I wish I could easily dismiss him as a charlatan, but I am aware of how immersed in JZ/Ramthas belief system he is. He is a true believer in the "you create your own reality" dogma. He may even believe that he has become the God he was meant to be as Ramtha teaches. This type of thinking enables all types of behavior including fleecing those for their own good.
Of course, while this makes this understandable it does not make it excusable. But it does go a long way to show how and why people will accept and defend him. Some call it charisma, I would say that a large part of his comes from the fact that he has invested so much of his life that to question or re-examine his beliefs at this point would render him ineffective in his delivery of his spiel.
Unfortunately, when the con believes in his own pitch it makes them all the more effective because of the visceral nature of the delivery.