The Decibel - Edmonton spiritual leader charged with sexual assault

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

John de Ruiter, a spiritual leader known for his piercing stare and who calls himself the ‘embodiment of truth’ was arrested and charged with four counts of sexual assault earlier this month. He��s now out on bail and intends to fight the charges.De Ruiter is a leader of a multimillion dollar organization called The College of Integrated Philosophy. It’s based in Edmonton but has followers all over the world. Some have described the group as a cult.The Globe’s Jana Pruden has been investigating the group for years. She has spoken to former members and attended a meeting to learn more about de Ruiter’s teachings. She’s on the show to explain what she’s learned about this tight-knit community and what these charges could mean for its future.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

It is only worth following someone that you genuinely know is mastered by truth. That's John DeRuiter. He calls himself the embodiment of truth. He's the leader of a multi-million dollar spiritual organization known as the College of Integrated Philosophy, based in Edmonton. Some have described this tight-knit community as a cult. Earlier this month, DeRyder was arrested and charged with four counts of sexual assault. He's now out on bail and intends to fight the charges.

The Globe's Jana Pruden has been following DeRyder's group for years and published an investigation back in 2017. It looked into allegations around his sexual relationships with women followers. Today, Jana will catch us up. I'm Aneka Raman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Jana, thank you so much for joining me again. Thanks so much for having me on. This spiritual leader, John DeRyder, is based in Edmonton, where you also live, Jana, and you actually attended one of his meetings in 2017 when working on a story about him. What was that meeting like?

Yeah, you know, I really didn't know what to expect when I went into that meeting. I'd heard a lot of stories from people about the effects that he had, including another journalist who I had worked with at the Edmonton Journal who'd covered him many years earlier, who actually asked to be taken off the story because he felt himself being sort of drawn in by John. So I was a little bit nervous, a little bit just didn't know what to expect. And I guess what I would say is it's very quiet. It was in what was then the Oasis Center, a very lavish building in West Edmonton, not all that far from the West Edmonton Mall. It looks very grand. It's, I guess, exactly what you might picture to be sort of a new age church. And the main area that I was in where the meeting was held is very much built around John to be in the center, to be able to see him, to have him well lit

and able to view everyone in the room. And you essentially are taken into a specific seat or I was given a specific seat. And then there is a long, long period of silent staring and people have an opportunity to ask questions and that's a meeting. I want to ask you about the staring because this is part of his teachings. They involve long periods of him staring at people, them staring back. Can you just explain that part for me? What is that really like? Yeah, the staring has really been a part of who he is since really his early days.

And it is essentially just that. It's this very, very focused staring. He has very, very blue eyes. On stage, he will scan the room and sometimes stare at a specific person for a very long period of time. He might pick someone and stare at them for half an hour straight without breaking eye contact. But you can also, in the Oasis Center, there was large screens and you could look into his eyes on screen and he is staring directly at you. This has very profound effects on people. You know, I saw people crying. Many, many people describe, you know, these really profound experiences, even hallucinations in the periods

of staring that he does. And it really, he's sort of known, sometimes you'll hear him called, say, the staring guru. It's kind of his, what he's known for and how he connects with his followers. And we know there's a little bit of science around this too, right? What staring into someone guru. It's kind of his, what he's known for and how he connects with his followers. And we know there's a little bit of science around this too, right? What staring into someone's eyes does to us, what does it do? What effect does it have? Yeah, I mean, there is science around that it can be very persuasive. There was some studies and experiments around staring into another person's eyes and how that could make you feel like you're in love, that it can have sort of hypnotic effects. But on the other hand, his followers, of course, would say that that's a way of connecting and is deeply spiritual and I guess metaphysical experience. What is it about him that people find so compelling?

You know, can be a difficult thing for people outside to understand. He is not a person that automatically connects with me, for instance, you know, but he speaks a lot about the metaphysical. He, you know, speaks a lot about the universe and higher realms of consciousness. And so there is an idea that he is, has answers to some very large metaphysical questions. And that really connects with some people. One thing that I have found reporting on John over the past number of years is truly how much some people love him and care about him. And even sometimes followers who leave the group, it may not be because they have stopped believing in him as sort of a higher, a more evolved person, but they lose faith and think he's been corrupted, but they still do

potentially believe in him as this, a very highly evolved person who is on a different realm than the rest of us. This sounds a little bit cult-like to me. Could we call this a cult? On the Frequently Asked questions page of John's website, that's one of the frequently asked questions. Do John and his meetings constitute a cult? It says here on the website, meetings and seminars are open to the public with no initiations, vows or special garb required to attend and that he does everything he can to balance the perceived power differential of student and teacher, and some other reasons. And quote, for these reasons, John DeRuiter's events

do not constitute a cult. Other people, including some experts in cults, and some people who have been part of this organization, disagree. And who are the kind of people that are attracted to his message? Yeah, so there's a lot of followers who are women. There are men as well. And I would say it probably skews towards more middle-aged women, but there are families and people of all ages. And so before John DeRuiter was the leader, became the leader of the spiritual community, who was he before that? Yeah, he was the son of a shoemaker from Stettler, Alberta. That's a small city in Alberta. The story goes that around the age of 17, he has this first awakening. He used to talk about then a vision where he saw Jesus on a highway and that then

Jesus appeared to him thousands of times. And this is a quote, transferred who he is over to me to do as he did. The communication has always been a direct communication of being. So when there would be an encounter like that, I would know everything that he's thinking, feeling, everything that's happening inside, and then he would know exactly the same thing. So there's this, it's like an all-encompassing, expansive communication.

Pretty soon, though, we see him move away from, I guess, a more traditional Christian sort of discussions into much more New Age and metaphysical philosophy. And in the mid-1990s or so, he breaks away from that church and starts preaching at his house and has only grown from there. And so I guess he kind of amasses this group of followers. And he was married at this time as well, right? He had a family. Yeah. So at first he leaves that church and he has his then wife, Joyce, and they had three children. And soon his followers are providing enough money by either paying for meetings, by giving him money, by paying for books, pamphlets, in those days cassette tapes, that they're supporting him and his family. And the

group continues growing and growing and growing. And then it grows to the point that they're in the Oasis Center, which was a building that was built by him and his community of followers. The building, when it was built, cost over $1 million and it sold in 2021 for over $6.6 million. It's hard to pinpoint how many followers there are. We know there are hundreds. At points, there have maybe been thousands. And also what defines a follower, of course, isn't clear. It's not you don't sign a membership card or something. So there's the many hardcore followers who moved to Edmonton to be near him. And there may be casual followers from around the world who would tune in to his teachings occasionally. So, I mean, it sounds like through

most of the 90s, I mean, his group was just getting bigger. John was getting more followers. Things were growing. When were the first signs of trouble, though? You know, Dr. Stephen Kent, who's an expert on alternative religions at the University of Alberta, started following the group around then and really saw the potential for problems. And he actually met with John DeRuiter somewhere in that period and warned him and his followers about what could happen with unchecked power and if people in the group couldn't hold John to account. And there was a large incident in the late 90s, and that was when John DeRuiter felt that he was called to have

two new wives. And that was these beautiful sisters, Benita and Katrina von Sass. And his wife, Joyce, confronted him actually at a meeting in front of everybody. And ultimately, she ended up leaving the group. And there were people who left the group after that as well that really questioned the way that he was treating his family. Later, about 10 years later, he splits up with the sisters and they filed several court documents that made a lot of claims against him. Well, what did those documents say? What were those concerns? Yeah. So in those lawsuits, they basically said that they were owed significant amount of money. They, like many of his other followers, described contributing tens of thousands of dollars

property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that he had used spiritual pressure and even fear to manipulate those who believed in him for sex power and financial gain and Benita one of the sisters who had once called him goodness and purity personified now called him in one of those court documents quote an opportunist and a huckster. We'll be back in a moment. Jenna, you've been following this story for a number of years now. In 2017, you did a big investigation into Jonda Ryder and his followers. And that's when you started to hear about concerns, especially around sexual interactions with him and some members. Can you tell me what you learned

then? Yeah, that was a time when one woman had come forward saying that he had told her that he had been called to have a sexual relationship with her. And she felt that him asking her to do that in secret was contrary to this truth and openness. And she posted about that in some forums with the group. And then another woman came forward and recalled a similar experience. She wrote, experience um she wrote living in this split of having to choose between what my natural movement is and what you're telling me to do is leaving me unhappy and confused i love you and when you clearly stand against what i'm saying i follow you but it leaves me in a very dark place so um that post was sort of raising confusion about this idea of what sexuality John may be bringing to the group.

And it was exacerbated by the disappearance and assumed suicide of a woman who had been in the group. And there were some questions about whether she had had any sexual contact with John as well. So that sort of started the questions. That's the point or brought the questions at least to the forefront in a way where there was a bulk of people asking questions about it. That's when I worked on this piece. And then in the years since there has been some, a lot of talk roiling, you know, this file has never left my desk since 2016 when I started working on it. And I'm not sure a month has gone by where I haven't gotten an email from someone. So I know it has continued to circulate. And some of the questions around his sexual activity with his

followers have continued. And of course, that came to a head when a source told me that he had been arrested and charged with four counts of sexual assault. What exactly do we know about these allegations? We really don't know anything except the period in which they occurred, 2017 to 2020, and that it involves four people who were members or followers of his. So what they said, and this is a quote from Edmonton Police Service, it was reported that the accused informed certain female group members that he was directed by a spirit to engage in sexual activity with them and that engaging in sexual activity with him will provide them an opportunity to

achieve a state of higher being or spiritual enlightenment. And police have said that they believe there may be more complainants and that people who feel that they have been victimized should come forward to police. Having interacted with the community, been at a meeting, you know, John has an incredible amount of power over this community. And what it would take, I think, for someone to go to the police and make an potential pressure you could be faced from the community, from friends, from relatives, and even from inside yourself, I think would be, could be very extreme in this situation. Okay. And what has John DeRuiter said about these allegations? He hasn't commented publicly, but an email response we got from his organization was very similar to a response that was sent out internally to the group that essentially says he'll be represented by legal counsel and intends to vigorously contest the charges in court. And to me, the message included that it's a very difficult time for people within the community.

Jana, you mentioned this professor earlier who's been following the writer, and he said that this case could be potentially precedent setting. Why is that? Yeah, Dr. Kent has been following the Oasis group. And when we were talking, he was talking about how one of the complexities is going to be that he is a religious or spiritual leader, but that organization itself is also a business and also a business with a lot of money involved, and that he's also calling himself an educator. This is a college, though it is not registered as a college, it is called a college. So he's expecting that it's going to set precedent around issues related to sex, consent, free will, coercion, and assault in this context. Okay. And so we talk about him

as a leader and as an educator then in this context. What are his views around sex? Does that play into his teachings at all? Since conversation in the community has been more open around his sexual interactions with followers, he's spoken about it, I think, on a number of occasions. I'm not involved in every meeting, of course, by any means, but people have passed along information and he does talk about it. And again, he talks about it on his, the frequently asked questions page of his website, asks him about sex with women outside of his wife. And he says that he there, that he follows the thread of pure knowing and that it comes to him through his response to what he most deeply knows on a metaphysical level. And so given these allegations, what do we expect to see next for the college, the College of Integrated Philosophy, his organization, and for the people involved? Well, I've been definitely hearing about some people leaving the group or who have recently

left the group. They have sold the Oasis Center and are increasingly moving to rural Alberta. That's a big shift that's happening within the community. Dr. Kent has said that what he expects is that, you know, there is this defection, but that with people who don't defect are going to come even more closely around John and be even more dedicated and devoted to him. There's always been an idea of the outside world not understanding and being hostile towards John and his message. So I assume that that will only increase in light of the charges. He's hired a lawyer, Dino Batos, who's a very prominent and very good lawyer in Edmonton, who will be shepherding the case through the courts. And I guess we'll also see if more charges are forthcoming or not. Janet, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Thanks so much for having me on the show. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Kasia Mihailovic is our senior producer,

and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.