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Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous, also known as Inside Landmark Forum, and translated as "Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus" is an hour-long French exposé documentary film on Landmark Education. The film was made in 2003 and broadcast in France on May 24, 2004 on the channel France 3.

France 3 documentary

Pièces à conviction ("Incriminating Evidence")

In France, Landmark Education "assistants" had the apparent French legal status of volunteer unpaid workers. On May 24, 2004, the France 3 show "Pièces à conviction" ("Incriminating Evidence") broadcast the investigative report "Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous." The documentary is available in 6 parts with English subtitles, at:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.
The entire video may be downloaded from the public domain at:
Inside Landmark Forum.

Landmark leaves France

The next month, in June 2004, the French government (L’Inspection du Travail) investigated labor practices regarding "volunteer workers." Shortly thereafter, Landmark Education ended operations in France. (A short timeline in French.)

French government classification

An agency of the French government, the Interministerial Mission for Awareness against Sectarian Risks (MILS) has classified Landmark Education as a secte. (Unofficial English translation) It is unclear what criteria the MILS uses to make this classification, and many of the organisations which it has so classified strenuously dispute the validity of such classification. Defamation lawsuits in the US and the Netherlands refute this French-language classification Regarding France, the US State Department noted in a 2002 report that the French legislation creating the MILS did not define the term "cult" and that the president of MILS had resigned in mid-2002 and that no replacement had emerged by the time of the US State Department's reporting deadline.)

Alain Roth

Much of the documentary focused on Landmark Forum Leader and head of Landmark Education's defunct division in France, Alain Roth.

Refers to Landmark as "Cult"

And it’s useless to formulate the idea that this mumbo-jumbo clouds the thoughts/ideas, Alain Roth will not hesitate to impose his truth: "I’m the boss. So show yourselves to be trainable!" Total submission required. But the absolute weapon of Alain Roth is humor. You ask yourself if you are not in a cult? Any occasion will be good for joking on the subject. "Especially, when going to dinner, don’t forget to take off your badge. Otherwise people will think that you are in a cult!"

Seminar behaviour

Within the first segment the audience is introduced to Alain Roth, Landmark’s former French director, who leads the seminar. Roth subjects one woman to “public humiliation” before hundreds of participants and calls her an “asshole.” After being berated by the Landmark leader for about an hour she breaks down in tears while he insults and mocks her. In this segment the audience is also introduced to some of Landmark’s jargon, comprised of thought-terminating cliches such as “racket” and ”inauthentic.” Terms Roth routinely uses to dismiss anyone that asks him questions that he doesn’t really want to answer.

Spokeswoman in documentary

The documentary staff originally wanted to speak with Alain Roth, former head of Landmark's division in France, but Landmark Education flew McLean from the United States to France to speak with them instead.

McLean is featured in part 2 of the Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous documentary on France 3, as the official spokeswoman for Landmark Education :

On balance an interview is included with Landmark’s designated spokesperson, Sophie McLean, flown in from New York.

Ms. McLean attempts to dismiss the description that her company is a "cult" or "cult-like" and that its business is somehow based upon "brainwashing."
McLean specifically cites a report Landmark paid a French psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abigrall to prepare.
However, despite being paid more than 45,000 Euro Dr. Abigrall is less than positive about Landmark. He laments that Landmark’s leaders lack meaningful training and calls this "shocking." He then refuses to take a position as to whether the company is a cult or not.

As reported in the Nouvel Observateur, in 2005 :

The broadcast of Elise Lucet denounces Landmark Education’s fiscal embezzlements, the abusive use of an army of volunteers (benevolents) and carries the existence of prosecutions for "abuse of weakness and mental manipulations" into a murder case. The blow is fatal. A few days later, the organization stages a special evening from which Alain Roth has strangely disappeared. Specially arrived from New York, Sophie McLean, the spokesperson for Landmark International, responds to interrogations of assistance, split between unrest and and solidarity. Countering the accusations of France 3, she distributes to us a denial/disclaimer that carefully avoids the more sensible/delicate points of reporting. Why such determination by/of the news media? Because: "Landmark Education proposes a "leading edge" pedagogy and, as such, it is more succeptible to be improperly understood compare to others."

References

1. France 3, "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous", May 24, 2004
2. Cults in France, Recorded with the Presidency of the National Assembly on December 22, 1995, Mr. Alain Gest, Reporter, Mr. Jacques Guyard, Deputies. National Assembly, Tenth Legislature.
3. "At home with the gurus in neckties.", Nouvel Observateur, French newspaper, May 19, 2005, by Marie Lemonnier.
4. Why did Landmark Education leave France?, September 29, 2006, Cult News
5. Why did Landmark Education leave France?, September 29, 2006, Cult News
6. "At home with the gurus in neckties.", Nouvel Observateur, French newspaper, May 19, 2005, by Marie Lemonnier.

External Links

• France 3 "Pièces à conviction", documentary: "Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous", May 24, 2004,
  video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.
• France 3, documentary, in entirety from the public domain at: Inside Landmark Forum.
• Why did Landmark Education leave France?, September 29, 2006, Cult News
• Réponse officielle à France 3, Landmark Education's response to the France 3 documentary.
• Presentation of International Landmark Education, Interdepartmental Mission of Vigilance and Fight Against Sectarian Drifts, (translated)
• "At home with the gurus in neckties.", Nouvel Observateur, French newspaper, May 19, 2005, by Marie Lemonnier.

See Also

• France 3
• Alain Roth
• Landmark Education
• Werner Erhard
• Erhard Seminars Training
• Harry Rosenberg
• Laurel Scheaf
• Randy McNamara
• Brian Regnier
• Steven Zaffron

• 2004 films
• Documentary films
• French films
• French television
• Human Potential Movement
• Personal development
• New Age
• 1970s fads