landmark forum cult

[iheartnihilism]

Anyone know about this? My favorite coworker did this seminar over the weekend (13 hours a day, no food or bathroom til your breaks?!) and said she wanted me to come to her "graduation" tomorrow. After doing some research I'm seeing articles and forums where people say this place is a scam and a cult and this Tuesday thing is just a thing where members try to recruit more people. She knows I'm not the type of person to get into this psychobabble stuff and said it would mean a lot if I went so I'm going but am nervous about what I'm getting myself into. Has anyone had experience with this place? I know they have a set up in L.A. and New York.

Its supposed to make you more open to bettering yourself or something but it also makes you contact people from your past and apologize (you're always wrong..?) and basically calls you out for being an asshole who cares about shit that doesn't matter. It seems looney tunes to me.

Thoughts?

[tempfoot]

I have a good friend who got deeply into Landmark. Origins of Landmark are from Est.

Not a very hardcore cult as such things go, but many cult-like aspects. Stay in it long enough and you will only really relate to others that have bought-in and adopted the ideology and language as much as you have.

The 'bring-your-friends' night is a (very) hard sell session - not a nice 'graduation'. Went once, and the people almost literally would not take no for an answer.

You pay (a lot) to take the initial weekend class, and if you get sucked in you pay more and more to take higher level classes. If you pay enough you get the opportunity to rise through the ranks, get more involved, and provide ridiculous amounts of free labor - all for a for-profit enterprise.

So, did you go?

[iheartnihilism]

I went. They didn't really push me to join up and what I got out of the 2 hours I was there (it's 3 hours but, c'mon. It was raining and I had a commute.) was that a large amount of it is based of existentialism. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything I hadn't heard before either. My friend doesn't bring it up constantly and seems happier so I'm not going to try to bring it down. She's also aware that a lot of her friends were worried it was a cult and she can joke about it.

I liked the whole "stop procrastinating / grab life by the balls" vibe.
What I didn't like, and didn't encounter but my friend confirmed is what happens, is the "attack therapy". I understand saying "don't drag the shit from your past into the future" but yelling at someone and basically telling then it's their fault they were raped or got cancer is.. pretty fucking stupid. And dangerous. Instead of a year of therapy they smoosh it all into 3 13 hour session in a weekend and I don't think most people can process shit that intense in such an intense manner.

TL;DR - If it is a cult, I didn't get that vibe. They just seem to prey on the weak. My friend got positive stuff out of it and doesn't seem to have drunk the kool-aid. ::thumbs up:: (I just wish she hadn't spent so much $)

[Enunciated Piffle]

How much was it? Is it like Scientology where you have to spend $ to level up?

I don't get how people justify charging money to attain enlightenment. I wonder if religious people are just indoctrinated with paying tithes?

Richard Gere made a huge donation to the Dalai Lama. So they literally made him a demi-God. Now I gotta question Tibetan Buddhism

Scientology is bleeding Beck, actor Jason Lee, and every other fool residing in LA it seems. Now I hate Scientology and think less of some of my favorite artists.

Christians and Catholics pay tithes that end up being monies supporting anti-gay campaigns and funding pedophilia.

What's more gross: money or religion? Answer: money IN religion.

[iheartnihilism]

$620 for the first weekend. The "advanced course" (another weekend) is $595 and theres a 3rd level but I don't know how much that is. They try to tell you that the advanced course will ensure you really "get it". My friend had just finished the advanced course, for that much money I just bought a puppy so I guess we all find happiness in different places..

[Enunciated Piffle]

Originally Posted by iheartnihilism

$620 for the first weekend...

GTFO! Damn that a lotta money! Does $620 include room and board? Continental breakfast, perhap?

That kinda money. Boy. You could get TWO puppies. And as we all know, two is better than one. Silly, gullible, dog-less, people.

What kinda puppy you get?

[iheartnihilism]

620 and they make you sit in a room for 13 hours with limited breaks and one food break. You're not allowed to leave to go to the bathroom or bring food in with you lest you miss something and not "get it".

I got an Italian Greyhound! He arrives in a few weeks and I'm just about peeing myself out of excitement.

[Enunciated Piffle]

Cool. Very cute. You guys won't have to worry about shedding, but I hope you ordered a winter coat for that lil guy.

[Enunciated Piffle]

"Hey, it's cheaper than therapy," a therapist-turned-real estate agent tells me.

LOL

[iheartnihilism]

Originally Posted by Enunciated Piffle

Cool. Very cute. You guys won't have to worry about shedding, but I hope you ordered a winter coat for that lil guy.

One of the reasons his breed was a top contender. (I also like how creepy and derpy they manage to look at the same time..)

Originally Posted by Lord of the Cock Rings

Now multiply that by the number of people in attendance and you get an idea of how much these organizers are raking in for a weekend. Easily thousands and thousands of $$$.]

The guy running it asked for a show of hands on who's finished what at the start of the "graduation". By my estimates there were at least 450 people there, and only about 100 or less were there like me to support a friend. Everyone else had either paid $620 or, like my friend, $1200. It's just insane because you can get all that they offer from $100 worth of philosophy and self help books. Ugh.