Outrageous Betrayal: The Real Story of Werner Erhard from Est to Exile

An old friend of mine recently tried to get me to attend the Landmark Forum seminar. Unlike him, I actually researched the Landmark Education organization before doing anything and managed to avoid being brainwashed and sucked into a never ending series of expensive seminars, and volunteer work for a corporation that makes $70+ Million in profit per year. My old friend seems to be enjoying his servitude to the very Scientology-like Landmark Education and I'm sure will be curing cancer any day now. Despite its cheesy title, this book is a real page turner that gives a reader an accurate (enough) look at the founder of the "human potential" company "est" which became Landmark Education when founder Werner Erhard (currently chilling in the Cayman Islands) had to leave the U.S. to escape the IRS and a $14 Million Dollar back taxes bill. You get a real insightful look in this book at how the philosophy of Landmark Education's methods began and were developed. And make no mistake, Landmark Education hasn't changed. They still brainwash people and take their money. Is the "training" all bad? No. But it's nothing you couldn't get from a few good books or your own common sense, AND, you'd get to keep your friends and family in the process. Does Landmark Education ever make mention of "est" or even the founder Werner Erhard these days? Nope. I really enjoyed this book and I'm still waiting for my old friend to respond to my numerous emails so I can talk to him about it.

This is a "must read" for anyone considering becoming involved with the Landmark group as well as anyone who has loved ones involved. I am an avid reader and usually speed through everything I read. After reading the Prologue and first two chapters, I put the book down to digest what I had read. The writer cuts right to the quick giving documented background of how the 70s guru, Erhard, came to be. Erhard aka Jack Rosenberg, is the epitome of the "used car salesman" and this book documents how he turned those skills into a multi million dollar business, creating havoc in many lives along the way and managing to stay one step ahead of incarceration. The facts revealed about his personal life clearly explain how his "technology" has managed to bind countless people searching for meaning. It is amazing how disciples of this LGAT program exhibit "cult like" devotion in ignoring the facts and making disparaging comments about this book. The truth HURTS, however it can also "set you free". READ THIS BOOK AND BE SET FREE!!

This is an INVALUABLE book! This book details the dangers of Landmark very clearly and accurately. The title is very accurate. If you have any relatives or loved ones who consider undergoing "the Landmark Forum," please have them read this sober, well-researched work, first.

For those of you who have done Landmark Education and reaped benefits ... this is a great book to read. ALthough Landmark has some useful programs, the dark side of the organization is the multi-level marketing coercion tactics to get you to take more and more courses. Once you do the Landmark Forum, you really need not do anything else within the company's course catalog. If you do, then make sure it is truly your own free will choice. Read this book to separate myth from reality about what is the true "what's so" about Landmark. Be a conscious consumer and do your homework. There are too many people who have spent money through the hard sales strategies of Landmark staff and volunteers. If you are keen to have information as power in your arsenal to say NO to Landmark, Pressman's book is invaluable. Based on cour reports and interviews, this is a detailed overview of a man whose life seems as "inauthentic" as much as his company preaches "authenticity". Don't fall into a codependant, addictive relationship with Landmark courses to fix yourself by reading what is really behind those "enrollment" conversations and heady jargon. Landmark's encounter style is a reflection of Erhard's seemingly loving yet ultimatley controlling perspective on human relations. A must read for Landmark graduates who found wonderful breakthroughs but don't want compulsive calls from their Landmark Center telling them that the next seminar will deliver more. In the end, YOU are a much better guide for your life when you are emotionally healthy, instead of some Forum Leader whose more interested in you as a statistic than anything else. Do yourself a favor, glean what you need to from this book, and know that leaving Landmark behind is a step forward to your own personal empowerement. If you are looking for deep personal healing and a program that has been endorsed by credible individuals ... research the Hoffman Process or check out the Hendricks Institute on Relationships. Unlike Landmark, these programs do not have all the "severe baggage" associated with them.

EEEEEEEEEyyyyyyooooowwwww!!!It all came flooding back to me, the EST training, followed by a communication seminar, an advanced communication seminar, the Six Day training (where we were to become "commandos", were required to watch some, er, "offbeat" movies, and talk about real personal stuff), then Mastery Of Empowerment, where we did Zen like meditations, repeatedly acknoledged that Werner was Source (of ??? not exactly specified), and got a jolly good vibe going.Oh yes, there were also seminars with Fernando Flores, an interesting fellow who was once the finance minister for Salvador Allende, heavily into language and information theory... once upon a time Werner's left brain, so to speak, who inexplicably wasn't there on Mount Olympus one day...Needless to say, there's a lot of stuff, many narratives woven together that many self proclaimed Forumites don't know about, weren't there when it happened, all of which got simplified and cooked down into easy to digest tales of days gone by.Let me tell ya something. It never is so simple, never was, never will be. Pressman's book Outrageous Betrayal rings true as pure coin to my ears, it succeeeds in capturing the flavor of the 70's into the 80's hustle, the strange blend of improvisation, amateurishness, needfulness, as well as the intensity, the drive, the self deception, and the absurdity of that era. Werner was kind of an uber-manifestation of all that.Somewhere along the line I found myself growing. The sense of community and shared purpose that once was sustaining and uplifting turned stale and oppressive. It was time to move on,grow up another notch, leave the great psychodrama behind for another generation to project it's unresolved collective issues on.Reflecting on it, there is no way that something as intense and nutso, while mind expanding and challenging too, could have possibly happened had Werner Hans been a normal run of the mill dude. You couldn't get there from here without the sound and the fury.Its that complexity, trickster archetype, puer aeternus and senex stuff that James Hillman talked about that Pressman can't wrap his mind around, 'cause he's treating Werner as just another scandalous mountebank when he was much more than that.I still loved reading the book, no qualmes with the truth telling approach, Pressman is right on with what he says, only too bad he couldn't fold it in with the larger story, which isn't all that sweet and perfect either, just larger, weirder, more glorious, and kinda creepy too...To this day I ask myself, what the heck was THAT ???The I discovered a fantastic little book written in 1895 by Gustave Le Bon titled The Crowd... most highly recommended for anyone thinking about LGATs or mass thinking of any kind. This incredible book put it into perspective for me. I think it should be required reading for every college student in America.If you are considering any large group spiritual or self help-transformative seminar, please take the time to read