josef k. said:
I recall spending more than two months desperately pleading with a landmark-going friend of mine to get himself innoculated against this bullshit, because he was contagious, and acting as an agent for the fucking company, on the basis of motivations and manipulations he did not understand. Needless to say, I failed.
spent a slightly less amount of time raising my eyebrows at my now ex-flatmate along much the same lines. all I could see was my girl working in the pub round the corner for min wage, then blasting £800 on a 2-dayer load of nonsense that basically just played on, then wholeheartedly papered over, her looming insecurities.
the entire result of her landmark schooling seemed to be a strong deisre to tell everyone they were phenomenal, and apologise for having thought badly of them before this point (despite this evidently no longer being the case
and all said ppl being blissfully unaware of previous nasty thoughts).
the recruitment evenings are by far the most sinister aspect of all. Basically someone you know who's been landmarked pours out their innermost etc to you, then explains that you're so important to them they'd like you to come along. and unless you're on your guard against both flattery and not wishing to hurt their feelings/p**s on their newfound (and very sincere) openness, it's easy to see how you could be strongarmed into going along.
as a footnote, I escaped the hard sell attendance by (pre-mtg) drunkenly falling about, arms waving, shouting 'it's a fucking cult, you know'. over and over. don't think I'm too phenomenal anymore...