Dark Oasis:A Self-Made Messiah Unveiled - (about de Ruiter)

Quote

Dark Oasis: A Self-Made Messiah Unveiled documents how the sincere search for meaning can cause us to mistake the allure of a mirage for a genuine oasis. It reveals how the desire for deliverance can lead to psychic servitude, loss of autonomy, and cult-like dependency.

Inspired by the author's experiences with spiritual philosopher and self-proclaimed 'living embodiment of truth' John de Ruiter, Dark Oasis is an in-depth exploration of religious doctrine, language manipulation, and misplaced devotion. It provides informed inoculation against the many subtle forms of power abuse and exploitation found within the spiritual marketplace

Quote

s anyone who has followed John for any time at all knows, John teaches his followers (maybe the correct term for them is “thralls”) to be unemotional. Suppressing emotions might bring some relief, but if so it is only at a high cost. Where do the emotions go when they are suppressed, ignored, disowned, unacknowledged? Into the body, as toxins.

It’s an ironic, even tragic, fact that people who leave John are still tied to him as long as they have unresolved feelings about him. And how can they not, when he never acknowledges their feelings as real? It’s a powerful, devilish trick for keeping people waiting on the line indefinitely. Whether they are incensed, outraged, confused, bitter, angry, resentful, sad, or grieving, such seemingly unresolvable emotions (unresolvable because John is emotionally out of reach) will cause them to seek refuge in John’s own advice not to listen to or take seriously their feelings. And so, the ex-Johnnie, having no way to resolve that tension, finds him or herself perennially placing themselves back under their Master’s influence.

This is the Oasis revolving door: even as we think we are leaving, we find ourselves back again. If we reject John, criticize or question him, most especially with strong feeling, that’s just the proof of his power and purity, on the one hand, and, on the other, of the impurity of our “patterns” and our inability to appreciate the goodness of John or the goodness within us that only John, in his supreme virtue, can appreciate. This sort of “thinking” is built into the group’s mindset—it’s foundational to John-think—and it is designed to ensure there is no escape for the Birds of Being from the Nest John built. How can you escape from a mirage when it appears wherever your eyes fall, inside the desert of John’s “teachings”?

I went through this horrendous process myself, and it took months, years even, to stop drinking sand and locate my own source of sustenance. Maybe I am still completing the process, and this is why I never released the book. In the worst of it, John seemed everywhere, like a parasitical organism that regenerated itself from a single cell whenever I thought I’d got it completely out of my system. But was it really John, or was it the internal image I had created that was endlessly regenerating?

Quote

Jasun Horsley
APRIL 10, 2017 AT 1:54 PM REPLY

Critical faculties are, IMO, insufficient protection when it comes to charismatic leaders skilled in finding and pulling emotional/energetic triggers, patterns of abandonment and trauma and imprinting us with their own words and presence while in that raw state. It is like accelerated transference and there’s no rational protection against it if you are susceptible (a good match for the teacher) and unless you are forewarned.

cynicalseeker
APRIL 10, 2017 AT 7:06 PM
You may be right. I noticed in one of your articles about Leonard Cohen you said that you had come to the conclusion that you couldn’t any longer trust your gut feeling.

I agree with that.

And I can envision situations where I might make a wrong decision about a particular guru. But this guy? First of all claiming to be Christ would raise a huge red flag for me. And all the staring followed by platitudes? He sounds like the Barack Obama of gurus. Definitely hearing about and reading up on these people is a huge help. You’re doing a good service here. I probably would not have heard of him otherwise.

Jasun Horsley
APRIL 10, 2017 AT 7:13 PM
John doesn’t ever publicly claim to be Christ; he has let it be known among long-term followers and then continues to nurture that belief through hints and nods and innuendos. As Tim says in our talk, he rules through implication.

Quote

Jasun Horsley
APRIL 2, 2017 AT 4:01 PM REPLY
yes well the same can be said of any horrendous experience, but it’s a mighty big IF and I’m more interested in the majority that are still trapped in that crystal maze.

Leah
APRIL 3, 2017 AT 2:05 AM REPLY
Very fair point….. that was a flippant comment at the end I made. Sorry…. I think it’s a way I use to make myself feel safe. I was very lucky and had family taking care of me,,, I was totally shunned by the people who introduced me to him…….. it was a terrifying and most isolating experience and very lucky to be here today…

Jasun Horsley
APRIL 4, 2017 AT 3:55 PM REPLY
Glad someone with direct experience made it over here to the comments section. So many have been rendered speechless and timid by their run in with the 4 X 4 of Truth.

sarah490
APRIL 3, 2017 AT 2:51 PM REPLY
Jasun, please publish your book! I agree with your take on Nicholas. It does sound like he’s still enthralled. His cult-lingo defense of his father made me queasy, as I grew up with that type of gas-lighting. I know the damage it can do. In addition to psychological programming, perhaps, Nicholas now has a vested interest in his father’s busine$$, making it imperative for NDR to keep the show going?