Erhard Seminars Training was an organization, founded by Werner Erhard in 1971, that offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training". This 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". An est website claims that it "brought to the forefront the ideas of transformation, personal responsibility, accountability, and possibility".
Werner Hans Erhard is an American author and lecturer known for founding est, which operated from 1971 to 1984. He has written, lectured, and taught on self improvement.
Landmark Worldwide, or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, which offers personal-development programs.
Large-group awareness training (LGAT) refers to activities usually offered by groups linked with the human potential movement which claim to increase self-awareness and bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives. They are noted for being unconventional and often take place over several days.
Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for delivering the est training, and offered what some people refer to as personal and professional development programs. Initially WE&A marketed and staged the est training, but in 1984 the est training was replaced by a more modern, briefer, rigorous and philosophical program based on Werner Erhard's teachings called "The Forum".
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers. It was founded in the wake of the November 18, 1978 deaths of members of the group Peoples Temple and assassination of Congressman Leo J. Ryan in Jonestown, Guyana, and was shut down in 1996. Its name and assets were later bought by a group of private donors in bankruptcy proceedings; with the transfer of ownership, the organization was renamed the New Cult Awareness Network.
Semi-Tough is a 1977 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Lotte Lenya, and Bert Convy. It is set in the world of American professional football.
The phrase "Earth Changes" was coined by the American psychic Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) to refer to the belief that the world would soon enter on a series of cataclysmic events causing major alterations in human life on the planet.
Joan Holmes is an American psychologist. She was the founding president of The Hunger Project, and served as one of 31 members on 'Task Force 2 on Hunger' of the UN Millennium Project of 2000–2006. She worked as a consulting educational psychologist for Erhard Seminars Training (est) prior to establishing The Hunger Project in 1977.
Steven Pressman is an American journalist, author of two books, and director/producer of the documentary film 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus.
Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile is a non-fiction book written by freelance journalist Steven Pressman and first published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press. The book gives an account of Werner Erhard's early life as Jack Rosenberg, his exploration of various forms of self-help techniques, and his foundation of Erhard Seminars Training "est" and later of Werner Erhard and Associates and of the est successor course, "The Forum". Pressman details the rapid financial success Erhard had with these companies, as well as controversies relating to litigation involving former participants in his courses. The work concludes by going over the impact of a March 3, 1991 60 Minutes broadcast on CBS where members of Erhard's family made allegations against him, and Erhard's decision to leave the United States.
Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est is a biography of Werner Erhard by philosophy professor William Warren Bartley, III. The book was published in 1978 by Clarkson Potter. Bartley was professor of philosophy at California State University and had studied with philosopher Karl Popper. He was the author of several books on philosophy, including a biography about Ludwig Wittgenstein. Erhard wrote a foreword to the book. The book's structure describes Erhard's education, transformation, reconnection with his family, and the theories of the est training.
est: Playing the Game the New Way is a non-fiction book by Carl Frederick, first published in 1976, by Delacorte Press, New York. The book describes in words the basic message of Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training (est) theatrical experience. Erhard/est sued in federal court in the United States to stop the book from publication, but the suit failed. The book takes a 'trainer's' approach to the est experience, in that it essentially duplicates the est training, citing examples and using jargon from the actual experience.
William Penn Patrick was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the owner of Holiday Magic, Leadership Dynamics, and Mind Dynamics. Patrick was a proponent of the sour grapes philosophy, and has been widely quoted as stating: "Those who condemn wealth are those who have none and see no chance of getting it."
Alexander Everett (1921–2005) was a British self-improvement and personal development consultant. He was the founder of the company Mind Dynamics, and author of the motivational books The Genius Within You and Inward Bound. Everett's coursework and teachings had an influence on the human potential movement.
Getting It: The Psychology of est is a non-fiction book by American clinical psychologist Sheridan Fenwick, first published in 1976, analyzing Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training or est. The book is based on Fenwick's own experience of attending a four-day session of the est training, an intensive 60-hour personal development course in the self-help genre, of which large groups of up to 250 people had taken the est training at one time.
The Book of est is a fictional account of the training created by Werner Erhard, (est), or Erhard Seminars Training, first published in 1976 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The book was written by est graduate Luke Rhinehart. Rhinehart is the pen name of writer George Cockcroft. The book was endorsed by Erhard, and includes a foreword by him. Its contents attempts to replicate the experience of the est training, with the reader being put in the place of a participant in the course. The end of the book includes a comparison by the author between Erhard's methodologies to Zen, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and to Rhinehart's own views from The Dice Man.
A self religion is a religious or self-improvement group which has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the self. The term "self religion" was coined by Paul Heelas and other scholars of religion have adopted/adapted the description. King's College scholar Peter Bernard Clarke builds on Heelas's concept of self religion to describe the class of "Religions of the True Self".
