Landmark Forum - Stay Away!

Recently I got interested in Landmark Forum. The reports one hears remind of Scientology. Landmark Forum sounds like a little brother, not quite as destructive, but using the same methods. I have no personal experience. These are some reports found on the web. This is what they say about themselves. And this is the entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary.

CAIC

A good reference for sect-like and cult-like groups is the Australian Cult Awareness & Information Centre. Below a few fragments on Landmark found there.

Landmark Education by Andrew J. Testa

Cults and psychological abuse by James B. Endres

The Forum: Cult of comfort? Social scientists familiar with the Forum agree that the program itself is not a cult. But whether the training gets people so hooked on the experience as to make them dependent on the Landmark company and thus engage in cultlike behavior is an open question for some.

The Con-Forumists

"Landmark Forum is a very aggressive and selfish program"

Mind game courses aimed at public sector workers

There's no meeting of the Minds

Soul Training

"Not interested in people--but only money"

From The Children of est: A study of the Experience and Perceived Effects of a Large Group Awareness Training (The Forum) by Charles Wayne Denison (1994). Fragment 1: The Structure: First Sights Of The Forum Fragment 2: The Forum Begins: The Curriculum and Pedagogy

More links

I'm tired. I'm hungry. I'm feeling like someone has taken a trowel and scraped the top off my head. In the Grip of the Therapy Tough Guys, by Enzo Di Matteo, Now Magazine, Toronto, Canada, April 2000

Just a bowl of cherries.. But watch out for the pits!

The Awareness Page

The Freedom of mind site.

Das Landmark Forum (German).

Positive reports

Of course one can find positive sites and stories as well, staged by Landmark or not. Here is one, here another.