(This post is from a long-time member of the rationalist community - I may or may not be an active poster on Less Wrong. I’ve messaged a moderator and asked if they would be willing to make a comment to confirm that this is the case.

Landmark has copyright on their course content and they have trademarked terms like Always/Already Listening and Rackets, which is important to understand for legal reasons.

I’m also going to attach a spoiler alert as understanding the techniques might make them less effective. But that said, my recommendation is that if you are considering the forum then you should understand exactly what you are signing up for)

After attending the Landmark Forum, I was completely shell-shocked at having encountered some powerful psycho-social technology unlike anything I’d ever seen before. They seemed to have a powerful ability to change how people viewed the world. At the same time, I felt troubled by some of the methods they used to persuade us to invite our friends and family to do the forum. Ironically, if they hadn’t tried so hard, I would have recommended the forum in a heartbeat. But given that they did, I would strongly recommend that anyone who is considering going do their research before signing up and ensure they are appropriately mentally prepared. I've tried to make the main body of the analysis as objective as possible, but there were some points at which I felt the need to comment.

What happened and the stories we tell ourselves

The core idea of Landmark is that we are trapped within and held back by the stories that we tell ourselves. For the most part, we aren’t even aware that we are operating from within these narratives, but they serve as excuses and determine many of our choices.

For example, imagine Derek had a rough childhood and was frequently beaten up by other kids until he started working out and training in martial arts. Years later, Derek is married and has trouble sharing openly with his wife, which pushes them to the verge of divorce.

A Landmark forum leader would ask Derek what he told himself back when he was being kicked into the ground. After some back and forth, Derek might eventually say that he told himself "I was weak and needed to become strong to survive". The forum leader might suggest that this is why he is unable to share: sharing makes Derek feel weak and he has a story that he has to be strong. Even tho...