‘He hugged me and kissed me all over and we were very intimate’: Inside Access Consciousness

When Rosy met the Access Consciousness leader Dain Heer she could not have known about his reputation for grooming women. Almost 15 years later she’s still counting the cost.

Rosy Lawson-Lamont pictured at home in Sippy Downs on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

When Rosy Lawson-Lamont was invited by a friend to “try out” Access Consciousness, she was told the group would change her life – and it did. But not in the way the then 24-year-old had been promised.

Ms Lawson-Lamont, who lives with cerebral palsy and is non-verbal, said she spent much of the next seven years in deep romantic thrall to Access Consciousness’ co-creator – the American former chiropractor Dain Heer.

Former members of the global self-help organisation claim Heer, one of the group’s central leaders, “seduces” women who signed up for expensive alternative therapies that they were told would “clear limitations” in their lives.

Heer, who will return to Australia briefly later this month to conduct two workshops at Noosa Heads in Queensland, has not responded to the allegations.

Ms Lawson-Lamont estimates she spent $15,000 over seven years attending Access Consciousness classes, much of which was borrowed from family members. She said during that time she was deeply in love with Heer, who she believed was in love with her.

“It was like he saw me for me and because of my disability I felt like no one had ever seen me the way Dain did,” she said.

What Ms Lawson-Lamont did not know at the time was that Heer had a reputation for grooming and “love-bombing” selected women who participated in his courses.

She said their relationship developed in 2009 when she attended a class held by Heer, alongside Access Consciousness leader Gary Douglas, also from the US.

Heer was conducting a “bodywork” session, Ms Lawson Lamont said, when he first approached her. He “affectionately” hugged her and held her hand.

“He talked to me acting like he’d just met a long-lost lover,” she said.

“It was so overwhelming because this was the first time he’d ever interacted with me. He did it in a way that felt genuine and caring, and he made it seem like he really got me for who I was, like nobody had ever before.”

Dain Heer has been accused of grooming women for sex. Source: Facebook

The following day after the class had broken for lunch, Heer sent all attendees out of the function room – except Ms Lawson-Lamont.

“He hugged me and kissed me all over and we were very intimate,” she said.

Weeks later, she claims Heer extended an invitation for her to attend a $3000 “Energetic Synthesis of Being” class free of charge. She was “blown away” by his generosity and Heer continued to gift her other classes and workshops.

“He wasn’t afraid to let everyone in class know how much he loved me,” she said.

At one event, she claims Heer told the assembled attendees “not to dismiss the idea” that he and Ms Lawson-Lamont could end up “having sex in the bathroom”.

Perth-based businesswoman and former high-ranking member of Access Consciousness Kerry Purcell said she witnessed Heer’s interactions with Lawson-Lamont.

“He had a way of making women feel very special and Rosy’s conversations with him were uncomfortably raw,” she said.

“He had positioned himself as her saviour, as the only one who could truly see her.”

Ms Lawson-Lamont said Heer became intensely protective. When facilitating one class he told another attendee “if she ever hurt me, he would kill her”.

“Once he said to me in private that if I ever chose to leave this world, he was pretty sure

he would come with me.”

Dain Heer (right) with Access Consciousness founder Gary Douglas (left) and ‘business leader’ Simone Milasas (centre). Source: Facebook

Over time, Ms Lawson-Lamont said she witnessed behaviour that led to her gradual disconnection from Access Consciousness. She became exposed to “meanness” going on behind the scenes and what she described as “cult-like behaviour”.

The group’s leaders have also been accused by former members of overseeing a culture of abuse, ostracisation, and control. Heer, Douglas and a third leader, the Australian Simone Milasas, have repeatedly declined to respond to these allegations.

“The more aware that I became, the more Dain pulled back from his love for me and

our connection,” she said.

“The last few classes I had found myself hurting within, confused and drained and it didn’t feel right at all.”

She said the experience had left her “heartbroken” with little trust in men – “My body has been battling through hell with my mental and physical health ever since.”