Doug Shelton dshelton@nps.navy.mil wrote

>Please give any info on landmark “forum” program. Is this similar to
>scientology. Was this previously called EST? Why did they have to
>restructure thier entire program? Thanks in advance

It was previously called est (lowercase) for Erhard Seminar Training; then
became The Forum; then after Werner Erhard was described on national TV as
being less than reputable (I seem to remember allegations of wife beating and
molesting his daughter) he transferred his holdings to a corporation
which became Landmark.

est was a seminar where the instructors would scream at you, inform you what
a worthless piece of dreck you were, where you had to stay in your chair,
and you were not allowed to take rest room breaks (stopping to pee might
interfere with your “getting it”).

It metamorphosed into the Forum where you had more frequent breaks and the
instructors didn’t shout as much (kinder and gentler cult found to be
necessary when the novelty of paying to be verbally assaulted wore out).

It’s similar to the CO$ in that it’s an institutionalized way of separating
a sucker from his money and it always has new courses/seminars for additional
bucks. It never made it to legal religion status, but it could be considered
a cult. Erhard is probably as much of a megalomaniac as LRH was.

Best wishes,
SP ace

Taken from http://www.religio.de/therapie/landmark/landmark.html#2