Wednesday, October 10, 2007

[MLM Survivors Club] Re: Landmark Education

My friend claims they did a "mental health check" on him to see if he
could join the program. It seems he's there at their office a lot
trying to get people to come in. He's even having a meeting at his
house. Thanks again for the info. I will keep a close eye on him.

--- In mlmsurvivorsclub@yahoogroups.com, "paine_wwweb_r"
<paine_wwweb_r@...> wrote:
>
> > Anyone heard of Landmark Education? My friend
> > wants me to attend a "open house". Anyone been
> > involved with them? Thanks! I do know they do
> > "self help" stuff.
>
>
> I'll jump in here with my guarded opinion:
>
> I had a good experience, overall, with Landmark. That's not to say
> that there aren't things to be concerned about as you look at it.
>
> It is an offshoot of EST. Perhaps you've heard of that. You can
read
> about Landmark, including its EST roots, at Wikipedia:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Education
>
> Currently, the Wikipedia entry is locked because of the controversy
it
> has garnered. And yet, I can't help but endorse the experience *I*
had.
>
> Complaints that I had about it include:
>
> * It's an expensive program. The initial Landmark Forum costs
> several hundred dollars, and the subsequent two programs are even
> more. (I think the total is around $2000, and that was 12 years
ago!)
>
> * They use the training to recruit volunteers to do tasks that
really
> should be done by paid employees or contractors.
>
> * They don't do a very good job of screening out people who might
not
> benefit from the training or who might, in fact, be negatively
> impacted by it.
>
> * They spend an enormous amount of time getting participants to
> contact and invite people to participate. Given how difficult it is
> to promote any training of this sort, I don't blame them
completely.
> But it does seem over-the-top. And the advertising is almost
> completely word-of-mouth, which makes me wonder where all the money
> goes - probably into their publications and the pockets of their
staff
> and trainers. I know that there's a lot of travel involved for the
> training staff, so again, the high cost of the seminars may be
> justified - I don't know.
>
> So in the end, there are complaints that it is another cult-like
> organization that uses their methods to separate people from their
> money. And I can't say with certainty that Landmark's critics are
not
> correct.
>
> I CAN say that there are no gurus involved with it. It is not a
> religious cult. They do not promote it as a way to earn money, get
> rich or start a business. It will challenge your views about a lot
of
> things, including religion.
>
> My experience with it brought my wife and me closer together and had
> other beneficial effects on our relations with friends and
colleagues.
> It strengthened our faith and our outlook on the world (and gawd,
> couldn't we all use THAT?).
>
> So the bottom line here, from my perspective, is that I'm glad
you've
> decided to take a little time to research it before deciding whether
> or not to go to the introduction. You may decide that it's not
worth
> getting involved in something with so much baggage. Or you may
decide
> that you can deal with the negatives with so much to gain.
>
> I have not had an opportunity to read up on the current crop of
> complaints about it, so I realize that I may not be addressing
> specifics the way you'd like. I also may be looking at it from an
> out-of-date perspective, so I encourage you to look at the Wikipedia
> entry for a good, bad, and ugly representation of how Landmark is
> perceived.
>
> My experience was good, and many who went through it with me came
out
> feeling good about it. But I also realize my experience my not even
> be in the majority. There's no harm, I suppose, in going to the
intro
> meeting expecting to say "no" to it. Expect typical sales pressure
to
> get involved. Knowledge is power. If you don't like what you see,
> turn around and don't look back. You'll get through life with or
> without it.
>
>
> PW
>

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