Zorro, I'm sure I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before, but it really was my "breakthrough" personally. It put a lot of things in perspective. It didn't give me any great answers, and it didn't make life easier, or give me more "power" or money or success or whatever. I just saw . . . reality. That's all. Reality. New Agers don
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hi Zorro, I agree with you, which is why I would never subject myself to Landmark. I've heard too many stories about people who had every intention of resisting it and even knew exactly what Landmark was about, but still somehow they got past their defenses. A friend of mine last night was talking about "crashing" a Landmark session and I told her to NEVER do that, just stay AWA
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

No, it was through the college I was attending at the time. And interestingly it gave quite the opposite message from "life is meaningless." We were encouraged to develop a "sense of place." Which is something many urban and suburban kids like me never had, or even conceived of, really. A sense of place has always been part of what informs meaning for humanity, and it&#
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

One thing that really bothered me the most about my ex boyfriend's involvement with Landmark was simply the lax approach he had to discerning what is really the truth. He did not seem to value truth, or the rigorous requirements of its pursuit. Is what Landmark teaches really "true"? I don't think so. Is evolution true, or is creationism true? Does it matter? Does it
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hi everyone, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this uniquely fascinating board over the years. I have to say, the insight and intelligence exhibited by the people here are of an unusual caliber. I'm interested in beginning a dialogue about LGATs and the way people see they are influencing politics and the culture at large, as they clearly have an enormous reach. This h
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I want to comment on only one thing right now. And I'll relate it as it applies to my sister. I think we had a good relationship all our lives. I think she was interested in my thoughts, cared about me, respected me. All our friends considered us close. I don't think that because one sociopath got his claws into her and manipulated her to betray me in exchange for allegiance to him and
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

By the way, I totally know that I'm a boring, whining schmuck. Nobody needs to respond to me. I'm just wandering around with a broken heart and a head that won't stop playing the same tape over and over again. I just figure, other people will go through the same thing, so at least they'll know they're not alone.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Someone must have dropped the evil ring into the fire from whence it came.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Most of us tend to get ground down by life and I'd say this type of cult involvement and emotional manipulation is almost like falling in love -- you just don't want to give up that feeling. But at Landmark, that "love" comes with a hefty price-tag, a monstrous work-load, and a colossal hangover. Recognition of the abuse of his good nature will kick in sooner or later, but it
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Must confess I do worry for the next generation. Many kids are so over supervised while growing up that they are robbed of opportunities for real adventures--fewer kids get safe, unsupervised play in vacant lots. So when they grow up, they will need adventures and be quite vulnerable to being sold fake ones. That is true, corboy. I know that some wilderness programs for teens have gott
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hi Nettie. I can understand if someone doesn't run into the bad info about Landmark, but I was waving it in his face for weeks before he decided to go. He was willfully ignorant. That's what was horrible. I'm surprised he didn't put his hands over his ears and make duck noises. I understand now what he went through at the Forum, and I know how it hooked him in and how it
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Okay, this is nothing but my own midnight ranting. It would only be of use as an empathic message across the void for anyone else who ever goes through this. Judging by how Landmark and other LGATs are spreading, many more people will go through this. So, for the record, I'm having a hard time getting over what I've just gone through with my ex and Landmark. This also has coincided w
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

You know, I think there's something about the waiver that might turn a lot of people on. It's like a challenge, and it makes them think, oh wow, this is going to be something! Like an X rated movie, or a carnival ride for grown ups only. The waiver is saying, come on now, you're not so weak that you can't handle our little seminar, are you? Who wants to think of themselves
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Well, he's taking the Advanced Course at the end of this month. And there's nothing I can do about it.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Zorro, Give your girlfriend a message from me. She is VERY VERY VERY lucky. She got through to you. I'm so jealous, I can't tell you. I had to end things once and for all last night with my ex. I wrote him a letter telling him not to contact me, and I won't be contacting him. Not once since Landmark came between us has he been willing to listen to me, to respect my intel
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Vic-Luc, I have no training in any form of therapy, and all of this is new to me. But in my brief reading on TA, I came away with the same thought. Many of the ideas of Transactional Analysis are universal and in many ways quite obvious (also simplistic and maybe flawed), and that's fine for discussion, insight and perhaps as a guide for resolving some communication problems, but the i
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Also, Vic-Luc, are you a therapist of some kind? What are your thoughts on Transactional Analysis?
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I just finished this piece, it's longish but worth the trouble. Horrifying. It gives a good sense of the big picture, beginning with exorcisms and blood letting, through Freud and the beginnings of "regression" therapy, through Esalen and Erhard, to the twisted scams being perpetrated today on the usual class of "worried well" (and wealthy) to well meaning seekers, and
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

(excerpt below) Both AT (Attachment Therapy) and TA (Transactional Analysis) grew in part out of the social chaos of the late 60s and 70s, a time of racial unrest, student protests, and an unpopular war. It was also the time of the "transformation" craze, which started down in Big Sur in the early 60s with the Esalen Institute. The Esalen Institute promoted the Human Potential Moveme
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

This might already be listed on this website, so excuse me if I'm posting it unnecessarily or in the wrong place, but this article, which centers on the brutal insanity known as "attachment therapy" (responsible for the death and physical and psychological abuse of children), also gives an interesting run down of the genesis of quack psychology and LGATs.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Yeah, sounds like you've had a hell of a time, Zorro. I'm sorry about your job. I'm sure an apologist would tell you that you created the situation, you're responsible, etc. They'd say, wow, Zorro, you're really "negative" about LGATs, I bet you're that way in the rest of your life, too. Certainly if you had "authentically" used the Landmark
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Ha. No, you needn't continue. I know the type well, I used to be one for a long time. Well, I have a college education, but part of it was at a hippy college =) There is a balance within all of this. Those of us who are truly seekers of the highest orders shouldn't lose our balance amidst all the extremism and lunacy. There is truth everywhere, some truth in all of it. There�
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Well, I guess it's over. I'm letting my ex go, finally. I've done everything I can, and I woke up this morning ready to move on. I don't feel the need to keep trying to convince him to walk away from Landmark. It's his life, his choices. I told him I thought the "life coach" who signed him up for Landmark is irresponsible and out to make a buck, she doesn
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

And I guess this madness came from Heidegger. I'm starting to learn more about this. I think some of these people are trolls, though, and they do want to keep the LGAT door open for the undecideds who come to this board. But obviously they have to defend LGATs anyway, they can't bear to think they might have made a huge mistake, or that life is more complex than the "possibil
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I've been doing nothing for two weeks essentially but reading this board (along with my basic responsibilities, which are minimal right now). I've read nearly everything here. I've noticed that the people who appear on this board who defend LGATs in any way at all, seem to have the EXACT same personality and methods and, I think, purpose. Are they all the same person? I don'
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

This is an old thread but I thought I'd add my piece, that my partner was "referred" to Landmark through his Life Coach. I never liked this woman for a lot of reasons. I thought the whole concept of Life Coach seemed very fishy and smelled like a scam, but I tried not to get in the way of it. I don't know whether she knew my ex's history of psychological problems, o
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Oh god, that is so familiar. I'm hearing the same thing from my ex. My question was more about if there were signs previous to the LGAT the would show someone was prone to everything that came later. Being raped is so totally traumatic, and often has feelings of guilt and of course shame attached. Did she seek qualified counseling after it happened? Landmark gave her a way to beli
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Wow, that must have been a totally overwhelming experience for your wife. I've always thought that ignoring or dismissing child sexual abuse is amongst the worst crimes. This happened to a man I was living with for 6 years, he'd been abused by a priest, and the parents were nearly fanatical Christians (if once can judge levels of fanaticism these crazy days) and wouldn't listen to
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

On another older thread, someone said this about LGAT mind control: "Works brilliantly with educated people, which appears to be the target audience." Right on the money. Many people think it's about the "weak and helpless". The "weak and helpless" don't bring in more recruits. They can be cashflow but they'll never get more people to come in.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

In some ways this website is keeping me locked in to my ex, in other ways it is saving my life. I just need to write what I'm going through because I can't do anything but think about it. Writing is cathartic, so excuse me if I ramble a little. I spoke with a good friend of mine from high school last night, she's known me for almost 20 years. She's just been through a bad d
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"