I got a call from an old high school girlfriend of mine. Who has identified herself as an alcoholic and who is still drinking. She went to some AA meetings and then went to something called Landmark Education which is the new name for EST which I know nothing about.
She told me my college boyfriend of 5 years and first love died today. I am numb. My girlfriends older brother was my boyfriends best friend in high school and college. I hung out with the older brother and his gfriends and then wife as the years with my 1st love went on so we are in many ways closer than me and this girlfriend.
He and his family came down at Easter and we discussed my 1st love. I have been married 15 years to my "real love" even if he drives me crazy......
My 1st love is/was a drug addict big time. And his best friend and I both surmised it was just a matter of time until the call came that he was dead.
So it was today. I have no details. I last spoke to him last fall when he discussed us reuniting. This came up as I moved to the state he was living. Remember I moved here with my husband but we were having tons of issues for many reasons my last years of hard drinking and then the many attempts to stop were the top issues. As we all know I was awful to live with
Wow I can't believe he is dead. I know so few people who have died.
I got in a big fight with the girlfriend who called (she had no details) she didn't sound completely blotto but lied and said she hadn't had a drink in 2 days. She was upset that I didn't immediately start wailing. (I still haven't cried). I told her that I had been waiting for this call and that I was waiting to get one about her too. She called me the grim reaper. She also said we all have to die of something.
There are times that I entertain that I can drink again......not tonight....
my prayers go out to all who are still drinking
xox
3 comments:
That is interesting that you had not heard anything previously about the groups that your old high school girlfriend had attended. There is some information and helpful links/resources below. I am sorry for your loss and wish you a happy and healthy new year.
Landmark Education is conducted in a Large Group Awareness Training setting, information about it and its "The Forum" course, previously known as "The Forum" under Werner Erhard and Associates, the "technology" of which was developed by Werner Erhard and utilized in his prior "EST Training" or "Erhard Seminars Training" - is available through the links below:
A documentary came out in France, Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus, which details some of the for-profit company's interesting practices. The film aired to 1.5 million people in France. One month after it aired, the company shut down in France. The company attempted to use the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in order to get this video off the internet. More about this at Landmark Education stumbles stupidly to hollow settlement, Landmark Education wants to make French news report a “forbidden video” on the Net and at Why did Landmark Education leave France? as well as at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's legal page, Landmark and the Internet Archive and in an article from Reuters which went into The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, among many other papers, at Google faces legal challenges over video service.
Landmark Education has been labeled "sect" by the government of France, a "sect" by the government of Austria. They were investigated multiple times by the United States Federal Department of Labor - and an investigation in 2004 by the Federal Department of Labor in France led to Landmark Education shutting down their operations in all of France due to unpaid labor practices.
Landmark Education is currently a defendant in a wrongful death case in Oklahoma, and also a young man named James Brian Rowe went missing in Colorado directly after attending a Landmark Forum in 2004. His family has not heard from him since.
More information about the company's history itself, at The Rick Ross Institute, the Skepdic site, Cult News, Introduction to the Landmark Education litigation archive, Landmark Education litigation archive, Apologetics Index, and Cult Awareness and Information Centre. The book OUTRAGEOUS BETRAYAL by Steven Pressman is also a great resource. Chapter 4, A Door to Door Mind Salesman, and Chapter 7, Enlightenment in Two Weekends - The est Training are available online.
For more information about other Large Group Awareness Training organizations and their methodologies, visit:
The Truth about Human Potential Seminars
I did do some research on EST/Landmark and didn't think it would help her beat alcoholism (which she was claiming) and it didn't.....hopefully someday she will try AA.
Let me know what you think after reading the information from some of the above resources.
But yes, one would imagine that AA, which has been dealing with this issue since 1935, would be better equipped and have more professional resources to deal with a problem like alcoholism.
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