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Landmark Forum
Have you guys ever heard about the Landmark Forum? Basically it's different courses that 'transform' you into a better person. You pay them a ridiculously large amount of cash just so that they can tell you that you're valued  . Although I'm very skeptical, I truly believe that this program is ran by an evil cult lol. I hate to rant, but I lost an amazing friendship due to the 'teachings' of this program.
Shortly after my friend Kelly finished this 3 day course, she became reinvented. She shared with me her stories about her mental and emotional breakthroughs and exclaimed how happy she became. She believed that she achieved total happiness...the key word...believed. The forum taught her to live a life without thinking about the past, and how meaningless life was. She kept praising how the past doesn't affect the future. Even though I disagreed, at the time, I respected what she believed and learned. After a few weeks, her mental metamorphosis had reached a psychotic state. Instead of the sweet, easy going girl I knew, she became an obsessive control freak. She wouldn't shut up about the course and made it a routine to tell people about it. Her ideals and thoughts weren't hers anymore...she believed only what she had learned. She started to manipulate her friends, and craved power, especially over men. She couldn't control me though, because my will was/is too strong, and she hated that. She hated my confidence and my strong belief in myself. She loathed my ideals and was intimidated by them. One night I argued with her about the whole 'past doesn't effect future' philosophy and she freaked. I couldn't respect her belief, but that didn't mean I didn't respect her. She decided to attack me by telling me all the things she hated about me. I told her I respected her evualtion of me, and asked her to tell me everything she hated about me; everything she had in her mind. She said I was cocky, and I responded by telling her that she was intimidated by my confidence. She stayed quiet, and then instead of giving me more reasons why she hated me, she started attacking our best friend Cat, who unlike me, isn't as strong willed. I took on the role of Cat's 'lawyer' and that just made Kelly even more mad. I was not going to let her control anyone. Instead of making up like we usually did, she hanged up, called again, and threatened us that she was going to delete our numbers and emails...and she did. I wrote her a txt msg, a metaphor, about running away from the past, and losing friends. She hasn't spoken to me in 3 weeks since. Since Cat is her co-worker, she still talked to her, but now she pretends everything is as it was. That was after she called Cat's friends and tried to manipulate them into becoming Cat's enemies  . And these were the same people she hated herself.
After thinking long and hard I have realized many things. Kelly is NOT as happy as she believes. It's an illusion created by Landmark. Her mind has been controlled by this place. She has lost many of her friends because she would rather choose to run away rather than to deal with her problems. She wants to put us in her past and keep it there. This is what Landmark teaches you...but the truth is, your past will always be there...you can run from it, but you can't hide from it; you can't deny it's existence or it's impact on the future. It hasn't hit me hard until now, and I really miss her companionship.... 
Has anyone here ever taken it? Any comments?
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GWARTQZ!!!!
Last edited by Cribby on Apr-27-2006 at 00:46
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