Prime has the documentary "Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe" while Netflix is running "Escaping Twin Flames" which were produced by different investigative reporters but take a similar approach to exposing this new group. Both rely on the testimony of ex members of the group to expose the founders power and control and how things changed when the group wasn't working out as they planned.

Apparently the group has a strong presence on facebook and there is also an entire reddit sub for its adherents.

I watched both of these multi part documentaries and was fascinated by the origin and rise of this group. The founders, Jeff and Megan (who now goes by Shaleia) are preying on the desperation of mostly female followers who are desperately seeking their 'one and only true love', their "twin flame". Using a technique of turning all hurts and pains inward the pair asserts they will help heal people who will practice their 'mirroring' technique.

But it starts to get really strange. Shaleia appears to be the one who started with the 'spiritual' aspect of the enterprise and Jeff appears to be the one with a fervent entrepreneurial bent who has turned it into a money making proposition.

They were living in a run down apartment when they began, but now a few years later, have bought a large home with a lake view in Michigan, with Jeff boasting about his Corvette and Porsche in the driveway. Even stranger, they have people living and working in their house to keep their enterprise running. There are shades of other religious communities with a strong 'messianic' leader that have started this way with Waco being mentioned in the documentary. Jeff even suggests, very strongly, that he may be the Christ.

The adherents pay for private or group facetime sessions with Jeff and Shaleia and are encouraged to take their video courses, which can be anywhere from $100 to $8,888. And those who have taken on the role of being life coaches under them are also encouraged to find more life coaches - it seems to be a combination of multi level marketing, religion and some kind of mass delusional 'teaching' to desperate and gullible people.

Jeff and Shaleia encourage people in their group to cut off relationships with anyone who is not supportive of Twin Flames, a sure sign of a cult, and there are several testimonials from hurting parents who are desperate to be back in touch with their children.

And in probably the strangest twist, when very few people were finding their "twin flame" to be responding, Jeff proclaimed that their twin flame already was part of the group - but since most of the group were women, he insisted that several of the women pair up and that one of them was now a "divine male", to the point of asking some to change their clothes, hair and go by a new male name.

It's all quite fascinating, and I couldn't believe that in an age where information on cults and cult activity is so easy to find, that so many people would be sucked into Twin Flames Universe and not see the control and manipulation going on in their lives.

Both are well worth watching but if you only have time for one, I'd recommend Prime's documentary - seems to be a bit more professionally produced.

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Recently a close friend of mine was riding a bicycle along a city street. They had the right of way. A careless driver making a fast turn either did not see my friend (somehow... it's not like there were obstructions) or did not even bother to look. The driver and their 2000-pound steel machine slammed into my friend, throwing them off the bike.

The bike was completely destroyed/unusable. My friend was scraped up, and shaken, but by a miracle did not hit their head or have to be hospitalized. They were lucky: the car was traveling fast enough to kill. The driver was apologetic and paid for my friend's bicycle and medical bills. But this should not have happened. My friend could have died or been permanently paralyzed.

I don't know all the details. But I do know that intersection. This was so ridiculously avoidable.

• Had the bike lane been fully protected with a clearly visible (but not sight-line-blocking) concrete curb or at least a bollard at the intersection, the driver probably would not have taken the turn so fast, or would maybe have been more generally aware of cyclists. They may have had time enough to stop before crashing into my friend, or the impact may have been small enough not to hurt them.
• Had there been a raised crosswalk or had the entire intersection been raised (as a speed table), requiring cars to slow down, the driver would definitely not have taken the turn so fast. The driver may also have been more aware of pedestrians/cyclists and more likely to yield.
• Had there been a curb extension shortening the crosswalk (in this case a pedestrian crossing island past the bike lane, I guess), the driver would probably have subconsciously taken the turn more slowly, as they would probably have felt more enclosed within the intersection.
• Had signal priority been given to cyclists/pedestrians, the driver probably also would not have made the turn at that point in the light cycle, and would probably not have hit my friend. (I'm pretty sure my friend was going straight on green, but if they were making a right turn, then had no right turn on red also been enforced for cars, the driver would probably not have made the turn at that point in the light cycle, and would probably not have hit my friend.)

(This wasn't a parking-protected bike lane: the city had just removed parking from that side of the street and left it fully unprotected. If it were parking-protected, I would also suggest that two parking spaces be removed approaching the intersection to ensure that the driver could see cyclists in their peripheral vision. As it stands, I have no idea how this person did not see my friend. Gross negligence. They should not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle.)

Driving shouldn't be considered such a mundane thing. When someone steps into a car they should be aware that, at any point, they could kill someone. But really infrastructure is an easier, more repeatable, and less exhausting solution than trying to change attitudes directly. Probably had any one of these infrastructure changes been implemented, my friend would not have been hit by a car. Had more than one or two been implemented, there would realistically never be a cyclist collision here.

It irritates me that my friend's life was put in danger because a driver was being careless. But also that they were able to make a careless mistake. And incidents like this remind me that traffic safety is not a theoretical problem. At any time, without warning, the life of someone you care about could be immediately taken away because we have a culture that normalizes driving a dangerous vehicle with basically zero oversight; and because our roads are designed for car throughput and not to be safe for vulnerable people.

Someone called me "militant [about traffic safety]" once. This is why.