Erhard Seminars Training: Difference between revisions

| logo =

| type = Privately-held corporation (defunct)

| foundation = October 1971

'''Erhard Seminars Training, Inc.''' (marketed as '''est''', though often encountered as '''EST''' or '''Est''') was an organization founded by [[Werner Erhard]] in 1971 that offered a two-weekend (6-day, 60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The purpose of the training is to help one to recognize that the situations, which seem to be holding them back in life, are working themselves out within the process of life itself. The seminar aimed to "transform one's ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself".<ref>

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| quote = [...] printed on the first mailing I received after sending in my deposit: 'The purpose of the est training is to transform your ability to experience living so that the situations you have been trying to change or have been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself.'

| quote = 'The purpose of the EST training,' we were told when I took it as a college student in the early '80s, 'is to transform your ability to experience living so that the situations you have been trying to change or have been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself.'

As est grew, so did criticism of itcriticisms.<ref>

</ref> offered by [[Werner Erhard and Associates]] and dubbed "[[WernerLandmark Erhard and AssociatesWorldwide|"The Forum"]]", which began in January 1985.<ref>

Participants agreed to follow the ground rules, which included not wearing watches, not speaking until called upon, not talking to their neighbors, and not eating or leaving their seats to go to the bathroom except during breaks separated by many hours. Participants who were on medication were exempt from these rules, and had to sit in the back row, so that they would not interfere with the other participants.<ref name="Cults 1999, p.75">''Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion'', by Marc Galanter; New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 1999, p. 75</ref> These classroom agreements provided a rigorous setting whereby people's ordinary ways to escape confronting their experience of themselves were eliminated.<ref name=bartley2>{{cite book|last1=Bartley|first1=William Warren III|title=Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est|date=December 12, 1988|publisher=Clarkson Potter|isbn=0-517-53502-5|url=https://archive.org/details/wernererhard00will}}</ref>{{pn|date=November 2021}} Moreno describes the est training as a form of "[[Socratic questioning|Socratic interrogation]]...relying on the power of the shared cathartic experience that [[Aristotle]] observed."<ref name=Moreno /> Erhard challenged participants to be themselves instead of playing a role that had been imposed on them<ref name=Moreno /> and aimed to press people beyond their point of view, into a perspective from which they could observe their own positionality.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Bartley |first1= William Warren III|title=Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est|date= December 12, 1988|publisher=Clarkson Potter|isbn=0-517-53502-5|url= https://archive.org/details/wernererhard00will | page = 233 | quote = The training provides a format in which siege is mounted on the Mind. It is intended to identify and bring under examination presuppositions and entrenched positionality. It aims to press one beyond one's point of view, at least momentarily, into a perspective from which one observes one's own positionality. }}</ref> As [[Robert Kiyosaki]] writes, "During the training, it became glaringly clear that most of our personal problems begin with our not keeping our agreements, not being true to our words, saying one thing and doing another. That first full day on the simple class agreements was painfully enlightening. It became obvious that much of human misery is a function of broken agreements – not keeping your word, or someone else not keeping theirs."<ref name=kiyosaki>{{cite book|last1= Kiyosaki |first1=Robert|last2=Kiyosaki|first2=Emi|title=Rich Brother Rich Sister|date=January 2009|publisher= Vanguard Press|isbn=978-1-59315-493-6|url=https://archive.org/details/richbrotherrichs00kiyo}}</ref>

Many participants reported experiencing powerful results through their participation in the est training, characterised by Eliezer Sobel as perceived "dramatic transformations in their relationships with their families, with their work and personal [[vision (disambiguation) Goal|vision]], or most important, with the recognition [[self-awareness |who they truly were]] in the core of their beings".<ref name=Moreno />{{qn|date=February 2021}} One study of "a large sample of est alumni who had completed the training at least 3 months before revealed that "the large majority felt the experience had been positive (88%), and considered themselves better off for having taken the training (80%)".<ref name=forbes>

Werner Erhard reported having a personal transformation, and created the est training to allow others to have the same experience.<ref>Bartley, William Warren, Werner Erhard: the transformation of a man: the founding of est. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. 1978. {{ISBN|0-517-53502-5}}, p. 165.</ref> The first ''est'' course was held at a [[Jack Tar Hotels|Jack Tar Hotel]] in [[San Francisco]], California, in October 1971.<ref name=sf>{{cite news|title=Hotel to hospital: Farewell to S.F. era|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=OctOctober 31, 2009}}</ref> Within a year, trainings were being held in [[New York City]] and other major cities in the United States followed soon after. They were carried out by Werner Erhard, who had recently resigned from [[Mind Dynamics]].

Beginning in July 1974 the est training was delivered at the U.S. Penitentiary at [[Lompoc, California|Lompoc]], California, with the approval of the [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]].<ref name=ReferenceA>{{cite journal|last1=Woodward |first1=Mark |title=The est Training in Prisons: A Basis for the Transformation of Corrections? |journal=Baltimore Law Journal |date=1982 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/38713955/Werner-Erhard-s-est-Training-in-the-Prisons |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113104720/http://www.scribd.com/doc/38713955/Werner-Erhard-s-est-Training-in-the-Prisons |archive-date=November 13, 2013 }}</ref><ref>"est in Prison" by Earl Babbie, published in American Journal of Correction, Dec 1977</ref><ref name="archive.org">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/GettingitInPrison|title=Getting 'It' in Prison – The First est Training at the Federal Correctional Institution at Lompoc, California in 1974 |first=Neal |last=Rogin |work=Internet Archive|date=7 June 1978 }}</ref> Initial est training in Lompoc involved participation of 12–15 federal prisoners and outside community members within the walls of the maximum security prison and was personally conducted by Werner Erhard.

It was replaced by a gentler course called "The Forum," which began in January 1985. "est, Inc." evolved into "est, an Educational Corporation," and eventually into [[Werner Erhard and Associates]]. In 1991 the business was sold to the employees who formed a new company called Landmark Education with Erhard's brother, Harry Rosenberg, becoming the CEO.<ref name="lauramcclure">{{cite journal |title=The Landmark Forum: 42 Hours, $500, 65 Breakdowns |last=McClure |first=Laura |journal=Mother Jones |url=https://motherjones.com/media/2009/07/landmark-42-hours-500-65-breakdowns |date=July–August 2009 |access-date=October 13, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018174746/https://motherjones.com/media/2009/07/landmark-42-hours-500-65-breakdowns |archive-date=October 18, 2010 }}</ref> Landmark Education was structured as a for-profit, employee-owned company; since 2013, it operates as [[Landmark Worldwide]] with a consulting division called Vanto Group.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Soul Training: A Retooled Version of the Controversial est Movement – Seekers of Many Stripes Set Out on a Path of Self-examination |last=Bass |first=Alison |journal=The Boston Globe |url= http://boston.com/globe/search/stories/reprints/soultraining062199.htm |date=March 3, 1999 |access-date=October 11, 2010}}</ref>

*Bry, Adelaide: ''est: 60 Hours That Transform Your Life'', Harper CollinsHarperCollins (1976) {{ISBN|978-0-06-010562-4}}