Because our societies are cult-like. Many relationships and families = mini societies, are also cult like (see for instance this video from Daniel Mackler to explain that idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inQEU2Cv9jw). Narcissism is a good way of characterizing them psychologically-technically, within the understanding they are all (weakened) forms of that. A well-meaning narcissist is still a narc, in other words, can not be well-meaning in Truth. The True social setting, societal setting, relationship, you are looking for is always beyond that. Twin Flame work brings you beyond that but as an organized effort in trying to make you do so, for the untrained eye, it still looks like a cult, or even more like one sometimes, because of the necessary energetic vortex needed that is there, to catapult you through the entire transformation.

Another way of looking at it is, that the word cult comes from cultus, to honor a deity, and in that sense it IS a cult, because it reintroduces God-Goddess (a Twin Flame) into the relationship so that you can make your Harmonious Union come true. It is not possible without that. Not that one needs to believe in God, because there is no belief needed for something that is already true, but it simply works to take that Source, whatever one calls it, into account. But it is not a cult in the sense that it makes that cultus of Source something unhealthy between people, however many will travel through a period in which the deepest darkest trauma’s are coming up for healing and then ARE healed; something that only superficially raises eye brows to uninitiated people not understanding the holistic nature of healing.

Twin Flame Union means to start over. To enter a completely fresh society that first forms between you and your Twin Flame and then broadens. To do that while relating in a genuine, direct and responsibly way to the Source of All, no matter what it is called, visualized or conceptualized as. This makes it relatively unrecognizable from a standpoint from within the existing societies and as that, it may easily be characterized as morally wrong, hence: a cult. The word cult then indeed also correctly corresponds with the idea that there is only a small segment of people that validates that way of living (as of yet). But that is also the point why it is not a cult: when it in time has completely taken over the world, and even universe, it will have become a majority viewpoint and have lost its cult status simply by definition. This where we are headed unmistakably because it is the leading edge of spirituality and thus life, with an edge that is ever moving and gaining ground.

After all: human = Twin Flame.

Here’s the thing.

I personally have studied with the spiritual teacher Anandajay known around The Netherlands and Belgium first in this lifetime. I talk a bit more about my experiences with him in for instance this blog: https://www.creativeuniverse.earth/meditation-and-yoga-story/. He does not have criticism online but this seems rather unusual as most spiritual teachers have. I know he had detractors irl back in the day though because he ventured off the path that was still deemed normal for (Indian oriented) yoga and meditation teachers in the West, the more he developed himself genuinely and he became unrecognizable for his former colleagues in that field of action. He might have been regarded by these criticasters as having started a cult in some sense, because he gradually began to allow for the relationship with him to be the ‘yoga’ (literal translation: Divine relationship in Union) itself that students came for after he came back from a long meditation period in which a new initiatory experience had descended upon him – which he did not look for, but was true nevertheless. This was at the time he got into what I personally would now call the Twin Flame Union vicinity – in his way. But this was not spoken of in those terms back then and there.

It is true that one enters a whole different landscape when one comes into Twin Flame Union: this is what my entire work and this whole website are even about. The fact that he chose to not live it as a traditional marriage but as an atmosphere where this essential dynamic was honored by people living autonomously in a community that also integrated into the local social life and economy without the necessity for the teacher to model couple-living in and of itself. This might sound more complicated than it was; he just decided he didn’t want to be married anymore after leaving his marriage with his false Twin Flame was behind him, he taught to be autonomous depth while honoring the spiritual flow of energy however it wanted and needed to do so; he honored the Divine Masculine to stand as seed teacher and the Divine Feminine to be the incubator coaches as it were, however that could sound wrong to the wrong ears also (but it is the same as the vertical directed teaching of Jesus and Mary, that has a relationship with the horizontal Twin Flame way of relating also, as I’ve spoken of on multiple occasions such as video’s https://youtube.com/live/WlUcRChJKYo & https://youtube.com/live/kJS_f4xSpgg). I worked with his Twin Flame for years too, in that context, they just didn’t call it that and they didn’t marry each other, they also didn’t do free love kind of atmospheres either, however nobody would be against that purse either, it just depended on what you were choosing to honor in your life I guess.

Now it may sound very confused or undirected but that also not the case. There was on the contrary an incredibly almost religiously detailed sensitivity to structuring (your) (daily) life to honor the outpouring of genuine light that is Divine Love that was felt to be present. It is just not the way I would ever choose to order a school, but that is why I am me and he is him; I guess this actually honors the whole teaching when I just now summarized it as standing autonomously in that light that is Divine Love, after all! Okay so where I want to go with this is that there is no online criticism of it, where so many other teachers do – and I followed that for decades, how other spiritual teachers were criticized online, almost all of the other ones, and I have learned so much from that, so that to me, it is very clear what is what and who is who, almost immediately. I remember people from my local surroundings sometimes having come to me and said: Petra, I know this cool teacher, you this is really something, you need to come with me there once, and I’de be like ‘you must be kidding me’, in the past also largely not wanting to believe what I just heard, that people could not be seeing through these ‘teachers’.

There is no beginning to start to sum up their names because there seems to me no end to them. The charlatans. But that doesn’t mean that all Twin Flames entering the vicinity of Union genuinely, like my first spiritual teacher did in his way, and how I do in much more clear cut definitions (because of the intervention of the Christ Masters I co-create the consciousness state of Harmonious Twin Flame Union with, these are also spiritual teachers, I leave this outside of the article for this moment), are charlatans – they actually aren’t and this is one of the ways you can actually discern they aren’t, that is to say WHEN you would be able to inner-see this phenomenon (more about inner seeing Union here: https://www.creativeuniverse.earth/innerseeingunion/). What I’ve seen – and I don’t say this lightly, as I’ve first observed for a couple decades before opening my mouth – is that entering Harmonious Union is the place where any real teachership if any they need to embody, starts there. When one does not have it yet, you’re still perhaps explaining some techniques, and you may be good at them who knows, but you’re not a spiritual teacher by any stretch of the imagination yet. Beyond Harmonious Union this might start to grow.

This is thus often the watershed moment, where cult accusations will come.

Because this is where the genuine difference begins to what was before and what is not-spiritual-teacher-yet.

Twin Flame Union is really different than what our societies deem normal and everyone feels it, is what this also implies.

Question yourself what you deem the damaging cult though: the thought system of society or of Twin Flame Union.

There’s your personal answer.

Someone who is before that genuine moment can be good at what they do but you’re not really in that atmosphere yet that we can deem a spiritual teacher formed inside the heart of God in an organic and creation inclusive way. But they can have loads of followers, a large scamming construct, real testimonials – and not seldom real abuse as well. In that realm, it might be good to think about scientific cult models to discern what you are doing, such as these:

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The BITE Model (Steven Hassan, PhD)

This is the most widely used modern framework.

BITE = Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotional control

A group becomes cultic to the degree it controls these domains — not by ideology alone.

B — Behavior Control

  • Regulating daily life (sleep, food, finances, relationships)
  • Encouraging dependency on the group/leader
  • Punishing independence or exit
  • Creating excessive time demands
  • Infantilizing members (“you’re not ready yet”)

⚠️ Red flag: Loss of practical autonomy

I — Information Control

  • Discouraging outside sources or “negative” information
  • Reframing criticism as misunderstanding or attack
  • Withholding key information
  • Creating insider vs outsider knowledge
  • Gaslighting (“that didn’t happen that way”)

⚠️ Red flag: Restricted reality testing

T — Thought Control

  • Loaded language that limits complexity
  • Doctrine over personal experience
  • Black-and-white thinking
  • Teaching that doubt = ego / fear / immaturity
  • Substituting the leader’s interpretation for your own

⚠️ Red flag: Erosion of independent judgment

E — Emotional Control

  • Inducing guilt, shame, fear
  • Love-bombing then withdrawal
  • Fear of leaving (loss of meaning, damnation, failure)
  • Making members responsible for problems in the group
  • Rewarding submission with approval

⚠️ Red flag: Emotional dependency

Important:
The BITE model is graded, not binary.
A group can score mild, moderate, or high.

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Undue Influence Model (APA-aligned concept)

Used in psychology, law, and coercive-control research.

Focuses on:

  • Power imbalance
  • Exploitation of vulnerability
  • Incremental commitment
  • Erosion of consent
  • Difficulty leaving without loss

Key question:

Would a healthy, informed person still consent under these conditions?

This model is especially relevant for spiritual groups.

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Attachment & Dependency Framework (clinical psychology)

This is crucial — and often missed.

Cultic dynamics often mirror:

  • parent–child relationships
  • trauma bonding
  • insecure attachment

Signs:

  • Leader as idealized parent figure
  • Regression in adult functioning
  • Members deferring major life decisions
  • Difficulty trusting own perceptions
  • Fear of “disappointing” the leader

This explains why intelligent, spiritual people are vulnerable.

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Charismatic Authority Theory (Max Weber, sociology)

Not all charismatic leaders are abusive — but this framework explains risk.

Charismatic authority:

  • is personal, not institutional
  • depends on perceived special insight
  • weakens checks and balances
  • collapses accountability
  • makes boundaries blurry

⚠️ Risk increases when:

  • leader is unquestionable
  • succession is unclear
  • feedback only flows upward

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Groupthink & Social Identity Theory

Used in mainstream social psychology.

Warning signs:

  • pressure toward conformity
  • dissent framed as immaturity
  • “we” vs “they” thinking
  • moral superiority
  • loss of nuance

This applies even to non-abusive groups that slowly become closed systems.

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Trauma-Informed Red Flags

Groups become unsafe when they:

  • spiritualize trauma (“ego”, “karma”, “resistance”)
  • discourage psychological language
  • bypass emotional processing
  • frame suffering as spiritual failure
  • ignore power dynamics with vulnerable members

This is not always malicious — but it is harmful.

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One crucial clarification (this protects you from black-and-white thinking)

A group can be spiritually sincere and still psychologically unsafe.

Intent ≠ impact.

Many groups:

  • mean well
  • help some people
  • but lack trauma awareness
  • and unconsciously reenact authority dynamics

This matches many first-generation spiritual movements.

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The most accurate diagnostic question

Instead of:

“Was it a cult?”

Ask:

“Did this environment increase or decrease my autonomy, clarity, and capacity for adult life?”

That question cuts through ideology.

 

Are some other Twin Flame places c.q. schools cults?

There are very many places, websites, people talking on the internet, making video’s on YouTube, that are really NOT connected to the real deal of the consciousness state of Harmonious Twin Flame Union, and therefore can not produce any in students also. I discuss 7 of them on my Patreon in a whole couple hours of video (secret video 3-9): https://www.patreon.com/collection/1872330. Only video 7 in the series talks about an organization that has been societally accused of being an actual cult (if that is true I leave open for a moment). This is the most you are watching, unfortunately. But they are often well-meaning and in that sense not cults. Well-meaning or even relatively psychologically pleasant, does however not mean True Twin Flame Union – again. It just doesn’t define itself like that, I’m sorry. Also, here’s the real truth of the matter: psychological sanity actually only comes to pass fully and unconditionally, within the Harmonious Union development, to such an extend that psychology then even ceases to exist, because the Peace & Order of God has taken over. Psychological maturity changes meaning in that area of life: experience it yourself and come back to me to report!

So, is MY school a cult?

I’d like to clarify one more thing for you to be able to answer that question, and that is that I have been a part of a years long professionalization effort of spiritual schools TWICE at this point in my life that my own school opened up, for my first spiritual teacher and for the Christ Masters I co-create the state of consciousness of Harmonious Twin Flame Union with. I have thus been a close observer AND participator, contributor, of social and societal forces that form groups and schools that can either go okay or spiral out of sanity as cults, with a genuine attention from my side to have things be sane and safe. Additionally I have studied this in the churches I have frequented in my private life over some decades as well (and my worldwide spiritual school from my last past life is also still alive but let’s keep that one out of it right now). Should I do it blatantly wrong this third (or fourth/fifth…) time, I would be a REAL ass, wouldn’t I… Up to you to decide if I am.

I genuinely hope I make sense. Let me know with a short comment below.