I happened to see John De Ruiter speak yesterday at Open Secret Bookstore, But quite by accident I must say. I had never heard of him before then. My time doing numerology readings was cut short due to his impromptu appearance and all of a sudden the quiet atmosphere of the bookstore was humming with major activity and lots of people began to stream in and the energy seemed chaotic. It was like a beehive. Then I heard that there was going to be a speaker / event. I quickly realized, I was going to have to give up my space for the day. As I was packing up to head back home, I began to inquire about this speaker and I heard many glowing things such as “Oh that’s John, he’s a love bug.” “Stay. He speaks about love.” “I saw him last night, he’s famous.” Based on all these radiant accounts,  I decided to stay and see who this spiritual guru was that seemed to garner all this attention.

Ironically enough, just before the event began, a man sat down next to me. I introduced myself and asked him what he knew about John and he immediately said “Oh that’s John De Ruiter and he’s famous” and followed for several minutes with many complimentary things and apparently had just seen him last night in Berkeley. In addition to that, he had driven all the way from the South Bay to see him again. That he was a Gazer, a Channel and emitted this powerful energy into the room. If he gazed into your eyes, you were lucky.

Then the bombshell!

So this this man sitting next to me, then added that John, who was Canadian, was just recently allowed back into the United States because of a huge scandal due to an affair he had with two sisters while he was married. He went on to tell me that John apparently justified his actions by saying “truth told him to sleep with the two sisters.” I immediately was repulsed and responded that there was no excuse for this kind of behavior – period. I also felt the urge to leave.  Gazer / Spiritual Guru or not. This information hit strongly to the core of my gut and my intuition immediately told me that this was not a true spiritual man. However, there were so many people in the room and there was literally no elbow room to wiggle my way out at that moment in time. Leaving right then would have been very difficult, so I stayed to hear just enough.

In spite of the inconvenience of it all, I did experience whatever it is that De Ruiter spits out and sells as his own personal branding of spirituality and what it is that he does to garner so many followers. I found him to be quite disconcerting and I have to say, I didn’t get him or what he proclaims to be at all. It seemed like a bunch of gobbledegook and meaningless rhetoric.

Out of all the people that stood up to ask their questions, John simply chose not to answer one man’s question for whatever reason. The poor guy stood there for several agonizing minutes while the room was absolutely silent, except for the rather large chimes that were accidentally brushed up against, Unfazed by all this commotion, John just did not answer. This man finally got that his question was not going to get answered, and walked back to his seat with his shoulders down. I was in disbelief. How many spiritual teachers do that? None that I know of. I did find out later, that if he does not like your question, he simply will not answer. Needless to say, there is a lot of uncomfortable silence in his meetings. But apparently widely accepted.

When I got home, I immediately did an internet search on John De Ruiter and discovered that there is a lot of controversy surrounding him because of two main issues. 1. His cult following and 2. An affair he had with two young sisters in 1999 – the Von Sass sisters – while he was married. It seemed that all the positive articles written about him were mostly written and promoted by his camp. The Von Sass sisters sued him in 2013 for financial support claiming to have been his common law wives. Doesn’t this sound like polygamy? And surprise, surprise, his wife subsequently divorced him, but not before she outed him about her knowledge of his sexual liaison with the sisters.

Then I ran across an article by Harmon Leon who writes for Vice – a magazine that considers itself to be “an ever-expanding nebula of immersive investigative journalism, uncomfortable sociological examination…” 

After reading the entire article “The Canadian Man Who Commands a Cult With His Gaze”  and watching the accompanying video of De Ruiter, I would have to say that Harmon’s own personal experience in two “meetings” with De Ruiter mirrored my exact experience yesterday and what I was feeling and thinking as I was watching this ridiculous escapade all marketed under “spirituality” and John being dubbed as a “spiritual guru” and even worse “The New Messiah” That he has a cult following is absolutely astonishing.

I was astounded at the lack of clarity in De Ruiter’s responses to the questions he was asked. I did not understand at all what he was trying to say to these poor followers, most of whom were in tears when they were in his presence asking their question or making statements about what they were going through. And I would consider myself to be a fairly intelligent and spiritual woman who can grasp many ideas and follow along fairly easily with other intangible and mystical concepts. Through his halted speaking voice and pattern (I guess his trance state) he might have well been speaking in a foreign language. His answers seemed unrealistic and off point. Did I miss something as I was grasping to understand his words?

Again I have to repeat that what he was saying was a bunch of gobbledegook. It seemed like he was trying to fool the audience through the use of words cleverly masked to influence what the questioners were or were not ‘doing’ or ‘being.’ He did this thing where he would repeat certain words back to the questioner and just sort of jumble them up – confusing me even more. I was not buying his rhetoric, and in fact, it seemed as if he was trying to influence the thought patterns and thinking processes  of the audience in general. It all seemed to border on the intoxicating power of snake oil salesmanship and someone seduced by power.

I don’t often speak out against someone, but if I had to give up my time to help other people with my own spiritual work, I want to spend that time listening to someone else who helps others. instead I had to listen to someone I consider a narcissist – all under the guise of spirituality, God, Faith, Love and Trust. Words John really should look up and not only memorize, but practice. I personally feel John De Ruiter is not spiritually aligned with anything or anyone but himself and lives in EGO (edging God Out) as the Father of Motivation, Wayne Dyer would say. I’d also have to say that I agree with how Harmon Leon depicted John:

John De Ruiter is in fact a Man who plays parlor tricks, and is a Charlatan .

While this is not my normal article on numerology, John is a 1 Life Path. I will say that his strength is confidence, individuality, courage, determination and someone with strong opinions. His liability is insecurity, addiction to power, dominance, willfulness, contrariness and egotism. This is the side of him that I think he resides in mostly.

Read for yourself Suggested articles on John De Ruiter

Harmon Leon’s article
http://www.vice.com/read/inside-a-canadian-staring-cult-224

Shawn Nevin’s article – Spiritualteachers.org
http://www.spiritualteachers.org/john_de_ruiter.htm

A readers opinion from http://www.spiritualteachers.org
http://www.spiritualteachers.org/john_de_ruiteropinion.htm

Ali Sina article
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/which_religion.htm