School of Ultimate Living: Redefining the Word, Desteni

Ivan Rauscher

Redefining words with L. Ron Hubbard

Redefining words is a strategy employed by almost all cults. One of the most famous cults in the world, the Church of Scientology, which was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, is notorious for redefining words and even has its own dictionaries.

The founder of Desteni, Bernard Poolman, was described in the Vice magazine article, Meet the Struggling South African Cult That Tried to Kill Demon Hitler, as 'South Africa's own L. Ron Hubbard'. 

Like Hubbard, one of Poolman's main ideas was all about redefining words. Redefining words is a central concept and practice in Desteni. 

Peculiar words and phrases used by the group like, 'living words', 'Destonian', 'assistance and support', 'practivism', 'walking my process', 'self-honesty', 'accepted and allowed', 'self-forgiveness' or 'best for all life as equal as one' are all examples of loaded language.

The convoluted talks and writings of Desteni amount to an elaborate exercise in psychobabble. Destonians.com shows the extent of the manipulation and loss of reason amongst members. 

Dr. Robert J. Lifton described loaded language in Eight Criteria for Thought Reform: '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.'

And as Q5 of The Cult Test, Cult-Speak, puts it: 'The cult invents new terminology or euphemisms for many things. The cult may also redefine many common words to mean something quite different.'

Another typical strategy of cults is to set up front groups which help to mask the cult's agenda and counter or avoid public criticism.

Before launching Desteni in 2007, Bernard Poolman sold software called PowerEducation which eventually became known as the present day 'vocabulary development technology' named TechnoTutor.

The publicity for TechnoTutor, which is run by members of Desteni, almost never mentions the word, Desteni.

Other Desteni projects such as the fake political campaigns, Living Income Guaranteed and Democracy Against War Now, and the 'non-profit' company called the Equal Life Foundation, which sells affiliate marketing schemes for Desteni I Process courses and eqafe.com products, yet poses as a human rights group, also never mention Desteni.

These projects essentially serve as front groups. Cult front groups are ways of making money and gaining recruits and recognition by creating the false impression that they are legitimate businesses or altruistic endeavours which exist independently of the cult. 

Scientology, for example, runs numerous front groups, and as clinical psychologist and cult expert, Margaret Singer, wrote in Cults in Our Midst: 'Most cults have front groups, sometimes a variety of them, set up specifically to appeal to a range of interests'.

'Living' words

Desteni front-woman, Sunette Spies, recently took some time off from pretending to speak on behalf of dead people and interdimensional reptilians to launch a new front group for the cult of Desteni called the 'School of Ultimate Living'.

In her video, Introducing School Of Ultimate Living, Spies states that she will provide background history and information on research in relation to the 'school', then over 40+ minutes proceeds to give no specifics whatsoever about her background, experience or research.

Her only relevant experience is with Bernard Poolman and Desteni, but she doesn't mention them.

The rest of the 'team' behind the School of Ultimate Living are all long-standing Desteni recruiters, but nowhere on the 'school''s website is the word, Desteni, used. Bernard Poolman or the Equal Life Foundation are also not mentioned in the videos or on the website.

With the strap-line, 'life creation through words', School of Ultimate Living represents the standard Desteni practice of 'redefining words' or 'living words'.

As noted at the International Cultic Studies Association, there is 'the consistent practice by cults to redefine commonly used words and to create new ones'.

Sunette Spies and the team at the School of Ultimate Living may be reluctant to really 'live' the word, 'Desteni', because of the group's reputation as a cult and a scam. Perhaps they are afraid that Desteni is going down the drain and feel they must recreate or redefine the group and its methods with yet another front group with a different name.

Or maybe it is just that after a '7 Year Journey to Life' the 'Destonians' have now been 'birthed from the physical' and are ready for a fresh start in giving 'assistance and support' to recruit others into 'walking the process' towards 'redefining words' and 'creating a world that is best for all life'.

Either way, the methods they use in trying to redefine their aims with 'School of Ultimate Living' only show that the 'best they can be' is the same as usual: a deceptive and manipulative cult.

Related posts:
The Equal Life Foundation & the Sovereign Citizen Movement

Vice Reports on the Struggling South African Cult of Desteni

Desteni Portal Idiot Test

Public Consequences - Desteni Doomed - 7 
Desteni Discussions

Living Income Guaranteed: Nonsense Politics of the Destonians Equal Life Foundation

An online platform

The Living Income Guaranteed (LIG) is presented by the Equal Life Foundation (ELF) as an initiative towards global equality, political and economic stability and a decent standard of living for all. Its Facebook page has over 27,000 'likes' but few details about the LIG are on Facebook, so let's have a closer look...

The South Africa-based ELF is a 'non-profit' company that runs a recruitment scheme for an income plan and an affiliate sales programme selling online products and courses for a group of people 'exploring oneness and equality principles' called 'Desteni'. The ELF states its focus is 'human rights'. It owns copyright of material produced by the Desteni group, including the Equal Money System and audio files of 'self-perfection interviews' with reptilians and dead people.

Publicity for both the ELF and the LIG often omits to mention Desteni, but the LIG is only ever promoted by less than about 100 people affiliated with the group who call themselves 'Destonians'. Their support for the LIG could possibly give the impression that the Destonians are activists but they say that activism has never achieved anything and they are 'practivists'.

The LIG could appear to be a variation of the Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) but is a very different concept altogether. Its policies are completely unrelated to the BIG.

The main LIG document wrongly asserts, 'There has never been a plan that would consider how to live harmoniously on this planet so far'. It states 'we don't need leaders' while its supporters take part in a leadership forum.

The LIG document is described as a 'draft proposal' for global political and economic change. Since its inception over a year ago, the LIG does not appear to have been proposed to any politicians, legislators, political groups or organisations, journalists from mainstream or alternative media, governments, state departments, universities, etc. Despite their repeated use of the phrase, 'best for all' to refer to the LIG as all things to all people, there have been no public meetings on the subject and the LIG has only ever been proposed as a topic of discussion amongst the Destonians and at their own web pages. 

The Destonians say the LIG 'solution' is towards Perfecting Capitalism. It is described as an 'economic model' for a 'living income' welfare 'net' to cover basic necessities and equalling half the 'minimum wage', which would be double what it is now. The LIG would not be universally guaranteed, as it would only be available to those who are 'eligible'. Children might be deemed 'eligible' but the unemployed would first have to pass an unspecified 'means test'.

The term, 'nationalization', is used incorrectly by the Destonians to suggest that in a 'LIG system' each citizen of a nation would be obliged to operate as both owner and shareholder of all major corporations and resources. There would be a very limited role for government but somehow the LIG 'solution' would mean prices would adjust to wages and vice versa, personal tax would be abolished and corporate profits and the redirection of military funds would finance public services and the LIG.

Destonians seem to view the erosion of civil liberties as beneficial to society, and a purely digital economy a way of significantly reducing illegal trade. They recommend automation, digital ID cards, digital money / banking and no privacy, and claim all this will deter 'illicit financial transactions', protests, and what they call social dissidence.

In a LIG system teachers would not protest?

Teachers' salaries in a LIG system would be at half the minimum wage. This would be to stop people from entering the teaching profession simply to make money, but why the same rule should not also apply to other fields of work is unclear.

The LIG includes policies to make PR and advertising agencies focus 'on educating the consumer and/or population in a factual manner' and a 'Bureau of Standards' to ensure products and services are always of the highest possible quality. It seems that the regulations pertaining to the service, manufacturing and advertising industries would be far more strict and complex than at present.

Apparently, the LIG 'solution' would be 'implemented' by 'the people', who would make collective decisions about a nation, its businesses, natural resources and banks through 'direct democracy' facilitated via 'online platforms for political participation'. Creation or management of these platforms is not explained, but a LIG supporter represented as economist (with no credentials) suggests that the 'like' buttons on Facebook prove it can be done, and 'coming together' does not have to be a 'physical event'.

The Destonians' articles on the LIG indicate that they are of the view that political change begins on a subjective level and can be engineered from within, for which they usually imply the ELF 'Desteni I Process' courses and 'Eqafe' products provide the necessary guidance to facilitate 'self-responsibility'.

These are most of the main points covered by the LIG, but the Destonians have failed to communicate any actual ideas. The very few reasonable statements they make are about things which are already being dealt with in far more articulate and effective ways by numerous other more well-established and respected groups and individuals (such as the Basic Income Earth Network). 

The Destonians' 'plan' lacks any coherent understanding or awareness of economics, politics or political theory. The LIG is made up of misconceived, vague, half-baked, irrational notions, pseudo-political slogans, empty clichés and sub-New Age psychobabble. It does not provide any 'practical solution' and offers no strategies or actions to help bring about social equality or political or economic change. In short, the LIG is inconsequential drivel. 

The reason why the LIG is such nonsense is because it is a vain attempt to resemble a political movement in order to try to solve the problem of how to guarantee income and recruit for a quasi-religious cult business which has been doomed from the start, exposed for what it is many times over, and is finally going down the drain. 

It is curious to note that although there are over 27,000 'likes' for the LIG on Facebook, the number of Destonians remains the same as it was circa 2010: about 100-150 world-wide.

Related posts:

Equal Life Foundation Trojan Horse: Living Income Guaranteed (LIG)

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

Equal Money System: spreading the FAQ?

Desteni Doomed - 1

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

The Desteni Equal Money Scam

DesteniScam

Some Truth About Desteni Productions Scam