10 fun ways to social hack an awareness training from the inside out

The Program is a novel by author Gregg Hurwitz. Although it's fiction, The Program provides some great insight into abusive groups and destructive movements, as well as ways to social hack a Large Group Awareness Training.

In this case, social hack is used to refer to a method to literally disrupt and ideally completely destabilize the Large Group Awareness Training, from the inside out.

10 key ways to social hack a Large Group Awareness Training:

1) Act authoritatively. Destructive groups and abusive movements often model their staff and train their leadership after the one influential leader and founder of the group. They will not expect you yourself to also act in this manner. They often act authoritarian and totalitarian, as this is how these staff members are taught, to emulate and act like their leader and founder.

2) Bring a mental health professional as part of your social hacking group. Ideally this would be someone with a PhD in psychology or an M.D. with a specialty in psychiatry. This person would educate and brief the members of the social hacking team about tactics and methods of the group, and the dangers of getting in too deep into its thought patterns.

3) Bring an ex-member of the group in question. This ex-member should be someone intimately aware of the ways the group functions, and yet out for enough time to have fully gone through a period of cognitive dissonance and awakened back to a pattern to appropriately interact with society again.

4) Bring law enforcement or someone familiar with the law. This person will help brief the rest of the members of the social hacking team on their rights should staff from the destructive group or abusive movement falsely make claims about their actions during the seminar. This person would also be quite useful to conduct research into the possible criminal activities of the group and its founder and leader. This person should instruct all members of the social hacking team on ways to have fun disrupting and destabilizing the Large Group Awareness Training seminar, without doing anything illegal.

5) Don't follow group mentality. Refuse to stand when everyone else stands. Don't clap when everyone else claps. This will help you maintain your sense of self and independence throughout the attempts by the abusive group or destructive movement at influence and manipulation. If you are asked to explain yourself by a staff member of the abusive group, sample language from the book includes: "From what I've seen, I'm not sure if I like The Program yet. If I decide that I don't like what's going on here, I'm leaving. Thank you for having me here today." (Obviously replace "The Program" with the name of whatever destructive group or abusive movement's seminar you are attending.)

6) Politely interrupt the seminar with inquisitive questions. Make sure to be polite about this. Again, maintain a positive and happy attitude when doing this. Most likely other members of the seminar in the room full of 200 or so people will echo some of your concerns.

7) Assertively affirm your positive outlook on life. Wording suggested in the book by the fictional psychologist, character Dr. Glen Bederman is: "My Program is: I participate in activities that give me self-esteem, and I have the courage to decline to participate in those activities that do not." This frames your reason for attending in a positive way that simultaneously retains your own sense of self, independence, assertiveness, and self worth. It also signals to potential shills, dupes, and marks in the audience that they can similarly adopt your positive yet independent attitude and modus operandi while being in the seminar.

8) Maintain a positive and happy attitude. You are there to have a fun time. Act like it. Potential shills and suckers and marks will respond positively to you if you question the methods and tactics of the abusive group or destructive movement, while at the same time showing you are a happy and fulfilled person.

9) Bring a digital thermometer. Destructive groups and abusive movements will sometimes wildly alter the ambient temperature in the room where the seminar is conducted, in order to put attendees off balance. If you notice this pattern, politely but loudly question the staff on this, in front of the rest of the seminar participants so they can all hear your concerns.

10) Ask the staff loudly and politely if they are licensed to practice hypnosis. In the book, the fictional psychologist Dr. Glen Bederman asks: "Are you licensed to administer hypnosis in the state of California?" When the abusive group's leader "TD" responds: "We're not practicing hypnosis here. We're simply meditating.", Dr. Bederman loudly points out in earshot of the entire seminar: "Guided meditation is a form of hypnosis. Everyone in this room should know that."

But wait, there's more: There are plenty other helpful pointers to social hack a Large Group Awareness Training in this section of the book, and it's all there on pages 323-337.

Other educational takeaways from the book:

pages 256-263: Exit counseling with psychologist Dr. Glen Bederman; this fictional character created by the author Gregg Hurwitz is likely an amalgam of non-fiction psychologists and psychiatrists who have studied victims of abusive groups and destructive movements.

pages 270-272: The investigator meets with postal inspector Owen B. Rutherford; the author Gregg Hurwitz in the book's Acknowledgements section credits postal inspector Mike McCarthy for his research in this area. What's most interesting about this part of the book is the postal inspector character's statements about the crime of tampering with U.S. mail. The section of the book deals with an abusive group and destructive movement that takes away mail from its members that live on its controlled compound, a crime which is: "Most obviously a Title 18, Section 1708 -- theft or receipt of stolen mail matter, generally. But between theft, obstruction, and destruction, we could have over two hundred federal, criminal, and civil statutes."

Says the character postal inspector Owen B. Rutherford: "Do you know what a thirty-seven-cent stamp buys you? ... Not just delivery service. Oh, no. The thirty-seven cents buys you a fiduciary relationship with the United States Postal Service. We are custodians of private property. Namely: the mail. That private property belongs to the sender until it comes into the hands of the intended recipient. These jelly-spined bliss ninnies can't grant the right for their leader to destroy incoming mail before it comes into their actual possession -- it isn't their mail to relinquish. First-class mail must be delivered, forwarded, returned to sender, or sent to the mail-recovery center. Any other act is a violation of the rights of the sender. A violation further of the sanctity of the mail and -- make no mistake -- it is as such a felony in its own right."

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This is all from The Program a novel by author Gregg Hurwitz. Check it out!

Top five questions to ask at Large Group Awareness Training

Top five questions to ask at Large Group Awareness Training:

5. Are you willing to engage in conversation with me that may question the group and its leaders?

4.  Is the volunteer to paid employee ratio of your group greater than 2:1 ?

3. Does your group have its own unique words, cliches, slogans, chants, prayers and doctrinal phrases that reinforce the group viewpoint?

2.  Are doubts viewed as a lack of faith, dedication, commitment or disloyalty?

1. Does your group use frequent public testimonials, confessions, or sharings that reinforce the group’s mission or agenda?

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More questions and resources:

Cult Help and Information: "Questions for Cult Recruiters".

Periodically.org: "How to Know If You Are in a Greed Group".

John D. Goldhammer: "Self Quiz - Are you 'under the influence' of a destructive group or belief system?".

Letting the LGAT out of the Bag

Letting the LGAT out of the Bag - This December 16, 2004 post from blogger gus van horn may be a few years old, but it is still left me touched, moved and inspired.

Skeptik is wise.

Skeptik is wise.

Even the guy’s username is wise. It is healthy to be a skeptik - it is wise to question and probe and educate oneself about these controversial types of Large Group Awareness Training organizations and companies.

Skeptik is wise.

What are the criteria of a ‘cult’ ?

What are the criteria of a ‘cult‘ ?

A relatively new YouTube user, bradbavarde, compares a description from Webster’s Dictionary to his opinion of certain characteristics of a Large Group Awareness Training organization. Take a moment to watch this video about bradbavarde’s commentary on these criteria, and decide for yourself:

Here are some additional resources discussing ‘cult’ criteria:

What is a Destructive Cult? - FACTnet

Criteria for Determining If a Group is a Destructive Cult - Cult Awareness and Information Center

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s Criteria for Thought Reform - ex-cult Resource Center

Defining a Cult - The Ross Institute Internet Archive for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements

Cults 101: Checklist of Cult Characteristics - International Cultic Studies Association

What are the Characteristics of a Religious Cult? - The Prem Rawat Talk Forum

And once again, a more humorous but also disturbing take on how to start a “Mind Control Cult”:

As always, you are encouraged to watch the above videos, read the information provided at the links, research more and educate yourselves - and decide for yourself.

Concerns raised around the blogosphere

Here are some posts you may find enlightening, I know I did.

(Click on the bolded dates for the posts)

Iron Raptor looks like he’s at least using the Internet to do some preliminary research which is a very good thing. Take a look at this post from August 30, 2008.

Skeptik is wise, this post is from August 10, 2008.

Lady Nyo posts in this August 10, 2008 piece how she is “losing friends to a particular cult” and my heart goes out to her.

Though this blog is called Rambling Content, the concerns raised don’t seem rambling at all. Check out this post from August 8, 2008.

Cult News always has great stuff, very well researched, here is a disturbing piece from August 5, 2008.

Marmalade has some interesting points to consider here in this post about New Age from July 21, 2008.

The Macho Response has lots of good stuff as usual, here is a gem from July 17, 2008.

This July 4, 2008 post from the Complicity blog has lots and lots of valuable links and resources.

Controversial development training cited in religious discrimination lawsuits

Friday, May 23, 2008

A controversial development training course called "Landmark Forum" is cited in religious discrimination lawsuits in United States federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based for-profit training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training "est", and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor. The sperm bank and surrogacy company Los Angeles-based Growing Generations is named as a defendant in the New York lawsuit, and the Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats is a defendant in the Washington, D.C. case.

In separate lawsuits filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, New York, and in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C., former employees are suing their employers for monetary damages and claiming religious discrimination after their employers allegedly mandated that they attend courses at Landmark Education.

In the US$3 million federal lawsuit filed in New York, Scott Glasgow is suing his former employer Growing Generations and its CEO Stuart Miller. Growing Generations maintains sperm banks and also arranges surrogacy for gay couples who wish to have children. The company has offices in New York and Los Angeles, and has done business with celebrities including actor B. D. Wong of Law & Order: SVU.

Glasgow was marketing director of Growing Generations, and claims he was fired in June 2007 after refusing to continue attending Landmark Education seminars. Glasgow is also suing for sexual harassment, and claims Miller came on to him in September 2006. He made approximately $100,000 per year as the company's marketing director, and was the company's only employee based out of New York City. The company's main offices are in Los Angeles.

"I was shocked when I was fired. It took me months to right myself. I want them to stop imposing Landmark on the employees, and I want an apology," said Glasgow in a statement in The Village Voice. Brent Pelton, one of Glasgow's attorneys, stated that: "The Landmark philosophy is deeply ingrained in the culture of the company". Glasgow said that the Landmark Education training courses were "opposite" to his Christian beliefs. According to Glasgow he was questioned by Miller in May 2007 after he walked out of a Landmark Education course, and was fired shortly thereafter. "We stand by the allegations contained in the complaint and we look forward to proving them at trial," said Pelton in a statement to ABC News.

Ian Wallace, an attorney who represents Growing Generations, claimed that Glasgow wasn't fired but walked away from his position. "Growing Generations and Mr. Miller are very confident that these claims will be dismissed ultimately, and there's no factual basis for them whatsoever," said Wallace in a statement to The Village Voice. Lawyers representing Growing Generations and Stuart Miller declined comment to The New York Post, and did not immediately return a message from ABC News.

In Glasgow's complaint, entered into federal court record on April 18, he asserts that Landmark Education constitutes a "religion", and "perceived their philosophy as a form of religion that contradicted his own personal beliefs". He states that when he was promoted to Director of Marketing, he asked Miller if he could stop attending the Landmark sessions but was told that they were mandatory for all of the company's executives and that Landmark is "very much the language of the company." Glasgow said his performance at the company was assessed based on how he was "touching, moving and inspiring" others, a phrase from the Landmark philosophy, as opposed to his business accomplishments at the company. The complaint claims that the actions of Miller and Growing Generations violated Federal, New York State and New York City civil rights laws.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. deals with a separate plaintiff and company, but the plaintiff in the suit also claims that religious discrimination took place for allegedly being mandated to attend Landmark Education courses. Kenneth Goldman is suing the United States Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats (also 21st Century Democrats) and its former executive director Kelly Young. Goldman was formerly the communications director of 21st Century Democrats.

According to Goldman's complaint, three employees of 21st Century Democrats were fired after refusing to attend the Landmark Forum course. The complaint asserts that Landmark Education has "religious characteristics and theological implications" which influenced the mission of 21st Century Democrats and the way the organization conducted business. Goldman's complaint states that in addition to himself, a training director and field director were also fired after they made it clear they would not attend the Landmark Forum.

Goldman says executive director Young infused Landmark Education jargon terms into staff meetings such as "create possibilities", "create a new context", and "enroll in possibilities". He also claims that Young "urged" staff members to participate in Landmark Education events outside of the workplace, drove employees to and from Landmark functions, and used funds from 21st Century Democrats to pay for employees to attend those functions. Goldman's complaint asserts that he was discriminated against in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act.

In a statement in The Washington Times, the executive director of 21st Century Democrats, Mark Lotwis, called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said: "we're going to defend our organization's integrity". Landmark Education spokeswoman Deborah Beroset said that the Landmark Forum "is in no way religious in nature and any claim to the contrary is simply absurd," and stated: "While we are not a party to this lawsuit and have no firsthand knowledge of it, we can only assume that we are being used as a legal and political football to further the plaintiff"s own financial interests."

The New York lawsuit was filed April 14, and is still in early filing stages. A conference with the federal court judge in the case has been scheduled for June 17. The Washington, D.C. suit began in November 2007, and entered mediation this past March. As of April 15 the parties in the case were due back to court on July 11 to update the court on the mediation process.

Landmark Education is descended from Erhard Seminars Training, also called "est", which was founded by Werner Erhard. est began in 1971, and Erhard's company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum" in 1985. Associates of Erhard bought the license to his "technology" and incorporated Landmark Education in California in 1991.

This is not the first time employees have sued claiming mandatory attendance at "Forum" workshops violated their civil rights. In a lawsuit filed in December 1988 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, eight employees of DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur, Georgia sued their employer claiming their religious freedom and civil rights were violated when they were allegedly coerced into attending "Forum" training sessions. "Many of these training programs, particularly at large corporations, claim to be purely psychological, aimed at improving productivity and morale and loyalty. But in fact they are religious," said University of Denver religious studies professor Carl Raschke in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

The DeKalb Farmers Market employees were represented by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union. Consulting Technologies Inc., an affiliate of Transformational Technologies Inc., was named as a party in the lawsuit. Transformational Technologies was founded by Werner Erhard, and was not named as a party in the suit. The "Forum" course that the employees claimed they were mandated to attend was developed by Werner Erhard and Associates. Employees said that they were fired or pressured to quit after they objected to the Forum courses.

The workers claimed that the Forum course contradicted with their religious beliefs. The plaintiffs in the suit included adherents of varying religious backgrounds, including Christianity and Hinduism. "The sessions put people into a hibernating state. They ask for total loyalty. It's like brainwashing," said Dong Shik Kim, one of the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiffs said they lost their jobs after objecting to a "new age quasi-religious cult" which they said was developed by Werner Erhard.

The DeKalb Farmers Market denied the allegations, and an attorney for the company Edward D. Buckley III told The Wall Street Journal that employees were encouraged, not coerced, to attend the training sessions. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Forum said it would not sanction workers being coerced to attend its training sessions.

The parties in the DeKalb Farmers Market religious discrimination case came to a settlement in May 1989, and the case was dismissed with prejudice in June. The terms of the out-of-court settlement were not made public, but the employees' attorney Amy Totenberg told The Wall Street Journal that the case "has made employers come to grips with the legitimate boundaries of employee training".

According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers must "reasonably accommodate" their employees' religious beliefs unless this creates "undue hardship". In September 1988, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a policy-guidance notice which stated that New Age courses should be handled under Title VII of the Act. According to the Commission, employers must provide "reasonable accommodation" if an employee challenges a training course, unless this causes "undue hardship" for the company.

In October 2006, Landmark Education took legal action against Google, YouTube, the Internet Archive and a website owner in Queensland, Australia in attempts to remove criticism of its products from the Internet. The company sought a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to discover the identity of an anonymous critic who uploaded a 2004 French documentary of the Landmark Forum to the Internet. "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous" (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) was produced by Pièces à Conviction, a French investigative journalism news program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the anonymous critic and the Internet Archive, and Landmark withdrew its subpoena in November 2006 in exchange for a promise from the anonymous critic not to repost the video.

Landmark Education itself has come under scrutiny for its controversial labor practices. The company has been investigated by the United States Department of Labor in separate investigations originating out of California, Colorado, and Texas. Investigations focused on the heavy reliance of unpaid labor in the company's workforce, which Landmark Education calls "assistants" and deems volunteers.

An investigation by the U.S. Dept. Labor based out of Colorado found that activities performed by Landmark Education's "assistants" include: "office, clerical, telephone solicitation and enrollment, as well as greeting customers, setting up chairs, handling microphones during the seminars and making coffee. Additionally, a number of volunteers actually teach the courses and provide testimonials during and after the courses." The Colorado investigation's 1996 report found that "No records are kept of any hours worked by any employees." According to a 1998 article in Metro Silicon Valley: "In the end the Department of Labor dropped the issue, leaving Landmark trumpeting about its volunteers' choice in the matter." Metro Silicon Valley reported that Landmark Education at the time employed 451 paid staff, and also utilized the services of 7,500 volunteers.

After an investigation into Landmark Education's labor practices by the U.S. Dept. Labor's offices out of California, the company was deemed to have overtime violations. According to the Department of Labor's 2004 report on the investigation, back wages of $187,569.01 were found due to 45 employees. An investigation by the U.S. Dept. Labor in Texas which concluded in 2005 stated: "Minimum wage violation found. Volunteers (Assistants) are not paid any wages for hours worked while performing the major duties of the firm. The assistants set up rooms, call registrants, collect fees, keep stats of classroom data/participants, file, they also are answering phones, training and leading seminars."

The Texas investigation also discovered an overtime violation. Landmark Education agreed to pay back wages for the overtime violation, but did not comply with the overtime violation found by the U.S. Dept. Labor for the "assistants". Landmark Education denied that the "assistants" are employees, though the Department of Labor report concluded: "Interviews reveal that the employees are taking payments, registering clients, billing, training, recruiting, setting up locations, cleaning, and other duties that would have to be performed by staff if the assistants did not perform them."

According to the 2004 investigative report by Pièces à Conviction in the "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous" program, Landmark Education was investigated by the French government in 1995. In the "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous" program volunteers were filmed through a hidden camera and shown performing duties for Landmark Education in France including manning phones, recruitment and financial work for the company, and one volunteer was shown cleaning a toilet.

Le Nouvel Observateur reported that after "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous" aired in France, labor inspectors investigated Landmark Education's use of unpaid volunteers. According to Le Nouvel Observateur, one month after the labor investigation took place the French branch of the company had disbanded. A former "Introduction Leader" to the Landmark Forum, Lars Bergwik, has recently posted a series of videos to YouTube critical of the company and its practices. Bergwik appeared on a 2004 investigative journalism program on Sweden's Channel 4, Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts). According to Bergwik, after the Kalla Fakta program on Landmark Education aired, "Landmark left Sweden".

Related news

• "Australian Defence Department funds controversial development training". Wikinews, April 3, 2008

Sources

• "Lawsuit Claims Sex Harassment, Cultish Behavior". ABC News, May 23, 2008
• "Sperm bank employee claims harassment". United Press International, May 22, 2008
• Kati Cornell "Bondage Boss Is A Bad Seed: Suit". New York Post, May 22, 2008
• Graham Rayman "Suit Against Sperm-Bank Firm Claims Sexual Harassment and Cult-Like Behavior". Village Voice, May 20, 2008
• Lars Bergwik "Landmark Education Lars Bergwik part 1". YouTube, May 6, 2008
• Jim McElhatton "Democratic PAC faces lawsuit for employee 'religious events'". The Washington Times, November 27, 2007
• David Wachtel (attorney for plaintiff) "Kenneth Goldman v. Twenty-First Century Democrats". United States District Court for the District of Columbia, November 19, 2007
• Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Dept. Labor (Texas) "Compliance Action Report - Landmark Education". United States Department of Labor, June 26, 2007
• Marie Lemonnier "With the gurus wearing neckties: 395 euros for three days". Le Nouvel Observateur, May 19, 2005
• Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Dept. Labor (California) "Narrative Report (FLSA) - Landmark Education". United States Department of Labor, December 8, 2004
• Traci Hukill "The est of Friends: Werner Erhard's protégés and siblings carry the torch for a '90s incarnation of the '70s 'training' that some of us just didn't get". Metro Silicon Valley, July 9, 1998
• Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Dept. Labor (Colorado) "Compliance Action Report - Landmark Education". United States Department of Labor, May 4, 1996
• Margaret Singer "Intruding into the Workplace". Cults in Our Midst, 1995
• "'New Age' Training Suit Against Market Settled Out of Court". The Wall Street Journal, May 31, 1989
• George White (Los Angeles Times) "Employees strike back against 'human potential seminars'". Times Union, March 25, 1989
• Martha Brannigan "Employers' 'New Age' Training Programs Lead to Lawsuits Over Workers' Rights". The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1989
• Martha Brannigan "Training Course Sparks U.S. Suit By Market Workers". The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 1988

Credit: Wikinews
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Australian Defence Department funds controversial development training

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Australia's Department of Defence spent thousands of dollars on controversial development seminars, Australian media reported Wednesday. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training "est", and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor.

Australia's Defence Minister Warren Snowdon said that the government is in the process of reviewing Defence Department expenditures on career development. "We're in the process now of doing an audit, completely unrelated with anything to do with Landmark, which is being undertaken into learning and development to make sure that they meet our needs. ... We have to be very sure that the courses that people do undertake are relevant, appropriate and indeed in line with what community expectations might be," said Snowdon in an appearance on ABC Radio.

The Australian and Australia's ABC News reported that Landmark Education had been listed in France as a "possible cult" in the mid 1990s. When asked about this on ABC Radio, a spokeswoman for the company in the United States, Deborah Beroset, responded: "What happened in France was that a commission established by the French parliament issued a report in which they listed almost 200 organisations as being possible cults ... We were never contacted. We were inappropriately included in that list".

In a program which aired Wednesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program AM reported that Australia's Defence Department spent at least AUD12,270 of taxpayer funds to send government employees to Landmark Education courses. According to AM, the Defence Department said it does not appear that further funds have been sent to Landmark Education since 2004.

In a statement released by the Defence Department, the government stated: "A search of Defence records does not indicate exactly how many individuals attended courses with this training provider, however it is believed it was a small number of individuals. ... Defence has been unable to determine individual reasons for why groups within Defence choose this training provider."

AM also reported that the use of unpaid labor by Landmark Education "has attracted the attention of the US and French governments," and that some individuals in the mental health field have accused the company of brainwashing. When asked about the allegations by mental health experts that Landmark Education's techniques amounted to brainwashing, Deborah Beroset responded: "Well, there is absolutely no credence to that whatsoever."

In a March 9 article in the Herald Sun, Peter Rolfe reported that taxpayer money was used to send at least 37 police and government staff from Victoria, Australia to seminars run by Landmark Education. Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron said that "Decisions on the appropriateness of staff attending courses by Landmark Education are made by individual managers who remain best-placed to assess the development needs of their staff," but State Liberal MP Murray Thompson told the Herald Sun that the funds should have been put towards fighting crime. Apple Inc., Reebok and Mercedes-Benz have sent employees to Landmark Education seminars, according to a spokeswoman for Landmark.

In October 2006, Landmark Education took legal action against Google, YouTube, the Internet Archive and a website owner in Queensland, Australia in attempts to remove criticism of its products from the Internet. The company sought a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to discover the identity of an anonymous critic who uploaded a 2004 French documentary of the Landmark Forum to the Internet. "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous" (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) was produced by Pièces à Conviction, a French investigative journalism news program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the anonymous critic and the Internet Archive, and Landmark withdrew its subpoena in November 2006 in exchange for a promise from the anonymous critic not to repost the video.

Landmark Education is descended from Erhard Seminars Training, also called "est", which was founded by Werner Erhard. est began in 1971, and Erhard's company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum" in 1985. Associates of Erhard bought the license to his "technology" and incorporated Landmark Education in California in 1991.

Sources

• "Defence sends staff on 'cult' courses: The Department of Defence has spent thousands of dollars on professional development courses run by an organisation listed in France as a possible cult". The Australian, April 2, 2008
• Daniel Hoare "Defence Dept under fire over professional development spending". AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• "Defence workers trained by 'cult': The Defence Department has admitted some of its personnel have undertaken professional development courses run by an organisation that had been listed as a possible cult". ABC News (Australia), April 2, 2008
• "Defence Dept under fire over professional development courses (AM)". AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• "Govt doing audit of Defence Dept professional development courses (AM)". AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• Peter Rolfe "We pay for seminars: Taxpayers are picking up the bill to send police officers and bureaucrats on a controversial personal enlightenment course". Herald Sun, March 9, 2008
• K.C. Jones "Landmark Drops Copyright Infringement Subpoenas On Google And Anonymous Critic: Landmark sought a subpoena to find out who posted hidden camera footage from an event held by the French branch of the organization". InformationWeek, December 1, 2006
• "Landmark and the Internet Archive". Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 29, 2006
• Traci Hukill "The est of Friends: Werner Erhard's protégés and siblings carry the torch for a '90s incarnation of the '70s 'training' that some of us just didn't get". Metro Silicon Valley, July 9, 1998

Credit: Wikinews
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Large Group Awareness Training in popular culture

Large Group Awareness Training has been depicted in fiction and popular culture virtually since the phenomenon began. Some fictional works take a humorous tack - poking fun at or spoofing various forms of large group awareness training. However, other representations of large group awareness training in fiction take a more sinister route, and compare the methodology to dangerous cults and destructive sects.

Below is a list of some of the more obvious examples of spoofs or mentions of various forms of large group awareness training in fictional works.

See also a similar list, at List of Bests - Large Group Awareness Training in fiction.

1977
Semi-Tough - A film starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, and Jill Clayburgh. In the film, all three characters end up attending a self-improvement seminar called Bismark Earthwalk Action Training, or B.E.A.T., led by charismatic leader Friedrich Bismark. Friedrich Bismark is played by Bert Convy. The film was based on the novel Semi-Tough, by Dan Jenkins. There are thinly veiled references to Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training / EST throughout the movie. Friedrich Bismark enters the self-improvement seminar initially shouting: "Assholes. Assholes! You're all assholes every one of you. Your lives don't work!" At one time Werner Erhard owned a Mercedes-Benz with the license plate: "SO WUT", and in the film, Friedrich Bismark has a limosine with a license plate that reads: "BEAT IT."

1979
Mork and Mindy - Episode 18, Season 1, titled: "Mork goes Erk." In this episode, the characters are encouraged by a friend to join ERK, a self-help program called Ellsworth Revitalization Konditioning. This is most likely a parody of Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training / EST. David Letterman played the character Ellsworth, the leader of Ellsworth Revitalization Konditioning. Robert Goldman analyzed ERK and compared it with EST, in his article
Hegemony and Managed Critique in Prime-Time Television: A Critical Reading of "Mork and Mindy" that appeared in Theory and Society, 11 (May 1982): pp.363-388, Part 4. Goldman wrote: "Like est, ERK also endorses submission to the "humiliation and abuse" of the authoritarian leader as a legitimate therapeutic device for solving personal problems. Ellsworth is depicted as greedy, manipulative, hypocritical, and callous, whereas his followers are shown as indiscriminant consumers passively seeking commodified panaceas for their personal troubles. The episode carries a moment of middle-class moral indignation as it lays bare the deceitful and authoritarian features of this con-man's approach to problem-solving."

1980
Howard the Duck - In magazine #4 in March 1980, the character "Werner Blowhard" is introduced, along with other members of the organization B.E.S.T., which stands for "Bozoes Eagerly Serving Tyrants." This is most likely a spoof on Werner Erhard, and the other members of B.E.S.T. were most probably parodies of charismatic leaders of other controversial groups of the time period.

1983
Circle of Power - also known as Brainwash, Mystique, and The Naked Weekend, this film directed by Bobby Roth was based on the true story of a participant in Leadership Dynamics/Mind Dynamics, described in the book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled, written by Gene Church and Conrad D. Carnes.

1990
The Spirit of '76 - In this film, a group of Americans from the future decide to time-travel back to 1776 and visit the period. However, they accidentally travel back in time to the year 1976. The time travellers still think they are in 1776, and decide to study the time period. A character named Heinz-57 played by Geoff Hoyle gets trapped in an encounter seminar called "Be, Inc. Seminars", that is most likely a spoof of Erhard Seminars Training / EST. Rob Reiner plays the leader of the encounter seminar attended by Heinz-57, a character named "Doctor Cash." Dr. Cash referes to Heinz-57 as "Heinz Asshole."

1996
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk, a graduate of "The Forum", today known as The Landmark Forum, is the author of the novel Fight Club upon which the 1999 movie was based. (Grigoriadis, Vanessa. "Pay Money, Be Happy: For thousands of new yorkers, happiness is a $375, three-day self-help Seminar. Welcome to EST: The Next Generation", New York Magazine, July 9, 2001.) In his review of the film Fight Club, Roger Ebert compared the character Tyler Durden to Werner Erhard, writing: "He's a bully--Werner Erhard plus S & M, a leather club operator without the decor." (Ebert, Roger. "Review, Fight Club)", Chicago Sun-Times, October 15, 1999.)

1999
Death du jour - a novel by Kathy D. Reichs - in the novel a description of the methods used in large group awareness training is given, on page 311. A destructive cult used large group awareness training methods to lure participants into their group, then kept them beholden to the group through coercive methods.

2001
Pressure Points - a novel by Larry Brooks, describes the experiences of three senior executives that must spend a week-long retreat at "The Seminar", in an isolated location in Northern California. The novel takes the reader through the first 60 hours of "The Seminar", until the story takes a turn involving suicide and sex games. The Seminar is at referred to in the book as both a business seminars, and a "middle-class cult", page 129. On page 77, a character in the book states that the programs developed by William Penn Patrick, Alexander Everett and Werner Erhard had common origins.

2002
Six Feet Under - Episode 3 of season 2, "The Plan", first aired on HBO March 17, 2002. This episode is most likely a parody of The Landmark Forum, a course delivered by the for-profit, privately owned company Landmark Education. Actress Alice Krige plays the part of the controlling seminar leader, who teaches Ruth, Robbie and the other students of "The Plan" a new jargon using metaphors involved with building a house. The seminar leader singles out Ruth and berates her for "tiptoeing around her own house like she's afraid of waking someone up." The seminar leader encourages participants to use their time during the break from the course to go out to the waiting banks of phones, call their relatives, and tell them how they want to "rennovate their homes" together.

2004
The Program - by Gregg Hurwitz, this novel is part of a series involving U.S. Marshal Tim Rackley. In this work, Rackley investigates a dangerous cult that uses a mixture of large group awareness training methods and love bombing and isolation of new members from their friends, to lure members into the group. The cult members are then kept in check through violence, by loyalists to a totalitarian cult leader. Incidentally, a quote is given from Werner Erhard, prior to the opening of the book's prologue. Large Group Awareness Training is explained to character Tim Rackley by a psychologist he consults, on page 176.

2006
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law - In the episode "Mufti Trouble," which aired October 2, 2006, the character Mentok the Mindtaker remarks to Harvey Birdman that he had once been an EST instructor, stating: "I was also a sex worker, a cossack, and an Est instructor for a summer in Marin."

Werner Erhard and his attorneys

Werner Erhard and his attorneys

A few past attorneys for Werner Erhard, and some key facts :

Harry Margolis
Set up structural system behind Erhard Seminars Training, was involved in setting up Werner Erhard and Associates (see Erhard v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1991)
Later, his tax evasion circular money movement schemes were referred to as "Margolis Schemes."
See court exhibits of the strange circular money movements or Margolis Schemes, applied to Werner Erhard personal money and businesses / tax shelters. Quoting Judge O'Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals in the case Werner H. Erhard v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1994/1995 : "We are invited to follow the winding paths of circular money movements to determine whether they lead to transactions of economic substance for federal income tax purposes."

Art Schreiber
Was personal attorney for Werner Erhard, (see Erhard v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 1991)
Werner Erhard and Associates - President and Registered Agent, (see Articles of Incorporation.)
According to Federal Election Commission, contributed to Werner Erhard's brother Nathan Rosenberg's unsuccessful campaign for Congress.
Landmark Education - General Counsel and Chairman of the Board of Directors, (see 2006, Landmark Labor Violation Investigations, Texas.)

Martin Leaf
Was personal attorney for Werner Erhard in suit against IRS, (see IRS settles lawsuit brought by Werner Erhard.)
1988 - According to Federal Election Commission, contributed to Werner Erhard's brother Nathan Rosenberg's unsuccessful campaign for Congress.
Sent letter on behalf of Landmark Education as their attorney, to American Family Foundation, AFF, precursor to the International Cultic Studies Foundation, ICSA. (see letter, April 10, 1997.)
Represented Landmark Education in lawsuit against the Cult Awareness Network. (see Landmark Education Settles Lawsuit with Cult Awareness Network.)

Walter Maksym
Was personal attorney for Werner Erhard, represented Werner Erhard in lawsuit against 20 defendants, including CBS News, 60 Minutes. (see Est Founder sues critics; suit names Mercury News writer.)
Under company, Breakthru Publishing or Walter Maksym Publishing involved in publishing book, 60 Minutes and the Assasination of Werner Erhard.
Executive Producer of Werner Erhard "infomercial" - Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard. (see IMDB, and The John Marshall Law School Briefcase, Fall 2006, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Page 8.)

See also prior post, Eagle Island Films and the Werner Erhard "documentary".

Scribd public domain documents on Werner Erhard and Landmark Forum

There is this great new Web site called Scribd, and it has some Public Domain documents related to Werner Erhard, Erhard Seminars Training, EST, Landmark Forum, Landmark Education. Most interesting are the Werner Erhard Tax cases from the United States Tax Court that he appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States!

The relevant pages on Scribd :

Scribd index page of related documents

Scribd page on Erhard Seminars Training litigation

Scribd page on Landmark Education Labor Violations Investigations

Scribd page on Landmark Education litigation

Some more informative sites on related topics :

Landmark Education index page, The Rick A. Ross Institute

Landmark Forum descriptive article, The Skeptic's Dictionary

The est of Friends, Metroactive Features

Archived updates on Landmark Education, Cult News

Why did Landmark Education leave France?, Cult News

Landmark Education sues Elle Magazine, Meme Central

Landmark Education background, analysis, Apologetics Index

Landmark Education / Landmark Forum / est in the News, Cults on Campus

EST, The Forum, Landmark Education, Cult Awareness and Information Centre

Landmark Education and the Internet Archive, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Rick Ross on Dogma Free America

Rick Ross, of Cult News and The Rick A. Ross Institue for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements was interviewed on the online podcast show, Dogma Free America.

Topics discussed include Large Group Awareness Training, as well as other types of controversial groups and methodologies.

The show was "Episode 11 - Dogma Free America",
and was entitled: Destructive Religious Cults.

False Gurus and LGAT Teachers

Many thanks to the Guruphilliac blog for their short article on this blog, and for linking to us.

I think there is a pretty significant overlap between the ideas used in Large Group Awareness Training and the methods used by the many false gurus who are out to exploit people.

Today, many people are making a move to spirituality, as opposed to religion, and this has spawned a rapidly growing industry where a guru or teacher is willing to lead pupils to the promised land – but at a price.

Many of these gurus use mind control methods as described by Robert Jay Lifton to gain the confidence of prospective devotees. One that would immediately come to mind is that of Mystical Manipulation. Get that one right and it is amazing how many people becoming instantly willing to hand over their power to someone else.

And funny, isn’t it, how often someone else finds the answers in a divine revelation? Just like Werner Erhard, aka Jack Rosenberg, after he walked out on his wife and kids, and then suddenly – BOOM! – while driving into San Francisco it all came to him in a divine revelation and the Est Training (which was then reinvented and became Landmark Education) was born.

So, how much came to him from this great revelation and how much had to do with his self training as described in The Skeptic’s Dictionary? Indeed, did part of Erhard’s revelation include studying all the influences described in the Skeptic’s Dictionary article?

Erhard’s story is simply an example of many similar stories out there.

Apart from Guruphilliac’s excellent blog, another source for finding out more about gurus is the website Guru Ratings. Also, James Randi has made a career out of exposing people’s false claims.

There is a great video featuring Randi on Xenu TV called The Power of Belief. It is an ABC News special. It shows, among other things, how people can be tricked by someone claiming psychic powers. The amazing thing is that even when the hoax was shown, people still wanted to believe in the false guru!

And if you thought Uri Geller was the only one who could bend spoons and read minds, you're wrong. Randi did it too!

As a word of warning about the high ideals and dreams false gurus sell, I want to share the following quote with you (not that the works of false gurus extend to this degree, but the potential for serious damage is there):

"When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn that the cause of the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all of this sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!

Don't give up your education, your hopes and ambitions, to follow a rainbow."

-- Jenne Mills, former member of the People's Temple and subsequent victim of assassination a year following the November 18, 1978 Jonestown suicide/murders of 911 adults and children.

Are LGATs like Con Artists?

This post will examine the similarities between helpful information posted at the advocacy website FraudAid: First Aid for Fraud Victims, and a description of common Large Group Awareness Training tactics, as outlined in Dr. Philip Cushman's 1993 book, The Politics of Transformation, also another excerpt from the work here at Mass Marathon Trainings.

Aggressive recruiting tactics
"As a result, participants and leaders may unconsciously distort their feelings and responses when reporting to researchers about the group or recruiting for future groups. This might result in a deceptive "oversell" that could undermine informed consent and lead to unrealistic regressive expectations in new recruits, the specific type of problems that have been found to lead to psychological casualties. Since these liabilities are so similar to the techniques used in some mass marathon training's, they may also cause psychological damage in that setting as well." - Dr. Cushman

"On the other hand, sometimes a con will merely play the game on someone who may not have a lot of money himself but who has relationships with others who do. In that case, you will not be aware that you have been duped. Or you may be made aware at a later date and threatened with repercussions if you do not continue to bring in money. " - FraudAid

Obsessive compulsive manipulation
"Participants are instructed and guided to move directly to the seat nearest to the front I the room. They are not allowed to save seats, move the chairs around, or take a seat at the back or on the side. After everyone is seated the unused seats are quietly "whisked away-" One subject noticed this and thought this was done in order to hide the number of no-shows. Participants are instructed to be seated before the music stops, or they will be considered late and will not be allowed to continue the training. Then there is silence until the trainer strides quickly and purposefully onto the center of the stage and takes the microphone. The staff applauds loudly." - Dr. Cushman

"In most instances, the middleman stars in the first two scenes. Once you have been carefully manipulated into a state of confidence and excitement, the middleman introduces you to the insideman. In today's world of financial scams, the insideman - the person running the show - is often the one who directly approaches you. If that's the case, then there is always the concept of someone higher up. This higher-up person is frequently a myth, created in order to apply pressure on you once money has changed hands. He is created to provide the con artist with an alibi, allowing the him the appearance of being at the mercy of a higher authority and therefore in the same fix as you, and therefore making him appear to be your friend. Regardless of whether you are approached by a middleman or the insideman himself, the con artist will always present himself to you as one who has to respond to a higher authority, in whatever form will pose the greatest threat." - FraudAid

Intimidation and legal threats
"This is where terror tactics are used. This is the step where the swindler will use every sort of threat imaginable to induce your deepest fears in order to prevent you from contacting the authorities for as long as possible, or maybe never. The swindler will threaten you with anything from total loss of all funds, convincing you that you have involved yourself in some sort of questionable activity, or threaten you with maiming or death. The swindler will use stall tactics by telling you that funds are tied up in a bank audit, or that transfers are frozen during bank mergers, or that the SEC is investigating the investment fund and no money can be disbursed until the investigation is finished... The results are always the same - it gives the swindler time to wrap up his scam and make a clean get-away, and/or it gives him time to clean out other victims he has on the hook before making his getaway." - FraudAid

Certain Large Group Awareness Training organizations have historically developed policies which involve the use of copious legal threats and indimidation as a form of inducing a chilling effect amongst their would-be critics. In fact, certain LGAT organizations have actually initiated litigation in their history against virtually every single media/press organization and individual who has publicly criticized these groups. This is not the standard of practice amongst reputable for-profit companies. Most companies will simply spend money on advertising campaigns - illustrating the postive nature of their organizations as a way to counter negative criticism in the press. However, most LGAT's do not operate in this manner, and instead of attempting to advertise and reinforce positive ideas, they will often go after critics in an attempt to silence negative ideas and destroy their enemies financial resources and their reputations.

Attorneys Peter L. Skolnik & Michael A. Norwick elaborate on this type of legal methodology:

"This type of lawsuit -- typically accusing the defendant of defamation and related torts -- is known in various American jurisdictions as a SLAPP suit: i.e., a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation; a lawsuit brought not for its merits, but for the specific purpose of silencing a vocal critic, often one who is unlikely to have the financial resources to defend himself. "

The organization in question which Skolnik and Norwick refer to here will not be mentioned in this particular post, for fear of similar reprisal in the form of frivolous intimidatory legal actions, as further mentioned in their article. Now isn't that funny and ironic?

Actually, this particular segment of the typical Large Group Awareness Training's tactics - the heavy usage of frivolous legal threats, lawsuits and intimidation as a way to permanently silence critics - could be a book unto itself, and will be elaborated upon in further posts.

Conditions for Mind Control

Plenty of accusations get bandied back and forth between pro-Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) people and anti-LGAT people about the methods used on these courses. Some call them cults. Some say they aren't cults. Others say they use cult-like methods, while their opponents deny this.

What is clear is that many hypnotic methods are used on these courses. So, I thought I would post this checklist that outlines the optimum conditions for brainwashing, thought reform, mind control, coercive persuasion - call it what you will - to occur.

If these conditions look familiar to you, and not all of them need apply , then ask yourself why the group you are dealing with needs to create such an environment.

IN ORDER TO INFLUENCE OR BRAINWASH PEOPLE, THE FOLLOWING METHODS WORK BEST:

Isolate them in new surroundings apart from old friends or reference-points

Provide them with instant acceptance from a seemingly loving group

Keep them away from competing or critical ideas

Provide an authority figure that everyone seems to acknowledge as having some special skill or awareness

Provide a philosophy that seems logical and appears to answer all or the most important questions in life

Structure all or most activities so that there is little time for privacy or independent action or thought

Provide a sense of "us" versus "them"

Promise instant or imminent solutions to deep or long-term problems

And employ covert or disguised hypnotic techniques.

Now, think critically about the group you are checking these criteria against. Try to objectively assess whether conditions similar to these are used. If they are, do Due Diligence. Research the group well. Take a look at the links provided to the right, do a Google search, and then make an informed decision.

Also, take a look at this video, called Mind Control Cults. It has been mentioned before on this blog, but this short satire is incredibly accurate and it contains a lot of the jargon and claims you might hear from a questionable group, organization or teacher.

Finding YOUR own way

Looking through the Rick Ross message boards, I, some time ago, came across a post by a former moderator, who goes by the username Corboy, which I would like to share with you. In it, he talks about life coaching. The concept and the points he makes could as easily be applied to Human Potential Seminars and Large Group Awareness Training (LGATs).

A legitimate Life Coach should resemble a gas station:

You get fuel for the journey, get your car fixed, and can check a road map in case you think you've got lost.

But the people at the gas station are there to help you reach YOUR chosen destination. They should not trick you into abandoning your plan to follow their plan, nor should they trick you into pitching your tent in the gas station's parking lot, and calling that your vacation!

The thing with LGATs is, they trick you into camping in the gas station parking lot and convince you it's as good or better than seeing Yellowstone, Yosemite--Sherborne Forest.

Life Coaching seems to spin off in some very legitimate ways from career counseling and brief, problem-oriented psychotherapy. If life-coaching stays within certain parameters it can be legitimate and helpful. But if it strays beyond these parameters, it is easily corrupted.

In my opinion, Life Coaching is legit only if:

1) It is made clear that life coaching is suitable for essentially healthy persons, who have clear cut goals and need to know what resources or skills they need to reach those goals.

There must never be 'bait-and-switch'

*The Life Coaching process should serve the stated goals of the client, not subtly recruit or indoctrinate clients into abandoning their goals to serve the covert goals of the group or its leader.*

**It would be a good sign if the Life Coach encourages clients to write out his or her goals and then check and re-check the goals throughout the process.

If the client is tricked into abandoning his or her goal to follow the agenda of the group, the life coaching process is no longer coaching but indoctrination and is an existing LGAT, or something in the early stages of becoming an LGAT.

2) The life coach or career counselor aims to have only short-term contact with the client/customer and is eager to foster the client's autonomy and be part of his or her continuing education, not monopolize the process.

3) The 'here-and-now' approach is only suitable for very clear cut goals (eg how to transition from one type of job to another), and only if a person is essentially healthy. A really ethical Life Coach will know how to refer you to a psychotherapist if it turns out you need one, and will have a list of qualified therapists available if referrals are needed.

4)It should therefore be a big red flag if a Life Coach tries to keep you attending course after course. That would subvert your autonomy and signal that the Life Coach's intentions are not in your best interest.

Above all, there should be no hidden agendas, such as fronting for an existing LGAT or using Life Coaching to test one's hypnotic skills or room arrangement experiments on an unsuspecting group.

Interesting article:

Do You Need a Performance Coach?
BestLife magazine, article by Christopher MacDougall