Totally forgot that my ex-wife's mother was big into Landmark Forum.. She used to try to entice us into going. All I could see she got out of it was eating with plastic utensils rather than metal. My current wife's mother went to est in the 70s and once tricked my wife (then a small child) into going with the promise of ice cream or donuts.One of our acquaintances sends her husband to Forum stuff now and then for "maintenance" to keep his narcissism in check. We're pretty sure they get violent with each other.A friend of mine dated a woman whose parents were heavily invested in J. Krishnamurti's Oak Grove School in Ojai. Her family was super fucked up, and so was she.

Aum Shinrikyo. One of those cults that were really scary because of how high up they escalated in japanese society. There are ex-KGB dudes in there, and they are still at large. Guilty of the nasty Tokyo subway sarin attacks.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum\_Shinrikyo

man, this thread.i have been thinking about cults a lot for the last couple of weeks.my mom was an est/forum person, for years in the 80's. among other things, she has floated through and evangelized for all kinds of new age bullshit throughout her life. which is too bad, because she is an otherwise sweet lady if you don't have to be her son. her short attention span kept her from committing to one cult forever, but the erhard people definitely fucked up her fragile mind in a big way & are partly responsible for the fact that she lives in section eight housing now & won't be able to pay for her own funeral or whatever. obviously a pretty emotional issue for me.she badgered me for years to do the forum as a teenager & i finally did it for her when i was sixteen or so. i don't have time to talk about it now, have to get out of here for a concert, but i would like to return to it.fuck all these motherfuckers, i am fascinated by them, but i hate them deeply.EDIT: just to be clear - fuck the perpetrators, not their victims, like my mom.

Steve V. wrote:This book is fantastic.YUPI know many of these people and their children. Not really a cult though. and also the book This is the cult of cults, for me. It has ALL the aspects you are looking for in a 60s sex drug love obedience cult. Absolutely beautiful. The documentary is highly recommended.Children of God.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family\_InternationalWarning- you will find horrifying child sexual abuse accounts if you dig into this. Famous COGs include Rose Mcgowan, the Phoenixes.. Christopher Owen writes an account of growing up in this cult.Serious (or are they?) alien cult: Raelianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple\_of\_SetTemple of Set was/is the heavier duty version of Satanism. Aquino an interesting/possibly horrifying character linked to military torture and accused of a lot of unsavory things, but was it just satanic panic? Hail Satan.Give me more give me more

Carl wrote:Kate Rev wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple\_of\_SetTemple of Set was/is the heavier duty version of Satanism. Aquino an interesting/possibly horrifying character linked to military torture and accused of a lot of unsavory things, but was it just satanic panic? Hail Satan.Give me more give me moreAquino's dad and my grandfather were friends during the Depression. This led to a very odd birthday party half a century or so later featuring two elderly men, members of the Temple, a standup comic, and me.I would absolutely love to hear the full story version of this.

I had a friend, who I haven't seen in many years at this point, who was a member of the Process Church back in their heyday. she could still recite their credo about the reconcilation of good and evil, word for word.

This thread's got me remembering how much I disliked all those Krishnacore bands from the mid-to-late '80s and 1990s. Boy, did they suck. Was always kinda funny to me that a lot of these East Coast hardcore types were initially mookish jocks who ended up going thru straight-edge, vegan, and/or Hare Krsna phases. So much for punk as a bastion of free thinking...(On the other hand, if anybody's up for forming a Slavic mysticism-themed noise-rock band called Baba Yaga, please PM me.)

I don't know anyone that went through any of these things that came out better or whatever. One guy I know was convinced he would be able to make another friend's dog talk though, after est.

::: wrote:Landmark Forum: http://m.motherjones.com/media/2009/07/ ... breakdownsThis was originally est. I've known several people that went through est and some that did Landmark.

I stayed with an older cousin who was attracted to a born-again college group. It was the weirdest and most drunken time of my life.- Group involvement and participation were mandatory as a guest in his house.- Repetition to emphasis the most minute detail.- Extreme opinions and destructive actions.