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Rating: 
Summary: Dancing with the listening in a conversation for possibility
Review: EEEEEEEEEyyyyyyooooowwwww!!!It all came flooding back to me, the EST training, followed by a communication seminar, an advanced communication seminar, the Six Day training (where we were to become "commandos", were required to watch some, er, "offbeat" movies, and talk about real personal stuff), then Mastery Of Empowerment, where we did Zen like meditations, repeatedly acknoledged that Werner was Source (of ??? not exactly specified), and got a jolly good vibe going. Oh yes, there were also seminars with Fernando Flores, an interesting fellow who was once the finance minister for Salvador Allende, heavily into language and information theory... once upon a time Werner's left brain, so to speak, who inexplicably wasn't there on Mount Olympus one day... Needless to say, there's a lot of stuff, many narratives woven together that many self proclaimed Forumites don't know about, weren't there when it happened, all of which got simplified and cooked down into easy to digest tales of days gone by. Let me tell ya something. It never is so simple, never was, never will be. Pressman's book Outrageous Betrayal rings true as pure coin to my ears, it succeeeds in capturing the flavor of the 70's into the 80's hustle, the strange blend of improvisation, amateurishness, needfulness, as well as the intensity, the drive, the self deception, and the absurdity of that era. Werner was kind of an uber-manifestation of all that. Somewhere along the line I found myself growing. The sense of community and shared purpose that once was sustaining and uplifting turned stale and oppressive. It was time to move on,
grow up another notch, leave the great psychodrama behind for another generation to project it's unresolved collective issues on. Reflecting on it, there is no way that something as intense and nutso, while mind expanding and challenging too, could have possibly happened had Werner Hans been a normal run of the mill dude. You couldn't get there from here without the sound and the fury. Its that complexity, trickster archetype, puer aeternus and senex stuff that James Hillman talked about that Pressman can't wrap his mind around, 'cause he's treating Werner as just another scandalous mountebank when he was much more than that. I still loved reading the book, no qualmes with the truth telling approach, Pressman is right on with what he says, only too bad he couldn't fold it in with the larger story, which isn't all that sweet and perfect either, just larger, weirder, more glorious, and kinda creepy too... To this day I ask myself, what the heck was THAT ??? The I discovered a fantastic little book written in 1895 by Gustave Le Bon titled The Crowd... most highly recommended for anyone thinking about LGATs or mass thinking of any kind. This incredible book put it into perspective for me. I think it should be required reading for every college student in America. If you are considering any large group spiritual or self help-transformative seminar, please take the time to read Le Bon's masterpiece carefully, and read it twice, and take notes, before you sign on the line. Bon Voyage kiddos... life can surpass any fiction ever written
Rating: 
Summary: California and est are most hated by those who've never been
Review: Ever notice the scariest est stories always seem to come from a some girl who heard from a guy who heard from ... blah blah blah. Like California, est is most hated by those who've never been. Well, folks, guess what? The unknown is always scary. And the less experience you've had with other ways of thinking, the more things scare you. I completed the est training and it was one of the best experiences of my life. In the course of a couple of weekends, I cleared up a lot of trauma and bitterness that had been haunting me for years. As for cost, go ahead and see how much trauma and bitterness you can clear up for $400 (in 1980)using typical counseling and psychotherapy. I thought it was a bargain then and I still do. No, I did not become a cult member. In fact, once "graduated" I never attended another est event. All you have to do is say no. I agree with Bill Ryan. This kind of tripe makes a scarier and therfore better-selling story than the truth. But don't kid yourself, it is pure tripe.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant investigative journalism!!
Review: For those of you who have done Landmark Education and reaped benefits ... this is a great book to read. ALthough Landmark has some useful programs, the dark side of the organization is the multi-level marketing coercion tactics to get you to take more and more courses. Once you do the Landmark Forum, you really need not do anything else within the company's course catalog. If you do, then make sure it is truly your own free will choice. Read this book to separate myth from reality about what is the true "what's so" about Landmark. Be a conscious consumer and do your homework. There are too many people who have spent money through the hard sales strategies of Landmark staff and volunteers. If you are keen to have information as power in your arsenal to say NO to Landmark, Pressman's book is invaluable. Based on cour reports and interviews, this is a detailed overview of a man whose life seems as "inauthentic" as much as his company preaches "authenticity". Don't fall into a codependant, addictive relationship with Landmark courses to fix yourself by reading what is really behind those "enrollment" conversations and heady jargon. Landmark's encounter style is a reflection of Erhard's seemingly loving yet ultimatley controlling perspective on human relations. A must read for Landmark graduates who found wonderful breakthroughs but don't want compulsive calls from their Landmark Center telling them that the next seminar will deliver more. In the end, YOU are a much better guide for your life when you are emotionally healthy, instead of some Forum Leader whose more interested in you as a statistic than anything else.
Do yourself a favor, glean what you need to from this book, and know that leaving Landmark behind is a step forward to your own personal empowerement.
If you are looking for deep personal healing and a program that has been endorsed by credible individuals ... research the Hoffman Process or check out the Hendricks Institute on Relationships. Unlike Landmark, these programs do not have all the "severe baggage" associated with them.
Rating:
Summary: Me think thou dost protest too much
Review: I took the Forum training in 1988 and it was the best thing I'd done for myself to that point. It gave me some direction and the ability to commit to what I wanted my life to be. I have since been trained as a family therapist, and that training was also intensely rewarding. Those who have described Erhard as a "charlatan" should think again. I don't know how he acquired the ideas that were presented in the Forum, but the concepts are well accepted in traditional psychology and counseling practice. Specifically, the relatively new and highly touted ACT treatment model uses the very same concepts that were presented in the forum. I was involved in the Forum trainings for a couple of years. It wasn't a cult as far as I could tell. I didn't leave my family or friends even though none of them wanted to do it. I was actually able to accept their choices better as a result of the training. I saw Erhard speak twice. He was inspiring and very dynamic. How is that so wrong? This sort of training can be transformative for people, especially if they realize that they always have the choice to take what they can use and leave the rest. My thanks to Werner Erhard.
Rating:
Summary: Why insinuate so hard?
Review: It amazes me no end how hard Landmark's graduates work OH SO HARD(!) try to insinuate against anyone who dares to disagree with them. Instead they'll give the same tired old anecdotes: 1--"I did est Training in 19--or 20-- something and have been using the technology of transformation in my life every day since..." blah blah blah which sounds almost form-letter verbatim from any landmark graduate you have the misfortune to endure. 2-They make insinuations against the critics of Landmark like this: "Didn't work for a reviewer below? Maybe because he needs a reason for his life not working..." Would you want to associate with a group of people who advocate such tactics and make-believe new age fluff? How could any landmark graduate know whether or not the earlier critic's life is working? Did the landmark critic say so? No. So unless the previous landmark graduate is literally a mind reader, (there's no such thing) he or she is simply resorting to the emotional manipulation known as insinuation. Quite simply, why attack when you can insinuate? Quite simply because that way they can weasel out of it, "apologize" and then claim that it was simply all a "misunderstadning." Regardless the damage is done, for here's always at least one in every crowd who is gullible and naive enough to mistake an opinion for a fact if enough people play act like it is at some dubious forum or website. When people resort to such weasel-word tactics one cannot help but wonder just how "transformed" they really are, or if their product is all that they claim it is. Look up landmark up at rickross.com and also at landmark's homepage which is featured there too--and make up your own mind. In conclusion is it "working too hard" to post an opinion here about landmark here? I don't think any reasonble person would think so. It took all of 10 minutes. However even a casual internet search will yield an astonishing degree of pro landmark web sites with webmasters who refuse to post or members who refuse to tolerate any ideas that are not glowing testimonial gush fests that give a positvely skewed impression to anyone trying to make an informed decsion. Now who's working too hard?
Rating:
Summary: why try so hard?
Review: It amazes me no end how hard the cultists of cultism work to try to bad-mouth the est Training & Werner Erhard and the new Landmark Education Forum, as in a few reviews below. I did the est Training in 1978 and have been using the technology of transformation in my life every day since, something the cultists cannot fathom. And that is so even when I'm not able to participate in Landmark courses, such as the multi-week seminars. I saw a redneck bigot give up his bigotry in a weekend during the CAP Course, and that was not even a covered topic -- the man moved from racial slurs to asking to hug the 250-pound black man that he had offended the day before. I honor Werner Erhard and the est/Landmark technology because it happens to work quite well when applied to one's life. Didn't work for a reviewer below? Maybe because he needs a reason for his life not working... My life might be full of tribulation, but applying the Landmark technology turns things around every time.
Rating:
Summary: Dancing with the listening in a conversation for possibility
Review: It amazes me no end how hard the cultists of cultism work to try to bad-mouth the est Training & Werner Erhard and the new Landmark Education Forum, as in a few reviews below. I did the est Training in 1978 and have been using the technology of transformation in my life every day since, something the cultists cannot fathom. And that is so even when I'm not able to participate in Landmark courses, such as the multi-week seminars. I saw a redneck bigot give up his bigotry in a weekend during the CAP Course, and that was not even a covered topic -- the man moved from racial slurs to asking to hug the 250-pound black man that he had offended the day before. I honor Werner Erhard and the est/Landmark technology because it happens to work quite well when applied to one's life. Didn't work for a reviewer below? Maybe because he needs a reason for his life not working... My life might be full of tribulation, but applying the Landmark technology turns things around every time.
Rating:
Summary: Its Great. Read it for the much needed other perspective!
Review: Pressman does a wonderful job of exposing an opportunistic charlatan who tries to pass himself off as a benevolent new age "enlightened,"more evolved," and "more 'tolerant' than thou,'" "messiah for those who think that money can buy happiness.
Werner's one size fits all panacea for everyone: Do est/the forum and automatically all your personal and professional relationships will magically become wonderful. Yeah right, and say you're "transformed" enough times and maybe you'll actually come true. Many did both Est and Landmark, yet many more chose not to do either. When you don't Esties and Landmark types always sing the same broken records:
Action: If you did Est or Landmark but didn't like either then...
Result: Est/Landmark types always say that you obviously were resisting the process or weren't ready to "get it." You and your viewpoint are then summarily dismissed insofar as Landmark types are concerned as irrelevant,inconsequential or as even hostile. They'll never face or admit even the possibility that their product is flawed.
2) Action: You read what the respected experts on cults and cult-like organization have to say about Est and Landmark, and based on their research you decide to do neither Est nor Landmark.
Result: Without exception every Landmark type I've ever encountered says "It's not like that!" and/or they cite their own anecdotal (yet scientifically worthless) experiences, claim that it "transformed" relationships in their life from their mom, dad, boss and coworkers to probably even their cat and dog.
Yet despite the obsession with "communication" these same individuals shut out former friends and family members who reject Landmark. So much for "communication" I guess.
It's interesting to observe that Landmark types complain that you cannot judge something like Est/Landmark unless you have experienced it first hand. These Landmark types further assert that no matter how many respected scientific experts you cite against Landmark, without exception, Landmark is right and literally all the critical experts are all wrong.
If you still disagree with these Landmark types then they behave cold and distant, smug and self congratulatory, and/or remarkably hostile and will think nothing of terminating relationships and having nothing more to do with anyone who they veiw as being "negative" a.k.a. not interested in Landmark.
Tolerance can be a fine thing, but only if it's based on something real like scientific research and expert opinion. The personal anecdote argument from above "have to do it to judge it" is rejected by any reputable scientist, thus you should reject it too.
Think of the countless decision you make every day of your life to do or not do something based on the findings of others. Did you have to buy the SUV with the exploding gas tank to get the idea that owning it maybe wasn't such a good idea? Did you have to get heart valve damage to know that Phen Phen wasn't such a great drug for weight loss?Do you have to literally burn your own hand on a frying pan to figure out that it may not feel so good?
God I hope not! Seriously people, it's just a sales trick to manipulate you into making a rash decision as is all the guilt tripping these Landmark types do to you when you resist the pressure to join.
It's fine to have an opinion about Landmark or anything else; but you should have an educated opinion *ESPECIALLY* if you are recommending any type of therapy to anyone that deals with psychological issues even if it purports not to be psychology. That's splitting hairs to put it mildly. But that's just exactly the sophistry high wire act Landmark likes to play at your expense. Their lawyers say it isn't; therefore it isn't riiiight?! It may not literally be "psychotherapy," but that doesn't mean for a second that it isn't psychological in nature or that it doesn't have psychological risks--especially since it's administered by individuals trained solely via Landmark methods that are neither licensed nor liable to anyone. If you have a psychological meltdown after their forum, well, rather than "accept the possibility for the reality they created," they instead play the victime and call out the herd of lawyers. How "authentic" of them since they purport to be so responsible for the reality they create and intersted in your well being. Maybe in the latter case it was all about the money?
Regardless, ignorance is not a point of view, and tolerance of ignorance is never a virtue no matter how "nice," politically correct, or "appropriate" such an attitude may appear on the face of it.
All in all, Pressman's book is source referenced remarkably well. It's all public record, and it's there for you to verify everything Pressman asserts. And again check out the 1995 hard cover edition of "Cults in Our Midst," since that's the only edition that has still the scoop about Landmark and large group awareness training (LGAT). You see, Landmark suppressed such information in all subsequent editions. However thanks to the internet you can find this suppressed information at rickross.com under the search terms, "Intruding into the workplace."
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