The Coach Initiative is thrilled to announce and welcome to the team one of our newest board members, John Raatz! A pioneer of the expansive realm of transformational media, John is the Founder/CEO of GATE (Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment) as well as the Founder/Principal of The Visioneering Group, a transformational marketing and public relations firm. TCI met with John recently to discuss his storied career as a transformational leader, his decades-long friendship with actor Jim Carrey, and his dedication to advocating for consciousness in art and media.

“Life leaves clues,” John says. “…All different facets of [my] life were intertwined, interconnected, moving forward in particular direction, but I didn’t know it at the time. Everything I’ve ever done is to found GATE and move GATE forward in the world.”

John’s and, inevitably, GATE’s, story begins in Flint, Michigan, where he started playing in successful rock and roll bands as a preteen. While teaching himself how to play guitar, he experienced a number of transcendental moments – an expansion, leading him to feel as if he’s one with everything and everything other than his immediate focus goes to background and transcendent focus comes to foreground. John calls these moments “life initiation experiences.” Crucial moments that initiated him to begin a spiritual search.

As with most, if not all, musicians of the ‘60s, John found inspiration from listening to a little band called “The Beatles.” Following them from the mod subculture of the early ‘60s through to their 1967 release of megahit “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” John took note of the fact that the Fab Four were following the teachings of transcendental meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Curious about spirituality and the Maharishi’s teachings, in 1973, he continued to dive into the world of transcendental meditation – soon becoming a teacher, himself, after attending a husband-and-wife lecture at the University of Michigan.

A few years later, John was in the French Alps, studying to become a teacher of transcendental meditation. The Maharishi gave a lecture, “The Artist and the Scientist,” which focused on the role of the artist in society, planting a seed that grew into the initial idea to found GATE. 

John returned to Flint to share what he’d learned as a teacher of transcendental meditation, a journey that propelled him to move to California. 

“I moved to California in 1979, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” John recalls. “Lots of things resonated with me, but I had - and still have - a voracious curiosity.”

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John started a filing system of articles he’d rip out of newspapers and magazines. One day, he decided to categorize the system and realized most of the topics were related to: 

• spirituality

• entertainment/arts/media

• productivity/time management

• financial concerns

• PR, advertising, videography, film, etc. 

“I decided I wanted to help people build their dream and to learn from other people – to be an open conduit.”

The subject matter he identified informed the tools he’d use for his next endeavors, The Visioneering Group and, later, GATE. 

“Whatever I do, I have to do for the sake of spirituality – making the world a better place.” 

John decided to only work with people in entertainment/arts/media whose projects had a spiritual/transformational focus. He vowed to only work with people whose projects and life work revolve around the promotion of consciousness and betterment of the world. 

To date, The Visioneering Group has been around for at least 33 years and has served a few thousand clients. Some take the focus of a single consultation session, while other projects blossomed into full campaigns for films and the arts.

John could have stopped there, but as someone who is always looking up, he’s determined to see what’s next and what he can continue to accomplish.

His next venture was the founding and formation of GATE – a process that, John says, took place over decades. A perpetual need to establish GATE came to him during his time in California. Through his work at the Visioneering Group, he met and befriended fellow spiritual teacher and bestselling author of “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle. John shared his idea for GATE with Eckhart, who encouraged the persistent idea. 

“If something keeps emerging with intensity,” Eckhart told him, “over time, there’s something you need to look at about that.”

John invited Eckhart to give a keynote speech on consciousness in entertainment in the inaugural event of GATE, and to be an honorary cofounder. John also invited John’s friend, Jim Carrey, to cohost the event. With Jim and Eckhart bookending the event, John felt people would take him and his aspirational organization a bit more seriously.

In June 2009, the inaugural GATE event occurred at Fox Studios’ Zanuck Theatre, where 500 people filled the sold-out audience. The success of the event showed John that there were tens of thousands around the world who would understand GATE, who would want to bring their own spirituality into their work as an entertainer or entertainment business – as an artist.

Today, John advocates for the freedom of the artist, always keeping in mind the GATE sutra – “No light (consciousness), no art; no art, no life.” 

“We need to stay out of the artists’ way and allow them to create,” John stresses.

His advocacy and love for the spiritual experience is something highly valued at TCI; when asked about his thoughts on TCI, John is quick to respond. 

“I enjoy [meeting] the people involved,” John says. “They’re a very interesting group of people - accomplished on so many levels. I feel admiration for them.”

John sees TCI as a support organization for other organizations trying to accomplish good in the world. He likens TCI to a root system, where nourishment flows through the roots to the bark, branch, fruits, and berries that benefit the world. TCI, he notes, has a very important role in helping that nourishment flow to so many different organizations.