Brainwashing and Influence in LEC programs
Date: April 15, 2004 04:10PM
Guy,
Ok, I've looked into this. I admit that I wasn't completely versed in all of landmark's philosophy... I did some research
and I did overlook the whole "winning strategy" thing, although I have heard it talked about... I had understood it to be
something that was just like "see the stupid way you act? Ok, forget that, now be a landmark person." Anyways, I
do admit, there is something interesting, almost seductive in the way the concept is laid out. That's one of the things that
bugs me... because I know this is a destructive group, I've seen the (really) odd effects of it... the anxiety, the zealousness,
the crying jags, the mood swings, the weird dissociative behavior as people start to discuss/snap out of what happened,
personality changes... yet some of the philosophy is such a "feel good" kind of thing that I am almost seduced by it, in a
way.
Anyway, talked to my boyfriend about this, briefly. He was really preoccupied and didn't seem to want to discuss it. He
got real quiet when I asked him about his winning strategies. Then he said he didn't remember what that was. Then when
I questioned him further, he said he didn't remember, and he didn't feel like talking about landmark. So, that does kind of
bug me, because it seems like maybe something that he's holding on to at some level. (good call, Guy!) Of course, he
was in traffic, stressed, only had a second to talk, etc. I will let you know what we eventually talk about.
Ok, just for fun... I will take a quick look at the "winning strategy" concept. I mean, I see other logical fallacies and absurdities
in landmark (really one would be enough), such as "you create everything good or bad that happens to you". That in particular,
seems to posit some kind of strange, unexplainable psychic multiverse where we are all actually alone, nothing exists except
us, and whatever happens to us is really created by our will, consciously or subconsciously. So, if I am one years old baby living
in Viet Nam, and a B52 bomber drops a bomb on me, I created that, etc. etc. This seems to contradict the idea of an objective universe,
as well as the existence of other minds, etc. I suppose you could regress all the way back to Descarte and just figure everything
could just be a dream... but if we accpet the fact that there is a real world, and that you, me, landmark, and landmark recruits actually exist in a real world, it is far more likely that this is just a totally subjective truth bending philosophy which is very useful for
getting people into their heads and also making it more easy to program/control them. And also, therefore, that we DO NOT create/control everything that occurs to us in our lives, but that we, as individuals, are part of an interconnected system where other individuals, and society at large, have a tremendous effect on our lives and what we experience. Therefore, that we "create" everything that happens to us, is false.
Anyways, the "winning strategy". I'll just start, because I largely feel that this is just feel good hogwash that is a lot like chinese food -
you eat it and your still hungry an hour (or two years) later. Still, here goes:
"you did not design your winning strategy, it designed you." Strategy, websters defines as "A plan of action resulting from strategy or intended to accomplish a specific goal." synonomous with "plan". That a strategy exists seems to imply that some kind of conscious awareness exists. If we are to say that an UNCONSCIOUSLY designed strategy actually "designed" or brought our conscious self and our entire life into being, then that is in fact saying that the root of ALL our adaptive, conscious ego mechanisms is either an unconscious reflex to external stimuli, or that there is in fact some kind of unconscious "person within the person" who is actually designing you. Of course they probably intend the former... the latter reeks of a kind of scientology almost. Ok, but in regards to the former, the nature of the unconscious mind has been very thoroughly explained by Freud. The basic principle of the unconscious mind is the wish. The unconscious mind forms an idea of what it wants/needs. It does not actually know the difference between the wish image, and the actual wished for object itself. The ego is the adaptive part of the personality that actually is based in self awareness and consciousness. And the ego develops strategies in order to get what it wants/needs. The ego can continue to develop new and better strategies, ad-infinitum, as needed. That is how the human race survives. Yes, we can say that sometimes we, as individuals or as groups, get trapped in a rut of trying to use a limited number of strategies etc. But we can go beyond these, if we have the will, and, further, we designed these strategies and then lazily kept using them. "Strategies" can not "design" us. We as individuals are more than just what we do to get what we want. Consciousness and self awareness, love and all the richness of the human mind and spirit can take us way beyond that basic, machine-like conception of what a human is.
Landmark, obviously, has a winning strategy, and does not deviate from it. Landmark, the corporation, the legal individual entity, follows a totally regimented plan that always repeats the same actions. I've definitely seen all the info about how things are set up, about the lingo, etc, which is from everything I've heard, very structured. A totally unveered away from "winning strategy". The shadow of landmark. If a winning strategy is a formula that is a compensation for what's NOT possible, then therefore landmark's winning strategy must also be a compensation for something not possible, and must also therefore expand the scope of what's not possible. And, in my view, what's not possible for landmark forum as a group is freedom. The infinite possibility of which they speak, etc.
I will admit that some of their ideas do kind of hint at some principles of change and transformation... but administered in such heavy doses, and dripping in the sticky sweetness of regressive/mystical/positivist psychology, I still do need to say that Landmark's system is totally flawed and obviously not some kind of world-transforming revolutionary thing.