Cult News

Now seems like a good time to sum up the net results of the “war of words” between television cartoon show South Park, Scientology and Tom Cruise.

Who won and who lost?

South Park recently picked up a Peabody Award and received an Emmy nomination specifically for the controversial episode that mocked the “world’s biggest movie star” and Scientology, which is probably the most litigious organization called a “cult” on the planet.

Not only did South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone ridicule Cruise and get away with it, they also accurately exposed Scientology’s bizarre doctrines. This included a discourse about a belief in space aliens, something that the general public otherwise wouldn’t know, considering the way that Scientology zealously guards its secrets.

The cartoon episode “Trapped in the Closet” was carefully crafted to be legally “bullet proof” as a parody, so from the start Cruise and his church didn’t have the basis for any serious claim of slander.

That’s why the actor allegedly relied instead upon his star power to cancel a repeat of the controversial episode, which was set to launch South Park’s current season.

Apparently, Scientology’s “Top Gun” took his best shot through Viacom, the parent company of both Paramount, which produced Mission Impossible and Comedy Central that airs South Park.

However, this strategy backfired, only garnering more attention and publicity for the show while Cruise came across as a bully. South Park’s ratings soared and arguably this confrontation paved the way for both the Peabody Award and Emmy nomination that followed.

“Trapped in the Closet” remains the biggest hit as measured by the viewing audience that South Park has ever recorded for a singe show.

Scientologist Isaac Hayes, who quit South Park over the Scientology episode hasn’t fared very well either. Like Cruise he didn’t gain public sympathy through his protest and also lost his job.

Subsequently Parker and Stone got the last word regarding Hayes departure through a good-bye “Return of Chef” episode that portrayed the former 1970s star as little more than a “brainwashed” puppet.

Tom Cruise also appears to have lost ground.

The actor who hasn’t had a genuine unqualified hit since Jerry McGuire and is now perceived by much of the public as a “weirdo.” His Mission Impossible series is all but dead, with the latest installment doing less than expected at the box office.

Don’t look for a “Mission Impossible Four.”

In fact, some Hollywood pundits say it may be difficult for the middle-aged actor to star in a major film project budgeted at the same size as MP-3 in the future.

The public seems tired of Tom Cruise, other than as a focus of gossip about his relationship with Katie Holmes and their unseen baby girl Suri.

And Scientology seems to have become something of a running joke, seen more like a wacky “Hollywood cult,” rather than a serious religion.

Whatever Tom Cruise and his church hoped to accomplish through the star’s media blitz promoting Scientology solutions to life’s problems, both he and his faith failed to convey any meaningful positive message that the public responded to, but don’t expect them to admit that.

Trey Parker warned about getting “that Tom Cruise stink on you” in a recent interview, but there is nothing like the sweet smell of success.

And South Park has never been more popular, while its creators have burnished their “cult hero” status through the face-off with the star, along with some official mainstream recognition that perhaps was long overdue.

The moral to this story is never take on a weekly comedy show like South Park in a “war of words,” because the show will get the last word and also last laugh.

Demonstrating this pointedly will be the long awaited repeat tonight of “Trapped in the Closet.”

Li Hongzhi,” the founder and leader of Falun Gong also known as Falun Dafa, has been repeatedly described as “homophobic” and as a “racist.”

CultNews previously reported about the media meltdown Falun Gong experienced in San Francisco concerning its leaders nasty pronouncements.

During the Bay area controversy a member of the San Francisco gay community said, “I challenge any gay person in this city to get any Falun Gong practitioner to state they do not agree with their master’s belief. I have never heard them refute what he has said. There is deception here.”

What is it that the man called “Master Li” says that causes concern, which his followers never refute?

Interracial marriage is one thing that seems to rile the religious leader, but he saves some of his most harsh words for homosexuals.

Here are some quotes from Hongzhi as provided by the blog “…smell the Kool-Aid…fun with cults”.

Li Hongzhi: “Is homosexuality human behavior? Heaven created man and woman. What was the purpose? To procreate future generations. A man being with a man, or a woman with a woman”it doesn’t take much thought to know whether that’s right or wrong. When minor things are done incorrectly, a person is said to be wrong. When major things are done incorrectly, it’s a case of people no longer having the moral code of human beings, and then they are unworthy of being human…When gods created man they prescribed standards for human behavior and living. When human beings overstep those boundaries, they are no longer called human beings, though they still assume the outer appearance of a human. So gods can’t tolerate their existence and will destroy them.”Leading lights of the “Religious Right” like Jerry Falwell might agree that homosexuality is a sin, but they would say “love the sinner and hate the sin,” allowing that gays are still “human beings.” Hongzhi however seems to question that status and he apparently just hates instead.Li then goes on to tell why his work is so worthy.Li Hongzhi: “Let me tell you why today’s society has become how it is. It results from there not being an upright Fa to keep human beings in check. This Dafa is taught right in the most chaotic environment, at a time when no religion can save people, and where the circumstance is that no god takes interest in people anymore. The Fa is almighty. The best time periods wouldn’t require such a great Fa to be taught. Only in the worst time periods can the power of the Fa manifest. There are other reasons, too.”

Known for their persistent door-to-door missionary work and handout magazine called “The Watchtower,” “Jehovah’s Witnesses” have repeatedly predicted the “end of the world” with a sense of urgency to anyone willing to listen.

However, the sect seems to repeatedly fail regarding its dates, including a purported final judgment set for 1925 and another that never came some fifty years later.

According to the “Religious Tolerance” Web site, which is known for its frequent apologies rather than admonishments regarding groups called “cults,” the Witnesses have actually made many more failed predictions. The theologically tolerant site without apology lists 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920 and 1994, as examples of additional Witness failures.  

Much more religiously conservative Christian Web sites have longer lists of apparent blunders, such as a “Watchman Expositor,” which examines the organization’s supposedly “biblical” calculations.

Perhaps as a result of all these mistakes the Witnesses appear to have given up on the dating game. The group says now that the “end is fluid,” which sounds more like “hedging a bet” than anything related to the bible.

However, an embarrassing fact still remains despite all the sect’s calculations, recalculations and subsequent spin.

Jehovah’s Witnesses historically bought a great deal of real estate over the years in what seems to be a very shrewd long-term investment effort.

But if they really expected the world to end so soon, why didn’t the Witnesses just lease?

Well, the reasoning for buying up so much property becomes quite clear when looking at the group’s recent penchant for selling off some of its valuable accumulated assets.

As CultNews previously reported the Witnesses religious devotion apparently includes developing real estate in New York.

And the controversial organization that some have called an End Times “cult” has recently made millions selling off and/or developing its holdings in Brooklyn alone.

Where there was once a Watchtower magazine warehouse and distribution center near the East River, “swanky condominiums”  are going up with a view of Manhattan.

And now the Witnesses have put more of their New York property up on the block reports Knowledge Plex.

For sale is a three-story residential building at 409 Central Park West between West 100th and 101st streets.

The Witnesses want $4.5 million for the “air rights” to this property and expect to stay on the first three floors, allowing a developer to build on top or adjacent to the property.

Jehovah’s Witnesses also own a building at 960 E. 174th St. in the Bronx, which is currently used for worship.

However, the faithful will have to meet somewhere else, as this property is currently listed at $1.35 million, for development as affordable housing.

Knowledge Plex points out that many nonprofit organizations and other tax-exempted religious groups in New York are also taking advantage of recent real estate appreciation to sell off their properties for record prices.

But the leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses have always attempted to separate their organization from such worldly things. 

Witnesses don’t vote, participate in clubs, organized team sports or the military because to do so would somehow represent involvement with an earthly “system,” which is ultimately influenced by Satan.

Witnesses claim that their organization is the only one today that is sanctioned by Jehovah on earth.

However, it seems when it comes to making money, Witness leaders can be very worldly indeed. And they have no problem cooperating with developers and making savvy business deals to work the worldly system for profit.

Some say Madonna is a “has been.” And that to anyone other than her diehard fans, the 1980s icon is no longer relevant to current pop culture.

“It happens to every star,” says In the Zone.

Interestingly, the top two reasons cited for the 47-year-old pop queen’s demise is (1) getting “religious” and (2) choosing the so-called “Kabbalah Centre” to get religious about.

Her diva version of religiosity was recently derided as a “Christmas-cracker philosophy” and written off some time ago as “McWisdom” by its critics. But the star insists its her “secret” in the documentary DVD “I’m Going to Tell You a Secret,” which was panned by British reviewer Mark Beech at Bloomberg News.  

Forbes Magazine has even dropped Madonna from its “Top 100 Stars” list and critics say that the former “Material Girl” is “too old” to be used in marketing to teens.

Advertising guru Della Femina summed it up succinctly, “These kids trade in stars every two or three years and many don’t know Madonna” reported CCN from Ireland.

Ironically though, as CultNews previously reported, despite her fading star status Madonna sees herself as some sort of career counselor to younger stars. And her latest acolyte is 20-year-old Lindsay Lohan.

Isn’t this something like the “blinded leading the blind”?

After all, it’s been almost half a century since this diva was born and despite her apparent desperation to slow the aging process, nothing is working.

Madonna has a grueling exercise regimen, an extreme diet and gulps down an endless supply of supposedly special energized “Kabbalah Water.”

However, all this, along with rumored Botox injections to paralyze her face, have not stopped the singer from arguably looking older than her years, as recent candid photos demonstrate.

London’s Daily Mail pointed out that Madonna “can’t beat the hands of time.” A shot of her hand clutching what looks like a bottle of “Kabbalah Water” was revealing and displayed “a virtual roadmap of veins.”

It’s been 15 years since the star’s popular documentary “Truth or Dare.” 

But will Madonna dare to face the truth about growing old?

Every indication is that the former queen of pop has no intention of aging gracefully like Tina Turner, nor does she offer self-deprecating humor about getting older, like Cher did on her “farewell tour.”

Instead, this aging diva seems to fighting the inevitable.

Her publicist has told the press “I defy any 18-year-old to do a quarter of what Madonna does on stage…”

But can anyone defy time?

Why can’t Madonna accept that the spotlight moves on, and that every star eventually arrives at a day of reckoning and maturity?

Madonna can’t hang on to her glittering disco ball forever, nor expect to resurrect the past through one of her staged concert crucifixions.

Will the former pop queen’s career end pathetically as a parody of her former self, lip syncing oldies in various costumes and preaching “McWisdom” to those diehard fans left willing to pay for pricey seats and sit through another sermon?

CultNews was a member of “Google News” for about two years, but was dropped early this month without notice. 

Google News is an on-line feature of the Internet search engine giant, which specifically is devoted to browsing about 4,500 members continuously as news sources.

More than once stories from CultNews have been featured prominently on the front page of Google News.

According to Google its news service provides results “without human intervention.” And “news sources are selected without regard to political viewpoint or ideology.”

However, after an inquiry was made last week to determine why CultNews was recently dropped, the response indicated that this was done through “human intervention.”

The “Google Team” stated in an e-mail received Friday June 23rd the following:

“Thank you for your note. Upon recent review of your site we found that we can no longer include it in Google News. We do not include sites that are written and maintained by individuals. We appreciate your taking the time to contact us and will log your site for consideration should our requirements change.”

What this means is that Internet users will no longer be able to pick up breaking stories from CultNews regarding controversial groups like Scientology, by launching searches specifically through Google News.

This does not mean that the main behemoth search engine Google will cease going through and gathering links to information within CultNews or its sponsor the Ross Institute of New Jersey. The recent change rather only will affect the breaking news search feature provided by Google.

CultNews has at times been the point of origin for news stories on the Internet. Subsequently, that information was often picked up by the mainstream media and CultNews was frequently cited as a source and/or quoted.

Cults, controversial groups and movements are of course only one small niche of the news, but CultNews has made every effort to provide the public with timely, interesting, relevant reports and analysis focused on that small corner of the news universe.

Other technology makes it possible for CultNews readers to continue to stay abreast regarding breaking news stories at this blog without relying upon Google News.

Check out the RSS feature located on this page (see “Meta” box by scrolling down left side) so you can keep up with CultNews using that technology, which essentially provides for continuously accessing fresh content at this site.

This recent Google News change in policy will not affect the quality or quantity of information, which will continue to flow from CultNews.  

After an eleven day manhunt and with the authorities hot on his trail and closing in, fugitive and former Landmark Education leader Darren Mack surrendered at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico reports The Reno Gazette.

Mack was wanted for the brutal murder of his wife Charla in Reno, Nevada.

Mrs. Mack, like her estranged husband, was very active and deeply involved in Landmark, a controversial self-improvement seminar-selling company headquartered in San Francisco.

Darren Mack was a multi-millionaire from a rich family that made its money in the pawn broker business.

Mack is also wanted for the sniper shooting of the family court judge that awarded his wife substantial alimony payments and child support.

Friday the former fugitive was flown from Mexico to Dallas where he was booked. Later Mack was taken back to Nevada where he was met at the airport by an armored SWAT van carrying five officers armed with assault rifles.

Once a rich man worth more than $10 million dollars Mack seems marked for either a long stay in prison or perhaps a death sentence.

Cultnews previously reported that at least one of Mack’s Landmark cronies posted a message to him on the Internet at his Myspace site.

That message said, “Darren, I know you from Landmark Education¦I just wanted to remind you about what you used to teach others – about integrity and completion of the past and affinity. Remember? You know you’re driving yourself crazy with all the things you’re telling yourself. You also know the only way through this is through it. I know you have the ability to get this complete…”

It seems the “only way through this” for Mack will be the courts and a prison term to “complete.”

Whatever “breakthroughs” he may have once sought through Landmark training to benefit his marriage, it ended in murder.

And despite his former stature and influence within Landmark, it appears doubtful that Darren Mack will ever be touted as one of the company’s “success stories” again. 

Note: Later in August Art Schreiber, General Counsel for Landmark Education, contacted CultNews to make a distinction regarding the status of Darren Mack and his history with the company. Schreiber said, “Mr. Mack did lead one of our many programs for several years but ceased being a Landmark leader in November, 2002…” 

Not content with making money from adults paying for its controversial large group awareness training (LGAT) the controversial company called “Landmark Education” targets minor children.

Kids as young as eight were recently enrolled at a cost of “$700 a child” in Australia to go through Landmark’s “intensive three-day workshop” reported The Sunday Times.

40 elementary school children were signed up this month in Perth for the supposedly “life-changing” LGAT based upon the teachings of a former used car salesman “Jack” Rosenberg, who later changed his name to Werner Erhard.

Erhard had no educational or counseling credentials to guide him, but rather his personal experience dabbling in fringe self-improvement groups like Scientology.

He created a company during the 1970s called “est” (Erhard Seminar Training) that presented an initial introductory program called The Forum.

Est was reportedly sold in 1992 and was subsequently renamed “Landmark Education.” Erhard’s brother Harry Rosenberg and his sister now run the private for-profit company.

Landmark turned Erhard’s concocted philosophy into LGAT gold, making millions of dollars every month in fees. The company has never been bigger or more successful since its inception.

Landmark has a formula to make even more money.

First it recruits parents to take its courses and then the company gets them to enroll their kids.

This can potentially cause conflict, if parents are divorced and share joint custody.

A Perth policeman refused to let his ex-wife send their daughter to the LGAT.

“It struck me as a money-making enterprise and I really thought that the three-day seminar could be quite stressful and draining,” he said. The officer also questioned why anyone would put an 8-year-old through something so “stressful or draining” referring to Landmark’s methods as “pressure-cooker teaching.”

But kids have become lucrative for Landmark, which runs programs in the US for children 8-12 and teens too.

Effectively Landmark has turned families into “cash cows” and has successfully milked almost 2,000 kids in Australia alone.

Landmark’s programs are controversial and some have called them “brainwashing.”

The company has a long history of bad press and it garnered some more this month “down under.”

Australian adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg warned parents “to be wary” of the workshop and called it an “utter waste of money.”

“If a child has a major psychological problem they should go to a fully qualified, government-accredited professional,” he said.

It is unclear what educational requirements Landmark requires or expects from its seminar leaders, who are typically neither mental health professionals, nor licensed or accountable to any government regulatory or accrediting body.

The psychologist was also concerned about “overloading children on the weekend” and he said, “sticking a kid in there for three days is pretty awful.”

Greg isn’t the only doctor worried about LGATs like Landmark.

Clinical psychologist Philip Cushman studied LGATs in the 1990s and published a paper after researching what he called “mass marathon training.”

Cushman saw serious problems for adults, let alone children.

In his paper titled “The Politics of Transformation: Recruitment – Indoctrination Processes in a Mass Marathon Psychology Organization” Cushman says that such “training is usually based on the belief that it is a universal truth that all human beings will have problems in life until they develop deep cathartic psychological insight, experience completely their every feeling, and live only in the present moment.”

Cushman goes on to explain that “according to this ideology all defenses are bad and must be destroyed. They shape their group exercises in order to uncover and intensify the participants’ underlying conflicts and deficits. Everyone must be exposed to these exercises; there are no exceptions. When all defenses are destroyed, they claim there is literally no limit to what each individual can accomplish.”

What the psychologist describes is reflected in Landmark Education’s repetitious vocabulary filled with buzz words like “breakthrough,” “integrity,” “transformation” and “completion” that become a kind of “loaded language” for its graduates.

Landmark’s spokesperson told the press in Perth that the LGAT enabled children to “gain clarity” and “examine their lives in a way, which leaves them empowered,” which gives them “a new freedom in life…[for] powerfully facing…risks and challenges…”

Cushman pointed out more than a dozen serious problems that frequently pop up wit LGAT groups like Landmark.

1. They lack adequate participant-selection criteria.
2. They lack reliable norms, supervision, and adequate training for leaders.
3. They lack clearly defined responsibility.
4. They sometimes foster pseudoauthenticity and pseudoreality.
5. They sometimes foster inappropriate patterns of relationships.
6. They sometimes ignore the necessity and utility of ego defenses.
7. They sometimes teach the covert value of total exposure instead of valuing personal differences.
8. They sometimes foster impulsive personality styles and behavioral strategies.
9. They sometimes devalue critical thinking in favor of “experiencing” without self-analysis or reflection.
10. They sometimes ignore stated goals, misrepresent their actual techniques, and obfuscate their real agenda.
11. They sometimes focus too much on structural self-awareness techniques and misplace the goal of democratic education; as a result participants may learn more about themselves and less about group process.
12. They pay inadequate attention to decisions regarding time limitations. This may lead to increased pressure on some participants to unconsciously “fabricate” a cure.
13. They fail to adequately consider the “psychonoxious” or deleterious effects of group participation (or] adverse countertransference reactions.

Cushman warns specifically “as a result, participants and leaders may unconsciously distort their feelings and responses when reporting to researchers about the group or recruiting for future groups. This might result in a deceptive ‘oversell’ that could undermine informed consent and lead to unrealistic regressive expectations in new recruits, the specific type of problems that have been found to lead to psychological casualties.”

Landmark’s long history of personal injury lawsuits goes back to its old “est” days.

Many participants claimed they were hurt by Landmark and some sued.

In fact, Landmark is so concerned about legal liability that it now requires participants to sign a waiver, whereby they cannot take the company to court before a jury, but instead must submit to “binding arbitration.”

Essentially, this acts as “poison pill” to fend off litigation.

Does this sound like something that an 8 to 12-year-old child or teen should be involved in?

Landmark is good at persuading people that its courses are positive and that they somehow produce benefits.

In polling gathered through surveys often sponsored and/or paid for by the company, a high percentage of its graduates are convinced that they benefited in some way from attending the LGAT.

However, these are subjective responses about how participants feel, not objective results that have been scientifically measured.

Should parents and the general public be wary?

Is there something potentially unsafe about an LGAT like Landmark?

According to Cushman’s research LGATs can become “dangerous” when they demonstrates the following criteria:

1. Leaders [have] rigid, unbending beliefs about what participants should experience and believe, how they should behave in the group and when they should change.
2. Leaders [have] no sense of differential diagnosis and assessment skills, valued cathartic emotional breakthroughs as the ultimate therapeutic experience, and sadistically pressed to create or force a breakthrough in every participant.
3. Leaders [have] an evangelical system of belief that was the one single pathway to salvation.
4. Leaders [are] true believers and sealed their doctrine off from discomforting data or disquieting results and tended to discount a poor result by, “blaming the victim.”

Landmark’s own training manuals for its Forum Supervisors states, “a Landmark Forum Supervisor’ needs to be an s.o.b. for impeccability. You need to give up a concern for being liked…Be a destroyer…” and “Don’t ever let people move or stand up or talk before you have declared the start of the break.  Don’t ever let stuff like that go by.  Ever, ever, ever.”

Landmark’s own warnings and disclaimers in its application for the Landmark Forum states, “…people will from time to time cry or experience headaches, tiredness, nausea, confusion, disappointment, feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and hopelessness.  Some participants may find the Program physically, mentally, and emotionally stressful.”

In an article titled “Drive-thru Deliverance” a Forum leader reportedly told participants “Anything you want in life is possible that you invent as a possibility and enroll others in your having gotten.”

Those attending the Forum in Phoenix asked “why the rules [were] so rigid”?

They were told that “transformation” required following rules, and they soon learned that those that broke the rules might be humiliated and labeled as “uncoachable.”

Werner Erhard the seminar guru that concocted this LGAT claimed that he received a revelation while driving on a California freeway in 1971, he realized that he knew nothing. And the instant he realized that he knew nothing, he then realized he knew everything, and everything was good.

Landmark teaches a philosophy that becomes a belief system for its adherents, and some seem to consider it their “salvation.”

A man sought by authorities for the murder of his wife and questioning concerning a sniper attack on a Reno family court judge was deeply involved for many years in Landmark Education, a controversial large group awareness training (LGAT) program.

Darren Roy Mack, 45, reportedly “traveled extensively to lead the courses” for Landmark. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that until 2002, Mack and his estranged wife worked for the privately owned for-profit company.

The LGAT Mack attended called the “Forum” was first concocted essentially by est founder Werner Erhard (a.k.a. “Jack” Rosenberg).

Amidst a flurry of bad press and legal problems Erhard reportedly sold out in 1992 and the company then became “Landmark Education,” which is run by Erhard’s brother Harry Rosenberg.

Four minutes after Reno Judge Chuck Weller was shot in a sniper attack, Darren Mack called his cousin and said, “If anything happens to me, don’t forget your promise — put out to the press the word on Judge Weller…The rest of the world has to know just how oppressive he is.”

Before that Mack reportedly engaged in an Internet campaign to discredit the judge. The respected jurist was presiding over Mack’s bitter divorce.

Paranoid delusions?

Darren Mack sounds like a madman, but his cousin told the press that he was “the kindest, gentlest, nonviolent person you would ever want to meet.” That same relative also told the San Francisco Chronicle that Mack could be responsible for his wife’s death.

Charla Mack, 39, was brutally stabbed to death and an arrest warrant has been issued her husband with murder.

What could have possibly changed this once successful and “nonviolent” person into a suspected sniper and wanted killer?

Charla Mack’s mother said the couple both were devoted to Landmark Education, which “was a big part of their lives.” Ms. Mack was a five-year staffer for the company and in 2002 was sent to launch its LGAT program in the Philippines.

“I know these two…It doesn’t make sense to me — it’s not who I know them to be,” said the alleged murderer’s mother-in-law.

One of Mack’s Landmark friends named “Gidget” wanted this statement posted on his Myspace site.

“Darren, I know you from Landmark Education…I just wanted to remind you about what you used to teach others – about integrity and completion of the past and affinity. Remember? You know you’re driving yourself crazy with all the things you’re telling yourself. You also know the only way through this is through it. I know you have the ability to get this complete – as hard as it’s going to be for you. You can do it. Turn yourself in and start the process of getting it complete. Get in communication, Darren.”

This “loaded language” filled with Landmark jargon like “communication,” “completion” and “integrity,” begs a question; how could someone as advanced in Landmark’s curriculum for self-improvement, end up “driving [himself] crazy”?

After all, according to Landmark its LGAT provides “major positive results,” and graduates claim they experience “permanent shifts in the quality of their relationships.”

What happened to Landmark veteran Darren Mack and the relationship he had with his wife Charla?

Landmark also touts that its courses will make a “profound lasting difference in the way [people] live their lives.

Mack’s life has profoundly changed, but it can’t possibly be the “shift” he wanted.

Instead, after years of Landmark training Darren Mack’s life is a disaster.

Critics of Landmark have called its leaders “mindbreakers” and described its seminar as an “extraordinary scene of humiliation and control” where its said that the course and its leaders must “break them and remake them.”

But what if some people are broken, and never quite come back together again?

In 2002 Dr. Donna Marie Anderson was charged with stabbing her 13-year-old son to death in California. Described as a “bright, accomplished and highly motivated woman” the 48-year-old obstetrician participated in “multiple sessions” of Landmark’s training reported the Pioneer Press.

Much like Darren Mack’s mother-in-law the doctor’s friends described her as “very nice” and a “perfectly normal-appearing individual.” Anderson’s sister-in-law said the woman that murdered her son “was not the woman we knew.”

At the time Landmark spokesman Mark Kamin said, “We have a requirement that people must be emotionally stable at that time to participate in our programs.”

Landmark claimed that Anderson was asked not to participate anymore when she seemed unstable.

Kamin explained that Landmark participants must pass a screening process devised by a board of psychiatrists, including a series of questions aimed at assessing mental stability before they are allowed to participate in its programs.

Kamin’s concerns are understandable given the history of est, Landmark’s predecessor.

In 1977 doctors warned about possible serious psychiatric disturbances suffered by those that participate in the est program. These psychiatrists alerted their professional colleagues about the possibility that such LGATs might have devastating effects on some people.

The psychiatrists may have been prophetic. A year before Dr. Anderson murdered her son Landmark participant Jason Weed shot and killed an Oklahoma mailman Robert Jenkins. His surviving family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Landmark Education.

In that lawsuit plaintiffs stated that the murderer Weed attended “Landmark’s classes” and that “Landmark knew, because of their prior experiences, that [his] type of disorder¦was a likely and foreseeable result of attendance of their classes.”

The plaintiff’s attorneys then specifically cite a supposed “screening process and tests” used by Landmark “to eliminate person[s] who were likely to develop mental disorders as a result of their seminars.”

Apparently, the “screening process” either wasn’t done or failed to prevent Weed from attending Landmark’s LGAT.

This is also not the first time that a Landmark leader like Darren Mack has been sought by law enforcement for heinous and violent crimes.

In 1995 David Grill, the executive director of Landmark’s offices in Dallas, sexually assaulted a Landmark volunteer. In the lawsuit subsequently filed against Landmark the plaintiff stated that the company “should have been aware, of Grill’s propensity to commit criminal sexual assaults with students from a time preceding his assignment as executive director.”

Grill was convicted and sent to prison for his crimes. Landmark later settled with the plaintiff for an undisclosed, but substantial sum.

Landmark now seems anxious to erase any record or memory of the Macks.

Charla Mack can be seen standing front row in a photo of Manila Forum graduates, but her name has been removed.

It seems like Landmark wants everyone to forget about the Macks and what happened to them.

Landmark may also hope that hope David Grill, Dr. Donna Marie Anderson, Jason Weed and their victims will also be forgotten.

Perhaps this is because according to Werner Erhard’s philosophy there are no “victims.”

Erhard preached that we create our own reality and therefore are responsible for whatever happens to us.

This realization is what est and Landmark devotees claim as a sort of epiphany at the end of the LGAT, that’s when they say you “get it.”

So perhaps within Werner’s world there may be no mourning for the victims of Darren Mack, Donna Anderson, David Grill or Jason Weed.

Li Hongzhi the exiled founder of Falun Gong, a Chinese religious movement many consider a “cult,” was served with a subpoena last week, which requires him to appear before a judge in New York City as a witness this week.

That court proceeding is a divorce action filed by one of Hongzhi’s followers against her husband. The couple is estranged largely because of Falun Gong.

Essentially, the wife is a true believer, but her husband is not, and this ultimately led to a marital breakdown.

Ms. C. a devotee of Falun Gong also known as Falun Dafa, has been separated from her husband Mr. C. for some time. The couple shares custody of their son and a New York family court will soon make a final determination regarding those arrangements.

Hongzhi was served Thursday June 15th 8:20 AM in the town of Saint James, New York. The Chinese exile that became an American citizen reportedly has two residences, one in New York and another in New Jersey.

As a direct result of the subpoena served Hongzhi is required to appear before a New York judge in Queens. His scheduled appearance is Thursday this week at 2:30 PM. 

Falun Gong received recent attention when a devotee with “press credentials” began shrieking at President Bush during a speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House.

Interestingly, that same woman, Wang Wenyi, was once listed by Mela Wu-Malin Nee Mela Cawley as a potential witness in the New York court proceeding to be held this week.

The Epoch Times, a newspaper run by Falun Gong members that provided Wenyi with press credentials, has similarly sponsored Ms. C. as a reporter. Both Ms. C. and Wenyi have participated in Falun Gong protests and demonstrations against the Chinese government, which has outlawed the group as an “evil cult.”

Falun Gong has caused increasing tension within the Chinese-American community. Some communities, such as Flushing, New York and more recently San Francisco, do not appreciate the group’s participation at events. Some Chinese-American leaders have suggested that Hongzhi’s followers use such events to promote their own agenda.

Li Hongzhi has been criticized for his racist and homophobic remarks.

He has said that gays are “disgusting” and somehow a “black substance” accumulates within the bodies of gay men. “Disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning at the present time,” Hongzhi stated. And one day the religious leader claims gays will be ’eliminated’’ by ’the gods.’’

Li Hongzhi’s racist remarks are also disturbing.

He teaches his followers that “mixed-race people¦[are] instruments of an alien plot to destroy humanity’s link to heaven.” And that these interracial unions are somehow part of “a plot by¦evil extraterrestrials.”

Interestingly, Mr. and Mrs. C., whose divorce proceeding Hongzhi is scheduled to appear at this week, are an example of one of those “interracial unions” and the couple’s son falls within the category of what Hongzhi’s calls “mixed-race-people.”

Mr. Hongzhi may soon have an opportunity to explain his beliefs before a judge and under oath as a witness.

Perhaps the religious leader will also explain other statements he has made such as that he can “personally install’’ falun (a wheel of law) in the abdomens of his followers, “levitate” and “become invisible.”

Apparently he was unable and/or unwilling to either levitate or become invisible to avoid the process server that presented him with a subpoena last week.

Some years ago the Washington Post (2000) and later the San Jose Mercury News (2001) reported about Hongzhi’s bigoted and often bizarre beliefs. However, since then the Western Press has virtually given the leader a “free pass,” rarely asking him or his followers any tough questions. Instead, the focus has repeatedly been on Falun Gong claims concerning “persecution” in China.

Now a New York courtroom may become the latest venue for Li Hongzhi to speak. And this time the Falun Gong leader would not be holding forth within an environment that he essentially controls. Instead, the judge would control the courtroom and lawyers would be asking the questions.

This Thursday afternoon in Queens might prove to be a rare opportunity to see and hear Li Hongzhi unfiltered and on the record. The Falun Gong founder, who supposedly leads millions, may finally answer some tough questions.

Madonna appears to be increasingly predatory regarding her proselytizing for the controversial “Kabbalah Centre.” The 1980s diva seems to prey upon young and vulnerable stars. 

“The buzz is that Madonna has become very tight with Lindsay Lohan, sharing religious and professional tips,” reported Jeanette Walls for MSNBC. 

Lohan, who will turn twenty next month, says she is “looking into Kabbalah.”

There seems to be a pattern to Madonna’s missionary work lately and it isn’t pretty.

The soon to be 48-year-old singer apparently preys upon young troubled stars, promoting her mystical mentors and their teachings as a divine cure to solve their problems.

First there was Britney Spears, who was reportedly troubled by an increasingly difficult and turbulent life. Along comes Madonna with a kiss and her Kabbalah grab bag of goodies, including a ready-to-wear “red string” amulet and plenty of bottled “Kabbalah Water.”

However, eventually the magic wore off and Spears reportedly got tired of the constant pressure to give the mystical group more money.

Once the pop singer dumped the Kabbalah Centre it wasn’t long before Madonna gave her the “kiss off.”

After all, the “Material Girl” has given her gurus millions, so why should Spears hold out?

Apparently it’s not possible to be Madonna’s special mentoring partner without a commitment to her purported “cult.” 

Now it seems it’s Lindsay Lohan’s turn to be the targeted teen idol and she certainly fits the profile.

Estranged from her father with a tabloid history of bingeing and partying, Lohan looks like the next vulnerable young star the diva has hooked up to reel in.

“Madonna’s giving Lindsay advice on her music career, and she wants to work on a film with Madonna, too!” reported MSNBC. They are also planning a “spiritual journey” to “the Holy Land” a source said.

Maybe Lohan should consider that Britney Spears didn’t navigate her life any better with Madonna on-board as her mentor. And the disco queen’s spiritual advisors have not done much good for her personal life according to press reports.

Working with Madonna on a movie can be a disaster. Witness her past film collaborations with husbands Sean Penn (Shanghai Surprise) and Guy Ritchie (Swept Away), “two for two,” flops that is. 

Despite her recent retro album and tour the 1980s icon has fallen off the Forbes list of its “top 100 stars.” Madonna was No. 8 last year, and now she’s nowhere to be found, reports Fox News.

What about all that illumminating “light” supposedly beaming down at the Kabbalah Centre?

Lindsay Lohan would probably be better off feeling her way through the dark without any guidance from Madonna’s gurus. And if the young star wants to take a trip try driving up the California Coast Highway to Napa, rather than some diva-led pilgrimage.