A TALE OF CAPTURE AND BRAINWASHING: MEDINA CLAN TELLS HOW CULT RULED LIVES Akron Beacon Journal
January 21, 1990
by Richard Weizel, Beacon Journal business writer
(c) 1995 Akron Beacon Journal. All rts. reserv.

During a five-month period in 1988, Bob and Dorothy Geary paid $200,000 to the Church of Scientology to gain spiritual perfection.

Instead, they say, they nearly lost their minds.

A Medina dentist, Geary said he also nearly lost his 5-year-old practice, and his wife wound up requiring hospitalization after allegedly being held captive for more than two weeks by Scientologists in California.

'Our story is so bizarre that when you hear the whole thing it sounds like something that would only be made in Hollywood,' said Geary. 'I wouldn't have believed it myself if it didn't happen to me.' Dorothy Geary says that at the conclusion of her five-month involvement she remained in a dazed state for months until being deprogrammed by a former Scientologist in Canada.

The Gearys say that they have recovered about half the money paid to the Scientologists. But, they said, they rejected a $44,000 cash settlement offered last month by the church, because it would have required them to remain silent.

A spokesman for the church's San Francisco mission, August Murphy, did not dispute that Mrs. Geary was taken by Scientologists to a cabin in California in the fall of 1988. And he agreed that the church had made a cash settlement offer to the Gearys, because it was church policy to 'return donations' when members choose to leave.

He denied, though, that Mrs. Geary was ever held against her will and said, 'We would love to resolve things with the Gearys and work out these differences. We made them an offer, but they rejected it.' Instead, Geary has begun to speak out. Recently, he addressed a group of health professionals in Michigan about his family's experience, which began at a free seminar offered by Sterling Management Systems.

Sterling, a California company, has been described by Inc. Magazine as one of the 45 fastest growing private firms in the country. Sterling Management is not connected with Sterling Inc. of Fairlawn, the retail jewelry company owned by Ratners of Great Britain.

Sterling Management runs seminars and services that the company says will help medical professionals increase their profits. But the Gearys and other former Scientologists said Sterling also is a front organization for the Church of Scientology. Many medical professionals in the Akron area confirm they receive Sterling's mailings frequently.

Murphy said that there 'are Scientologists working for Sterling, but it is not part of the church at all.' He said that Sterling workers consult with dentists and other health professionals to help them use the management techniques of Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. 'Some of them get involved in the church and some don't,' Murphy said.

Repeated attempts to reach Sterling officials in California for comment were unsuccessful.

Scientology is considered a dangerous cult by the national Cult Awareness Network. The church received considerable negative publicity for burglarizing and wire-tapping government agencies in the late 1970s, and has lost its tax-exempt status in California.

The Gearys say their involvement with Scientology began when Bob Geary attended a three-hour Sterling seminar in May 1988 at the Cleveland Marriott hotel. After the seminar, Geary said, he was given a personality profile and told he needed further seminars to improve his practice.

'They knew exactly the right emotional buttons to push to influence me,' he said. 'I don't know why, but I couldn't say no.' Before he left, Geary said, he had signed a $10,500 check to attend a weeklong seminar at Sterling's Glendale, Calif., facility.

A month after the initial seminar the Gearys, along with their two daughters, flew to Glendale so Bob Geary could attend further seminars.

Once in California, Geary said, he and his wife were pressured into signing up for additional work at the Church of Scientology's San Francisco mission.

'They told us we had marital problems,' Mrs. Geary said. 'They separated us and told me that Bob needed this to improve his life and his practice.

They came on real strong and wouldn't let up.' But Bob Geary said he was being told another story, that his wife wanted him to take more seminars because she wished he were more successful.

After returning home for a month, the family flew out to the San Francisco mission in mid-July for 10 days of intensive 'auditing,' a term the church uses for counseling and retraining. Former members maintain it actually is brainwashing.

Included in the auditing procedures is the use of an E-Meter, a wire that holds two cans together. The meter supposedly indicates whether a person is telling the truth and if he or she has advanced spiritually.

Geary also described taking part in a practice called 'bull-baiting,' in which two persons sit face-to-face and stare at each other for hours without saying anything.

'The scary thing was that those kinds of exercises were making me emotionless,' said Geary. 'It was like I didn't have a mind of my own.' But the Gearys' daughters say they were never impressed by Scientology.

'I didn't believe anything they told us,' said the Gearys' 15-year-old daughter, who did not want her first name used. 'I never believed in the E-Meter and I thought the whole thing was real stupid. I would sign out to go to the bathroom, and go shopping instead.' The Gearys said that within a few weeks of their involvement they were unable to resist signing checks, arranging for bank loans and borrowing money from the dental practice to pay the Scientology group for additional seminars. They showed a Beacon Journal reporter canceled checks written out to the Church of Scientology totaling more than $180,000.

The couple also said that a Scientologist forged Bob Geary's signature to a check for $20,000 when Geary didn't 'move fast enough' to pay for additional seminars, a charge Murphy denied.

The Gearys said they allowed Scientologists to move into their house for additional auditing after Geary and his oldest daughter returned home at the end of July.

But Mrs. Geary did not return home. She said she stayed at the mission, along with her youngest daughter, because she was advised that she needed to be cleared, a Scientology term for climbing to higher spiritual levels. She said she could not return to Medina even when it was time for her youngest daughter to resume school at the end of August.

The daughter flew home alone.

In early September Mrs. Geary came back to Medina for a brief time, but describes feeling 'weird' and out of place. She was by this time having hallucinations, according to family doctor W. Denny Robertson, and appeared to her friends and family to be unstable.

A week later, Mrs. Geary said, she returned to San Francisco for further auditing procedures that she hoped would clear her confusion.

Mrs. Geary says she was met at the airport by Scientologists who 'drove me around in a car for hours and hours,' and then held her captive for more than two weeks in a cabin near Mount Shasta to correct behavior that could harm the organization.

'All we tried to do is help Mrs. Geary with counseling procedures,' said Murphy. He declined to allow the Beacon Journal to speak with any of the three Scientologists Mrs. Geary has named as her captors.

Murphy said that Mrs. Geary had a pre-existing mental condition that the group was trying to correct and that the couple had agreed that she have the treatment. He also alleged that Mrs. Geary's family has a history of schizophrenia.

The Gearys, their psychiatrist, Dr. Myung Kwak, and their family physician, Dr. Robertson, deny that allegation.

'There was never anything wrong with her until she got involved with the Scientologists,' said Robertson.

Kwak agreed. 'I don't believe Mrs. Geary had any previous history of mental illness,' she said.

The Gearys say the result of her captivity was devastating. Mrs. Geary said she was a victim of sleep and food deprivation and was pushed against walls and onto a bed when she protested and demanded to be set free.

'I tried to escape from the cabin several times, but they wouldn't let me leave,' she said. 'They just kept saying they wanted us to give them more money and that I needed to be alone.' Geary said that though he did not know his wife's whereabouts during this time, he did know that she was seeking Scientology counseling. That is why, he said, the couple has been advised not to pursue criminal charges.

But when he pressed for details about his wife's treatment, 'They refused to tell me where she was,' he said. 'And that's when I started getting scared.' At that point Geary's lawyer, Stephen Brown, met with Scientologists and said he alerted the FBI in Ohio and in California.

'We had a meeting with several of their representatives who were in the Medina area and we told them that we wanted to know where she was and wanted to talk to her,' said Brown. 'Within 24 hours Dr. Geary was notified that she was at an address in California and within a day she was back. But it was an intense few days.' When Mrs. Geary returned, she required a week of hospitalization at Akron General Medical Center, according to Kwak and Robertson. Friends also say she had a bald spot on her head and had lost 20 pounds.

'She was skin and bones and had skinned elbows,' said longtime friend and neighbor Elaine Lamb, wife of former Medina Mayor William Lamb.

'I've been in politics for eight years and you come up against some incredible circumstances,' said Lamb. 'But this situation was the most frustrating and bizarre that I had ever had any connection with.' The Gearys sought help from the local chapter of the Cult Awareness Network, and were referred to the Canadian deprogrammer, a former Scientologist who said she has been fighting the movement for 17 years.

'What they did to Dodie Geary is shocking, but typical of what they do to many others,' said the woman, who asked that her name be withheld because of a court-imposed gag order resulting from a legal settlement with the Scientology church.

The Beacon Journal submitted a list of questions in writing to both the Church of Scientology's San Francisco mission and to Sterling Management that have not been answered. Murphy declined to answer many questions during telephone interviews.

Other medical professionals say they, like the Gearys, were lured to Sterling's free seminars by the promise of greater profits.

'These people almost got me,' said Dr. Donald Shumaker, a Cleveland dentist who is past president of the Cleveland Dental Society and Ohio Dental Association.

Shumaker, now 51, had been practicing dentistry for 23 years when he went to the free Sterling seminar attended by Geary. He says that he and his partner, Dr. Frank Zeleznik, were initially impressed with some of Sterling's management principles, such as organization and goal setting.

But Shumaker said they got nervous when Sterling wanted them to sign up immediately and pay $20,000 for further seminar work.

'They were intent on closing the sale that night, and taking our $20,000 right then and there,' said Shumaker. 'They didn't want to wait and wanted to know how big our credit lines were.' Shumaker said he became uneasy about what he termed unethical practices promoted by Sterling -- mostly that health professionals prescribe high-cost procedures regardless of whether they are in the patients' best interests.

Bob Geary says he wishes he had been able to resist Sterling's tactics.

The couple say they will carry serious emotional scars the rest of their lives.

Dr. Tom Ebner, an orthopedic surgeon from Medina, heard Geary's first speech to the Tri-state Dental-Medical Group in Michigan. 'He told us in his own words how he was duped,' Ebner said. 'People were quite shocked that something like this could happen. Almost all of the dentists said they had been approached by these consulting management companies, but many were not aware of the things that have been going on.' Geary said that's why he's speaking out, though he has not yet arranged further speaking engagements.

'It was a total nightmare,' said Geary. 'I hope that we can help prevent other people from making the same mistake we did. Tell people that if they get any brochures from Sterling or any other Scientology group ... to just throw them away.'
CORRECTION / GETTING IT STRAIGHT:

Medina dentist Robert Geary has been in practice for 16 years, and in his present office for five years. The story above incorrectly stated the number of years he has been practicing. Also, Geary said that his signature had been forged by a Scientologist on a loan application, not a check, as reported below. A reporter misunderstood Geary during an interview.

We say, "I still can't believe this happened to us."

Dee Rowe, wife of local dentist Glover Rowe D.M.D., described their recent harrowing experience in what was sup posed to be a "management seminar" in California.

Dr. and Mrs. Rowe said they were held against their will by a religious cult and were forced to endure brainwashing attempts.

MRS. ROWE identified the organization responsible for luring dentists, chiropractors, veterinarians and other medical professionals into this "scam" as a management systems firm with facilities in Glendale, Calif.

"They advertise business management courses that cost $15,000 for seven days," said Mrs. Rowe. "They usually get a dentist who has been in your area and print a success story on him. This dentist gets 10 percent of the $15,000 if you buy the package."

Mrs. Rowe. who could not reveal the name of the dentist who introduced them to the seminar, said that she and Dr. Rowe took out a loan for S15,000, not knowing how they would pay it back.

"We went to California to a seven-day seminar," said Mrs.

Rowe. "These people participate in a type of mind control.

I now look back at some of the things I was doing. They were having a big influence on me."

DR. ROWE became a different person, Mrs. Rowe said.

"They had a lot of meetings with him. They talked him into bumping up our credit cards to buy more courses, basically life-improvement courses."

The first seminar the Rowes attended was held Oct. 18-25 in Glendale, Calif., and they attended a second seminar Nov. 15-22 in Orange County, Calif.

"I went in and begged Glover not to sign anything," said Mrs.

Rowe. "Glover said 'I've already signed it and feel good about it.'"

According to Priscilla Coates, with Cult Awareness, a national organization, these people are so sophisticated at mind control, they do not need drugs or other mind-altering devices.

"You see people walking around with this glazed look in their eyes," said Mrs. Rowe.

The Rowes returned to California for their other courses a few weeks later, which were $5,000 and $2,500 each.

"I FOUND OUT they had done personality tests on us and were lecturing him on our marriage." said Mrs. Rowe. "They said we're in serious trouble and that if we didn't take these courses, we would be divorced in a year and I would become a child abuser."

On her second trip, Mrs. Rowe said she wasn't happy the first three days, but could not put her finger ou a specific reason for her mood. The third night, however, things started coming to a head.

"They put a telephone in front of me and said I should call every member of my family and tell them I was a member of the Church of Scientology. I refused," said Mrs. Rowe. "At that point, they said, 'but you see Dee, you have to.' I said, 'No I don't have to,' and they said I couldn't leave until I did."

After arguing with them for two hours, Mrs. Rowe convinced them to let her leave, saying she would call her family from her hotel room.

"WHEN I STARTED complaing to Glover about this, he said, 'You don't understand, because you've never been to dental school. You have to do what they tell you to pass.' It hit me Medical professionals have been trained to think that way," said Mrs. Rowe.

The next day, Mrs. Rowe told seminar personnel she had phoned her family, but that she resented it. They then asked Dr.

Rowe if she had called her family from her hotel room.

"All that night in the hotel room, I threw up and cried,"

said Mrs. Rowe. "They sent both of us back to the motel room early. The next day I begin to complain immediately. I said you people are trying to control us!"

Dr. and Mrs. Rowe were then separated, she said, and she was taken into a room where her back was placed against a wall.

"FOR SEVEN hours, a man drilled me, tried to brainwash me," said Mrs. Rowe. "I begged him to let me go, he kept saying, 'but you see Dee, you can't.' He tried to get me to con-ess to crimes.

He started getting me to tell him sex stories. He made me list every overt sin I had committed. They insisted I write down everything I had done wrong. I couldn't list any- thing bad enough to please them. They tried to get me to tell them crimes other people I knew had committed. I learned later that this was for blackmail purposes."
At this point, Mrs. Rowe had cried for seven hours. Mrs.

Rowe finally decided the best thing to do was play along.

"THEY WERE TRYING to control me," said Mrs. Rowe. "I stopped and started rubbing my eyes. He kept on at me, trying to get me to tell him sex stories, so I burned his ears. He seemed really pleased."

"Okay Dee, now that you're calm, we'll see what to do with you," the man said.

Mrs. Rowe bolted out the door at this point, out into the highway and tried to scream for help.

"He stood there and watched me," said Mrs. Rowe. "It was just highway with a sidewalk. Eventually, I got to an intersection."

A man then jumped out of the car, Mrs. Rowe said, and began to chase her.

"I was about a mile up the road by then," said Mrs. Rowe.

"He turned, ran and jumped back in his car. He drove off quickly when I screamed."

MRS. ROWE then hit a side road and tried to stay out of sight. The sun was setting about this time.

"I came upon a golf course, found a restaurant with pay phones and starting making calls," said Mrs. Rowe. "I called the hotel and said, 'Gary, I'm in bad trouble. This thing we've been going to is a cult."

Gary had just started working at the hotel, Mrs. Rowe said, and was someone the Rowes felt they could trust.

"Dee, the people are demanding that you come back to the hotel."

Gary, as it turned out, was working for these people and Mrs. Rowe refused to go with him when he came for her in a car.

MRS. ROWE then called Barbra, Dr. Rowe's office manager, who was keeping the Rowes' baby in the hotel.

"Dee, they're asking where you are," said Barbra.

Mrs. Rowe then arranged to meet with Barbra and the baby at the restaurant next door to the hotel, before calling the police.

"They were waiting at the hotel," said Mrs. Rowe. "At the restaurant next door, two men came running and chasing me through the restaurant. I began screaming, 'Call the police, call the police!' In the meantime, we called a cab and went to a populated area."

MRS. ROWE said the police had advised her to go to a populated area because the cult members would follow her home. The three went to Irvine, California.

"We checked into a hotel under a fake name," said Mrs.

Rowe. "We didn't sleep all night."

Mrs. Rowe then got in touch with Priscilla Coates of Cult Awareness who called Dr. Rowe at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.

"They let her through because she had a California accent,"

said Mrs. Rowe. "They told Glover 'the Cult Awareness people have kidnapped Dee and are holding her for ransom.' Cult Awareness doesn't hold people for ransom, it helps them get away."

"ARE YOU going to stay with Scientology?" Mrs. Coates asked Dr. Rowe.

"Yes," Dr. Rowe replied."

"They were with him every minute," said Mrs. Rowe.

"Glover couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself. The baby, Barbra, and I got out of there. We had police escorts all the way home. We were very scared, That was Thanksgiving Day."

Mrs. Rowe was informed by Cult Awareness that Dr. Rowe was probably under the cult's control and didn't offer much hope of getting him back.

"Friday, I decided to call GIover and see if he was okay,"

said Mrs. Rowe. "I disguised my voice. Glover answered."

"ARE YOU alone?" Mrs. Rowe asked.

"No," Dr. Rowe said.

"Are you being held against your will?" Mrs, Rowe asked.

"Yes," Dr. Rowe said.

"If you can get away from there, call me," said Mrs, Rowe. "Get them in a public place and start screaming. I'm going to call the police to come get you."

"The guy from Scientology then told Glover he was playing along with them. He pretended to be on their side. After Glover hung up, he told the guy it was me."

"I THINK I'd better go," the man said. "If you take the shuttle to the dianetics center. I'll give you a plane ticket back home."

Dr. Rowe then went to a shopping center across the street from the hotel and called his wife and got a cab.

"He called me and said I had an hour to catch my flight," said Mrs. Rowe.

Their troubles weren't over yet, however. A woman from Scientology came to the airport looking for Dr. Rowe.

"The lady at the ticket counter remembered us," said Mrs.

Rowe. "She asked him if he was in trouble and called airport se- curity to see that he got on the plane safely."

WHEN THE Rowes arrived at the airport, they were met by two police officers, Dr. Rowe's brother, an elder from his brother's church, a psychologist and Craig Branch, who helps people get away from cults.

"A man approached Glover's brother and said he'd pick him up," said Mrs. Rowe. Glover's brother said, 'Well we're here now, so you may leave.'"

Mrs. Rowe said she and her husband are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Scientology and the Sterling Corporation.

"My mission is to expose this company rooking these people,"

said Mrs. Rowe. "I don't want to see them bring our profession down. It is such a clever scam. Many people don't understand.

They really believe everything that is being said to them."

UPON DOING research, the Rowes discovered that their experience is by no means a solitary incident. Mrs. Rowe said the California police were "not even surprised" when they reported the cult's behavior.

In a March 1990 issue of Cult Awareness Network News, Dr. Roberty Geary, an Ohio dentist reported writing up to $200,000 to Sterling Management and claimed the company "almost cost him his dental practice and injured his wife's mental health."

According to the article, Mrs. Geary was told that she needed to be "cleared" and was held captive in a cabin for two weeks "to correct behavior that could harm the organization."

At the cabin, Mrs. Geary was deprived of food and sleep and was pushed against the walls and thrown onto a bed whenever she tried to get away.

"Tell people if they get any brochures from Sterling or any other Scientology group, to just throw them away," said Dr.

Geary in the article.

FOR THREE decades, the Church of Scientology was head- ed by L. Ron Hubbard, famous science fiction writer, who died at the age of 74.

The Church of Scientology, according to an article in the Nov. 23. 1987 issue of Fortune Magazine, is a full-blown cult that believes it has simple cures for high cholesterol levels.

radiation sickness, low productivity and "just about anything else that ails society."

In an open letter to readers of the New York Times, publisher Lyle Stuart quotes a former Scientology recruiter as saying, "Our job as Scientologists is to suck every dime we can from a person. We convince them that they are saving not just this world but the entire universe!"

According to Stuart's letter, the goal of Scientology experts is $80.000 per customer, which is extracted in sums of $20,000 to $30,000 per year. Scientologists even ask the customer to sign a billion-year agreement.

SCIENTOLOGISTS seek young people in the 19-25 age range, Stuart said.

After their ordeal was over Mrs. Rowe recalled another strange incident. "When I got away from these people, they called the Crystal Cathedral," said Mrs. Rowe.

"When we were at Sterling on the first trip, I had Robert Schuler's book. 'Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do." It occurred to me that I read to Glover every night out of that book but I never mentioned it. They must have bugged the room."

The Rowes will never forget their nightmare at the Park Court Hotel in Orange County, Calif., but they now feel they can warn others from being sucked in.

"A LADY FROM Scientology called the office when we got back home and asked how we were doing," said Mrs. Rowe.

"I said 'Not very well. We went to Orange County and were held against our will. We want nothing to do with Scientology or anything having to do with cults."

Dr. and Mrs. Rowe are now on the campaign to "wipe these people out," Mrs. Rowe said. "I'm extremely paranoid, so is my babysitter," said Mrs Rowe. "We're real jumpy about the baby. You're jumpy after being a victim."

The Rowes, although they were taken for more than $23,000, are grateful for a happy ending, however.

"I BELIEVE God's children carry an armour," said Mrs.

Rowe. "We've been told it is a miracle they didn't gain control of our minds. I give credit to God and know He was protecting us. I think there are reasons for everything and think we have been put through this to inform people. God knew I couldn't keep my big mouth shut!"

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