A Self-Made Messiah Unveiled
‘Horsley’s painfully honest tale of devotion and deceit shows how cult logic can draw in pretty much anyone. It can happen to you.’ ~Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock and Program or Be Programmed
No one who belongs to a cult believes they are in a cult.
Most people who join cults are seeking freedom, truth, and happiness. They are trying to get free from the (mostly unacknowledged) cult-like nature of society. Desperate for spiritual orientation, they fall prey to the first charismatic guru who crosses their path and meets their emotional needs.
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.
Thank you Jasun, for exposing John as the diabolical deceiver that he is. He used a basic spiritual truth he called “okayness”, that made him appear to be solid, but he twisted it for his own phony image. John is also a bold-faced, self-justified liar and perhaps completely deceived by his own mental illness and ambition.
thanks Mark; you knew JdR in the very early days, I think? In your opinion was the deception there from the start or did it slowly creep into the picture?
That’s right, I met John in ’92 and yes IMHO there was deception right from the start. At that time he claimed to be receiving direct revelation from “thousands of face to face encounters with Jesus Christ”. His group was very small despite his attempts to stir up Christians. He put up numerous billboard signs at the busy intersection of the shoe store where he worked and on the back of his van. One sign read, ” Jesus Christ says, Christianity is Satan’s masterpiece.” John was amazed his signs did not generate a single response. He told me that he thought the phone would be ringing off the wall from outraged Christians. Benita accurately described John as an opportunist and a huckster. In 1997 John’s method of teaching drastically shifted pretty much overnight. A New Age man, who taught a course at Nait on religion, started coming to the meetings. He introduced John to other New Agers and John started holding meetings on Whyte ave. At first John’s small group were not allowed to attend. He told his core group that he wanted to develop with the new people first. Eventually his small group were slowly invited to attend, a couple members at a time and then the rest. He had dropped the focus on Jesus as the center of his meetings and said that he no longer needed that because he was now of “full age”. He now claimed to be the full embodiment of truth on earth, John Christ (lol).
related: https://auticulture.com/the-liminalist-276-crucified-by-christianity-the-coordinates-of-epiphany-with-kurt-hardesty/