I have talked a little bit about this, but not much.
Mostly I have been sitting with it and doing some
research and studying, and now I am ready to let
it all out :-). It all started about 2 months ago when
I rented a DVD that intrigued me about Werner Erhard,
the man who started est which was popular in the late
seventies and early eighties. The film called "Transformation"
blew me away. Even though it just scratched the surface of the man
I could tell that Werner was a genius of the highest order.
I have spent the last 2 months reading anything I could
get my hands on about Werner. This nice man Eliezer Sobel
commented on my blog and we have emailed, he took est and
has written about it in his book "The 99th Monkey". You can read
essays he wrote about est on his site. I am still researching
and reading and falling in love with Werner Erhard. There
was a lot of bad press and allegations against Werner and I
have chosen to disregard most of it because for me the proof
is in his work and from what I can tell he helped a whole lot
of people change their lives. The words that I have read that
come from Werner himself are magic and they are life enhancing
in every way. I will quote a bit of Werner here and hopefully
that will be alright. From Werner Erhard: "Create your future from your
future not your past", "You don't have to go looking for love if
that is where you come from". Isn't that beautiful? It is to me.
I can see why the est people drove everyone nuts trying to get
their friends to go :-). I wish I had not been scared away by
all the rumors. I lived in San Francisco at the time and I could
have done est, but I chickened out (I'm sorry I was not doing the
Be Brave project back then :-). I promise I won't bore you with Werner
all the time, but I just had to share the impact he has had on me
and my spiritual journey. It is exciting to discover someone like
Werner, that can help light the way for others. I have a lot left
to learn :-). If you or anyone you know did est, I would love to hear
what you thought of it. Even if it is bad :-). I can take it. Happy Sunday.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
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12 comments:
Firstly, my bunnday is over now..it's Monday but luckily the blues havent kicked in :P Interesting reading on this Erhard, tks for sharing :D
Why don't you do the Landmark Forum? I did the Forum in 89, the 6-day and since LM Forum (Curriculum for living) it's just gotten better and better over the years
I have no idea what est is... I thought it was a typo at first. :-)
m.Kate-You are welcome :-).
Rami-I am looking into it...
em-You are so young, that's why.
(Actually, the name of my book is "The 99th Monkey," not "99 Monkeys"!:))
The est training was the original, intensive crash-course in consciousness in the 70s, the prototype of most of the human potential workshops and seminars that continue being offered today, as well as the previous version of what is now being taught around the world as the Landmark Forum.
The letters stood for Erhard Seminar Training, named after its creator, Werner Erhard, and "est" also means "it is" in Latin, which pointed to the Zen-like message of the training which could be summed up in the phrase, "What is, is. and what isn't, isn't."
It was a very controversial course, as is the Landmark Forum, and people either love the work and swear by it, or attack it as being cultish and hellbent on recruitment. I took it in 1975, at age 23, and it catalyzed a powerful spiritual awakening for me that determined the course of the rest of my life, and I'm turning 56 tomorrow! Happy Birthday!
Eliezer Sobel
You can read the Prologue to my book at the address below and see if it grabs you:
http://www.the99thmonkey.com
Hey, at least I spelled your name right :-). I'm sorry Eliezer, I'll
go fix the post right now...
Hia Annie I'd not heard about est. I think anything that gets people to think about increased self awareness and responsibility has got to be good. So many people I've come across are immediate-pleasure driven and don't take a step back to think.
Thanks for sharing once again.
We all need a genius in our lives. Mine were the people who taught me at school and college.
Annie,
Great artwork by the way. You are very creative and talented!!!
I took the Forum in 1989 and it totally changed my life. The quality of life I now enjoy was in no way predictable then. The level of satisfaction, aliveness and joy is, and has been with me, ever since the training.
It is truly incredible that ever since then, I choose who I am being under all circumstance in my life. That to me is happiness that no extrinsic paradigms would have for me.
It is pretty original of you to have picked that up and thought about it for yourself. Good luck and let us know how your training goes!
it is very interesting to be a part of your exploration. thanks for sharing your journey annie.
xo
I had the honor and privilege of serving on Werner Erhard's personal staff for nine months around 1990. I found Werner to be of the highest caliber of honesty, integrity, and caring, and his dedication to enhancing life is unsurpassed. He is truly a great man in every sense of the word. -Doug Hines
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