I just want to commend Machinaforce for putting himself out there and trying something new for a change. May not have worked out quite the way you hoped, but well done nonetheless. Keep it up and best of luck to you. Be well.
I had a roommate who was into Landmark when I was in grad school. Basically, every aspect of his life was a complete shitstorm which he considered to be his fault because he was not “working the Forum” hard enough. At least he was half right.
“The Forum”, now that I’m familiar with. Years ago, a friend of mine asked me to go with him just for a laugh. We rolled our eyes and shook our heads so much during the initial presentation that two people came over to us and tried to separate us into two different follow up “meetings”, because we’d get “a larger perspective on the program”. We told them we’d heard enough bullshit for the evening and left. My immediate impression was that it’s a cult based on the manner in which they monitor and try to ‘handle’ people who are clearly skeptics.
I guess primarily I was just bummed out that I thought this was meeting another guy and i end up trying to have something sold to me. I don’t want to call it lying or deception since it might just be a miscommunication and I don’t want to assume the worst in people just because this ended badly. But to say it doesn’t sting would be a lie.
Yeah that sucks, but don’t let it get you down too much. It’s good to put yourself out there and meet new people. Some of them might not be what you expect, but some might turn out to be good friends or more. Being open to things is good.
On a similar note, years back this girl from high school who was attractive and popular called me out of the blue and invited me to lunch. I was pretty excited. When we got to lunch before our drinks had even arrived she pulled out these brochures and tried to sell me insurance. :smack:
Anyone inviting you to a Landmark Forum meeting is lying and deceiving you. There’s no need to assume.
I still don’t want to assume that, especially since I couldn’t really prove it in the moment. But it is good to know.
If you didn’t like Landmark, you really won’t like Amway…
They have this in common: you get recruited by being lied to about what you’re attending (yes, I too got roped into attending a pitch to try to recruit me to sell Amway).
The difference, such as it is, is that Amway actually has products they sell - and the damn products (the ones I tried in the early 80s) were actually fairly decent. The marketing structure was a scam and a half though.
Bottom line: whether it’s Landmark (which I’d never heard of until 10 minutes ago), Amway, or anything else: if they have to lie to you to get you to listen to the opening pitch, they’ve already told you as much about their organization as you need to know.