Ivan Rauscher
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.
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'.
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.
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| 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.'
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.
