Webs of Belief: Mother God, the Divines, and the Age of Internet Cults
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I’ve been on a bit of a cult kick over my winter break, spending my free time engrossed in a few different cult documentaries.
First, I watched Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God on HBO with my family while I was home visiting for Christmas. I followed that up with Escaping Twin Flames on Netflix once I was back in Boston. The cults documented in both series bordered on bizarre, and I’m still trying to make sense of what they believed, why they did what they did, and how these groups were able to attract their members.
Love Has Won was a cult founded by a woman named Amy Carlson, who claimed to be God. It was hard to tell exactly what the cult believed because their beliefs seemed so out there, but from what I gathered, it seemed like their core beliefs were an amalgamation of New Age-y beliefs and practices. The cult itself grew out of Amy’s involvement in a few different New Age internet chat rooms and websites, all of which fed into the cult’s belief that Amy was, in fact, Mother God — the latest incarnation of God on earth.
Twin Flames Universe was founded by married couple Jeff and Shaleia Divine. Like Love Has Won, the group drew on different New Age beliefs and practices, but their group focused more on dating, relationships, and marriage. The Divines promoted the idea that each person has one twin flame — essentially their one true and perfect soulmate for life, and the Divines claimed that they could help people find their twin flames. People joined the group desperate to find true love and their own twin flame.
But like all cults, both groups took a dark turn. Love Has Won seemed to attract people with mental health and addiction issues. Mother God, herself, was clearly an alcoholic. She also cycled through different boyfriends (all Father God or some variation depending on her moods) – her final Father God had a long criminal record and his own anger and addiction issues. I don’t want to spoil the docuseries for anyone, but Mother God and the group came to a tumultuous and sad ending.
Content retrieved from: https://blog.reformedjournal.com/2024/01/05/webs-of-belief-mother-god-the-divines-and-the-age-of-internet-cults/.
