By Carolyn Delph
Lifestyle Writer

They say there is a place because they have been there.

Nearly a dozen Lehigh students have experienced this place because the Landmark Forum and no one has come back the same.

"It's like you are in denial your whole life and then finally wake up," said Meg Van Sciver, '96, a student who recently attended the Landmark Forum.

The Landmark Forum might be compared to a college-level course in philosophy that challenges conventional thinking and explores new approaches, says Sharon Spaulding, director of media relations.

Topics include underlying principles of effective communication, accomplishment and productivity. The Forum usually takes three days and one evening, and approximately 150 people participate in each session. The tuition is $290. Sessions are held in major cities in the U.S. and around the world.

The program, although first perceived as confusing, is an ontological examination, a n inquiry into what it is to be human. Participants share personal experiences and words with fellow Forum participants and it is all led by a Forum leader.

The Forum is about making distinctions, about distinguishing something for the first time. As humans, we all have distinctions about subjects we like. Architects have distinctions about buildings. Musicians have distinctions about musical performance. We also notice what becomes available when we have those distinctions. When the architect knows what makes a quality building, he or she has the power to make other quality buildings. The musician can make quality music on purpose instead of by accident.

Landmark asserts that there are distinctions that can be made about how humans live. There are patterns that can be named and that recognition brings power to the individual. Landmark further asserts that humans naturally close down possibility out of fear.

The Forum participants examine the spectrum of their own potential and notice patterns where they succeed and patterns where they fail. The Forum's goal is to allow participants to explore their full potential to a greater extent.

Van Sciver, who attended the Forum's three-day course in Edison, NJ, found that it opened many doors for her.

"It's for people who want to create possibility in their lives and stop blaming themselves for doing things certain ways," she said.

She described the people who attended the seminar, vary in age and are of all ethnic backgrounds. They are primarily business people because many companies encourage their employees to participate.

"They were mostly people who had good lives but wanted to make them great," Van Sciver said.

Van Sciver altered her perception in many ways after the Forum. For one, it changed her relationship with her parents. "It taught me that there are no accidents," Van Sciver said. She said some people are under the wrong impression that the Forum is a self-help course.

"They just encourage you to take action, so I called my mom," she said.

As a result of the change they saw in her, Van Sciver's parents enrolled in the Landmark Forum. "It's made my home a lot better," she said. Attending the Landmark Forum also changed Van Sciver's career path from mechanical engineering to teaching.

"I realized what I truly love is teaching," Van Sciver said. "I knew it before, but I just wouldn't allow myself to accept it. The Forum is the reason why I allowed myself to change my career."

She now sees teaching high school physics as part of her future.

Brendan Brinkman, '96, heard about The Landmark Education Corporation about four years ago through a friend of his stepfather. He first perceived the Forum as a silly meeting.

"We chewed him up and thought it was a cult," Brinkman said.

Last year, Brinkman's friends at Lehigh also participated in the Landmark Education Corporation programs and told him about the progress they made.

"They would come back and share about their experiences, and it really peaked my interest because I respect and trust my friends," Brinkman said.

Brinkman, who attended the Landmark Forum for the first time this January said it affirmed that he was pursuing the right career path.

"The Forum has redoubled my resolve and confidence that not only can I make a difference, I will," Brinkman said.

Landmark Education's "Curriculum for Living," the beginning of the Forum, consists of four integrated programs.

Approximately 60,000 people a year participate in these programs.

The Landmark Forum in Action Seminar is an eight-session evening seminar series. It provides people with a focused opportunity to bring the creativity and power of the Forum to specific commitments, relationships, projects and goals, Spaulding said.

The Landmark Advanced Course is based on the premise that the most important determinant of success and fulfillment is looking to the future rather than the past.

"It provides participants with the technology for designing a future based on this premise that allows for a completely new quality of freedom, expression and ability," Spaulding said.

The Advanced Course takes four days and one evening with about 75 people participating. Tuition is $700.

The Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership Program (SELP), the final program within Landmark Education's "Curriculum for Living," encourages participants to manage projects that are an expression of their own commitments and goals.

Examples of projects include forwarding education initiatives, fostering intercultural cooperation and forging partnerships between the public and private sectors. Tuition is $150 and includes regular meetings and weekend workshops over a three-month period.

Dana Jacobs, '96, heard about he Landmark Forum two years ago through Steven Sametz, professor of music.

"It sounded interesting to me, but I didn't have a lot of money or a car," Jacobs said. "But when it came up again this year, I thought that while I was still a student and unsure about what I was going to do, it would be a good time to do it."

Jacobs attended the Forum with a few other Lehigh students in September. As a behavioral neuroscience major, jacobs had already applied to medical schools.

"I had done a lot of soul searching the year before and thought that medicine was what I wanted to do," Jacobs said.

"The Forum showed me how effective I could be in putting the different aspects of myself into medicine."

"You can read about it and hear about others' experiences," she said, "but it's something you have to experience for yourself. It's a pretty powerful experience for a lot of people."

Brinkman agreed. "The Forum gives a body of distinctions, they help you to create things that weren't there before," he said. "For people who haven't had these experiences, these things just don't exist for them."

According to Jacobs, the people who run the program are very specific when you sign up. They stress that it is meant to be educational and not a substitute for counseling or therapy.

"The things they teach you are not particularly profound ideas," Jacobs said. "You just learn to believe in them for yourself."

Jacobs, who attended the advanced course last month with Brinkman, said another misconception people have about the Forum is that it is a religious sect.

"It's not a belief. They tell you that the things they are teaching are not the truth and that they are just offering you another interpretation," Jacobs said.

"You can take it or leave it."

Jacobs said the Forum had a profound effect, not only in helping her to realize her full potential in the medical field, but in more day-to-day things, such as her relationship with her parents and disciplining herself to exercise regularly.

"The Forum allowed me to share myself more," Jacobs said. "Unless I put my thoughts out to the world, I'll never change anything."

Reprinted from The Lehigh University, Brown & White, April 12, 1996.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania