Im interesting in finding any articles having to do with
the buzz words used by landmark-
Breakthrough- Do you get a breakthrough or get a breakdown) declare, powerful , shift-( you allknow those bizz words better than I )
Also if anyone knows of any article that is particularly
excellent at pointing out that these Landmark groups
are cults.Hard to choose when I do google search or use
this site because there are so many.

Thanks, Liz in nyc

A friend of mine just went through the Advanced Forum course. After the intro course she was all about "breakthroughs" - this week her word is "integrity."

I know that "breakthroughs" and "integrity" are concepts that can be meaningful outside of the Forum. It's the ultra-serious way she's applying them to EVERYTHING that's driving me nuts!

Ex: She asked me to summarize the plot of this week's "The L Word" show which featured a preview of someone cheating on someone else. "Wow-what a lack of integrity!" M. breathed.
No f-ing duh. That's the drama the silly soap opera is based on.

Keep ya posted. Hey, if you're in NYC, why don't you drop in on the weekly Tues. night 'completion' ceremony/enrollment drive?
Get there at 7pm to get a seat and go through all the sign-in. (It's north of the Penn Station post office, to the west of the Stage Deli. Big corporate entrance with nothing but a huge reception desk on the left side and scores of people looking for their 'friends' who'll be completing that night.) Eat before you go- it'll last till 10:45.

--Valerie

Yes, it's a sign of serious "infection" with Landmark "memes," jargon, and "concepts," - in other words, brainwashing.

I amazes me no end that otherwise intelligent people will willingly and gladly give up their own conversational style, education, and intellect to adopt the most sickening and idiotic Landmark garbage.

Just shows you the power of persuasion and influence practiced by professionals using up-to-date techniques and trickery. Scary!


Ellen

things written by nycupperes who is one of our new members.

'nycupperes' told us he/she was perturbed by LGAT jargon in dating ads. NYC diligently ran a quick statistical analysis of vocabulary and linguistic content, comparing personals ads by graduates and those written by non-LGAT graduates.

HIs reported findings were fascinating and funny.

thanks, corboy! i'll have a look.

here's the update from my friend, post-4-day, Thurs-Sun "advanced course."

While the Intro Forum was about empowering themselves as individuals, this course was about "the group."

Having integrity with your group meant that the session could not begin until everyone had arrived. The latecomers had to explain why they were late to 90 pissed off people. I said that that sounded like quite a lot of peer pressure.

M: I got it the first day, and I wasn't late.
Val: Why didn't the group just start without them?
M: Because then we would have lost our integrity as a group. Being in a group means that you're responsible for each other.

(Val thinks- Oooh, this sounds like a set up for codependency, or the kind of responsibility that evangelical Christians feel for saving the heathen.)

V: So if your flakey roommate fails to pay the rent, you're responsible?
M: I'm responsible for holding him to his word.

(OK- this made more sense at least.)

Damn. She better not be picking me apart whenever I see her. I could just hire a personal watchdog if that's what I wanted.

I heard that in the "free 10 week followup sessions" you exchange numbers and people call you up to make sure
you're following through on your commitments to yourself and coming to the next meeting. M's signing up for the S.E.L.P. (Forum leaders' training course.) I can't help but think the acronym is "Self-help."

My roommate (not the Landmarkian) is co-editor of Stay Free! magazine, which will be doing an article on Landmark in the next issue.

-Cranky Val

thanks corboy!

i re-edited my post because it wasn't clear that my friend "M" is not my roommate who's editing the article on Landmark. (Stay Free! is an independent magazine which tracks ads / media influence.)

-sigh-
val

thanks gc4062!

i re-edited my post because it wasn't clear that my friend "M" is not my roommate who's editing the article on Landmark. (Stay Free! is an independent magazine which tracks ads / media influence.)

-sigh-
val

How do LGATs actually get you talking their language?

This is something that amazes me - people go to a couple of sessions and then they use the same words in every conversation.

Do we understand how or why?

Is it just suggestible people or anyone?

..the concept of 'memes'--- which one author has called 'viruses of the mind.' Take a look at these threads.

[forum.culteducation.com]

[forum.culteducation.com]

The worst 'memes' are the ones that are designed to elude detection and critical evaluation. ('Anyone who has doubts is going to hell')

The ideas of scientific method and critical thought are memes, but they are special memes that enable us to test whether other memes are useful/true, not yet proven, or false/dangerous, and can be ignored.

If we are not allowed to test whether a meme or set of memes (aka 'memeplex') is true or not true, it will sit in our minds forever, and clutter up our thought process. Its like packrat syndrome of the mind. The clutter keeps piling up. You cant talk about anything else. You turn into a bore at parties--unless you arrange to socialize only among those as heavily meme-infected as you.

One way we can object to cults is that they intentionally arrange indoctrination so as to eliminate the subject's ability to engage in critical thinking--'meme testing'.

Imagine a friend insisting on downloading new software onto your computer and ordering you to first get rid of your firewall, and your virus detection software and accusing you of being cynical and 'close minded' if you refuse to do this before the new software is downloaded.

You'd be pissed. You'd be suspicious. You'd think your friend was bonkers.

But this is exactly what many cults and newly recruited members of cults to do us.

Hypnosis would probabably greatly enhance suggestibility because in hypnotic trance you cannot access critical thinking (meme busting), so memes implanted while you are in trance cannot easily be identified and examined after you are out of the trance.

If you're made to feel ashamed (a tactic many cults employ) you are in a painful state of mind that you will not wish to return to when you escape. Any meme you are exposed to while in a state of shame will be hard for you to analyze, because its linked to an area of mental and emotional pain that deflects insight--unless you have the ability to sustain analytic insight and apply it to shame ridden states of mind. This can be hard to do, unless you get some special training--and already have a suspicion that you've been tampered with.