One of my best friends is a lesbian and she told us [a group of close friends, about five of us] to come with her to a 'cleansing' is what
she called it. I find out later on, she was instructed to not tell us what it was about, and that she needed to be very vague about it
when inviting us.
When visiting the forum, there were some very odd things I noticed, and from reading many of the chilling posts here, and on other sites
about The Forum [landmark] and it's clone companies, there are many many similarities and many of us [of course, not her] got very bad
vibes from all of this.
We were told the prices [which being a frugal person, I right off the bat was like.. fuck this, community counseling is free if you REALLY
need help, and sometimes if there's a study they even pay YOU]..
Right off the bat this uber - charisma guy takes the mic is is running around asking is people need positivity in their life, and want
positive change; he kept mentioning about 'the unlimited potential that people have' and 'we can help you reach your ultimate potential'
'great sex life' 'more energy' 'self fufillment' .. etc - it just seemed almost like a church service without the faith. I'm not a very
religeous person and so large groups of people with obvious 'zealot' looks in their eyes make me extremely nervous.
After hearing an 'empowerment speech' as they called it, we heard two major sob stories.. a lady who was abused by her father [total
plant] and a young stoner-esque couple who got back from "the best experience of our lives on the wisdom vacation" [again, I'm 100% sure
they were actors] - the guy took the mic again and was like.. why don't you take a break and sign up for the begining course because [get
this] - you can't commit to changing your life, without a down payment.
No no .. SERIOUSLY - he said this! That your life doesn't start to change unless you actually put the money down, because money speaks
more than words.. anyone can say 'I'm going to join.. and go home and forget' but 'commitment' requires a down payment.
Next we were told to speak to the person who brought us, and ask them why we should be here, and why we need help. [I'm more than self
critical, and I really don't need someone else "projecting" why I need help onto me..] and then we were all instructed to sign up for the
begineer courses..
Gold name tags everywhere, lined the walls, watching the crowd as if observing our body language, and constantly asking 'are you okay' or
'how are you doing? can I sign you up' .. etc.
There's a pen under all of your seats, the man at the front said as he continued to give another 'empowering speech' and then said, let's
take another break - and ask your friend, why do you think I need help? [again, pretty much the same thing, more signing up, without
giving us any idea of what we were signing up for] yet - people REALLY did sign up and I just can't seem to understand why.
At this point, I was done.. and my friend and I decided to go outside for a breath of fresh air [a cig for him, a clove for me] and I
noticed several others leaving as well to go outside; then the two 'plants' (the stoner/hippy couple) came outside, bummed a cigarette and
tried to 'play nice' with the circle of smokers over in another corner outside and inflenced a few of them inside; smokers being naturally
cynical most of them were not convinced and one girl even told them to fuck off as she walked away.
My friend Steve and I discussed some of the strangeness we felt, and some of the odd behavior as well as the excessive number of
'volunteers' that they had - later I found out the only person who made any money [and who collected all of the cash from our signups was
the big man at the front] .. all of the rest were 'volunteers' who 'got more out of it, than they put in'; there were over 30 volunteers -
this really struck me as VERY wrong and just didn't add up.
We basically weighed the descision of leaving, not so much in the idea that we would disappoint or upset Landmark Forum - but more the
fact that a good friend [and a roommate of his] was the one who invited us, would probably be pissed or "disappointed" in us - mainly
because she's obviously fallen in so deep.
We decided if we needed this 'help' so bad, we could probably get it from a weekend trip to skiing or a hiking trip, and smoking a lot of
pot or a bottle of whiskey and sharing stories. Friendship is stronger than any cult-esque training program, and it's definitly has opened
my eyes - it's the new religeon without religeon - it's being a zealot without having any faith, it's as empty as the soul and the
Landmark 'secret' - you're supposed to get 'it' = life is empty and meaningless; and it’s empty and meaningless that it’s empty and
meaningless.
This is BULLSHIT.
Life is NOT empty, my life is full of fun, laughter, joy, sadness, hatred, sin, virtue, and everything that makes us human.
Life is not meaningless, if it is - why not just kill yourself? If you really believe that life is empty and meaningless than why do you
care to help yourself, or help others, or in that vein: even to live?
Perhaps Landmark wants people to believe their lives are empty and meaningless, and through their rigid repression of past guilt [which we
all know from our intro to psychology class is a BAD THING], excusing people and allowing them to wallow in self pity, and the worst is
that these financial and emotional leeches are expanding to other parts of the globe and people are signing up by storm.
Their methods of recruitment are entireley suspect, going through emotional channels of friendship and family, using these weaknesses to
bring people inside with the promises that all of their needs, desires, and potential can be fufilled for only the low price of X dollars
is ridiculous. People say, they are more authentic and down to earth, because they don't advertise - well, advertising you can always
ignore or choose not to look at, there's places or advertising - but something like this, sneaks under the wire, under the defenses and
uses word of mouth for it's own profitiability, because everyone knows word of mouth if more believable - especially if it promises all
that which is almost undeniably desired.
Most people don't know about the roots of the Landmark Forum, or other subsects [Lifespring, Life Change Inc, Life Awareness Seminars,
etc] - but the original writer was a Scientologist, an OT5 [or "clear", the highest known rank the church has]; he developed a rigid,
brainwashing method by depriving people of sleep, movement, bathroom breaks, etc while he would shatter their emotional and mental state
over the period of an entire day (when the mind is tired, the mind is weak; when the body is weak, the mind is weaker - Ichigo). These
people use your weakness and the chinks in your emotional armor in order to recruit you and make you feel as if you are weak, inferior [on
a mental, emotional, and spiritual level], then they dangle a promise of paradise and fufillment in front of your eyes. "The world is in
your hands.." we were told by one person who had completed the course and was a current volunteer.
Werner Erhard [aka: John Rosenberg] originally developed the 'technology' using a hodgepodge of mostly scientology high level "training
techniques" [also known to many cult awareness websites, the best being Rickross.com as 'brainwashing'], zen abusive training, mental
weakening, and basic common sense wrapped up in enigmatic cloak of bullshit and circular logic. His training was known as EST [Erhard
Seminar Training] also convieniently named "est" or latin for 'it is', and promises to help people get 'it' which no one ever does.
Empty promises and a billion dollars later, Werner Erhard/John Rosenberg sold the company to his scientologist brother, Jack Rosenberg and
fled the country, and his brother renamed the company Landmark Education Corp. (LEC), and a public name - The Landmark Forum, or know
affictionatly by the 'successful zombies' who have left their jobs and families to work for the company, as "the Forum".
As you continue to work for the company, with time you will 'get it', and eventually will become a part of their pyramid scheme, bringing
more and more people to the groups for 'help', and perhaps one day become a leader who will travel the world and teach people of their
'problems' and continually recruit people from all walks of life, and probably make a decent living at it. If you feel like cheating
people out of their money, and really like sales with a slimey edge - this may just be the career for you (or if you really want to 'help'
people and prefer the zealot approach, then that works as well). I personally know two people who are going through the motions as
Landmark Leaders because of the profits, and I've had this admitted to me. These people don't want to help you, the most successful ones
are the best actors and 'empowerment' often leads to profits with strong sales techniques and a good dose of brainwashing (-cough-
training).
The aftereffects of this event has caused several strains on my group of close friends, and our friend Saunatina has consistantly been
trying to push our friend Jon into coming back to the Forum, as well as encouraging others to emotionally and socially attack others;
projecting her feelings of insecurity on others and making them feel negative or bad about their lives. This is classic peer pressure,
with a very close loving approach, and it's just fucking sick. Someone like Saunatina I'd always considered such a strong, willful person;
she was an indiviual, who didn't take shit from anyone, maybe she had some issues, but she was always original, confident, and fun. Now
she's become like an angry emotional zombie, who is in heavy recruitment mode and is pressuring our circle of friends and frankly, I'm
considing not being her friend anymore.
Landmark teaches you during the begining courses that your friends, family, churches, and lovers may turn against you when they hear the
'good news of your transformation', and will try to dissuade you, and tell you that 'you haven't changed'. Well I disagree, she has
changed, and to be honest- it's for the worst. If Landmark Education teaches you to 'have more fufilling friendships, sex life, and get
rich / become financially successful', then why is she hurting her friendships, unable to find a job, and is unsure of her own sexuality?
It hurts me to see something like this, sweeping like a plague and ripping people from their lives, their friends, their jobs, and their
families - to know that people fall into this kind of trap, lined with honey and empty promises, while breaking off all forms of love,
life, and relationships that previously their seemed to enjoy and shelling out their wallets [when they can't afford often].
Landmark Education runs from $450.00 for begining courses (9am-midnight, to tire your brain out and make it more vulerable), $700-100 for
the advanced courses, while the 'Wisdom' courses (there are several) all start at $1,500 and go up from there. As you can see, it's
obviously a profit mongering group, which will do anything to try and squeeze every resource out of you.
If Landmark Forum / Education really wanted to help people, why does it charge so much money?
Why does Landmark Forum have so many volunteers who work for free [The U.S. Department of Labor has a current case against Landmark
Education because they believe they are violating national laws on labor and human exploitation, because they are a FOR PROFIT company,
not a non-profit organization] - They are the new Starbucks of self-faith and empty, broken promises.
================================================
A very good way to describe the circles of logic used by cults and "organizations" like this is to find a way to defy logic, critical thinking, and any general semblence of skepticism by bending the social/verbal rules to their englightened selves.
A common feature of every LGAT, Cult, human potential seminar (Landmark), whatever similar organism that I have encountered or heard of or read about is that they have a gambit of semanticizing all discussion, most particularly discussion that concerns the Dominant Organism...
Pay close attention to the nature of this gambit and do not take your eye off the ball for a second...
To semanticize means to throw ordinary language itself into question... to suggest by implication that the LGAT (or whatever) has access to a special understanding, either about the true nature of the self, the true nature of reality, or the true purposes of existence that cannot be expressed using commonly held concepts/definitions or a commonly used vocabulary.
The Semantic Gambit is fundamentally rhetorical as it is a framing device that frames Outsiders or new inductees as fundamentally ignorant, incapable of "getting it" withoput adhering to a rigidly defined process (which can only be "truly understood" when the occult inner meanings of the semantically shifted in-house vocabulary is "truly understood")...
The Semantic Gambit serves to put the unfamiliar novice in a defensive position of being framed as operating from a position of ignorance or non-comprehension... and more insidiously, incapable of comprehension until an arduous process of indoctrination has taken place ... in plain English, it is a way to make you feel insecure and stupid and frame their junk as so far above your tiny mind you should thank them for letting you in on the secret.
IE: Anything you throw at them is a 'racket', because you're 'always holding yourself back' - they are always right, you are always wrong.
==============================================
<b>Do not be a zombie, who's life is empty or meaningless.</b>
Fight for the right to keep your own mind, and don't join this CULT.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.
And don't think you're safe just yet, there are MANY other companies [started by landmark graduates] which use the EXACT
same formula (signups, volunteers, pressure, same exact 'training' techniques, etc) that Landmark utilizes, it's basically
Landmark Education by different names, again often started by those who finally 'got it' - being the head of a legal pyramid scheme.
LSS (Life Success Seminar), Lifespring, Sterling Inc, PSI 7 ["The Farm/The Ranch"], IMPACT, and other LGAT.
If you're not aware, LGAT stands for Large Group Awareness Training.
Other names many of these companies go by: Women's Weekend, Asiaworks, Indiaworks, GDT, MSIA, Mankind Project,
EST Renewal, LEC, UMKC, Fire Seed, Cannon Training and Devleopment, Aji Network, etc.
So many people have lost their lovers, friends, and family members to these sorts of modern, corporate, seemingly nice cults.
For more personal stories on the horrors of Landmark Education / Landmark Forum visit:
[
www.culteducation.com] (especially view the 'Personal Stories' section, near half way down the page)
Or join the forums at: [
forums.culteducation.com] for more stories, updates on these groups, and discussions.