"Landmark Education seems to have spent a lot of energy and money to prove that it does not fit the definition of a cult. The fact that they felt it was necessary to make such an effort should send red flags up! But what about an examination of how Landmark actually runs, its processes and principles? The function of a seminar leader should be to encourage critical thinking amongst participants. However, this is not apparent at Landmark seminars. Instead, Landmark's programs seems to narrow the focus upon the leader, who assumes strict control, which clearly does not encourage free thought."

One of the worst things you can be called in orthodoxy is a "freethinker". Orthodoxy wants "we will hear and we will do."So the need to have one's thoughts and actions governed is a major, ingrained tenet of many religious systems. Remember, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden for eating from the "Tree of Knowledge," according to the story. And studying philosopy is considered "dangerous" by orthodox groups.

Regarding the visitor's comments, if a participant questioned anything, or tried to explain their situation and how Landmark "technology" could help or hinder, the participant was told they were either running a racket or not being coachable. If the participant "didn't get it" (the message of Landmark), then they were, again, running a racket, not being coachable or, as it was explained at the end of the Forum - they might not "get it" until next year, five years from now, maybe longer. Clearly the focus is not on actually helping a participant. All I can think of is how befuddled telemarketers get when you start asking them to leave their script and answer questions. They only wanted you to buy their product.

But Landmark's focus on the seminar leader, at least for me, was contagious. I admired his stamina and his ability to sway the audience emotionally, but his arrogance was repulsive. Even when I knew this was a production, it was difficult not to get caught up in it. I wondered how he could cry every weekend over the same bittersweet stories of renewing the relationship with his emotionally-detached father, or how the Seminar Series leader-in-training could cry every week about her weight problem. I realized later that they were getting from these big audiences what they didn't get growing up. Maybe that's playing armchair psychologist, but that's exactly what the seminar leaders do with the participants. A woman who questioned my seminar leader was told "You hate men!" to the low oohs and gasps of the audience. How the hell could he make that assessment? This was all about him.

Hi All..

About Landmark being a cult... When I did my Advanced Course.. there was a sweet woman in the course with me.. and she was a follower of the Hare Krishna religion..

She was having a hard time with the control issues, and being told what to think and having her thoughts and feelings whisked away and being told that they are "rackets" - and she said something that I found very wise.

"You know I feel like this is getting cult like here, and Im actually in a cult, and THIS is more cult like than that"

Just a thought...

Merrie

Yes - Landmark is about Landmark and getting more people to go to more of Landmark's expensive programs. What it seems they do is cause people to further stuff emotions and make decisions based on this just-do-it-don't-think-about-it attititude. I had a couple in my Forum, they were probably about 50 years old, who just quit their jobs and moved to Colorado to build a dream house, yet they had no money, no site to build on, no jobs in CO. I wonder if they were Landmark graduate plants. This is magical thinking, not critical thinking. It's one thing to be present and to hear the voices that say why you can't do this or that, but I don't remember much talk about reframing those voices - just don't listen to them. This reframing is the basis of cognitive\behavioral therapy (which Landmark mocks). But Landmark also says that they don't teach positive thinking, because it doesn't work. I'm sure Landmark won't help that couple out when they run into financial trouble.

There was a thread about shocking or disorientation techniques used in advertising. I suppose Landmark uses that to bring you out of your habitual ways of thinking. My therapist said this is good for obsessive-compulsive people. But for people searching for answers, it just throws them farther off course in trying to attain a sense of cohesiveness or clarity. This certainly happened with me. I believed that EVERYTHING about myself was either a lie or a racket and felt like a failure after Landmark.

Landmark mocks every philosophy except those bits of a few that they chose to quote -- and then they will mock the portions that were not quoted. They also mock the other "technologies" from which they draw so heavilly.

There is some valid stuff in among the bogus technologies of the Forum. The problem is that after being immersed -- or more like focibly submerged -- in it, it becomes almost impossilbe to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

- Boz

Quote
Hope
Regarding the visitor's comments, if a participant questioned anything, or tried to explain their situation and how Landmark "technology" could help or hinder, the participant was told they were either running a racket or not being coachable. If the participant "didn't get it" (the message of Landmark), then they were, again, running a racket, not being coachable or, as it was explained at the end of the Forum - they might not "get it" until next year, five years from now, maybe longer. Clearly the focus is not on actually helping a participant. All I can think of is how befuddled telemarketers get when you start asking them to leave their script and answer questions. They only wanted you to buy their product.

But Landmark's focus on the seminar leader, at least for me, was contagious. I admired his stamina and his ability to sway the audience emotionally, but his arrogance was repulsive. Even when I knew this was a production, it was difficult not to get caught up in it. I wondered how he could cry every weekend over the same bittersweet stories of renewing the relationship with his emotionally-detached father, or how the Seminar Series leader-in-training could cry every week about her weight problem. I realized later that they were getting from these big audiences what they didn't get growing up. Maybe that's playing armchair psychologist, but that's exactly what the seminar leaders do with the participants. A woman who questioned my seminar leader was told "You hate men!" to the low oohs and gasps of the audience. How the hell could he make that assessment? This was all about him.

Ha ha ha, this sounds eerily like the [b:9ea749b80a] Monty Python : Argument Clinic [/b:9ea749b80a]
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