Erhard Seminars Training

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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

The est training [edit]

Werner Erhard in 1977

The est Standard Training was a seminar that offered a participatory experience that incorporated the Socratic method. It aimed to enable participants to shift their contextual state of mind around which their life was organized from the attempt to get satisfaction or to survive, to an experience of actually being satisfied and experiencing oneself as whole and complete in the present moment. The est training offered people the opportunity to free themselves from the past, rather than living a life enmeshed by their past.[4]

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 at the U.S. Penitentiary at Lompoc, with the approval of Federal Bureau of Prisons.[5][6][7] 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. Among the participants were the mayor of City of Lompoc and imprisoned political activist Matthew Landy Steen, a Weatherman convicted of multiple bank robberies.[7]

By 1979 est had expanded to Europe and other parts of the world. In 1980 the first est training in Israel was offered in Tel Aviv.[8]

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.[9] "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.[10] Landmark Education was structured as a for-profit, employee-owned company; it operates with a consulting division called Vanto Group.[11]

Early influences [edit]

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 Werner 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.[12] 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.[13]

Timeline [edit]

  • 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.
  • 1979 - The first est Training in Europe.
  • 1977 - The first est Training outside of the US, in London.
  • 1979 - The first est Training in India.
  • 1980 - The first est Training in Israel.
  • 1981 - Sold assets to Werner Erhard and Associates and est ceased operations[14]
  • 1984 - The last est training was held.[15]

Notable participants [edit]

Related organizations [edit]

See also [edit]

Related publications [edit]

 This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (January 2013)

Books [edit]

Articles in periodicals [edit]

  • "est: Communication in a Context of Compassion", by Werner Erhard and Victor Gioscia
  • "Being Well", by Werner Erhard, Victor Gioscia, and Ken Anbender, from Beyond Health and Normality: Explorations of Exceptional Psychological Well-Being, ed. Roger Walsh and Deane Sharpiro Jr.
  • Earl Babbie, "est in Prison", American Journal of Corrections, Nov.-Dec. 1977
  • Interview: Werner Erhard, by John Johns, PSA Magazine, May 1976 [3]
  • Werner Erhard on Transformation and Productivity: An Interview, by Norman Bodek, published in Revision: The Journal of Consciousness and Change, Volume 7, Number 3, Winter 84/Spring 85 [4]
  • Justin Simon, "Observations on 67 Patients who took Erhard Seminars Training", American Journal of Psychiatry, 1978, 135:686-691, [5]
  • 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.[6]
  • Peter Marin. "The New Narcissism", Harper's, 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)[7]
  • "Research on Erhard Seminar Training in a Correctional Institution" (Hosford, Ray, E., Moss, C. Scott, Cavior, Helene, & Kerish, Burton. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1982, Manuscript #2419, American Psychological Association)
  • "The est Training in Prisons: A Basis for the Transformation of Corrections?" (by Mark Woodard, Baltimore Law Journal, 1982)
  • "Separate Realities: A Comparative Study of Estians, Psychoanalysands, and the Untreated", Rabow et al. [8]
  • "The est Experience", Adam Smith, New York Magazine, September 29, 1975 [9]
  • "est Outcome Study", Robert Ornstein, Charles Swensionis, Arthur Deikman, Ralph Morris
  • "The Mind's Dedication to Survival" by Werner Erhard, Gilbert Guerin and Robert Shaw, published in "The Journal of Individual Psychology" [10]
  • "Breaking Out of the Box, a Crash Course in Paradigm Thinking" by Debra Feinstein, published in "Benchmark Magazine," Fall 1989

References [edit]

  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. ^ Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est, by WIlliam Warren Bartley, III; New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. 1978. ISBN 0-517-53502-5, p. 199
  5. ^ "The est Training in Prisons: A Basis for the Transformation of Corrections?" (by Mark Woodard, Baltimore Law Journal, 1982
  6. ^ "est in Prison" by Earl Babbie, published in American Journal of Correction, Dec 1977
  7. ^ a b "Getting it in Prison" by Neal Rogin, published in The Graduate Review, June 1978
  8. ^ Despair and deliverance: privat salvation in contemporary Israel by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi page 121
  9. ^ The Herald Sun, March 1, 2008 | http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23298425-664,00.html
  10. ^ McClure, Laura (July/August 2009). "The Landmark Forum: 42 Hours, $500, 65 Breakdowns". Mother Jones (Mother Jones). Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  11. ^ 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). Retrieved 2010-10-11. 
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Werner Erhard
  15. ^ Erhard Seminars Training
  16. ^ a b c d e Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1978). The People's Almanac 2. Bantam Doubleday Dell. ISBN 978-0-553-01137-1 
  17. ^ "The Most Significant Thing He's Ever Done, Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, November 12, 2010 [1]
  18. ^ Curtis, Adam (2002), The Century of the Self: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed 
  19. ^ Jackson, Steve (1996-04-18). "It Happens". Westword. Retrieved 2007-04-27. 
  20. ^ "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
  21. ^ a b Silvester, Christopher; Steven Bach (2002). The Grove Book of Hollywood. Grove Press. pp. 555–560. ISBN 0-8021-3878-0. 
  22. ^ Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Buber, by Walter Kaufmann, Walter Arnold Kaufmann
  23. ^ "Fox Heads Stalk This Land, MOJO, April 2010 [2]

External links [edit]

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