Jeff & Shaleia Divine Are Still Running The Twin Flames Universe Today

In the age of online dating, Netflix’s Escaping Twin Flames docuseries takes on a controversial online community that “preys on people looking for love,” per the streamer’s description. At the center of the Twin Flames Universe (TFU) are founders Jeff and Shaleia Divine (formerly Ayan), who claim to have special spiritual powers and sell virtual classes that promise participants a harmonious union with their destined soul mate (or “twin flame”).

Featuring interviews with former members, the three-part docuseries claims to reveal “horrifying stories of coercion and exploitation,” including everything from alleged encouragement of stalking behavior to manipulation of gender identities. Escaping Twin Flames also documents family members’ efforts to rescue loved ones from Jeff and Shaleia, who are still running the program today.

The documentary’s post-script noted that TFU is currently recruiting new members and growing its organization. Though Jeff and Shaleia did not respond to filmmakers’ requests for comment, the doc also stated the couple’s claim that criticisms of TFU “are a coordinated effort by former students to discredit the group.”

A History Of Serious Allegations

In 2020, Michigan’s Farmington Hills Police Department investigated TFU and “were unable to determine that any crimes took place in Farmington Hills,” but forwarded their report to the FBI for review of “possible federal crimes,” according to Escaping Twin Flames.

Vice also published two investigative pieces on TFU in 2020, revealing claims that Jeff and Shaleia were exploiting some “students” and running a cult — something they denied. TFU also rejected claims that it encourages stalking, separates students from their families, and forces some students to change their gender identities in the matching process.

Journalist Alice Hines discovered the TFU while researching “wacky and weird fringes of internet culture” and published a December 2020 Vanity Fair exposé that served as the basis for a Prime Video docuseries, Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe, which dropped on Oct. 6. Though the couple participated in the Vanity Fair piece (along with multiple former TFU members), they declined producers’ multiple requests for comment.

In September 2023, Hines told Vanity Fair that Jeff and Shaleia “primarily target people who are lonely or brokenhearted, people who are unlucky in love.” However, she hoped the doc discourages individuals from joining TFU, while spreading awareness of “the many other programs that prey on people’s loneliness and desire for a partner.”

Expanding Their Family

Though Jeff and Shaleia are both active on social media, they have not publicly addressed the Netflix and Prime Video docs. However, they announced their daughter, Grace Violet, was born in April 2023, “completing their family.”

Other recent Instagram posts reveal that the couple, who met through Facebook in 2012, just helped Grace celebrate her first Halloween with coordinated Pokémon-themed family costumes. They’re also currently renovating their Michigan home.

“Family is everything to us,” Jeff captioned a pinned July 29 Instagram post. “A loving world is built on loving nations of people made of loving families. Loving families are built on Harmonious Twin Flame Union. Be the change you desire to see in the world.”

However, several participants in both docs maintain that Jeff and Shaleia’s TFU destroyed their families instead.