Vanilla or Chocolate? You don't have to justify your actions

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Anonymous said...
The Forum is a load of rubbish.

My dad went, and they encouraged him and a group of others to abuse each other verbally. And my dad had been so brainwashed by it all that he was encouraged to believe this was "funny". I felt so awkward when he told me what had been said and started laughing...it was so weird.

My stepbrother and stepmum were involved in it too. This is the sort of rubbish that landmark feeds people - I was asked by the three of them, "Vanilla or chocolate ice cream?". I answered chocolate. I was asked why. I said I prefer chocolate to vanilla, it tastes better. Apparently this is the wrong answer. They were all laughing at me as if I was missing some crucial and fundamental key to understanding something vital. Apparently I chose it, merely because....I chose it!! That's it. And this is supposed to be a breakthrough.

Now, it might seem silly and harmless, but it's actually really really dangerous. Think about it - this little exercise is basically teaching people that they don't have to justify their actions. It teaches them to be selfish. To not take responsibility for their own choices.

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16 NOVEMBER 2011 AT 00:20
Anonymous said...
Ten years ago I worked as a law clerk for a law firm that was deep into Landmark. New hires were persuaded or bullied into attending the Landmark Forum seminars - at their own expense. I held out (couldn't afford it!) but my boss had a Forum woman who had free run of the office and used to try to talk to me and get me to have a "breakthrough" at least four times a week. She would get right up in my face and yell, spittle flying and that would go on for a couple of hours in the conference room before I would just say casually, "Yes, I've had a breakthrough."
Of course no such thing happened. I became the black sheep at that firm - I was told I was "damaging the space" by these sick brainwashed attorneys but no one could adequately define this for me. My boss asked me into his office where he slid a pager across the desk to me. He told me he would page me several times a week and I was to give him a blow job whenever he required, since I refused to take the Landmark Forum seminar. I laughed because I couldn't believe it, then I quit.

I got in touch with the author of "Cults in Our Midst" and she pointed out that Landmark Education is often used as a way to bully employees which is what happened at that law firm. When business was down all of us from attorneys down to the file clerks had to listen to a lecture on how if we just apply ourselves, the phones will start ringing.

(Corboy note: The author of Cults in Our Midst was Dr. Margaret Singer. See footnote at bottom of this entry)

I remember a nice older lady who had just started working there and went to LF and came back a new person with a wide grin and crazy eyes spouting off about how wonderful it was. She seemed completely brainwashed! It was very disturbing. I don't know how long her Landmark 'high' lasted because I left.

Ten years later that nine month experience working for those crazies still really bothers me. I'm working on getting it out of my system by putting it on video. I think it will be a comedy. Btw, that attorney was disbarred 2 yrs after I quit because he stole money from clients. Now he has his license back and is screwing people again in Tucson, AZ (now he's doing bankruptcies). Landmark Forum and the sick people it attracts needs to be revealed as the cynical scam it really is. And I'm working on that.