Inside Landmark Forum (transcript)

SECOND DAY AT LANDMARK

NARRATOR

Back to the workshop.  Before continuing with the course, Alain Roth makes a proposal.  For those who want to leave the workshop, the door is open.  For those with questions, they should ask them now.  

ALAIN ROTH

So, if you have a question, raise your hand and ask it.

NARRATOR

Up front, a woman voices a criticism.

MURIELLE, WOMAN WITH QUESTION

Yes, I would like to know why there is so much harassment.  

NARRATOR

Murielle complains of being harassed by the Landmark staff, of incessant phone calls to get her to register for the workshop.

MURIELLE

When people –

ALAIN ROTH

Wait, wait.  Turn on the microphone.  Don’t destroy the microphone.  Thanks.

MURIELLE

What I wanted to say was –

ALAIN ROTH

Wait a second.  Where’s your name tag?  Because I don’t want to harass you too much.  Thanks.  You don’t make a distinction between what’s happening and your interpretation.  You confuse the two, as we’ll see:  There is no harassment.  There is what happens.  

MURIELLE

May I say something?

ALAIN ROTH

Wait, wait.  You will say what you want, The Forum isn’t “I go to the microphone and I talk.”  There’s a leader who leads the discussions and I’m the leader.  So, I will give you the floor, but let me create a certain context first.  So, “harassment” never happened.  That’s an interpretation.  

MURIELLE

So, if you tell me “It’s not true,” I don’t see how I can talk to you.

ALAIN ROTH

Yes, but hold on.  You didn’t have ten people demanding, “You will enroll, you will enroll.”  

MURIELLE

No, I also had someone call to ask me if I had a problem.  Another one asked something else.  

ALAIN ROTH

Ok!

MURIELLE

But when you get three, maybe four calls in the same week, you’re overwhelmed.  

ALAIN ROTH

Ok, but you call that harassment?

MURIELLE

Yes, I call that harassment.

ALAIN ROTH

But is it harassment?

MURIELLE

Well, yes.

ALAIN ROTH

That’s because you interpret it that way.  You could interpret it another way.  

MURIELLE

How?

ALAIN ROTH

That people are calling to support you, they’re committed to making something happen for you.  

NARRATOR

In all, an exchange of 15 minutes.  Clearly, it is difficult to make criticisms.  

LANDMARK STAFF MEMBER

We’re going to take a 30-minute break.  It’s now 4:10 pm.  Be back in your chairs, ready to start, at 4:40 pm.  Thank you.

NARRATOR

During the break, we head to the hotel bar.  We find Murielle, who was complaining about harassment.  For her, Alain Roth’s verbal abuse is unacceptable.  

MURIELLE

I feel a bit of something.  The approach is a bit terrorist.  

REPORTER, PIECES A CONVICTION

Why terrorist?

MAN, PARTICIPANT IN THE FORUM

Wait.  He’s coming.  Suddenly we’re interrupted.  Alain Roth comes by in person to convince Murielle not to leave the workshop.  

ALAIN ROTH

What’s happening with you, Murielle?  You tend to go it alone, instead of looking for people who can support you.  It would be good if, before leaving, you spoke, since you’re suffering and worn out because you resist.  

NARRATOR

A few minutes later, the operation of seduction is successful.  Murielle has changed her mind.  

MAN, PARTICIPANT IN THE FORUM

Still alive?

MURIELLE

Yes.  No, he’s very nice.  I was afraid he wasn’t listening, but he was.  He head it.  All of it.  I felt – not kindness – but I felt something very human.

MAN, PARTICIPANT IN THE FORUM

Lending an ear?

MURIELLE

No.  More.  Guys in communication are taught to lend an ear.  No, I felt something searching on a deeper level.  

NARRATOR

It’s 9:30 pm.  The day is almost over.  But before leaving, there’s one more exercise in store for us.  For this one, Alain Roth asks us to close our eyes.  

ALAIN ROTH

No one will enter this room, so you don’t have to worry.  There are two people sitting next to you.  Create an experiment where you fear the two people next to you.  Get ready to do this experiment, where you’re terrified, terrified of the two people sitting next to you.  Let the fear enter your body, your breathing, your gut, your entire life.  

NARRATOR

This introspection is perfectly orchestrated by the coach.  No improvisation, everything is written down.  

ALAIN ROTH

You are trying to escape.  There is no place to go.  How to continue to be with yourself, and be present?  

NARRATOR

In this row, the man in red is going to crack.  

ALAIN ROTH

When you were a little boy or a little girl, you said to yourself, “Never again.  I won’t go through that again.”  

NARRATOR

With these words, he starts to sob.  

ALAIN ROTH

You decided it is better not to feel anything again, so suffer as you have.  And your whole life became about making sure you would never suffer again.  At that moment, you sentenced yourself to death.  

NARRATOR

It’s been more than 48 hours since the workshop began.  The students are beginning to feel the physical and emotional fatigue.  Years later, those who went through it still remember the experience.  

PIERRE, ANONYMOUS FORUM GRADUATE

It was very annoying, very annoying, because we’re cut off from everything.  We start at 8 am and finish at 10 pm.  There’s a meal break at 5 in the afternoon.  We are only allowed to drink, and only at certain times.  We have no contact with the outside world, with curtains and only inside lights.  So, we don’t know any more.  We lose our sense of time.  

LAURENT MOURNAIS, FORUM GRADUATE

It’s difficult to get a perspective – impossible.  And that’s what I understood.  At Landmark, they don’t let you get a perspective.  

REPORTER, PIECES A CONVICTION

Critical thinking isn’t possible?

LAURENT MOURNAIS

That’s just it, we don’t have the time to.  

PIERRE

At any given moment you defenses are down and, It’s not that you accept it, but you enter into it, If you don’t go along with it, it can’t work.  

(END OF SECOND DAY)