Frequent Beyond Growth commenter Jack of the 32,000 Days blog recently wrote a blog entry entitled “Landmark forum – cult, scam, or path to enlightenment” based on his experiences of the popular personal growth workshop. His review was mostly favorable but also accurate, telling of the aggressive techniques used and the reasoning behind the workshop, but also noting some important points counter to critics of The Forum like that nobody was forced to stay in the room (unlike the original est training). I am still highly critical of The Forum and Landmark Education in general and do not recommend this workshop, but it was interesting to hear about Jack’s experience nonetheless.

I posted a long comment in response that I thought Beyond Growth readers might enjoy. My comment includes some ideas I’ve been working on around the philosophy of personal growth which is also critical of some of the presuppositions of The Forum. For context, you may want to read Jack’s post first. (more…)