Comments on: An uncrazy review of the Landmark Forum

By: Saida

Saida — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:42:18 +0000

Hi Digressia. I really enjoyed reading your experience and all the comments. Have you taken the second course? it has been years since you took the Forum and how is your life and the application of what you learned? Does it still remain with you in everyday life and has you life improved? I am planning to take the Forum late Feb. I am disappointed and apprehensive about the aggressive style of marketing. It is on my mind and I don’t want it to interfere with my listening and learning during the 3 days. I will remain open minded. I did notice people being overly involved in trying to make the guests enrol in the Forum, it is expensive. One went as far as suggesting a guest that it was ok to simply charge their credit card even after they said I am unemployed and have no savings. I jumped in and told them that it was financially irresponsible to go into to debt for anything. I will post my experience in early March.

By: Jorgo

Jorgo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:34:24 +0000

That was concise Bob.
Review what a cult is and how they work – it most certainly is not one.
Granted, it is boring sometimes, it has some zealots in it (as has any ‘way of life’), they can ‘pressure sell’ sometimes. Some of their premises are fundamentally flawed – full of shit, in fact.
However, I got a huge amount from a couple of sections and some parts definitely give me tools for a better life.
Take the best and leave the rest

By: Jorgo

Jorgo — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:22:26 +0000

Dear Rootvegetable,
3 years is a long time.
I acknowledge your “group therapy” comment as reasonably relevant.
Revisit “Vicious Circles” – have a read and GET the ideas in “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.”
No-one is to blame. You can get the life you want through letting go and focusing on the constructive.
All the best.

By: Hugh Kilpatrick

Hugh Kilpatrick — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:55:37 +0000

Hi,
I did the whole curriculum for living – including the lectures.
I got the absolute most from the forum. Had a really shitty time in the advanced course and went back as a volunteer in the advanced course to understand what they were trying to do.
The SELP was OK but insincere. My group in it was fabulous and I shifted in my thinking, so I got a benefit.
Landmark was a significant experience but there is something missing.
Suggest reading and really GETTING “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” – or some of the really early books.
Really enjoyed reading your blog.
Peace be yours,
Hugh

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:15:10 +0000

“I think I was in danger of becoming an unpaid salesman and sales has never been a possiblity I wanted to create.” HA! Brilliant. Really well put.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:33:10 +0000

Thanks for writing this! My interpretation of your interpretation is that I now have created the possiblity to write an interpretation. I just got to the end of the 3 days last night. After sitting in the room most of last evening feeling like I was the only boy at prom without a date it was great to stumble upon this. By and large I had a similar experience. I think I ‘got it’ conceptually, I cried a bit when I was ‘fessing up to the woman next to me about my lifelong insecurities, called my parents and told them I loved them and forgave them for having interpreted that aforementioned insecurities were their fault, and I was moved by many of the things people shared (even if some of them maybe overdid it), but I also found the hard sell and the sense that I wasn’t being transformed as much as other people (a pitfall to transformation in itself of course!) difficult and uncomfortble. I succumbed and put down a deposit on the advanced course and I plan to do it, but the spin placed on this is incredible. I would be annoyed at having paid for it if I didn’t realise that that’s what happened and it’s in the past.
Anyway, I don’t regret doing the Landmark Forum either, but after reading this I’ve realised I don’t want to get caught up in the corporate machine that it is by convincing everyone I know that it’s the only way they can be happy. I think I was in danger of becoming an unpaid salesman and sales has never been a possiblity I wanted to create.
Thanks again!

By: lmarmstrong66.wordpress.com

lmarmstrong66.wordpress.com — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:08:09 +0000

Thanks for sharing this post. I did the Forum 11 years ago and everything you said resonated my own experience. Especially the part where I was not having any breakthroughs but understood the concepts. I started to worry that I was not normal and would never have that ah ha moment. I think for me it happened after the fact, I don’t remember. But it did change my relationship with my mom and for that I was grateful. I learned to put aside my filters for once and just listen unbiased.
I recommend it to others but quietly. It’s not for everyone. My mom went after much persuading on my part and she doesn’t talk about her experience…I think she bailed out after the second night because it was more than she could handle. Fair enough, I get that too. It did change my life, but in a way that changed my perspective of things. I will always be me. I judge less and try to be more open minded.
My bff recommended it to me, she did it in LA and yes, her enthusiasm was a bit overkill and I too thought she had joined a cult before I experienced it myself.
Good job on covering all the bases : )

By: Penelope H

Penelope H — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:55:30 +0000

oh, I forgot. In the old EST days they were known as “estholes”. God they were annoying!

By: Penelope H

Penelope H — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:33:44 +0000

IN all of my adulthood, one person or another has tried to enlist me in some sort of self improvement seminar. I wish I could say that any of these people represented anything that I found compelling. It’s one thing to have a lexicon of buzz words it’s another to demonstrate an enviable experience of life. I is also dismaying to have people that, pre-forum, could barely stand you suddenly be very concerned with your well-being.
Both of my children took the forum and were very enthusiastic. They bullied me emotionally to take the course myself. The problem with this is that I, like many of my peers, have seen the results of this workshop when it was called EST Training. Over the long haul, they did no better than anyone else when life took a really bad turn.
However if the Forum can help people dismiss the rattle and clatter of inner monologue, then it has provided a significent relief and is very worthwhile.

By: dominic

dominic — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:37:07 +0000

I just got back from the Tuesday evening session, where I was a guest of a relative who did the weekend.

I want to say that I found the hard sell so incredibly untasteful, unremorseful and cloaked in hideous rhetoric that it made me furious. How manipulative, arrogant and insulting it was. I am not sure how they can place an emphasis on integrity and then behave in such a way.

As for the content, I prefer mindfulness, which has scientific evidence to back it up. The ideas of focussing on the present moment, seeing thoughts as thoughts, selfing, etc, which landmark looks at, all seem to be heavily Buddhist inspired.