Living the Landmark Lifesure was an Education

by Dale Dickens

On reflection I can see that I wrote and read the previous chapter

exactly the way it happened,

tra la la, tra la la, tra la la...

B A N G.

Did she just say that?

It was all quite funny 'til that point

Yes, it was...

so was my life.

Ericks' suicide left me in a similar space

to the way the story

left some people in the room last chapter.

Dumbfounded, a little uncomfortable and quite uncertain.

From that perspective the reading was a success

in that it was intended to give you a clearer picture for this quite radical shift.

The months that followed Erick's suicide are a bit of a blur,

I moved out of Philip's place

and into an apartment with a stoner for two weeks.

He couldn't believe my relationship with the phone.

I was an SELP coach, which meant quite a few coaching calls

some of which went for hours.

So for somebody who just wanted to sit on the couch and smoke bongs

it was all too hard, too much activity.

For me it meant moving again,

this time into a share house with an SELP participant

who completely understood my relationship with the phone

and made life a little easier.

Landmark Education was safe territory for me to cry

without that uncomfortable 'pat on the shoulder' sympathy

where the listener just doesn't know what to say

and fills the gaps of silence with meaningless words

to console their discomfort.

Needless to say I spent a lot of my time at the Landmark Office.

The people there listened, gave me the space to grieve

and could also talk to me about the abundance

of assisting opportunities that the corporation offered.

Opportunities that would allow me to get out of my own drama

and coach others in expressing their selves as possibilities.

Yes, assisting others to lead a life they loved and live it powerfully

seemed the obvious move to make,

so I stepped up and registered myself into the Introduction Leaders Program.

I wanted to be a leader, to have some kind of control

in the circumstances I was living....

to take responsibility

and learn how to be the author of my life,

cos it really seemed like somebody else was writing the script

and I was at their mercy...

stranger than fiction you could say.

The Leadership program goes for six months

classrooms each Friday night, a weekly call with a coach,

a weekly assisting agreement to fulfil my measures

4 full weekends of intensive breakthrough training,

all of which mastered an ability to 'get into another's world'.

I was part of a team of people committed to transforming the planet,

and finally felt like I belonged to something.

Something important that was going to change the world forever.

I discovered things like

the reason why people drag habits of the past into the future.

For example sticking a feather up your bum at age 4 whilst pretending to be a chook

can in fact impact public speaking 50 years later.

It's all a matter of observing the environment,

and listening to the subconscious conversations

that fall out of people's mouths.

I learned that when people are unaware of the image they're presenting to the world

they rarely give thought to the language that shapes the world they live in.

As a result

they're easy to register into a course.

A course with specifically designed technology that

creates a fundamental never-to-be-forgotten paradigm shift.

Landmark Education specialises in such technology.

It's created for people who shovel important issues deeply into the past

and pretend everything's ok.

Lucky for Landmark there are a few people like that.

I lapped up the information as fast as I could,

absorbed the technology, and became a different person,

somebody who did indeed carve out an unimaginable future

and created a life beyond my wildest dreams.

A life with Landmark.

It wasn't long before I accepted a position as a full time employee

which is an honourable status to have in the world of Landmark Education.

One gets a real badge,

not one of those plastic name tag holders with a printed piece of paper.

ooohhh no,

a badge with a magnet.

And one gets to work Monday to Friday

from 10am-9pm

and Saturdays from 10am-6pm

for $24,000 per annum.

Staff people also get to say

"I got it"

a LOT.

'cos one gets it on staff,

one gets it in an instant.

That's one of the key distinctions of a Landmark leader

is the ability to get it, and get off 'it'

like that

(click of fingers).

And I did

for two years and one quarter.

Communication Program Manager,

Self Expression and Leadership Program coach, head coach, manager, and leader,

Communication Curriculum Manager

Team Management and Leadership Program class room leader,

Level three Course Supervisor,

Assisting program manager,

and Participation Manager.

Impressive huh?

I got to live the technology.

I got to work and assist up to 120 hours a week,

and get paid for 38

because if you're 'on staff' you gotta take a leadership agreement...

oooh no, going home because it's nine o'clock??

Come on, lead something, introductions, the ILP, SELP, assisting intro's, seminars...

something, anything.

I got to share a house with other Landmarkians who were equally as transformed

and spoke the language of transformation fluently.

I got to be a Landmark leader.

I made it.

Trying to pinpoint the exact moment when things started going downhill

is pretty tricky.

I think it was when HotShot, the new centre manager,

a high flying lawyer from Sydney

who reluctantly agreed to be on staff when she heard the salary,

I think it was when she arrived in Perth and chose a pet staff person that wasn't me.

She chose the golden girl from Bunbury who fucked guys to get them on her team.

Yes, that is me being petty and jealous and upset for not being the chosen one,

you're right...

fact of the matter is that I wasn't cutting it as a staff person.

Statistics, statistics ,statistics

Micro management every hour

What result have you produced?

How many calls have you made?

Have you filled your teams?

What about seminars, where are you at?

What are you doing the next hour?

Why are you being ineffective?

What are you resisting?

and..

Who are you BEing?

When HotShot arrived I'd been on a warning for 3 months

which meant I wasn't bonus-able.

She gave me four measures to meet

to clear myself from the warning

I absolutely romped it in with three measures

and missed one by 0.6%.

To the Landmark management literal sense of training

that meant ...

too bad, so sad.

The warning stuck like an invisible neon sign on my head.

Think that's when I really lost heart and things really started to go downhill.

I started to notice weirdness,

like the incestuous nature of leaders getting involved with other leaders

and participants...

and the rigid hierarchical structure

which completely contradicted the creative energy of the "education".

The coaching questions that drove people into a hole

to identify that way of being that stopped people

from producing the results they said they'd produce

by the time they said they'd produce them.

Zero excuses.

BE YOUR WORD.

Say something that makes a difference or shut the fuck up.

I started hearing about ex leaders needing extensive therapy when they left.

One couple crashed their business, and their marriage,

then she left her son with her husband

and went walkabout..

I don't know if she ever went back.

Another guy from the Sydney office just didn't go back work one day,

instead he got on a train to Perth and disappeared for a few months.

Things started to get to me,

things like not being invited to the wedding of all weddings

when HotShot married the SELP leader.

It was humiliating to be the only person from the leadership body not to be invited.

Payback for our authentic Landmark style conversation

when I said "I just don't like you".

She didn't have to invite my house mate Saani though,

Saani was really surprised when that little metallic purple envelope

arrived at our house with her name on it.

It was also humiliating to be called back from annual leave to finish a job,

unlucky for HotShot it was also illegal...

when the Regional Manager found out I was allowed to resume my holiday.

Another participant committed suicide.

"do people commit suicide after doing the Landmark Forum"

my neon sign flashed like crazy...

WARNING WARNING

I knew the answer was yes,

and considering the main drive for the corporation at that time

was authenticity slash inauthenticity

I wanted to answer that question with the truth,

"YES, people do commit suicide after doing the Landmark Forum".

instead I answered the verbatim

"Clinical psychologist Dr Raymond Fowler says that...

blah blah blah"

Those little things started to get to me

and I decided it was time to go.

It took me two and a half years to finally do that.

I was a failed staff person,

and had no idea how to fit into the 'real world' again.

HotShot said I'd shrink if I resigned,

but I didn't care.

A Landmark graduate lined me up with a job

as a Branch manager for a recruitment company,

I more than doubled my salary for 38 hours a week.

pff the equivalent of a part time job in Landmark's world.

When I screwed that up and got the Branch closed down

I made my way back to Melbourne,

it was finally time to come home.

You'll hear about life after Landmark next week.

THANK YOU.