If you ever saw Star Trek Next Generation, you will remember the Borg. They were half-human, half machine. The Borg would assimilate civilations. They took the humans, removed their soul, and mechanized them. They became part of the collective conciousness. Resistance was futile. Once assimilated, they travelled around the universe in a gigantic cube-shaped ship, looking for new civilizations to infect.
I almost became one last weekend.
Honestly, I thought it was a good thing for a while. Starting Friday morning at 9:00 am, I attended the weekend-long seminar. We were warned that we should only be there if we were mentally and phisically well. Then we were promised that by Sunday afternoon we would experience a "transformation" for ourselves. All we had to do was be present the entire time. We could not be late. We should try not to use the bathroom except during breaks, take any medications (even aspirin), or drink any alcohol (well, that would not be a problem for me) until the end -- Tuesday night.
The instructor Angelo (our "coach") was a short, New York Italian. He was a compelling public speaker. He began to explain things. We were told why we are how we are. I learned that we humans become ensnared by the past. We make up stories to ourselves about things that happened. There is a difference between what happened and our story about what happened. We create "rackets" to help us cope with our stories. We end up living inside our stories -- they own us instead of us owning them. Ok, I get that, I guess.
These stories become our "rackets". Some people got up and talked about events in their past. Man, I am one lucky son-of-a-gun compared to them. They were either abandoned by parents, abused, cheated on, raped, etc. Their stories were tragic, and literally brought us to tears. The people were real -- I am convinced they were not planted there. Our coach worked with them, one at a time in front of everybody, sobbing, through their pain. He got them to see that "what happened, happened." They needed to detach themselves from what happened. They needed to blame themselves for somehow contributing to what happened. Then they needed to confess to their perpetrator that they had been "inathentic" and were "inventing" for themselves "a new possibility".
We were all told to look for things wrong in our lives. Then we were to find out where we were being inauthentic. We needed to call our loved ones and confess ways that we had been judging them wrongly, or being "inauthentic" and share our new "possibility". If we did this, they would be "moved, touched, or inspired". Hence we were "enrolling" them in our possibility. Of course we could mention to them that we were learning this at the Landmark Forum, and that on Tuesday visitors would be welcome and they could come and witness our "transformation".
Why weren't flags going up all over the place in my mind? Well, we had been advised that the experience would be intense. It was compared to a roller-coaster ride. We would have emotional ups and downs. The worst thing we could do was to get off the roller coaster while it was moving. We should wait until the end of the ride to experience the transformation. I didn't know the end from the beginning, so I decided to reserve judgement.
Each day went from 9 AM until 11 PM. We had two 40-minute breaks and one 90-minute dinner break. Intense was an understatement.
The second day we learned about "strong suits". These were personality traits we adopted as a way of reacting / coping with certain key events that happened in our lives. Everyone had three or four strong suits that we put on as a facade. When we were using a strong suit we were "on it". We needed to "get off it".
We learned that we were continually carrying on a conversation with ourselves. Actually, our whole life is nothing more than conversations -- either with ourselves or others. The "already always listening" (sic) was in our head -- a conversation that was constantly telling us stories about what happened.
I could go on and on. Philosophies and explanations were offered on every aspect of being human. A lot of it was fascinating. Some of it was questionable. But we were committed from the beginning that we must treat the instructor as our "coach". We had to not question the coach -- he was leading us through the game of life. It turned out that anyone that questioned the coach was accused of being in their "racket" or one of their "strong suits". The trap was tightening. It didn't seem quite right, but hey, he was the coach.
Each night we were given homework. In the mornings, the people that had not done the homework, together with the late stragglers, were berated for not having integrity. I mean, he went ballistic. He was livid. Then finally he lightened up and went on with the day.
During the breaks we were to try to have personal "breakthroughs" by calling friends or relatives and sharing with them. And getting them to come Tuesday night.
By Saturday's morning break, I had almost had enough. I really didn't want to be there anymore. But I hung in there, because I wanted to see what the Sunday afternoon "transformation" was going to be like.
Over the course of three days, the 120 or so of us, by this common experience, became comrades. I developed some friends. We discussed what was happening over the breaks. But we didn't question things too much.
So, to cut to the chase: Sunday afternoon Angelo said "Ok, now I am going to give you the Landmark Forum". So now I was going to "get it". Finally. What magic things was he going to say that would give all a "transformation"? Well, it was this: "Life doesn't mean anything". "And it doesn't mean anything that it doesn't mean anything".
In other words, if we take our life experiences, remove the "stories", "rackets", and "strong suits", all that was left was that our life didn't mean anything. But there is no need to despair -- it didn't mean anything that it didn't mean anything. Huh?
Everyone was relieved. Now we had the freedom to shed all that baggage and invent new "possibilities" for ourselves. And Landmark would help. All we had to do was take the Advanced Course -- another step in the Curriculum for Living. We had been deconstructed. And Landmark was there to assimilate us -- to help us reinvent ourselves. And if we questioned anything, that was our "racket". Or our "strong suit". Resistance was futile.
People were all smiling and happy. They had a new, bright future that they could invent. And the three arduous days were over.
By Monday, the euphoria started wearing off. It took a little while. At first, I even told people at work that I would recommend taking the Forum if they were interested. After all, some of the stuff they presented made sense. But later in the day the logic of their methods was falling apart. Talk about a racket -- the Landmark Forum was a racket. I decided I was not going to go back on Tuesday night. And if they called me I was going to tell them that I had had enough, I was never going any further with Landmark.
During the introduction, we were told that the Landmark Forum does not contradict any religion. That turned out to be nonsense. In my religion, the "already always listening" is the still, small voice of the Holy Ghost. To deny it or ignore it would be just plain wrong.
The whole thing is sinister and dangerous. It is a for-profit organization. They get $400 per person for the seminar, and $800 for the advance course. They used hard-sell tactics to get you to invite your friends. Why, how would you not want your friends to experience the "breakthoughs" and the "transformation" that you experienced? And once enlightened, you want to live a life of service, volunteering your hours to helping at Landmark. It is a successful, growing, money-making machine.
They used jargon and lots of word-plays. They broke down our will by having us endure long hours in a large windowless room. It was a mixture of meta-language, existentialism, psuedo-hypnosis, and forms of mind-control.
If you do a Google search, you will find plenty of people out there propagating their cause. Zombies, luring people to their land of possibility. Does anyone else out there get the same sense of how scary this is that I get? There is something wrong here.
So, Ken, how did you like the seminar?
I did learn a lot. Some of their stuff was interesting. Mostly I learned about a whole class of "Large Group Awareness Training" outfits, of which Landmark is one, that I had no idea existed. I learned that if ever given the opportunity to be involved with an LGAT again, I will run -- fast.
I could go on -- there is actually lots more I could discuss about what has happened with me and others that got involved. But it would make this long post much longer. Thankfully we have come to our senses.
To explore strange, new worlds. Where no one (well, at least me) had gone before. It's nice to be back on the starship.