Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe

It's hard to know where to start with this... much like Deep Impact and Armageddon of old we had two projects release at once about the same thing. I plumped with Prime and you get three fairly aimless episodes of Alice Hines making a bit of a "quest" out of exposing these two awful frauds. What they preside over and their general personalities are enough for interesting telly but as we drifted towards a conclusion I did start to wonder how manipulative this sort of trashy little PrimeDoc itself was. There's a lot of reconstruction stuff which always feels leading, the way it made out like the central figure was dead the whole time and bits of it which focussed on the family & friends of Super Jesus and make-up lady were quite uncomfortable for all the wrong reasons. I mean the consequences of what they do are genuinely very serious and it feels like this wasn't... really helping.

Make no mistake; the true driving force behind this cretinous twosome is Shaleia/Megan, the meek and mild wifey. Truly Machiavellian and deadly. Jeff is the more passive of the two, despite his alpha dog bluster.

The residents of the bucolic small Northern Michigan town they have infested are appalled and dismayed by their presence. Many local and state police complaints have been lodged against them with no consequences so far. I do think that while they're canny and manipulative, they're not intelligent enough to maintain their Teflon existence and will someday trip up and fail. They need to be in prison.

The whole documentary could have been done in an hour. By making it almost three hours the implication is that this is going to be an epic story with lots of twists and turns.

No twists and turns, but a lot of self-pity in this the same old story of people making a fortune off of others' vulnerabilities.

Other than a few modern day spins to the story you won't find anything new here.

The talking head experts offer no new insights and all sound like school children doing book reports.

The lead reporter on the case, Alice Hines, has this valley girl "up-speak" delivery that is really annoying. She didn't exactly do any rigorous reporting since all the tapes were there for her to see.

Some of the victim's stories are very touching, so that warrants 2 of the 10 stars.

But basically, this is another spin on the "Compliance" type scam where people so gullible (and even stupid) fall for another charlatan.

Says more about the dumbing down of our society then the motives of a con man.

One of the best comedies I've ever seen. Every single moment is a face palm. Every character is a quack. The journalist found the goldmine.

We have a black American who thinks her blackness is loneliness while believing every person is lonely and depressed, the irony and offence escapes her. We have a taro reading transgender woman who is obsessed a conservative man, again the irony.

What they all share in common, is that they all identify as "spiritual" people who believe in "energies" and believe that with enough obsession (choosing love) then their idol (twin flame) will reciprocate their obsession and they'll manifest each other as each other's super spiritual soul mates who will complete each other, all by paying a monthly subscription that they can't afford, and delegating their autonomy to some cult leaders, who they worship because the leaders embrace their cashcows, are attentive, and speak the same mumbo jumbo the subjects believe but with conviction instead humility; which for people who only have the facade of confidence, means and is the world to them.

They are moths who are drawn to the flame, and then blame the flame. Don't be a moth, and you won't worship the flame. Don't idolise, and you won't worship false idols. Don't believe everyone is secretly flawed like you, and you'll start becoming someone worth being.

People usually join cults because they think there's some kind of higher religious purpose and cult leaders have repeatedly used this as an easy way to sexually abuse members. What makes the Twin Flames Universe so weird is that romance and sex are the entire premise - essentially Jeff and Shaleia promise spiritual fulfillment by finding your "twin flame" - a person more intense than a soulmate, who you've known throughout lifetimes. Whether you believe in this concept or not, the subsequent cult that evolved from this concept couldn't be more obviously toxic or wacko if it tried.

Shaleia was an insecure young woman who had new age spiritual beliefs when she met charming malignant narcissist and possible sociopath, Jeff, a young man hoping to own his own business. It's fairly obvious she's under the spell of an attractive narcissist, and that he's thrilled to have constant narcissistic supply in the form of a compliant and obedient woman conforming to traditional gender roles. They couldn't be more reflective of manic street preacher and quiet wife in church if they were evangelical Christians. The way she silently nods or murmurs yes in reply to his ravings and rantings on YouTube would be comical if they weren't so creepy.

These two lovebirds take advantage of emotionally unstable and obsessive love/sex addicts by literally encouraging them to stalk people who rejected them or broke up with them. They claim they'll get the person back if only they accept responsibility for manifesting the situation with a mirror exercise. The elements that really take the cake, though, are that Jeff and Shaeia claim to get messages from God about who someone's twin flames are and even pressured people into gender roles and sex changes in an attempt to conform to their cult's ideology.

Seriously, people, if a religious leader tells you stalking someone who never wants to see you again is God's will, it's a cult.