Posted by Adam on September 4, 1999, at 19:47:10
In reply to Anybody ever attend the "Landmark Forum"?, posted by claudea on August 26, 1999, at 0:50:41
One of my roommates participated in "The Forum" and had some
interesting things to say about it. Initially she was pleased
by the Forum, and thought some of what they had to say was
helpful to her in getting out of a rut she had been in for
quite some time. However, as the weeks passed, the law of
deminishing marginal returns started to kick in, and she was
less and less enthusiastic about continuing with Landmark's
followup courses. The response was creepy. As soon as she
made the decision public, that she was not going to move on
to an extension of the course (which involved completing some
sort of project), the phone calls started. Various people
from Landmark including her mentor and other participants in
her course kept contacting her and trying to convince her that
she should continue. They were persistant to the point of
aburditiy. They made suggestions along that lines that her
choosing to "quit" at that point was suggestive of a lifelong
pattern of "quitting", and that if she was ever going to get
"better" she had to break this cycle of unhealthy behavior,
etc., etc. She was so irritated after a while she started
telling people flat out to not call her ever again. She
felt like she was being hounded by a cult or something. I
thought the whole thing was bizarre. I witnessed the
incessant phone calls first hand, and I have to say I am
highly suspicious of Lanmark and their practices. I suspect
what they have is a somewhat addictive program where fragile
initiates are persuaded through methods subtle and not-so-
subtle to continue their involvement in the Forum indefinitely.
One ascends the ladder, so to speak, through their
participation, becoming more fluent in Landmark Jargon (and
they have a whole other lexicon, folks...may favorite term is
"racket" which you are accused of running every time you
make statements that are percieved as being subversive), more
prominent in Landmark Educations "community", more responsible
for future Forums. For some, the Forum becomes their life. I
am not exaggerating. I guess I would feel better about the
whole thing except you have to _pay_ for it. To me it seems
like tithing.I would research these guys well before giving them one cent
or your money. It's friendship for a price, and lots of
platitudes you can find in any second-rate self-help book.
poster:Adam
thread:10674
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990829/msgs/11008.html