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The Anticult
Bernard Poolman has made a serious error though, he has until now targeted mainly young people. The problem with young people for a cultic group, is that they don't have much money, which explains why Poolman is getting so irate for more money to come in from Desteni.
In one of the interviews with Poolman and others on the Desteni farm done by the journalist from South African publication, "Rapport", Poolman said that although there were older people involved, it is mainly the younger ones who visit the farm because they tend not to have as many responsibilities that would hinder them from traveling. But while they might have enough to go on a trip to SA, as you say, Anticult, they won't have much else to invest.
To all intents and purposes, the Desteni organization itself doesn't have enough money and they can't get legal representation: [
www.youtube.com]
Since he gave up smoking, Poolman ordered his followers to give up smoking and is now telling them to pledge the money they would've spent on smoking to Desteni. He's desperate.
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The AnticultMore experienced New Wage cultic leaders like Byron Katie [
forum.culteducation.com] are much smarter, they TARGET an emotionally desperate and mature demographic, people that have some money and a credit line they can exploit.
These successful New Wage scammers are much more sophisticated, they travel around the world giving workshops, write lots of books and get them distributed in mainstream bookstores, release slick, well-produced videos etc. Poolman by comparison is a total amateur, he'd never appeal to well-educated, middle-class, salaried professionals. He's too obviously a crackpot for starters.
He's stuck in one place, on the farm in South Africa, and it seems his next ambition is just to buy another farm in SA where he can get more young people to work for nothng. He's using only the internet to get followers by putting out an angst-ridden, anti-establishment message and a fake plan for a more just world. It might appeal to some alienated young folks and maybe a few misguided older ones dissillusioned with New Ageism, but it's not a very reliable method and he's making himself too inaccessible if he wants to be a proper cult leader. It's a joke. Somewhat dangerous perhaps, but nevertheless the whole project is completely stupid.
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The Anticult
Search Google for:
"Esteni de Wet"
If someone locally can do a search and find out the REAL names of Bernard Poolman and his wife, and if it turns out they are using fake names, their hypocrisy and lies will be even more ridiculous.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence of these people before the advent of Desteni on the internet in 2007. I think we'd have to have someone come on here who actually met one or both of them face to face before they started Desteni to find out more. All we know is that de Wet and Poolman found Sunette Spies working in a cafe and offered her another job as a "portal", and it all took off from there, but obviously Poolman was involved with various other groups before then. It may be that he used a different name and that may be partly why he avoids showing his face.
So, if anyone does have any first-hand background info, please feel free to contribute to this thread.
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The Anticult
Here is the key.
Who owns the property of the Desteni Farm?
Someone locally could go into the land-deed office and see the name on the property deed.
Right, well, it may be that it's known as the Desteni Ranch, which may be run by Esteni de Wet. Andrea Rossouw owns desteni-ranch.net, but that website is defunct.
Again, here's a picture of Poolman attached to this post.