Heartsight and Paul Garlington: a good preacher gone bad?
On May 20, 2009 Kathleen Anne Perry took her own life by hanging herself in a motel room outside Rochester, NY. She was my only sister. She was 44 years old. She suffered from bouts of depression. She was an extremely talented professional musician and teacher. She was well loved by her family, friends, students, and peers. Hundreds came to her wake and a memorial concert held in her honor. Two composers wrote pieces just for the occasion. All this is a testament to a life supposedly well lived, so what happened?
Kathleen was a member of a religious organization in Rochester, NY called “Heartsight” run by a preacher named Pastor Paul Garlington. It is a private members-only organization. Garlington is called a “prophet” by its members.
Kathleen was involved in his “circle” for nearly two decades. For too long, I did not think that Heartsight was a “cult” and often defended her to family members questioning her involvement in it, but since her death have heard too much information from people who used to be in the Garlington circle to dismiss such things anymore.
I now believe that Pastor Paul Garlington’s Hearstsight is a cult.
I am starting this blog to have a web presence about this, and hopefully inform others about the Heartsight spell so that they can make intelligent and informed choices about it. It is my personal view that Garlington needs to be exposed as an egomaniac. Maybe he was a good preacher at one time, but he has definitely gone bad.
I’m told "Pastor Paul" started out as a talented preacher that came from a family of preachers. He rebelled against what was expected of him by his family, calling them “too preachy” or something like that. His fans/followers adored that, it seemed. I kind of respected that too.
When I first heard him preach while attending a service with my sister in the early 1990’s, Garlington had left his original church and started his own that met in a local hotel banquet room. I remember it as a rather vibrant service, in a sort-of-Southern Baptist style. I thought, at the time, that Pastor Paul gave a good sermon. I feel that I am a decent judge of such things being that Kathleen and I spent a lot of time in churches growing up. Our grandfather was a Free Methodist preacher, as is our uncle. We also have a catholic priest in our family through marriage, and our mother is a Lutheran church organist. Kathleen and I both had spiritual/metaphysical leanings of our own too and were both always quite interested in this kind of stuff.
Something changed.
Our family has been a little surprised since Kathleen’s death, at how may people have come forward of their own free will, to tell us that something strange is going on at Heartsight.
Heartsight is marketed as a “Lifestyle Training Center.” From what we’ve been hearing, it’s Pastor Paul’s way or the “highway”… no, not the highway, as he doesn’t want to kick anybody out who is paying him money. Kathleen, was paying him nearly $900 per month to be under his “mentorship!” Members meet in his basement and serve him “hand and foot,” quite literally from what I’ve seen and heard.
Garlington has strong opinions about how others in his “flock” should lead their life. Nothing really wrong with that on the surface, but from what we are hearing, he goes over the line to psychologically manipulate Heartsight members to do his will by withholding his attention and affection. Members clamour to be in the good graces of this man who members claim, as stated above, to be a “prophet” (or should I call him a “profit”?!).
Stories of Garlington’s disapproval of teenage behavior and choices of children of Heartsight parents have become especially alarming. Disciplining one boy to live in a tent in the backyard, even in bad weather, and demanding that a mother had 48 hours to kick out her own daughter out of her own house for wanting to leave Heartsight, are now more than red flags for me.
My sister needed help. Medical help. She obviously had a chemical imbalance. She told me, just days before her death, that her body odor “smelled like a crazy person.” I begged her to get medical attention, even if just temporarily. She had Health insurance. Pastor Paul had Kathleen convinced that she did not need such things, and she only needed to change her mind. This sounds somewhat logical “on paper” but obviously is NOT the message that my sister needed to hear. We found a bottle of prescription anti-anxiety pills in her car, only days old… she had taken none.
Kathleen rented a small room in the basement of another Heartsight “inner circle” family for at least a dozen years. They had her convinced that they were her family now. Heartsight members even vacation together. Kathleen was guarded and removed from her biological family for the most part, who from my view, were the only ones trying to help her in the end.
When Kathleen was spiraling downward, failing at her job (they gave her a leave of absence just before her death), her landlords (who claimed to love her) tried to give her a dose of “tough love” by kicking her out, pilling her belongings in a heap in the garage. Now jobless, and homeless, they told her that she was still welcome at Heartsight (as long as she still continued to pay her “fees” I’m sure!). Kathleen told me that she attended one meeting after this, and if felt weird, like she was now an outsider. So she now also felt loveless, or familiy-less at least. She stayed with work-friends a couple nights, and slept in her car at least once. I was trying to “coach” her as to what to do next, from 1100 miles away. My wife, who was visiting our children about 1-1/2 hours away in Buffalo, had plans to meet Kathleen and accompany her to a meeting with the local “211 Lifeline” crisis organization the morning of her death. She never made it to that meeting. My wife was the first person to the scene.
When I called Pastor Paul to tell him what had happened, he simply responded by saying “is that so?” Her landlord-family-co-Heartsight member responded to a similar call by saying “well, I guess she made her choice.” Logically, I guess, all true (Garlington preaches a non-attachment principal). So much for the loving “family” that Heartsight claimed to be!
I am told that Heartsight is NOT a not-for-profit church, but a private enterprise that pays taxes. It is my opinion that Garlington has let his ego cloud his vision (kind of ironic being that they call it “HeartSIGHT”!). I’m not sure that he is doing anything illegal. That is for authorities to decide. America is a free country. Everyone, including my beloved sister, is/was free to be foolish with their time, spirit, or money.
I think it is obvious that PASTOR PAUL GARLINGTON’S “LIFESTYLE TRAINING” DID NOT HELP MY SISTER!
I publish this in hopes of warning others who may be thinking of joining Hearstsight or already be under it’s spell, to see Pastor Paul Garlington for who he is: a one-time good preacher gone bad. In my opinion, Garlinton has fallen under his own spell. The spell of the EGO… and is in a perfect position to not help, but HARM others.
Kathleen was a member of a religious organization in Rochester, NY called “Heartsight” run by a preacher named Pastor Paul Garlington. It is a private members-only organization. Garlington is called a “prophet” by its members.
Kathleen was involved in his “circle” for nearly two decades. For too long, I did not think that Heartsight was a “cult” and often defended her to family members questioning her involvement in it, but since her death have heard too much information from people who used to be in the Garlington circle to dismiss such things anymore.
I now believe that Pastor Paul Garlington’s Hearstsight is a cult.
I am starting this blog to have a web presence about this, and hopefully inform others about the Heartsight spell so that they can make intelligent and informed choices about it. It is my personal view that Garlington needs to be exposed as an egomaniac. Maybe he was a good preacher at one time, but he has definitely gone bad.
I’m told "Pastor Paul" started out as a talented preacher that came from a family of preachers. He rebelled against what was expected of him by his family, calling them “too preachy” or something like that. His fans/followers adored that, it seemed. I kind of respected that too.
When I first heard him preach while attending a service with my sister in the early 1990’s, Garlington had left his original church and started his own that met in a local hotel banquet room. I remember it as a rather vibrant service, in a sort-of-Southern Baptist style. I thought, at the time, that Pastor Paul gave a good sermon. I feel that I am a decent judge of such things being that Kathleen and I spent a lot of time in churches growing up. Our grandfather was a Free Methodist preacher, as is our uncle. We also have a catholic priest in our family through marriage, and our mother is a Lutheran church organist. Kathleen and I both had spiritual/metaphysical leanings of our own too and were both always quite interested in this kind of stuff.
Something changed.
Our family has been a little surprised since Kathleen’s death, at how may people have come forward of their own free will, to tell us that something strange is going on at Heartsight.
Heartsight is marketed as a “Lifestyle Training Center.” From what we’ve been hearing, it’s Pastor Paul’s way or the “highway”… no, not the highway, as he doesn’t want to kick anybody out who is paying him money. Kathleen, was paying him nearly $900 per month to be under his “mentorship!” Members meet in his basement and serve him “hand and foot,” quite literally from what I’ve seen and heard.
Garlington has strong opinions about how others in his “flock” should lead their life. Nothing really wrong with that on the surface, but from what we are hearing, he goes over the line to psychologically manipulate Heartsight members to do his will by withholding his attention and affection. Members clamour to be in the good graces of this man who members claim, as stated above, to be a “prophet” (or should I call him a “profit”?!).
Stories of Garlington’s disapproval of teenage behavior and choices of children of Heartsight parents have become especially alarming. Disciplining one boy to live in a tent in the backyard, even in bad weather, and demanding that a mother had 48 hours to kick out her own daughter out of her own house for wanting to leave Heartsight, are now more than red flags for me.
My sister needed help. Medical help. She obviously had a chemical imbalance. She told me, just days before her death, that her body odor “smelled like a crazy person.” I begged her to get medical attention, even if just temporarily. She had Health insurance. Pastor Paul had Kathleen convinced that she did not need such things, and she only needed to change her mind. This sounds somewhat logical “on paper” but obviously is NOT the message that my sister needed to hear. We found a bottle of prescription anti-anxiety pills in her car, only days old… she had taken none.
Kathleen rented a small room in the basement of another Heartsight “inner circle” family for at least a dozen years. They had her convinced that they were her family now. Heartsight members even vacation together. Kathleen was guarded and removed from her biological family for the most part, who from my view, were the only ones trying to help her in the end.
When Kathleen was spiraling downward, failing at her job (they gave her a leave of absence just before her death), her landlords (who claimed to love her) tried to give her a dose of “tough love” by kicking her out, pilling her belongings in a heap in the garage. Now jobless, and homeless, they told her that she was still welcome at Heartsight (as long as she still continued to pay her “fees” I’m sure!). Kathleen told me that she attended one meeting after this, and if felt weird, like she was now an outsider. So she now also felt loveless, or familiy-less at least. She stayed with work-friends a couple nights, and slept in her car at least once. I was trying to “coach” her as to what to do next, from 1100 miles away. My wife, who was visiting our children about 1-1/2 hours away in Buffalo, had plans to meet Kathleen and accompany her to a meeting with the local “211 Lifeline” crisis organization the morning of her death. She never made it to that meeting. My wife was the first person to the scene.
When I called Pastor Paul to tell him what had happened, he simply responded by saying “is that so?” Her landlord-family-co-Heartsight member responded to a similar call by saying “well, I guess she made her choice.” Logically, I guess, all true (Garlington preaches a non-attachment principal). So much for the loving “family” that Heartsight claimed to be!
I am told that Heartsight is NOT a not-for-profit church, but a private enterprise that pays taxes. It is my opinion that Garlington has let his ego cloud his vision (kind of ironic being that they call it “HeartSIGHT”!). I’m not sure that he is doing anything illegal. That is for authorities to decide. America is a free country. Everyone, including my beloved sister, is/was free to be foolish with their time, spirit, or money.
I think it is obvious that PASTOR PAUL GARLINGTON’S “LIFESTYLE TRAINING” DID NOT HELP MY SISTER!
I publish this in hopes of warning others who may be thinking of joining Hearstsight or already be under it’s spell, to see Pastor Paul Garlington for who he is: a one-time good preacher gone bad. In my opinion, Garlinton has fallen under his own spell. The spell of the EGO… and is in a perfect position to not help, but HARM others.
