Est Program 1980s

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". In the mid-1980s, he renamed EST "the Forum," and in the early 1990s he left the country during a period when the IRS was investigating his taxes.

In 1980, a Monmouth County, N.J., couple filed a $1-million suit against the Erhard Seminars Training claiming that its practices resulted in "severe and permanent emotional, psychological and. Original est staff members included Werner Erhard, Gonneke Spits, Laurel Scheaf, Jack Rafferty and Elaine Cronin While only about 600 people participated in est Training by the end of 1971, it was the beginning of something new. Erhard Seminars Training (EST[note 1]) was a two-weekend seminar and its controlling organization, originally cobbled together and operated by former encyclopedia- and used-car-salesman Werner Erhard (born Jack Paul Rosenberg) (1935-) from the early 1970s to 1984.

Participants shelled out big bucks to spend two weekends alternately being verbally abused and called assholes, subjected. EST was succeeded by "The Forum" in the mid-1980s, a softer version of the original program, which eventually evolved into what is known today as Landmark Worldwide. The est process is designed to assist the participant to discover through experience, rather than analysis, aspects of his mental functioning and behavior.

The participant "looks at" (without explanation or rationalization) his behavior, feelings, thoughts, history, justifications and the concomitant payoffs. What was est in the 1980s? EST was not officially a religion but a training program meant "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 Erhard put it. est (Erhard Seminar Training)Erhard Seminar Training (est) is a quasi-religious therapy developed by Werner Erhard that blends a variety of religious, philosophical, and therapeutic traditions.

Source for information on Est (Erhard Seminar Training): Contemporary American Religion dictionary. The original course, known as est, was delivered by the company Erhard Seminars Training (est). Under the name The Forum, they were delivered by Werner Erhard and Associates.

Also, the Landmark Forum, a program created by Erhard's former employees after purchasing his intellectual property, has had an influence on popular culture.