Hello,

I thought I'd write a message to detail my encounter with Landmark and hopefully gain some help from other people on this.
I personally have never attended any Landmark meeting, but was first made aware of it when my sister began hounding myself and my mother to attend the forum. At first I thought it was just a phase and that it would pass, but as she became more insistant I realised that she was emotionally blackmailing my mother into attending the forum.
I had never heard of Landmark before my sister phoned me and began excitedly telling me of its benefits. I was very skeptical that any meeting lasting for three days could iron out all a persons problems, and when she described the hours/lack of sleep/restricted toilet visits my suspicions were aroused. I was troubled further when as part of her opening gambit she informed me that Landmark is "not a cult, because they told us that on the first day". This kind of struck me as strange, based on the logic that only a liar constantly assures people that he is not a liar, honest people do not feel the need to do this, as we are not SUPPOSED to be liars. By this logic I reason that any self help group which begins by informing you they are "not a cult" should arouse suspicions, as they are not SUPPOSED to be a cult, they are SUPPOSED to be a training course.
At first my mother agreed with my philosophy, but then she began to gravitate toward attending the forum (I can only assume through emotional blackmail, as she would get upset and cry if I tried to reason with her)
I found out to my dismay that she had signed up to do the course and had tried to do so without my knowledge (I only found out after Landmark phoned to confirm this).
Again, I confronted her, more tears, she told me it was "just something she had to do"??
After looking on the internet I found this excellent site, and realised my suspicions had been warranted. Sadly, I could not persuade my mother not to go, as she would get upset and refuse to speak about it. I realised that there must have been some emotional leverage at work to make her refuse to enter into dialogue and blindly attend the forum clinging to some hope that it would benefit her.
So now my mother, sister, step father and brother in law have all attended Landmark and the further seminars, and myself and my girlfriend are the only members of my (small) family who have refused to go, and as such we have noticed ourselves being ostricised and treated as outsiders. Quite ironic seeing as Landmark purports to increase family relationships.
The changes I have seen in my family are none to non-existant with regards to how they actually live their lives or their general happiness or well being, but the hilarity of the situation is that they all believe that they are living to their full potential and that everyone else is 'troubled' in some way and need Landmark to be as 'enlightened' as they are.
Having witnessed several other people being ground down by a Landmark style character assassination by my family, I have been amazed at the totalitarian approach, it seems NO-ONE would not benefit from Landmark, and as such it must be sold to everyone and anyone who comes within earshot.
With this going on all around me I decided to take some positive action and try and learn as much as I could about the teachings that go on in the forum, and, surprisingly, I found that there is no definitive book which contains the 'education', the only way to 'learn' it is to attend the forum. Interestingly, none of my family have been able to explain ANY of the 'education' that they have received, despite my constant badgering, and they have only been able to tell me that I would "have to attend the forum". If I attended a weekend long training seminar, where I was 'educated', I would hope to have at least SOME rational philosophies to pass on to others.
I have collated and read as many posts on this site and others to help me to understand the forum, and I have just finished reading Dianetics, which I believe seems to have a similar philosophy from what I can gather, so here is the teaching as I can ascertain. (If anyone can help me or point out any errors in this it would be much appreciated!):
OK, so as humans we have two types of mind, the conscious (or analytical in Scientology)which is concerned with the here and now, and this is the part we think of as being rational. The conscious mind is what we use when we are experiencing things and if we relied solely upon this part of the mind then everything would be rosey.
Then there is Carl Jungs unconscious mind (or the reactive in Scientology) which is concerned with survival, and goes on behind the scenes making all sorts of wacky assumptions based on our experiences, and as such our minds which we have relied on thus far historically are fundamentally wrong. The unconscious mind makes all these crazy assumptions, and then influences us to make decisions and to act in certain ways which are destructive to our full potential. These actions are called 'rackets' in Landmark, and 'engrams' in scientology.
Our conscious mind then tries to rationalise these behaviours by making up excuses for our behaviour to justify ourselves. This is called being 'inauthentic' (lm) or an 'abberation' (sc), and we use these 'strong suits' or 'winning valances' which are learned habits that work for us but our goal should be to be 'authentic' or 'clear' by ridding ourselves of these pesky habits.
If this is the fundamental message then I have some strong objections. Firstly, I do actually agree with the basic concept as an applied method of psychology to overcome ACTUAL DESTRUCTIVE psychological disorders, but the general message here is that ANY behaviours or beliefs that we call our own and therefore act upon are ALL destructive disorders. Therefore, a woman who has been raped and is therefore wary of men is actually suffering from a destructive psychological condition which she needs to be rid of. This message seems to be that we are ALL mentally disturbed and that the only way to salvation is to be rid of our idiosyncrasies that make us individuals, and act completely on impulse.
Surely these 'rackets' that we all carry around with us are essentially what make us HUMAN, and INDIVIDUALS. These bothersome anomalies in our psyche are exactly what makes us ourselves, and gives us personality. To label our personalities and experiences as troublesome entities which get in the way of a happy life, is akin to saying we should all become brainless morons and stop thinking and then we will all be much happier (actually I don't dispute that fact, but I'd rather use my mind than waste it!)
Finally, if we summarise the worlds problems by extrapolating this belief and saying that the reason that any two warring nations are at odds with each other is because they have conflicting rackets and are being inauthentic about them. Landmark can help them both to remove these harmful 'rackets' or religious and political belief systems and they will no longer be at odds but will unite and try to sell Landmark to every neighbouring country and world peace will ensue.
The problem with this scenario is that there are no universal truths, and opinion and belief have always been, and always will be subjective. Therefore the entire theology of Landmark is by its own system a RACKET, and anyone going for the hard sell and trying to foist their opinions about Landmark onto anyone else is being INAUTHENTIC.

Quote
Somnambulance
So now my mother, sister, step father and brother in law have all attended Landmark and the further seminars, and myself and my girlfriend are the only members of my (small) family who have refused to go, and as such we have noticed ourselves being ostricised and treated as outsiders. Quite ironic seeing as Landmark purports to increase family relationships.
The changes I have seen in my family are none to non-existant with regards to how they actually live their lives or their general happiness or well being, but the hilarity of the situation is that they all believe that they are living to their full potential and that everyone else is 'troubled' in some way and need Landmark to be as 'enlightened' as they are.

Hi,

I was at Landmark. I can only say from my experience that most people participate for no longer than two years, even shorter. Then they have done most of the main courses. Sooner o later it will be over in your family. The big trouble is with the recruiting, this is the true brain washing at Landmark. "No criticism of Landmark" and "recruit others" is put deeply into the subconscious mind. No doubt, this is brain washing. You feeling as outsider is the cult thing.

Your experience is just another proof:
Landmark is a "cult" with respect to members feeling superior to "outsiders", and it is brain washing because most people (not all) start recruiting others and dont consider any citicism of Landmark.

also true what you said about the non-existant change in happiness or how they live their life. Changes are small from the outside ... They will tell something different because the "recruiting" pattern is so deep in their unconscious mind. I have seen people spending their evenings organizing recruitment events for Landmark ... but why? for the praise and glory of a Landmark leader.