Completed the Landmark Forum last weekend. It had been a long time coming. Friends have encouraged me to do the Forum for almost 5 years. Despite a lot of pressure, I really wasn’t ready until I was ready.
At long last, and in a state of fairly intense emotional distress (or was it, as our Forum Leader identified it, self-generated drama?) due to divorce grief and raging fibromyalgia symptoms, I limped in and tearfully took my seat. Here are some thoughts on the experience…
For starters, it is a little hard to imagine that “transformation” is going to take place in a dingy corporate room with seats in rows and fluorescent lighting over the course of 3 13 hour days and an evening. The setting is especially humorous in contrast with the myriad wellness, retreat centers, and yoga studios the majority of personal growth courses I have taken have occurred. No statues of the Buddha or Kuan Yin, no prayer flags or sage green walls, no Nag Champa burning, no Trees of Life or pentacles, no yoga pants. Instead, a herd of folks dressed in business casual hover in the back of the room to “assist” in passing out name tags, manning the door, and writing copious notes while our brusque and dry-witted Forum Leader and coach, Jeff presided.
I won’t go into the content of the Forum. There are some highly valuable tools and perspectives offered that truly free up the mind and heart to live more peacefully, joyfully, to “create new possibilities.” If the proof is indeed in the proverbial pudding, I feel as a trained researcher that I can safely say that my participation in the Forum resulted in my walking out of there on Sunday night in far better shape than the condition in which I entered. I genuinely and heartily recommend checking it out. I am considering doing the Advanced Forum in the near future.
Another benefit of having completed the Forum is that it gives me a common paradigm and "language" with which to communicate with the many other Landmark grads in the community. While I don't know if I am gonna walk around saying "got it" every time somebody explains something (I personally found it a little patronizing) but I do like the phrase "get complete", as awkward as it is, to explain a process of truly resolving an issue and leaving it in the past in our relationships. I dig rackets and strong suits, too. Really fascinating, insightful material that you can return to over and over again to work through stuff.
However, that said, a number of things turned me off.
1. For starters, their infamous business model. No money spent on marketing. Just precious HOURS devoted to pressuring participants into inviting their loved ones to come do the forum Yuck! Disliked being pressured by my friends to do it in the past. LOATHED being pressured to invite others in the context of the Forum itself.
2. I don’t know what their programs look like when they teach them in Non-Western countries, but from my perspective, the underlying set of assumptions the whole model is predicated upon is classist and a monument to white privilege.
Consider as an example of this, the point in the Forum where the Facilitator/Coach is running around the room in circles demonstrating the futility of getting a college education, a meaningless corporate job, and getting married because it’s the “next thing to do” or because one is concerned about how one “looks”. Not the reality of MOST people.
Consider also the relatively high cost of participating. While it is a low price from the perspective of the number of dollars per hour for the quality of the material, it is no trifling matter for most people around the world to come up with the kind of cash Landmark costs.
3. My time and energy are precious to me and I have already spent WAY too much time in my life sitting in uncomfortable chairs under migraine-inducing fluorescent lights. Not really how I want to spend my weekends.
I really appreciate the “freedom to create new possibilities” that Landmark has offered me and I prefer to spend my money, time and energy in transformative processes that are holistic in approach, include embodiment practices, and operate within liberatory frameworks. Starting Holistic Peer Counseling System training next. Which, as India Turner, teacher facilitator of this work is the "yin" to Landmark's "yang". Check out the website here: http://www.holisticpeercounseling.org/
Feel free to share. I know I am treading on some beloved and sacred ground to many Landmark fans, here. My apologies in advance if this was in any way offensive. That was not my intent.
Very well summed-up, Carrie. You echo my sentiments on the program exactly (and I've spent a *lot* of time under those same lights). To address a couple points: I do know that Landmark scales its tuition to the country where the program is offered. I'm not sure how localized the material is, but I seem to remember that the programs are hugely popular in India, and conversely much less so in western Europe (where there is high sensitivity to anything "cult" related). I'm glad you got some benefits and useful concepts out of the weekend (aside from how Landmark uses it, I like the concept of "enrollment" quite a bit, too). And don't for a second feel pressured to invite anyone. Pressure "exists only in language" and isn't real, anyway, and I don't think anyone needs to feed into that very uncomfortable marketing "model."
ReplyDeleteA very well-written comment, Caroline. I enjoyed reading it:) And I also second "writingchick's" comment: LM does tailor its presentation to go hand in and with the "cultural conversation" present in the room. That said, it does, to me, have a hierarchical and dualistic flavoring (which shouldn't be a problem, as it is accepted around the world). In my opinion, LM is cutting-edge old-school, still captivated by the notion of "right and wrong, better and worse," coached as "Which do you prefer, to live an ordinary, or an extraordinary life?"
ReplyDeleteI would say, all life is extraordinary, worthy of utmost celebration, acknowledgment, and of our highest regard. And that includes each and everyone of as, as we are and as we are not.
These observations notwithstanding, I recommend the program because the tools are magnificent.