Landmark personal development

[nappyrat]

Has anyone got any experience of this?

www.landmarkworldwide.com/why-landmark

Is it any good?

[Chchchchangeabout]

I have done this, and a lot of other personal development stuff. It has some good stuff buried in it (eg taking responsibility for your own actions and responses, setting inspiring goals and working towards them, being authentic and honest etc). But I found it a bit cultish and quite direct/pushy in its approach. I would say do a course but don't let them make you do anything you feel unsure of or that you'll be embarrassed about later - eg I chose not to ring people in the early hours of the morning to apologise for random things.

[nappyrat]

Thanks Chch, I've heard good things but thought the mumsnet massif would be worth asking! ;)
Anyone else....?

[lorelei9]

Sorry OP I can't answer
But change, is the "ringing people early to apologise" a joke or a real suggestion from that course?

[Fizrim]

Hmm, if that's the one my friend did many years ago they were very pushy at the time about doing other courses and not always in the UK so it turned out to be a fairly expensive thing over time. Friend enjoyed it though.

[Chchchchangeabout]

Lorelei - deadly serious suggestion!

[Chchchchangeabout]

Also agree with Fiz they are very aggressive about marketing other courses. Found Anthony Robbins like this too, worse actually.

[Blu]

Friends of DP's that did it did indeed start on a campaign of apologies and truth telling, declarations and pursuits, and disturbing people's sleep wasn't the half of it. Two marriages busted up....

I discovered that a friend of mine was monitoring aspects of our friendship and had set 'targets' that I had not been made aware of.

It seems highly self indulgent to me. And expensive.

[lorelei9]

Change, then you'd need to apologise for ringing early without an emergency?!

Everyone knows not to ring me early in the morning. My phone is set so only my closest people can do it and tbh I forget that sometimes and switch the phone off totally.

Reading this thread I can see why!

Looks a bit mad to me. A friend went on a course where they locked the doors while asking you to think of your most upsetting experiences and face them...and walked over hot coals etc.

Not my bag.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

It is 'a bit cultish'. One of the things they do is get course participants to invite all their friends and family for their graduation - which is in fact just a hard sell for all the friends to then sign up for courses. I know several people who've done it, and they have got some good from it. But I really don't like the group think and hard sell side of it.

[MaybeDoctor]

Sorry, but that organisation has been suspected to be at least 'cult-like' over the years.

[ZiggyPantaloons]

It's been well documented as cult-like. Avoid.

I've known people involved.

Avoid.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

Also, they keep it quiet, but it developed from something called EST, an American thing from the 70s which was definitely cultish. They used techniques such as sleep deprivation.
read this

[Frika]

The usual 'change your life' stuff, slick international organisation, more than a passing resemblance to Scientology, with a hefty price tag. Oh, and judging by a gullible former housemate who spent a lot of money travelling to London from another country to do a Landmark course, some walking on hot coals.

[lorelei9]

Does this organisation recruit volunteers to help run their events? If so, it may be that locked door thing my friend attended.

[LadyStark]

Friend did this, it was like she'd been brainwashed. Returned to her normal self a few months later and saw it for the cultish money spinner it is.

[lorelei9]

Lady, in what way did she seem brainwashed?

It's too late to text my mate and ask her the name of the course. She's normally quite down to earth and didn't seem brainwashed but she isnt the type to bang on endlessly...I know she felt it was very good for her.

[catsofa]

It's a cult, it used to be called Forum. Please research carefully before getting involved, it gets nasty.

[lorelei9]

Interesting article
The phone calls here are late night
From the description I don't think my friend would have done this one
She certainly didn't mention sleep deprivation ...

www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/dec/14/ameliahill.theobserver

[EElisavetaOfBelsornia]

I did a few courses. Not a cult, just a real hard selling organisation. I got quite a lot of good out of it, but it does encourage a self critical perspective which can be quite unforgiving.

[EagleRay]

Gosh - was just thinking about Landmark the other day as it's years since I heard it being discussed anywhere.

I had a v vulnerable friend with serious MH problems who used to dabble in it, and also had a colleague who had done the course and he used to often end up in very awkward conversations with other colleagues as he tried to 'recruit' them. I think it was all the recent Forever Living stuff which reminded me of Landmark for some reason!

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

I first encountered this group 25 years ago when they were called Forum. My sister had become heavily involved and had recruited me to help with the catering for an event she was organising in connection with the course she was doing at the time (there were many, each one followed by the suggestion / recommendation from a "mentor" to do another at great expense).

Anyway, I remember being set upon by a particularly predatory "leader", who in all earnest suggested that if I was committed enough to making the most of my life (aged 17...), I should follow that conviction and have the integrity to do it; she encouraged me to drop out of college and work shifts at cleaning and babysitting to make money to pay for courses in their program. My objections were met with eye rolling and further encouragement not to fall into the trap of making excuses for bailing out on my true purpose. It was such an unpleasant experience for me as a young kid, and sadly my sister was too brainwashed to intervene.

My sister spent a couple of years with them on a roller coaster of busting a gut making money for courses, devising "games" or projects to pursue which usually involved moving heaven and earth and guilt-tripping other people in to helping her, not to mention the never-ending recruitment / enrolment drives. Yawn. She then spent twice that long in therapy to try to reconcile the experience and understand what had happened to her.

Since then, I have bumped up against the same group a few times (and always with an agenda of recruitment along with enraptured, strangely scripted "testimony"), and yes, received the early morning phone call from an acquaintance who needed to tell me that she was ready to take responsibility for the fact that she had been sleeping with my then boyfriend and that she wasn't proud of the fact, but was now ready to make peace with it. Good for you!

This person has since, through a great stroke of irony, come to be a close friend (water under the bridge, and all that), and we have talked about her experiences with the organisation. She became quite a star within it but has since dropped out and has described how, despite the endless talk of integrity, she ended up feeling exhausted and as if that same integrity had been compromised.

To me, I would say that unless you really want to alienate your family and piss your friends off, you can achieve great results in personal growth or is it personality with the help of a genuine and compassionate therapist, a wise coach and a steady meditation practice.

So yeah, avoid.

[nappyrat]

Wow! Lots of cult comments...eek?! Thanks guys. Sounds a bit err mixed reviews!!

[MaybeDoctor]

The friend I had who became involved (a hugely talented person) was encouraged to spend at least three days of every week 'working' for free for the organisation.

Please steer clear.

[flamingnoravera]

I knew peoople in the early 90s who were forum members and they were very cultish- they wrecked a good business by insisting that their workers do the courses and they tried to get me and other people (including thier accountant) involved.

I would place the integrity of this organisation on the same level as MLM businesess. If you want personal development you can get it in other less expensive and all consuming ways.

[flamingnoravera]

According to a testimonial on the website...

“I’m now able to forward collaboration effortlessly between different agencies around difficult challenges and issues.””

Tom Bilyk
Former Chief of Juvenile Justice, States Attorney’s Office

I wonder how exactly he effortlessly forwards collaboration between different agencies? What the feck does he mean?