Erhard Seminars Training

Erhard Seminars Training, Inc.
Company type	Privately-held corporation
Founded	October 1971
Defunct	1984 (dissolution)
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Werner Erhard, founder

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 was to use concepts loosely based on Zen Buddhism for self improvement. 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".^[2]^[3]

Est seminars operated from late 1971 to late 1984 and spawned a number of books from 1976 to 2011. Est has been featured in a number of films and television shows, including the critically acclaimed spy-series The Americans, broadcast from 2013 to 2018. Est represented an outgrowth of the Human Potential Movement^[4] of the 1960s through to the 1970s.

As est grew, so did criticisms.^[5] Various critics accused est of mind control^[6] or of forming an authoritarian army;^[7] some labeled it a cult.^[8]

The last est training took place in December 1984 in San Francisco. The seminars gave way to a "gentler" course^[9] offered by Werner Erhard and Associates and dubbed "The Forum" (currently named Landmark Worldwide), which began in January 1985.^[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.164.
^ Fenwick, Sheridan (1976). Getting it: The Psychology of Est. Philadelphia: Lippincott. p. 44. ISBN 9780397011704. Retrieved 13 January 2021. [...] 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.'
^ Compare: Rushkoff, Douglas (2011). Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Random House. p. 140. ISBN 9781446467787. Retrieved 2017-02-05. '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.'
^ Greil, Arthur L.; Rudy, David R. (1981). "On the Margins of the Sacred". In Robbins, Thomas; Anthony, Dick (eds.). In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America (2 ed.). Abingdon: Routledge (published 2017). ISBN 9781351513067. Retrieved 13 January 2021. Organizations generally associated with the human potential movement, such as Silva Mind Control, est, Lifespring, Transformational Technologies, etc., are easily conceptualized as quasi-religions. Although it is now defunct and its founder, Werner Erhard, has moved on to other projects, such as the Forum and Transformational Technologies, est remains one of the best known of the human potential groups. [...] Like other organizations within the human potential movement, est understands 'itself to be communicating epistemological, psychological, and psychosomatic facts about human existence [...]' [...].
^ Haldeman, Peter (28 November 2015). "The Return of Werner Erhard, Father of Self-Help". Fashion. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The criticism intensified as EST grew.
^ Haldeman, Peter (28 November 2015). "The Return of Werner Erhard, Father of Self-Help". Fashion. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The criticism intensified as EST grew. It was labeled a cult that practiced mind control (verbal abuse, sleep deprivation), a racket that exploited its followers (heavy recruiting, endless "graduate seminars").
^ Tipton, Steven M. (1982). "EST and Ethics: Rule-egoism in Middle Class Culture". Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers (published 2014). p. 215. ISBN 9781625646996. Retrieved 25 November 2020. Accused by critics of being an authoritarian army, the est organization is, in fact, a boot camp for bureaucracy. Hierarchical, tightly rule-governed, and meritocratic, it trains its young volunteers and staff to answer phones, write memos, keep records, promote and stage public events, and deal smoothly with clients.
^ Lewis, James R. (11 September 2014). "Erhard Seminars Training (est)/The Forum". Cults: A Reference and Guide. Approaches to New Religions (3 ed.). London: Routledge (published 2014). p. 129. ISBN 9781317545132. Retrieved 17 August 2020. While not a church or religion, est is included here because it has often been accused of being a cult.
^ Whippman, Ruth (10 March 2016). "Personal Journey? Its Not All About You". The Pursuit of Happiness: Why are we driving ourselves crazy and how can we stop?. London: Hutchinson (published 2016). ISBN 9781473519602. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The Landmark Forum is the direct successor to the notorious 1970s programme est [...]. In the 1980s, Erhard reinvented his course in a gentler, more corporate incarnation as The Forum, which later became the Landmark Forum.
^ Kyle, Richard G. (1993). The Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America. InterVarsity Press. p. 319. ISBN 9780830817665. Retrieved 17 August 2020. In 1985, Erhard changed the name of est to 'the Forum.' The Forum is not substantially different from est . Ruth Tucker says that the changes made by Erhard are largely cosmetic, for the philosophy of the Forum is essentially that of est.

[bartley-1] 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] Fenwick, Sheridan (1976). Getting it: The Psychology of Est. Philadelphia: Lippincott. p. 44. ISBN 9780397011704. Retrieved 13 January 2021. [...] 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.'

[3] Compare: Rushkoff, Douglas (2011). Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. Random House. p. 140. ISBN 9781446467787. Retrieved 2017-02-05. '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.'

[4] Greil, Arthur L.; Rudy, David R. (1981). "On the Margins of the Sacred". In Robbins, Thomas; Anthony, Dick (eds.). In Gods We Trust: New Patterns of Religious Pluralism in America (2 ed.). Abingdon: Routledge (published 2017). ISBN 9781351513067. Retrieved 13 January 2021. Organizations generally associated with the human potential movement, such as Silva Mind Control, est, Lifespring, Transformational Technologies, etc., are easily conceptualized as quasi-religions. Although it is now defunct and its founder, Werner Erhard, has moved on to other projects, such as the Forum and Transformational Technologies, est remains one of the best known of the human potential groups. [...] Like other organizations within the human potential movement, est understands 'itself to be communicating epistemological, psychological, and psychosomatic facts about human existence [...]' [...].

[5] Haldeman, Peter (28 November 2015). "The Return of Werner Erhard, Father of Self-Help". Fashion. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The criticism intensified as EST grew.

[6] Haldeman, Peter (28 November 2015). "The Return of Werner Erhard, Father of Self-Help". Fashion. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The criticism intensified as EST grew. It was labeled a cult that practiced mind control (verbal abuse, sleep deprivation), a racket that exploited its followers (heavy recruiting, endless "graduate seminars").

[7] Tipton, Steven M. (1982). "EST and Ethics: Rule-egoism in Middle Class Culture". Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers (published 2014). p. 215. ISBN 9781625646996. Retrieved 25 November 2020. Accused by critics of being an authoritarian army, the est organization is, in fact, a boot camp for bureaucracy. Hierarchical, tightly rule-governed, and meritocratic, it trains its young volunteers and staff to answer phones, write memos, keep records, promote and stage public events, and deal smoothly with clients.

[8] Lewis, James R. (11 September 2014). "Erhard Seminars Training (est)/The Forum". Cults: A Reference and Guide. Approaches to New Religions (3 ed.). London: Routledge (published 2014). p. 129. ISBN 9781317545132. Retrieved 17 August 2020. While not a church or religion, est is included here because it has often been accused of being a cult.

[9] Whippman, Ruth (10 March 2016). "Personal Journey? Its Not All About You". The Pursuit of Happiness: Why are we driving ourselves crazy and how can we stop?. London: Hutchinson (published 2016). ISBN 9781473519602. Retrieved 17 August 2020. The Landmark Forum is the direct successor to the notorious 1970s programme est [...]. In the 1980s, Erhard reinvented his course in a gentler, more corporate incarnation as The Forum, which later became the Landmark Forum.

[10] Kyle, Richard G. (1993). The Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America. InterVarsity Press. p. 319. ISBN 9780830817665. Retrieved 17 August 2020. In 1985, Erhard changed the name of est to 'the Forum.' The Forum is not substantially different from est . Ruth Tucker says that the changes made by Erhard are largely cosmetic, for the philosophy of the Forum is essentially that of est.

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