User:Astynax/Landmark Forum as a NRM (new religious movement)

Landmark, est, The Forum is indeed discussed as a new religious movement. Among the references I've come across (and there are many more, as est/Forum/Landmark are widely discussed in academic literature, often as a paradigm of one of the novel forms new religious movements have taken). That it is so categorized is almost never criticism, merely observational, even though Landmark (as do other NRMs) disclaims any religious associations (bolding for emphasis is mine)...

In sociology literature

Lockwood, Renee D. (June 2012). "Pilgrimages to the Self: Exploring the Topography of Western Consumer Spirituality through 'the Journey'". Literature & Aesthetics. 22 (1). Sydney, New South Wales: Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics: 111, 125. ISSN 1036-9368.:

• p. 111

"Yet perhaps a more salient manifestation of this phenomenon exist in the form of corporate religions, groups with a specific religio-spiritual function that are established, managed, and presented as corporations. Representing the ultimate fusion of the sacred and the economic, corporate religion may be interpreted as the latest manifestation of the Human Potential Movement, with groups and practitioners such as Anthony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, and Landmark Education offering epoch-specific modes of salvation in the form of seminars and spiritual products. The philosophy and praxes of corporate religions are predominantly bound by the ethics of market capitalism and the values of Western consumer culture. To this end, they are often tailored towards improving productivity amongst individuals and employees, and are subsequently markedted not only to individuals, but also to companies and government agencies.
"Within corporate spirituality, the late-modern concept of the interniased sacred is paramount, with the 'Self' regarded as the 'ultimate concern,' holding the 'answer to the question of the meaning of our life.'"

• p. 125

• "For religio-spiritual corporations such as Landmark Education, all previous ideas and beliefs must be dissolved and washed away in order to create 'nothing,' a clean slate from which truth may arise."

Meldgaard, Helle; Aagaard, Johannes, eds. (1997). New Religious Movements in Europe. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press. ISBN 8-772-88548-3.:

• p. 101

"While the greatest visibility of the movements [NRMs in Britain] was around the late 1970s and early 1980s, when special attention was paid to the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology, the media have continued, and still continue, to run stories on any religious beliefs or practices that deviate from the mainstream traditions. Those movements whose existence is relatively well-known to the British public include ISKCON, est (now known as the Forum), the Jesus Army, the Rajneeshees, Transcendental Meditation and the New Age."

• p. 102

"The term NRM, thus defined, may include not only movements such as the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, Sahaha Yoga and the Rajneeshees, but also New Age and Neo-Pagan groups, witches' covens and 'self-religions' such as INSIGHT, the Forum, Exegesis and Silva Mind Control."

• p. 158

"The (exclusive) financing [of NRMs in Germany] by dues, course fees, as well as licensing and franchising fees, seems to a very great extent, to function solely in Scientology, EST and Eckankar."

Barker, Eileen (1996). "New Religions and Mental Health". In Bhugra, Dinesh (ed.). Psychiatry and Religion: Context, Consensus and Controversies. London and New York: Routledge. p. 126. ISBN 0415089557. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help):

• p. 126

"To illustrate rather than to define: among the better-known NRMs are the Brahma Kumaris, the Church of Scientology, the Divine Light Mission (now known as Elan Vital), est (erhard Seminar Training, now known as the Landmark Forum), the Family (originally known as the Children of God), ISKCON (the Hare Krishna), Rajneeshism (now know as Osho International), Sahaja Yoga, the Soka Gakkai, Trandscendental Mediations, the Unification Church (known as the Moonies) and the Way International. One might also include Neo-Paganism, Occultism, Wicca (or witchcraft) and several movements that are within mainstream traditions, such as part of the House Church (Restoration) movement from within Protestant traditions, and Folkolare, the Neo-Catechumenates, Communione e Liberazione and perhaps even Opus Dei from within the Roman Catholic traditions."

Lockwood, Renee (2011). "Religiosity Rejected: Exploring the Religio-Spiritual Dimensions of Landmark Education". International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 2 (2). Sheffield, England: Equinox: 225, 227. ISSN 2041-9511.:

• p. 224

"Finally, while the organization [Landmark] and its followers tend to deny its religious nature based primarily on its lack of a godhead or sacred body, closer inspection of the group reveals that the sacred does exist within its systems in the form of the Self."

Beckford, James A. (2004). "New Religious Movements and Globalization". In Lucas, Phillip Charles; Robbins, Thomas (eds.). New Religious Movements in the 21st Century. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. p. 208. ISBN 0-415-96576-4.:

• p. 208

"The prospect of a new global order is also central to many variants of the Human Potential and New Age movements and Scientology. All these very different kinds of NRM [New Religious Movement] nevertheless share a conviction that human beings have, perhaps for the first time, come into possession of the knowledge required to free them from traditional structures of thought and action. Hence, the confidence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, and of Werner Erhard, the founder of est (now largely reconfigured as the Landmark Trust), that the state of the entire world would improve if a sufficient number of people became sufficiently energetic and disciplined about their spiritual practice."

Barker, Eileen (2005). "New Religious Movements in Europe". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion. Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 6568. ISBN 9780028657431.:

• p. 6568

"The majority of NRMs [New Religious Movements] are, however, not indigenous to Europe. Many can be traced to the United States (frequently to California), including offshoots of the Jesus Movement (such as the Children of God, later known as the Family); the Way International; International Churches of Christ; the Church Universal and Triumphant (known as Summit Lighthouse in England); and much of the human potential movement (such as est, which gave rise to the Landmark Forum, and various practices developed through the Esalen Institute)."

Siegler, Elijah (2004). "Marketing Lazarus". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of New Age Religions. Amherst, New York: Prometheus. p. 187. ISBN 1591020409.:

• p. 187

"These two opposing strategies of new religious movements for delivery compensators I will term 'compensation delivery systems' (CDS). The gradual CDS can be best described as religion as a multi-level-marketing (MLM) tactic—a term I take from the business world. Here compensators are awarded based on progression through the ranks. The organization is structured like a pyramid (hence pyramid scheme). A new member comes on as a consumer but quickly advances to being both a consumer and a seller. High compensators are promised in exchange for a minimum commitment—a small amount of money, a few hours of time. However, to rise higher and higher in these organizations, one must successfully recruit people to become lower initiates, as well as commit ever-increasing sums of time and money. Exemplars of new religious movements with a gradual CDS are Scientology and Erhard Seminar Training in its various manifestations."

Ramstedt, Martin (2007). "New Age and Business: Corporations as Cultic Milieus?". In Kemp, Daren; Lewis, James R. (eds.). Handbook of the New Age. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 1. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 196–197. ISBN 9789004153554.:

• pp. 196–197

"Some spiritual management trainings, aiming at the self-actualisation—or rather self-realisation—in the corporate world, have advocated a rather authoritarian treatment of their trainees. A well-known example is Landmark Education International, Inc., a management-oriented derivate of Werner Erhard's famous seminars called est (an acronym for Erhard Seminars Training) developed in the 1970s. Participants of Erhard's seminars were typically treated as follows[...]
"In an article of the German management magazine Wirtschaftswoche, Landmark was indeed accused of 'brainwashing' [...] The trainings of Landmark, Block Training and UP Hans Schuster und Partner thus display strong similarities with the self-improvement seminars of Scientology, which are incidentally called 'auditing sessions', a term taken from the business world. In these auditing sessions, the auditor takes a position of absolute authority towards the 'patient': 'It cannot be too emphatically stated that the analytical mind and the dynamics of the patient never, never, never resist the auditor. The auditor is not there to be resisted.' (Hubbard 1997/1950:248)"

Taliaferro, Charles; Harrison, Victoria S.; Goetz, Stewart (2012). The Routledge Companion to Theism. New York: Routledge. p. 123. ISBN 9780415881647.:

• p. 123

"The Forum and/or est, whose origins are in the United States (Tipton 1982) holds to the belief that the self itself is god."

Parsons, Gerald, ed. (1993). "Expanding the religious spectrum: New Religious Movements in Modern Britain". The Growth of Religious Diversity: Britain from 1945: Volume 1 Traditions. London: Routledge. pp. 283–284. ISBN 0415083265.:

• pp. 283–284

"The third group of New Religious Movements proposed here is both harder to define and even broader in its scope than the two preceding groups. The largest group of New Religious Movements – both in numbers of individual groups within it and in the diffused range of its overall influence within modern British life – is that clustered around the richly varied collection of 'self-religions', psychotherapies and New Age mysticism and alternative spiritualities. This large group may be broadly divided into two sub-groups, each of which is simply a clustering of often quite diverse movements around a similar overall theme. The first group consists of the 'self-religions' and religiously 'flavoured' psycho-therapies which have increasingly flourished in the last twenty or thirty years. The self-religions have been characterized as 'movements which exemplify the conjunction of the exploration of the self and the search for significance' (Heelas, 1982, p.69). At first sight these various groups frequently do not appear to be religious at all, but rather present themselves as means of self-improvement, of improvement in personal relationships, or of achieving personal success in life. Many of them originated, often in California, as attempts to find new, less expensive and less elite varieties of psychotherapy, and frequently (but not always) in the period since the 1960s were tinged with elements and ideas from eastern religions. In due course, however, the essentially 'religious' orientation or character of a group becomes clearer: the movement or technique offers personal growth, transformation of character, personal enlightenment or psychological rebirth, transcendent or mystical experience, and perhaps even the prospect of some form of personal perfection or contribution to the transformation of the world for the better [...] groups such as rebirthing or est which emphasize positive thinking, and organizations such as Exegesis and Scientology. What these various groups tend to share, however, is an overwhelming emphasis upon the inward and the subjective. In general – and in broad contrast to the New Age mysticisms and spiritualities which will be considered in a moment – the 'self religions' are just what the title implies: attempts to find the sources and potential for development and meaning in life simply from within the individual. By contrast, the even more diverse groups which may be clustered under the heading of 'New Age religions', although also characterized by a conviction that the divine is to be found within the self, tend on the whole to look outwards as well as within the individual and to advocate new ways of relating the 'divine within' either to various conceived transcendent realities or to the environment as a whole.

Lockwood, Renee (2011). "Religiosity Rejected: Exploring the Religio-Spiritual Dimensions of Landmark Education". International Journal for the Study of New Religions. 2 (2). Sheffield, England: Equinox: 225–254. ISSN 2041-9511.:

• p. 226

"The official position of Landmark Education is that it is not a religious organization, yet the group has been viewed as posessing religious qualities, not only within a sensationalist context but also within print media and academia. [...] Finally, while the organization and its followers tend to deny its religious nature based primarily on its lack of a godhead or sacred body, closer inspection of the group reveals that the sacred does exist within its systems in the form of the Self. With explicit descriptions of the Self as a transcendental entity, it is ascribed complete power to effect transformation and alter the very world around it. While the religious terminology used to describe the sacred Self was more explicit in the form of est, the concept still permeates Landmark Education. In this sense, the organization moulds perfectly to theologian Paul Tilich's (1963) definition of religion, the Self representing an 'ultimate concern,' capable of revealing the answers to the universe and the very meaning of life."

Beckford, James A.; Levasseur, Martine (1986). "New Religious movements in Western Europe". In Beckford, James A. (ed.). New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change. London: Sage/UNESCO. ISBN 92-3-102-402-7.:

• p. 44

"Some NRMs [New Religious Movements] have adopted a mode of insertion in society which depends mainly upon the provision of a service to their clients. They offer to release people from conditions allegedly obstructing the full realization of their human potential. This entails diagnosing the source of the obstructions, identifying the resources for overcoming it and inculcating ways of achieving the desired release. These activities may be conducted through a variety of channels ranging from mail-order sales of literature and the mass-instruction of conference delegates, to the intensive cultivation of skills and sensitivities on residential courses. TM, Erhard Seminars Training (est), and the Rajneesh Foundation are currently the most visible NRMs offering a release service to clients in Western Europe, but a large number of smaller groups are also in operation. And some aspects of Scientology suggest that it tends towards combining the reform with the release mode of insertion. There are grounds for thinking that more people are active, though less visible, in movements offering release than those offering refuge and reform."

Richardson, James T. (1998). "est (THE FORUM)". In Swatos, Jr., William H. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira. ISBN 0761989560.:

• pp. 167-168

"Erhard has become a controversial figure, with many lawsuits against him, mostly by the Internal Revenue Service but including some by his own family members. The controversies have contributed to Erhard reestablishing his enterprise under a new name—The Forum—which is the organizational form under which he operates currently."

Siegler, Elijah (2004). "Marketing Lazaris". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of New Age Religions. Amherst, New York: Prometheus. ISBN 1591020409.:

• p. 187

"Exemplars of new religious movements with a gradual CDS are Scientology and Erhard Seminar Training in its various manifestations."

Jenkins, Philip (2000). Mystics and Messiahs : Cults and New Religions in American History. London: Oxford University Presss. ISBN 0195127447.:

• p. 180

"Another potent element of the new cult milieu was the therapy sect, which offered believers the chance to achieve their full human potential through personal growth and self-actualization by taking total responsibility for one's actions. The prototypical movement of this kind was est (Erhard Seminar Training), in which intense and often grueling sessions forced followers to confront a new view of reality."

In religious studies literature

Saliba, John A. (2003). Understanding New Religious Movements. Walnut Creek, California: Rowman Altamira. p. 88. ISBN 9780759103559.:

• p. 88

"Many of the new religions attract individuals by the promise of peace of mind, spiritual well-being, gratifying experiences, and material success. In so doing they stress their concern for the individual and highlight one's personal worth and self-development. This is especially so in human growth movements such as Scientology, The Forum (previously known as Erhard Seminar Training [EST]), and quasi-religious encounter groups."

Kyle, Richard (1993). Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity. p. 313. ISBN 0830817662.:

• p. 313

"Rather, as John Clark points out, it is 'a form of secular salvation.' It is 'secular' because it is not identified with any formal religion. In fact, est denies being a religion at all. Yet est does propound a worldview and does have religious overtones. Since its purpose is to alter one's epistemology and instill a monistic or pantheistic belief in impersonal divinity, est qualifies as religious in the expansive use of the term."

George D. Chryssides (2001). Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow. p. 126. ISBN 0810840952.:

• p. 126

"Although est and the Forum are frequently categorized as NRMs or cults, leaders and participants have typically denied that undergoing the seminars involves following a religion."

Aupers, Stef (2005). "'We Are All Gods': New Age in the Netherlands 1960-2000". In Sengers, Erik (ed.). The Dutch and Their Gods: Secularization and Transformation of Religion in the Netherlands. Studies in Dutch Religious History. Vol. 3. Hilversum: Verloren. p. 193. ISBN 9065508678.:

• p. 193

"The first connection between New Age and business life started with the founding of Erhard Seminar Training (EST) in the US, California in 1971. In 1984 EST became known as Forum and nowadays it operates under the name Landmark. The founder of EST, a former member of the Scientology church called Werner Erhard, based the program on a combination of Zen meditation, gestalt therapy, psychosynthesis and management, but the main goal was self-spirituality. In the seminars people were trained to 'drop their former beliefs and go beyond their 'ego-operations', in order to get in touch with their deeper selves.
"Paradoxically, and completely at odds with the countercultural mood in those days, EST emphasized that getting in touch with one's 'true spirituality' would make people more successful and effective in the mainstream. The organizing principle of EST became: 'Whatever the world is doing, get to do that'. Morevoer, EST distinguished itself from other countercultural New Age initiatives by explicitly focusing on business life. Michael York argues in this respect, 'for Erhard, the core of EST is spiritual people, because spirituality/God is everywhere including the 'business jungle', which is where Erhard himself claims to have learned about spirituality."

Walker, James K. (2007). The Concise Guide to Today's Religions and Spirituality. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House. ISBN 9780736920117.:

• pp. 137-138

"According to published reports, Erhard incorporated elements from a variety of religions, including ZEN BUDDHISM and SCIENTOLOGY, into est. [...] The seminar and organization have undergone numerous transformations and name changes through the years. Est was discontinued and replaced with The Forum, and in 1991, Werner Erhard and Associates (WE&A) was dissolved. In its place, Landmark Education was incorporated, with Erhard's brother, serving as CEO and overseeing the current seminar, which is called Landmark Forum."

In business literature

Atkin, Douglas (2004). "What Is Required of a Belief System?". The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers Into True Believers. New York: Penguin/Portfolio. ISBN 9781591840275.:

• p. 101

"There has been an enormous growth of the phenomenon known as Large Group Awareness Training represented by such companies as Landmark Forum. Its former iteration was EST, begun by the famous and infamous Werner Erhard. He retired it in 1985 and started The Forum. One of several cults categorized as examples of the human potential movement that started in the 1970s, it focused on exploring and actualizing the self. It has gained great traction in recent decades with professionals working within highly demanding occupations—entrepreneurs, business managers, the fields of acting, advertising, and marketing. EST and The Landmark Forum have had over a million customers."

Wildflower, Leni (2013). The Hidden History of Coaching. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. ISBN 9780335245406.:

• p. 34

"In the Landmark Forum, the essential aspects of est live on in a modified form. It no longer makes such a virtue of aggressive confrontation. With the founding 'genius' out of the picture, Landmark is less open to the charge of being a cult, though it continues to attract criticism along these lines."

In psychiatry and psychology

Farber, Sharon Klayman (2012). Hungry for Ecstasy: Trauma, the Brain, and the Influence of the Sixties. Lanham, Maryland: Jason Aronson/Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780765708588.:

• pp. 131, 134, 139

"Erhard's early involvement with Scientology profoundly influenced the development of est and years later, the Landmark Forum."
"Its standard introductory course is known today as The Landmark Forum (Pressman 1993). By the mid 1990s Landmark was among 200 groups listed in France as having cult-like features and having been accused of brainwashing. In 2004 reporters hiding secret cameras infiltrated the Landmark, following a scathing expose on France's Channel 3 TV, after which the government put it on a list of dangerous sects (ABC NEWS 2008). Landmark Education apparently left France permanently."
"Years ago recruitment for cultic groups was far more obvious than today because extreme religious groups were easy to identify. They lived isolated from the general population, and the public had become aware of their deceptive recruiting techniques. Today many are attracted to organizations that are less overtly cultic, not overtly religious, and are often linked with the human potential movement, while others operate as businesses, with their tactics focused around financial success. Landmark Forum, for example, is a human potential/business hybrid."

Oakes, Len (1997). Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815627009.:

• p. 189

"L. Ron Hubbard repackaged Scientology from occultism, and est/Forum was a repackaging of Scientology by Werner Erhard, but few Scientologists or estians ever see the connections, and both leaders seem to have gained little from their teachings. This is what the followers of Erhard found so unsettling; he was the great pop artist of spirituality, yet was unable to apply his insights to himself."

Arweck, Elisabeth (2004). Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 0203642376.:

• pp. 145-146

"Schneider (1995:189–190) lists organizations, such as Landmark Education, Verein zur Förderung der Psychologischen Menschenkenntnis (VPM), Scientology/Dianetics, Ontologische Einweihungsschule (Hannes Scholl), EAP and Die Bewegung (Silo) as examples of 'therapy cults'. These groups do not immediately suggest a religious worldview, but reveal ideological and religious elements on closer inspection. Their slogans are 'We have the saving principle' or 'We enable those who are able' and they offer Lebenshilfe (advice on how to live). Such advice is a commodity which is sold in very expensive seminars. The ideologies involved often lie in the grey areas between the humanities, psychotherapies, Lebenshilfe, 'mental hygiene' (Psychohygiene), and religion."