davidson (02/22/83)
I'm glad someone asked about the est training, but its hard to give a simple answer to what the training is about - let alone how it works. For what its worth though (and I think its worth a great deal), I'll tell you what I can. Oh yes: I've done the training myself. I was a great resistor, but when practically everyone in my circle of acquaintance had done it and recommended it, I decided to do it, and have never regretted it. Its been more than a year, and it hasn't worn off; rather, over time its expanded in its impact. First of all: ``The purpose of the est training is to transform your ability to experience living, so that the things you have been trying to clear up, or have been putting up with, clear up just in the process of life itself.'' - Werner Erhard This may not make much sense as it stands, so let me take it bit by bit. First of all, note that the training is designed to affect your experience of living, not change the way you do things. The training is experiential in nature, rather than factually informative. Erhard has not discovered something he would have you know (else he'd write a book) or believe (else he'd start a church) but rather something valuable for you to experience. Second, note the funny word ``transform''. The distinction between a change and a transformation is rather subtle, but in the est jargon it is the distinction between changing the context in which something is held, and changing the content of the thing. The first is transformation, the second is ordinary change. In terms of experience, changing your experience is simply a matter of putting your attention on something else; for example, you might change your experience by turning from looking at an apple to looking at an orange. Transforming your experience would be changing where you were coming from with it; for example, changing from being an observer to being a participant of an activity. More to the point: I could go on dissecting the stated purpose of the training, but let me get down to the meat of the matter instead, and hope that the rest of the purpose will become clear somewhere along the way. Andy suggested that the training is a form of brainwashing, although he seemed to think that it was perhaps useful brainwashing. Hmmm. Well, I understand that the general practice of brainwashing is directed at installing notions and beliefs in the brainwashee, whereas the training is directed at breaking up, if you will, or at least exposing to view, existing concreted notions and beliefs. In that sense, the training might be called anti-brainwashing. Whereas brainwashing tends to be superficial and short lived, the training can have a very profound impact. People in the training get insight into who they really are beneath their acts. People who have taken the est training often report having ``gotten their lives back'' through the training. I would say that the way we ordinarily experience our lives is usually not very participatory or responsible. This reduces both our effectiveness and our satisfaction. Perhaps this was adaptive when we were children, or perhaps it was simply the way we learned to run things from observing others. It doesn't matter. The important point is that it is possible to have a chance to remake the decisions that affect the experience of our lives. I found the est training to be very valuable along these lines and expect it will be for you also. Werner Erhard has discovered/invented in the est training the most effective method for getting beneath people's acts and defenses that I've ever heard of. Many people seem not to consider the est training to be intellectually respectable. Its certainly true that the est training is not based upon traditional psychological or western philosophical lines (at least as they were taught at my university). In fact, much of the training looks like it was made up in an ad hoc manner, using techniques from many other disciplines. Again, it doesn't matter. The training is offering an experience that no mainstream psychological technology (if I can so dignify modern psychotherapy) can currently offer. Commit yourself, then, to the great god Pragmatism, and go for the value. The format of the training: As Andy said, the price of the training can be amortized over the rest of your life, so its likely that it will not pay for itself many times over. That cost is now $425 dollars. And if you want to know what Erhard does with it (and nearly everyone seems to want to know, as if it were any of their business), I might, if asked, write another article about other activities of the center's network (the organization that has grown up out of the est training). Many of these activities are subsidized by the cost of your training. For now, though, I'll just say that there are also occasional college trainings for full-time college students at about half price, and people who have taken religious vows of poverty have traditionally been given full scholarships. My impression is that the organization is not interested in giving discounts to support people in running their rackets about the scarcity of money, but if it is not appropriate for someone to take the time to create the money, as above, there is sometimes assistance available. Let your area center know if you have a financial situation that would preclude your taking the training. The training is given over two consecutive weekends, all day each day, and often running past midnight. It also includes at no additional cost, optional but highly recommended pre-, mid- and post-training seminars, given one evening the week before, between and after each training. You are allowed to go to the bathroom, although you must agree to do so only during the announced breaks. If you must go more often for a medical reason, you will be able to. You'll find that not having people coming and going during the training, or hiding out in the john because something is confronting, is important for achieving the results in the time available. There is a maximum of one meal break each day of the training. Note that I said ``maximum''. I've never known of a training going so slowly that a meal break had to be cancelled, but I've heard that it has happened on occasion. There are other groundrules you will need to agree to which will be gone over at your pre-training and also the first day of your training. None of them should be a problem, and all of them are relevant to your obtaining maximum value from the training. So that's the format. The only other thing that you might find useful is the phone number of the nearest center. They may be hard to look up in the phone book, as they have names like ``San Diego Area Center'', ``Denver Area Center'', and so on, with the location name not necessarily predictable, although I've found that the telephone information operators in San Diego generally know what you mean by the ``est center''. Here's a list of the centers with phone numbers current as of last September. The assistants there can answer any further questions you may have. My advice is to simply go for it. USA: Arizona Area Center (602) 861-1201 Atlanta Area Center (404) 892-1344 Berkeley/Oakland Area Center (415) 548-6400 Boston Area Center (617) 266-7900 Chicago Area Center (312) 337-6100 Dallas/Fort Worth Area Center (214) 243-4441 Denver Area Center (303) 779-4774 Detroit Area Center (313) 358-3110 Florida Area Center (305) 625-3366 Hawaii Area Center (808) 526-3788 Houston Area Center (713) 780-9030 Los Angeles Area Center (213) 393-9635 New Jersey Area Center (201) 225-5210 New Orleans Area Center (504) 834-9300 Newport Beach Area Center (714) 751-4800 New York Area Center (212) 922-1200 Ohio Valley Area Center (513) 381-7744 Philadelphia Area Center (215) 627-5600 Pittsburgh Area Center (412) 681-3800 Sacramento Area Center (916) 484-7400 San Diego Area Center (619) 270-8500 San Fernando Valley Area Center (213) 988-8750 San Francisco Area Center (415) 391-9911 San Jose Area Center (408) 286-9970 Seattle Area Center (206) 625-0960 Washington, D.C. Area Center (703) 998-5800 Canada: Montreal Area Center (514) 932-6922 Toronto Area Center (416) 789-0547 Vancouver Area Center (604) 731-8272 Australia: Sydney Area Center (02) 949-5099 England: London Area Center 01-491-2974 India: Bombay Area Center 271-813 Israel: Tel Aviv Area Center 03-289258