Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe’ On Prime Video, A Docuseries About A Couple Promising Love But Actually Acting Like Cult Leaders

Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe is a three-part docuseries, directed by Marina Zenovich, that examines how the founders of Twin Flames Universe, Jeff and Shaleia Divine, use the desire of the site’s members to connect with their “twin flame” to manipulate them into some unusual and dangerous behavior.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SOULMATE: ESCAPING TWIN FLAMES UNIVERSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman being interviewed says, “I met my twin flame, and it turned my entire fucking world upside down.”

The Gist: Journalist Alice Hines, who is also one of the executive producers of Desperately Seeking Soulmate, started looking into Twin Flames Universe when she saw it mentioned many times in Reddit groups discussing spiritual communities. Once she went down the rabbit hole of the website, the group’s Facebook page and Jeff and Shaleia’s YouTube channel, she knew she had a story on her hands.

Zenovich interviews Hines and a number of former members of Twin Flames Universe, all of whom were either looking for that super spiritual soulmate, or want to reconnect with that person if they’re already in their lives. Members would pay thousands of dollars to take classes, which were Zoom conferences led by the Divines, which more or less became really in-depth group therapy sessions. Despite the fact that the Divines weren’t therapists, they advised the group members to pursue their twin flames no matter what, even if the other person has blocked them on social media, told them to not contact them anymore or, in a few cases, actually took legal action.

From there, the Divines had their “best” group members become coaches, who would recruit members who would sign up for the classes in addition to paying the coaches. That’s how the couple were able to upgrade their lifestyle, aspects of which they showed in videos to the group.

In the last episode, Hines goes to the Divines’ Michigan home in 2020 for the Vanity Fair article she wrote about them, then later confronts them with charges that they’ve told members to actually change their gender in order to attract their twin flame, along with other extreme manipulations.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Netflix will be streaming their own Twin Flames docuseries, Escaping Twin Flames, in November. We haven’t seen it yet, but we’re looking forward to it after seeing Desperately Seeking Soulmate. This series has the feeling of the docuseries LuLaRich.

Our Take: Something about Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames didn’t quite sit right with us. It’s a fascinating watch, especially because the testimony Zenovich gets from prominent former members of just how manipulative the Divines — especially Jeff — really are had our attention. The footage from the Zoom “classes” is also interesting, even if it’s just to track some of Jeff’s many looks (long hair, short hair, beard, no beard) and the many weird makeup combinations used by Shaleia.

But there doesn’t actually feel like a cohesive story here, with a beginning, middle and end. Hines and Zenovich seem to gloss over aspects of the Divines’ lives, like when they got kicked out of Jeff’s family house after they started a business, and don’t really get into a real timeline that describes how Twin Flames Universe grew and the couple got rich.

What’s also a bit confusing is just who these twin flames are that the members were looking for. In the case of Arcelia, it’s a man who was a customer at the gas station where she worked. She describes that he’s a conservative type who would likely never date a trans woman like herself, but she never really describes if they had any kind of relationship before she was encouraged by the Divines to keep pursuing him, no matter what. Another former member, Lorraine, also describes someone she dated before joining TFU as her “twin flame,” but doesn’t describe just what she did to pursue that person.

There’s also the story of Briana, a current member who is never interviewed, but Zenovich speaks to her mother and aunt. Her story feel s like it might have a bad ending, but it’s teased out for so long, we just wonder if she is being submarined on camera by her loved ones. That being said, her example is a good one of what kind of emotional damage unqualified people pushing self-flagellation methods like “the mirror technique”, where you turn all of your bad outcomes on yourself, can do to a person.

Even though Hines interviews the couple directly in the third episode, and the story of both Briana and the idea that the Divines push hard for people to change their gender identity come together in the third episode, the story seems vaguely incomplete. The site is still operating, and it doesn’t seem like the Divines have attracted any legal issues, so what’s the outcome? Is it just a matter of shining a light on this couple that promotes the law of attraction, and claim that God has told them who a person’s twin flame is? Is it an illustration of the lengths people who are unlucky in love will go to in order to find that soulmate? We’re not sure.

Sex and Skin: All the talk is about love, though there are sex-related lessons on the couple’s YouTube page.

Parting Shot: After seeing a clip of Jeff Divine saying to go bust down the door of a resistant twin flame, Hines says that he uses humor “to say crazy shit that he couldn’t get away with otherwise.”

Sleeper Star: In the second episode, Jeff’s childhood friend Eric describes a period of time when the couple was staying with him as they launched their business, and his description of how weird they were was probably the most entertaining segment of the series.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite our misgivings about the cohesion of the story in the docuseries, Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe is still an interesting study in how easily someone can manipulate people who are vulnerable and looking for answers.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.