Apologies if the bathroom thing is untrue — if there is truth in that remark, it probably comes from the days of est and not Landmark.

I once read something fascinating that Clint Eastwood said. He visited a prison once, and he asked a question of the prisoners. When you watch one of my movies, are you rooting for me or are you rooting for the criminals? They all looked at him like he was crazy. We’re rooting for you, of course.

What Eastwood saw is that everyone identifies with themselves as the hero–No one, not even murderers, think of themselves as the bad guy. Everyone’s the hero, (or, if unsuccessful, the victim) of their own personal tale. Murderers feel justified in what they’ve done by the personal stories they create about what happened.

There’s also a great scene in Neil Gaiman’s Doll’s House where the Sandman encounters a meeting of serial killers and he lays a curse of sorts on them: That they will know exactly who they are, and how little that means. He still all their petty dreams of grandeur and importance.

Anyhow, this has gotten way of the rails, but I think it does relate powerfully to one’s own writing. For myself, doing the Landmark course (and by the way, that think about the bathroom must be some sort of urband legend) had me look my own stories in the eye and see which of them I wanted to keep around. By getting free from the idea of my unconscious personal story being true, I found I had far more flexibility in my writing. I’ve had an explosion of creativity inside of realizing that it’s all just made up anyway and there’s nothing I can’t say.

And while, yes, the participants engage in a conversation to identify their “defining stories”, no one is required to speak them publicly. They are “pulled apart”, but only in the sense that the “what happened” — defined by incident — is separated from “what it meant” — defined by meaning. This process is done honestly and respectfully.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you check into it and even do the course. I think you’ll find it fascinating and worth while.

If you want more reading, I suggest you head over to http://www.landmarkeducationnews.com or http://www.legrads.com.au for stories from people who are using what they learned to make a difference.