This is part one of a multi-part W5 investigation that follows Jeff Divine and Canadian Shaleia Divine, the leaders of the Twin Flames Universe – a controversial spiritual group.
Angie Moggy spent 4 years of her life inside Twin Flames Universe.
Moggy was hoping to find true love and an eternal soulmate - her twin flame. The spiritual online community promises to help those searching for a partner achieve “permanent harmonious union” with their “perfect person” and “ultimate lover.”
In an interview with CTV News’ W5, Moggy says what she experienced instead was abuse and trauma. “What people don’t understand about coercive control is it’s a slow process. Over time it follows along the lines very similar to a domestic violence relationship,” said Moggy.
Moggy claims she was subjected to verbal assault, financial exploitation and indoctrination at the hands of alleged cult leaders and the heads of Twin Flames Universe, Canadian Shaleia Divine and her husband, Jeff Divine.
In 2017, Moggy, who lives on Manitoulin Island in Ontario’s Lake Huron region, was at a vulnerable point in her life. She had recently been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was navigating an unreciprocated attraction to a colleague.
- Watch the two-hour W5 special on CTV, Saturday night at 7 p.m.
That’s when she discovered Twin Flames Universe.
“I was going through chemotherapy treatments and I was really trying very hard to be a very positive person…they seemed to be exactly what I was looking for from a spiritual take of things and with twin flames and just having this happy life.”
Moggy started taking their Ascension School classes - designed as “a step by step guide to healing every last barrier you’ve built between you and the life you’ve always desired.”
“Sometimes I watched two or three classes a day because I was very determined that I was going to have the life of my dreams,” said Moggy.
It becomes ‘a form of self abuse’: former member
Through spiritual online classes—the lessons of which are channeled from God, coaching from other Twin Flames Universe members and self improvement programs—Jeff and Shaleia preach that everyone can find a path to personal happiness, an abundance of wealth and a divine connection with God, if you follow their teachings.
That comes at a price. A full service package costs over $12,000.
According to Moggy, many members weren’t seeing the benefits.
Jeff and Shaleia teach that any shortcomings are just “blocks” or “upsets” that members have to “heal” in order to achieve the results they want.
Followers are told that the primary way to heal these blocks is by doing what’s known as the “the mirror exercise.” The concept is that everything that happens to you is something that you manifested within yourself and it’s your job to heal it.
For example, if you’re feeling upset by someone, it’s because you are actually upset with yourself.
If your twin flame doesn’t love you, it’s because you don’t love yourself.
Another former member of the Twin Flames Universe, Victoria Bonilla, who lives in Virginia, says the mirror exercise isn’t about healing, it’s about breaking people down in a never-ending cycle of self blame.
“It becomes a form of self abuse and control,” said Bonilla.
Bonilla claims Jeff and Shaleia prey on this constant feeling of self doubt and coerce followers into purchasing more classes, selling them on the hope they’ll eventually be able to improve their lives.
“We were doing everything we could, and nobody was seeing results. Nobody was any closer to their twin flame or any relationship,” said Bonilla.
It wasn’t working for Canadian Angie Moggy. She was spending hours taking classes, became a coach herself and even quit her full time job to volunteer to perform administrative duties for the community.
Yet, she was without a twin flame and she was struggling to make financial ends meet. Moggy was making a modest income from her Twin Flames Universe coaching work, but 50 per cent of those earnings had to be paid to Jeff and Shaleia.
Defy the ‘gurus’; risk being excommunicated
Moggy says members are conditioned to believe that questioning Jeff and Shaleia is tantamount to questioning God.
“There’s a lot of verbal abuse,” said Moggy. “And I think a lot of people that are still there are just there because they’re afraid…there’s that fear of losing everything, the fear of being punished by God and going to hell and suffering and just being completely alone.”
“You’re my student. You do not school me,” said Jeff in one of his many online videos. “I invite you to challenge my spiritual mastery. I encourage you. I dare you. But I assure you, you probably don’t. And if you don’t want to bring it to the table and clearly challenge my mastery and enlighten me then you should shut the f**k up and listen.”
Moggy says that if members defied the so-called “gurus,” they risked being excommunicated from the community completely.
Twin Flames Universe currently has around 2,000 paying students, some of whom are spending tens of thousands of dollars on classes and teachings.
Now multimillionaires since starting Twin Flames Universe in 2017, Jeff and Shaleia Divine maintain the criticisms against them are from a small group of former disgruntled students. They deny all allegations of being a cult or abusing current or former followers.
Former member and CEO of Twin Flames Universe, Keely Griffin, has a different perspective. “Jeff Devine is a cult leader, a narcissist, a psychopath, a terrible person, barely a man. An inhumane, insane, disgusting individual.”
Griffin says she knows firsthand that Jeff and Shaleia were taking advantage of unsuspecting people who are simply trying to better themselves, “my role was to bring people in and feed them basically to a monster…I was used as bait to funnel more and more people in to pay Jeff and Shaleia to give them money.”
