I also don't see John "swinging from one extreme to the other."  He seems to still reject Rawat as a fraud, and the cult being a cult, but now he regrets being so public about it, and getting so into the opposition.

It's sort of like saying he just would have preferred to just leave the cult and keep his mouth shut, except maybe to his friends. 

I actually can accept the latter, although I admire people who have the courage to help others, which I think John has done. 

Really swinging to extremes would be to go back to the cult, to recognized Rawat as his "master" and ask for forgiveness, as opposted to giving an apology.  There is a huge difference there.

Still a lot of this is very weird, which I think is due to John's psychological state after having been so reavaged by the cult.