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Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offering a highly popular and controversial two-weekend (60-hour) course known officially as 'The est Standard Training.' The purpose of est was to allow participants to achieve, in a very brief time, a sense of personal transformation and enhanced power. The est course was offered from late 1971 to late 1984.

1979]] The first est course happened at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States, with a 2007 estimated population of 799,183....
 in October 1971.






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Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offering a highly popular and controversial two-weekend (60-hour) course known officially as 'The est Standard Training.' The purpose of est was to allow participants to achieve, in a very brief time, a sense of personal transformation and enhanced power. The est course was offered from late 1971 to late 1984.

The est Standard Training

in 1979]] The first est course happened at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States, with a 2007 estimated population of 799,183....
 in October 1971. Within a year, trainings were being held in New York City, and other major cities in the US followed soon after. By 1979 est had expanded to Europe and other parts of the world. The popularity of est peaked in 1981, then enrollment for the various courses began to decline. The last est Training was held in December 1984 in San Francisco; in its place came a newly developed course called 'The Forum,' which began in January 1985. The est Training presented several concepts, most notably the concept of transformation and taking responsibility for one's life. The actual teaching, called "the technology of transformation," emphasizes the value of integrity. 'est, Inc.' evolved into 'est, an Educational Corporation', and eventually into 'Werner Erhard & Associates'. WE&A purchased the assets of est in 1981.

Early influences


In William Bartley's biography, Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, the Founding of est (1978), Erhard describes his explorations of Zen
Zen

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Ch?n. Ch?n is itself derived from the Sanskrit Dhyana, which means "meditation" ....
 Buddhism. Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging Zen as the essential contribution that "created the space [for est]." Bartley details Erhard's connections with Zen beginning with his extensive studies with Alan Watts
Alan Watts

Alan Wilson Watts was a United Kingdom philosopher, writer, speaker, and student of comparative religion. He was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western culture audience....
 in the mid 1960s. Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging:
Of all the disciplines that I studied, practiced, learned, Zen was the essential one. It was not so much an influence on me, rather it created space. It allowed those things that were there to be there. It gave some form to my experience. And it built up in me the critical mass from which was kindled the experience that produced est.


Timeline


  • 1971 - Erhard Seminars Training Inc, first est Training held in San Francisco, California
  • 1973 - The Foundation for the Realization of Man - incorporated as a non-profit foundation in California (subsequently the name of the foundation was changed to the est Foundation in 1976, and in 1981 to the Werner Erhard Foundation)
  • 1975 - est, an educational corporation.
  • 1981 - Sold assets to Werner Erhard and Associates and est ceased operations


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Related organizations


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     1977 - Present
  • Landmark Education
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See also the of associated organizations.

See also

  • Large Group Awareness Training
    Large Group Awareness Training

    The term Large Group Awareness Training refers to training offered by some groups in what some call the human potential movement. By using LGAT techniques, these providers claim to increase self-awareness and bring about preferred personal changes in individuals' lives....
  • Human potential movement
    Human Potential Movement

    The Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual social environment of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in most people....


Related publications


Books

  • William Warren Bartley
    William Warren Bartley

    William Warren Bartley, III, was an United States Professor of Philosophy, a Senior Research Fellow at Stanford University and an author....
     (1978). Werner Erhar, The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est. New York, New York, USA: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. * Adelaide Bry est (Erhard Seminars Training): 60 Hours That Transform Your Life. Harpercollins, 1976
  • Sheridan Fenwick Getting it: the psychology of est
    Getting It: The psychology of est

    Getting It: The psychology of est is a non-fiction book by American psychologist Sheridan Fenwick, first published in 1976, analyzing Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training or est....
    . Penguin, 1977. ISBN 0-14-004467-1
  • Carl Frederick est: Playing the Game the New Way. Delacorte, 1974.
  • Robert Hargrave est: Making Life Work. Delacorte, 1976.
  • Ray E Hosford, C Scott Moss, Helene Cavior and Burton Kerish "Research on Erhard Seminar Training in a Correctional Institution"
  • Rhinehart, Luke
    Luke Rhinehart

    Luke Rhinehart is the pen name of the author George Cockcroft. Luke Rhinehart is also a character in some of Cockcroft's books. In this article "George Cockcroft" refers to the author, while "Luke Rhinehart" refers to the character....
    , The Book of Est
    The Book of est

    The Book of est was written by George Cockcroft under the pen name Luke Rhinehart. It was first published in 1976 in a hardcover format by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and a paperback edition was released later in the same year....
  • Samways, Louise
    Louise Samways

    Louise Samways works as a psychologist and writer in Melbourne in Australia....
     Dangerous Persuaders: An expose of gurus, personal development courses and cults, and how they operate, Penguin, 1994


Articles in periodicals


  • Mark Brewerk. "We're Gonna Tear You Down and Put You Back Together", Psychology Today, August 1975
  • L. L. Glass, M. A. Kirsch and F. N. Parris. "Psychiatric disturbances associated with Erhard Seminars Training", American Journal of Psychiatry. 1977; 134(3): 245-7.
  • Peter Marin. "The New Narcissism", Harper's
    Harper's Magazine

    Harper's Magazine is a monthly, general-interest magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. It is the second-oldest, continuously-published monthly magazine in the U.S.; current circulation is more than 220,000 issues....
    , October 1975, 251:45-56.
  • Perry Pascarella. "Create Breakthroughs in Performance by Changing the Conversation,” by Perry Pascarella. Industry Week, Vol. 233, No. 6 (June 15), 1987.
  • Eliezer Sobel. “This Is It: est, Twenty Years Later” (QUEST Magazine, Summer 1998)


External links

  • , at the Open Directory Project
    Open Directory Project

    The Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content Web directory of World Wide Web links owned by Netscape that is constructed and maintained by a virtual community of volunteer editors....
  • , The Skeptic's Dictionary