Thanks for the questions Glam
"Would you care to clarify your position on est/LEC/CO$/Dr. Phil and cults in general? "
Let's start wit Dr. Phil. He's a daytime talk show host in the "nuts and sluts" genre, isn't he? I've seen him on Letterman a few times. Letterman was always making fun of him and finally had him on and they went at it. It was pretty funny. Dr. Phil held his own. No one really takes this guy seriously, do they?
Scientology. E-meters, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics. That's about it. I've read many of the things on this site I just don't think the info. here is what I would consider a reliable source.
Landmark. I have had many friends that have passed through the Landmark turnstiles. None of them appeared to be brainwashed or the evil mean people as descrcibed on this message board. Most of the one's I knew had advanced degrees and were very successful people. I knew a few that appeared to be addicted to the "next seminar" but if that's how they want to spend their time and money---- who am I to judge.
I can see why people are touchy here. If large corporations were suing me I'd be on edge too.
Maybe the website would be better served to present pro and con on some of the groups listed.
As for substantiated facts, one of my Landmarkian friends gave me this link:
[
www.landmarkeducation.com]
Quite a few studies conducted by Harvard, USC, Harris, Yankelovich etc...
The take home message I took was that most of the particpants of Landmark liked it a great deal.(90%) My friends who have done seem to echo that sentiment as well. It's still not for me though. My wife has taken me to some touchy-feely New Age couples encounter weekends and I just sucked it up and went along for the ride. That New age "be open to your feelings" stuff just isn't for me.