turner (03/01/83)
#N:ucbesvax:1100006:000:1761
ucbesvax!turner Feb 24 06:54:00 1983
I have had indirect experience with the `transforming' effects
of est on someone's life. A roommate of mine took the training. First,
I would stress that this man was looking for answers. Not The Answer,
necessarily. But there was a gap in his life that had him running from
one thing to the next, mostly of an Eastern/Mystical nature.
After the first weekend, he made a few (insufferable!) attempts
at showing off his partial `transformation'. He deepened his voice,
he minded his posture. I didn't buy it.
After the second session, it became such a potential source of
tension that I decided to avoid discussing it. He knew better than
to try to convert me after that.
It took about three months of being drafted to do phone-soliciting
for the Hunger Project before it dawned on him that, not only had they
taken a lot of his money, but they were getting a great deal of work
out of him as well.
Some years back, that great muckraker journal "Mother Jones" did
a piece on Erhard that accused him of lots of semi-legal tax evasion
in his financing of Erhard Seminars Training, and moral ineptitude in
the case of the Hunger Project. At the time, he threatened a suit.
Nothing came of it, for the obvious reason that he did not have a case
(Even esties will admit that he'll go for any money he can get.
If he didn't this time, it's because there was no chance.)
My feeling about all this: anybody who posts n (n > 4) pages
of praise for est leaves their objectivity open to question, at
the very least. An additional screen or two of phone numbers
clinches it: this guy is recruiting. Don't buy it.
Not Afraid To Tell Werner Where To Go,
Michael Turner