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| est | ||||
| (THE FORUM) Founded in 1971 by Werner Erhard, a former encyclopedia
salesman who had experimented with Zen through reading Alan Watts, Silva
Mind Control, Scientology, humanistic psychology, and many other
self-actualizing techniques, est (Erhard Seminars Training, always
written in lowercase) was one of many popular therapeutic or "human
potential" movements that developed around this time in the United
States. These movements, of which est was one of the most successful,
shared several characteristics, including a focus on individual well-being
and a sense of optimism about human possibilities. est was developed from
the beginning as a well-organized business enterprise, structured to
maximize profits and minimize tax liabilities. Its major corporate arm,
Transformational Technologies, is an extreme example of the rationality
that pervades some such movements that have as a major goal the maximizing
of profit (Tipton 1988). By 1988, it had trained nearly 400,000 people,
all of whom had taken the two-weekend, 60-hour training session, paying a
sizable fee ($400 per person) for so doing. est grossed some $30 million
dollars in 1981, and it was claimed that one of every nine San Francisco
Bay Area college-educated young people had gone through the training.
Erhard has become a controversial figure, with many lawsuits against him, mostly by the Internal Revenue Service but including some by his own family members. The controversies have contributed to Erhard reestablishing his enterprise under a new name—The Forum—which is the organizational form under which he operates currently. —James T. Richardson ReferencesA.Bry, 60 Hours That Transform Your Life (New York: Avon, 1976) H. Clinewell, "Popular Therapeutic Movements and Psychologies," in Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling , ed. R. Hunter (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990): 928-929 S. Tipton, Getting Saved from the Sixties (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982) S. Tipton, "Rationalizing Religion as a Corporate Enterprise," in Money and Power in the New Religions , ed. J. T. Richardson (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1988): 223-240. |
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