Hi Elena:
What is interesting with those two ideas, is that they have a grain of "truth" to them. According to some legit theories, our brain does "construct" a representation of "reality", and this is what we really are experiencing. (Constructivism)
BUT, with some of the further refinements of these ideas, as you point out, it crosses the line into something else altogether.
"If you experienced it, it is true", is actually both true and false. Our experiences are all we can go on, but they can be grossly distorted misinterpretations of external reality. We have to "Reality Test" these experiences, otherwise people can make grotesque perceptual errors. (Paranoia, panic, delusion, etc).
Its as if they have taken a basic philosophical idea, and then grossly exaggerated it, to create Programmed Confusion in the victim de jour.
Your second point, if believed as written, would literally lead to a type of insanity.
And of course, interwoven in the second idea, is the Narcissistic perspective. People are mere props to be used in ones quest for personal Grandiousity, WITHOUT EMPATHY. (lack of empathy is a Virtue for the Narcissist.)
So it seems they give the people the "reward" of imagining they are an "amazing" person. (Narcissistic supply). Yet at the same time, they are putting forward "ideas" that if believed, it seems to me will lead to a mental breakdown. The more i look at these "ideas" put forward by them, the more i see that they are deliberately designed to create confusion, anxiety, and even much worse in their victims.
I would guess that Landmark started by reverse engineering. They probably said, "what mental state do we want our victims to be in?"
And then they designed a bunch of nutty ideas to put them into that state of mind.
Its interesting that what Landmark is selling is basically the opposite of what is talked about in the Cognitive Therapies. In these one must GIVE UP the notion that you are the center of the universe, and that your subjective experiences represent Objective Reality.
But CBT-REBT, and the other Cogntive Behavioral Therapies were designed to enhance mental health, whereas Landmark is obviously designed to break people down, and even send them into a mental breakdown.
Its actually seems to confirm the basic premise of Cognitive Theory...
If we hold a bunch of nutty ideas in our head, we will go nutty!
So we have to carefully adjust our Perceptions, to ensure they are functional and adaptive.
Whereas Landmark has designed a bunch of "crazy" ideas, to make people crazy and break them down. So its using the insights of philosophy and cognitive theory in an evil way.
This gives them maximum power over their followers, and this power can be translated into money, or whatever else the Leader chooses.
If people want to harm Landmark, this is the best way to do it, in my opinion. Those who know a lot about Landmark could create a type a large document anonymously, revealing ALL of Landmarks techniques, from start to finish. Just take their training manuals, and just spell it ALL out. Then just release this all over the internet.
For instance, the meme that "Landmark is a dangerous cultic group" is very powerful and harmful to Landmark, and that's a good thing.
[The Time article about Scientology called "Cult Of Greed" is a very powerful meme.]
This is why the Landmarkians had to drop the "est" idea. Too many negative memes out there about est. So, they create Landmark, leave Werner out of the PR, try to stay legal, let people go to the bathroom, etc. They are trying to stay inside the laws, while still making their money.
In my view, the way to REALLY get these guys, is to EXPOSE ALL OF THEIR TECHNIQUES.
What the world needs is a large, anonymous document on the internet called LANDMARK EXPOSED, or LANDMARK'S LIES.
Education is power, and when most people LEARN what they are doing, it ceases to have as much power over you. The real answer to combatting all this cultic mind-control is Education, in my view.
I actually call it Psychosocial Self-Defense.
Noam Chomsky calls his work "a course in Intellectual Self-Defense".
I think we need free courses on the internet in Psychosocial Self-Defense as well.
Those who have been harmed by Landmark, and know ALL ABOUT Landmark, could do a great service to the world, by carefully, accurately and objectively spelling out ALL of their techniques and methods and motives, and releasing this document of anti-Landmark antiviral MEMES anonymously on the net.
Coz
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elena
Here are a couple that I find/found onerous, disturbing, frightening, manipulative, or just plain weird.
The oft repeated "If you experienced it, it is true for you." What they neglect to add is that your experience may have been contrived by scammers for their own benefit, not yours. Or that you can be tricked experiencially as well as emotionally or intellectually. It's an ambiguous "tenet" but some adherents use it as justification or foundation for a lot of other solipcistic nonsense. They do not allow that someone standing outside your experience can often see what you cannot or that an outside observer's view may be more accurate.
"You create your own reality." This is an almost complete negation, in Landmark-land, of the beings and doings of any other human being. If you read a book, in Landmark-land, *YOU* are the one using your own a priori knowledge to imagine the words on paper which you hold in front of you. Your own perceptions are responsible for your construction of the world. Everything and everybody are just imaginary props or resource to be utilized or discarded in your own "amazing" life.
There are lots more.
Ellen