The Landmark Forum

Any of you guys heard about or completed The Landmark Forum?

 

I was 'approached' but the whole thing made my spidy sense tingle.. so kept clear. I did some follow up research at the time and confirmed my concerns.

 

I'll second that!
Have known several people complete it to varying degrees (there's different levels). I was invited along a few times. I'm pro personal development, but this avenue didn't sit right with me for a few reasons.

 

I know a few folks who have gone through the Landmark Forum. The thing I noticed about each one is that the participants appear to be encouraged to eject (non-Landmark) people from their social circles. It seemed a bit like trying to isolate people into the Landmark world and way of thinking. I never looked into it beyond that - these were just my observations of things in common with the people I know that have participated.

 

I know 4 people that have done it over the years.

All were renewed & positive just after, however I noticed none got the "breakthrough" they were after and they remained lost & unfocused in their various journeys.

The experience sounds very cult like...

 

I have a friend from work who does it. He loves it. Spends every weekend doing something or other with it.

In the end I think it costs him a few hundred a year to join, but he gets to do things every weekend, and he says it helps him with whatever it is they do. I tune out when he talks about it...

If you get something out of it, I see nothing wrong with it (caveat - don't really know what it is or anything about it, other than my colleague likes it)

 

I haven't heard of Landmark Forum before so just googled it and one of the google search suggestions was "Landmark Forum Cult". Say no more....

 

That was what I experienced as well and my closest friend who got hooked, and then un-hooked herself confirmed later that she felt brain washed and encouraged to wipe anyone from her life who wasn't willing to jump in as well.

I was quite concerned by a few of the things she shared with me after the fact.

The other thing I noticed is how confrontational people who do it become. They appear to become very detached from every emotion and lose empathy for others sometimes bullying people to face up to their own limitations. Which is not their business to do so. They chose their self development, not their loved ones and work mates.

Some emotions need to be faced and felt. Pretending they don't hurt you doesn't help anyone. The emotions are still there even though you've been taught to switch them off.

I also witnessed participants pay to go up the levels. The upper levels were sold to them as leadership opportunities. I saw it as a company who managed to get people to work for them for free (actually they paid the company to work for them) in recruiting others and phoning potential newbies the get them excited and commited to jumping on board too.

 

Hi @Lisa Parker- Buyers Agent

Thanks for sharing - yes wow it sounds a bit more yuk than I realised. I just thought it was weird that at a time when people are feeling a bit lost and ae seeking improvement and guidance in their lives, they'd be encouraged to ditch people that they already had in their own support network.

There was a strange phase in the early 2000's when it was a noteworthy thing to put on your CV (that you'd been a participant of Landmark Forum). After a while though it was quite the opposite once folks started to wise up to the fact that Landmark taught and encouraged odd behaviours that were not conducive to being a cohesive part of a workplace team.

 

Hi @JacM
I had no idea about it once being a notable positive on a resume. Very interesting!

 

A somewhat difficult client received the landmark forum as a gift from his ex wife! He became a delight to interact with and apparently a better parent.

 

Hi @Lisa Parker- Buyers Agent .... yes, on resume or in conversation there was a time when a declaration of participation in Landmark Forum was met with impressed nods of approval.

 

These are worth reading: Is Landmark weird? Yes, but you should do it anyway! – Zero to Forty

and

Landmark forum – cult, scam, or path to enlightenment? — thirty two thousand days

 

The reason i mention it is because I've done a lot of renovation work for this old jewish bloke in Melbourne. After about the 15th IP of his i worked on i stared asking questions... questions about his success, about his portfolio and about his approach to life. His answers were profound and really blew my mind. He is 75 and still in the acquisition phase after 50 yrs of investing. Along with hard work, education, dedication and luck he attributed the distinctions he got through the Landmark forum as the catalysis to his success as an investor. It really got me thinking, and yes i googled it like all of you, and received all the negative feedback. Then i saw this blog and it resinated with me.
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&...WxYNS0YU8AQ9A7mzNoTHvg&bvm=bv.114733917,d.dGY

He told me he did the course in the 90`s and has not reviewed it since but that the education and skill set taught there has stayed with him. Really interesting ?

 

Wow they put a different spin on it... Have you done it mate? Its interesting that there is a lot of negativity around it and yet no one on PC has participated?

 

My sister did it years ago, it did improve relations afterwards and cleared up some issues from the past between us.

 

Stay well away from Landmark. They are nothing but trouble. The benefit you might get from attending their seminars/camps/training sessions are not worth the hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars you have to spend to hear their spin. They like to preach on the topic of "forgiveness as a way forward" but there are families at war with each other as a result of this teaching. Ironic how forgiveness becomes bitterness. You're better of buying self-help books from Amazon instead.

 

Ditto

 

ok wow. so you have attended one of the seminars then?

 

Nope. But sadly one of my relos has. She attended a few seminars with her husband and they became very rude towards her own family. She looked down on people who don't do life the Landmark way. This wayward daughter doesn't speak to her mum or dad anymore