Caligari, you remind me of my mom*... within the space of a sentence she would go from possibility to probability to certainty, provided she wanted to believe in that certainty. yes, alternate states of consciousness. no, inducing them does not invariably lead to Satanic machinations. if I start seeing Scientologist types handing out CuddleParty flyers on the street, if I start hearing s
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Elena, Landmark likes to copyright certain phrases, this much I know. I wonder only (out of curiosity) which phrases Mr. CuddleParty had appropriated, though I do not care that much. QuoteelenaV. Rackets™: The Payoff and the Cost daft Landmarkians! rackets comes from the work of the psychotherapist Eric Berne.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteelenaQuoteAcid Reindeerthey charge $30 per person, not $600. the figure comes from around twenty people times $30 per person. at least according to an article I just found. where did you find "copyrighted" LEC terminology? not trying to trap you, just honestly curious. If you go the the "official" Landmark website there are some pdf brochures you can download with
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteNow even people like those in the theatre will not start suddenly cuddling with strangers. no, they wouldn't, but they also wouldn't have paid to go to the movie theatre to cuddle with strangers any more than you would go to one of the cuddle parties to see a movie.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

you get a mix of people involved in manipulative groups, the believers and the self-conscious or partially self-conscious manipulators who join up to take advantage.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

they charge $30 per person, not $600. the figure comes from around twenty people times $30 per person. at least according to an article I just found. where did you find "copyrighted" LEC terminology? not trying to trap you, just honestly curious.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

my sister, who has taken Landmark, quoted the "true is what is true for you" line made up by Hubbard. Werner Erhard -- The Transformation of a Man, an authorized biography which I bet Erhard had commisioned, quotes him as saying that he admired Hubbard and Scientology.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

don't condemn something you wouldn't do, just because you do not understand the motivations behind it. you have overlaid so much of your acculturation. do you consider it morally wrong to cry during a movie along with a whole lot of strangers? oh, and unlike with the key party, you do get a choice as to who you cuddle with, it says right on the website.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteglamSorry, but I still don't understand what you mean by "sex-negative programming." Are you saying that society programs us to be negative about sex? yes. QuoteAnd that "cuddle parties" may sort of release us from that programming? yes. the point I had to make though had more to do with pointing out the irrational degree of horror and disgust that some pe
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Ellen described sex-negative thinking really well, I think... QuoteelenaIt's not about sex when it's within a cult so much as it's about power and control and/or the arousal of guilt or shame that can be used against you. Churches and religions have tried to harness the energy that people might devote to themselves in this regard and turn it towards their own benefit since the
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteelenaI imagine it's just a lure or some kind of bait to snare the lonely who are, after all, pretty easily manipulated (along with the depressed, worried, anxious, confused, "lost," sick, in pain, etc., etc. - most of us self-identified "victims" looking for a way out of "victimhood.") in a way, yeah, they clearly want to make money off of this. I thi
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I really would value the opinions of particpants in Cuddle Party versus people who have just read the website copy. or failing that, people who know well particpants in Cuddle Party or the founders, at the very least. I have a Pavlovian negative reaction to any group founded by a proud Landmark grad, but, actually I like the idea behind it a lot. I wish I could like it a lot more except tha
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I do not know if the Church of Scientology still considers Landmark a threat in the 1970's they had put Erhard on their enemies list. Jane Self, who I guess figured somewhere in the Forum/Landmark hierarchy, had a self-published book entitled 60 Minutes and the Assasination of Werner Erhard says, basically, that Erhard never did anything wrong and lays all the blame on the Church of Scien
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

crypto-fascist propaganda could mean anything you take it to mean.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

not any more. I had read about thought reform and even experienced some of it while in a mental institution and I know something of alternate states of consciousness, having experienced them with and without drugs, purposefully or spontaneously. two different friends joined the Hare Krishnas and I saw them in each case change into total believes in their religion. the changes that happe
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Landmark promotes the idea of "transforming the world". if you want to do that you need a lot more than $67 million a year. not standing up for them, only explaining how they can ratonalize it. if they made $67 billion a year they could no doubt rationalize the same thing.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

...
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

lovinglife, I won't say that Landmark does not have that side of it and it did not help you. another side to Landmark also exists, too, and it does not take away the good to work against that side.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteglamSo it stands to reason that Landmark makes much more profit than a comparably-sized corporation. And that the top people make piles of money off what amounts to slave labor. saying that the assisting amounts to slave labor detracts from the fact of the slave trade which has existed and continues to exist. I personally know of woman who lived as a sex slave in the United States up until
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

IMHO do they believe their "transform the world" sales pitch or not or some of both? have always wondered about that one. I hope you write a book about your experiences, BTW. though a lot of people read this messageboard, doubtless, a book would a different kind of effect.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

the forum leaders don't get paid? including the ones who do the introduction nights and the first course?
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteJF Also do you guys seperate the different courses offered by LE - Forum, Adv, SELP etc - or do you lump them together when talking about the bad points of LE? I only know that my sister came off as a lot more delusional after the Advanced course than she did after the Forum proper. to get specific, she sounded convinced of the need to convert the whole world to Landmark in order to promot
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteIn any case, can I ask what's up with calling Landmark a "technology"? Scientology also calls itself a technology.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteJF Not really. If I was to change anything about it I would get rid of the whole registration thing. I hated the thought of having registration conversations. But I also see how they are necessary for Landmark to exist. I totally agree with their reasoning for using this method to get people to register onto the forum. Also I do not beleive the organisation is motivated by generating in
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteJFQuoteSavernakeQuoteJF One of the 'rules' of Landmark is that anyone who hasnt done the Forum does have a racket, winning formula or story. Why is that? I gather than a "racket" is essentially self-deception. Is it not possible for a person to become enlightened or self-aware other than through Landmark? A racket is a persistant complaint you have about someth
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteJFOne of the things they tell you on the Forum is that all they are teaching you is something someone made up. They say try it for the weekend and see how it works for you. They make it clear it is not the only way to acheive the things you can on Forum, but that it is the best way they know of to get the results they do from the Forum. no one says you must like chocolate. the chemicals
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteJF I think Landmark is bigger than the people at the top who get the money. A lot of people involved are doing it out of their passion for what Landmark has or can provide for people. I dont think what you just posted devalues the work or objectives of Landmark at all no, not so much on its own. when the profit-making motive drives the ideology as in LEC it does do, then the paying cu
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Quoteelena This sounds so much like scientology that it makes me wonder if Landmarkers have "gone back to ~source~ " to make sure they have control over people. Even the jargon is the same; i.e. calling it "out integrity." when I last spoke with her my sister quoted that little L. Ron quote to me over the phone. "what's true is what's true for you."
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

read a book recently called est: Making Life Work by Robert Hargrove. the forum leader says that you do not do anything as long as you act ethically (or did he phrase it "in ethics"?), the reverse of which means that if you can do something that makes it ethical.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

by broken down into categories I meant broken down into qualities based on the experience. good, bad or whatever. or like I said before into something very specific. I listed some examples above.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"