A Challenge to all Landmark doubters
Posted by:
Dynamix
()
Date: August 05, 2005 05:26PM
I completed the Landmark forum and dropped out of their advanced course on the Saturday night. So when I say what I'm going to say, know that I speak from experience. An experience that might have been traumatic for me and my family, but I have come out of it a better, stronger individual, who can now better identify this sort of passive-aggressive controlling behavior.
I like to think of LE like a bonfire. It's bright and shiny to look at but get too close and you can get burned. I have emerged burned and scarred to a degree, but still alive and a little wiser.
I'm going to tell you about some of my experiences in Landmark.
When I was Late on the Friday morning, I got up and apoligised for being late and assured the group it would never happen again. The Leader asked the group if they were satisfied (I believe her words were "would you bet your car and your house that he isn't just going to be late again tomorrow?") and not a single hand went up. For the next hour, the Leader asked me a series of questions. This mental probing was designed to meet a single conclusion. That the reason I was late was because I am controlled by this phantom thing called an 'act.'
She asked me to turn insignificant events from my childhood into significant ones, and really did a good job of stirring up the drama to get me to a point where I would be convinced that my Mother crying when I was 6 is what caused me to make a decision that "I had to be strong and never cry in front of anyone." That somehow this strength gave me superiority over everyone else and that was the real reason I was late that morning.
What I remember so clearly is the searching. She was asking me questions and I was searching my memory for a way to make whatever she was saying true. I knew that these events had no real significance, and yet she and I (working as a bizzare tag team) presented them as paramount to this fatal flaw in my life that would destroy my work, relationships, my very reasons for living. Everyone in that room was convinced (at least 20 people came up to me during the break and told me so) that I had had this monumental breakthrough.
I was not. And I told the leader this after she had reached her conclusion on stage. Then she offered me a full refund. Filled with terror at being rejected from the group, I enthusiastically submitted to her conclusions and sat down.
That is what makes LE so hard to break free of. You become dependent on the warm and fuzziness of the group, and so deathly afraid of the scorn and rejection that comes out of even questioning LE's methodology. This is the core of the ghastly molecule that is above all criticism, from within and without.
If what I have said so far doesn't convince you, listen to this:
Another young woman who had been late that morning was a paraplegic, and had been unable to get up the stairs to get in on time. The Leader was able to arbitrarily guide her to the conclusion that as a child she had hated her mother helping her with her letters, and that because of this she had somehow [b:fd1ad76003]purposely[/b:fd1ad76003] caused the accident that took away the use of her legs. Now her entire 'act' revolved around her as this eternal victim, always needing people's help but never wanting it. It was DISGUSTING what this Leader talked her into.
It was coming close to the end of the Saturday night, around 11:30 and I had been sitting there for over an hour listening to the Leader go on and on about the Self Expression and Leadership Program. Then she said something that will always stay with me. "On the (Tuesday) graduation evening, bring your credit cards so you will be ready to sign up for the Self Expression and Leadership Program."
Such a blatant assumption that I would automatically sign up for the next course infuriated me! In that instant, LE world crumbled around me, and every fear, doubt and bit of apprehension that I had been instructed to force down during my time at the center spilled out of me.
I straight up told my buddy that I would NOT be doing any more homework and refused to put myself under their microscope any longer. Once again, the atmosphere changed from one of love and acceptance, to one of hostility and rejection.
By one of the staff, I was called "pathetic." I told her I knew I was being pathetic. At that point, it was just easier to agree with her.
Then the Leader came up and spoke to me for about 20 minutes, asking me why I refused to do the homework and participate, telling me that I was letting the group down and that I would be going back to a small and empty existence. I was terrified of this woman. I was visibly shaking in fact. At that point, I realised why these people were so highly revered in Landmark society. It took real balls to stand up to them.
The relationship between Teacher and Student in the case of landmark is truly an unhealthy one.
I was determined to leave. Then she drew out her wildcard. Based on something I had told the group during the course, she told me that if I continued being such an 'individual' and letting my 'act' run me, I would end up in the looney bin. Now the 'thing' that I had confessed to was something that I was not proud of, but I new it was nothing as drastic as all that. But here was this woman, this terrifying woman telling me that without LE, I would be hospitalised and pumped full of mind altering drugs.
Upon seeing the true face of LE, I left and never returned. Now whenever they call me to talk about my 'rackets,' I tell them to fuck off. It's the only way to deal with these people.
Life is full of challenges and lessons to be learned. Landmark is dangerous not just because it tries to teach lessons best taught by life experience, but because they use deceptive, and aggressive methods to compress the experience into one highly dangerous experimental weekend, conducted by people who are not qualified to deal with the complexities of the human mind. I don't care what people say, it [b:fd1ad76003]is capable[/b:fd1ad76003] of derailing people and destroying lives. For although some people will come out the other side wiser and stronger, others might not be so lucky.
I like to think of LE like a bonfire. It's bright and shiny to look at but get too close and you can get burned. I have emerged burned and scarred to a degree, but still alive and a little wiser.
I'm going to tell you about some of my experiences in Landmark.
When I was Late on the Friday morning, I got up and apoligised for being late and assured the group it would never happen again. The Leader asked the group if they were satisfied (I believe her words were "would you bet your car and your house that he isn't just going to be late again tomorrow?") and not a single hand went up. For the next hour, the Leader asked me a series of questions. This mental probing was designed to meet a single conclusion. That the reason I was late was because I am controlled by this phantom thing called an 'act.'
She asked me to turn insignificant events from my childhood into significant ones, and really did a good job of stirring up the drama to get me to a point where I would be convinced that my Mother crying when I was 6 is what caused me to make a decision that "I had to be strong and never cry in front of anyone." That somehow this strength gave me superiority over everyone else and that was the real reason I was late that morning.
What I remember so clearly is the searching. She was asking me questions and I was searching my memory for a way to make whatever she was saying true. I knew that these events had no real significance, and yet she and I (working as a bizzare tag team) presented them as paramount to this fatal flaw in my life that would destroy my work, relationships, my very reasons for living. Everyone in that room was convinced (at least 20 people came up to me during the break and told me so) that I had had this monumental breakthrough.
I was not. And I told the leader this after she had reached her conclusion on stage. Then she offered me a full refund. Filled with terror at being rejected from the group, I enthusiastically submitted to her conclusions and sat down.
That is what makes LE so hard to break free of. You become dependent on the warm and fuzziness of the group, and so deathly afraid of the scorn and rejection that comes out of even questioning LE's methodology. This is the core of the ghastly molecule that is above all criticism, from within and without.
If what I have said so far doesn't convince you, listen to this:
Another young woman who had been late that morning was a paraplegic, and had been unable to get up the stairs to get in on time. The Leader was able to arbitrarily guide her to the conclusion that as a child she had hated her mother helping her with her letters, and that because of this she had somehow [b:fd1ad76003]purposely[/b:fd1ad76003] caused the accident that took away the use of her legs. Now her entire 'act' revolved around her as this eternal victim, always needing people's help but never wanting it. It was DISGUSTING what this Leader talked her into.
It was coming close to the end of the Saturday night, around 11:30 and I had been sitting there for over an hour listening to the Leader go on and on about the Self Expression and Leadership Program. Then she said something that will always stay with me. "On the (Tuesday) graduation evening, bring your credit cards so you will be ready to sign up for the Self Expression and Leadership Program."
Such a blatant assumption that I would automatically sign up for the next course infuriated me! In that instant, LE world crumbled around me, and every fear, doubt and bit of apprehension that I had been instructed to force down during my time at the center spilled out of me.
I straight up told my buddy that I would NOT be doing any more homework and refused to put myself under their microscope any longer. Once again, the atmosphere changed from one of love and acceptance, to one of hostility and rejection.
By one of the staff, I was called "pathetic." I told her I knew I was being pathetic. At that point, it was just easier to agree with her.
Then the Leader came up and spoke to me for about 20 minutes, asking me why I refused to do the homework and participate, telling me that I was letting the group down and that I would be going back to a small and empty existence. I was terrified of this woman. I was visibly shaking in fact. At that point, I realised why these people were so highly revered in Landmark society. It took real balls to stand up to them.
The relationship between Teacher and Student in the case of landmark is truly an unhealthy one.
I was determined to leave. Then she drew out her wildcard. Based on something I had told the group during the course, she told me that if I continued being such an 'individual' and letting my 'act' run me, I would end up in the looney bin. Now the 'thing' that I had confessed to was something that I was not proud of, but I new it was nothing as drastic as all that. But here was this woman, this terrifying woman telling me that without LE, I would be hospitalised and pumped full of mind altering drugs.
Upon seeing the true face of LE, I left and never returned. Now whenever they call me to talk about my 'rackets,' I tell them to fuck off. It's the only way to deal with these people.
Life is full of challenges and lessons to be learned. Landmark is dangerous not just because it tries to teach lessons best taught by life experience, but because they use deceptive, and aggressive methods to compress the experience into one highly dangerous experimental weekend, conducted by people who are not qualified to deal with the complexities of the human mind. I don't care what people say, it [b:fd1ad76003]is capable[/b:fd1ad76003] of derailing people and destroying lives. For although some people will come out the other side wiser and stronger, others might not be so lucky.
A Challenge to all Landmark doubters
Posted by:
elena
()
Date: August 06, 2005 01:27AM
Thanks for this excellent post.
Though many aren't fooled by these scammers and see them for what they are after a few minutes or a brief encounter with an "enthusiast," tragically, some people take decades to see what you've managed to catch a glimpse of in a few days. Sadder still, some will never know the harm they have caused themselves and everyone they are involved with.
Ellen
Though many aren't fooled by these scammers and see them for what they are after a few minutes or a brief encounter with an "enthusiast," tragically, some people take decades to see what you've managed to catch a glimpse of in a few days. Sadder still, some will never know the harm they have caused themselves and everyone they are involved with.
Ellen
A Challenge to all Landmark doubters
Posted by:
patrick-darcy
()
Date: August 08, 2005 12:06AM
by the time u awaken from your coma u may find that world is definately not the same.
A Challenge to all Landmark doubters
Posted by:
Dynamix
()
Date: August 08, 2005 07:59PM
Quote
patrick-darcy
by the time u awaken from your coma u may find that world is definately not the same.
I don't understand. Can you explain what you mean?
A Challenge to all Landmark doubters
Posted by:
patrick-darcy
()
Date: August 08, 2005 09:49PM
Quote
DynamixQuote
patrick-darcy
by the time u awaken from your coma u may find that world is definately not the same.
I don't understand. Can you explain what you mean?
by the time u awaken from your coma u may find that your world is definately not the same.
i left out a word, sorry.
landmarks way of working with people does not empower them, it does not
increase your potential for thinking, it does just the opposite. the more time u spend
around landmark , the more of your life is lost to them. u could spend many years
spouting jargon and then finally realize u have been duped.
its hard for this to get though because when u leave the programs u are feeling
so pumped and full of energy. its the hypnotic effect of the magicians.
in landmarks world, the life u love is not a real life.
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