Hello everyone,
My name is Daniel and I am a recent Landmark Education graduate. I began the education about 5 months ago. I wanted to address to the members on this site their concerns about their loved ones/friends who have taken the course.
From what I have read so far, you are all concerned about cults, brainwashing and manipulation. I understand your concern about the people you care about in your life showing up different, using language that you haven't heard before, and wanting you to register in the Landmark Forum. You all have every right to wonder what the f*#@ is going on - and 'why is this person saying this or acting this way.'

Let me first address my opinion about Landmark Education. Everyone has different experiences. In life, we all have different experiences about occurences that happen. We paint a picture about life and our experiences, and it is through language and communication that the listener recreates that experience in their minds. One person's experience will be completely different than another person's experience, and their communication about that experience will paint a completely different picture according to how the other person listens to what they have said. My opinion about Landmark Education is that it is an extremely profound and powerful look at how we relate to ourselves and to others. It has made an incredible impact on the way I relate to other people. It has drawn me closer to people I care a lot about, and has made me re-evaluate my interpretation on how I act around others, and how I view others and the world. However, I may not always communicate this effectively to people in my life and sometimes I find that it is hard to fully communicate and express exactly what I have learned from Landmark Education thus far. This leaves people confused and frustrated at times - leaving them no choice but to draw their own conclusions and paint their own picture on how THEY SEE Landmark Education. This is PERFECTLY understandable. That is how we relate to life. We constantly judge and evaluate.

I have gained deep compassion for people and the world I live in. So, I take full responsibility for the fact that some people may thing Landmark is a Cult. I'm just not communicating effectively. Instead of looking at organizations as 'cult' or 'trying to take my money,' consider looking at the CULTure we live in. Constant images on television and in movies relating to how we should dress, look, act, think, and spend money on. No wonder we view things through this looking-glass! I'm sure that if we went back 200 years people would look at us like we were nuts! The way we talk, the way we act, the way we dress, etc.

Consider for a moment that Landmark Education is not a cult. Just consider. I'm not saying that it is or it isn't. I don't know. I don't even know what the word 'cult' really means. I do know what I make it mean sometimes, and judging and evaluating has kept me from having power in life - in the workplace, with people I care about, etc. I've learned that if I just listen to people and not be so concerned about how I appear in life through adding my judgements, I become more effective.

So, if anyone on this website reading this gets ONE THING from what I have just typed. It I would like it to be this: have compassion for people in your life that have done this education. Try to listen to their view, ask what they are committed to in life. I bet that you're both on the same page in some areas. And try not to make your friends and people that you care about wrong for seeking some wisdom and enlightenment in a time where there is little wisdom on the T.V. Have an open ear and maybe consider that what's keeping you from having power in life with other people is just listening to them, and accepting them for who they are. Not making them wrong and judging them based on the fact that they sat in a room with 100 other people over a weekend and engaged in powerful discussions that has made a profound impact on their life (by the way those 100 or so people are JUST LIKE you and me - same fears, same concerns.)

Thank you for taking the time and reading what I have to say.

If our feelings for personal experiences vary differently, do we reason differently as well?

A good hot spring bath is a good hot spring bath anywhere. I may experience such a hot bath when I was young and no more. Others may experience such hot bath right now somewhere in the other part of the globe. Yes, everyone has different experiences but in a context that we reason quite similar. How strange?

Last time a group of people from Spokane visited my country and I took them to see the Pacific Ocean. They were stunned. They said that they never look at America from west of Pacific. They felt that they were still looking out from east of Pacific. There is only one Pacific Ocean but what causes the illusion? Perhaps experiences may fool reasoning.

If LGAT actually practices manipulation, hypnotic, brain washing, and victim bashing, would your reasoning tell you differently from your experience?

From my experience, I saw divinity and my past away relative during a LGAT course. I reason such occurrence is due to overbreathing and hypnotization. If I can reason, should I give a meaning to my experience?

Yes, I’ll tell my dad one day that during a hypnotic exercise I saw my grandfather. But I think that my dad would prefer to hear my reasoning instead of experience. Would you think so?

Straight Talk,

Have you read the accounts here of people who did the Forum? How about posts (archived) of those who worked for LEC?

I don't think the relatives and friends of those who did the forum, those who have posted here, are lacking compassion.

Hi Straight Talk

I can understand where you're coming from -- you've probably read a couple of posts where people have felt harrassed and irritated by the pressure to join the forum (and some from people like myself, who have grown up with LGAT style philosophies shoved down their throats from an early age, and haven't considered the experience to be in any way positive).

I think, if it weren't for the ramming down the throat, the badgering, the implication that we non-Landmarkians can't possibly have any insights into our own lives (hampered as we are by our "rackets" and "stories"), the relentless "one size fits all approach", and the refusal to listen to individual experience, you'd probably see a lot less of that sort of irritation (or sometimes downright hostility).

In most cases, I don't think the frustration is directed at the [i:bb45b68496]individual [/i:bb45b68496]. Many people who post here feel that they've lost loved ones to Landmark, who've been pressured to drop friends or family who won't attend, and the love for those people has not diminished. Rather, the frustration is directed at the [i:bb45b68496]organisation[/i:bb45b68496], which has stolen the loved one and replaced him or her with a pod-person, a pod-person who relentlessly badgers you to attend, who no longer respects your opinions or perceptions, whose sole aim sometimes appears to be to gain new recruits for Landmark.

Straight Talk:

Let's get one thing straight. Landmark has not been designated a "cult" and/or named a "cult" by the Ross Institute.

See [www.culteducation.com]

Landmark is a controversial private for-profit company that sells large group awareness training through courses/seminars to make money.

See [www.culteducation.com]

Daniel

Thank you for sharing your feelings here and your enthusiasm for your recent Landmark experience, which I think I understand.

It’s probably my fault, but I can’t work out what you mean when you say ‘I take full responsibility for the fact that some people may think Landmark is a Cult.’ That last one is a particularly strong word and I wonder why you use it? [While writing I see the board moderator has addressed this point]

As you say you are a recent Landmark graduate, why do you think this is your ‘full responsibility’? Landmark has been around for years and has had its advocates and critics. Why do you think the idea that ‘some people may think Landmark is a Cult’ (your words) is in any way your responsibility?

By the way, why do you apologize that ‘I'm just not communicating effectively?’ You express yourself well.

These questions are interesting to me and I’d like to understand more.

Daniel,

I hope you can begin your recovery starting from this moment. I would strongly urge you be caution for your next course.

As I posted before, I found the drug, Lariam, used to prevent malaria has the same side effect as for one may feel after a LGAT course. If you search Lariam in google, you shall find that some people can have just only one or two doses and experience year long side effect.

Since both side effects are almost identical, I believe one must have damaged by the course mentally or physically one way or the other. That is why recovery is such a necessary step.

- Exit -

Straight talk,

As someone who has completed most of the courses landmark offers as well having been a Landmark Forum Introduction leader, a course supervisor and a paid staff member I can understand the beliefs you have in Landmark Education. When I completed the Landmark Forum I felt very similar.

However Landmark is manipulative and plays mind games. They use different methods to alter the way you think and act. Sometimes these seem like a good thing. for some people the results of the forum are what they wanted. What you dont see is the negitive.

Healthy people leave the landmark forum and other courses with their mental state questionable. People leave making "choices" based on Landmarks definition that affect their lives adversly and others lives too simply because they didn't sit down and really take time to look at the possible outcomes of that decision.

People are humiliated by landmark forum leaders who beieve it is ok to belittle adults in front of other adults, and whats more we all clapped when this happens.

As as ex-staff member I walked away with my life in tatters. I was extreemly sick because I listened to the coaching about ill heath being a story. Ill health is not a story. Sick people need to see doctors. I walked into landmark a well adjusted adult. I enjoyed my life. had lots of friends, had good relationships, I was paid to do the forum through my work. When I left I was suicidal, I was pushed non stop, I was belittled regularly.

Landmark is a dangerous company who has people who have been trained in manipulation taking control of others life. (please note this is just my personal opinion) You say have compassion for people who want to or have participated in these programmes. What about compassion for the people who have done them and have ended up with ruined lives?

Straight Talk,

The influence and control that Landmark has on you is impressive. Even your nickname “Straight Talk” transpires with the Landmark influence. The fact that you “take full responsibility for the fact that some people may thing Landmark is a Cult” indicates clearly how deeply involved you have become and how the mind manipulation techniques developed by Landmark and EST are effective on you. We are not talking of massive “mind manipulations” or “brainwashing” like in Chinese prison camps where the techniques were repressive and violent to “enroll” or eliminate 100% of the people. Here we are talking about very subtle and insidious “mind manipulation techniques” that could work on say 5-10% of normal people, but this is still enough to spread Landmark like an epidemic. Am I glad to be immune!

That you “take full responsibility for the fact that some people may thing Landmark is a Cult” is absurd. It isn’t hard to realize even with half a brain (yes I am cynical at times, do I need permission?), that the first step for the mind manipulation is to convince you that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. This way, Landmark cannot be responsible for anything and thus cannot be criticized, even when Landmark “graduates” commit suicide or even murder! Landmark also tries to convince you that you should stop thinking something is wrong about anything (i.e. about Landmark). This completes the manipulation and loops the loop. If you buy into this scheme, they’ve got you into their trap and you cannot escape their logic (or lack of). If this is not a cult, this is as close as it can be.

Mind manipulation is so subtle and insidious, you don’t even realize what they did to you, AND YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. LANDMARK IS. What is pathetic is that you have already started manipulating people around you by “sharing” and being “enrolling” and you don’t even realize it. Fortunately enough, you will have to work very hard to “share” your new “possibilities” with people like me. When you fail at “enrolling” people like me, Landmark says it’s because you are not communicating “It” well enough … i.e. you get the blame. You will be encouraged to get additional coaching, advanced courses, etc… and there is no end to it. Or, you could probably say that people like me are “not coachable”. This simple denomination is probably enough for you to understand that we will never get “It”. But to me, being “non-coachable” is very similar to being a “non believer” to religions or …. cults.

I feel sorry for you and for all your friends and family who probably don’t realize what you are trying to “enroll” them into. You probably piss off people around you (haven’t you noticed) because that’s what Landmark is all about (sharing, communicating, but ultimately “selling” … with the tantalizing “so what?” as a justification) and in addition you get the blame if your selling technique doesn’t work. And Landmark gets the benefits by using you as a salesman FOR FREE!!! This system is totally flawed and absurd, but it works with enough people to get them rolling and cashing in.

I call this “What you don’t know that Landmark doesn’t what you to know”. Get it?

Michael D.

Strait talk,

I appreciate your comments....but possibly you might not yet harbor enough information. Your comments sound as if you feel that they were meant to be personal v.s. yourself....ask yourself logically why you might feel that way. Is there any chance at all, that you might have been violated mentally, without you even knowing it? ("I can't tell you what happens at the Forum, you JUST HAVE TO DO IT")

Did yopu possibly check out the pos & neg comment site before putting on your "special name-tag" that set you apart from others? (Now why would someone do that?)

My comment to you is this (from one caring Humane Being [Trying to be both] ) re-connect to your logic/critical thinking side NOW! and simply ask yourself some questions, like why do THEY think that they hav e all the answers, How could THEY know what it is that I need or How did they ever "hook" me on this stuff?

PAX