a business arrangement.

He just seemed a flat out con artist pretty obviously using people to make money and creating a church for tax status. She was harder to read (because she would literally sit in the background on some videos and say nothing and he was undoubtedly abusive to her).

Some of the craziest, creepiest stuff I’ve ever seen.

The Biggest Revelations From Netflix’s Escaping Twin Flames Documentary

https://time.com/6333184/escaping-twin-flames-netflix-what-to-know/
…
Though many former members have since left the group, Twin Flames Universe is still running. In April 2019, one member of the group died by suicide. Another former member was encouraged to violate a restraining order from her “Twin Flame” and went to jail.

Jeff began to identify as the second coming of Jesus, and Jeff and Shaleia started the “Church of Union” non-profit umbrella, under which they run multiple for-profit businesses. The couple began to talk about a third “Twin Flame,” their unborn child, Grace, who was born in April 2023, and heralded as something of a messiah.
“I think a lot of it was to distract us from what was happening to us right before our eyes,” former member Keely says in the series. “Jeff was ready to buy a giant, 300-person event hall. And we were to live in a trailer on that property while we renovated it and make a farm. One of the things that was implied when we were supposed to move to Michigan was that we would be having children when we moved there. Jeff and Shaleia said that everyone has the opportunity to have Golden Children, which are children who are already ascended.”

The “Golden Children” would then be twin flames with other “Golden Children.” And couples who could not physically produce a child together would be able to seek sperm donation from another group member—but that member had to be chosen by Jeff. Jeff and Shaleia would decide whether someone was “worthy” of having a child, based primarily on reaching a certain level of income. Jeff and Shaleia also announced that they would be taking 50% of their “Ascension Coaches’” income.

Why did their local Michigan police decide there was nothing they could prosecute after seeing the Netflix series evidence? They referred to FBI apparently … How much worse does it have to get before they intervene? Fraudulent claims? Slave labor ? Tax evasion? Psychological abuse ? Coercing people into irreversible gender change surgery for their own financial gains?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also randomly telling people they were a different gender, sexuality and person. Wtf.

IVF for Grace to be born in the right body? Did Shaleia really have ectopic and he just like told her it was only suspected because the embryo was too small to be detected? Jeff is such an effing tool. Shaleia being told she was not what he expected because she is fat. Just horrible, horrible people

Going to jail for stalking. The poor mom trying to stay in contact with her child via text. Very, very disturbing.

Yeah, this was very bizarre. Can you tell if an embryo is male or female before implantation? Were they trying to genetically engineer sex? Is that why the IVF? I actually wonder if there wasn't any IVF -- they were just using the idea of the expense of IVF to raise (extract!) more money from their followers? Ectopic pregnancies are horrible, life threatening emergencies, so the way that Shaleia and Jeff mentioned it, like it was nothing, seemed weird to me -- I guess I don't buy it that she had an ectopic pregnancy. Which means I think she probably wasn't pregnant at all. Who knows? It's all so bizarre.

But the stuff about "baby Grace" being their third flame, and how she wouldn't need sex because she could satisfy her self terrified me because what the hell happens if they actually do have a child? I see abuse waiting to happen.

Oh Lord - had not even thought about that angle - Hope CPS monitors any children’s welfare …

Their reasoning to do IVF for gender can be done and as screwed up as that is, especially when they are convincing people they are the "wrong" gender could be true. Also, bizarrely there are higher incidents of ectopic via IVF vs natural if woman has never had ectopic, so just questioning the way they said it if he totally dismissed her and was trying to act like the termination wasn't necessary, or yeah was any of it real????

The creepy sex stuff with Grace is terrifying. If they try naturally and carry a son God help him because he will be transitioning asap. These people are really, really creepy.