#gaslightling

Bolded Text is things pulled directly from staff’s mouth, most other things are my reaction or my retelling.

Disclaimer, according to them, I didn’t do “Landmark Forum” I just did “My Forum” because I didn’t do any of the assignments and I didn’t get myself “On the Court” until maybe the end of Day 3. So, yeah, they say because I didn’t “get it” that I didn’t go through the same shit everyone else did.

So, after a full night of not sleeping because I was too anxious to even sleep, I arrive at Landmark, Day 1 at 8:30 to get my name tag and file into a very large, drab, windowless room lit by fluorescent lights. Those fuckers WILL give you a headache, they encourage you to not use OTC medication or alcohol for your duration at this center. There are 115 chairs, divided into 4 large groups. There is a raised stage with a chair, music stand and a table with tissues and the leader’s stuff. There were two chalkboards, many with pre-written, un-erasable graphics neatly printed on them that were interchanged throughout the day. There are also 4 flat screen TV screens that are displaying graphics and powerpoints/assignments.

I sit near the door on the end of the row since I don’t like to be crowded by people and the seats are meticulously measured to be about an inch apart from one another, making sure that you rub up and get friendly with your neighbors. Most people on the ends would move the seats further away and give other people room to spread out a little bit. 

There are 3 microphones, two on either end of the stage and one in the back of the room. Participants “on the court” need to get up to the mic and have aggressive coaching sessions where the way they process information is shamed and torn apart and their beliefs are thrust into the participants.

I’ll clear up some things first. They do allow you to leave at any time to go to the bathroom, they don’t even discourage it, really. They also have plenty of free water that you are welcome to at all times. If you can get over the shame of getting up while someone is talking (there aren't many breaks), you’ll be able to get up for water and bathroom stuff whenever.

Now, we’ll get on to my notes, these are stream of consciousness notes I was taking to call them on their bullshit. They are disorganized and they are mean. Be warned.

Seats are moderately comfortable and my bitch face is in full swing and some fuckers just sat next to me when they have the REST OF THE ROOM! Ugh. Overly friendly, eye contacting staff stay in the back of the room. They greet select participants with hugs and friendly acceptance because they’re so happy to have you here. They know each-other. I just heard one say “You really have your pick of the litter today.” 

These banners on the walls are some of the worst, double-speak fuckery I’ve ever seen. These banners introduce us to the “new language” that we will be learning over the course of 3 days. They are nonsense and I’m upset about them because after 3 days I ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THEM AND AJFKLJIASG....

“The Way the Landmark Forum Works”

Anything you want for yourself or your life is available out of your participation in the Landmark Forum.

You can have any result for yourself or your life that you invent as a possibility and enroll others in your having gotten.

Enrollment is causing a new possibility to be present for another, such that they are touched, moved, and inspired by that possibility.

The results you get out of your participation in the Landmark Forum are a product of the possibilities that you invent for yourself and enroll others in your having gotten.

Yeah, Bullshit, circular reasoning and using already meaningful words and twisting the definitions to be something entirely “different.”

There are at least 115 people here, all of them payed at least $550 to be here and Landmark provides NOTHING. No lodging, no food, NOTHING. Can I please make a cult? I think it’d be pretty profitable.

“Transformation: The Genesis of a New Realm of Possibility. In the Landmark Forum, you will bring forth the presence of a new Realm of Possibility for yourself and your life. Inside this Realm of Possibility:

The constraints the past imposes on your view of life disappear. A New view of life emerges. 

New possibilities for being call you powerfully into being.

New openings for action call you powerfully into action.

The experience of being alive transforms.”

You know, they keep saying this is “a conversation unlike any other” but it really just seems like a prosperity gospel.

Oh really? Worldviews and biases are new to people? People don’t know they have them? Really? Is this news to anyone? We all have a “story” of our past that filters everything. We only blame others and don’t take responsibility for ourselves. 

“I’m not giving you the Truth. I’m giving you freedom.”

“The transformation we do here doesn’t need to be understood or remembered. It just happens.”

“Just try on my philosophy with an open mind and don’t ask questions for the weekend and if you don’t like it you can toss it away come Wednesday!”

HOLY SHIT RED FLAGS!

The concept during this section is that we live in the future, always being anxious about everything and not enjoying what the present has to give us. But that the only thing we know about the future is what we take from past experiences. Basically, we live in the future, but the past shapes our future so much that it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Oh my god... they just made us go through what we want to accomplish with the person sitting beside us and now they’re tearing it down saying it doesn’t matter because anything we could say is only influenced by our past and is not “invented” by the transformation they are about to perform!

There are already people at the mic opposing the views and tearing in at the new language, and they are being laughed and mocked off the stage saying that “they just need to wait and get it later,” and “that’s just your opinion, not what it is.”