Study reveals religious leader’s silent secret
Wednesday November 8, 2006 John de Ruiter
Edmonton-based John de Ruiter has been known to sit on stage, gaze out at his flock and say nothing for hours.
Category: John de Ruiter
Research resources on John de Ruiter
Tapping into inner happiness
Monday April 17, 2006 John de Ruiter
The message of many gurus is oddly similar: joy and peace follow enlightenment When John de Ruiter went looking for inner peace, he tells people he discovered “inner truth.” What he may have found is what scientists call the ‘absolute unitary state’. Some religions characterize the out-of-body sensation as being one with the universe or with God. The Edmonton guru’s spiritual awakening is, in point of description, virtually identical to one described by others working what is known as the “international guru circuit.” Bestselling authors Eckhart Tolle, the maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Byron Katie and even Deepak Chopra all started teaching
Silence is golden – for gurus
Monday April 17, 2006 John de Ruiter
The meeting has gone on for just a few minutes when a perceptible shift occurs: the audience is no longer fidgeting. In five minutes on stage, John de Ruiter has said nothing. Initially, some in the audience seemed uncomfortable or merely bored. But now, they seem enraptured. A man asks de Ruiter to analyze a dream. De Ruiter waits for a full minute before saying anything. Then de Ruiter asks a question. Then another. Then another, with prolonged silences between each. The man’s answers become disjointed and he starts to analyze the dream himself, occasionally pleading to de Ruiter to
John de Ruiter: Man of vision, or …?
Monday April 17, 2006 John de Ruiter
Some think John de Ruiter’s teachings are dangerous Grandmas mix with middle-aged professionals and little kids. People mill between the seats, surrounded by 40-foot marble pillars and a roof accented by crystal chandeliers. It could be a church five minutes before service, though there’s no pulpit on stage, just a table, some flowers and a chair. The people who run this building would tell you John de Ruiter is a “philosopher,” not a guru or religious cult leader. His website, which trumpets the recent construction of the $1.7-million building on 177 Street, even cautions he’s not there to solve problems,
The gospel according to John de Ruiter
Saturday May 5, 2001 John de Ruiter
Once a fundamentalist preacher, John de Ruiter now claims to embody truth, and growing numbers of people believe him. His wife, however, is not among them. Late last January, not far from Amsterdam‘s red-light district, a shopkeeper placed a poster in his window. I paused for a closer look. It was an advertisement, in English, for a series of spiritual meetings led by an intense-looking man with piercing eyes, long wavy hair, and a beard. “Core-splitting honesty and absolute surrender have transformed John de Ruiter into consciousness belonging only to Truth,” the sign read in bold letters. “Let John’s wisdom
‘I was God’s wife’
Tuesday May 16, 2000 John de Ruiter
Joyce de Ruiter had accepted the fact that her husband saw himself as the Messiah. Then he introduced his two new ‘wives’ Joyce de Ruiter says she supported her husband’s quest for truth for 18 years. Not anymore. De Ruiter says the only reason a relationship with three women wouldn’t work is ”because of egos.” A silent John de Ruiter sat on the stage that December evening, surrounded by scores of his worshippers, as his wife took the microphone to speak. Joyce, mother of John’s three children, unfolded the letter she’d prepared for the meeting. ”Dear John, my dear John,”
John de Ruiter: Self-styled ‘truth’ teller challenged
Saturday January 30, 1999 John de Ruiter
New-age messiah John deRuiter was begged Friday night at a crowded meeting in the basement of a southwest Calgary community centre to discourage a local woman from joining his growing Edmonton-based “truth” movement. Marilyn Lunge has been a follower of deRuiter for two years and wants to move to Edmonton where he holds meetings four times per week. “Marilyn says she knows you’re the embodiment of Christ or truth,” deRuiter was told by her husband, Bob Lunge. “I’d say yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” replied deRuiter. A Stettler native with an intense gaze who once made orthopedic shoes
John de Ruiter: Shoemaker to Messiah?
Monday December 7, 1998 John de Ruiter
John de Ruiter used to be a shoemaker in Edmonton. Now people come from all over the world to hear him preach his New Age gospel or just to be near him. Some even call him the Second Coming of Christ. Native groups call him the “lost white brother.” “I’ve seen a lot of spiritual teachers,” says Benita von Sass, a follower, “but . . . he’s the one.” Stephen Kent, a University of Alberta professor who specializes in cults and new religions, accompanied a National Post reporter to a weekend session with Mr. De Ruiter. “This is the beginning