b]If Going to Landmark Introduction, Take Your Own Taxicab or Car--by Yourself[/b]
If they want you to go to the intro as part of a company event, be very, very careful. They may require you all to go by van or bus. If you are required by your company to go to one of these introductions, use the time to contact your employee union and the state or federal agency that governs workers rights---being processed by an LGAT should NOT be a condition of keeping your job. (See the citations for Cafe Gratitude
This is not a time to cave in to assertions that you need to be nice to the planet and save fuel--and dont accept any last minute plea that you car pool someone else to the event, either.
If a newly graduated friend or family member urges you to attend a Landmark (or other Large Group Training) 'graduation' or 'introduction evening', keep total control of your own transporation so that you can get up and LEAVE at any time. Make sure you are not obligated to transport your friend or anyone else. At the very least, be prepared to leave by yourself, by taxi if need be.
If someone has you don a name tag on you, they do
not own you. You remain a citizen with freedom to come and go as you please, and have NOT been arrested or become a jail detainee.
Quoted from a visitor report. This was from 2000 and is one persons description of how a friend of hers did LEC and the kind of language she used.
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www.culteducation.com]
This persons description of how her newly graduated friend set her up. This was in 2000. Procedures may have changed.
Quote
After meeting her out front at the Forum building, where I was told to show up at a certain time*--she took me inside into a large room with about 150 people. But then* my friend told me that I could not stay there with her and had to go with one of the attendants.
**(Corboy note how well this was coordinated. First our informant is led by her friend to point A and then told by the 'friend' that she could nto stay at Point A with her, and then passed her to one of the attendants.)
When I asked her when and where the graduation was, she just coyly smiled and said that that she had a surprise for me*; I was actually going to attend a mini class. I would need to be patient and trust her and everything would be explained soon.
Before I left with the attendant she firmly insisted that I should not leave the building until she picked me up in a couple of hours.
*Corboy. Look closely. Our informant is told she is going to attend, not her friends graduation but a 'mini class', and on top of it, is informed that she 'should not leave the building until she picked me up in 'a couple of hours'. Metaphorically speaking, our newly graduated 'friend' had tied our reporter up like a Thanksgiving turkey just before its placed in the oven to bake. A 'couple of hours' is a very long time in this context. A
I was then ushered out of the large room, into a much smaller room, which was occupied by two other people who looked as bewildered as I did.
*(Note that our informant is not the only person feeling bewildered. Ingredients for bewilderment: expectations confounded by landing in a mini class, rather than attending a celebration event for a friend--and suddenly put in the hands of strangers. And being told one will be in this mini class for a couple of hours. Plus being instructed by the 'friend' who has abandoned you that you must not leave the premises until you he or she returns.)
Behind us, right outside the door was a white clothed table surrounded by an absurdly happy looking staff. After the attendant departed I was promptly given a nametag, and asked to fill out forms, which included such information as my work and home addresses and telephone numbers.
[i]**(Corboy. This seems well organized, not spontaneous. Note the bit about being escorted from a larger room into a much smaller room. If you have just a few people, being in a very large room can feel uncomfortable. One feels as though one is rattling around. But in smaller space, that same number of people feel more close, more 'snug' and it is easier to create a feeling of rapport. Note the check in process and that now the subjects have been passed through the hands of a couple of strangers.)[/[/i]i]
Fortunately, even though I still did not know what was going on, I had enough sense to fill out this paperwork with false information.