Saturday 22 December 2012

The Best Cult EVER? - Desteni Doomed - 5

Ivan Rauscher

(continued from Desteni Doomed - 1: The Voice of a Sane Organization? / 2: Cult Awareness / 3: Cultish Behaviour Patterns / 4: Related Material Elsewhere)

Since 2007, the 'group of people exploring Equality & Oneness principles' known as Desteni, based on a remote farm in South Africa, has usually been described as a cult. Although many of the 'Destonians' have denied that they belong to a cult.

Their leader has contradicted them.

In his blog post of 20th Nov 2012 entitled, The Greatest Cult in History, Bernard Poolman writes: 'We at Desteni claim and ASSERT that we Are the BEST CULT ever'. He claims and asserts that he is the world's greatest cult leader, second only to God or Jesus.  

According to Poolman, all groups are cults, which is like saying a cult is a book club or a bunch of people standing in line waiting for a bus.

In terms of so-called cult 'greatness', the Unification Church AKA the Moonies, the Latter Day Saint movement AKA the Mormons, the Church of Scientology and the Jehovah's Witnesses are amongst 'the greatest', running vast corporate empires.

Desteni is just one of hundreds of obscure crackpot cults most people have never heard of.

Cult leaders: David Koresh, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhaite, Shoko Asahara

If Desteni has a place in history then it can only be because it is in past. However, Poolman could be a 'great' or even 'the BEST' cult leader of recent times if he followed the example of the infamous leaders of Heaven's Gate, the Manson Family, the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo or the People's Temple, but we can only hope Destonians don't have it in them to take things that far.

Poolman claims Desteni is 'the BEST CULT ever' because according to him it is the only group in the world that stands for equality. But no actual cult can represent equality. By definition, any group that is a cult maintains inequality amongst its members and does not treat other people as equals. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a cult.

Poolman's claim that Desteni represents equality is false.

Desteni Doomed - 6: The Equality Lie

Thursday 13 December 2012

Related Material Elsewhere - Desteni Doomed - 4

Ivan Rauscher

(continued from Desteni Doomed - 1: The Voice of a Sane Organization? / 2: Cult Awareness / 3: Cultish Behaviour Patterns)


Under the heading, 'Related Material Elsewhere', at the Destonian Wiki there is a link to an article from the Pacific Neuropsychiatric Institute, Why parapsychology is amongst the most important of the sciences. Yet the Desteni group have for several years condemned psychiatry.


Although some poor fools might regard the Sunette Spies 'portal' idiot test as a para-psychological phenomenon, Destonians are not involved in parapsychology but rather fixated on New Age self-help pop psychology: affirmations of self-forgiveness.

Screenshot of 'Derren Brown: Messiah'

Desteni founder, Bernard Poolman recommends a viewing of the Channel 4 TV programme, Derren Brown: Messiah because it shows how some people can be duped by parapsychology, Christianity, Spiritualism and the New Age. Yet at the same time, Poolman blatantly contradicts himself. He is always discussing silly stories about 'the opening of the portal', meeting demons in the afterlife, talking with the dead etc, as if they were factual or something other than a way to dupe his 'Destonians'.

By persuading them to accept his superstitious tales of the occult as the ultimate truth while he denounces other people's as fake, Poolman pushes his Destonians as far as possible to test their credulity to the limits. It's another idiot test.

They take the bait and demonstrate how gullible they are by regularly releasing their own videos and blogs criticising New Age spiritual teachers while promoting the Desteni version of New Age spirituality. For example, recent responses to a video from a self-appointed 'spiritual catalyst' (called Ask Teal, How to Raise Your Frequency), such as How to Raise your Frequency (Ask Teal Episode on Increasing your Vibration), or one of several on Eckhart Tolle, 2012 Debunking Eckhart Tolle.

They're hypocrites. Desteni and Destonians' attempt to criticise New Age spirituality is a sham.

Desteni promote the most stereotypical New Age doctrine: such as that there is no distinction between self and other, 'we are all one', what you think you create, the mind is an illusion, everything that happens to a person is a reflection of 'self', and so on. They say 'positive thinking' is useless and 'stopping the mind' is what's required. As most people are aware, stopping the mind is just as much a cliché of New Age cults as positive thinking.

Destonians talk a lot about breath, and breath and breathing exercises are of course integral to several different forms of spirituality. They often chat about how 'backchat' stops them from 'stopping the mind'. Their 'backchat' is just another version of what's known as 'mind chatter' (of the 'monkey mind') in Buddhism; as appropriated by New Age spirituality. 

Mother of the New Age Movement, Helena P. Blavatsky wrote back in the 19th Century: 'The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple Slay the Slayer' (The Voice of the Silence by H. P. Blavatsky Theosophical University Press, 1889).

The main concept of the New Age Movement is, like Desteni's Equal Money System (EMS), a proposed future transformation of the world in which all injustices are put right and world peace and 'heaven on earth' are the result of universal 'self-realisation'.  

J. Z. Knight, New Age channeler of Ramtha's School of Quantum Flapdoodle

Like many proponents of New Age spirituality, from master of woo, Deepak Chopra to Judy Z. Knight's cult of Ramtha and the propaganda movie, 'What the Bleep Do We Know?!', Destonians' pseudoscientific use of the term, 'quantum' or 'quantum mind' is to make it sound like they know something about quantum mechanics and that their bogus research has scientific validity.

Poolman has said that the Galactic Federation of Light is controlled by reptilians when it is an absurd sci-fi myth concocted by UFO New Age religious cults. But in Poolman's bizarre, ripped-off mythology, David Icke's reptilians have become advocates of Desteni. Via 'the portal', Destonians regularly consult Anu, said to be lizard supremo, for advice on health or personal issues. 

When they criticise, mock or satirise New Agers it is never quite engaging in 'Internet Bullying, Propagation of Lies, Individual Harassment', scamming or hoaxing, which is how they have described their own critics' statements. It is proselytising to try to convert and recruit those few persons that might possibly take them seriously: politically ignorant, ill-informed and naive New Ager conspiracy theorists.

Desteni have stated that New Age spiritual groups always appeal to self-interest. Actually, many such cults, new religious movements or 'teachings' directly appeal to and promote self-abnegation for a fanciful cause which they always say is best for everyone and better than anything else; again just like Desteni.

A lot of these other groups have slick publicity and a smooth and co-ordinated, dynamic global outreach. Desteni material, however, is comprised of extraordinarily clumsy, amateurish, solely web-based audio-visual media and utterly inept written presentations. Their exercises in social engineering are confined to a remote farm in South Africa from where they spam the Internet to lure in people compliant enough to help them market the Desteni 'lifestyle'.

Eqafe 'Self-Perfection' Products: buy now while stocks last
 
Desteni state the obvious by pointing out that consumer capitalism involves brainwashing. Of course, ridding oneself of social and cultural influences and conditioning to attain 'self-realisation' has always been an integral part of New Age and Eastern spirituality and Western occultism. 


They suggest that to be free of brainwashing everyone should consume Desteni-branded products, buy into an online multi-level marketing scheme, 'master' themselves according to instructions of the Desteni I Process (DIP), become commodities and call themselves 'Destonians', publish confessional and testimonial blogs and v-logs and promote the sale of trash merchandise like hoodies, ringtones or baseball caps. In other words, become brainwashed by Desteni.


Their marketing techniques are unethical and worse than sub-standard. Desteni is a capitalist scam just like any other New Age commercial scam. The Desteni 'Best For All' brand is not an antidote to consumer capitalist brainwashing but a symptom of it.   

Desteni supporters fly across the globe and pay out for working holidays at the Desteni cult farm, yet none of Poolman's core group travel anywhere to spread the word. There have never been any Desteni meetings or talks open to the general public, not even in South Africa.

Apart from an offshoot business targeting children with over-priced software called Techno Tutor (which is apparently the same software Bernard Poolman allegedly stole from his brother), based in Houston, Texas, USA and possibly in Canada, Desteni have not established functioning centres anywhere outside South Africa. 

Desteni Wikipedia

Desteni are not in Wikipedia and neither is EMS. Desteni are deemed by Wikipedia to be non-notable.

Destonians have been spamming Reddit for several months but get almost no response from anyone else and not even from each other. Their presence on Facebook is that they are in danger of being banned for abusing the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

There are no Desteni paper books or audio-visual media in the physical shops. There is no such film with anything approaching the level of production of even the most basic independent low budget films; only crappy webcam or mobile phone YouTube promo videos.

They claim to be political and for world equality but there is no evidence for it whatsoever. EMS is a con designed to raise money to support the lifestyle of people at the Desteni farm. All they offer is a shoddily repackaged mish-mash of New Age spiritual/occult and conspiracy theory drivel which they pass off as 'equality'. The information supplied by Desteni is obviously a rip-off and can be found in more coherent forms elsewhere (even if fraudulent or delusional).  

Any potential recruit or 'Destonian' would have to be deeply mired in the most deranged New Age spiritual superstitions and paranoid conspiracy theories to want to join Desteni.

Only within the marginal context of the existing New Age cultural milieu in which aberrant fantasies about channeling, oneness, self-realisation, the 'new world order' and inter-dimensional lizards abound could anyone suppose that Bernard Poolman and his gang communicate a 'process' to bring about world 'equality'.

And even within that narrow context, the appeal of the Desteni material is limited still further. Most New Agers would be likely to regard Desteni as thoroughly immoral if not under the influence of demonic forces and conspiracy theorists would see them as mind-controlled dupes of the Illuminati...

Desteni Doomed - 5: The Best Cult EVER?

Thursday 15 November 2012

Cultish Behaviour Patterns - Desteni Doomed - 3

Ivan Rauscher

(continued from Desteni Doomed - 1: The Voice of a Sane Organization? / 2: Cult Awareness)

In a recent video called the Desteni Cult? Johnathan Motz said that he and other Destonians type 'shit' about thoughts, emotions, feelings etc and 'what the fuck happened during our day'; they forgive and correct themselves for all the 'shit' they have 'allowed' so as not to keep repeating patterns, and then they 'walk' it to change patterns. 


He asks: is it cultish to actually think that writing, applying self-forgiveness, applying self-corrective statements and walking it -- is that cultish behaviour?

It may be that after watching thousands of videos of Sunette Spies and passing the Desteni portal idiot test individuals such as Motz joined the cult of self-forgiveness because they imagined that the Desteni material was startlingly new, original or even the ultimate truth.

Destonians fail to understand that although Desteni claims to be opposed to spirituality, the Desteni material has in fact only ever been a rip-off of New Age occultism and spirituality. It has been fabricated out of a poorly constructed re-hash of ideas already found in works by New Agers, mystics and occultists such as Louise Hay, Alice A. Bailey, Paul Twitchell, David Icke, Aleister Crowley, George I. Gurdjieff, Osho Rajneesh, Anton LaVey, Baird T. Spalding and others.

Destonians are under the false impression that because Desteni claims to stand for equality then they must be doing something useful in terms of helping to bring about equality. But Desteni or Destonians are not practically engaged in any issues of equality, equal rights, social justice or politics whatsoever. 'Equality' in Desteni is just a front; a slogan and a gimmick. Desteni has nothing to do with equality.

Johnathan Motz has not addressed even one of the various different points raised by critics of Desteni over the years. But this is to be expected. Desteni supporters have never carried out any proper research and applied themselves to the question of Desteni as cult.

Bernard Poolman implies in his Twitter and YouTube account descriptions that Desteni is perhaps 'social engineering'. Certainly, strategies of social engineering are used all the time by scammers and cults to deceive the public. Manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information is how self-forgiveness in Desteni works (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)).

In his video, Anti Desteni Movement, Poolman stated that the anti-Desteni movement, which exposes Desteni as a cult and a scam, 'forms an integral part of the Desteni process'. Obviously, the anti-Desteni movement is by definition against Desteni, but as Poolman admits, it can be considered a 'process' involving Desteni because it can deter people from joining the group.

Johnathan Motz's video is like every other video or blog in which 'Destonians' have tried to deny that Desteni is a cult, such as in their 'anti-hate' videos last year. They did so by dutifully repeating cult buzzwords, catch phrases and slogans, thereby they re-affirmed the fact that they had been socially engineered to repeat cultish behaviour patterns.

Only 'Destonians' speak or write using such half-arsed, stilted jargon as 'applying the tools' of 'self-forgiveness' and 'self-correction' and 'walking it' to 'birth life equal and one in the physical'. Motz has repeated all this and the doublethink refrain every other Desteni supporter has already repeated about anyone who says Desteni is a cult: they 'have not done the research' and 'haven't applied the tools'.

Apparently, according to Destonians, Desteni is not a cult because the people who say it is are not Destonians.  

This is why Poolman says he's grateful to the anti-Desteni movement: it presents the evidence that Desteni is a cult while he can rely on the commitment of people like Motz because they are willing to disregard the evidence, dispense with logic, suspend their critical faculties and pay to work for Poolman's 'Desteni' cult.



However, Poolman's perspective is self-defeated. His social engineering con tricks are so formulaic and clichéd it is obvious he has deliberately set out to create a cult. It may be psychologically damaging for those involved but is rather more a futile exercise in social engineering. All it proves is something already widely known: some people can be made to follow cultish behaviour patterns or with the right information they can avoid it.

Since their main channels were terminated by YouTube, the output of Desteni and their supporters has become increasingly repetitive; Motz's video being only one example. Their current output is lacking in content that could possibly be of real interest to anyone but the 100-150 or so persons already listed at Desteni websites as 'The Destonians'. And if you do a bit of research and investigation you will see that quite a few of their number these days appear to be lapsed or ex-members with no currently active blogs or YouTube channels. Maybe they're just bored with being involved in a group which only exists to prove it can socially engineer people to repeat cultish behaviour patterns.


Desteni Doomed - 4: Related Material Elsewhere

Monday 29 October 2012

Cult Awareness - Desteni Doomed - 2

Ivan Rauscher

(continued from Desteni Doomed - 1: The Voice of a Sane Organization?)

In a talk entitled, Cult Bashers are Con Artists, the main spokesperson for the Desteni organisation, Bernard Poolman tells listeners to be aware that exit counselor / cult expert, Rick Ross and others express ideas about Desteni being a cult in a confident way and can thereby instill fear. 

The Desteni thread at the Cult Education Forum run by the Rick A. Ross Institute began in 2008 and is over 100 pages long. Like many groups before them, Desteni dish the dirt on Rick Ross, but Mr Ross has in fact only ever made a very few public statements about Desteni, probably the most significant being:


Desteni seems to be an enterprise essentially dominated by Poolman and personality-driven. It apparently contains his conspiracy theories, seemingly denigrates the outside world and perhaps ultimately serves as a 'cash cow', which Poolman seems to milk for his income. In my opinion Desteni can easily be seen as a 'cult-like' and potentially unsafe group.

But it doesn't take an expert to figure it out: anyone can see Desteni is quite obviously a New Age-style 'channeling' cult running a Multi-Level Marketing scheme. At the Soulpancake website recently one concerned individual wrote that the Desteni website 'screams "CULT"'. Another describes it as 'a poor man's Scientology'. Similar observations have been made on countless other websites and forums: the Skeptic Project, David Icke's Official Forums, the 2012 Hoax, the Ex Scientologist Message Board, Above Top Secret, Godlike Productions and many more.

Mr Poolman repeats his catch phrase, 'what is best for all', as if Desteni has to be 'what is best for all'. It is common knowledge that cults always claim to be best for all. That is partly what makes them cults. Naturally, being cult members, those persons identifying themselves as 'Destonians' will tend to resist awareness of how cults operate. That is, in this instance with repeated use of jargon and catch phrases and claims towards being the only group in the world that is for the universal greater good.

Cults usually present themselves as unfairly persecuted by fear-mongers and liars. At the Destonian Wiki, this blog is described as 'Internet Bullying, Propagation of Lies, Individual Harassment'. URLs of this blog and many but not all of the YouTube channels criticising Desteni are listed with the warning that the reader may visit these sites 'at your own risk', as if it is somehow dangerous to read a blog or website or watch a video that merely criticises, mocks or satirises Desteni.

Criticising, mocking or satirising statements of a group or individual in blogs, forums or videos is not the same thing as 'internet bullying' or 'individual harassment'. Neither is it perpetrating a scam or hoax, as Desteni also claim.

In Cult Bashers are Con Artists, Poolman repeats another of his tiresome slogans, 'the actual practical message of Jesus', which is what he says his group represents. Then he makes an even more ludicrous statement: that atheism is also 'the message of Jesus'.

Cult leaders have very often claimed their groups represent the message of Jesus. And cults like Jim Jones' People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, The Order of the Solar Temple also made doomsday predictions.


Desteni doomsday predictions -- 2007

In 2007, Desteni released a document stating that 'Heaven will withdraw World Leaders, Political Leaders, Religious Leaders, Corporate Leaders and Crime Leaders in months to come' and that 'Children will be able to see Beings from Heaven everywhere and communicate freely'.

In a supposed 'portalling' of Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), doomsday prophecies were made by the Desteni group about world-wide tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, massive earthquakes, snowstorms, volcanic eruptions. 

After their main channels were terminated in 2011 by YouTube for 'spam, scams and commercially deceptive content', and Vimeo for violation of the terms of contract, and they had become known for sporting skinheads, the 'principles of equality and oneness' group abandoned their FaceWorldFaceOff campaign to 'get at least 100 million people to shave off their hair as a statement of Standing up in no longer participation in the hair industry'.

They voluntarily removed content pertaining to Adolf Hitler from their website. They began blogging about their need for self-forgiveness on a daily basis, branding it as a 'seven-year Journey to Life'.

After initially predicting that their 'Equal Money System' would by 2020 start to become the inevitable outcome of everyone in the world voting for it, they reduced it to a 'research and development Project to formulate and investigate responses to general policies'.  


They launched an offshoot business selling the Techno Tutor software at an extortionate price. They have published numerous translations of their material in various languages. They have offered cut-price and 'blogging for sponsorship' deals for courses in Desteni 'self-mastery'.

None of this seems to have made any difference to their membership count. Their free Desteni I Process Lite course is another attempt to increase numbers but as with their other schemes typically lacks both the potential for popular appeal and any business acumen. 

Not only do Destonians appear incapable of addressing the question of the cult-like attributes of their group, they fail to recognise that 'Desteni' has no social, cultural or political credibility.

Unsurprisingly, since 2007, after publishing thousands of videos, articles and hundreds of blogs, Desteni have still only recruited around 100-150 active participants world-wide.



Desteni Doomed - 3: Cultish Behaviour Patterns

Monday 22 October 2012

The Voice of a Sane Organization? - Desteni Doomed - 1

Ivan Rauscher

In a recent recording published on YouTube entitled Spoon Bending Secrets in the Matrix, spokesman for 'Desteni', a 'Group of People Exploring Equality & Oneness Principles', Bernard Poolman claims all forms of group activity and mass movements run on ectoplasm. He describes ectoplasm as 'a phenomena' that was 'prevalent in the 1950s – big-time'.

Ectoplasm was not prevalent in the 1950s. The apparent phenomenon began dying out in the 1930s. This is because ectoplasm and so-called 'materialisations', which had never been prevalent but took place in Spiritualist séances of the 19th to early 20th Centuries, were proven by scientific and psychical researchers to be fraudulent, as was Uri Geller's spoon-bending.  

If, as Poolman suggests, ectoplasm is in every human body and the driving force behind all groups and mass movements we would still be none the wiser. Although he claims no-one understands it, he fails to define what it is and offers no evidence it exists.  


Ectoplasm was a spectral trail of goo that appeared to issue from the orifices of Spiritualist deep trance mediums. It was said to be the 'life force' connecting them to 'spirit realms' and was faked by use of muslin, paper, egg white and trick photography.

Ectoplasm and spoon-bending are charlatanry, as is 'deep trance mediumship', which is synonymous with 'channeling'. That is, pretending to be a conduit for otherworldly entities, as practised throughout New Age religion and having its roots in 19th Century Theosophy, Spiritualism and prior religions or forms of spirituality.




The term, 'channeling' became popular in the 1970s along with the advent of Jane Roberts' 'Seth Speaks' act in which she went on about 'multidimensional reality'.

Sunette Spies is supposed to communicate 'interdimensionally' and be able to 'interview' the so-called 'mind consciousness systems' of entities or things. 'Mind consciousness systems' is an invented phrase of Poolman's Desteni. It practically means the same as 'spirits', just as 'dimensions' would be an alternative name for 'spirit realms'.  

After Spies' videos appeared on the web in 2007 many commentators described them as a prank, evidence of multiple personality disorder, possession by demonic forces, some form of mind control or schizophrenia. 

The Desteni material states that Spies trained with Poolman for at least two years prior to releasing her videos, originally described as 'channelings' on the Desteni-Universe website in 2007. This was later changed to 'portal messages'.

Desteni tried to define Spies as different to a channeler. Their reasons were nonsensical or futile, such as that she never got as tired as easily as a channeler would, spoke for a wider range of entities than any channeler, or had no prior background or training.  

Someone calling herself a 'Destonian' recently made a remark typical of inhabitants of the universe of 'desteni':

it also doesn't really matter 'who' comes through the Portal -- if you watch the videos on YouTube you will notice that every being in every video conveys the same message, the same principle -- and so you're really just dealing with 'one voice' coming through the portal.

As Poolman said: Understand that the message from Desteni is not really the message from the portal. The portal is a demonstration of what is possible in the physical. The message is actually from me.

Bernard Poolman has as yet only ever published audio recordings and a few still photos of himself, but there are thousands of videos of Sunette Spies acting as a 'portal' to his 'mind consciousness system'.

Apparently to offset the chance that he might be perceived as some kind of crank, he states that Desteni is 'one of the most sane organizations the world has ever seen'. If this is the case and Poolman's idea about ectoplasm is in fact true and only he really understands it then why is Desteni not a mass movement?


Desteni Doomed - 2: Cult Awareness

Friday 28 September 2012

New Age Occultism of Desteni Equal Money System

Ivan Rauscher


The New Age Ain't What It's Cracked Up To Be

Since 2007, after having published thousands of videos, articles and numerous websites, the Desteni group of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa have persuaded only about 100-150
superstitious New Agers and paranoid conspiracy theorists to take part in their 'process'. After entering the Desteni 'process' these persons replace their previous, more typical New Age or conspiracy theories and beliefs with re-worked versions of the same deceptive theories and beliefs.


Much of the Desteni material is made up of an apparent critique of New Age religion. For example, all their recent responses to a video used to promote the laughable New Age 'channeling' cult of Abraham-Hicks (such as The BIGGEST Missing Piece - Response to Abraham Hicks), where it is clear they are trying to recruit disillusioned Abraham-Hicks and 'Law of Attraction' followers. This is also why they label so many Desteni videos '2012' to appeal to believers in the 2012 hoax.

It seems that Bernard Poolman and the Desteni group are under the impression that New Age religion is the most dominant, all-pervasive influence in society. Therefore it has to be re-assessed and corrected in order for society to change. It is as though they are stuck in a time-loop after reading the likes of Shirley MacLaine's Out On A Limb and imagining that it's all very cutting edge have on reflection come to the conclusion that maybe the New Age scene is not quite what it's all cracked up to be. So to improve matters they re-configure already existing New Age ideas, change the terminology a bit and give some different emphases, like 'equality' instead of 'spirituality', thereby contriving just another New Agey philosophy, albeit mostly subliterate and even more irrational and demented than the original material they try to critique.

Bernard Poolman has invented stories to the effect that due to his efforts 'heaven' has been purified and 'the dimensions' or 'White Light', ascended masters, reincarnation etc no longer exist, as if these things ever did exist other than as fictions and myths of New Age religion.
 


According to Desteni, humans were designed by reptilians

Like the fans of New Age conspiracy creator, David Icke, Destonians accept as fact the spurious notion that human beings were designed by Anunnaki reptilians, but they take that one step further into delusion and madness and also believe there are 'mind consciousness systems' of Anunnaki reptilian gods, aliens, dead people, animals and inanimate objects which communicate important messages for all humankind via Sunette Spies of Desteni, whom they see as an interdimensional portal to 'heaven' or 'the dimensions'.

Yet the founder of the morbid Desteni Reptilian Channeling Cult, Bernard Poolman, has stated: Understand that the message from Desteni is not really the message from the portal. The portal is a demonstration of what is possible in the physical. The message is actually from me.  

In
The History and Purpose of Channeling, Poolman writes that the masters that were channeling told him all channels were preprogrammed according to the instructions of the White Light and the Annunaki.

The assumed veracity of that statement and almost all of Poolman's statements rests on its theoretical premise as stereotypical, clichéd New Age doctrine posing as objective fact merely on the basis of it being a re-worked version of previous well-worn fantasies and dogma of
New Age religion


Cross-Referencing Fact & Fiction

Stories about Anunnaki reptilians are also at the Xee-A Twelve website where Amitakh Stanford relays paranoid schizophrenic sci-fi conspiracy theories. Like all New Age conspiracists, Stanford is critical of the New Age scene yet her ideas are derived entirely from mythologies of occultism. Many New Age conspiracists have this contradictory point of view, probably because they have been influenced by right-wing Christian fundamentalist conspiracy theories which label occultism and the New Age movement as 'evil' tools of the nefarious Illuminati secret society.

Around 2008-9, Darryl W. Thomas of Desteni publicly acknowledged and praised the striking similarities between the works of Amitakh Stanford and the Desteni material at the previous, now deleted Desteni forum.


Another version of the fantastical Annunaki theories are part of the
Nuwaubian Movement as created by Dr Malachi Z. York AKA Dwight York, author of 'The Holy Tablets', which is jam-packed full of New Age occultism. YouTube channel, ONEMNOOPOOH presents Nuwaubian videos as complementary to Desteni, and another New Age conspiracist Internet phenomenon known as WingMakers.

Again, strong similarities between 'the message' of WingMakers and the Desteni materials were noted by Desteni members some years ago on their previous, now deleted forum as well as at the
WingMakers forum. More recently, the issue was raised by a poster asking, WINGMAKERS SAME MESSAGE THAN DESTENI? WingMakers also peddles idiotic fairy tales about Anunnaki reptoids. The strap-line for the WingMakers' Sovereign Integral project is ‘Here in breath... every breath. No mind to refract reality’, which is another cliché of New Age religion and fits exactly the Desteni outlook.


The Desteni process involves key figures in the group represented as having special abilities to access 'the dimensions'. One of Poolman’s closest collaborators, Esteni de Wet,
acts as clairvoyant oracle and talks about levers, tentacles, rods, stars, dust or daggers which she claims she can see on or around the bodies of Destonians. She and other 'Desteni I Process' trainers conjure up such imagery to attempt to symbolise the psychological or 'interdimensional' state of some of the rank and file Destonians.

The Desteni material, in particular their 'History of Man' series, has many parallels with L. Ron Hubbard’s sci-fi pseudo-religion of Scientology, in which it is said that 'demons', 'bypass circuits in the mind' or 'engrams' recorded as image pictures of experiences created by 'the reactive mind' can be made 'clear'. The state of 'clear' in Scientology would equate with being 'birthed as equal as one in the physical' in Desteni. Although touted as a religion or 'science of the mind', it is well-known that the pernicious cult of
Scientology is founded on occultism.


At the top of the Desteni recommended reading list,
which has mysteriously been removed from public view, was Baird T Spalding's 'Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East'. In Poolman’s article, The History and Purpose of Channeling he references Spalding’s work as if it were factual, when it has been proven to be fictional. 



Rosicrucian 'Mastery of Self' circa 1947

New Age religion and occultism follow the Doctrine of Correspondences of the ancient Hermetic philosophers as exemplified by the saying, 'As above, so below' ('as within, so without') which Poolman is very fond of reciting (e.g.:
As Above, So Below - That which is Immortal in Heaven, Shall be Immortal on Earth). The Doctrine of Correspondences is also the defining principle of homoeopathy where it is called the Doctrine of Signatures. In The Future of Homeopathy in an Equal Money System Poolman stupidly says that homoeopathy will in the future become the primary medicinal health support world-wide.


Historically, occultism is the progenitor of the contemporary consumer marketing phenomenon that is New Age religion. New Age religion does include some insights about the human condition and some intriguing imaginative concepts but is almost entirely over-run by plagiarists, frauds, self-appointed visionaries and gurus, charlatans, fake psychics and mediums, philosophical fiction writers selling bogus money-making books and courses on 'self-mastery' or 'self-realisation'.

The philosophy of occultism that underpins New Age religion presents fabulous tales, fantastic cosmologies and seemingly wondrous philosophical and psychological theories and symbols. It adopts and adapts religious and scientific terminologies but is 'heretical' or subversive in relation to religion and always pseudo-scientific. Occultism is generally regarded as a discredited, superstitious and archaic philosophy but continues to evolve in a variety of ever-changing guises.
Politically, occultism very often presents its mythologies and practices as a blueprint for a future paradisical Utopian society, hence the term, 'new age'. This takes shape in Desteni in the form of their 'equal' money system cult scam.



Spam, Scams & Commercially Deceptive Content


Destonians have constructed endless promo videos and spam blogs in which they repeat vacuous slogans about 'equal money' being a 'system' that will transform human behaviour and bring about 'heaven on earth' when enough people 'join Desteni', become 'self-realised' or 'birthed as the physical' (as opposed to 'enlightened') and eventually form an 'Equal Life Party'. All of it is purely in order to solicit donations and advertise and enroll recruits into sleazy capitalist ventures such as the
Desteni I Process courses in so-called 'self-mastery' and the sale of the Desteni-branded 'self-perfection' merchandise.


Last year,
YouTube terminated the BernardPoolman, DesteniProductions and other Desteni-run channels because of their violation of YouTube policies against spam, scams and commercially deceptive content, and complaints made against their videos on Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. Immediately afterwards, Desteni attempted to migrate to the Vimeo video site but were promptly banned from there as well. The Desteni I Process is a Multi-Level Marketing scam, hence illegal on Vimeo.

Afterwards, Destonians claimed that they had been banned for talking about equality. It seems they have even managed to deceive themselves into imagining that it is somehow controversial or taboo to talk about equality. 

Articles on Desteni were published by South African newspaper, Sontag. An ex-member of the cult was reported as describing Bernard Poolman as into group sex, gambling and drugs (See: The Phantom of Okahandja and the CultEducation Forum).


Self-Forgiveness Via Nazi Mysticism

In a bid to avoid further risk of adverse publicity, the 'Desteni' group voluntarily removed from their website a so-called 'book' called 'I Am Hitler' by Bernard Poolman; a diatribe against all humankind (as is practically all Poolman's output) in which Adolf Hitler is portrayed as a supremely powerful demonic entity that Poolman is supposed to have communicated with in 'demon dimensions'.

The text can still be found at the Wayback Machine and the inane videos of Sunette Spies supposedly 'channeling' or 'portalling' Hitler can still be found on one or another of their numerous other YouTube channels that survived the culling (sometimes she uses an alternative fake name given to Hitler by Poolman: MyKey). 

Without providing any explanation, Destonians claimed they had again been misunderstood. It is rather more that they have misunderstood. Poolman's portrayal of the Nazi Führer as Christ-like interdimensional super-demon showing the way to 'self-forgiveness' is the same as the Esoteric Hitlerism AKA Nazi Mysticism or Occult Fascism as described by scholars such as recently deceased Nicholas Goodrich-Clarke.  

One of the main proponents of Esoteric Hitlerism, Miguel Serrano, described its central Drama as the apparition on this earth of the Person Adolf Hitler, the last Avatar, who came to produce this enormous storm, or catastrophe, in order to awaken all those who are asleep, and to commence the New Age, which will come after the Deluge.

That is exactly how Hitler is described by Poolman, as emerging newly redeemed from 'demon dimensions' by virtue of Poolman's instructions to usher in the new age of Equal Money System through self-forgiveness:

Hitler is presenting this experience as a help, as a gift. Unwrap yourself, forgive yourself. Ask Hitler questions. Ask Jesus, as God as yourself to guide you. Not the God of words and believes. Look at creation. Who are you in creation? Do you have any power but in yourself? Abuse will stop. In the years to come there will come, there will be a weeping and a gnashing of teeth. Hear Hitler. He has been here on earth. He has been a demon. He forgave himself. He saw and sees who you really are. (Bernard Poolman- Hitler and Forgiveness)

Donald Herman, a South African New Ager who visited the Desteni farm in 2007, described Poolman as a 'follower and disciple of Hitler' with a 'background of intense contact with Adolph Hitler' and this was discussed in another post here, Bernard Poolman, Satanic Cult Leader?

The Destonians quite seriously put forward the nonsensical idea that everyone thinks Hitler is the ultimate evil but no-one recognises that poverty and starvation are worse. They seem to imagine that Poolman has gifted human beings with a sublime allegory in which Hitler expresses 'self-forgiveness' and so now everyone should forgive themselves, 'join Desteni', talk in psychobabble and become a wannabe amateur con-artist and promote all the spam, scams, deceptive content and crappy merchandise concocted by the Desteni gang by making personal self-confessional self-forgiveness blogs. 

At least one Destonian now admits that participating in the Desteni 'process', contrary to previous claims, may not after all, help them get into politics in seven or twenty years' time. Although, she does add, it doesn't matter because 'the process' remains the same.



Related posts:

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Equal Life Foundation: NPO for Equal Rights -- or Money & Food for Destonians?

Desteni finances are managed via a bank account with the name of 'Equal Life Foundation' (ELF).

A Destonian running a blog called adriansjourneytolife left a strange comment in response to our post, Equal Money System Cult Scam, claiming that because ELF is a 'non-profit organisation' then it is impossible for it to make any profit.  

Clearly, Adrian has no idea of the extent of fraud and e-begging amongst 'non-profit' groups world-wide, many of which are cults or 'new religious movements'. Although he professes to be a Destonian, Adrian has obviously not researched the Desteni material.

ELF, as we pointed out, is not a 'non-profit organisation'. A search at http://www.cipro.gov.za/2/home shows that ELF is a Non-Profit Company, defined by the Companies Act of the Republic of South Africa as:  
  
A company incorporated for public benefit or other object relating to one or more cultural or social activities, or communal or group interests; and

The income and property of which are not distributable to its incorporators, members, directors, officers or persons related to any of them.

ELF has no Founding Statement but its Standard Industrial Classification is:

TO UNDERTAKE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN THE AREAS OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY FOOD PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT.

The Desteni group and all Destonians are representatives of Equal Life Foundation. Everything they do in Desteni is 'cool support' for ELF.

ELF accepts donations for Desteni general, animal, plant and human 'research' but there is no evidence of any zoological, botanical, anthropological or any other kind of 'research' carried out by Desteni and no Destonian is qualified in these areas. All their material is based entirely around verbal or written pronouncements made by Bernard Poolman and Sunette Spies.

This has been clarified by actual recordings made by Mr. Poolman and Ms. Spies. He is a self-confessed New Ager who claims he has renounced New Age religion yet has publicly stated that human beings were designed by Sumerian reptoid gods and that a waitress he picked up in a cafe, Sunette Spies, revealed this to him, after he formally employed her as an 'interdimensional portal' or 'upgraded channel' for his company to speak on his behalf.

The ELF's 'research and education in the areas of leadership skills' and 'psychology' involves the Desteni I Process and Eqafe. The Desteni I Process is a Multi-Level Marketing scheme described as a LifeStyle concept that is simply achieving financial freedom slowly but surely. Being a recruiter qualifies you to receive a percentage from each course fee your recruit pays and means you'll earn 50% of her course fee and Get Monthly Commissions.

Eqafe 'self-perfection merchandise' involves an Affiliate Program where you are able to sell and promote every product you buy, starting from the very first product you buy and earn 25% or 50% from the product price that is bought through you promoting the product.

The ELF's 'food production and management' would come under the heading of the upkeep of the Desteni farm where the core group reside and where, as with most farms, they grow food to eat. It is not as though they produce food to feed the poverty-stricken or starving in South Africa or elsewhere.

Clearly, the income and property of ELF is in fact distributable to its incorporators, members, directors, officers or persons related to any of them. Therefore, according to the definition of the Companies Act of the Republic of South Africa, the Equal Life Foundation can not be considered a legitimate Non-Profit Company.

Promoting equal rights: Equal Rights Trust

There are millions of people everywhere standing up for equality and equal rights. They are actively involved in the issues at stake. Just one example of the hundreds of real equal rights groups in the world 'as it exists in our current reality' would be the Equal Rights Trust.

Desteni's 'Equal Life Foundation' is not any such 'equal rights' group. It is a New Age Channeling Cult formed around Bernard Poolman and Sunette Spies' pointless re-interpretations of New Age and occult philosophies.

Equal Life Foundation is supposed to be for 'promotion and establishment of equal rights on a global scale' but no ELF representative -- that is, no Destonian -- actually helps establish equal rights on any scale. All they do is engage in online promotion of commercial business ventures of 'Desteni'. They try to sell t-shirts and 'self-mastery' courses.

ELF appears to exist solely in order to manage finances of Desteni commercial business ventures and the Desteni farm and to generate an income for their affiliates, known as 'Destonians'.

If by some stretch of the imagination this is not the case, then perhaps Adrian or another 'Destonian' would like to explain how or why ELF is not 'profit-making' when it involves recruiting people into an MLM scheme, earning monthly commissions, selling and making money from the sale of products and accepting donations to help feed ELF representatives...?

Fraudulent activities of any Non-Profit Company in South Africa can be reported to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission by sending a Fraud Alert at http://www.cipc.co.za/index.php/fraud-alert/

Related posts: