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ON2 LF

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I trust you will honor my request and cease any further use of my
letter as an endorsement.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Harry Rosenberg, CEO
Landmark Education

Interesting how the term 'request' is used for what is actually a veiled threat. The sad thing is that this letter probably sent chills of fear reverberating down the spines of every practicing landmark graduate reading it.

Hehe, most likely - as evidenced by the fact that the blog and associated Yahoo! Group went pretty much dead for a while after that Rosenberg Cease and Desist letter.

I understand how the practicing landmark graduates would respond in fear and shame or just plain remorse to such a 'request'; they are no different than a child caught in an abusive environment where the abuser is a distorted representation of survival and protection to the victimized child, the fact that the abuser is a false representation is simply unknown to the victim.

I am appalled, however, that so much power is given to one who does NOT believe in issuing paycheques. The only persons with such authority over me is God or a paying employer. With anyone else, all bets are off!
What's the worst he could do to them? Take away their 'rights' and 'privileges' to endless days and weeks of volunteer labor? Take away the 'love' and the control? Revoke 'invitations' to more courses? Or perhaps expose them for being 'inauthentic' cult members? Why doesn't someone call the bluff? It seems to me, without the unpaid laborers/reformers (the abused), landmark doesn't go anywhere...'requesting' holes into the hand that feeds you seems extraordinarily stupid to me! That's what I call an a--hole!

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ON2 LF
I understand how the practicing landmark graduates would respond in fear and shame or just plain remorse to such a 'request'; they are no different than a child caught in an abusive environment where the abuser is a distorted representation of survival and protection to the victimized child, the fact that the abuser is a false representation is simply unknown to the victim.

I am appalled, however, that so much power is given to one who does NOT believe in issuing paycheques. The only persons with such authority over me is God or a paying employer. With anyone else, all bets are off!
What's the worst he could do to them? Take away their 'rights' and 'privileges' to endless days and weeks of volunteer labor? Take away the 'love' and the control? Revoke 'invitations' to more courses? Or perhaps expose them for being 'inauthentic' cult members? Why doesn't someone call the bluff? It seems to me, without the unpaid laborers/reformers (the abused), landmark doesn't go anywhere...'requesting' holes into the hand that feeds you seems extraordinarily stupid to me! That's what I call an a--hole!

And that is why more past/present volunteer "assistants" need to come forward (even anonymously) and contact the United States Federal Department of Labor...

it will be a great day in North American history when that happens!

This is most strange to me... in all of my ESThole days and advanced ESThole coursework... I knew of no person who could, would, or did associate with the Trainers outside of the ESTholian context... my assumtion is that these "recreations" of The Great Weener had no time in their lives for what most of us would consider "unstructured social time"... however, one fellow in an advanced course told me that he bumped into our 6 day head trainer (mmmm pun there ?) at an airport and approached him socially to say hi and share some thoughts.... he said that TrainerMan was completely unable to break out of his EST schtick, in ohther words he was so fully immersed "in role" that he appeared to have lost all capacity for normal unfocused human interaction, or those capacities had become atrophied to the point that ALL he was capable of was transformational gobldygook... my classmate said that this experience had profoundly unsettled him although at the time he chalked it up to the guy's "deep intentionality".... I chalked it up to Loss Of Self.

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I chalked it up to Loss Of Self.

I believe you are 100% correct about the loss of self. That is what the 'reformers' should be afraid of. Its too bad that those reaching for the forum leader's chair couldn't witness the same thing your friend did. That is what landmark will do for them too. To think, it is that very same loss of self that every landmarkian strives for, scares the hell right out of me! For them and for the world they affect.

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nutrino
This is most strange to me... in all of my ESThole days and advanced ESThole coursework... I knew of no person who could, would, or did associate with the Trainers outside of the ESTholian context... my assumtion is that these "recreations" of The Great Weener had no time in their lives for what most of us would consider "unstructured social time"... however, one fellow in an advanced course told me that he bumped into our 6 day head trainer (mmmm pun there ?) at an airport and approached him socially to say hi and share some thoughts.... he said that TrainerMan was completely unable to break out of his EST schtick, in ohther words he was so fully immersed "in role" that he appeared to have lost all capacity for normal unfocused human interaction, or those capacities had become atrophied to the point that ALL he was capable of was transformational gobldygook... my classmate said that this experience had profoundly unsettled him although at the time he chalked it up to the guy's "deep intentionality".... I chalked it up to Loss Of Self.

How crazy would you be if you had spent years training yourself to disregard or distort reality into something of your own choosing or benefit? At some point you'd lose touch with the reality that you didn't ~create~ and begin to live in your own imaginary world, or worse still, you might come to believe you are ~responsible~ for anything and everything that happens. At that point, you might as well be schizophrenic.

All that playing around with things they don't understand -- psychology, physiology, psychiatry, anatomy, sociology, philosophy, epistomology -- must come home to roost in these uneducated, unaware, and amateur/expert Wernerized jerks in ways increasingly bizarre. You might even start imagining yourself to be "god in your own universe," or something.


Ellen