My letter to MK.
"Paradise Hyped"

You have approached me as an unpaid volunteer Landmark graduate, who is a friend of a friend. We have met three times. The first telephone-call that you ever made to me was to discuss Landmark. I spoke to you for twenty minutes. In that time I listened to what you had to say with as open a mind as is possible. You made great, yet vague claims for what Landmark could do for me. In this document I make valid and demonstrable claims about what it could do to me and what it has started to do to you. I preface these remarks by pointing out that I am aware that Landmark's founder was able to prove his innocence of the charges of child abuse and tax evasion that were levelled against him and also that he received financial compensation. I believe that he was innocent. However, what his creation now does is more serious than tax evasion and amounts to the abuse of adults.

From my examination of Landmark, I have established to my satisfaction that its methods of teaching its trainees represent an inappropriate approach to the task of personal development. Although I do not quite think that it qualifies as a cult, it is extremely close. The methods that it uses are in many cases identical to those used by proven cults and if it chooses to employ them, then you must accept that it will be considered a cult, `de facto' if not `de jure', by most neutral observers. You may be able to furnish me with some examples of graduates who have made beneficial changes to their lives. I believe that these are merely a side-effect of a treatment that is directed towards another purpose: to foster a dependency culture that is reinforced by group pressure and which requires its customers to revisit the group's forums and events in order to experience the `high'.

Let us examine some of Landmark's more unusual features:

1. It does not advertise.
2. It therefore recruits solely through its graduates and members.
3. Course members are strictly controlled in their bodily routine through sleep deprivation, control of diet and toilet functions. They are reverted to an infantile state, by methods such as being required to raise their hand to ask simple questions.
4. Course members attend 15-hour sessions with homework sessions added and cannot take notes.
5. Sundry matters: Tuition is provided in large groups, in featureless rooms with distractions removed. Capital letters are used throughout on all blackboards. Course leaders are confrontational and humourless. Questions are posed as statements in order to plant subliminal suggestions.

I can imagine that these factors alone could be very damaging to someone who has mental problems or is vulnerable in some other way. You did not ask whether I have any history of depression or mental instability. As it happens, I do not, but those who do will usually display no signs of it.

Doomed to succeed

In the conditions described above, it would scarcely be surprising if members did not report the `breakthroughs' that are promised. For a start, they are under immense pressure to do so. It is almost impossible for a human mind to resist 15 hours of intense pressure for three days. I do not have the arrogance to believe that I can stick my head in a lion's mouth and come out unscathed. It is simply facile to say that I should `come and see what it's about'. There is a joke that says you should try anything once, except for incest and Morris Dancing. To this list I would add Landmark Education forums.

It takes three days of captivity to mould a human mind into obedience. It is a simple task of mental manipulation. US Navy sailors were kidnapped by North Koreans in the late fifties and were briefly converted into avowed communists who hated the US. It's the technique that has the effect that you praise, not any inherent truth in the curriculum.

They refuse to answer your questions, but they incessantly ask questions of their own. I actually felt guilty for using the bathroom and I thought that the rooms were uncommonly warm.: Quote from attendee of Landmark.

"Dianetics Lite"

While it may differ from Scientology in the extent and scope of its mind control, there is much that makes it similar: notably the financial element. In the quest for further `highs', graduates often spend increasing sums of money to get closer to the bliss that they have been pledged. I can only say that it seems slightly less rapacious than Scientology.

"Free Will"

Landmark might respond to these remarks by saying that it offers people the chance to leave. I won't confront that head-on. I should instead point out that immense promises are made to those who reach the final day of three, by which point the inevitable personality change has been effected. It is therefore safe to offer people the chance to leave with a refund on the first day. Trainees will usually stay just a little longer to see what they can get out of it.

I had no intention of signing up for this class at this time, am normally a very strong person who enjoys debating things and to be honest I have no idea what came over me. I remember thinking that this is a bunch of crap, and reminding myself not to listen, then at one point I began to defend another person in the room who was trying to leave, but it seemed he didn't want to be rude.

The next thing I remember I was in the hall with one of the volunteers crying and telling my life story and how I felt that "The Forum" was a "cult" [sic], which is why I wasn't listening to what they were saying. - Quote from an `almost Forum attendee'.

"On the stage"

I believe you when you say that you do not receive any remuneration from Landmark. In fact, you never will. I have established through my research that only 400 people in the entire world are paid any money. It grows and flourishes because of its 7,500 unpaid volunteers. In any other organisation in the world, I would expect someone as clever as yourself you to advance. You are involved in the one place where you will never make money. In multi-level marketing, you are either `On the stage' or `The c**t'. The former makes the money, the latter attempts to make a living selling whatever product or service is involved. It's a gigantic con. Don't fool yourself that you will ever become one of the charmed 400.

The crucial criticism is that Landmark is not open about how its approach works. Whilst I understand that it does not want its ideas to be copied, there is something sinister about that.

"You've lost that thinking feeling"

I want to tell you in writing that your personality has been changed and from my unique perspective, it is not for the better. You may have had some unhappiness that caused you to seek a crutch. The time has come to throw it away before your character and powers of reason are further diminished. I know that you are now forming most of your friendships and personal relationships through Landmark. It will have a pernicious effect on your dealings with others. I watched you and Cat sitting on the sofa dissecting my personality with the use of insider jargon like `rackets' and `stories'. It only slightly bothered me at the time, but it was quite conspiratorial.

They have a "language" all their own where simple words have esoteric meanings. Other group participants become insider enlightened friends with whom feelings are shared and confidence is placed. The unenlightened masses are looked upon as somehow missing out on life's possibilities. It seems the highest compliment a committed participant can bestow is to get you to enroll in the Forum. The answer to all criticism is. "You don't understand " and "You have to attend the Forum so you can understand."

You attempted on the phone to explain the concept of past, present and future with respect to pain. The explanation you gave was barely cogent. That cannot be because you can't explain things well, after all you have an MBA and a career in management consultancy. It's because what you were trying to tell me was total bollocks.

Humans do develop methods to cope with things and need psychological defence mechanisms to retain stability. It is reckless to approach people with an approach that, you must admit, requires people to be `broken down' before they can be `rebuilt'. The danger exists that a fragile subject could remain broken and incapable of a return to normal life.

The pressure that Landmark applies will either force you to snap out of its spell or drive you into total dependence. Listening to you on the phone today was not like holding a normal conversation. There was clearly an agenda in your mind and any normal chatter between friendly acquaintances was evidently a distraction. It all sounded insincere. After I told you that I did not find anything about it interesting, you still made a diary note to contact me again a week later. If I said anything to suggest that I wanted this, then I retract it now.

"The university of life, the school of hard knocks and the kindergarten of having the crap kicked out of you".

I have learned many things through personal experience and learning in a non-captive group. I intend to continue that way. Landmark's growth illustrates something sad about the lack of preparation that most people possess for the hardships of life. Groups of people pay money to divulge their intimate problems with total strangers. This is utter madness.

In the end, it reminds me of the film `Fight Club', in which the insomniac hero visits different self-help groups to fill his nights. Eventually he becomes addicted to the intensity of the emotion and is only snapped out of it when he spots a woman who does the same thing. She acts as a reflection of his deception.

I have learned that the great revelation on the final day of the course is that `Life is meaningless'. I completely agree with that statement and have said so in those exact words since I was a teenager. I scarcely need three days to be told it. The real benefit of the revelation is squandered though, if you switch dependence on your own mental crutches for someone else's.

I recommend that you do some reading about techniques used by mind control cults. One very good source of material is www.rickross.com and I would direct you to www.rickross.com/groups/landmark.html

If you are starting to fell unsettled by what I have written, then Good! You might start to feel the need or instinct to discuss this with another Landmark person in the hope that he will suck you back in. That ought to start the warning bells ringing!

If that does not convince you then I suggest that you spend 15 hours per day for three days locked up in the company of myself and other like-minded individuals. First lessons are free!

David Young


I Can Talk You Out Of This