What Landmark does over the next 10 years depends on the "Second Coming" of Werner Erhard from exile. If he shows up in San Francisco giving seminars again, his followers will be energized and unstoppable. A devotee of his did a "documentary", funded by Erhard's former lawyer. Werner is not out of the picture at all. See this thread:
[board.culteducation.com]

It is hard to speculate about what Landmark/EST is up to without sounding completely paranoid....but....


I think a lot of the money goes to the "Leaders" who are all extremely well dressed. The Leader who was trying to recruit me kept referring to his wonderful trips to Greece....so I'm sure there kids all go to the best universities, drive good cars, have nice homes, etc.

and of course, someone has to pay for Werner's life of riley in the Caman Islands. I'm sure that does not come cheap!

'shad'

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joe6
What Landmark does over the next 10 years depends on the "Second Coming" of Werner Erhard from exile. If he shows up in San Francisco giving seminars again, his followers will be energized and unstoppable. A devotee of his did a "documentary", funded by Erhard's former lawyer. Werner is not out of the picture at all. See this thread:
[board.culteducation.com]

Unstoppable? It could actually be a good thing. How will they deny to be a cult with the 'charismatic leader' back on stage demanding to be called the Source, God, The One Who Sent Him, etc...? The followers may become unstoppable, but how many new people will join the freak show? And the 'documentary' will make a lot of people google for more info. Big miscalculation, with the french video still on streaming and a fair amount of 'outrageous betrayal' results when you google for their god.
They're advertising. The movie, the video introduction on the web site (with online registration!). I can't figure if they're desperate or they feel safer to step into the mainstream. Anyway, that's a big risk. Internet and the media are not their ballrooms. They're not so easily controlled.

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The Shadow
It is hard to speculate about what Landmark/EST is up to without sounding completely paranoid....but....


I think a lot of the money goes to the "Leaders" who are all extremely well dressed. The Leader who was trying to recruit me kept referring to his wonderful trips to Greece....so I'm sure there kids all go to the best universities, drive good cars, have nice homes, etc.

and of course, someone has to pay for Werner's life of riley in the Caman Islands. I'm sure that does not come cheap!

'shad'

The leaders and instructors are not well paid ... they have to be well dressed but do not get any refund for expenses whatsoever. Some lower levels of course instructors are not even paid at all (seminar/communication course leaders). They do it all for free. So wonder wonder where all the money goes.

my opinion is the internet will finally bring out the full truth and kill off Landmark, and that is what I am looking forward to.
Landmark has many manipulative techniques to influence people and conversation, but as you can see from the internet they can't shut down the critical conversations even if they try all the time.
For example, 250 people are on the pro-Landmark tribe, 30 people on the anti-Landmark tribe. These are more the 0.1 unsatisfied customers. That's about my impression: more then 10 % are not really satisfied or angry immediately, many others indifferent. Many people get angry at Landmark at a later stage.

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MartinH
my opinion is the internet will finally bring out the full truth and kill off Landmark, and that is what I am looking forward to.
Landmark has many manipulative techniques to influence people and conversation, but as you can see from the internet they can't shut down the critical conversations even if they try all the time.
For example, 250 people are on the pro-Landmark tribe, 30 people on the anti-Landmark tribe. These are more the 0.1 unsatisfied customers. That's about my impression: more then 10 % are not really satisfied or angry immediately, many others indifferent. Many people get angry at Landmark at a later stage.

Good points.

But Landmark Forum / Landmark Education can organize and tell their followers to do such and such on the internet and post videos on YouTube or even just have their own paid or volunteer unpaid laborers post videos in a coordinated effort.

A bit more difficult to coordinate efforts from people in other manners to post other sorts of creative things on the internet.

apparently it's their new strategy, lets hope it will backfire, it is too obvious like the socalled "introductions" organized everywhere. I am quite optimistic that this strategy will fail.

Sad but true, negative press is also publicity ... still people get sucked into Landmark despite the many documentations about Werner Erhard :x

When I was in Landmark I knew of a few people that wanted to become screen writers. I know for a fact that one of those people actually quit their job to go screenwriting.

I'm wondering if all of these Youtube videos that are popping up are a result of Lekkies that want to be producers, screen, writers, etc. Now it's just pure speculation at this point, but could Landmark be using these unpaid volunteers in some sort of coordinated effort to promote the Landmark cause?

It would be great to hear from a recent Landmark defector regarding this topic. Someone that has defected in the last couple of months.

When I was in there the first half of this year I didn't hear of any coordinated effort. I was in fairly deep as a student but I hadn't yet taken the ILP or developed close realtionships with the staff.

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bigdog
While reading all the info here on Landmark, I find myself wondering about their ultimate purpose. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Yes, I know they are after money. But sooner or later, their rank and file have to become financially depleted. And new recruits have to eventually become harder and harder to find. Then what? Political power? World domination?

I can't seem to figure out what their long term goal is.

Nope, people keep getting born.

"There's a sucker born every minute."
-- P.T. Barnum