Escaping Twin Flames Universe
When twin flames proved hard to come by, the Ayans shifted course. Faced with a shortage of “Divine Masculine” energies, they pressured female members of the cult to change their names and pronouns and pursue gender transition. At least two cult members subsequently underwent “top surgery” as part of their transformation, while other members resisted this top-down redefinition.
The filmmakers bend over backwards to disavow any parallels between gender transition within Twin Flames Universe and gender transition generally. In doing so, they interview a transgender scholar, Cassius Adair, who suggests that some of these women may have come to an authentic self-realisation that they were trans, and close the documentary with a disclaimer that “trans people of all ages are leading joyous, full, normal lives, and transition-related care helps make that possible”, and that fewer than 1% of people regret their decision to transition. At one point, Adair says:
What I think is very troubling about the Twin Flames Universe story is that people might hear about this group and say, ‘Oh, this is proof that transness is some kind of cult, that transness is something that is coerced.’ And nothing could be further from the truth.
But — despite the filmmakers’ protestations — the documentary itself presents uncomfortable parallels with gender transition outside Twin Flames Universe. The testimonials of cult members questioning and embracing their new transgender identifications sound all too familiar to those of us steeped in online trans communities. In a short video posted to Instagram, for example, cult member “Ray” describes the experience of coming out as transgender: “I urge you guys to really choose to be your authentic self, because I found when I was doing that and claiming my masculinity to its fullest, that’s when my twin flame came into my life.”
Others speak of “the truth of who you are”. The language of authenticity — and the encouragement to keep forging ahead with transition — is indistinguishable from the language employed in online trans spaces. There are the same wild vacillations from affirmation to rejection when one fails to follow the script. In the film, Jeff Ayan hammers on the need to “accept that you are truly a man inside”, advice online trans communities regularly dole out to members of wavering faith.
“I definitely had a lot of ‘blocks’,” one member says, reflecting on her initial reluctance to transition. But in Twin Flames Universe, “blocks” are something one has a responsibility to overcome. In trans communities, these doubts and reservations go by a different name — internalised transphobia, for one — but, beneath the branding, it’s hard to tell the two processes apart.
I was waiting for someone to comment on this! Absolutely insane how this guy was able to induce rapid onset gender dysphoria so easily in these girls (and women). He wasn’t even a gender activist or LGBTQ idealogue st alll, this was purely a cold business move by him and his wife to pivot when they weren’t delivering what they promised. The craziest part is that I don’t think the people making the documentary even considered the implications of what they were showing here. When they showed the clips to the “gender expert” they brought in for commentary (a professor of gender at CUNY, who was a straight white guy), you can see the mental gymnastics unfolding behind his eyes. He had to quickly think of how he can discredit the “transness”’of these girls without admitting that ROGD is a real problem. Very bizarre stuff all around.
Even though Netflix had to cover its a$$ with the disclaimer, I’m hoping that any cult awareness documentary will help the casual viewer see examples of Coercive Consent. This is not the consent culture that people assume is the liberated sex positive kind, and abusers have hidden behind for decades.
The stronger example from the culty group is the whistleblowers, the two women, one of whom was also pressured to transition and said NO. Even though both of their sources of income were from selling courses in the Twin Flames.