it amazes me sometimes to hear from so many people, to read
so many different accounts of friends or family or boyfriends
or girfriends or whatever that are now involved in the landmark cult.

i think it would be interesing to have a discussion as to why
so many people are so vulverable to them.

i understand the hyponosis and how effective it is but to
get hypnotised the people gotta show up for the event.

so many people especially in the united states
from the president on down to all the rest of us are so
messed up inside that so many people are looking
for what they believe is some kind of self help group.

what is it that makes so many people so gullible ?

Quote
patrick-darcy
i understand the hyponosis and how effective it is but to
get hypnotised the people gotta show up for the event.

This is where recruitment comes in!

I, too, am amazed at all the scamming going on and am wondering why.

Some ideas I've had are these. As family/community breaks down in our fast-paced, dehumanized society, people long for real human connection. Cults appear to fill that need. Also, people who are idealistic (want to save the world, etc.) are drawn to cults because all cults want to "save the world" (worded one way or another). Then, people are intolerant of being uncomfortable and/or not having all the answers and cults promise enlightenment, fulfillment and all the answers. Quick, easy "answers" and "solutions" to complex, messy real-life problems. I also think that many desire to follow a leader, like a child being taken care of by a parent.

I've questioned why people are this way. I think some of the traits that predispose a person to being conned start in families, and are deepened in school and in society at large. One huge issue I see is that, on the whole, critical thinking is NOT valued, taught or fostered in families, in school, in society.

Those are some of my thoughts off the top of my head. I'm asking the same questions too.

Quote
patrick-darcy
it amazes me sometimes to hear from so many people, to read
so many different accounts of friends or family or boyfriends
or girfriends or whatever that are now involved in the landmark cult.

i think it would be interesing to have a discussion as to why
so many people are so vulverable to them.

i understand the hyponosis and how effective it is but to
get hypnotised the people gotta show up for the event.

so many people especially in the united states
from the president on down to all the rest of us are so
messed up inside that so many people are looking
for what they believe is some kind of self help group.

what is it that makes so many people so gullible ?

I think part of the answer lies in the fact that even professionals (like psychologists at the APA) are divided about "coercive manipulation" and "brainwashing". See for example:

[www.culteducation.com]

Landmark actually feeds itself on the confusion and finds rebuttals to any sound arguments you and I can come up with. See for example the Wikipedia article on Landmark:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Also, the Bill of Rights garantees the freedom of speach, the freedom to choose, the freedom of Association and the freedom of religion. Unless something illegal is being commited, everything is permitted.

As if the Bill of Rights also confers the freedom to deceive!

its a shame what people will do to each other for money and power.
i belleve there will come a day of reckoning. landmarks teaching
that life has no meaning is showing up more and more in the lives
of americans. its a pity and a shame.

[quote="midonov123]
As if the Bill of Rights also confers the freedom to deceive![/quote]

To me, it's worse than deception, though deception is the tool that is used. It's about stealing a person's SELF or soul. That seems criminal to me. Brains are scrambled, personalities are altered, free will is stolen. This is theft, of the absolute worst kind, worse than stealing material items. Theft of the highest degree. How can this kind of "business" be acceptable or legal? I don't get it.

You raise an interesting topic Patrick. To address it one first needs to acknowledge one fact: you can label Landmark many things such as scumbuckets, profiteers, liars, cultists, low-lifes, etc. but one thing you can’t call them is stupid. They know what they’re doing and they do it well. Landmark has a clever racket going that operates like a well-oiled machine.

Taking Landmark is like taking a drug that gets you high. I don’t know exactly what it is or how they do it, but I’ve observed it in those who have taken the Forum. Any Forum graduate knows what I am talking about. But just like a drug, the “high” eventually wears off – in Landmark it lasts about a week or two – you then crash back down to earth. Now some will enjoy the forum-produced “high”, feel they got something out of the 3 day Forum and then get on with their lives, but others will want to ride that high over and over again, somewhat like a drug addict. Those are the ones Landmark hooks.

But the question remains, how does Landmark get victims to show up at their doorstep in the first place? By sheer trickery. I can speak of personal experience. I was invited by someone in my life whom I trust to attend her Forum “graduation”. But this so called graduation turned out to be nothing more than a hard-sell session. I was duped. Now I’m not saying my friend lied to me – she didn’t know, she was only going by what her leader told her. The fine folks at Landmark (you know, the ones who preach “integrity”) lied to me through someone I trusted. If anything I’m impressed with Landmark’s cleverness, albeit vile cleverness.

Landmark uses other reprehensible ways to get people into their centers - so-called “informational meetings” that also turn out to be hard sell sessions. I’ve been told that in those meetings they put pressure on you that makes used car salesmen look like baby ducklings. They will say and do anything and everything to get you to sign up.

To sum up, it’s a very shrewd but simple and highly effective strategy Landmark employs to ensnare unsuspecting people into their cult:

1. Misrepresent what the initial meeting is all about. Call it an informational meeting, call it a graduation, but don’t let on that a recruiter with a big smile on his/her face is waiting for you and will apply the most intense pressure you’ll ever experience in your life to get your credit card number.

2. Give Forum participants a good dose of mental “highs” to keep you coming back for more.

You ask what makes people so gullible? We ARE gullible. We ARE naïve. To quote one of Landmark’s own phrases, “we don’t know what we don’t know”. And unscrupulous people and organizations will take advantage of that. In that respect Landmark teaches us all a good lesson. I like to think of myself as someone who will not be taken in by a ruse, but I freely admit Landmark pulled a fast one on me. Why didn’t I check out Landmark on the net before I went to this “graduation”? All I can say is that I’ll know for next time. Now for me the worst thing about it was a wasted evening. But how many others ended up giving their hard earned money to this abhorrent cult?

Quote
patrick-darcy
what is it that makes so many people so gullible ?

peer pressure. lack of critical thinking. not knowing the basics of human psychology. lack of knowledge in general. lack of self-love.

Quote
skeptic
One huge issue I see is that, on the whole, critical thinking is NOT valued, taught or fostered in families, in school, in society.

and you cannot teach what you don't know yourself. (if my answer, BTW, seems redundant, I hadn't read the other replies before I replied myself.)

honestly, I less a real lack of critical thinking on this messageboard, too.

anyway.

the value of critical thinking comes in when presented with a question. if you cannot answe the question yourself you may rely on the answers provided by others, the results of which decision speaks for itself.

and its so easy for people to want to remove their pasts from their
lives.

a lot of what makes people so vulnerable is past abuse.

so many people have been abused that even without the cults
they want to rid themselves of their past.

in america we have abused each other to the point that it seems
that u either join into a cult and remove your past or feel
badly about yourself.

People show up for a couple of reasons.

1. Therapists, alternative medical practitioners, life coaches, and other "professionals" recommend Landmark, like my naturopathic physician did. If its doctor-recommended, could it be that bad???

2. Landmark's advertising doesn't tell anyone what really happens in a Forum or other seminar. The introductory nights are fun, examples of exercises are almost predictable in their outcomes, and LE grads get up and give moving testimonials, yet not a lot of details, as to why it was LE that changed their lives.