User:Astynax/Sandbox2

Landmark Worldwide (formerly Landmark Education), or simply Landmark, is a limited liability company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It offers programs in personal development. The company claims that more than 2.2 million people have taken Landmark's programs since its founding in 1991, and that it hosts courses in approximately 115 locations across more than 20 countries.

The company started with the purchase of intellectual property rights developed by Werner Erhard, founder of est. Landmark has developed and delivered over 40 personal development programs. Its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations.

Landmark's programs have been categorized by scholars and others as religious in nature. In some quarters, it has been classed as a cult, with some participants alleging the use of manipulative and coercive techniques. Landmark denies such characterizations and has pressed lawsuits in response.

Corporation
Landmark Worldwide LLC operates as an employee-owned for-profit private company. According to Landmark's website, its employees own all the stock of the corporation, with no individual holding more than 3%. The company states that it operates in such a way as to invest its surpluses into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available. In addition, its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, focuses on marketing and delivering training and consultation services to corporate clients and other organizations.

The company claims that, since its founding in 1991, more than 2.2 million people have participated in its programs. It also claims to hold seminars in approximately 115 locations, spread across more than 20 nations. Landmark stated in 2005 that annual attendance at its courses was 200,000, with 70,000 to 80,000 participants in the Landmark Forum. From 1991 to 2008, it was stated that more than 1 million people had taken part in Landmark's introductory program, the Landmark Forum. Landmark reported revenues of approximately $81 million.

History
Landmark Worldwide LLC, known from May 7, 1991 to February 26, 2003 as "Landmark Education Corporation (LEC)", and from February 26, 2003 to July 16, 2013 as Landmark Education LLC, purchased certain rights to a presentation known as The Forum from Werner Erhard and Associates. Since then, the name of the presentation has been changed to "The Landmark Forum" and the content has been revised. The group of people who purchased the rights registered themselves initially as Transnational Education, as The Centers Network, and (in Japan) as Rancord Company, Ltd.. Incorporation as "Landmark Education Corporation" (LEC) took place later in 1991. "Landmark Education International, Inc.", the first Landmark name incorporated in the State of California, was filed on June 22, 1987. In February 2003, Landmark Education LLC succeeded LEC.

The coursework and pedagogy of WEA evolved from est/Erhard Seminars Training, founded by Werner Erhard in 1971. According to Landmark Education, Erhard consults from time to time with its "Research and Design team". Terry Giles, Chairman of the Board, is credited with resolving a long-standing rift among the descendants of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Business consulting
Vanto Group, Inc., founded in 1993 as "Landmark Education Business Development" (LEBD), a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Worldwide Enterprises, Inc., uses the techniques of Landmark to provide consulting services to various companies. The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business carried out a case study in 1998 into the work of LEBD. The report concluded that the set of interventions in the organization produced a 50% improvement in safety, a 15% to 20% reduction in key benchmark costs, a 50% increase in return on capital, and a 20% increase in raw steel production. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2007.

Companies such as Panda Express and Lululemon Athletica pay for and encourage employees to take part in The Landmark Forum.

Licensing intellectual property
Tekniko, Inc., formerly owned by Werner Erhard, was the successor organization to Transformational Technologies, which was incorporated in 1984 by Erhard and management consultant James Selman. Tekniko Licencing Corporation, a California corporation owned by Terry M. Giles, later acquired this technology. In 2001 Landmark Education formed Tekniko Licensing Corporation, a Nevada corporation, which purchased Tekniko Technology from Giles' company.

Since that time, the Vanto Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Worldwide, has used Tekniko to license the "Tekniko methodology and intellectual property to a wide variety of corporations".

Course content
The Landmark Forum takes place over three consecutive days and an evening session (generally Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday evening.) Each full day begins at 9:00 a.m. and typically ends at approximately 10:00 p.m. Breaks are approximately every 2–3 hours, with a 90-minute dinner break. The evening session generally runs from 7:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. Course size varies between 75 and 250 people. Rules are set up at the beginning of the program, such as strongly encouraging participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be “coachable” and not just be observers during the course. The program is arranged as a discussion where the course leader presents certain ideas and the course participants engage in voluntary sharing with the course leader to discuss how those ideas apply to their own life. Ideas presented, asserted and discussed include the following:


 * There is a big difference between what actually happened in a person’s life and the meaning or interpretation they made up about it


 * People pursue an imaginary someday of satisfaction


 * Human behavior is governed by a need to look good


 * People add meaning to events in their life which are not necessarily true


 * People have persistent complaints that give rise to unproductive fixed ways of being


 * People can “transform” by a creative act of bringing forth new ways of being, rather than trying to change themselves in comparison to the past


 * Course participants are encouraged to call people they know during the course who they are incomplete with and either be in communication with the other person or be responsible for their own behavior.


 * The Tuesday evening session completes the Landmark Forum with several further distinctions and sharing by participants about the results they got. Course attendees bring guests to learn about the Landmark Forum.

Community projects
Some other Landmark courses encourage or require participants to create a community project. In the Self-Expression and Leadership Program, participants are required to undertake a project that benefits the larger community or society as a whole.

In the Team, Management, and Leadership Program, participants create four team-based community projects.

Evaluations and reviews
The New York Times reporter Henry Alford summarized his review of The Landmark Forum by saying "Two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent. I'm more prone to telling loved ones and colleagues, in person and without glibness, that I love or admire them. But I still operate from a base position that people are a lot of effort." Time reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem …I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me."

The Irish Mail on Sunday says the effects of The Landmark Forum "...can be startling. People find themselves reconciled with parents, exes and friends. They have conversations they have wanted to have with their families for years; they meet people or get promoted in work."

Landmark makes extensive use of web-published and word-of-mouth

testimonials from customers to portray its effectiveness, and supplements these with studies, surveys, and opinions.

Some observers question whether and to what degree Landmark courses benefit participants. Others criticize the use of volunteers by Landmark; others highlight the connections with other groups and with Werner Erhard. Landmark has been criticized by some for being overzealous in encouraging people to participate in its courses.

Disputed religious character
Many scholars have categorized Landmark and its predecessor organizations as new age, self religions or new religious movements. See: Landmark has vociferously denied that it is a religion, cult or sect.
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).
 * Others, such as Chryssides, classify Landmark as either quasi-religious or secular with some elements of religion. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions. Various governments have also classed Landmark as new religions and some have classified it as dangerous (though some scholars have disputed this characterization).

Articles about the Forum have mentioned allegations that it has "cult-like" characteristics. Landmark rejects the cult label and "freely threatens or pursues lawsuits against those who call it one." Journalists Amelia Hill with The Observer and Karin Badt from The Huffington Post have witnessed the Landmark Forum and concluded that, in their view, it is not a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Badt noted the organisation's emphasis on "'spreading the word' of the Landmark forum as a sign of the participants' 'integrity'" in recounting her personal experience of an introductory "Landmark Forum" course. Part of this theme included repeated comparisons between program participants and Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. Badt expressed the opinion that the course's word-of-mouth marketing methodology and its considerable focus on proselytizing amounted to "brainwashing". She also noted that, "At the end of the day, I found the Forum innocuous. No cult, no radical religion: an inspiring, entertaining introduction of good solid techniques of self-reflection, with an appropriate emphasis on action and transformation (not change)", pointing instead to problems lying with uncritical participants. Other participants and anti-cult groups have accused Landmark of being a cult or employing cult-like methods, with former members reporting manipulative and coercive techniques such as sleep deprivation.

Landmark makes no claims to being a religion, but some academic observers have nonetheless noted relationships between the training programs and religion. Others have noted a lack of religious elements in the programs or the compatibility of the programs with existing religions. Academic sources have suggested that the programs possess religious features and/or address participants' spiritual needs.

Following a series of investigative articles in the national daily Dagens Nyheter  and programs on the private TV channel TV4, Landmark also closed its offices in Sweden as of June 2004. The French office of Landmark closed in July 2004 after labor inspectors, following a site visit that noted the activities of volunteers, made a report of undeclared employment.

Legal disputes
Since its formation in 1991, Landmark Worldwide LLC has initiated several lawsuits around the world, pressing defamation actions against authors and journalists who have intimated that it is a cult. Critics of Landmark have portrayed these actions as an assault on free speech or an attempt to suppress legitimate comment, whereas Landmark Education has insisted that it only seeks to have inaccurate statements corrected and to protect its products from unfair disparagement. In addition, other actions have been brought by individuals who have been required by their employers to attend seminars delivered by Landmark and Vanto. Landmark has also initiated actions against websites such as Google and the Internet Archive to remove material it deems defamatory and to protect the content of its courses.