Contemporary Philosophy's paper about Landmark Education
Posted by:
midonov123
()
Date: January 21, 2006 05:44AM
The Wikipedia article about Landmark Education refers to a philosophical paper published in Contemporary Philosophy Vol XXIII No.1&2, pp51-59, 2001
"The Promise of Philosophy and the Landmark Forum" - University of Colorado (Philosophy Professor Steven McCarl et al)
[ucsub.colorado.edu]
The paper talks about the virtues of self-knowledge, refers to Socrates and asks if it "WOULD IT BE BENEFICIAL IF COLLEGE CURRICULA INCLUDED MORE COURSES LIKE LANDMARK FORUM?"
The paper is biased horrendously: it is co-signed by Steve Zaffron!
Does anyone knows who exactly is the principal author SR McCarl and the co-authors JM Nielsen and SL Kennedy?
[www.du.edu]
How come academics and doctors of philosophy can fall for Steve Zaffron's rhetoric and propose Landmark as part of the curriculum in colleges ?!!!
I think we should look seriously into this and make sure the education ministries are aware about the cult-like nature of Landmark. It is as if we would propose Scientology to our kids at school. This is simply outrageous. It makes me feel sick.
But of course the rhetoric goes like this: I'm responsible for making myself sick, it's not Landmark right? It's as if someone puts a finger down your throat to make you vomit and says, "it's your throat that makes you sick, not my finger"!!!
On a serious note, if there are any amateurs or professional philosophers who have the courage to read the article above and to comment, we could have fun talking about it. I'll read it more thoroughly when I find the courage, and when my stomach is empty!
"The Promise of Philosophy and the Landmark Forum" - University of Colorado (Philosophy Professor Steven McCarl et al)
[ucsub.colorado.edu]
The paper talks about the virtues of self-knowledge, refers to Socrates and asks if it "WOULD IT BE BENEFICIAL IF COLLEGE CURRICULA INCLUDED MORE COURSES LIKE LANDMARK FORUM?"
The paper is biased horrendously: it is co-signed by Steve Zaffron!
Does anyone knows who exactly is the principal author SR McCarl and the co-authors JM Nielsen and SL Kennedy?
[www.du.edu]
How come academics and doctors of philosophy can fall for Steve Zaffron's rhetoric and propose Landmark as part of the curriculum in colleges ?!!!
I think we should look seriously into this and make sure the education ministries are aware about the cult-like nature of Landmark. It is as if we would propose Scientology to our kids at school. This is simply outrageous. It makes me feel sick.
But of course the rhetoric goes like this: I'm responsible for making myself sick, it's not Landmark right? It's as if someone puts a finger down your throat to make you vomit and says, "it's your throat that makes you sick, not my finger"!!!
On a serious note, if there are any amateurs or professional philosophers who have the courage to read the article above and to comment, we could have fun talking about it. I'll read it more thoroughly when I find the courage, and when my stomach is empty!
Contemporary Philosophy's paper about Landmark Education
Posted by:
sonnie_dee
()
Date: January 21, 2006 09:53AM
Midonov,
Reading that was like sitting in a landmark forum, it is full of the same sort of mind number jargon and manipulate language. Very scary. I didn't read the whole thing properly but will do later.
It would not suprise me in the least if the other three authors were landmark graduates who are in some way involved in landmark regularly. Steve Zaffron is of course a senior leader and the CEO of LEBD (landmark education business development)
Reading that was like sitting in a landmark forum, it is full of the same sort of mind number jargon and manipulate language. Very scary. I didn't read the whole thing properly but will do later.
It would not suprise me in the least if the other three authors were landmark graduates who are in some way involved in landmark regularly. Steve Zaffron is of course a senior leader and the CEO of LEBD (landmark education business development)
Contemporary Philosophy's paper about Landmark Education
Posted by:
ClausDIa
()
Date: January 21, 2006 05:36PM
thanks Mid, I read over the paper, I can't participate in a philosophical debate, though.
Only a few remarks:
At the time when I studied physics I frequently visited lectures of Heinrich Rombach one of Martin Heidegger's assistants who was still alive at the time. It always was a great "ereignis", in Heidegger's words, a transformational experience.
So, what LEC might "offer" to education, has always been available. And the organization is about making money, not at all about freedom of thinking. It is ridiculous and contrary to core acedemic and democratic values.
I liked it as someone said: LE is fast-food psycho-babble, it might be the McDonalds of transformational courses.
How would LE deal with the free-thinker Socrates if he would be around nowadays? One LE enroller would tell him "It might be great what you are doing, but your life does not work ... you are running a racket on artists and politicians, Socrates." So after the FORUM, Socrates would confess: "I am a jurk, I made my mother wrong" and he would phone up his mother and cry.
Socrates' philosophy was, above all, about freedom of thinking.
Only a few remarks:
At the time when I studied physics I frequently visited lectures of Heinrich Rombach one of Martin Heidegger's assistants who was still alive at the time. It always was a great "ereignis", in Heidegger's words, a transformational experience.
So, what LEC might "offer" to education, has always been available. And the organization is about making money, not at all about freedom of thinking. It is ridiculous and contrary to core acedemic and democratic values.
I liked it as someone said: LE is fast-food psycho-babble, it might be the McDonalds of transformational courses.
How would LE deal with the free-thinker Socrates if he would be around nowadays? One LE enroller would tell him "It might be great what you are doing, but your life does not work ... you are running a racket on artists and politicians, Socrates." So after the FORUM, Socrates would confess: "I am a jurk, I made my mother wrong" and he would phone up his mother and cry.
Socrates' philosophy was, above all, about freedom of thinking.
Contemporary Philosophy's paper about Landmark Education
Posted by:
ClausDIa
()
Date: January 21, 2006 06:02PM
"It is a three and one-half day course in which trained leaders, in the Socratic tradition, challenge conventional thinking, discursively examine the nature of human nature, and facilitate participants' explorations of their lives. The method, format and style are Socratic (it is good theatre), but the discourse itself reflects a systematic and accessible integration of Eastern and Western philosophies."
Some floppy remarks here:
LE offers everything people have thought about and developed over centuries in three days (cult-like thinking). The complexity of the individual life and the experiences of human beings can be boiled down to three "distinctions": "Running a racket ..., bla bla
" ... Our thesis is that the Landmark Forum constitutes a return to the original roots of philosophy, to the examined life, to philosophy in action as Socrates envisioned. Participants in this inquiry examine the human condition in a way that leads them to self-knowledge, to new levels of responsibility, and to reformed 52 Contemporary Philosophy Vol. XXIII No. 1 & 2 and revitalized commitments. ..."
Participants in the Forum do NOT AT ALL freely inquire their lives, free thinking and critical thoughts are punished. It is a strictly guided process and one way leader->participants, ... authoritarian. The main principles of the Socratic dialog are tremendously violated.
Some floppy remarks here:
LE offers everything people have thought about and developed over centuries in three days (cult-like thinking). The complexity of the individual life and the experiences of human beings can be boiled down to three "distinctions": "Running a racket ..., bla bla
" ... Our thesis is that the Landmark Forum constitutes a return to the original roots of philosophy, to the examined life, to philosophy in action as Socrates envisioned. Participants in this inquiry examine the human condition in a way that leads them to self-knowledge, to new levels of responsibility, and to reformed 52 Contemporary Philosophy Vol. XXIII No. 1 & 2 and revitalized commitments. ..."
Participants in the Forum do NOT AT ALL freely inquire their lives, free thinking and critical thoughts are punished. It is a strictly guided process and one way leader->participants, ... authoritarian. The main principles of the Socratic dialog are tremendously violated.
Re: Contemporary Philosophy's paper about Landmark Education
Posted by:
ajinajan
()
Date: February 14, 2016 08:29AM
A bit more background information on Steven Zaffron aka Stephen Robert Zaffron :
STEVEN ZAFFRON WAS CONVICTED OF MAIL FRAUD PER WERNER ERHARD BIOGRAPHY OUTRAGEOUS BETRAYAL:
Steven Zaffron = convicted of Mail Fraud in 1982.
Steven Zaffron = served Werner Erhard as an Est Trainer in Erhard Seminars Training EST.
Steven Zaffron = current CEO of Vanto Group formerly known as Landmark Education Business Development (LEBD).
Steven Zaffron = current Landmark Forum Leader = highest level rank in Landmark Forum aka Landmark Education aka Landmark Worldwide.
Steven Zaffron = given “lifetime” designation to perform “transformation” work for Werner Erhard forever.
Steven Zaffron = member of the Board of Directors of Landmark and senior executive at Landmark Education aka Landmark Forum aka Landmark Worldwide = helped design the Landmark Forum course itself.
Steven Zaffron = continues to work with Werner Erhard while working at Landmark Education aka Landmark Forum aka Landmark Worldwide and while working as CEO of Vanto Group formerly known as Landmark Education Business Development.
From the book Outrageous Betrayal as quoted at:
“[...] Another one of Erhard's new executives was an est trainer named Steven Zaffron […] Three years after first joining Erhard's staff in 1979, Zaffron had been indicted on mail fraud charges for participating in a scam to collect phony unemployment checks. Zaffron was placed on three years' probation [...] Zaffron [...] agreed to a plea bargain [...] shortly before Erhard conferred on him the coveted 'lifetime' designation to do Werner's transformational work [...]”
Pressman, Steven, Outrageous Betrayal: The dark journey of Werner Erhard from est to exile. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0-312-09296-2 , pg. 217.
CONFIRMED ACCURATE INFORMATION PER 1982 ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE:
“San Francisco (AP) – A man whom prosecutors say masterminded scheme that bilked 13 states out of more than $400,000 in unemployment benefits was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for mail fraud.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson imposed the sentence on David Adams Muncaster, 50, of Fairfax, who pleaded guilty June 7 to two of 41 counts against him. Three other people also were sentenced after having pleaded guilty to one count each.
Rosalyn Linda Bonas, 40, who lived with Muncaster, was sentenced to 179 days in jail, with the rest of her three-year sentence suspended. Muncaster's former wife, Joan Loretta Sontag, 39, of South Lake Tahoe, drew a three-month term with the rest of her two-year sentence suspended.
Stephen Robert Zaffron, 38, was given a one-year suspended sentence with three years probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Burch said the fraud allowed the four to “take extended vacations and live in luxurious surroundings.”
The complaint, covering activities in 13 states and a period of time from November 1975 to November 1981, said Muncaster set up tax accounts for at least 10 fictitious employers in the various states, using private mail drops throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
Then, the government said, he and the others, using false names, applied for Social Security numbers and used them in filing fraudulent interstate unemployment insurance benefits claims at 19 California Employment Development Department offices in the San Francisco area.
Muncaster and the others would appear at these offices saying they were former out-of-state employees of the fictitious companies who had moved to California to look for work.
California would process the claims and forward them to the states where wages were supposedly earned. These states would verify claims by writing to the fictitious employers' Bay area offices.
Muncaster and the others would verify their own claims and states sent out more than 2,000 checks to the various addresses.
B. M. McClanahan, postal inspector in charge, said the defendants rented 22 post office boxes at various places, established mail receiving service at 37 Bay area mail drops, obtained more than 90 fraudulent Social Security cards and opened about 60 bank accounts for benefits paid on 130 unemployment claims.
The states involved were New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Hawaii plus the District of Columbia.
California has filed a civil suit on behalf of the other states seeking to recover some of the lost funds.”
Associated Press. San Francisco. Four-year sentence given in 13-state mail fraud case. September 16, 1982. Nashua Telegraph. Page 15.
[news.google.com]
“Mr Zaffron is described in the book's executive summary as "a senior executive and board member with Landmark Education, where he spear-headed the design of the Landmark Forum".”
Baker, Richard; and Nick McKenzie. (August 30, 2011) Department chops $80,000 'charisma' seminar Landmark Education and its offshoots have attracted global controversy for their group training programs. The Age, Australia.
STEPHEN ROBERT ZAFFRON AKA STEVEN ZAFFRON MAINTAINED HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH WERNER ERHARD FOR DECADES, AUTHORING A PAPER WITH HIM AND MICHAEL C. JENSEN ON “INTEGRITY” IN 2009:
Erhard, Werner and Jensen, Michael C. and Zaffron, Steve, Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics and Legality (March 23, 2009). Harvard Business School NOM Working Paper No. 06-11; Barbados Group Working Paper No. 06-03; Simon School Working Paper No. FR 08-05. Available at SSRN: [ssrn.com] or [dx.doi.org]
NOTE THAT AT THIS TIME, STEVEN ZAFRON WAS ASSOCIATED WITH WERNER ERHARD RELATED COMPANIES LANDMARK EDUCATION AKA LANDMARK WORLDWIDE AND ALSO VANTO GROUP, FORMER KNOWN AS LANDMARK EDUCATION BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (LEBD), FORMERLY KNOWN AS TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES.
Landmark Education Business Development aka LEBD aka Vanto Group has as its CEO Steven Zaffron.
Zaffron first became an executive for Werner Erhard and was an “est trainer” in Erhard’s company “Erhard Seminars Training” (Outrageous Betrayal by Steven Pressman, St. Martin’s Press: 1993, page 217).
Currently, Zaffron serves the Landmark Education corporation as CEO of “Vanto Group”, formerly known as “Landmark Education Business Development”, and in addition, Zaffron has the highest-ranking “trainer” title in Landmark Education called “Landmark Forum Leader”.
Interestingly, in a publication by Steven Zaffron as its author, “The Promise of Philosophy and the Landmark Forum”, Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. XXIII, No. 1 & 2, Jan/Feb & Mar/Apr 2001 Barbados Group Working Paper No. 01-01. -- Steven Zaffron acknowledges Landmark Education is a form of " Large Group Awareness Training " or LGAT. In this paper co-authored by Zaffron, the phrase “Large Group Awareness Training” is used multiple times in reference to Landmark Education. Example on page 52: “Dennison’s dissertation,7 which categorizes the Landmark Forum as a “large group awareness training” is a qualitative study based on interviews with Forum graduates. He also reports predominantly positive outcomes and in addition, briefly summarizes philosophical components of the Forum. The extensive research literature on “large group awareness training” published in the 1970s and 80s (summarized in Finkelstein, Wenegrat, and Yalom8) is framed in psychological more than philosophical terms, albeit there is some reference to the training as existential psychotherapy.” Two different academic treatises are cited as references in the paper co-authored by Zaffron (see page 59, endnotes 7 and 8, Dennison 1994 and Finkelstein 1982) – and both have the phrase “Large Group Awareness Training” in their titles.
RADARIS INFO ON STEVEN ZAFFRON CONFIRMS HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH TWO WERNER ERHARD RELATED COMPANIES – TEKNIKO LICENSING CORPORATION AND LANDMARK FORUM AKA LANDMARK EDUCATION AKA LANDMARK WORLDWIDE:
Radaris
[radaris.com]
ORGANIZATIONS
Name / Title
Company / Classification
Phones & Addresses
Steven Zaffron
Director
Tekniko Licensing Corporation
1945 N Carson St, Carson City, NV 89701
353 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Steven Zaffron
Manager
LANDMARK WORLDWIDE, LLC
2390 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016
1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801
353 Sacramento St #200, San Francisco, CA 94111
STEVEN ZAFFRON WAS CONVICTED OF MAIL FRAUD PER WERNER ERHARD BIOGRAPHY OUTRAGEOUS BETRAYAL:
Steven Zaffron = convicted of Mail Fraud in 1982.
Steven Zaffron = served Werner Erhard as an Est Trainer in Erhard Seminars Training EST.
Steven Zaffron = current CEO of Vanto Group formerly known as Landmark Education Business Development (LEBD).
Steven Zaffron = current Landmark Forum Leader = highest level rank in Landmark Forum aka Landmark Education aka Landmark Worldwide.
Steven Zaffron = given “lifetime” designation to perform “transformation” work for Werner Erhard forever.
Steven Zaffron = member of the Board of Directors of Landmark and senior executive at Landmark Education aka Landmark Forum aka Landmark Worldwide = helped design the Landmark Forum course itself.
Steven Zaffron = continues to work with Werner Erhard while working at Landmark Education aka Landmark Forum aka Landmark Worldwide and while working as CEO of Vanto Group formerly known as Landmark Education Business Development.
From the book Outrageous Betrayal as quoted at:
“[...] Another one of Erhard's new executives was an est trainer named Steven Zaffron […] Three years after first joining Erhard's staff in 1979, Zaffron had been indicted on mail fraud charges for participating in a scam to collect phony unemployment checks. Zaffron was placed on three years' probation [...] Zaffron [...] agreed to a plea bargain [...] shortly before Erhard conferred on him the coveted 'lifetime' designation to do Werner's transformational work [...]”
Pressman, Steven, Outrageous Betrayal: The dark journey of Werner Erhard from est to exile. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0-312-09296-2 , pg. 217.
CONFIRMED ACCURATE INFORMATION PER 1982 ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE:
“San Francisco (AP) – A man whom prosecutors say masterminded scheme that bilked 13 states out of more than $400,000 in unemployment benefits was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for mail fraud.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson imposed the sentence on David Adams Muncaster, 50, of Fairfax, who pleaded guilty June 7 to two of 41 counts against him. Three other people also were sentenced after having pleaded guilty to one count each.
Rosalyn Linda Bonas, 40, who lived with Muncaster, was sentenced to 179 days in jail, with the rest of her three-year sentence suspended. Muncaster's former wife, Joan Loretta Sontag, 39, of South Lake Tahoe, drew a three-month term with the rest of her two-year sentence suspended.
Stephen Robert Zaffron, 38, was given a one-year suspended sentence with three years probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Burch said the fraud allowed the four to “take extended vacations and live in luxurious surroundings.”
The complaint, covering activities in 13 states and a period of time from November 1975 to November 1981, said Muncaster set up tax accounts for at least 10 fictitious employers in the various states, using private mail drops throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
Then, the government said, he and the others, using false names, applied for Social Security numbers and used them in filing fraudulent interstate unemployment insurance benefits claims at 19 California Employment Development Department offices in the San Francisco area.
Muncaster and the others would appear at these offices saying they were former out-of-state employees of the fictitious companies who had moved to California to look for work.
California would process the claims and forward them to the states where wages were supposedly earned. These states would verify claims by writing to the fictitious employers' Bay area offices.
Muncaster and the others would verify their own claims and states sent out more than 2,000 checks to the various addresses.
B. M. McClanahan, postal inspector in charge, said the defendants rented 22 post office boxes at various places, established mail receiving service at 37 Bay area mail drops, obtained more than 90 fraudulent Social Security cards and opened about 60 bank accounts for benefits paid on 130 unemployment claims.
The states involved were New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Hawaii plus the District of Columbia.
California has filed a civil suit on behalf of the other states seeking to recover some of the lost funds.”
Associated Press. San Francisco. Four-year sentence given in 13-state mail fraud case. September 16, 1982. Nashua Telegraph. Page 15.
[news.google.com]
“Mr Zaffron is described in the book's executive summary as "a senior executive and board member with Landmark Education, where he spear-headed the design of the Landmark Forum".”
Baker, Richard; and Nick McKenzie. (August 30, 2011) Department chops $80,000 'charisma' seminar Landmark Education and its offshoots have attracted global controversy for their group training programs. The Age, Australia.
STEPHEN ROBERT ZAFFRON AKA STEVEN ZAFFRON MAINTAINED HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH WERNER ERHARD FOR DECADES, AUTHORING A PAPER WITH HIM AND MICHAEL C. JENSEN ON “INTEGRITY” IN 2009:
Erhard, Werner and Jensen, Michael C. and Zaffron, Steve, Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics and Legality (March 23, 2009). Harvard Business School NOM Working Paper No. 06-11; Barbados Group Working Paper No. 06-03; Simon School Working Paper No. FR 08-05. Available at SSRN: [ssrn.com] or [dx.doi.org]
NOTE THAT AT THIS TIME, STEVEN ZAFRON WAS ASSOCIATED WITH WERNER ERHARD RELATED COMPANIES LANDMARK EDUCATION AKA LANDMARK WORLDWIDE AND ALSO VANTO GROUP, FORMER KNOWN AS LANDMARK EDUCATION BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (LEBD), FORMERLY KNOWN AS TRANSFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES.
Landmark Education Business Development aka LEBD aka Vanto Group has as its CEO Steven Zaffron.
Zaffron first became an executive for Werner Erhard and was an “est trainer” in Erhard’s company “Erhard Seminars Training” (Outrageous Betrayal by Steven Pressman, St. Martin’s Press: 1993, page 217).
Currently, Zaffron serves the Landmark Education corporation as CEO of “Vanto Group”, formerly known as “Landmark Education Business Development”, and in addition, Zaffron has the highest-ranking “trainer” title in Landmark Education called “Landmark Forum Leader”.
Interestingly, in a publication by Steven Zaffron as its author, “The Promise of Philosophy and the Landmark Forum”, Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. XXIII, No. 1 & 2, Jan/Feb & Mar/Apr 2001 Barbados Group Working Paper No. 01-01. -- Steven Zaffron acknowledges Landmark Education is a form of " Large Group Awareness Training " or LGAT. In this paper co-authored by Zaffron, the phrase “Large Group Awareness Training” is used multiple times in reference to Landmark Education. Example on page 52: “Dennison’s dissertation,7 which categorizes the Landmark Forum as a “large group awareness training” is a qualitative study based on interviews with Forum graduates. He also reports predominantly positive outcomes and in addition, briefly summarizes philosophical components of the Forum. The extensive research literature on “large group awareness training” published in the 1970s and 80s (summarized in Finkelstein, Wenegrat, and Yalom8) is framed in psychological more than philosophical terms, albeit there is some reference to the training as existential psychotherapy.” Two different academic treatises are cited as references in the paper co-authored by Zaffron (see page 59, endnotes 7 and 8, Dennison 1994 and Finkelstein 1982) – and both have the phrase “Large Group Awareness Training” in their titles.
RADARIS INFO ON STEVEN ZAFFRON CONFIRMS HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH TWO WERNER ERHARD RELATED COMPANIES – TEKNIKO LICENSING CORPORATION AND LANDMARK FORUM AKA LANDMARK EDUCATION AKA LANDMARK WORLDWIDE:
Radaris
[radaris.com]
ORGANIZATIONS
Name / Title
Company / Classification
Phones & Addresses
Steven Zaffron
Director
Tekniko Licensing Corporation
1945 N Carson St, Carson City, NV 89701
353 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Steven Zaffron
Manager
LANDMARK WORLDWIDE, LLC
2390 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016
1209 Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801
353 Sacramento St #200, San Francisco, CA 94111
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