Erhard Seminars Training

Erhard Seminars Training, Inc.
Type Private Corporation (defunct)
Founded October 1971 (dissolved 1981)
Headquarters San Francisco, California, USA
Key people Werner Erhard, Founder[1]

Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend (60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The purpose of est was "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."[2][3] The est training was offered from late 1971 to late 1984.

Contents

est courses

The first est course happened at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, California, in October 1971. Within a year, trainings were being held in New York City, and other major cities in the United States followed soon after. Beginning in July 1974 the est Training was delivered in Federal Prisons.[4][5][6] 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.[7] "est, Inc." evolved into "est, an Educational Corporation", and eventually into "Werner Erhard & 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.[8] Landmark Education was structured as a for-profit, employee-owned company; it operates with a consulting division called Vanto Group.[9]

Early influences

In William Bartley's biography of Werner Erhard, Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, the Founding of est (1978), Erhard describes his explorations of Zen Buddhism. Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging Zen as the essential contribution that "created the space [for est]".[1] Bartley details Erhard's connections with Zen beginning with his extensive studies with Alan Watts in the mid 1960s.[10] 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.[11]

Timeline

Notable participants

Related organizations

See also the list of associated organizations.

See also

Related publications

Books

Articles in periodicals

References

  1. ^ a b 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.164.
  2. ^ Getting it - the psychology of est, by Dr. Sheridan Fenwick, p.44
  3. ^ Life inc: how the world became a corporation and how to take it back, by Douglas Rushkoff
  4. ^ "The est Training in Prisons: A Basis for the Transformation of Corrections?" (by Mark Woodard, Baltimore Law Journal, 1982
  5. ^ "est in Prison" by Earl Babbie, published in American Journal of Correction, Dec 1977
  6. ^ "Getting it in Prison" by Neal Rogin, published in The Graduate Review, June 1978
  7. ^ The Herald Sun, March 1, 2008 | http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23298425-664,00.html
  8. ^ McClure, Laura (July/August 2009). "The Landmark Forum: 42 Hours, $500, 65 Breakdowns". Mother Jones (Mother Jones). https://motherjones.com/media/2009/07/landmark-42-hours-500-65-breakdowns. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  9. ^ Bass, Alison (March 3, 1999). "Soul Training, A Retooled version of the controversial est movement, Seekers of many stripes set out on a path of self-examination". The Boston Globe (The Boston Globe). http://Boston.com/globe/search/stories/reprints/soultraining062199.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-11. 
  10. ^ 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. 118.
  11. ^ 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. 121.
  12. ^ Werner Erhard
  13. ^ Erhard Seminars Training
  14. ^ a b c d e Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1978). The People's Almanac 2. Bantam Doubleday Dell. ISBN 978-0553011371 
  15. ^ "The Most Significant Thing He's Ever Done, Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, November 12, 2010 [1]
  16. ^ Curtis, Adam (2002), The Century of the Self: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed 
  17. ^ Jackson, Steve (1996-04-18). "It Happens". Westword. http://www.westword.com/1996-04-18/news/it-happens/full. Retrieved 2007-04-27. 
  18. ^ "In the course of the e s t training, you build a 'center' for yourself. Following the specifications of the trainer, you not only imagine it but go through the motions of fashioning it, standing up, stepping in one direction then another, modeling the various parts with your hands according to the image formed behind your closed eyes." -- 20 Lines A Day, p. 37
  19. ^ a b Silvester, Christopher; Steven Bach (2002). The Grove Book of Hollywood. Grove Press. pp. 555–560. ISBN 0802138780. 
  20. ^ Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Buber, by Walter Kaufmann, Walter Arnold Kaufmann

External links