New details to be released on Nelson Co. residents killed in Mumbai

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Updated Tuesday 7:09 a.m.
The Synchronicity Foundation has scheduled a news conference for this afternoon to talk about the deaths of two members during last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The event is at the foundation in Nelson County.

Naomi Scherr, 13, and her father, Alan Scherr, 58, from the Synchronicity group, were killed in the shootings. At least three members of the group were injured.

Check back for updates.

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Updated Tuesday 12:30 a.m.
The bodies of a man and his teenage daughter who were killed while on a pilgrimage to India are being returned from Mumbai, their spiritual community has announced.
    The Synchronicity Foundation said a memorial was being planned for Alan and Naomi Scherr. They were among 25 people affiliated with the meditation center who went on the pilgrimage with Master Charles Cannon, the founder of the sanctuary in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
    Kia Scherr, wife of the former Loyola University professor and mother of 13-year-old Naomi, is scheduled to return to the foundation’s grounds Tuesday, but it is unknown whether she will publicly discuss the deaths. Cannon will appear at a news briefing.
    In a statement posted on Synchronicity’s Web site, Cannon expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of support “in the midst of this most tragic experience.“
    “As I write these few words, tears fall from my eyes,“ he wrote.
    Four members of Synchronicity were injured during the attacks at the Oberoi Hotel on Wednesday. The most seriously injured, Montreal stage actor Michael Rudder, was to have surgery Monday to remove of a bullet and is expected to remain in Mumbai for two months, the Web posting said.
    Two members from Nashville - Rudrani Devi and Linda Ragsdale - have undergone treatment for their injuries and will recuperate for one week before returning home. Helen Connolly, who was grazed by a bullet, is expected to return soon to her Toronto home.
    In interviews over the weekend with The Associated Press in Mumbai, Synchronicity members recalled how they crawled, bleeding, from a cafe at the Oberoi after the gunmen killed the Scherrs.
    Cannon barricaded himself into his hotel room with his two personal assistants from Synchronicity Foundation, stacking furniture against the door.
    “We covered our faces with wet towels so we could breathe, but it just got thicker and thicker,“ Cannon told AP.
    Nearly 60 hours after the attacks began, 10 Indian commandos knocked on the door and told them they were free to leave the hotel.
    The Synchronicity Foundation was established in 1983 by Cannon, who was a disciple of a prominent Indian guru. The sanctuary includes a monastery, living quarters for about 30 and a central community building.
    The community supports itself through seminars, retreats and the sale of Cannon’s meditation tapes.

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Updated Monday 7:14 a.m.
The bodies of two Nelson County residents killed in last week’s Mumbai terrorist attack will be returned home and plans for a memorial service are being made, according to a message on the Synchronicity Foundation’s Web site.

Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi, were on a retreat with members from the spiritual community in Mumbai and were killed at the Oberoi Hotel when it was attacked.

The spiritual community’s leader Master Charles Cannon and all members of the Synchronicity delegation who were not at the restaurant where the Scherrs died were released uninjured and were transported to safety, the Web site said. They will be returning to their home countries soon.

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Updated 1:50 p.m.
By Scott Marshall
Media General News Service
Officials of the Synchronicity Foundation provided details today on the deaths of two Nelson County residents killed in the terrorist attacks in India.
Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter, Naomi Scherr, 13, were with a group from the organization at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai when it was attacked.
Bobbie Garvey, the group’s vice president, met with reporters this morning at one of the foundation’s facilities, which include a monastery and fellowship hall in Nelson County. The organization has been based on Adial Road, between Virginia 6 and Virginia 151 in Nelson County, since 1985. The U.S. flag was at half-staff at the facility today.
Garvey said she told Scherr’s wife, Kia, at 5 a.m., that her husband and daughter were dead. “It’s better than coming from the State Department,“ she said. “I’m sure on some level, she knew, as we all did.“ Kia Scherr remained with family members in Florida.
“He was an extremely valued member of Sychronicity,“ Garvey said of Scherr, formerly a professor at the University of Maryland, who was a spokesman for the group and edited its books.
“Alan was probably one of the most beloved persons here. He will be greatly missed,“ Garvey said.
Scherr came to the organization when his daughter was just two months old. She was home-schooled, finished the eighth grade a year early, scored 92 percent on her SSAT and had planned to apply to the Emma Williard Academy in Troy, N.Y., to attend high school.
“She was a shining star, absolutely brilliant,“ and sociable, Garvey said.
In India, Naomi had been working on an essay to accompany her application to the boarding school, had gotten her nose pierced, obtained shawls and Indian garb, scheduled some massages and was enjoying her pilgrimage, Garvey said.
The victims were among a group of 16 Americans, four Canadians and five Australians in Mumbai on a spiritual pilgrimage to India that began Nov. 14. They were due back Monday.
Other Synchronicity members in Faber found out what was happening while surfing the Internet “and saw Mumbai was being bombed and then saw the Oberoi was being bombed,“ Garvey said.
“They were in the middle of it.“
Another member who was hospitalized reported Scherr had been shot in the head. Members did not know what had happened to Naomi, although she was found near her father, Garvey said.
Garvey immediately called Sychronicity’s contacts in Mumbai.
Synchronicity’s spiritual leader, Master Charles Cannon, had finished a program about 10 p.m. and the group returned to the hotel. Several were hungry and stopped for a snack in the Oberoi’s café.
Besides Scherr and his daughter, four others were in the café when gunmen entered “and just started shooting,“ Garvey said.
One was shot three times, underwent surgery and still has a bullet lodged in the abdomen. Two others, both women, are from Tennessee. One was wounded in the arm and leg and underwent surgery, Garvey said. The other was shot in the back “and is ready to go back to Tennessee,“ she said.
The fourth survivor was grazed and treated and released.
Synchronicity officials had feared that Scherr and his daughter may not have survived.
“He didn’t turn up in a hospital,“ Garvey said. “Our assumption was, yes, they were still in the café.“
The rest of the members were told to stay in their rooms, where they remained for 45 hours, at one point breaking windows to let in fresh air and let out smoke, hiding behind mattresses and bureaus, with no food. “It was that intense,“ she said.
The remaining members were released from the hotel about 5 a.m. today, and one identified Scherr and his daughter.
Not all are ready to return to their home countries so soon after their ordeal, Garvey said.
“It’s like, how could this happen to us, these wonderful people who were on a pilgrimage, and not come back,“ she said.
Their spiritual faith holds that nothing in life is an accident. Life “is all one energy, with many diversities in the energy,“ Garvey said.
Marshall is editor of The Nelson County Times.

Updated 11:15 a.m.
By Bryan Gentry
Media General News Service
Two Nelson County residents who became victims of terrorist attacks in India have died.
Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi Scherr, 13, were in India for a spiritual retreat with the Synchronicity Foundation. They lived at the group’s monastery near Wintergreen resort.
After terrorists struck the hotel Oberoi, where the group was staying, and several other sites in Mumbai, India, the two were unaccounted for, although some other members of the Synchronicity movement said they had been shot. Their fate was still not known Thursday evening.
This morning the foundation received confirmation from the U.S. State Department that the Scherrs’ bodies had been identified.
About 25 members of the Synchronicity Foundation, not all of them from Nelson County, were staying at the Oberoi this week. The group’s spiritual leader Master Charles Cannon was teaching meditation and spirituality classes.
Details of what happened to the foundations members during the attacks are emerging.
“Some were in the café having a snack, after the program had ended,” said Bobbie Garvey, vice president and managing director of the Synchronicity Foundation. “They are the ones who were shot. The terrorists came into the café and started shooting.” Four other members were injured.
Other members were in their rooms at the Oberoi Hotel, Garvey said. They “remained for the whole two days at the hotel,” Garvey said.
After the attacks authorities dealt with hostage situations and much of the city was on lockdown. Now the challenge is to get the surviving members of the group home.
“We will be contacting our congressman and senator,” Garvey said. “We will need all the assistance we can get to get these people out of India.” The foundation also is awaiting family decisions on what to do next, and an attorney was en route to Nelson County to help.
“I’ve already started speaking with them today, about whether we’re going to bring them back here or if Kia (Scherr) and some of the family members will go to India.”
According to a letter on the group’s Web site, Alan and Kia Scherr and their daughter moved to the Shrine of the Heart Synchronicity Sanctuary in Faber more than a decade ago.
Alan Scherr “was a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher who inspired many people to begin a journey of self awareness and meditation,” the Web site said.
Other members in Mumbai are from Canada and Australia as well as the United States, Garvey said.
The foundation is holding a press conference at 2 p.m. at its sanctuary.

Updated Friday 8:33 a.m.

    A foundation in Virginia is confirming the deaths of a man and his teenage daughter in the terrorist attacks in India.
    A spokeswoman with the Synchronicity Foundation said Friday Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed while they were in a cafe in Mumbai.
    Bobbie Garvey says the 58-year-old father and his daughter were identified by colleagues. The two lived at the Nelson County foundation, about 15 miles southwest of Charlottesville, which promotes a high-tech form of meditation.
    Garvey said Scherr is a Maryland native and a former college professor.
    Garvey said four other members of a 25-member delegation from Synchronicity were injured and are recovering.
   
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Two Nelson County residents who were visiting Mumbai, India, have gone missing after the terrorist attacks there that left more than 100 dead.

The Synchronicity Foundation, a spiritual group headquartered in Nelson County, was hosting a meditation program at the Oberoi Hotel, one of the sites hit by the attacks. Eight Nelson County residents were there.

Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi Scherr, 13, have been unaccounted for ever since the terrorists burst into a restaurant in the hotel, said Bobbie Garvey, the group’s vice president. The Scherrs live at the Synchronicity monastery near Wintergreen resort.

Garvey said six other Nelson County residents were in Mumbai for the program, but were not injured: Patty and Phil Duncan of Nellysford, Lisa Barizilay of Nellysford, Amy Venezian of Afton, Ben Radtke and Charles Cannon.

Cannon, the group’s founder and spiritual leader, and Radtke live at the monastery.

On Thursday afternoon, much of the city was on lockdown and authorities were still dealing with some hostage situations, making it unclear when the group will be able to return home.

“It’s not to that point where we can start to make those arrangements,” said Garvey, who did not go on the trip. “As soon as we get everyone out of the (the hotel), then we can start making arrangements.”

“I’m hoping that will be tonight.”

Cannon founded the Synchronicity monastery in Nelson County in 1983. In the decade before that, he studied Eastern philosophy in India and became a Vedic monk. Vedic philosophy is tied closely to Hindu sacred writings.

Cannon’s teachings incorporate technology, using music and vibrations to generate “authentic meditation,” Garvey said.

On 450 acres near Nellysford, the group built the Shrine of the Heart Synchronicity Sanctuary. The group has 12 monks who live on the monastery and about 30 members of the Synchronicity “secular community” who live nearby, Garvey said. The movement has thousands of members in other locations, she said.

Cannon’s role as spiritual leader takes him around the world, teaching seminars in spirituality and meditation. Often when he makes trips to India, “members of our community always say, we want to go and see what India’s all about,” Garvey said.

When Cannon scheduled his current trip to India, 25 members of the Synchronicity community, not all of them from Nelson County, signed up to go.

“They were having a wonderful time” visiting shrines and sacred sites, Garvey said. “Until the terrorists showed up.”

The attacks began after dark, hitting two luxury hotels, including the Oberoi, which was hosting Cannon’s program, an airport, railway station and sites popular with tourists. Up to 16 groups attacked nine sites, according to the Associated Press.

Alan and Naomi Scherr have been missing since the attacks hit the hotel.

Naomi Scherr’s mother lives at the monastery and did not go on the trip, Garvey said.

Two Canadian members of the group and two women from Tennessee were shot but were not killed.

Intelligence officials told the Associated Press that it is not clear who carried out the well-planned attacks, although a previously unknown group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen said it was responsible.

The Daily Progress in Charlottesville contributed to this report.