Joanna’s life began in the slums of Manila, Philippines, where she was born in 1981. There, she spent the first few years of her childhood in a fun and loving home that she shared with her mom, younger sister, and about ten other relatives. But shortly after turning six, she found herself immigrating to the United States where she, along with her mom and sister, moved to go live with her dad whom she barely knew.

At that point, things got a bit dark because her dad suffers from an undiagnosed narcissistic personality disorder, which made him a very abusive and unloving parent. It is within the context of narcissistic abuse that Joanna spent the rest of her childhood, which was also dominated by years of evangelical indoctrination and the inevitable guilt and shame that came with it. Her parents once surprised her with an exorcism courtesy of a woman from their church when she was 16. So basically, Joanna experienced some really fun stuff (aka catalyst) in her early years that would lead her to seek therapy later on as an adult.

After high school, Joanna joined the Army as a way to escape the confines of financial dependence. After her enlistment, she went back to school and received a B.A. in English from UCSB in 2010, and an M.A. in Teaching from USC in 2011.

Regarding her spiritual journey, her search for truth began when she made the difficult decision to break away from her Christian faith at the age of 25. She then spent several years learning about and trying on different religions and faiths before deciding that she was more comfortable with being an atheist.

In 2020, her skeptical atheist tendencies inspired her to learn about black holes as a way to pass the time after being laid off from work due to the pandemic. Long story short, Joanna was inspired to jump into a metaphorical black hole of mystical discovery upon the paradigm-shifting realization that not even the world’s foremost physicists fully understand what “reality” is. It was in this black hole of mystical discovery that she came across the Law of One, which deeply resonated with her. For her, it felt as if she came full circle and simply realized what she had always known in some way.

Realizing the true nature of who she was and why she was here gave her new insight. The jumbled set of life experiences she had of the Manila slum life, the Army, narcissistic parentage, job loss, marriage, divorce, evangelism, atheism, etc. suddenly had profound meaning—these experiences forged her heart by fire so that she could relate to and be of service to people from all walks of life.

It is in this spirit of love and service that she couldn’t be more grateful and amazed at the opportunity to begin working with L/L Research in the spring of 2022! She hopes that her own unique journey and knowledge set can be beneficial to the overall mission of the team.

Joanna is based in California with her boyfriend and her beautifully open-hearted six-year-old girl. They share their home with Baxton, their Schnauzer-Poodle dog, and Ghost, their flame-point Siamese cat.