Tuesday 5 June 2012

Marketing the Desteni Lifestyle with Equal Money System

Ivan Rauscher

System? What system?


Supporters of the Equal Money System (EMS) say that within the next ten years by ‘walking the Desteni process’ they will form an ‘Equal Life Party’, run for political office and thereby EMS will bring about ‘heaven on earth’.

Supporters of
EMS claim it is an alternative to capitalism, yet EMS has not been shown to have any relevance to anyone not involved in the Desteni process who might, broadly speaking, be critical of capitalism. If ‘equal money’ was a ‘system’ it would be recognised and treated as such, not just by its proponents, but by independent third parties. It would have a recognisable presence in the political sphere and be discussed amongst real-life, off-line communities and in the media, whether mainstream or alternative.

But EMS does not exist outside the realms of Desteni websites or the Desteni farm in South Africa. The proposals they make for EMS have no actual political context. At least four years after it was announced, EMS is only ever taken seriously and openly supported by those people who call themselves Destonians on their own websites, blogs, Facebook and YouTube pages. They make it plain they are not interested in spreading their message any further than their obscure corner of the Internet. Supporters of EMS are also openly opposed to political activism yet they talk about ‘standing up’ for EMS as if it were a form of online consumer activism. 

The Destonians say that purification and perfection of themselves will lead to ultimate transformation and improvement of the whole wide world but they do not demonstrate their claims in any concrete way. In their blogs, if they're not writing about petty personal concerns then they often cut and paste poverty statistics and other data to do with corruption or social problems or select news items highlighting a given social problem, discuss it all in a superficial manner using the somewhat incomprehensible Desteni jargon, and then just claim that the solution is EMS.

All their system amounts to is repeating
‘join us’ and ‘investigate EMS’ in so many v-logs and blogs as if this is somehow going to overload the Internet and achieve the effect of forcing the capitalist system to give way to everyone in the world becoming Destonian


Cyber-Mania

Addiction to the Internet induces a state of existential delirium. The sense of the body disappears outside of real time, subdued by the hypnotic consumption of information. The digital market exploits language and emotions at the expense of thinking, doing bodies and actual personalities with real characteristics. It achieves this through cybercultural conditioning which harnesses subjectivity to computers.

For the Internet-centric Destonians, this same state of distraction reaches such a peak that on their multiple Facebook pages, YouTube channels and blogs they talk and write as if they were not already living, breathing physical bodies. They are working towards ‘birthing life as the physical’, or ‘breathing equal and one with the physical’, while their stated aim is to eventually ‘stop the mind’ and delete their personalities, which they claim will help bring about EMS in the future.

It seems they are expressing a psychological state of cyber-mania in which their subjectivity has been made dependent on, and is dictated by, content of websites the aim of which is to get them to keep returning to the same websites at the expense of getting on with their own lives.

Psych-Training


The main EMS website is supposed to represent a worthy democratic political project. However, the actual purpose of EMS is to promote the sale of Desteni products.

EMS centres on psychological modification of personal behaviour by strict adherence to elaborate
instructions from the core Desteni group, all of which are based on ideas taken from occultism and New Age philosophy. Destonians are solely preoccupied with meaningless New Age style buzz words, formulaic slogans and techniques as repeated in 1000s of YouTube videos of their oracle, Sunette Spies. The New Age parlour trick known as channelling, which Desteni re-name ‘portalling’ (dead people and imaginary entities from other dimensions) is central to the EMS.


All EMS supporters are big fans of Spies' self-help pop psychology as it has been communicated through these slightly sinister videos and manufactured into consumer ‘products’ for what they call a ‘Life-Style concept that is simply achieving financial freedom slowly but surely’. EMS is of no practical relevance to equality or any political issue at all. It is essentially a marketing tool to promote online training in reinterpretations of New Age occultism centred on weird ideas about the mind, the self, subjectivity and transcendence. 

Any questions Destonians attempt to raise about economic exploitation and inequitable chances in life revolve around the template Desteni offers to individuals for minor celebrity status amongst other people calling themselves Destonians’. They provide the chance to build an online presence centred on trivia of personal behaviour, self-confession and superficial discussion of seemingly controversial themes as prescribed by Desteni.

A ‘buddy system’ is available to
all participants. The possibility of opportunities for any masochists with a peculiar fetish for sexual encounters ‘within and as’ Destonians are offered through a course in re-defining relationships as agreements. They are supplied with ready-made catch phrases to repeat such as ‘applying the tools’, ‘a dignified life for all’, ‘within and as the current system of abuse’, ‘all as one as equal as life’ or ‘equal money system’, all of which have the function of advertising these so-called ‘Desteni I Process’ courses in ‘Life Skills and Self-Mastery’.   


Working for the Charity Corporation

As is standard in capitalist business, some stuff is offered to consumers for free as a teaser and more advanced products have to be purchased. Alternatively, they can be bought in exchange for blogging to promote the company and/or other favours.
To help boost self-esteem and increase productivity, the ‘tools’ of the Desteni I Process are said to help its promoters take ‘self-responsibility’, as though they are supposed to be model workers serving a corporation with the best interests of its employees at heart. Desteni are opposed to corporatism yet a key part of their plan is to establish an Equality Corporation. Destonians are expected to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to help this private corporation come to fruition. 

Destonians use images of starving and poverty-stricken people to promote EMS, as if it is a charitable concern that helps the disadvantaged. In their self-contradictory fashion, Desteni call charity capitalistic and evil yet ask for donations. All Destonians are unpaid or paying volunteers working to raise money for Desteni, which is a capitalist for-profit business, or for their apparently non-profit making front organisation, the Equal Life Foundation. They are operating exactly like a charity but do nothing to help the disadvantaged, the starving or poverty-stricken. They appear to be more interested in making money out of getting potential customers to identify with the EMS and Desteni brand names as if they were somehow signifiers of a trendy, eco-friendly lifestyle with a radical edge. 

Sentiments of social justice, anti-capitalism, equal rights and equality are summoned up by Desteni to persuade potential recruits into working as full-time salespersons for a consumer marketing business. EMS is an advertising slogan for an online money-making scam. EMS has been contrived to make it seem like Desteni is for the greater good when it is a hierarchical, authoritarian sect that follows a creed of ‘self-perfection’, views outsiders as degenerates and scapegoats for ‘evil’ and its recruits as easy meat for psychological and social control.

EMS is promoted as a solution to capitalism but it is a capitalist business solution as to how to market a worthless product. While they make an unconvincing attempt at seeming to oppose it, Destonians are effectively mimicking the prevailing capitalist consumer ideology as it feigns to appeal to humanistic instincts or values when its only instinct is to make money and its values are monetary. Destonians commodify their interior lives for the profit and entertainment of the core Desteni group in South Africa. Their constant emphasis on ‘self-forgiveness’ as the key to freedom appeals to the same trivial and obsequious self-centredness glorified by the demands of corporate consumerist society as it tries to turn everything and everyone into a commodity.

Useless Junk

The pseudo-radical supporters of EMS exemplify how neoliberal capitalist ideology holds the alienated and oppressed hostage to their own exploitation. Their assumed attitude about being opposed to consumerism is such that all they have to offer is investment in the consumer marketing of a corporate brand of anti-human New Age conspiracism. The Desteni material, with its second-hand occultism, pseudo-history and pseudo-science; and the Destonians' hypnotised angst, their drone-like complacency and cultic mumbo jumbo doubletalk are a retreat into escapist fantasy.  

As long as they stick to the rules and propagandise for Desteni and ‘equal money system’ they won't be taking any initiative for social or political change. Instead they will be pretending they are ‘stopping the mind’, stopping thinking, feeling or having emotions while typing pre-programmed catch phrases on to computer screens until they are ‘birthing life as the physical’. They will be composing advertising jingles, churning out spam blogs and videos of themselves talking about narcissistic neuroses and items they've read in the news. They will be touting ‘self-purification’ and the sale of baseball caps, stickers, mp3s of rambling speeches by Sunette Spies and Bernard Poolman, selling branded aprons, hoodies, ringtones and other useless junk. They will try and convince themselves that it all makes sense when they already know it has just been designed to con certain kinds of idealistic, misinformed or naive people such as themselves into parting with their money and doing what the Desteni core group tells them to do.


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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

All their ideas are based on quotidian everyday life, they may stolen several ideas from various identities and converted as if they were themselves the creators of these ideas, most important, most of these ideas come from the 20th century politics and more ,complety out of date, and in the 20th century, has been taken the ideas of Hitler too.
many of the other spiritual ideas comes from other cults, all those ideas are from scientology, and the scientology, is just another scam, that image were sinette is, maybe is invented, no one knows that, and never existed.

***The main EMS website is supposed to represent a worthy democratic political project.***

democracy is another scam, and they are junk supporting something that never existed.
there's one thing that is shocking me, is, they have friends of zeitgeist movement.. now we have ideas in conflit from that pig of poolman.

Anonymous said...

how interesting they are saying they are not a cult but they put things like a cult, for example, this channel is saying "destenicult", how about that? what? will now the destonians eliminate the channel or the name? no worth it, i make my printscreens to show everybody if you people try to eliminate, but i would recomend the anti-cult to, make a database, were you can make the downloads of the videos, and if they try to eliminate you have everything what they have been put in youtube, because i know there's some videos that were eliminated by the won author, to hide something that maybe we are saying against, is maybe because is dangerous for their reputation, they maybe are trying to hide content, to clean the old tallow, currently the more modern shows do not make sense the more the former to have.
then i think you can upload those videos on the blog, (if you whant), because i see some videos here on the blog, they are not active, other is because the channel was close, and others because the author decide to fuck up the videos, to hide more possible, about what we are saying.
what a stupid world they are making theyselfs, making a channel, showing they are a cult, against cults, and.. they are a cult, make sense???? i don't seeee iiitt!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/DesteniCult

Desteni Cult blog said...

There is certainly a case for saying that concepts such as democracy or voting are flawed but the problem in discussing political ideas in relation to EMS is that EMS is not in any way an actual political or economic idea or system. It is only political in so far as it has been contrived to give the impression that Desteni is a worthy cause so that people will buy Desteni products and holidays on their farm.

Needless to say, there are very few people who would be fooled by it. For example, Poolman posted a blog post on the Economics sub-Reddit, to which the response is:

"Why is this in the Economics Sub-Reddit?"

http://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/unqn4/the_goodness_of_man_is_a_fairytale_we_tell_our

Anonymous said...

everything what i seee in desteni is semantic, now is sunette in my head with poolman, before is poolman, now is sunnette, the fuck???
i think i need a medic, and report this abuses, i fill like if i whant to falling from the window to stop this damn thinking.
they still have never seen that fame always has a tragic ending, it's just a matter of time before the fantasy of them over I believe that shit, it only ends when the police have already done a search for mistakes that they make.
i belive to, this economy is not a transition, is just another mechanic failed part of the economy, with this economy repeated everytime, on the past, everytime the communism appears.

Anonymous said...

Man, these guys are slowly getting dangerously close to the 'death cult' pinnacle of development. They keep entreaching themselves deeper and deeper into a corner of their own creation where their only perceived way out will be another varation on poisoned fruit drink or Nike shoes. I can't even believe they put together those absolutely stupid presentations and a site selling poorly-designed hoodies. Why in the hell would anyone even want to wear that shit?

Anonymous said...

(COPIED FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE)
Meet Bernard Poolman. Sometimes, he gets frisky and calls himself the Beast of Revelation. This is the man behind the internet cult known as Desteni. Bernard Poolman lives surrounded by his fellow cult members on the Desteni Farm located inSouth Africa. You may have seen this cult around on Youtube, they can mostly be identified by their shiny bald heads, and they are usually parroting the phrases “I am one vote for equality”, “1+1=2 is best for all”, and “Equal Money System” while talking about reptilian conspiracy theories.

Most people do not join a cult voluntarily, and cult members never realize they are in a cult until it is too late. It is generally not in the cults best interest to openly admit to being a dangerous and destructive cult, and that is why Desteni is spending a large amount of their time trying to convince people that they aren’t a cult. I am here to expose the truth about Desteni, and the fact that they are a destructive, and potentially life threatening cult. I will be using cult expert Robert J. Lifton’s 8 point model of a thought reform aka brainwashing cult as my criteria for this video. Keep in mind, that a cult does not have to fit all 8 points exactly to be a thought reform cult, but surprisingly Desteni manages to cover all 8 characteristics.

The first characteristic of a thought reform cult is environment control. Environment control is the limitation of all forms of communication with those outside the group. In Desteni, family and friends are demonized, along with anyone else not in the Desteni cult. This is to shield the cult from outside criticism. Bernard Poolman has even suggested that critics of Desteni are really apart of a reptilian sleeper cell created to stop desteni from achieving their goals at all costs. Scientology uses the same tactics against critics, such as labelling their critics suppressive persons, or SP’s, and then encouraging their members to sever all lines of communication with their critics. Cult leaders like Bernard Poolman create an us vs. them atmosphere like this, by creating a wall of distrust between the cult and the outside world. Bernard teaches his followers that all outsiders are nothing more than mind controlled organic robot slaves working for the reptilian new world order, and the only way to be truly free is to join Desteni.

Anonymous said...

(2/3)

The second characteristic of a thought reform cult is mystical manipulation. Mystical Manipulation is the practice of extensive personal manipulation, through a leaders claim to be an agent chosen by God, history, or some supernatural force,

to carry out a mystical imperative. This manipulation is performed by a woman named Sunette Spies, who Desteni claims to be an interdimensional portal. She claims the ability to channel the spirits of dead historical figures such as Adolf Hitler, and even the spirits of inanimate objects, such as a gas pump, toilet paper, and even a vibrator. I would show you video evidence of this, but Desteni has a bad reputation for filing false copyright claims against videos that are critical of them, so you can look those up on youtube for yourself. This channelling is obviously an act dreamt up by Bernard Poolman to lure gullible people into his cult, and to generate publicity. In an unlisted video that was privately leaked to me, which I will link in the box below, Bernard Poolman himself states that the channelling isn’t real, and that the message comes directly from him, yet Desteni members still publicly maintain that the channelling is real. This woman in the centre of the mystical manipulation is more real than an abstract god, thus is more attractive as an object of worship to potential members of this cult. Desteni also includes meditation, and the use of the illegal drug ‘Ecstasy’ in their practices. For proof of this, I will link another unlisted video by Desteni, where Bernard Poolman talks about the use of ecstasy as a stress reliever.

The third characteristic of a thought reform cult is the demand for purity. Cult members will constantly strive to conform to the group “norm”. Consequently, guilt, shame, and ridicule from your peers are often powerful tools of control. Desteni splits the world into two parts, the pure, and the impure. The good and the pure are of course those ideas, feelings, and actions which are consistent with the cult’s ideology, and everything else outside of that is considered impure. If one does not conform with Desteni’s ideology, they are ostracized, and made to feel guilty for not living up to the standards that Bernard Poolman has created for them. Through manipulating the meanings of good and evil, members of the cult will continue to strive endlessly to reach a level of perfection that they are lead to believe is possible, and they will feel guilty and ashamed of themselves when they don’t reach that level of perfection.

This leads into the fourth characteristic, cultic confessions. Cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in and of itself. Desteni’s name for this is Self-forgiveness. Scientology called it auditing. Bernard Poolman insists that his followers make public confessions through youtube videos, blogs, and posting on the Desteni forums, in which they share their darkest secrets, and express the shame and guilt, they feel for not living perfectly according to Desteni’s ideology. Cults typically use this information as blackmail and in the event that a cult member tries to leave the group, and as intimidation if a member is being to critical of the group. Public confessions of this sort are usually a symbolic act of self surrender to the cult, and make it impossible for the person making the confessions to attain a reasonable balance between worth and humility.

Anonymous said...

(3/3)

The fifth characteristic of a thought reform cult is sacred science.. Cults love to pretend that their leaders and their ideologies are infallible, and Desteni is no exception to the rule. Cults tend to put an aura of sacredness around it’s basic dogma, holding it out as the ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. Desteni members advocate the non-existent Equal Money system, which they claim to be “best for all”. Desteni members believe this system to be the answer to all of the world’s problems, and that it is above all questioning or criticism. According to Desteni, Bernard Poolman is also infalliable. They regard him as 100% equal and honest in every way, and believe it is impossible for him to lie, or use deception. They regard him as such, but never openly admit he is the leader. They can’t even allow themselves to recognize they are being led, that alone just shows how much control he has over their minds. The recently dismantled Zeitgeist cult liked to pretend they didn’t have leaders either, even after Jacque Fresco and Peter Joseph had their little fight over donations, the Zeitgeist cult still maintains that they never had leaders. The Desteni cult will kick out members who question or criticize anything regarding Desteni and Bernard Poolman. They call this, “Being banished back to the system”. This is a fate worse than death to a devout Desteni member.

The sixth characteristic of a thought reform cult is the language of non-thought, also known as loading the language. The language of the cult environment is characterized by repeated thought terminating slogans and jargon. Common words and phrases are given new meanings, and become secret cult buzz words. Thought stopping buzz words that Desteni commonly uses such as, ‘common sense’, ‘self forgiveness’, and ‘self honesty’ is nothing more than empty rhetoric used to replace logic and reason. The only common sense according to Desteni, is that Desteni is best for all.

The seventh characteristic of a thought reform cult, is doctrine over person. If a cult member questions the beliefs of the cult or the leaders of the cult, the member is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them. If a cult member feels any doubts about the group, the feeling is immediately associated with guilt. In Desteni, if you question or criticize the group’s ideology or is leader Bernard Poolman in any way, they will say that you’re a victim of the “mind consciousness system”, and that you must practice self forgiveness through public confession in order to redeem yourself. Sharing your personal opinions is a punishable offense. The only opinions you are allowed to have, are the opinions dictated to you by Bernard Poolman.

The eighth and final characteristic of a thought reform cult is the dispensing of existence. A cult will delegate itself the power to decide who has the right to exist, and who does not. Those outside the cult are considered to be doomed forever, unless they embrace the ideology and the teachings of the cult. Desteni believes that mankind was created by a reptilian race of aliens called the Anunaki, and that we are all slaves under the influence demon possession and reptilian mind control. They believe the only true way to break free of the mind control, and the demon possession, is to be saved by Desteni. Yet in reality, all Desteni has really done for it’s followers, is rob them of their logic and reasoning, and replace is with their own special brand of common sense, which is nothing more than empty rhetoric and mindless fluff.

Anonymous said...

(4/3)

So there you have it, Desteni is a dangerous and destructive thought reform cult, according to the criteria put forth by Robert J. Lifton. I recommend that all of their members go and seek help immediately. Researching this cult has been very eye opening to say the least. I really hope this doesn’t turn out to be a Jonestown 2.0, but it sure does seem to be going that way. They already have a cult farm insouth Africa, and their members seem to be willing to take any illegal narcotics that Bernard Poolman has to offer. Their ideology has absolutely zero basis in reality, and their practices are mentally destructive. I believe this group needs to be investigated, and I fully intend to research this cult more thoroughly, so if you have any information you’d like to share about the Desteni cult, feel free to send me a personal message. Thanks for watching (reading).

THE POWER OF THE SYMBOLS:
is not new, but is proved the symbols have influence, some are neutral, others negative by other influences, and others positive, with or without influence. in fact, the green ring, is one of the dangers of this ilegal organization, and atract people for it, is negative, and potencially dangerous.

Desteni Cult blog said...

That article posted from another website in comments above was by Ronaldo De Los Muertos --

http://ronaldodelosmuertos.wordpress.com
http://www.youtube.com/RonaldoDeLosMuertos

It shows how Desteni fits exactly Dr. Robert J. Lifton's 'Eight Criteria for Thought Reform' which are:

Milieu Control. This involves the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant degree of isolation from society at large.

Mystical Manipulation. There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes.

Demand for Purity. The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection. The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.

Confession. Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group. There is no confidentiality; members' "sins," "attitudes," and "faults" are discussed and exploited by the leaders.

Sacred Science. The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.

Loading the Language. The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand. This jargon consists of thought-terminating clichés, which serve to alter members' thought processes to conform to the group's way of thinking.

Doctrine over person. Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group.

Dispensing of existence. The group has the prerogative to decide who has the right to exist and who does not. This is usually not literal but means that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the group's ideology. If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they must be rejected by the members. Thus, the outside world loses all credibility. In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also. (Lifton, 1989)

Anonymous said...

yes i know :)
but i was interested soo i post here, so the people can see it, also, i saw the number on facebook have grow to 294 to 295, and then 294 again, lol, someone really hate that. :P
thanks for the rest of the information.

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to be allergic to the word "equal" and "equality" =_=

Desteni Cult blog said...

If you have an allergy then you could always have a chat with Anu the reptilian overlord @ Desteni. He gives out lots of advice on health issues.
http://forum.desteni.org/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=3298&sid=599f8cf2ea3207a202e08403ed7c467c

Anonymous said...

For what? more brainwash of equality scam?
you are not promoting them aren't you?

Marcus said...

and the number still growing like if nothing happens, and what prove have to pseudo supporters about their ideal? i mean they don't support but they show the allienation. they maybe are happy for now, for the number still growing, at leat someone smart will need to get this down.
such bald childs, they don't know what the future is whaiting for, if the capitalism of today can't do something for the poverty, less a pro capitalism will make it, even if sounds pro.
i am not the only one trying to make revenge anyway, i see in the forum they make a violation on anonymous society, with this all is concidered an illegal act agains't the state ( i guess), i knew in, this organization have something ilegal agains't the state.
As i know them well, they will try cover up something, don't tell me how,I just believe.

don't stop posting keep it up :)

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