We, the est pests

Back to what was counterproductive (in my opinion) about the est and Werner Erhard and Associates culture of 1980-84, the period in which I was active.

The est training was where I first discovered many of my patterns and realized that I could take responsibility for the crap in my life and that I had the opportunity to be the source of my own sense of being loved and loving. And it was in experiences designed by Werner Erhard that I had these discoveries.

And they were all things that had been around for a long time. Werner Erhard did not invent unconditional love, self love, self-esteem, non-attachment to emotions, meditation and meditation-like experiences, etc. Many of us ran around talking about these things, though, as if Werner Erhard had somehow invented them. And as if they were only discoverable through Werner Erhard programs.

Werner has a unique ability, I would say a genius, for designing and leading experiential-learning programs. He is a great teacher and coach and facilitator. And we made it too much about the personality Werner Erhard (and by "we" I include everyone, including the personality Werner Erhard), to the point that the personality Werner Erhard became the greatest hindrance to the cause of personal, organizational, and social transformation.

I don't want to deny in any way the extraordinary and unique effectiveness of the est training and all the programs which followed it! But I also don't want to deny the unique obnoxiousness of many of the people who took the est training, were encouraged to share their experience with others, and didn't realize they had adopted a belief that these people "should" take the training and would be "better" for having done so.