est on Wikileaks
Alrick
3 Mar 1991
Released August 26, 2009
Summary
The ZIP archive presents the video and transcript of an investigative
report into "est" (Erhard Seminars Training) guru Werner Erhard by CBS
News, originally broadcast on the program 60 Minutes on March 3, 1991.
Both, video and transcript, have been published at various points in
time, but are not publically available anymore due to legal threats
against publishers from Werner Erhard.
The material contains interviews with friends, business associates and
family of Werner Erhard making serious claims against him. Erhard is
accused by family members of beating his wife and children, and raping
a daughter, while still giving seminars on how to have relationships
that work. The story also includes interviews with two former staff
members of Werner Erhard: Wendy Drucker (a senior manager) and Dr. Bob
Larzelere (head of Erhard's counseling staff).
The current incarnation of the est training is now known as Landmark
Education, with its course the Landmark Forum. Landmark Education is
run by CEO Harry Rosenberg, who is Werner Erhard's brother, and
General Counsel and Chairman of the Board of Directors Art Schreiber,
who has acted as Werner Erhard's lawyer. Werner Erhard's sister Joan
Rosenberg also sits on the Board of Directors of Landmark Education.
The likely audience for this material includes researchers of the
"est" and Landmark Education / Landmark Forum movement - including
psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, as well as those
researching the controversial life of Werner Erhard. The audience also
includes potential clients/customers of the company Landmark Education
- whose course the Landmark Forum was originally developed by Werner
Erhard as the "est training".
The material can be verified as the original CBS broadcast on 60
Minutes of March 3, 1991. The episode of 60 Minutes is Program # 2325.
Additionally, Cult expert Rick Ross of The Ross Institute Internet
Archives for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and
Movements maintains a large database on Landmark Education[1], est[2],
and The Forum[3], and his attorneys are also quite educated as to the
organization's methods[4].
Part 2:
US Department of Labor investigation into Landmark Education, 2006
This should be under a new category titled "EST / Werner Erhard &
Associates (WE&A) / Landmark Education". This is a 2006 investigative
report by the U.S. Department of Labor on Landmark Education. Landmark
Education is an international cult, with 55 offices worldwide, that
offers seminars and has widely been described by journalists and
participants as a cult. Landmark is the direct decendant of EST, which
was created in the 1970's using "technology" heavily borrowed from
Scientology.
Thousands of reports form journalists and "participants", stretching
back three decades, have established some basic facts about a standard
Landmark experience. Landmark puts groups of people in a room for
three days and subjects them to various psychological brainwashing
techniques that make them feel great about themselves and Landmark.
Landmark then manipulates these victims into signing up for more
expensive courses and volunteering for Landmark's for-profit business.
Landmark's intent is to keep people "hooked" and constantly involved.
Landmark victims will then forgo and forsake their own best interests
in order to continue participating with and volunteering for Landmark,
which often results in permanent, lasting damage to the victim's
personal life.
Landmark's continued operation depends on their ability to find and
recruit new victims. To ensure this, they have developed a highly
effective censorship and propaganda program that suppresses negative
information through lawsuits and threats, while issuing false or
manipulated positive propaganda about the organization.
ANSWERS
(1) This file has previously been released in the public domain as a
result of a Freedom of Information Act request, however, Landmark has
suppressed all original PDF copies from the internet. Only typed
transcripts of the original document can be found online.
(2) This document directly refutes a key point of Landmark's
propaganda by documenting that their exploitation of volunteers is in
fact unquestionably a violation of U.S. labor laws. It also documents
that Landmark's General Counsel and Chairman was directly told to stop
these practices in 2006, and that Landmark simply refused to comply.
(3) Former, current, potential future victims of Landmark Education,
and their family members and loved ones. Landmark claims that over
200,000 people participate in their programs every year. Also, other
grassroot organizers and/or government authorities around the world
who are interested in organizing, responding to and stopping
Landmark's spreading abuse.
(4) Submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department
of Labor. Also, transcribed copies of the contents can be found on web
sites (just not the original PDF source material)
(5) Landmark has effectively suppressed original copies of this
document from the internet. Landmark has sued people who have hosted
this document online, and has succeeded in having the PDF of this
document pulled from websites.
(6) Landmark's ongoing censorship and propaganda efforts include a
campaign against Wikipedia, where Landmark is removing critical
information and replacing it with propaganda. Wikipedia editors are
meeting to consider the Landmark Education entry, and we need this
document published so we can cite and refer to it in our efforts to
restore the truth about Landmark to Wikipedia. Landmark is also
appears to be preparing to change its name again in response to
accumulated negative publicity, so this should be published promptly.
Source:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Department_of_Labor_investigation_into_Landmark_Education%2C_2006
Tex
There was a bittorrent that was posted here a while back.
The 60 Minutes piece was fascinating.
computeruser
"Alrick" <alri...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:3cac022f-f19f-4824...@z41g2000yqz.googlegroups.com...
http://www.vantogroup.com/display_content.jsp?top=167&mid=207
VantoGroup (formerly Landmark Education Business Development) provides more
than analysis, explanation, and advice.
> in response to
> accumulated negative publicity, so this should be published promptly.
>
> Source:
> http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Department_of_Labor_investigation_into_Landmark_Education%2C_2006
.
.