I was unaware of this site before taking the Landmark Forum in March 2006. I might not have taken it based on some of the posts that are here.

For those of you that are curious, here is what happened with me during the weekend forum in Boston, MA.

I saw that I avoid difficult situations.

For example:
My sister had been sexually abused by our father when we were little. I never knew about it until we were already adults. Once she told me about it, I avoided her for the next 12 years.

I called my sister during the Forum to acknowledge what I had been doing with her. I told her that I no longer invalidate her story and invited her to create a new relationship together. She told me that she had been waiting many years for me to call. I got my sister back.

I'll tell you anything you want to know about what I have experienced so far. I would also like to hear what you have experienced?

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Myles
I was unaware of this site before taking the Landmark Forum in March 2006. I might not have taken it based on some of the posts that are here.

For those of you that are curious, here is what happened with me during the weekend forum in Boston, MA.

I saw that I avoid difficult situations.

For example:
My sister had been sexually abused by our father when we were little. I never knew about it until we were already adults. Once she told me about it, I avoided her for the next 12 years.

I called my sister during the Forum to acknowledge what I had been doing with her. I told her that I no longer invalidate her story and invited her to create a new relationship together. She told me that she had been waiting many years for me to call. I got my sister back.

I'll tell you anything you want to know about what I have experienced so far. I would also like to hear what you have experienced?

There is nothing wrong about getting back your sister. Any good friend or any psychologist would have told you to contact her despite all these years. However, be careful not to fall under the influence of Landmark and expect everybody to enroll with the promise of being transformed for life. If you do that, you will become like a puppet and they will be pulling the strings without you even realizing it. Just move on and don't let these sharks take control of your life, your friends and your family.

P.S.: What is the purpose of you're pool? Suppose I say No. Does it mean I know nothing about what Landmark is? Is there a "secret knowledge" that can be acquired only through personal experience, emotions and feelings? If you answer yes, that sounds "cultish" to me. Same old song ...

Yes. You are right. I am as sure as you are that my friends would have told me to call my sister. However, I wasn't looking there and I didn't feel like I was lacking in that area.

The thing is that I didn't even realize I was avoiding my sister until the Forum leader started talking about rackets. I have avoided her so well, for so long, I didn't even notice it anymore. Know what I mean?

It was really quite unexpected.

After all, I went to the Forum because I wanted to be more successful as the president of my company. An expensive sales coach that I hired told me to go to Landmark. I trust him, so I went.

Once I saw the avoidance with my sister, I could finally see the difficult situations I had been avoiding in my company.

I don't see why I wouldn't want to share this with my brothers and mother?

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midonov123
P.S.: What is the purpose of you're pool? Suppose I say No. Does it mean I know nothing about what Landmark is? Is there a "secret knowledge" that can be acquired only through personal experience, emotions and feelings? If you answer yes, that sounds "cultish" to me. Same old song ...

Not to mention that he left "did you do est?" out. <sniff, sniff> We just don't get no respect no more.

Myles, Glad for the realization and getting your sister back. Many people avoid things that are unpleasant. My Dad really hated going to visit anyone in the hospital.

Unfortunately, you probably also picked up some ticks while you were wandering around in the woods. Nasty little bloodsuckers that like to hide where you can't find them.

My advice - don't do anything else with Landmark, and question everything. There's nothing more valuable than freedom of mind.

estie

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I would also like to hear what you have experienced?

I've experienced being humiliated in front of 200 people by the leader in the advanced course for even hinting on that Landmark might be a scam. I've experienced my best friend threatening to never talk to me again if I kept saying bad things about the organisation. I experienced being ratted on by the staff for not doing homework and being called "pathetic" because I wasn't coachable. I've experienced being told I was going to end up in a mental hospital if I left the group. I saw many, many people besides myself being subjected to the peer pressure of the group until they 'get it.'

Most of all I've experienced talking to graduates and trying to say to them "wake up!" and I've experinced the 'plexi-glass' effect where you tell them about your negative experiences and it just kind of bounces away and doesn't enter their hearts. And I think it's because Landmark has labels for all these people. They're just 'negative people' who will drag you down if you talk to them too much, or they're 'racketeers.' Applying these labels to people makes it much easier to kind of shut down your emotional response about it. It's really amazing to me how people can read some of the stories on this site and not have it touch their hearts.

I did have a few wins, but the value that those wins have given me were not worth what I went through to get them. But I do like to look on the positive side of things though. My experience has enabled me to warn people about the abusive nature of this group. And I never ever say "just listen to me, they're liars." I say "don't take anything that I or they say for granted, read about it before you get involved on internet and in books, get educated and then arrive at your own conclusion. Don't ever feel pressured to sign up right away (which is something Landmark is very slick at, you have to do it NOW!) ;)

At my Forum in 2001, we were urged to sell LF to all those who might be suffering after 9/11.

There was a woman in my group who had been abused by her Dad and hadn't had a relationship with him for about 20 years. After she got up and shared all the things he did to her, the leader blasted her for "making him wrong" and running a "poor victim whose daddy doesn't lover her" racket. The leader rationalized that if he was really a sick person, he wouldn't have gone to work and put a roof over her head. How dare she! She fell for this briefly, because it is a way to dissociate from the pain, but when I saw her in the seminar series, she was clearly not doing well.

One woman told her co-workers how she honestly felt about them and ended up being ostracized at work. The forum leader wanted to know why she expected a different outcome and why could she not tolerate being shunned?

The whole thing is just so sick!

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Hope
There was a woman in my group who had been abused by her Dad and hadn't had a relationship with him for about 20 years. After she got up and shared all the things he did to her, the leader blasted her for "making him wrong" and running a "poor victim whose daddy doesn't lover her" racket. The leader rationalized that if he was really a sick person, he wouldn't have gone to work and put a roof over her head. How dare she!

It is well documented that in the Landmark/EST system of (weird and deviant) beliefs, if a 6 yo girld gets raped, she should bear the responsibility. Was Werner Erhard a pedophile? How can any normal person fall for this kind of crap?

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Myles
Once I saw the avoidance with my sister, I could finally see the difficult situations I had been avoiding in my company.

I don't see why I wouldn't want to share this with my brothers and mother?

Is this the new soft technique developed by Landmark to enroll people pretending this is not enrolling? The same old song of deception again and again.

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P.S.: What is the purpose of you're pool? Suppose I say No. Does it mean I know nothing about what Landmark is? Is there a "secret knowledge" that can be acquired only through personal experience, emotions and feelings? If you answer yes, that sounds "cultish" to me. Same old song ...

I did not answer the part of your question asking about the purpose of the poll.

I created the poll because I wanted to understand the foundation of the opinions. Are the opinions formed from experience or not? It is also important to me to get a sense of how recent was the experience.

My opinion right now is based purely on experience without any basis of knowledge. It is a "blind experience". I joined this site to gain knowledge in order to validate my experience and to form a tested opinion.

I want to get an idea of how your opinion was formed and is it tested.

For example: I can read about sex and I can watch a movie about sex. That would be knowledge. It is absolutely possible to form an opinion for myself from having studied those resources. However, once I had experienced sex; I had a much deeper foundation from which to form my own opinion. When you add knowledge together with experience, the opinion has been tested.

Is your opinion is based on knowledge, on experience, or based on both? [/quote]

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Not to mention that he left "did you do est?" out. <sniff, sniff> We just don't get no respect no more.

I meant no disrespect. What is "est" and how is "est" related to this topic?