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Curious about what I might discover this time, I clicked on my Google alert link to see which of my namesakes has ties to a cult. There, to my surprise, was me.
Someone had posted a recent column I wrote after attending the Landmark Forum - a personal growth seminar that, according to some of the site's members and some news reports, messes up people's lives and has the trappings of a cult.
Other members of this Web forum attribute similar qualities to hundreds of groups ranging from Heaven's Gate - the ones who died believing they were about to board a spaceship behind a comet - to Mary Kay Cosmetics and all of Christianity.
The consensus of all repliers was that I'd been brainwashed, that I might never return to my normal column again, that I was "a confused writer just scraping by," and that, sadly enough, my "brains" had been "noticeably scrambled."
The postings rang of genuine sympathy, but the words in them stung like a good, hard slap. Who did they think I am that I might mindlessly accept everything I'm fed? And what might anyone think who happens to search my name on Google?
Wonder if this experience has strengthened her impressions of Landmark. Maybe Landmark Education has a "communication seminar" of some sort that could help Laura Marble with all of the "flame wars" ... Come to think of it - isn't the first seminar series "free" after you finish your Landmark Forum? I wonder if Laura Marble has signed up for one ...