Australian Defence Department funds controversial development training

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Australia’s Department of Defence spent thousands of dollars on controversial development seminars, Australian media reported Wednesday. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training “est”, and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor.

Australia’s Defence Minister Warren Snowdon said that the government is in the process of reviewing Defence Department expenditures on career development. “We’re in the process now of doing an audit, completely unrelated with anything to do with Landmark, which is being undertaken into learning and development to make sure that they meet our needs. … We have to be very sure that the courses that people do undertake are relevant, appropriate and indeed in line with what community expectations might be,” said Snowdon in an appearance on ABC Radio.

The Australian and Australia’s ABC News reported that Landmark Education had been listed in France as a “possible cult” in the mid 1990s. When asked about this on ABC Radio, a spokeswoman for the company in the United States, Deborah Beroset, responded: “What happened in France was that a commission established by the French parliament issued a report in which they listed almost 200 organisations as being possible cults … We were never contacted. We were inappropriately included in that list”.

In a program which aired Wednesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program AM reported that Australia’s Defence Department spent at least AUD12,270 of taxpayer funds to send government employees to Landmark Education courses. According to AM, the Defence Department said it does not appear that further funds have been sent to Landmark Education since 2004.

In a statement released by the Defence Department, the government stated: “A search of Defence records does not indicate exactly how many individuals attended courses with this training provider, however it is believed it was a small number of individuals. … Defence has been unable to determine individual reasons for why groups within Defence choose this training provider.”

AM also reported that the use of unpaid labor by Landmark Education “has attracted the attention of the US and French governments,” and that some individuals in the mental health field have accused the company of brainwashing. When asked about the allegations by mental health experts that Landmark Education’s techniques amounted to brainwashing, Deborah Beroset responded: “Well, there is absolutely no credence to that whatsoever.”

In a March 9 article in the Herald Sun, Peter Rolfe reported that taxpayer money was used to send at least 37 police and government staff from Victoria, Australia to seminars run by Landmark Education. Police and Emergency Services Minister Bob Cameron said that “Decisions on the appropriateness of staff attending courses by Landmark Education are made by individual managers who remain best-placed to assess the development needs of their staff,” but State Liberal MP Murray Thompson told the Herald Sun that the funds should have been put towards fighting crime. Apple Inc., Reebok and Mercedes-Benz have sent employees to Landmark Education seminars, according to a spokeswoman for Landmark.

In October 2006, Landmark Education took legal action against Google, YouTube, the Internet Archive and a website owner in Queensland, Australia in attempts to remove criticism of its products from the Internet. The company sought a subpoena under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an attempt to discover the identity of an anonymous critic who uploaded a 2004 French documentary of the Landmark Forum to the Internet. “Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous” (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) was produced by Pièces à Conviction, a French investigative journalism news program. The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the anonymous critic and the Internet Archive, and Landmark withdrew its subpoena in November 2006 in exchange for a promise from the anonymous critic not to repost the video.

Landmark Education is descended from Erhard Seminars Training, also called “est”, which was founded by Werner Erhard. est began in 1971, and Erhard’s company Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as “The Forum” in 1985. Associates of Erhard bought the license to his “technology” and incorporated Landmark Education in California in 1991.

Sources

• “Defence sends staff on ‘cult’ courses: The Department of Defence has spent thousands of dollars on professional development courses run by an organisation listed in France as a possible cult“. The Australian, April 2, 2008
• Daniel Hoare “Defence Dept under fire over professional development spending“. AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• “Defence workers trained by ‘cult’: The Defence Department has admitted some of its personnel have undertaken professional development courses run by an organisation that had been listed as a possible cult“. ABC News (Australia), April 2, 2008
• “Defence Dept under fire over professional development courses (AM)“. AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• “Govt doing audit of Defence Dept professional development courses (AM)“. AM (ABC Radio), April 2, 2008
• Peter Rolfe “We pay for seminars: Taxpayers are picking up the bill to send police officers and bureaucrats on a controversial personal enlightenment course“. Herald Sun, March 9, 2008
• K.C. Jones “Landmark Drops Copyright Infringement Subpoenas On Google And Anonymous Critic: Landmark sought a subpoena to find out who posted hidden camera footage from an event held by the French branch of the organization“. InformationWeek, December 1, 2006
• “Landmark and the Internet Archive“. Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 29, 2006
• Traci Hukill “The est of Friends: Werner Erhard’s protégés and siblings carry the torch for a ’90s incarnation of the ’70s ‘training’ that some of us just didn’t get“. Metro Silicon Valley, July 9, 1998

Credit: Wikinews - cc-a-2.5

Useful information from two Ph.D.’s, a parody play, and other LGAT discussion

Some Large Group Awareness Training related news, information and postings:

Related to our prior post, Mankind Project or Dancing Naked With Other Men While Beating Cooked Chickens, in a post “Article raises questions about New Warriors Adventure” - Professor of Psychology Dr. Warren Throckmorton cites strange practices by the group including: Blindfolded walking tours in the nude; People blowing sage smoke in his face while 50 or so naked men danced around candles; Men sitting naked in a circle discussing their sexual histories while passing a wooden dildo called “The Cock”; and of course, Naked men beating cooked chickens with a hammer.

“Landmark Forum and the Red Flags” is an amusing, humorous satirical parody play discussing what the writer refers to as the “Formicans”, and a character’s research through both direct experience and (wisely so) also through research on the internet about this fictional parody group.

The Cult News Network provides a link to an “Ongoing legal complaint re: Werner Erhard on Wikipedia ?” The issue is also discussed at the Cult Education Forum, under the topic: “Large Group Awareness Training, ‘Human Potential’ “

Echidne of the Snakes has an interesting piece called “A Guest Post on the Mankind Project.” The writer cites the Houston Press article, “Naked Men: The Mankind Project and Michael Scinto.” However, the most interesting quote from the Echidne of the Snakes post, would probably be a warning about secrecy related to Large Group Awareness Training organizations: “Secrecy can be a good thing, but insisting on secrecy on this level should make us worried.”

The Post of Athens, Ohio in an article called “Conquering coercion” has some very valuable information about coercive groups, and provides a list of “Warning Signs for College Students”. In its research for the piece, The Post consulted with psychologist Dr. Paul Martin, director of the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center. Dr. Martin was influenced by the work of Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Robert Lifton, who wrote about the Eight Criteria for Thought Reform.

Dr. Doni Whitsett discussed deceptive mind control techniques and tactics often used by “destructive groups”, in an article in the Daily Trojan. Dr. Whitsett gave some advice to parents of potential victims of these deceptive practices: “Don’t be discouraged by resistance … Kids will remember your questions when they begin to doubt. Question, but don’t give advice.” This is very good advice, because through questioning and asking good points and probing into the background of some of these deceptive groups, the parents can begin to restimulate the rational skepticism of their child that may have been laying dormant as a result of harmful tactics they may have experienced.

Small Company Secrets: The MindBend experience, by Paul Burri, Goleta Valley Voice. A great little piece about a weekend “seminar” called MindBend (name changed to protect the author of the article from being sued), which is described as being similar to EST.  Burri provides some excellent advice at the end of the article: “Do not ever allow anyone to put you in an uncomfortable situation. Speak up and ask to have the rules changed, the setting changed or to make whatever changes are necessary to make you feel comfortable. It will keep you from agreeing to something that you might regret later.”

Drinking the Kool Aid - Press censored by complaint of “libel” ?

On October 24, 2007,  the Daily Orange, a student newspaper in Syracuse, New York, posted an article entitled: “Drinking the Kool Aid: Cults target college students in recruitment.”  This article discussed the presence of cults on the Syracuse University campus, and also gave information from cult expert Carol Giambalvo, a member of the board of directors for the International Cultic Studies Association, and Syracuse University dean of Hendricks Chapel, Thomas Wolfe.  Giambalvo stated that cults can masquerade as activist, self-improvement and religious groups.

If you go to the Web page where this article was located, you can no longer read the article on “Drinking the Kool Aid.”  Instead a notice is displayed from the editor, stating that the Daily Orange removed the body of the article because it contained “libel,” and they apologized to “the parties involved.”  Unfortunately, we do not know specifically what the allegation of libel was regarding, and what group made the allegation of libel, or even what groups were specifically analyzed in the article itself.  It is certainly possible that one of the groups mentioned in the article contacted the paper and alleged a cry of “libel,” in order to get critical information quickly taken off of the internet.  It is also possible that the Daily Orange editor, with no external provocation, chose to censor their own article without any actual threats or complaints from any outside group.  At the moment, that key fact is not publicly known.  But the censorship itself did occur.

The comments section below the notice from the editor is still active, and the readers have made eight interesting key comments about the censorship of the article.  One commenter posted a quick and funny note one hour after the censorship:  “Quick….to the lawyers.  Truth be damned.”  Others have hazarded guesses about which group may have complained resulting in the censorship of the Daily Orange.  We will not make guesses ourselves about that, and instead allow you to read the comments at their site and discuss and rationalize for yourselves what may have provoked this censorship. 

Interestingly enough and of direct relation to our site’s title, the eighth and last commenter below the censored article discussed Large Group Awareness Training, and also spoke positively of his experiences with the group Landmark Forum.  Was Landmark Forum discussed in the censored Daily Orange article?  Well, we do not know for sure, because the article is removed, but it is interesting that others are commenting about it, both positively and negatively, in the comments section below the article.  However, Landmark Forum has been referred to by academics as a form of Large Group Awareness Training.  One such recent reference would be:

Rubinstein, Gidi.  “Characteristics of participants in the Forum, psychotherapy clients, and control participants: A comparative study”, Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, (2005) 78, 481-492. The British Psychological Society. 

The article is a very interesting read.  Whether or not Landmark Education was mentioned in the article aside, it is most intriguing to note that they have acted in the past to attempt to remove critical information on the internet, and have explained this by claiming that such critical information is “libel.”  Attorneys Skolnik and Norwick of firm Lowenstein Sandler PC have written an excellent article summarizing some of this history, called: “Introduction to the Landmark Education litigation archive“.  They explain that they created this Landmark Education litigation archive so that future attorneys defending clients critical of Landmark Forum and accused of libel do not have to go through and spend as much time researching Landmark Education’s history of litigation as Skolnik and Norwick did.  More recently, Landmark Education attempted to get the video known as “Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus” removed from the internet.  More about that at: “Landmark Education wants to make French news report a “forbidden video” on the Net.”  The Web site Chilling Effects, which documents usage of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to remove material from the internet, as well as other forms of censorship on the net, has posted a copy of a letter sent by Landmark Education attorneys to a Web site, asking them to remove the “Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus” video and associated transcript from their site, called the Cult Awareness and Information Centre, which is based in Australia.  Oddly enough, Chilling Effects decided to title the page where they host this letter from Landmark Education lawyers very similarly to the currently censored article from the Daily Orange.  The page at Chilling Effects is titled: Who is bringing the Kool Aid?

As a caveat to the potential “lawyers” as the first commentator we spoke of above alluded to - we will make this statement here:  Please note carefully - It is not our job on this site to characterize any group as a “cult” or to say that any group is not a “cult.”  You can find information on “cults” at other Web sites, some of which we have discussed in the past as references, including the respected International Cultic Studies Association mentioned above, that publishes the peer reviewed journal, the Cultic Studies Review.  Our interest in these posts is to educate the reader about Large Group Awareness Trainings, and their history, background, methodology and tactics.  Therefore, we will not get into trying to parse which groups are widely considered “cults” and which are not, but rather will instead discuss and explain groups that are widely considered to be Large Group Awareness Trainings.  We will leave the cult identification and discussion, to the experts.

Related links:

Discussion about the censored Daily Orange article is going on at the Cult Education Forum, under the topic Large Group Awareness Training, “Human Potential” .

Mankind Project or Dancing Naked With Other Men While Beating Cooked Chickens

The controversial group known as Mankind Project and also known as New Warrior Training Adventure has gotten some interesting online exposure lately. 

A little background - Mark Roggeman, an exit-counselor for individuals trapped in cults,  writes at the Haven Ministries site : “MKP [Mankind Project] history comes through a long line of Human Potential Movements that began in the 1960’s.”  Roggeman cites Mind Dynamics, and the book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled  for some background on the Human Potential Movement.  He goes on to cite some controversial groups that influenced this movement as well as Mankind Project, such as Lifespring, Werner Erhard, Erhard Seminars Training (Roggeman puts it that this group has “transformed itself into the Landmark Forum.”), Justin Sterling and Sterling Institute of Relationship.  More at Roggeman’s article, aptly titled The Mankind Project.  Also check out Roggeman’s article, Oh Man, What Kind of Project Is This?

If you really want to learn a whole lot more about some of the more interesting and somewhat controversial practices of the group, check out this long discussion thread at the Cult Education Forum.  As of last check, the message board thread is over 52 pages long !

Oh, and the satirical poke, humorous take for the title of this post?  Yeah, that wasn’t just something the writer of this post made up - according to the Houston Press, men do really dance naked while beating cooked chickens at some of these Mankind Project events !

But the truth is not funny, and not satirical, unfortunately.  For more on this, read the sad, sad story, of Michael Scinto.

 Recent articles on Mankind Project :

Ronnie Earle, Travis Co. (TX) DA, Dances Naked With Other Men While Beating Cooked Chickens, Red State

Cover Story: The ManKind Project, Houston Press, October 4, 2007

Naked Men: The ManKind Project and Michael Scinto, Houston Press, October 4, 2007 - “The organization was supposed to make him a better man. Instead, his parents say, it made him a dead one.”

For more background and resources :

The Mankind Project, article at Haven Ministries site, written by Mark Roggeman - “Mark Roggeman has been involved in outreach to those affected by cults and other high demand groups for a period of thirty years.”

Mankind Project / New Warrior Training Adventure, information and archived articles, at the Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements

Oh Man, What Kind of Project Is This?“, by Mark Roggeman, Midwest Outreach 12 (1), Pages 8-10.

Discussion groups and message boards :

Discussion thread on Mankind Project, Cult Education Forum, begun with the emotional plea:  “Anyone with any information regarding this group, please I beg you to post it here. It is horrifying what these men and women go through. Any feedback is appreciated.”

ex_mkp · ex_mkp-Freedom from ManKind Project cult, Yahoo! Group, mentioned in the Houston Press article, Naked Men: The ManKind Project and Michael Scinto - “This group is for help and support of men and their families who have had problems with the ManKind Project or NWTA New Warrior Training Adventure “