Remember how a little while ago I was thinking about time?  Well, I was saving up the absolute best bit.  Not only is the best bit about time, it’s the best bit – my favourite, juiciest insight – from doing the Landmark Forum.

“The main presumption of existence,” according to Laurel Sheaf, a Landmark Forum Leader, “is that life is one thing after another.”  We think that time is a

one-way, no return, take-your-lumps deal.

For example, we live our lives assuming that it’s our past – our education, our parents, our culture, our good and bad experiences, and so on – which determines who we are in the present. 

We read the story of our lives in retrospect, as it were.  “Oh, I’m no good at swimming,” we might say, “because my parents didn’t take me to lessons early enough.”  Or, “I can’t speak in public because I embarrassed myself in school that day.”  Or, “I’ll never have a happy marriage because my first one didn’t work out.”

And it doesn’t have to be “negative” experiences.  For example, we might say something like, “I always make people laugh, ever since that day when I was at my best friend’s party and I told that joke that everyone loved.” 

Laurel Sheaf quotes Tom Robbins on the point,

we become frozen in that glad ice, turning ourselves into living fossils for the remainder of our existence.

We automatically assume that our past is what determines who we are in the present.  And yet, this is not the case.  What determines who we are in the present is not our past; it is our future.  It is the future we’re living into that determines who we are being in the present.  As Laurel Sheaf says,

What inspires us, and what moves us, or what stops and defeats us, is essentially due to how we see the future in front of us.

For example, last week I made a decision to go to France in May on a long dreamt-of Grand Perfume Tour.  Straightaway, I became someone who was excited at the prospect of a holiday, someone who was inspired at making something happen that was not going to happen, someone to whom it might matter on what days the International Perfume Museum in Grasse is open, someone who might suddenly notice an advertisement to visit the frankincense plantations in Oman on the way, someone who might start telling clients I’ll be unavailable in May, and so on.  Yet on the day before I made that decision, I was none of these “someones.” 

Sounds too simple, huh?  Or wrong.  Or dumb.  Yet this is how existence works.  So how is it that we don’t notice this normally?  How is it we all seem to be under the same delusion that it’s the past (not the future) that determines who we are in the present?  Well, that’s a story for another day, or for anyone who does the Landmark Forum.

*****

After completing the Landmark Forum in 2003, I found myself in state of bliss that lasted for five days. I thought that I had finally achieved enlightenment.  I experienced my mind being very quiet and the world around me to be a very kind, peaceful place.

For several weeks prior I had been suffering from a miserable state of depression.  I had just gone through my second divorce six months earlier.  I was out of money and living in my parents’ home.  My life was not working.  One evening I was visiting with Carol, my then former wife, and describing the unsettling condition I was in when she asked me why I hadn’t gotten some help.  My response was, “I don’t know where to go for help.  I need someone better at facilitating than I am.”

She had just registered to attend the Landmark Forum, mentioning that she was told that the Landmark Forum leaders where the best facilitators on the planet, and invited me to attend with her.  The Forum began in four days.  I accepted and the Forum experience transformed me.

My peak experience came after the third day of the forum.  I was in a state of inquiry about my response to failure.  After several moments of looking, I realized that what I did was quit, whether it was about work, my marriage, church, etc.  I saw the pattern in every area of my life.  That wasn’t what lit me up though.  I lit up when I realized that after I had quit, I would pretend that I hadn’t quit. As this realization dawned on me, I began to laugh and laugh as each area of my pretense was revealed to me.  This laughter accompanied an internal vibration that rose to a very high octave inside of me.  A feeling of peace and bliss filled me.  I experienced great joy that stayed with me.  It was there when I went to sleep, and was still there when I woke up the next morning.  This deeply present experience continued throughout the next few days.    My mind was clear of chatter and filled with insights.  For example, while I was at A Course in Miracles study group a few days later, I experienced getting the material at an enlightened, core level unlike previous classes.

For five days I had a peek into Heaven.

Here is the message.  There is Heaven on earth, I’ve experienced it. And even though I tried to recreate the experience, it is clear that my experience was a state of Grace and there is no formula for recreating it.  My experience of Grace was not something I had earned; rather it was a gift from spirit.  When the experience left me, I literally felt like I was falling and with a thud, found myself back into the world I had previously known.

It appears that I could not sustain that level because I didn’t have mastery of it.  I have work to complete at the level I am at.  I experienced what was possible though.

Some of the tools for mastery that I am working with are: Integrity – honoring my word; completing the past by cleaning up the mess I made with the people in it; inquiring into my stressful thinking and undoing my limiting beliefs; and living life being fully responsible.

I live inside a promise for the world now.  I promise to bring joy to each moment, be present, live life full-out, experience the talents of others with gratitude, and celebrate Heaven on earth – NOW!

One habit that I have recently developed is that I frequently read The New York Times cover to cover. I don’t do this with the expectation of coming up with material for this blog, and thus I was very surprised this morning to see The Landmark Forum mentioned in the newspaper, in the Home & Garden section of all places, telling the story of people who spiced up their homes or flats by having actual art shows in their living places.

While this isn’t a review of the Landmark Forum, it’s worth talking about because the story mentions how this man switched from the corporate life out into a life in the arts out of taking Landmark’s programmes.

I can’t tell you how many people I know who were dissatisfied in their day-to-day humdrum existence, who took the Landmark Forum and got up the courage to do something about it, to start living the life they actually wanted to be living instead of the one they had gotten seemingly by default, either by bringing new life to what they were already doing, or in the case of this Bernard Leibov, doing something entirely new. He began curating art shows and getting involved in the art world, finally taking the radical step of having shows in his own apartment, starting in March. Apparently, this fellow not only has an enjoyable career, but an enjoyable home as well.

Enough of me, go read the New York Times story and hopefully you’ll be inspired by these people – more art shows in people’s homes could only make the world more interesting!

While I was in Sydney I attended a Landmark Education class on the weekend. It’s part of a 7-month course to train participants to lead introductions to the Landmark Forum.

I’m finding this course very difficult. I’m so confronted and challenged by my habitual ways of being that I keep running away from the course. And running away when things get tough is, as I’ve discovered, one of my most habitual ways of being. Which is really funny because I’ve spent my life thinking that I’m strong and courageous and quite a nice little risk-taker. Oh, the delusions.

Anyways, for now I’m back in the course because I managed to stick with my fear long enough to front up to the Sydney weekend after missing the equivalent Melbourne weekend (because I ran away).

And I’m glad I did front up. Because I got an important breakthrough, and interestingly, it’s one related to language and writing, and even this blog.

*****

I saw on the weekend that I’ve been living my life as a long series of trade-offs. “If I have this thing, then I can’t have that thing” is basically the way I’ve been living my life. And God forbid I should have many things at once.

Which is why my life looks like a series of episodes, and also why I have such trouble choosing things. How can I choose anything — let alone choose lightly and freely — when the very act kills off so many other things? The one chosen option has to be so right, has to supply the satisfactions of many.

When I saw this way of being I was amazed, as with all Landmark breakthroughs, how I could have overlooked such an obvious thing. It was under my nose the whole time.

And this time there was an interesting addendum. A bit later on in the course I was sitting next to a girl from Canada and I was telling her about how I’d been doing this in life and she said,

Oh yes, I used to do that too. And then I went to India and I saw a guru and he noticed it and told me the following, “Give up the word ‘but’ and replace it with ‘and.’”

Give up the word “but” and replace it with “and.”

And guess what? I frequently use the word “but” in my speech. And one only has to read a post or two of this blog to see it everywhere in my writing. It’s been becoming so frequent in my writing even I had started to notice it.

Yet it’s not merely a tic of speech and writing; it’s been all through my thinking and being. In short, I’ve been a walking “but.” Killing off options, undermining choices, statements and commitments.

All for want of a word that, under its modest little journeyman trappings, is a world that unites and expands and enriches. The truly glorious word: AND.

*****

Image: The Sun

Today, something finally ran its course in my life.  It concerned something that happened over 25 years ago and the choice I made in the situation. It’s puzzled and troubled me ever since, and it has greatly constrained my life. I didn’t consciously think about it often, but it’s always been there nevertheless.  It concerned a choice I made about who I would be for myself and who I would be for an other. 

What happened today? Nothing much from the outside. Just a phone conversation. But in that conversation, in the midst of saying something, I got what I’d missed for 25 years.  The words were half out of my mouth before I recognised them. Recognised them for the truth.  And by the truth I mean something completely straightforward;  I mean I recognised they described what was so.

I saw I had failed to do something. Something very plain and simple, and that that was the source of my guilt and confusion and constraint.  At the very same moment I saw it, all the power, all the charge which the situation had had for me for over 25 years vanished as if it had never been.  What I was left with was the inimitable feeling of lightness, freedom and wholeness that always follows a “Landmark” breakthrough.

For, yes, it was a “Landmark” breakthrough. It was made possible by my doing the Landmark Forum in September last year, and by the fact I was having the conversation with another Landmark graduate, one particularly skilled in listening for what matters to others.

It was also a Landmark breakthrough in the sense it demonstrates four features I’ve observed are common to all such breakthroughs.

*****

1.  It’s simple

What you get in the breakthrough is always much much simpler than anything you might have conjectured previously.  What’s revealed is always crystal clear and almost laughably simple.

2.  Always the one act

Regardless of the situation, the breakthrough always involves the act of taking responsibility.  Nothing more, nothing less.

3.  Being “complete”

A breakthrough involves being “complete” about a situation.  Being complete simply means the situation no longer brings up any emotion or “charge.”  One can think and speak about the situation without any upset, pain, anger, shame, embarrassment or any other emotion. If you feel upset or sad about it, it’s not complete. 

4.  No regret

When one has the breakthrough, curiously, there is no sense of regret that it didn’t occur earlier.  For example, I’m not left today thinking, “Why couldn’t I have seen this earlier?  It would have saved a lot of pain.”  Instead, I feel only gratitude it occurred at last.

*****

Image: Beach at Barcelona by Luke Phillips

I recently finished reading Eric Weiner’s book The Geography of Bliss. The subtitle explains more: “One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.” Of course, the word ‘bliss’ caught my attention right away. His idea of traveling the world to discern what differences culture, religion, and expectations make intrigued me. After all, this NPR Correspondent would pay the plane fare and do the traveling for us!

He discovered geography does make a difference. Moldova and Qatar I couldn’t wait to get out of (those chapters, that is). Moldovans were, according to the World Database of Happiness, the unhappiest on the planet [yes, there really is such a database: Ruut Veenhoven in The Netherlands]. The people Weiner talked to in this former Soviet Republic claimed it was lack of money that made them unhappy. I couldn’t wait to get through reading that chapter, it brought me down so much. Money wasn’t the main factor at all: the Persian Gulf’s Qatar, where most are rich because their country sits on the world’s third largest reserve of natural gas, disproved that myth about money. Qataris, the author maintains, “possess a strange mix of arrogance and insecurity. What they crave, most of all, is validation.” Their position within the tribe matters more than money or education. Although tribes can be nurturing, it seemed in this “gilded sandbox” that in spite of all their money, Qataris were not happy.

Although I enjoyed being transported back to India (“where happiness and misery live side-by-side”), my favorite learnings were from Bhutan and Thailand. Weiner’s lesson from Thailand was mai pen lai which translates to “never mind.” This lighthearted “don’t worry be happy” encourages one to just let go rather than go insane holding on to an impossible situation. Bhutan’s culture of crazy wisdom, he says, made him lose his bearings “and when that happens a crack forms in your armor. A crack large enough, if you’re lucky, to let in a few shafts of light.” The author meets with a Buddhist Rinpoche who tells him we must be ready for the moment we “cease to exist.” Compassion is what really matters. After all, as the Rinpoche tells him, “You see, everything is a dream. Nothing is real. You will realize that one day.” Then the Rinpoche laughed and returned to his chanting. Weiner’s summary on Bhutan? “In America, few people are happy, but everyone talks about happiness constantly. In Bhutan, most people are happy, but no one talks about it.”

Back in 1973, Bhutan’s King Wangchuk created for his nation the concept of Gross National Happiness. A Bhutanese hotel owner described it this way: GNH means “knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough.” With Gross National Happiness the official policy of the government of Bhutan, “every decision . . . is viewed through this prism. Will this action we’re about to take increase or decrease the overall happiness of the people?” The U.S. has its Gross Domestic Product, the sum of all goods and services a nation produces. Weiner wisely perceives that our GDP measures oil spills, prison population, the sale of assault rifles and prescription drugs — all these contribute to The Count regardless of merit. He quotes Robert Kennedy as acknowledging that the GDP doesn’t take into account “the beauty of our poetry . . . ,” measuring everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”

This book makes you think — deeply. Weeks later, I apply it to my life:

* Paying a mortgage by myself makes me unhappy. But when T lived here and shared the bills (this woman I supposedly loved), I wasn’t happy.
* I tire of driving a half hour each way to the east side of town. Lately, I fantasize about moving. But would my small scale change of geography make me happy?
* “Making” is not a part of happiness. It has to do with allowing, letting in, openness. No matter where I live.
* My delivering Meals on Wheels gives me perspective and a chance to practice compassion. Applied compassion. Although some mornings I grumble about leaving my house to deliver those meals, “my people” always give back more. Something less tangible than a bag of food. Appreciation, sincerity, love.
* Sporadically, I suffer from exhaustion. I literally wear myself out. What a sad phrase that is! Do I forget that “doing” never trumps “being”? One of the main lessons of Landmark Education’s intensive workshop, The Landmark Forum, I learn this over and over again. I am still learning.

It seems that bliss can capture you anywhere: you only need to be awake enough to notice, still enough to be aware, and wise enough to follow it.

A repetitive finding in my research, from my dissertation about an advocacy organization’s volunteers to my current study of Millennial agency professionals, is that getting along with the people one works with or volunteers for is critical to one’s satisfaction with a work or volunteer experience.

I serve on the board of directors for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope, an entirely voluntary non-profit. We give life grants of $5,000 for young adults with life-threatening illnesses to engage in a project that makes a difference in people’s lives. With our annual event around the corner, we’ve been in high gear.

What has been fundamental at keeping us together is that we’re all Landmark Forum graduates. This means that we have all been through extensive training in how to relate to each other, how to communicate when we’re upset with each other, and how to resolve the conflict and move forward. It makes an enormous difference because instead of having things build up as people continue to upset us, we handle things and protect our professional relationships.

Being confrontational is no walk in the park, but it’s much easier with training on how to do it, and it’s much easier because we all have the same expectations about how to handle a situation when someone makes us upset, what the person who is upset should communicate, and how the person who upset the other should respond. We rarely upset each other, but when we do (which is bound to happen within two years of closely working together), we have strong training in sorting things out, and it makes a world of difference.

What do you think about organizations providing interpersonal training?

Resources

Landmark Forum
(life skills)

Vanto Group
(affiliated with Landmark education, provides interpersonal training for organizations)

Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(our organization’s information and a place to buy tickets to our event)

Facebook Event Page for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(a place to RSVP for our event)

Facebook Fan Page for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope
(please consider joining)

If you’ll be in the Southern California area, I hope you’ll join us for our event on Sept. 26 at 6:30 p.m.

Here is the pitch from our fan page and our invitation. Our theme this year is a night of magic and miracles:

Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of All Ages! It’s Spectacular…It’s Fantastic…It’s for Charity!

Join Cameron Siemers and guest hosts Courtney Cox and David Arquette for an evening of magic and miracles at the second annual fundraiser of the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope.

THE MAGIC
Be mystified and amazed by the wizardry of Magic Joe Reohm.

Thrill at the unforgettable spectacle that is the Zen Arts Performance Troupe.

Witness the wonder of Wisdom…Norton Wisdom and his luminous live paintings.

THE MIRACLES
Come face-to-face with pure inspiration when you hear from our Life Grant winners.

Look into the future with our founder Cameron Siemers as he reveals what’s next for the foundation.

Come one, come all for an evening of breathtaking performances, music, dancing, appetizers, a cash bar, raffle and silent auction. Contributions support young adults with life-threatening illnesses as they fulfill a dream, goal, or project that makes a difference in their lives and communities.

This week I deleted two posts.  One on Landmark Forum “Education” and another one on the Atlanta Mayoral Elections.  I did this for reasons that were personal and political.

Landmark Forum  posting was drawing readers from cultnews.com.  That’s ok, but I think my posting my opinions on Landmark took this blog away from the literary objective.  I still hold to them, that Landmark is possibly a dangerous mindtwisting institution, but it doesn’t loom large in my life.  Not at all.  It’s a particular issue with a friend and he will or will not extricate himself  from their hooks. I have other fish to fry.

As to my deleting the Mayoral post: well, the campaign has heated up and it’s really gotten nasty.  I say a pox on all their houses and I’m back to posting poems and stories and some social commentary.  So to those readers who were reading my blog on this event, go to Jim Galloway’s AJC blog where  he does it so much better.   He’s a nice guy, and I have spoke with him at length on these Atlanta issues, and he deserves the readership.

Atlanta politics is predictable and a big Yawn.

Lady Nyo

De multe ori am fost generoasa si cu cine nu merita si nu intelegeam de ce am facut acest lucru. Am aflat insa ca e foarte bine sa fii generos, sa imparti tot ce ai. Acesta este un dar de pret. Si daca il ai e bine sa-l folosesti.
Si-atunci cand te-ntrebi: eu cine sunt? Gasesti raspunsul usor.

www.fadp.ro

Several months ago I wrote about my experience with an assignment from my coach. The assignment was to ask for a dollar from 3 different strangers and then give the dollars that I collected to yet three more strangers. I completed the assignment successfully and learned that money is just energy that flows through our hands, much like the Reiki energy I channel for my clients during healings.

The exercise also reinforced something that I’ve noticed and wondered about. I often “get a feeling” about people or a situation… this has been happening for years, and possibly explains much of the success I experienced during my sales career. As I “worked” the play area at the mall (my “target group” for my project) I noticed that I would intuitively feel drawn to certain people. If I would just relax, feel and most importantly TRUST, I more often than not made a successful connection. The key is to not second guess one’s self, to stay out of the head.

In Western Society we place far too much emphasis and trust in “brain power.” We tend to lead with our heads, not our hearts or guts. Most of us are never still enough to even get past that voice in our heads. That is what meditation is all about. It is important to get past that voice. In case you haven’t noticed the voice is not always “nice.” I’ve heard the voice also called monkey mind, radio San Juan, and Auth Bertha. Your inner critic resides in your mind and masquerades as your friend through the voice, making it all the more insidious.

The popular Landmark Forum’s main objective is to still the voice. It does so through three long days of intense Socratic Questioning. It works – temporarily. More than anything it creates awareness; awareness that there is another way to “be”… awareness that the voice can be stilled.

But the Landmark Forum method is like giving a man a fish. Teaching meditation and supporting someone in establishing a meditation practice, on the other hand, is like teaching a man to fish. I do see value in powerful questioning; I am after all a coach. However for lasting change, meditation, I think is the preferred route to take.

The word meditation seems to conjure up all kinds of ideas and misconceptions for some people. Don’t be intimidated by it. All you are really doing is relaxing your mind and allowing yourself to escape your head and “be” in your body. There is no one “right” way of meditating and whenever I deal with a client who tells me they can’t meditate I find that person has “baggage” attached to the concept of meditation. I find myself waiting to hear their “rules” of meditation and with out fail a complicated list follows.

I am so grateful to my own meditation teacher for his patience and laid back attitude. His message and mine as well is this: You don’t need any elaborate preparation to meditate. Silence is not necessary or even desirable. With apologies to Nike for stealing their tag line… when it comes to meditating I say “Just do it!” and do it like the quality of your life depends upon it… because ultimately it does.

Briefly here are some of my favorite types of meditation:

Moving meditations – these include labyrinth walking as well as Qigong.

Sitting Meditations – to sit and follow one’s breath or heart beat

Chanting Mantra – to meditate while chanting or saying a mantra can be a very elevating experience.

For people who have friends, co-workers, or family members who have taken the Landmark Forum and who have not take the course itself, a common question one will ask is “Is Landmark a Cult”.

The short answer is no it’s not. (There are plenty of reports of organizations who investigate cults as their main purpose as an organization  who have not only said it wasn’t a cult but said how great of an education it was)

The vast majority of graduates have seen tangible results and those results get larger and larger over time.    There are some people who take the Forum get what they wanted to get out of it and then continue to see anymore results because all they wanted was what they came in for.  That’s just as valid and nothing wrong with that.  Then there are a minority of people who get some things, don’t fully “get it”, and either never get it.  If these graduates take the Advanced Course which is about creating a future as opposed to the Forum clearing out your past, then those graduates always get it during the Advanced Course.

Statistically that works out to 95% of graduates having it be incredibly effective for them in regards to what they wanted for themselves.

A Quick Comparison of General Results between Landmark and Cults

–

#1
- Landmark brings you closer to family and friends
- Cults isolate you from society and loved ones

–

#2
- Landmark doesn’t tell you to believe in anything, follow anything, practice anything, or how you should or shouldn’t live your life.  They come up with different frameworks to see things in different ways that give one some choice in        things they may have thought they had no choice about, allowing them to create breakthroughs in any areas their life that’s important to them in very short periods of time
- Cults have something they believe in, practice, or have a way of living their life.  Cults contain dogma or a system of how to live life.

–

#3
- Landmark employees are not allowed to own more than a certain % of the company.  This allows nobody to take full control of the organization and make it about them instead of the people who take their education
- Cults exploit the people who come to them to benefit some cause or individual

–

#4
- Landmark puts all profits after the meager salaries made by employees back into the company to grow it and allow it to be offered to more people.  They charge as little as possible and even give free and partial scholarships to people who can’t afford it.  If you took all courses through Landmark you wouldn’t be able to spend more than a few thousand annually.  Landmark could make much more in profit yet they choose not to so more people can afford it.  If you aren’t completely satisfied after day one of the Forum they give you a full refund.
- Cults often times try to take all your money or as much as they can possibly take from you

–

$5
- Landmark empowers you to live powerfully after taking the Forum or any other course they offer so you don’t have to keep coming back for more.  Once you do the Forum, that’s it.  You get what you are supposed to get and never need to come back to get the same thing over and over again.  They push you back into the world and tell you to not come back.  They “teach a man to fish”.
- Cults want you to become reliant on them for your satisfaction and make you addicted to them to validate your life.  Consider what Scientologists would do without their church and reading materials.  Consider what the Westboro Baptist Church would do without their church.  Consider what a cult with a leader would do if they didn’t have a leader anymore.

–

So if Landmark isn’t a cult, then what do you mean by the cult of Landmark Education?

Now there are some graduates who I have noticed (just my perception, not necessarily true) who start “believing” in Landmark and stay around Landmark as a way to give them meaning and validation in their lives.  They become “dogmatic” about Landmark and use it to feel they are somewhat more better or that their “beliefs in Landmark are the right beliefs and everyone else has the wrong beliefs” which in turn leads them to feeling negative about people who haven’t done the Landmark Forum and then hang around only with Landmark Graduates and “isolate themselves from people who haven’t done it, often times with loved ones and people they care about”.  They become “fanatics” yet nothing in their life shifts.  They base their whole life on an initial shift in their life and then use having gone through the Forum as a validation process for their future.  Essentially they fall into the trap of being stuck in their past.  When in reality they still have not many tangible results to speak of and expect their life to be just the way they want it and rationalize to themselves that it is.

Here’s reality:  Doing the Landmark Forum doesn’t take work.  But life out of the Landmark Forum begins AFTER taking the Forum.  It takes work, it takes effort, and while it is intrinsically instilled, there’s a clear distinction between having “gotten it” and then “living it having gotten it”.

If Nelson Mandela had a clear stand for the removal of  apartheid government and then decided to stop being a stand for it and instead of sourcing it consistently until he got the results just wrote about it, preached it, and nothing changed.  Well that’s the distinction.

Yes having the Forum and having the Advance Course under your belt are incredibly powerful.  Whether you use it in your life and develop those muscles is really up to you.  Sitting there and expecting things around you to shift is really fooling yourself  and having the experience keeps the validation into persistence.  Essentially one resists the fact that Transformation doesn’t create the results and instead won’t accept that having a Transformation allows results to come out of that.

The people who resist that and rationalize Landmark in this way is what I mean by the cult of Landmark as often times these people have less education, money, fruitful relationships, because they rationalize everything philosophically.

They turn Landmark into a philosophy or a way of living which then makes it inauthentic because it becomes a system.  As soon as it becomes a system or a method it undermines Landmark which doesn’t have a system or method.  It becomes just as fake as “power of positive thinking” or “the secret” or “being charming to get laid”.

I think it’s only natural at times, atleast it has been for me to become “dogmatic” and “isolating” about Landmark.  When that happens I’m literally being inauthentic about Landmark and what I’m doing undermines what Landmark is all about in the first place.  I know I am someone who naturally becomes passionate about things I love and when I’m not careful I turn my passion into dogmatism.  When I notice I’m doing that I call myself out on it as it’s very limiting upon myself, often times me being the last person who gets that.

The intention of this post is to clean up how I’ve been inauthentic about Landmark in the past.  Because sometimes I can come off as cultish about it, but that’s not Landmark that’s me.  Whenever anyone notices I’m doing that I invite you to call me out on that.  Through that, I stop becoming annoying to you and then by you calling me out on it, I don’t limit myself to a “system”.

So it Landmark a cult?

It’s as much of a cult as:

People who love Warren Buffett so much they nod their heads at everything they say, his company is certainly not a cult.
Famous researchers who become their research and anything different they take as an insult, the research in itself is just research and it is not a cult.
A Christian saying Christianity is the only way to find God.  Christianity in itself isn’t a cult and as a Jew I have found some wonderful insights from that religion.
Someone practicing Zen who believes that “clearing your mind” is the only way to being grounded, and living in NYC becomes hard and living in a monastery is the only way to be happy.  When that happens, Zen is a constraint.

So no Landmark isn’t a cult.  It can come off to people as being one, very true! It has.  There’s a difference between “being a stand for someone else” and “pressuring someone to do something”.  When someone whose never done the work stops feeling empowered around a graduate and instead feels they have no space and are pressured then the experience becomes uncomfortable and cult-like.  Even me as a graduate, I experience that from time to time and I’ll let the other person to simply knock it off.

So that’s the difference.  Landmark Education is in my mind a wonderful program and out of the thousands of programs that are offered around the world that give people a personal transformation in their lives and create breakthrough results, Landmark has a track record of it happening in the fastest amount of time.  That’s what’s so.  It works for everyone, that’s what so.  When it doesn’t work, they did it their own way.  That’s what’s so.  Everyone’s experience is different but share the same results of getting what they wanted out of it, that’s what so.

Whether one rationalizes their transformation or lives it is up to the individual.

Just because I have eyes doesn’t mean I have to open them.  I could simply keep them closed and write a novel about eyesight, what it is, and how it works.

–The views and opinions expressed here are mine solely and not the views of Landmark Education.  In no way are any of my remarks necessarily true or a representation of the company.  If anyone would like to question a legal issue in the context of Libel,  Malice towards Landmark Education, or anything else, please contact Eric Schleien, my cell phone number is in the company’s database.

I received this comment from Rose, a friend of some duration and a fine writer.  Rose has helped me through some difficult times when I didn’t know top from bottom, and if it wasn’t for her advice, I would have prolonged a difficult and pointless situation.  Rose has appeared here before on the discussion of D/s.

Because I find what she writes to be of ultimate sense, I post it here on the blog face instead of the comments section.  I was especially taken with the part of “sowing seeds of doubt as to your own ability to decide your path, etc”  as I have been rather touchy about this of late.  When we don’t listen to ourselves and collect the lessons from our own experience, we will fall prey to fakers and others whose dominance might overcome our own common sense and experience.

Snakeoil salesmen come in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Oh, and those volunteers for Landmark?  They are just that: volunteers.  Who gets the 88 million dollars last year?  This sounds like a pyramid scheme to me financially, but the worst part of it is that they  create machines out of human beings.  Think of wind up toys.  And please look at the website at the end:

:  http://www.skepdic.com/landmark.html

Thank you, Rose.

Lady Nyo

Hi, Jane,

I don’t usually leave comments here, but that doesn’t mean I don’t read your blog.  This entry interested me, because I, also, am extremely wary of anyone who implies they have all *the answers* and all I have to do, to get those answers, is “change the way I think,” (and, oh, yeah, by the way, fork over five hundred bucks).  Of course, one thing I’ve always noticed about these groups (or individuals) is they tend to be of the opinion that that their way to think is *better* than your way to think.  They sound very polite and very knowledgeable, and oh, so enthusiastic, but what they’re really doing is sowing the seed of self-doubt regarding your own ability to think for yourself and discover your own path through trial and error, and experiential learning, and then, for just the low, low price equivalent to a mortgage or rent payment, they’re going to teach you to see all the possibilities surrounding the discovery of the secret of life, success, inner peace, and the path to enlightenment.  Who’d of guessed it would be that easy?

Do snake oil salesmen ever really go away?

I decided to visit the Landmark site, just for the hell of it, as I am wont to do things just for the hell of it… oh alright, more accurately I do these things because I’m the kind of person who just loves collecting data and analyzing people and events, for myself.  I was curious enough to want to read what they have to say.  I always read this kind of stuff with a skeptical eye.  Living as long as I have, and learning everything I’ve learned, to date, I do tend to say, “Yeah, yeah, promises, promises,” and I long ago learned to heed the advice, “If it sounds too good to true, it probably is.”

It surely is a nice, crisp, clean, professional-looking site, and I’m not saying that a lot of what I read there didn’t *sound* good   Sure it does.  Who *doesn’t* want to make his or her own life better?  And who doesn’t want to make it better in just three days, instead of taking years to experience all life has to offer and make all those little personal landmark discoveries in a long series of ‘ah-ha moments?(Well, I’ll take, “Rose,” for two thousand, Alex.)  I love all those ‘ah-ha’ moments and I love that each one is earned by my own efforts, because no one can *make* you have an “ah-ha” moment; your mind/spirit has to do it all on its own.  News flash, people: You can’t *buy* enlightenment.

Anyway, I really didn’t have to read too far in the curriculum to come across the one statement that, in my opinion, totally shoots their credibility all to hell:  “The power to choose is uniquely human.”

That arrogant assertion, a false one, as scientific research now proves (do your own research, guys…I’m not about to cite all the PBS documentaries I’ve watched, or all the papers I’ve read on the subject), immediately told me that they are full of shit and worth neither the time nor the effort on finding out more about them.  My own personal experience with other species has proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the power to choose is *not* uniquely human, so by making a statement, such as that one, they most assuredly, in my opinion, cast doubt on everything else they say.  By making this statement, however, they *do* appeal to the human ego, especially the frail human ego of those who long to be acknowledged as being “special,” people who crave belonging to some mystique-enshrouded inner circle.

Oh, these people, and people just like them, have most assuredly done their homework in gleaning as much information as possible about how to manipulate others.  You can be sure that they’ve studied human psychology and the elements of persuasion, to a considerable degree. And you can be more than sure that they devoted a lot of time and effort into ascertaining just how much people are willing to gamble on the idea of a “quick fix” for all that they perceive is wrong with their lives.  Of course, there are no guarantees.  They very carefully word everything around “possibilities.”

Well, yeah, no matter what you do or how you learn, if you make even a minimal effort towards accomplishing anything, there are always possibilities.  There are myriad avenues for creating possibilities and fulfilling goals that aren’t going to cost you money…only time and effort.  Start by looking in the mirror without a veil of “if onlies” between you and your reflection, and acknowledging that while you’re not perfect (look at your shortcomings with an honest, critical eye, and then look at your strengths and do exactly the same thing), you can certainly aspire to excellence.  Start by reading and researching.  Start by reaching out and communicating with people.  Start by doing just one good thing for someone else and you’ll find that for every good thing you do for someone else, no matter how it turns out, you’ll have learned something and by learning something you’ll have done a good thing for yourself, as well.  I’m giving you that advice, right here, right now, *for free,*
because I’m not trying to make a fortune telling people I have all the answers and I’ll give them to you, but first you have to pay me.

Because, make no mistake, they are in this primarily for the money.  The profit motive rules.  The power motive comes in a really close second.  They love all that power to manipulate and getting the big bucks to do so is the gravy.

So, in addition to these folks not being worth the time or effort, except inasmuch as you get to learn something about yourself, and them, and possibly end up wiser (though poorer), they cannot possibly be worth the money.  Geez, Louise…did you see their price list?  Well, they do say a fool and his money are soon parted.  It isn’t just the five hundred bucks for the one course…each of the courses cost about the same or more, and, of course, you’ll be encouraged to take it to the next level if you  don’t feel you’ve been been enlightened quite enough in the introductory one.  And, of course, once you’re “filled with the spirit” — Amen, brothers and sisters! –just as any new convert to some litany of hocus-pocus, you’ll be encouraged to spread the word and bring more potential converts into the fold.  At $500.00 a pop, anyone with even half a brain can see the profit potential here.  Of course, by the time you’ve finished buying into their hooey, the half of your brain responsible
for being able to reason that out will be mush.  They do say that bullshit baffles brains.

Let’s face it…if they were truly interested in making people’s lives better, why wouldn’t they just use the local non-profit community center, or other community resources, such as a library or a school, for a small nominal fee, and impart their knowledge, for way less money, to smaller groups of people, in say, weekly sessions, with that more personal one-on-one feeling?  Why is it essential to spread the Landmark gospel in a “hotel conference room or one of our meeting facilities in major metropolitan areas” in a “casual environment with 75 – 250 people?”  (Doesn’t sound very casual to me.)  That’s an easy one (besides the $500/head and making sure you don’t give people time to go home and cogitate on a weekly  workshop or seminar); the herd instinct.

There is more of a desire to conform, in a large group, to follow the lead of the “leaders,” and to think in terms of “I don’t necessarily agree with [insert doubted statement here], but no one else seems to doubt it, so maybe I’m wrong.”  In a large group, even the individual who thinks for himself or herself tends to not want to make waves, and to not want to impede the flow of the group activity.  In other words, a large group of people, ostensibly all seeking the same goals, tends to discourage shit disturbers, whereas in a much smaller forum (say, 20 – 25 people, or even fewer), the individual is encouraged to question, and much back and forth discussion ensues.  In a large group, no matter the superficial civility, the mob mentality kicks in.  It’s no different from a religious revival meeting, or “the wave” at a baseball game.

Of course, I’m not making any pronouncement, one way or another, on whether or not they are cultist, since I have no direct experience with them.

What I am saying, as a skeptic and pragmatist, is “Hold onto your wallets, guys, and don’t let anyone use your gray matter as Play-Doh.’”

Note:  *After* I visited the Landmark site and *after* I composed this commentary, I visted this site:  http://www.skepdic.com/landmark.html
Seems I’m not the only skeptic.

Rose

A little bit more and I’ll try to bury this dead horse:

I said somewhere  what I was reading about Landmark was more of the making people self-absorbed, self-centered, etc..through the isssue of ’self-actualization’.

Reading some on Landmark practice, I came across this from a writer in Bangkok.

“Three things bothered me about this presentation (I walked out as organisers were preparing to register guests).
First was the presentation “style”. There was a lot of effort to be emotional, to put out a lot of energy, and some of the techniques used were clearly manipulative. There was no opportunity for questions to be asked.
Second were the testimonials. In each case, the description of behaviour prior to the programme and what life changes had been made afterwards sounded strikingly like someone who had gone through psychotherapy. As a matter of fact, the programme is considered “large group psychotherapy” in the various studies that have been done on it in professional literature. Yet, as far as I can determine, none of the trainers are trained psychologists, psychotherapists, or psychiatrists.
The third thing that bothered me was the part about the tearing down of who you are, giving you a blank slate to create a new you. I’ve heard this before too, in studying Communist re-education systems under Lenin, Stalin and Mao. This sounds suspiciously like the process used by the Soviets in preparing confessions for their show trials or the first stage of the brainwashing process.
It’s a very powerful place to take someone, but also a very dangerous place to take someone. As a training professional, I think that the risk of taking participants to that place requires significant safeguards – safeguards that I do not believe are in place  with this programme.”

(End Quote)

Perhaps it’s the times: we have the luxury to jump from one philosophy to another, to navel-gaze endlessly, to ‘prepare to start our lives’ (even in our 70’s, 80’s…) and I do wonder at the stickwithitness of all these programs.

And I wonder about these ‘breakthroughs’.  Just how much are they really ‘ah-ha’ moments?   Are they possibly  a collapse of our brains with the overload of 3 day, 12 hour sessions where you can’t go pee at will, where there are so many restrictions on what you can do (the issue of taking meds, the control of time and you get one lunch break….that would put diabetics in a sling..) well, these issues are ways to  make infants of adults…one way to make the behaviors more malleable to  someone.

I am not impressed with the ‘mindspeak’ of my friend.  He keeps using the same words but I don’t see the progress….nor do I see any real understanding or practice.  He’s had 22 months of this and one would think there would be more ‘differences’…….but I am afraid that these things are like rabbit holes….or the ‘refining’ of the ‘ah-ha’ moment makes real movement impossible….and not applicable.

Something isn’t working.  Are these people attending Landmark Forums really that stoppered up in life? Or are they just convinced they are by Landmark? And who sez that our individual experiences don’t have a truth, a beauty, regardless how scattered, different, chugging along, uneven, maddening, unreliable…..they express all the individuality of the human race.

Why are we attempting to march in lockstep?

Lady Nyo

I like blog posts that do an admirable job of explaining or demystifying the Landmark Forum. Even those of us who’ve done quite a few Landmark Education programs sometimes have some difficulty explaining what it is and how it works, which can lead people to think there’s something mysterious about it. In fact, the Landmark Forum isn’t mysterious, just different. Notes Towards Supreme Fiction has an excellent post explaining the ideas, much of which I’ve attached below.

Notes towards extreme fiction

Landmark Education is often accused of being too aggressive in their marketing techniques and being something of a `cult’. A `cult’ would offer you a trick or a technique which allows you to avoid responsibility and encourage self deception. A cult would encourage blind ` followers’. However, my experiences were different. Landmark Education, on the other hand is EDUCATION. One has to learn a set of skills which enable us to untangle issues of life and demands a sense of responsibility and integrity. It teaches you how to confront your relationship issues, deepest fears and provide you with a philosophical vision which would empower you to take create your future which is not based on your past.

Read a variety of more specific points at the link given above!

This latest post really captures what the Landmark Forum and Landmark Education are really all about – that life is too short to waste on resentments and regrets, and underneath everything we just love people. This blog talks about a man reconnecting with his father after an estrangement – I found it deeply moving. An excerpt is below, including a letter the man sent to his father; read the whole thing here.

My note to my Dad after seeing him for the 1st time in 13 years

If you didn’t catch it, a few months ago I attended the landmark forum which is a seminar that empowers you in so many different ways but made me realize that I wanted a relationship with my Dad that I hadn’t seen in 13 years and he had never met my two boys (ages 9 and 11). Well, we went up there this past weekend and it was awesome. I have simply created a whole new life by taking action and making it happen and am so happy I did. This morning I wrote him a note about our experiences. Some people may wonder why would I share such an intimate moment on the Internet? Well, because I know my situation is not unique. I know some eyes that may read this are the eyes of someone who also hasn’t made the move to have a relationship with a family member that they wish were in their lives. We all have justifications on why we don’t have a relationship, we can all get buyin from people we talk to on why NOT to have a relationship with someone, but, those are the things that go on and then those people die and then we have lost that chance. I hope these words encourage you to make that move you have been neglecting as I did for 13 years. Namaste!

Go to the above link and read the letter he then wrote his father.

Puttaswamy – or Putta. This was what he preferred to be called. A bright smile on his face and ever twinkling eyes. Contrary to his name, he stood tall with 6 ft and bulky frame. Who would have thought this person had a legacy behind him that he wanted to forget?

Putta, hails from Mandya. Younger out of 2 sons, he has been the black sheep in his family – in fact the entire village. While elder brother is a software engineer settled in London, our putta stayed back in his village to do business. And business he did, one after the other to count 40. And all 40 failed.

It went to the extent where villagers would shoo him off any gatherings, no relative would invite him for any family ceremonies. He was looked down upon. Last year when his 40th business failed, he wanted to commit suicide. That’s when his brother recommended Landmark Forum to him.

Day 3 of the forum, I told him (ofcourse, in kannada. I have written the translated version here) “Putta, One day, you will be so very successful in your business that you will come back into this very forum and share your success story with fellow landmark graduates. Mark my words.
Don’t give up and success will automatically be yours!!!”

The look he gave me was full of gratitude. There was no need for any words. He had tears floating in his eyes. All he could do was merely nod his head.

Putta, All the very best to you too. Phenomenal that without understanding one word english, you understood the landmark forum 100%. I realized that this day, you started your journey towards success!!!

Puttaswamy – or Putta. This was what he preferred to be called. A bright smile on his face and ever twinkling eyes. Contrary to his name, he stood tall with 6 ft and bulky frame. Who would have thought this person had a legacy behind him that he wanted to forget?

Putta, hails from Mandya. Younger out of 2 sons, he has been the black sheep in his family – in fact the entire village. While elder brother is a software engineer settled in London, our putta stayed back in his village to do business. And business he did, one after the other to count 40. And all 40 failed.

It went to the extent where villagers would shoo him off any gatherings, no relative would invite him for any family ceremonies. He was looked down upon. Last year when his 40th business failed, he wanted to commit suicide. That’s when his brother recommended Landmark Forum to him.

Day 3 of the forum, I told him (ofcourse, in kannada. I have written the translated version here) “Putta, One day, you will be so very successful in your business that you will come back into this very forum and share your success story with fellow landmark graduates. Mark my words.
Don’t give up and success will automatically be yours!!!”

The look he gave me was full of gratitude. There was no need for any words. He had tears floating in his eyes. All he could do was merely nod his head.

Putta, All the very best to you too. Phenomenal that without understanding one word english, you understood the landmark forum 100%. I realized that this day, you started your journey towards success!!!

Yes, this was the title of a blog by one of the fellow bloggers. And I picked this on purpose.

3 weeks ago, when I attended The Landmark Forum, along with 320 other people. This was a life enriching experience, which I truly cannot explain in words. I want to share 2 specific stories that individuals shared during this forum. I will post them separately.

1. Dr. Rajalakshmi – Or Raji, the way she likes to be called.

Day 1 – when I met Raji, I saw this hep person wearing cool top and jeans, well combed hair, excellently maintained figure. String of achievements to talk about – Successful Gynaec, written & published cookery books, opening her own Nutrition Boutique for ladies very soon, extremely successful, beautiful and she seemed to have it all – enviable career, daughter, family everything. She came across as a super human being – able to juggle work/life, yoga/dance/hobbies/reading all into one day. (I thought – “wow… amazing that she can actually do so much in the same 24 hours she too has… I am sure there is something going on in her personal life, which is why she must be here”)

Day – 2 – I came to know she is struggling to come to terms with her 11 years old divorce. Her daughter is a child prodigy when she started driving a 4WD at the age of 4. She did her maiden rally from Hyderabad to Bangalore at that age. Today she has joined Bangalore Medical College to study medicine. (I thought again, “Now I know why she is in the Landmark Forum. Just like I thought yesterday, this should be the dark side of her personal life, which she wants to complete”)

Day – 3 – Raji came on stage to share her story. She was orphaned at the age of 3.5 months. She grew up at an orphanage that was not allowing girls to go to school. One day, the caretaker caned her so much that her skin peeled off and stuck to the cane. She walked over to where the cane was lying, picked up the piece of skin, stuck it back to her arm and determined “I am going to school and will be successful one day”. From that day onwards, she worked as a house maid to earn her living and take herself through school and college. She won 18 gold medals and went on to study medicine and become a gynaec. (I thought “Do I really know this person well enough to judge her life?”)

But fate had something else in store for her. 2 years back she was diagnosed with Cancer.

My impression of Raji changed drastically from a super woman – to – an achiever, a fighter and simply a WOMAN in 3 days time.

So, despite having the name of Rajalakshmi, she went through sheer poverty and misery to where she stands TALL today. And that too with equal elan. Hats off to you, Doctor. May you be all the more successful in your life. I am sure with the positive attitude that you already have, cancer can be easily defeated. Wish you all the very best!!!

I am committing to live everyday as an Extraordinary Powerful person, and all that it means:

Being/Living fully in Integrity: Honor your word. This means doing what you said you would do, by when you said you would do it. And when you don’t, clean it up. Making promises and keeping them.

Being racket-free: Give up being right, even when you are right.

Being powerful: Be straight in your communication, and take what you get.

Being courageous: Acknowledge your fears and then act anyway.

Being peaceful: Give up the interpretation of “there is something wrong here”. Accept that there is “nothing wrong”, there just Is.

Being charismatic: Give up “in order to” and trying to get somewhere or something “later”. Live and Be in the Here and Now.

Being enrolling: Share your new possibilities in such a way that others are touched, moved or inspired.

Being unreasonable: Do not the “reasons why not” get in the way of your possibilities. Be unreasonable and unstoppable in what you can be, do or have for your life.

–from aspects of the Landmark Forum

Admittedly, as the primary voice of the CCC, I’ve been a little absent in my posts here lately, due in part to my busy work schedule, but also because I’ve been transforming my design studio and the nature of the work that I do in the Sacramento region. If you don’t already know, I’ve recently partnered with a talented young woman by the name of Barb Hennelly and created a new business. Barb’s the voice and visionary behind Kidaround Magazine, a local publication geared towards modern moms and she’s a living breathing example of what I’m all about. Find a market and fill it, and she’s done so very well. After many conversations, Barb and I discovered that there was a void in the local creative marketplace for incubatory design firms and we felt that we had an obligation to fill that void and change the way Sacramento uses creativity and design to reshape the lifestyle experience in the capital city.

So we started Romp Creative, “a playground for ideas & business” which is a full service design studio and creative incubator. We wanted to use Romp as a way to help catalyze business development and creative events around the Sacramento region. We believe that Sacramento is ripe with opportunity for innovation and cultural advancement rooted in sound design thinking and entrepreneurial passion. So we’ve been actively promoting this manifesto at events like our Designer Pint Nights, the UDA design dialogues and Pecha Kucha night. It became quickly apparent that we weren’t the only ones thinking this way. Local organizations like the American Institue of Architecture, the Urban Design Alliance, Valley Vision, Midtown Business Association, The Urban Hive, Capsity Offices, the Landmark Forum, Pecha Kucha and several others have been working on collaborative spaces, community centered design, public art projects, leadership training and design competitions just to name a few. A few key individuals like myself have been working diligently to launch new events like these, and business projects that seek to redefine the landscape of Sacramento’s urban core and its surrounding areas with a more far reaching sense of possibility.

The one theme that seemed to keep surfacing in all these happenings was imagination. If we can imagine a brighter, more active and vibrant Sacramento, we can make it a reality. It recent months, i’ve had literally dozens of conversations about the future of Sacramento and how creativity plays such a vital role in shaping it’s outcome. I’ve met local architects, designers, entrepreneurs and students that are desperately trying to build a ground swell of energy and enthusiasm around their ideas so that we might all reap the  benefits of this more lively metropolis.

In our own attempt in at radical change at the street level, The Capital Creative Collective held the first ever live design battle at the MARRS building in May with both great success and support. We’re currently planning our next one and several other events that we hope will have a huge impact on the future of Sacramento. In addition to that, we’re redesigning the CCC’s primary website and blog for more indepth experience. I’ll also be speaking at several events over the next few months, with many of my peers and elaborating on my vision for Sacramento in the years to come. I’ve also recently joined a marketing committee for SARTA’s Medstart program to launch a new event series for them, hoping to foster more growth in the medical startup sector. The CCC is also partnering with several local design institutions to further promote our program and theirs. It’s all part of our efforts to build relationships and ignite the creative process in our community.

The Capital Creative Collective has been a way to take all these organizations, individuals and ideas and gather them in one place to provide a single marketplace for collaboration and connectivity for Sacramento and beyond. It is my belief that the goal of the CCC is to gather all the great thinkers of Sacramento and put them into one concise resource that allows us to discover, interact and get involved with them, in new and innovative ways that push Sacramento further into the future and with greater success in each and every instance. Much like Architeture for Humanity, we believe good design is a basic human right. Do you?

One of the reasons I think that the Landmark Forum sometimes seems mysterious is that those of us who have taken Landmark Education courses do a poor job of explaining what actually happens during the programmes. We’re pretty good at explaining what we saw in the course and what we got out of it, but as for what is literally talked about in the course? Making a record of this isn’t the first thing on our minds, and often we don’t explain it well.

I recently read a blog by a man named Scott who was making a diary or record of what actually got covered on each day of the Landmark Forum. While it isn’t exactly how I would describe it, I think this post usefully demystifies the programmes. Here are some parts of what he says about the first day of the Landmark Forum. Scott, thank you for bringing this to my attention!

Landmark Forum: Conclusion of the first day

So, here is some more stuff that takes place on day one. In addition to learning how we currently listen to people, we also learn to separate what actually happened from what we think happened. Using the terms learned in the forum, separate the facts from the story. Believe it or not, this has helped me greatly in dealing with my anxiety. I would read something bad into everything that was said. I would worry about loosing my job, etc, etc. based on what I read into things. Now I take the words for what they actually say, without trying to put a different meaning to them. Now, it could mean that I would loose my job, but then again, I if I were to loose my job it would have happened whether I read to much into it or not; this way I do not go around worrying about it every moment of every day, and I would deal with it if it happens.

Go to the site above and read the rest.

The possibility I am inventing for myself and my life is the possibility of being extraordinary, fully alive with love, passion, energy, joy and generosity of spirit and in partnership with my family and community, causing transformation and possibilities for rural families all over Latin America.

La posibilidad que estoy inventando para mi misma y mi vida es la posibilidad de ser extraordinaria, viviendo plenamente con amor, pasión, energía, alegría, y generosidad de espíritu, y junto con mi familia y comunidad, causar transformación para familias rurales en todo Latinoamérica.

I quote this latest post with a caveat: it sounds almost too good to be true. The blogger is so excited and so enthusiastic that this Landmark Forum review almost comes across like a testimonial. But I think many people leave the Landmark Forum reconnected to their own natural enthusiasm, so I’ll forgive a little enthusiasm here .

This blogger is writing on the website transformation.com, which was founded by Bill Phillips, who wrote the best selling Body for Life book about his fitness regimen. This blogger has apparently been following this programme, which leads me to another point: people who are really up to something in their life, making goals and plans and actively working towards them, tend to really love the Landmark Forum.

I get it

I get that I’ve been walking around all my life creating a story in my head that is not true about how I am and how everyone else feels!!!

[there's much more of this post here on the transformation website.]

I thought this post that I just read was very interesting – it involves a man’s experience of taking the Landmark Forum programme and telling the truth about some things he had never previously told the truth about. I think sometimes there is a misconception that the Landmark Forum is about making deep confessions to other people. I think what happens is the Landmark Forum is that people get very clear where they have been telling the truth in their lives and where they haven’t. Sometimes, when people see that they’ve been lying or hiding things for a long period of time, the truth comes rushing out of their mouth in the course, as they see that what they’ve been hiding/lying about has been controlling them.

I think that was the experience of this person as they took the Landmark Forum, and a perfect example of the old expression “The truth will set you free”! Go to the fishing for the soul website and read it!