On Our Team: Johan, Eleven Monkeys and an Invitation to Play
“I learn through travel and interaction with the world around me. I play with illusion and like to see the beauty of truth. Creating is a way to express myself, sharing – a way to extend myself, and chocolate – a way to satisfy myself.”
Johan, the urban shaman, the esoteric film maker, producer, and creative director of Qi-Yo is a curious, joyful, and dedicated seeker who captures the story of human consciousness while filming, traveling, and teaching around the world. The focus of his work is on portraying a sense of community and connectivity through sacred rituals, yoga teachings, wisdom traditions – all infused with his singular blend of inspirational healing.
Most intriguingly, Johan is the mastermind behind Eleven Monkeys, a production brand he founded to extend a bridge to other seekers, as he shares his inspirational magic to unleash intuition, and spark insight. Awakening the inner child, our latent creativity we tap the power of subconscious to retrieve our soul purpose, and recreate our personal narrative. Destiny is a variable, we create our reality in joy and wonder. Shared creativity is a cradle of innovation, and inspiration that is infectious and mutually transformative.
Johan brings in the eleven monkeys to shake us out of our comfort zones, to invite us to play, to explore and discover. Leading through games – traditional and devised; guiding through shamanic rituals of the Amazon rainforest; instructing through Qi Gong and Yoga; Johan sprinkles his Monkey star dust - coaching people individually, or in group settings.
He travels along with the Qi-Yo University-on-wheels to share his esoteric knowledge and experience in utter joy and child like wonder. His vision, both visual and kinesthetic, ceremonial and urban, captures the spirit of our evolving world, and arms us modern individuals with strength and power. The goal is to experience purity, to find clarity, to celebrate our most authentic self, together – as ONE.
Background
Johan was born in the Netherlands to Frisian parents. Until his mid-twenties his life was mostly dedicated to work, parties, drug abuse and gaining material wealth. It was during this time that he suffered from severe depression. That was his wake up call. From that moment he got hooked to living a meaningful and sustainable life. He cut old ties, quit his job, relinquished the old patterns and worn-out mind sets, moved out of his house, gave away all his belongings, and bid the old Johan farewell.
Johan started traveling around the world, almost without any money, and lived in several communities in the Balkans, Brazil, and South Africa. It was there that he worked through his personal trauma and dealt with his own control- and belief systems. It was also during this period that he fully experienced the healing and transformational effects of plant medicine. His transformation was profound and urged him to go back to Europe and share his experience and knowledge to liberate people struggling with similar issues. In his healing work he gained proficiency in ceremonies and conducted his own brand of ritual transformation.
Since 2017 Johan has been contributing his ritual magic to the Qi-Yo method in an effort to align people with their soul purpose – liberating them from imposed programming and social manipulation.