372 HARDING DRIVE, SOUTH ORANGE, NJ 07079-1339

Dear Mr. Schreiber:

This letter is in response to your request for me to write about my knowledge and experience of Landmark Education Corporation's programs, especially The Landmark Fonun, The Advanced Course, The Self-Expression and Leadership Program, and The Forum in Action Seminar.

I am a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry and have been licensed to practice medicine since 1955 in New Jersey, New York and California. I am certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology since 1962, and have spent thirty-nine years practicing general psychiatry and psychotherapy. I have never been an employee of Landmark Education Corporation (Landmark.)

Since beginning my practice in 1957, I have consulted with and psychiatrically treated many, thousands of individuals with mental, social and emotional problems. I have been affiliated with at least six hospitals, have been a consultant for many private agencies and for government agencies of the United States, the State of New Jersey, various municipalities and for various Courts of law. My psychiatric training included a residency in a U.S. Army Hospital in 1955 during which time, in order to deal with American military men who were mentally manipulated by their Chinese captors, I was trained specifically about the technology and techniques. of "brainwashing,,, ,mind-control," and of thought reform.

I am familiar with the Landmark Forum and have personally experienced and examined closely the work and programs of Landmark. Furthermore, I've spoken professionally and personally to over two thousand people of all sorts: patients, neighbors, friends, relatives and medical and psychiatric colleagues about their actual personal experience with The Landmark Forum. I have also been willing to serve as a voluntary, unpaid medical advisor for Landmark.

Both my personal and professional knowledge and experience lead me to say that The Landmark Forum and other programs offered by Landmark provided me and provide other individuals with a valuable educational opportunity that allows one to gain a greater sense of independence and self-confidence in one's ability and accomplishments in life. After my careful observation, I have seen nothing at all that would lead me to the conclusion that The Landmark Forum or any other Landmark program or Landmark itself does or even attempts to engage in any sort of brainwashing, thought reform, hypnosis, or thought modification whatsoever

I have also carefully, evaluated Landmark on the issue of its being a cult or cult-like. Categorically I can report that it is not.

A cult is a religion or religion-like sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers believing or living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian or charismatic leader. There is a special reverence or devotion to such person. There is often a non-scientific method or regimen claimed by its originator or proponent to have exclusive or exceptional power.

In a cult, there is an inculcation or indoctrination of a new idea to displace participants' usual, familiar and conventional ideas by subjecting them to repetitive instruction, indoctrination, sense of duty, etc. Similarly, brainwashing involves (1) intensive, forcible indoctrination aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs and (2) the application of a concentrated means of persuasion, such as repeated suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation. Necessarily involved are a kind of physical entrapment, power to inflict harm or detrimental effects, and secluding one from contact with friends and family.

Not one of these exists in Landmark or any of its programs. Nowhere, ever, is there any granting or seeking of obedience, authority or the acceptance of any harshness. Participants go their homes after every session. The strongest adjectives that may be used to characterize The Landmark Forum and other Landmark programs are "intellectually persuasive" or "intelligently cogent". Nowhere does the participant experience a disenchantment with his previous affiliations, loyalties, support groups and principles.

Landmark has none of the characteristics of cult-like organizations. There is no joining an organization - Landmark has no members. There is no element of geographic or family, dislocation whatsoever. There is no thought reform. The Landmark Forum leads to a more open, flexible self, a more Protean self. There is no element of coercive persuasion. There is no damage to family. In fact most participants have reported improved relationships with their families. Participants after The Landmark Forum find themselves with a greater sense of contribution to their own communities, bodies of interests and charities.

The Landmark Forum is a program which one does voluntarily where one inquires into ideas, much as one learns a skill or a new distinction such as aviation, dancing or tennis. There is no "membership" in The Landmark Forum or in Landmark, and there are no dues to pay - people simply pay a relatively small tuition for the particular program in which they participate. Landmark never has a financial contribution drive, never a request for funds, and participants , contributing of money is not even permitted. Those who take the programs commonly are able to give up previous egotistic, arrogant behavior and contribute to the community at large.

Landmark is entirely an employee owned corporation. There is no charismatic leader. Indeed no special "leader" exists at all. The Landmark Forum is conducted by approximately forty Forum Leaders, not one. They are not self appointed, but undertake rigorous training and testing and evaluation. The effectiveness of The Landmark Forum is not based upon the leader's charisma. Participants often never see their Forum Leader again. They take the program and it's over.

Landmark is not based upon personality: diversification in staff and participants is astounding and very revealing of the neutral, culturally blind, politically blind nationality blind, shared-hurnanity focus. Landmark Forum Leaders are diversified, not an), one personality. They are men, women, black, white Hindu, Asiatic, older, younger, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and other, heterosexual, homosexual, Italian, Hispanic, Indian, French, German, American, English, Australian and more. People I personally know who have taken and benefitted from The Landmark Forum are similarly diversified into those same kinds of categories. They include young students, older persons with the highest of academic degrees, laymen, clergymen physicians, engineers, law enforcement officers, laborers, psychologists, lawyers, judges, movie stars, and educators.

Those who take The Landmark Forum continue on in their jobs, neighborhoods, communities, charities of interest. They lead their lives. with what they learned in The Landmark Forum empowering their personal pursuits by an increase in their own productivity, communication skills, and self-confidence.

There is no Forum idea to inculcate. The Landmark Forum has no point of view on marriage, divorce, politics, religion, economics or any other issue. It encourages and enables those who participate to re-examine their own cherished assumptions so as to re-consider them in light of present and future ideas, not the past. In doing so, the participants keep those assumptions which work and remain timely and appropriate, and step beyond those which no longer work or are obsolete. The Landmark Forum does not propose a new philosophy to be espoused. The purpose is to present the opportunity for participants to see new possibilities and choices which they did not see before. The Landmark Forum does not suggest which of those newly seen choices the person ought to take ever! There is not even any mechanism by which someone who takes the program can get advice or instruction on major life decisions.

To the contrary, what I have observed are people educating themselves in The Landmark Forum to inquire into, examine and consider newly, rationally and thoughtfully their own individual goals, pursuits, relationships and bodies o interest. The Landmark Forum does not offer or ever purport to offer a "truth' of any kind as is commonly and necessarily associated with mind-reform and thought control. The Landmark Fonun as I have observed, presents neither its own nor any already existent "truth . Indeed, each program Landmark delivers includes an explicit caveat that nothing that has been considered or spoken throughout the course is the "truth," but are only ideas to be considered for the moment, evaluated, and to be discarded if not found useful by the participant.

Based on my personal and professional knowledge and experience, I can state that Landmark and The Landmark Forum are not a cult or cult-like and that people who participate in Landmark's programs are.not damaged.

Very truly yours,

Edward H. Lowell, M.D.