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The Landmark Forum
2003-09-24 4:43 p.m.

Speaking of organizations that play on the weak, I was reminded today of the existence of the Landmark Forum, INC., a "self-help" group that has transformed a number of my friends who attend their meetings from slightly emotionally imbalanced to completely self-destructive.

Of course, that's not what it claims it does, it lets you know in its literature that it offers you help in dealing with your anger, fear, resentment. It tells you that it will help your goals become clear and achievable, as well as help your relationships become more solid - all for a price, of course. Which the organization tells you goes to "cover costs".

With the price, however, we aren't talking about the $1 donation 12 step programs like AA take to cover coffee expenses. We're talking about thousands and thousands of dollars, all funding an organization that HAS NO PROFESSIONAL THERAPY LISCENCING, and no professional or clinical therapist on staff. Specifically, from CultNews.com, "The Landmark Forum costs $375.00 per person. But individual courses go up to $3,000 a pop, according to Landmark's website".

I don't doubt that it can do what it says it does - help people in their need to find their way. I do doubt, however, that it can do anything for anyone, which is what its participants seem to claim.

Let me further explain by way of example. I had a friend, let's call her "Mary", who got involved with this organization via her boyfriend. He had grown up with and in this organization, as his parents were active participants. "Mary" had a really hard time growing up - she had parents who were neglectful, moved her around from place to place, and basically caused all kinds of attachment, abandonment, and poor self-esteem issues to grow inside of her. She was aware, somewhat, that she had some issues that needed to be worked out in some kind of therapy, and decided to give this landmark forum a try.

Boy, did it promise her things, and boy, did she believe in them. Taking the forum, she was told, would be the answer to all of her problems, the cure to her self-doubts. It would make her successful in business and a better romantic partner. All markets and avenues of life were covered, she returned from that first meeting to tell me. When I asked who was running it - a logical question, I thought - she told me a former model who had gone through some "major life changes for the better" was her workshop leader.

I asked if this "former model" had any background in counseling, psychology, or social work. "Mary" didn't know. She didn't seem to care. Given that "Mary" was prone to obsessing temporarily over outlandish things, I thought that this was probably pretty harmless and that she'd get bored of it in a week or two.

A week or two came and went, however, and not only was "Mary" now attending weekly - sometimes nightly - meetings, but she then let me know that she would be registering for a $3,000 class.

"But weren't you just struggling with rent?" I asked. "Didn't you want to use that money to fund some of your creative projects?" Mary explained that her forum leader helped her recognize that she was "worth it", and that she should drop all that money into the Landmark Forum.

I began to worry. I told my friend that any good therapy/therapist won't ever tell you that therapy is a magic cure. I told her that only people who have had some training or experience in the field of counseling can properly diagnose a person, and help them understand what kind of therapy is best for them. "But any human can help another," she said. I agreed with that statement, but told her that some people have been professionally trained to be good listeners, to give good advice, and to offer tested and well proven methods of recovery that are specific to the person in need. "The forum works for all people", she told me. I explained that no "cure" works for "all people". I told her to think about it like medication - while some people can take penicillin, it will kill others. She shrugged off most of what I was saying, and told me I just didn't understand. She withdrew more and more from me after that conversation, and for seemingly no other reason, dropped out of sight for a while.

I started to get worried when other mutual friends of ours were asking me if I had seen her lately. I told them I hadn't. She had become so immersed in the forum that it consumed her social life. Suddenly only other members of the forum were enlightened enough to understand her. Whenever I did see her, she would urge me to join with her, telling me she'd even pay for the costs. She told me the only way I could truly understand her and my own life would be if I joined too. When I told her that organizational activities just weren't my thing, she resented me and told me that I just didn't trust her, or obviously didn't care about her.

I tried to explain that this was just my personal decision - I could support hers while doing my own thing, but she insisted I couldn't unless I join. I began to see her less and less. She would stay involved with people on a surface, social level - go out to parties, etc., - but began to dissolve our more close and intimate friendship since I refused to join the forum with her.

I started to recall a conversation I had with a college classmate who had recently defected from a Krishna group that had sucked him in by promising a lot of the things "Mary" had been promised by the forum. He had been reading a book on the steps which led up to our schools' Humanities building. I asked him what he was reading, and he handed the book to me. It was The Manipulated Mind: Brainwashing, Conditioning and Indoctrination, by Denise Winn. I flipped it open, and one thing jumped out at me immediately. "Cults seek to isolate the participants, to make them believe that they can no longer relate to those they used to enjoy intimate bonds with. The hope there is to create a growing dependence on the cult itself, making further manipulation easier". How sad, I remember thinking, and how scary.

With that memory, I suddenly became very scared for my friend. I realized all that she was exhibiting - trying to force the forum on her closest friends, withdrawing and becoming angry when they expressed no interest, ultimately isolating herself from most of the people she once knew - was classic cult-victim stuff.

I asked a sociologist friend of mine to look into the forum for me. He discovered that what is now called Landmark Education, INC., used to be called EST, a 1970's organization notorious for its methods of brainwashing, "deprogramming", and isolation. EST had been sued so many times that Werner Erhard, former used-car salesmen and founder of the organization, renamed it Landmark Education and incorporated to prevent any future lawsuits. If you recall, EST is the group that was associated with the growing trend of 1970's cults. Specifically, they were that wacky group that wouldn't let participants out of meetings to use the restroom, and deprived them of food, water and sleep until they could prove that they had had a "breakthrough".

Facelifts don't fool me, and they don't fool the American Press. What I want to know is, how did this happen? How was this organization not shut down if its destructive path has been recognized by several US courts? I understand individual freedoms, but a profit-making organization that plays on victimization? A scam, back alley, slip-shod group who pump thousands of dollars out of people getting away with it? Does it really take some kind of mass suicide to get federal attention?

I was reminded of all these things, which happened quite a few years ago at this point, because one of my STUDENTS invited me to a FORUM MEETING, much like "Mary" had first done all those years ago. Where is the "Shame on You!" report? Why are so many otherwise intelligent people involved with this group?

I actually went to a meeting after I found all this out. I don't know what motivated me, exactly. Maybe it was my scholarly and academic curiosity. Maybe it was my anger. Maybe I was trying to save or understand my friend. Maybe I was making a last ditch attempt to save our friendship, though all my efforts would have been futile unless I did what she wanted and took part in this brainwashing. I met with a "consultant" who was just as brainwashed as "Mary", repeating all the BS rhetoric this organization had pushed down his throat. He made the same promises to me that "Mary" did.

I asked him where all the money went.

He told me, just like "Mary" did, that the money went to "cover costs".

"Of What?" I pushed on. He looked at me blankly. "We are worker owned and operated," he said, I guess by way of response. "No, you're not," I said. At this point, "Mary" was getting pretty uncomfortable, but I pushed on. Co-op is worker owned and operated. INC means incorporated, or that your organization is a corporation." Silence. "That means," I went on, "someone is sitting at the top of this pyramid and turning a profit. And I think his name is Werner Erhard".

"Who?" the consultant asked. I stood up. I knew I wasn't allowed to leave yet, but I also knew that they couldn't legitimately stop me. Besides, I had Steve a few blocks away, ready to come busting through the door just in case the air vents had been spiked. It was a little precaution we decided upon when I let my friends know I'd being going with "Mary" to one of her weekly meetings.

I looked at her and the consultant as I headed for the door. "No one," I said, "he's just a used car salesman."

I've told this story many times to many different people. I've heard others say that this kind of therapy - the kind the forum offers - has worked for them. I don't doubt that, and I don't doubt that their "human centered method" works for some people who are probably already emotionally stable. Using it in the place of legitimate psychological counseling or therapy, however, is downright disgusting. Think about a rape victim, for example, dealing with all the emotions of fear and anger that come along with her traumatic experience. Think about the Forum's method of telling her she must forgive her rapist. Think about the forum's method of depriving her of "amenities", and of making her "be present" in the moment. Will it help her? Or cause her to retreat further? As far as the forum is concerned, I don't think it matters. If her checks don't bounce, they'll take her.

I know a money scam when I see one, and I wish that I could have done more to help my friend, who was vulnerable to begin with but had been broken down by the rhetoric of the forum, convinced she'd be even more helpless if she left. "Mary" needed one-on-one therapy, as much as anyone I'd ever met. She was a sweet girl who had a lot to figure out, and could have been greatly helped by a licensed professional. I still don't see her much. When I do, she always has an entirely new group of people around her, with the exception of a few stables...also, not coincidentally, who are in the forum.

Sigh.

I am doing some more research now. I don't quite know what to do with it. Thinking about this really stirs me up, especially since I truly feel that this organization claimed the mental health of my friend for its profit.

I love how much freedom we have in this country, I just sometimes find myself hating how its abused.

Thanks for reading,