I am very familar with Landmark and the Forum, my ex husband having taken it many years ago. Like many people here, I found the whole thing dreadful. I went to his "graduation" and I am sure I was the only person in the room who did not sign up for the Forum. I researched Landmark, EST etc on the internet, read books and was able to convince him that he was in the verge of being scammed by a cult. That was many years ago.

However, I am now curious how Landmark affects children and teenagers. An aquaintance of mine is heavily into Landmark/Forum, he knows my views on the subject so he is not likely to try and recruit me.
He enrolled his 12 yr old son in the children's Forum and I am concerned about his well being. He is small for his age, I believe he has problems "fitting in" at his big junior high school. As an outsider I am just wondering how the Landmark experience affects vulnerable children and teenagers. I welcome all views on the topic.

Thank you.

Greetings,

A good place to start would be usenet: alt.fan.landmark. Just search on "Children's Forum" within the newsgroup. There were some posters a while back who were involved in the thing.

While Landmark can be destructive enough to adults, it must be devastating to children. The thought that these people are targeting children should be enough to bring in the cops or somthing.



Ellen

Landmark Education attests to the fact that children and Teens absorb the course content quicker than adults and this is the reason why Forum for Young People 8-12 and Forum For Teens 13-17 finish each day in the early evening rather than going into the night to induce sleep deprivation in order to reduce defences.

A theory supporting this may be that children have less resistance and "trust" more than adults do. Also, for a child to do Landmark, at least one parent must have done it so the child prior to his/her course has already picked up the "technology" from mum or dad. The child then goes home to a Landmark supporting environment.

I have not seen studies as to the effects on children but have read and heard anicdotal evidence. I am aware of a suicide of a 17 year old girl in London.

I would believe that the narssasistic psychoses induced by the adult Forum would be more pronounced in children as a child's ego and super ego are less developed.

I would also imagine that to convince a Landmarkian Teenager that what they are involved in is potentially harmful, would be a much harder job than convincing a Landmarkian adult as you would be also dealing with that stage in personality development where a teenager always believes he/she knows best.

Landmark for people under the age of 17 is nothing short of child abuse. It has a bad enough affect on adults let alone distrurbing a child's formative years.


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