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Landmark Worldwide

Company type	Private LLC
Industry	Self-help
Founded	January 1991
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Key people	Harry Rosenberg: director, CEO; Mick Leavitt: President
Products	The Landmark Forum, associated coursework
Revenue	USD$77 million (2009)
Number of employees	525+ employees
Subsidiaries	The Vanto Group Landmark Education International, Inc. Tekniko Licensing Corporation Rancord Company, Ltd.
Website	landmarkworldwide.com

Landmark Worldwide (formerly Landmark Education), or simply Landmark, is a limited liability company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It offers programs in personal development.

The company started with the purchase of intellectual property based upon Werner Erhard's est training seminars. Landmark has developed and delivered over 40 personal development programs. Its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, also markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations.

Landmark's programs have been categorized by some scholars, governments, and others as religious or quasi-religious in nature, with some calling them cult-like or dangerous. Landmark and many of the company's customers deny such characterizations, while some researchers question that categorization as well.

Corporation

History

The predecessor of Landmark Worldwide LLC was founded in January 1991 by several of the presenters of a training program known as "The Forum". Landmark purchased the intellectual property rights to The Forum from Werner Erhard and Associates and used that as the basis for its foundation course named "The Landmark Forum", which has been further updated over the years. It has since developed a lot of training courses and seminar programs throughout tens of countries around the world.

The corporation was originally registered as Transnational Education and changed its name to Landmark Education Corporation in May 1991. In June 2003 it was re-structured as Landmark Education LLC, and in July 2013 renamed Landmark Worldwide LLC.

According to Landmark, Werner Erhard (creator of the controversial est training which ran from 1971 to 1984 and from which the forum was derived) consults from time to time with its "Research and Design team". Terry Giles is Chairman of the Board and Erhard's lawyer.

Current operations

According to Landmark it is a "for-profit company 100% owned by approximately 530 employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and similar international plans. The organization's executive team reports to a Board of Directors that is elected annually by the ESOP." In addition, its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, focuses on marketing and delivering training and consultation services to corporate clients and other organizations.

Business consulting

Vanto Group, Inc., founded in 1993 as "Landmark Education Business Development" (LEBD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Worldwide Enterprises, Inc., uses the techniques of Landmark to provide consulting services to various companies. The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business carried out a case study in 1998 into the work of LEBD with BHP New Zealand Steel. The report concluded that the set of interventions in the organization produced a 50% improvement in safety, a 15% to 20% reduction in key benchmark costs, a 50% increase in return on capital, and a 20% increase in raw steel production. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2007.

Companies such as Panda Express and Lululemon Athletica pay for and encourage employees to take part in The Landmark Forum.

Licensing intellectual property

Tekniko, Inc., formerly owned by Werner Erhard, was the successor organization to Transformational Technologies, which was incorporated in 1984 by Erhard and management consultant James Selman. Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a California corporation owned by Terry M. Giles, later acquired this technology. In 2001 Landmark Education formed Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a Nevada corporation, which purchased Tekniko Technology from Giles' company.

Since that time, the Vanto Group has used Tekniko to license the "Tekniko methodology and intellectual property to a wide variety of corporations".

The Landmark Forum

Landmark's entry course, The Landmark Forum, is a prerequisite for the majority of their other programs. The course varies in size between 75 and 250 people, and is arranged as a discussion where the course leader presents certain ideas and the course participants engage in voluntary discussions applying those ideas to their own life. Rules are set up at the beginning of the program, such as strongly encouraging participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be “coachable” and not just be observers during the course.

Various ideas are presented, asserted and discussed during the course. For example, the course maintains that there is a big difference between what actually happened in a person’s life and the meaning or interpretation they made up about it, and that human behavior is governed by a need to look good. Another tenet of the course is that people pursue an "imaginary 'someday' of satisfaction", and that people create meaning for themselves since "there is none inherent in the world". The course also maintains that people have persistent complaints that give rise to unproductive fixed ways of being, but that people can “transform”, by a creative act of bringing forth new ways of being, rather than trying to change themselves in comparison to the past. Course participants are encouraged to call people they know during the course, with whom they feel they have unresolved tensions, and either be in communication with the other person or be responsible for their own behavior.

An evening session follows closely on the three consecutive days of the course and completes the Landmark Forum. During this final session, the participants share information about their results, and bring guests to learn about the Forum.

Religious characteristics

Some scholars have categorized Landmark and its predecessor organizations as new age, self religion or a new religious movement. Other observers have noted relationships between the training programs and religion or a spiritual experience, including a lack of religious elements in the programs and the compatibility of the programs with existing religions. Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. A number of critical newspaper articles have called the Forum "cult-like". Various governments have also classed Landmark and its previous iterations as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (although various scholars have disputed this characterization). or commented on characteristics shared with such groups without labeling it as a cult. Landmark has denied that it is a religion, cult or sect, and "freely threatens or pursues lawsuits against those who call it ".

Journalist Amelia Hill with The Observer witnessed the Landmark Forum and concluded that, in her view, it is not religious or a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Karin Badt from The Huffington Post criticized the organisation's emphasis on "'spreading the word' of the Landmark forum as a sign of the participants' 'integrity'" in recounting her personal experience of an introductory "Landmark Forum" course, but noted, "at the end of the day, I found the Forum innocuous. No cult, no radical religion: an inspiring, entertaining introduction of good solid techniques of self-reflection, with an appropriate emphasis on action and transformation (not change)".

Public reception

In his review of the Landmark Forum, New York Times reporter Henry Alford wrote that he "resented the pressure" placed on him during a session, but also noted that "two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent." Time reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem …I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me."

The Irish Mail on Sunday says the effects of The Landmark Forum "...can be startling. People find themselves reconciled with parents, exes and friends. They have conversations they have wanted to have with their families for years; they meet people or get promoted in work."

University of Alberta sociology professor Stephen Kent, who studies "deviant ideological and religious groups", says Landmark's techniques are "manipulative", "controlling", and "involve coercive persuasion". While acknowledging that many people report having benefited from Landmark training, he says other people are "harmed" and "feel violated".

A series of investigative articles in the Swedish national daily Dagens Nyheter reported serious complaints about Landmark practices. Following these articles and programs on the private TV channel TV4, Landmark closed its offices in Sweden in June 2004.

Pièces à Conviction

In 2004, France 3 aired a television documentary on Landmark in their investigative series Pièces à Conviction. The episode, called "Voyage Au Pays des Nouveaux Gourous" ("Journey to the land of the new gurus") aired during prime time, a first for the show, and was highly critical of its subject.

Shot in large part with a hidden camera, the episode was an expose of sorts and had filmmaker Laurent Richard attend a Landmark course and visit their offices. In addition, the program included interviews with former course participants, anti-cultists, and commentators including the then vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France, Jean-Pierre Brard, as well as Catherine Picard, Jean-Pierre Jougla, Jean-Marie Abgrall and Gilles Bottine, the secretary general of MIVILUDES. Landmark left France following the airing of the episode and a subsequent site visit by labor inspectors that noted the activities of volunteers, and sued Jean-Pierre Brard in 2004 following his appearance on the show.

The Pièces à Conviction episode was uploaded to a variety of websites, and in October 2006 Landmark issued subpoenas pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Google Video, YouTube, and the Internet Archive demanding details of the identity of the person(s) who had uploaded those copies. These organizations challenged the subpoenas and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) became involved, planning to file a motion to quash Landmark's DMCA subpoena to Google Video. Landmark eventually withdrew its subpoenas.

Footnotes

1. Landmark staff 2002. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLandmark_staff2002 (help)
2. ^ Landmark staff 2014b.
3. DIKE staff 2000.
4. Pressman 1993, p. 254.
5. CASS staff 2003.
6. CASS staff 1987.
7. See:
   • (Farber 2012, p. 131);
   • (Richardson 1998, pp. 167–169).
8. See:
   • (Lockwood 2011, pp. 225–254);
   • (Grigoriadis & 9 July 2001);
   • (Eisner 2000, p. 60);
   • (Ramstedt 2007, p. 196);
   • (Atkin 2004, p. 101);
   • (Saliba 2003, p. 88).
9. Faltermayer & 24 June 2001.
10. Dewan & 3 May 2010.
11. Landmark staff 2014a.
12. Landmark press release 2008.
13. Logan 1998.
14. Businessweek & 18 November 2010.
15. Sacks & 1 April 2009.
16. Bodek 1984–1985.
17. Case Financial 2000a.
18. Case Financial 2000b.
19. Landmark Education information
20. Landmark staff 2015.
21. ^ Badt & 5 March 2008.
22. ^ Stassen 2008.
23. ^ Hill & 13 December 2008.
24. McCrone & 1 February 2008.
25. See:
    • (Hill & 13 December 2008);
    • (McCrone & 1 February 2008);
    • (Odasso & 5 June 2008).
26. See:
    • (Badt & 5 March 2008);
    • (Hill & 13 December 2008);
    • (Odasso & 5 June 2008).
27. See:
    • (Hill & 13 December 2008);
    • (McCrone & 1 February 2008);
    • (Odasso & 5 June 2008).
28. See:
    • (Barker 1996, p. 126);
    • (Beckford 2003, p. 156);
    • (Lockwood 2011, pp. 225–254);
    • (Beckford 2004, p. 256);
    • (Clarke 2012, p. 123);
    • (Heelas 1991, pp. 165–166, 171);
    • (Ramstedt 2007, pp. 196–197).
29. See:
    • (Bhugra 1997, p. 126);
    • (Chryssides 2006, pp. 197–198);
    • (Kronberg and Lindebjerg 2002);
    • (Beckford 2003, p. 156);
    • (Partridge 2004, p. 406);
    • (Arweck 2005, pp. 123–124);
    • (Lewis 2005, pp. 123–124).
30. See:
    • (benPorat & April 2006, pp. 42–44);
    • (Cannon 2007);
    • (Lazarus & 11 April 2008).
31. See:
    • (Beckford et al., eds. 2007, pp. 229, 687);
    • (Chryssides 1999, p. 314);
    • (Bromley 2007, p. 48).
32. See:
    • Bass, Alison (March 3, 1999). "The Forum: Cult or comfort?". The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company.
    • Graham Rayman, "Suit Against Sperm-Bank Firm Claims Sexual Harassment and Cult-Like Behavior", Village Voice, 20 May 2008
    • Christa D'Souza, "Sex Therapy", The Times (London), 13 July 2008, Features/Style p. 12
    • Una Mullally and John Burke, "Labour senator promotes group classified in France as 'cult-like'", Sunday Tribune (Dublin), 31 July 2005, p.N1
    • Scioscia, Amanda (19 October 2000). "Drive-thru Deliverance; It's not called est anymore, but you can still be ridiculed into self-awareness in just one expensive weekend". Phoenix New Times.
    • "Defence workers trained by 'cult'", ABC News (Australia), 2 April 2008
33. See:
    • (Office of International Religious Freedom 2005);
    • (Office of International Religious Freedom 2006);
    • (Commission d'Enquête 1999);
    • (Investigative Commission 1997);
    • (Schneider 1995, pp. 189–190)
    • (Wright 2002, p. 114).
34. See:
    • (Chryssides 1999, pp. 229, 687)
    • (Goldwag 2009, pp. 29–30)
    • (Sharot 2011, p. 182).
35. Puttick 2004, pp. 406–407.
36. Scioscia, Amanda (19 October 2000). "Drive-thru Deliverance; It's not called est anymore, but you can still be ridiculed into self-awareness in just one expensive weekend". Phoenix New Times.
37. Alford & 26 November 2010, p. L1.
38. Thornburgh & 7 March 2011.
39. Walsh & 18 February 2012.
40. Rusnell, Charles; Russell, Jennie (17 October 2014). "Alberta Health Services staff pressured to attend controversial seminars". CBC News.
41. http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=23694
42. http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=24466
43. http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/landsting-kopte-kurs-av-landmark-1.86286
44. Analys&Kritik & 8 June 2004.
45. See:
    • (Roy & 24 May 2004);
    • (TD & 24 May 2004);
    • (Tessier & 20 May 2004).
46. Roy & 24 May 2004.
47. See:
    • (Lemonniera & 19 May 2005), French text: "L’'Inspection du Travail débarque dans les locaux de Landmark, constate l'’exploitation des bénévoles et dresse des procès-verbaux pour travail non déclaré." English translation: "Labor inspectors turned up at the offices of Landmark, noted the exploitation of volunteers and drew up a report of undeclared employment.";
    • (Landmark staff 2004), Landmark's response;
    • (Badt & 5 March 2008), quote: It was this TV program that closed down the Landmark in France, leaving it only 24 other countries in which to spread its word.
48. Palmer 2011.
49. See:
    • (EFF staff 2011);
    • (Landmark (Art Schreiber) 2006a);
    • (Landmark (Art Schreiber) 2006b);
    • (EFF staff 2007).

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• Richardson, James T. (1998). "est (THE FORUM)". In Swatos, Jr., William H. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira. ISBN 0761989560. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Roy, Anne (24 May 2004). "France 3: L'investigation prend du galon". L'Humanité (in French). Retrieved 21 September 2014.

• Rupert, Glenn A. (1992). "Employing the New Age: Training Seminars". In Lewis, James R.; Melton, J. Gordon (eds.). Perspectives on the New Age. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 079141213X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Sacks, Danielle (1 April 2009). "Lululemon's Cult of Selling". Fast Company. Retrieved 2011-03-14.

• Salerno, Steve (11 March 2010). "Landmark forum. A few final words of my own". SHAMBLOG. Steven Salerno. Retrieved 23 January 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Saliba, John A. (2003). Understanding New Religious Movements. Walnut Creek, California: Rowman Altamira. p. 88. ISBN 9780759103559. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Schneider (1995). "Der Pädagogische Bereich als Operationsfeld für Psychokulte". 20 Jahre Elterninitiative. e.V.. University of Tubingen, Theologische Abteilung: 189–190. ISBN 3927890235. ISSN 0720–3772. {{cite journal}}: Check |issn= value (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help);

• Scioscia, Amanda (19 October 2000). "Drive-thru Deliverance: It's not called est anymore, but you can still be ridiculed into self-awareness in just one expensive weekend". Phoenix New Times. Phoenix, Arizona.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Sharot, Stephen (2011). Comparative Perspectives on Judaisms and Jewish Identities. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814334010. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Stassen, Wilma (September 2008). "Inside a Landmark Forum Weekend". Health24. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• TD (24 May 2004). "Une secte démasquée grâce à la caméra cachée". Le Parisien (in French). Retrieved 21 September 2014.

• Tessier, Odine (20 May 2004). "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 21 September 2014.

• Thornburgh, Nathan (7 March 2011). "Change We Can (Almost) Believe In". Time. Retrieved 14 March 2011.

• Walsh, Nikki (18 February 2012). "Landmark Forum: One Weekend to fix your LIFE?". Irish Mail on Sunday.

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