This post is both an update and a call-out. If you are already up to date, skip to the call-out in the last paragraph.
Self-professed living embodiment of truth John de Ruiter has been in the news lately. He was arrested on January 21st and charged with the sexual assault of four women. Police reports say he claimed a “spirit” made him do it: a surprising departure from what has been his standard line since at least 2000, which is that nothing less than the Truth made him do it.
De Ruiter is currently out on bail, having rescinded his passport and agreed “not to be alone with any woman other than his wife, daughter, or immediate family members, except with the supervision of a responsible adult who is not his wife.” As a result of all this, I have received a number of emails and Dark Oasis has been hovering around the best-seller page in Religion and Psychology on Amazon.ca, verily demanding my attention. I have updated the Amazon page, my wife’s been working on a new cover, and I anticipate updating the book to keep abreast of these developments. Here’s the new copy for Dark Oasis:
In Dark Oasis, psycho-sleuth Jasun Horsley takes the “method-writer” approach: after succumbing to John de Ruiter’s charismatic enchantments and formidable powers of suggestion, he enters all the way inside a murky maze of mind control and soul-subjugations, and makes it out the other side with a hair-whitening story to tell. Dark Oasis recounts how cult mechanics proceed inexorably from covert op to an open “Calling” to coerce and conquer vulnerable women by the dozen, through systematic acts of degradation, leading hundreds of sincere spiritual seekers into a desert of unreality.
From humble pastor to untouchable spiritual capo: John de Ruiter’s 25-year reign of cuckoldry, core-rotting deception, rough sex, monster trucks, security cameras, entity possession, NDAs, lawsuits, tax evasion, US entry-bans, high-level paranoia, sexual compromat, spiritualized suicides, velvet-tongued seductions and psychic S & M dungeons, is finally exposed as an empire of self-interest.
(Tongue-in-cheek mock-up by Mrs. H.)
The media (and the public) devours these kinds of sex scandals, and it seems unlikely that de Ruiter and his devotees will survive the feeding frenzy that the trial is likely to generate, any more than other recent targets of collective outrage and fascination (John of God, NXVIM) have. Well and good. So far, only four women are on the prosecution list against de Ruiter, but the number of women who have been singled out for his “Calling” since the 1990s must by now tally in the dozens, if not hundreds. (When finishing Dark Oasis in 2016-17, I spoke to one woman who considered herself a victim of de Ruiter’s sexual manipulations, but she ended up asking for her experience to be left out of the book.) Presumably some of these women got what they wanted, though I highly doubt it was what de Ruiter promised them (according to a police report, his magic wand was supposed to bestow “spiritual enlightenment”).
How many more women are still too frightened to come forward? As the case unfolds, will they speak out, emboldened by these first courageous few? How many will there be, will there also be men, even children? The only thing that is safe to say is that what goes on behind the Wizard’s curtain is something far freakier than anything Dorothy or the Tin Man ever signed up for (though they may have signed NDAs).
The exact nature of the assault charges against de Ruiter hasn’t been disclosed yet. I have heard from a few people since the story broke. I have done an interview with a Canadian TV company (a brief excerpt of which made it into an article), and received a request for another; documentaries and podcast series are already in preparation.
Of course, entrenched and sand-bagged members of the Oasis community will view these charges as “trumped up,” as further proof of John’s goodness and martyrdom. They will insist that he is being persecuted by an evil world system and/or by demonic entities because of how good he is. But unlike Jesus, de Ruiter is demonstrably guilty, at the very least of lies and manipulations pertaining to his sex life, since at least 1999. He, or at the very least his “teachings,” may also have been responsible for causing the death of a young woman, Anina, in 2014. Anina wrote of de Ruiter’s sexual seductions (which de Ruiter claimed were only “visions” of an unstable mind). Soon after, she went into the Edmonton forest in mid-winter, took all her clothes off, and froze to death. Evidence (included in Dark Oasis) suggests de Ruiter had foreknowledge of Anina’s fate, and personal accountability for it.
Who watches the watchmen?
Around this same time, one young woman spoke out publicly about being sexually propositioned by de Ruiter and his wife, Leigh Anne. Enter the “Accountability Committee.” The AC was a shadowy organization within the shadowy organization of Oasis; its role ranged (confusingly) from approving JdR’s choice of wife (Leigh-Anne) to supposedly making de Ruiter accountable to Oasis members by bringing all concerns to him. Essentially, it acted as a buffer between de Ruiter and any members asking difficult questions, as a way to prevent such thorny questions coming up in meetings, where everyone could hear them.
Any Oasians who were becoming disturbed by the ongoing revelations around de Ruiter’s sexual appetites, and especially around his many deceptions, distortions, and dissembling, were “admin-ed” into silence (SOP for cults, really, and it happened to myself a number of times, whether or not any AC members were involved, on Oasis’ Birds of Being forum). Many of these doubters ended up leaving, either pushed out by the group or acting on their own common sense initiative. These were the lucky ones.
So who will hold the Accountability Committee accountable for its complicity with these (alleged) crimes? Amazingly, there are still perhaps hundreds of members of the Oasis community who know the truth (at least in part) and who continue to stand by de Ruiter in the face of all of this “collateral damage.” They are not only turning away from people they once considered friends and allies—ex-followers speaking out about the harm de Ruiter has done them—they are turning against them. Worse, they are turning against the Truth. By siding with the Lie, they are becoming more and more complicit with a demonstrable Evil. As de Ruiter’s Black Ship™ goes down, how many souls will go down with it?
Call-Out. Bring out your dead! If you already made it out of the burning Bunker and want to be on-hand to help other survivors make it out to safety: Reach out! If you are halfway out and need help avoiding falling temple stones, Reach out! If you are still trying to find the exits, or wondering which way to head when you do, Reach out! If you haven’t even started looking for the exits and are still trying to find the courage to seriously consider it, for the love of Truth, what are you waiting for? Reach-out! There is help from those of us who have gone before you.
For this and other reasons, quite probably over the coming months, I will be updating Dark Oasis, inviting new witness testimonies, giving interviews, and offering support, doing whatever it takes to cast out this Horny Devil from our midst, and restore Truth to the Temple.
Blessings,
Jasun Horsley
Good work, Jasun, I read your book on Kindle and I was not surprised. I am worried about my friends. Sadly, these revelations don’t help the cult members entrenched in blind devotion.
I might have seen you if you ever came to any of the Tiru retreats.
I am happy and grateful for your good work.