by cellomould 4 Replies latest jw friends
How many here have participated in the Landmark Forum?
How much did you enjoy it?
What I got out of it: I accepted that it was a choice of mine to leave JWs. (I had felt like I had no choice.) Interestingly, this was because the Forum itself was a sort of mirror to the JW social experience.
Did you feel manipulated?
cellomould
"In other words, your God is the warden of a prison where the only prisoner is your God." Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
anyone?
tell a bit about your experience if so, please.
"In other words, your God is the warden of a prison where the only prisoner is your God." Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
What's the Landmark Forum??
YAAA!!!! What the hell you talkin''bout boy???
Ven
"Injustice will continue until those who are not affected by it are as outraged as those who are."
Hey gals,
I am so surprised that no one has heard of this.
Chances are you will hear about this 'educational program' soon from your acquaintances, so read up about it. I pulled some comments about it from:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/8080/forum6.htm
The combination of:So, anyone want to sign up?
a. Extremely intense courses
b. Denial of proper rest
c. Obedience through group pressure
d. Confusion of the critical mind through wordplay might result in mental damage. People who lost their relatives, jobs, minds and lives due to the destructive nature of this combination. Of course, not all of the people lose it. Probably most of them don’t. But how can YOU be sure, if there is no medical supervision on participants? Tempering with the human mind is a potentially dangerous act. Some of those who survive become addicted to the Forum and continue to shell out money for complementary courses. After that there are advanced courses, the sky is the limit. Come to think of it, the size of your wallet is the limit.The Landmark Forum
Marketing TechniquesTwo important processes are used in order to turn everyday people into obedient voluntary salesmen.
a. Group pressure
A large group of selected peers (Landmark selects after examination the people who will attend) is formed. They are placed closely together. This produces intimacy. It allows every participant instantly feel like part of a selected group of special people. This establishes the Forum as a positive and meaningful experience for everyone. The group is encouraged by carefully planted Landmark people inside the group. They trigger applause from the unsuspecting attendants. This establishes the supportive nature of the group. The attendants will leave the Forum with the feeling they are select and loved by others, therefore important.b. Wordplay, slogans and jargon
Excellent use of the three above mentioned elements enhances the effect of the Forum over people. Wordplay is used to confuse people. An old use of confrontation, the way Socrates used to tease his students, is used to daze participants and tenderize their critical part of the mind. For example, a possible confrontation:
- "What are you doing in life?"
- "Work"
- "Why?"
- "In order to make money"
- "Why is that?"
- "So I could buy myself things"
- "Like what?"
- "Jewelry, a fancy car, travel places"
- "What will that get you?"
- "Happiness"
- "Why can’t you be happy now?" (confusion, possible applauds)Slogans are used to establish the positive nature of the experience. For example "If you don’t want others to judge you, stop judging others", "Take charge of your life, instead of life taking charge of you", "Stop living in your past", "Leave up to your dreams", "Words are meaningless" (hidden contradiction - the use of words, like in this sentence, is essential to the Forum). Theses slogans are heavily borrowed from just about anywhere and are nice themselves, but become extremely fruitful when used with... Carefully selected jargon. Words like "Paradigm", "Breakthroughs", "Making a difference" etc. Why do I say "carefully selected"? Because the phrase "paradigm shift" could have been replaced by "breaking the limits", "border expanding". But no, since the Forum is aimed especially toward the White Collar, words like "paradigm" makes the average participant feel really at home. Use of Forum jargon further enhances the group, as it uplifts it above the rest of society. A secret language, or code, is formed, enigmatic to the outer world. If you want to understand how "to make a difference", you must attend the Forum. The overall effect is that nobody really knows, or can specifically describe what’s going on in the Forum. All that’s left is the wordplay, slogans and the jargon. They cover a rather vacuous philosophy. They sell well, though, and do not leave unpleasant suspicions about their hidden nature.
cellomould
"In other words, your God is the warden of a prison where the only prisoner is your God." Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
