Quote
On Monday I thought I had made some progress, only to have it all fall down around me on Tuesday. I spent most of Wednesday crying, because once again, I was devasted by my friend's "coldness" and lack of understanding how her words and actions are affecting me.
shadow,
when my friend became what you are describing in your friend now, it was like witnessing a living death of someone I love. It was indescribably heartbreaking, frustrating, and enraging all at the same time. There was nothing I could say or do to make her come back to reality and her old adequate self. I came to realize that my grief was just more ammunition for her to use against me in a way to punish me for not accepting her cult (landmark). She was very cold, aloof, and judgemental toward me and did not give a damn about the friendship we had before selling herself to landmark. On one hand you fight for what you still want to have with the friend you never expected to lose to a cult, while on the other hand you fight against the absurdity of such a blatantly obvious scam being run on someone you've always known to be an intelligent person. It is hard to know that something as despicable and cheap as landmark education can and will invade your life, without your consent or invitation, but you still have to accept that your friend has made a really bad choice and you may not see her as she used to be for a very long time, if ever again. I understand your anger, confusion, and hurt but I also understand how potent is the brainwashing utilized by landmark in all of its courses, and your friend might have to go on long ride with the cult before she ever snaps back into reality and into your life again. My friend remains very distant, non-communicative, and unaffected by the loss of our friendship. In fact, she has never once acknowledged that anything has changed between us at all. I mean nothing to her to day, but she still means alot to me and it rests entirely on me to carry the torch, so to speak, and continue to hope and pray that she will have an awakening one day. I can't say if you have the same road to walk but I will say that for your own sake, be prepared for life without your friend like she used to be. Landmark plays for keeps, they won't let her go until they've sucked the last ounce of life and $$$ value out of her. Love, hope, joy, laughter, reality, and relationship doesn't mean the same thing to your friend today as it did before landmark rewired her brain.
I feel for you, I support you and I hope that you have other friends to walk you through this horrible time.