In a video called, "brain washing in a godless big business cult", a woman tells of her experience in a Landmark Forum. You can hear the hurt, the distress, the fear in her voice. I felt distressed after watching it, but I knew it was heartfelt.
There is one point at 6 minutes in when she describes a particular episode in the weekend Forum. Participants are told to imagine their greatest fears and that those around them are also creating fear. The Forum leader shouts at them and harangues them until many break down and sob and shake. Many others have focussed on this particular point in the Forum as one of its most destructive moments. Here's her video:
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25 comments:
Thank you very much for posting this very moving and informative video.
And thanks as well for the link to us!
Keep on writing and keep on informing the public, you are doing great work.
"Participants are told to imagine their greatest fears and that those around them are also creating fear. The Forum leader shouts at them and harangues them until many break down and sob and shake."
This is what is referred to as the "fear exercise", and under Erhard Seminars Training (est) was known as the danger process. -- GuruTruth
I think the Landmark Forum is horrible. They really should be sued for all the fraud they have committed.
i made my self to sit there till the end, but in the last 2 hours i left, because when i heard that YOU ARE MACHINE like 30 times in a row i just understood what that was about!
For me, LF was a horrible experience. The best thing I did was walk out mid-training. The experience wasn't wasteful, though. By leaving, I learned courage, trusting my gut and belief system, and honoring my individuality.
Skeptic, thank you for your story. Time is a blessing in all that crap fading away. Love and peace to you.
I completed the "Forum" this weekend.
It was weird. I spent 3 days from 9am to 10 pm stuck in a room with no dim light. We got two 30 minutes breaks and a 90 minute dinner break, which we were to use to complete homework, “connect with incomplete relationships”, and invite people to Tuesdays event.
At the end of each break we were required to sit in a different location and next to someone different. We weren’t allowed to have food or coffee in the room; however, they provided water on the tables.
Basically, the leader had people stand up and share stories, which were heart breaking. One women’s kid was run over by a car and as she sobbed people weren’t allowed to comfort her. This guy wasn’t a shrink and kept telling her that she was responsible for her pain due to the meaning she placed on the incident.
The language used in the ‘forum” didn’t make sense. They would take words form the English language and assign new meanings.
We were told to imagine their greatest fears and that those around them are also creating fear. The Forum leader shouted at us and harangues us until many allot of the women broke down and cried and sobbed. We were instructed not to open our eyes and the guy kept yelling at us.
All this was done under the guise that we had to stay till the end to receive a break though. A breakthrough only Landmark could provide.
By the end there was this group mentality that made it uncomfortable to disagree or leave. I kept thinking this ain’t right but everyone can’t be wrong. The psych trip they put on you for not disclosing your friends, family and coworkers as potential candidates was relentless. I didn’t cave in.
I drove into work this am thinking, “Have I been brainwashed?”.
They have a Landmark for kids. I don't have kids but there is no way I'd allow my nieces or nephews to be subjected to whatever that was.
The Forum is a load of rubbish.
My dad went, and they encouraged him and a group of others to abuse each other verbally. And my dad had been so brainwashed by it all that he was encouraged to believe this was "funny". I felt so awkward when he told me what had been said and started laughing...it was so weird.
My stepbrother and stepmum were involved in it too. This is the sort of rubbish that landmark feeds people - I was asked by the three of them, "Vanilla or chocolate ice cream?". I answered chocolate. I was asked why. I said I prefer chocolate to vanilla, it tastes better. Apparently this is the wrong answer. They were all laughing at me as if I was missing some crucial and fundamental key to understanding something vital. Apparently I chose it, merely because....I chose it!! That's it. And this is supposed to be a breakthrough.
Now, it might seem silly and harmless, but it's actually really really dangerous. Think about it - this little exercise is basically teaching people that they don't have to justify their actions. It teaches them to be selfish. To not take responsibility for their own choices.
The people I know who have been involved in the Forum have been pretty screwed up to start with, and very easily led, so it's possible that relatively "normal" people can come out of the experience unscathed, but I'm not sure. It seems to be pretty powerful stuff. In any case my dad ended up completely broke, and even more of an emotional screw up than before.
I google and read all the landmark forum negative reviews before I have attended the landmark forum personally. By the way, a friend paid for the $385 for me, so it didn't cost me anything. So why not, I just want to find out how stupid my friend was in believing in this thing. He is weak and I am strong.
I am very smart and analytical by trade. No one can brainwashed me. On the first 2 days, I was strong. they didn't get me. I have counter arguments for everything they try to brainwash me. But on the late third day, I cracked; they got me.
I am now a member of this so-call cult, and this is my experience. This is actually a pretty cool label which I have never wear before.
The pre-existing context of us before examining the content is decisive. Almost all of us already took a postion and view before we even starting looking at any contents. We merely are looking for something out there to agree with us.
In my opinion, the landmark forum only is designed to entertain the people who are doing well already and wanting to expolre new horizons in their lives. The landmark forum is not design for healing or get-quick-fix exercise for the miserables. There are other organizations or groups for those needs.
If you can afford to RISK wasting $385, give it a run. It is another kind of weekend activities. It was a very refreshing experience for me. Who knows, you might get something only the landmark forum can sell.
PS: for the few who sob and shake in the class, I think that they are really having hard time in their lives. This just make me realize how lucky my life is. It was really a great weekends for me.
you people are weak and afraid to think for yourselves. you can always walk out and your own insecurity and fears kept you from doing that. look in the mirror. you can only be brainwashed if your weak minded
You have to be joking, right? I decided to think for myself and leave the herd mentality Landmark was cultivating.
If if works for you, great.
I just took the Landmark Forum. It's mainly a scam and I have little doubt that the top coaches are sociopaths.
read the article I just wrote:
http://simorghesabz.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-landmark-rips-you-off.html
Through doing the Landmark Forum I gained a level of freedom and confidence and joy that I could not even have imagined before doing it. I have hugely improved so many areas of my life thanks to Landmark and I would recommend it to anybody! My suggestion is to keep an open mind about it and not let the negativity of others put you off. Their perspectives are their perspectives and that's fine for them but I recommend that readers decide for themselves and not rely on second-hand information, including my post! Go to Landmark's actual website, or talk to someone who has done it in person or attend an introduction. You've nothing to lose and it may just be the best thing you ever do for yourself :D
I have a close friend who is completely brainwashed and has been part of the forum in and out for many years. The last time I saw her sane was when she was not involved in it and had a Boy friend.
She was coaxed back into the Forum (they call you to harass you for the rest of your life). He could not handle the situation and left. Now she is back in full swing. The sad part about it is she has now left all her real friends (because they aren't Landmark).
All she wants is a Man and this forum cant even provide her with that for all the money she gives them.
Its sad & kind of criminal if you ask me.
My mother paid for me and my brother to attend this forum this past weekend. After 10 hours, I was done and sick of all of the crap they were feeding me. My brother stayed for the entire 3 days and the Tuesday session (which was a few hours ago) and swears it has changed his life. Being the analytical person that I am, I couldnt believe that this nonsense actually works for people. It is repetitive persuasive suggestioning that breaks you down if you let it. I have some issues to deal with, and 3 days of "group therapy" led by a "leader" that does not have a psychological/therapy board certification will not work. Im angry that they have roped in another member of my family, thus making me the bad guy yet again.
I have done the landmark year and have no idea what you guys are talking about, before you sign on to the forum it clearnly states that you should not do the curse if you have mental issues, she clearly has mental issues.I recieved so much from the course and wonder how i went with out the tools of life that i learnt from it. to be honest guys.. harden up, you constantly go on about how distructive the course is but read the facts. 95% of people walk out with a posotive gain, and if YOU didnt. get over it
the funny thing is, you people havent even done the course and you saying im brain washed,you are the one that read something on the internet from some one you don't even know, and believed it. Whos the one being brain washed.
Ten years ago I worked as a law clerk for a law firm that was deep into Landmark. New hires were persuaded or bullied into attending the Landmark Forum seminars - at their own expense. I held out (couldn't afford it!) but my boss had a Forum woman who had free run of the office and used to try to talk to me and get me to have a "breakthrough" at least four times a week. She would get right up in my face and yell, spittle flying and that would go on for a couple of hours in the conference room before I would just say casually, "Yes, I've had a breakthrough."
Of course no such thing happened. I became the black sheep at that firm - I was told I was "damaging the space" by these sick brainwashed attorneys but no one could adequately define this for me. My boss asked me into his office where he slid a pager across the desk to me. He told me he would page me several times a week and I was to give him a blow job whenever he required, since I refused to take the Landmark Forum seminar. I laughed because I couldn't believe it, then I quit.
I got in touch with the author of "Cults in Our Midst" and she pointed out that Landmark Education is often used as a way to bully employees which is what happened at that law firm. When business was down all of us from attorneys down to the file clerks had to listen to a lecture on how if we just apply ourselves, the phones will start ringing. I remember a nice older lady who had just started working there and went to LF and came back a new person with a wide grin and crazy eyes spouting off about how wonderful it was. She seemed completely brainwashed! It was very disturbing. I don't know how long her Landmark 'high' lasted because I left. Ten years later that nine month experience working for those crazies still really bothers me. I'm working on getting it out of my system by putting it on video. I think it will be a comedy. Btw, that attorney was disbarred 2 yrs after I quit because he stole money from clients. Now he has his license back and is screwing people again in Tucson, AZ (now he's doing bankruptcies). Landmark Forum and the sick people it attracts needs to be revealed as the cynical scam it really is. And I'm working on that.
we were told if we willed the phones to ring they would..
My husband attended the course after his work suggested he do it. I attended the course after he did on his suggestion. It is just a money making scam just like scientology. Look at the facts people, the starter of this group (werner erhard) was high up in the scientology ladder. He created e s t group that change the name to the forum. Sold the ideas and the building that he started out in to the members of the group. They then changed the name to the landmark forum. You can't just throw out your past based on the feeling that you invested in that moment. My family has already invested 3000 dollars into this stupid thing.
Having done The Landmark Forum, I thought it was good - not great, but certainly an interesting an worthwhile experience. As one website put it, it's "not 'the devil', not 'the answer', but an interesting experience that generates an interesting toolset. In the interest of objectivity, here's what a bunch of people who have done it are saying about The Landmark Forum on Yelp.
My brother attended Landmark. He rang all the family crying like a baby. Sobbing so hard it was impossible to believe this was the same 45 year old man. He spoke endlessly of the benefits of this course.
Within weeks there was a notable change in this man. since the course he has broken the family up through greed, nastiness and fraud. He has had the family in court and stopped at nothing to get what he wants. He has justified his actions through the fault of everyone else. He says that he has got his energies through Landmark.
This beautiful human being has become pure evil. I cannot believe I am writing on this wall to say how much I hate this 'new' person Landmark has created. May he rot with the company, its founders and all the mindless followers.
Landmark must be stopped!!
I was pushed to attend this absolute scam back in 1995.
All the comments I have read from other posters bring it flooding back. I withstood this scam for 2 days and did not go back for the 3rd. On the morning of the 3rd day they rang me at home and were screaming at me as to what a failure I must be and how I was breaking a " commitment". I responded that if they did not return my money within 3 days that I would be going to the media. They returned it that day.
The one thing I do thank them for is for giving me an insight into how religious extremism occurs, and how easy it is to get perfectly rational people to behave irrationally.
"In my opinion, the landmark forum only is designed to entertain the people who are doing well already and wanting to expolre new horizons in their lives. The landmark forum is not design for healing or get-quick-fix exercise for the miserables. There are other organizations or groups for those needs."
take a moment and realize the untruth in this. perhaps you are convincing yourself of something, but please don't abandon introspection. look inside of yourself. do you honestly believe the program is advertised to serve only those in peak health and wellness? or do the numbers outweigh the people in terms of "enrollment?"
for the person who asserted "before you sign on to the forum it clearnly states that you should not do the curse if you have mental issues, she clearly has mental issues"-
no. not clearly at all. again, take a moment to breathe in this present moment. the landmark forum promotes a sense of urgency, a manic sense of time. you feel rushed, you feel that patience is no longer of any value.
someone's own state of wellness and mental health is never clear, especially to them. to those who have "mental issues"- is it responsible for the Forum to let them decide for themselves whether or not they do? These people are coming from a different perspective, and yes, absolutely, the Forum advertises itself as a quick fix shrouded in mysticism. i firmly object to it. It is hurting you.
Glad I found this blog! A teacher of mine had invited me to be her "guest" to an informal induction to the program, at her house. I asked her what it was about and she couldn't even put two sentences together to explain it to me... She kept saying it was "wonderful" and "amazing" and "life-changing" and that I HAD to attend to see what it was all about. Her speech and demeanour became... Odd and extreme, for lack of better words, an a big red flag went up in my head. I courteously declined. I had no idea what the hell it was all about, but after some online research, I can see my intuition was bang-on! I now know to expect some more harassment from this teacher.
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