The Landmark Forum : A Cult Business

I dropped out of Landmark Forum in Mumbai, India yesterday (14 Sep’19) after the dinner break of second of 3.5 days Programme, following to an altercation with the so called ‘coach’ (or Forum Leader), Mahesh Nambiar. The sole reason of my leaving the course midway & unfinished was triggered when I expressed not to register for the Advance Course, before completing the 3.5 days Forum itself and the 10 follow up sessions called ‘Seminars’. My that proposition made him so angry that he ran after me, called me a liar, touched my spectacles as if to break it, shouted all the way by calling me a mean minded below average creature, cheap human being, took my late father’s name for the second time in two days etc. I instantly determined that his reaction was totally inhuman, irrelevant and the derogatory reference to my father (who passed away 14 years ago) had nothing to do with this course in the process of “empowering me to greatest possibility’ and decided to leave the Forum immediately. Many participants & Forum staff followed me through the staircase & elevator while exiting the building to stop me leaving the Forum. These people, I thought were like disciples of Asaram Bapu or some privileged slaves who beat up other slaves and became void of their own sense, righteous judgment, self-respect & dignity.

I am not going to comment much on the course contents of the Forum unduly as I did not complete the course, which was recited by Mahesh with flawed American Accent from the ‘course manual’ taking not more than 10% of approximately 26 hours I spent there. Much time was spent on verbal & video marketing of Landmark’s various products such as Advance Course, More Advance Course, Young People’s Course, Corporate People’s Course, Family Course & so on. 20% of time was spent on ‘coach’ Mahesh’s personal & materialistic accomplishments, his family vacation & paragliding experience in Mauritius, as if we paid our course fee & have come to listen to his biography!

Rest of the time was spent on demeaning, mimicking & calling names (liars, frauds, conmen, cheap human being etc.) to innocent & eager-to-learn participants, who were made to confess in public about their personal agonies and problems. More than 90% of the participants were in marital discord and others were abused / oppressed / suppressed in their adolescent or other times.

Mahesh demeaned & derogated all professionals, educational & political achievers, scientists, actors, doctors, civil service officers, spiritual leaders - everybody on the earth who have not or are not graduated/ing from Landmark Course(s). Sometimes, he cut jokes with unbearable sudden shrills like a cheap third grade comedian and made participants to laugh (probably as mandated in the training manual guidelines); those who are not laughing, he abused them as devoid of sense of humour. He made them to raise their hands every other minute to reassure himself on his meaningless & frequently lost-in-context speeches he stretched on while struggling to convince participants. I contemplated that the course materials Mahesh shared during the last 26 hours could have easily been covered in 8 hours - as in normal educational seminars with two tea & one lunch breaks, but that does not justify the course fee of Rs.18,500 + 500 rescheduling charge!

There were restrictions imposed on not leaving the Forum unfinished (why the money was paid in advance already, but more to come from the advance courses!), ‘ganging-up’ against the Landmark’s fraudsters and wow, there were spies he said planted within the participants for reporting who would express their opinions about the futility of the course or against anything about Landmark’s course proceedings.

Mahesh is the biggest liar and conman I have ever met in my entire life who, as admitted by himself, is in the rut & tread of Landmark’s training manual for over two decades, it’s super-aggressive marketing policy that are manipulatively designed to entice more & more innocent, vulnerable people actually in need of professional mental health or other supports, rather than getting into Landmark’s never ending vicious cycle of course after course after course, in the name of changing human lives towards betterment. He termed himself as like an Olympics coach and assumed the right to abuse and insult any participant at any time at the slightest provocation of ‘expressed disagreements’ on any matter - particularly against the mean & frivolous commercial interest of Landmark. He did nothing else in his entire life span! He lost his temper every now & then, shouted like an animal to break participants into crying by insulting & forcing them to reveal their deep secrets and then celebrated ‘victories’ by making them ‘complete’ their responsibilities through 5–10 phone calls to their dear ones (with whom participants had problems) during a 20 minutes’ tea-break at 5:30 p.m.! Look how efficiently, Participants’ age-old problems were analysed, determined, judged and resolved forever that way in minutes by calling on phone! Magic, miracle, unprecedented solution maker of the planet!!! TOTAL CRAP.

I wonder how is this scam is still going on for such a long time without the notice of Administrative Authorities of any county? I am fortunate to have a friend who has participated four times in the Olympics and now a renowned Indian national coach and have witnessed his calm & determined ways of coaching his disciples with compassion, respect, politeness while imparting real knowledge to enhance skills to compete in real world class sporting events, including Olympics & World Championships.

I presume that the original intention & design of Landmark curricula have deviated from its intended path towards mean commercial benefits only by torturing & enforcing people in distress, at least at the Forum I attended in Mumbai. I was informed that the latest Forum coach in New Delhi was much respectful to its participants. Another friend from Dubai expressed that the only thing she learnt from Landmark Course was ‘how to abuse anybody’ without an iota of feeling guilt; she uses the F* word like a verb in each of her sentence so nicely & frequently these days!

May God save the present & future participants of Landmark, till Administrative Authorities in all countries stop this nasty SCAM which is seriously affecting human lives.