The Forum, a three day event, was grueling. You sit in a room with 200 to 300 other people and deconstruct your life. A lot of people get up on stage in a emotional attempt to find out what stops them from being the person they want to be. Often it’s hard to watch but something remarkable happens towards the end of the event. You start to realize how much alike people really are. We tend to confine ourselves to our peer groups, our beliefs, and our comfort zone. After the Landmark Forum the world looked different for me. I really wanted to connect with people in a way that I had never done before. I looked at EVERYONE wondering, what’s their story and want’s great about them?

My way of being was somewhat short lived as I drifted back to my old self often cynical and self absorbed. After a few months, I went to the advanced course which was good but didn’t have the same impact.

I would say that Landmark is not like a cult but results are going to depend on you. Some people get fanatical about the program and are almost scary to talk to. However, some amazingly interesting and accomplished people from practically every walk of life attend these seminars. I’ve made some great friends, none of whom are still involved in Landmark but all who got something out of it. $400 is really not a lot of money to spend for what I believe is definitely an something worth experiencing. Some people have gone on to do amazing things with their lives as a result of attending Landmark.

Finally it is by the far the best place you could ever go if you are single and want to meet someone and if you’ve been to the Forum before, it’s only $100 to reattend – that’s why i’m looking!!!

Hope this helps.

Peace,

I’ve been to one Landmark Forum, me and a good friend were paid to go by another, getting less and less, a friend, as it’s all she talks about and is starting to get that weird, glazed-over-in-the-eyes, Moonie or Jimmy Jones member look in their eye.

Any organization the professes there’s only one way, there way, and that you need to pay more money for the next hit, is in fact, not an organization with your best interests in mind. My friend who went with a much more open mind but left with a sour taste is Catholic and opined something very similar. As a Catholic you shouldn’t talk bad about the Pope or the religion but you can of course without retribution or being called “weak,” and as a Catholic you can listen to others with their issues against Catholicism, but there’s no harm no foul.

The creepy thing about Landmark is all their Koolaid drinkers are like zombies, you can’t talk bad about their cul..er, organization, without them flipping out. That they themselves can’t take criticism is the telling fact. Which brings me back to the unalienable truth… how someone reacts says more about THEM, than it does about the event or question. If the Landmark Forums were really not a cult, then their members wouldn’t be so rabid to defend it, or would simply say “okay, you’re entitled to your opinion,” or you’d see more middle ground or gray area, but you don’t. Buyer beware.

It helped. Though in saying that, I’m not sure if it was a placebo. I think the most beneficial thing was going to a place where there were more people who had problems, worse than mine in some cases. It made me realise, maybe I didn’t have it so bad and could handle things.
The things that were taught in the 3 day seminar (12 hours a day) I didn’t take in so much, and remember anybody who presented a different view being talked down, and subtly ridiculed.

I left the seminar knowing people who had problems, knowing I wasn’t alone in that.
My Dad continued to go, despite how much it was costing him, he took me along with him.
I went to a more adult class. This was very intense. People taking notes, going up to speak to everybody and admitting things they had kept deep down. I didn’t see anything wrong at the time. But realised it wasn’t something I was interested in doing.

Thus the Landmark Sales machine got into action. (Note I was only 13, had only just gotten over some serious insecurities). I got calls every night, literally. Trying to convince me to come back to the expensive night classes once a week. They were very persuasive and would not let me hang up…
Ironically, the confidence I gained at the first and only ‘forum’ i went to, I used to move on and not go back.

I realised that what I really needed was me, a belief in myself and not an environment of peer pressure security.

Right, time to wrap up this life story.. now at 24 and having graduated University and learnt so much more, I can look back at my experience with landmark and be thankful I didn’t take it on any further.

Is it a cult? – in a way. Yes. As above they wont let you go without a fight, imagine loosing all that money I could have given them! I felt I had gained enough, but they didn’t. It should be up to the person who’s going whether they want to or not. And I know of people who have continued with it and experienced abuse and humiliation for the ‘better of themselves.’ From what I saw, it was not helping in any way shape or form.

It’s hardly a cult. Cults don’t encourage people to tell the truth, keep their word, call their mother, balance their checkbooks, give up regrets and resentments and live life fully. Landmark Education is about nothing more or less than people being empowered to fulfill on what matters to them.

The garbage about it on the Internet mostly seems to come from one source that is run by an ex-con with no training in cults. I can’t figure it out.