Editing Werner Erhard (section)

===est (1971–1984)===
{{main article|Erhard Seminars Training}}
Starting in 1971, est, short for Erhard Seminars Training and Latin for "it is", offered in-depth personal and professional development workshops, the initial program of which was called "The est Training".<ref name="book-of-est">{{cite book|last1=Rhinehart|first1=Luke|title=The Book of est|date=1976|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston}}</ref> The est Training's purpose was to transform the way one sees and makes sense of life so that the situations one had been trying to change or tolerating clear up in the process of living itself.<ref name="Steven M. Tipton 1982, page 176" /> The point was to leave participants free to be, while increasing their effectiveness and the quality of their lives.<ref name="The est Standard Training">{{cite journal|last1=Erhard|first1=Werner|last2=Gloscia|first2=Victor|title=The ''est'' Standard Training|url=https://archive.org/details/TheEstStandardTraining|journal=Biosciences Communications|date=1977|volume=3|pages=104–122}}</ref> The est Training was experiential and transformational in nature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The est Experience|last=Kettle|first=James|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corporation|year=1976|isbn=978-0890831687|location=New York|pages=51, 52}}</ref>

The workshops were offered until 1984, when the est training was replaced by the Forum. As of 1984, 700,000 people had completed the est training.<ref name="believermag"/> American ethicist, philosopher, and historian [[Jonathan D. Moreno]] has described the est training as "the most important cultural event after the human potential movement itself seemed exhausted"<ref name="J.D. Moreno">{{cite book | last1 = Moreno | first1 = Jonathan D. | author-link1 = Jonathan D. Moreno | chapter =  | title = Impromptu Man: J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network | date = September 22, 2014 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=59-hDwAAQBAJ | edition = 1 | location = New York | publisher = Bellevue Literary Press | publication-date = 2014 | page =  | isbn = 9781934137857 | access-date = 7 March 2021 | quote =  | archive-date = September 29, 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230929174832/https://books.google.com/books?id=59-hDwAAQBAJ | url-status = live }}</ref> and a form of "Socratic interrogation". Erhard challenged participants to be themselves and live in the present<ref name="Hargrove">{{Cite book|title=est: Making Life Work|last=Hargrove|first=Robert|publisher=Dell Books|year=1976|isbn=978-0440195566|location=New York|pages=127}}</ref> instead of playing a role imposed on them<ref name="J.D. Moreno" /> by their past, and to move beyond their current points of view into a perspective from which they could observe their own positionality.<ref name="J.D. Moreno" /> The author Robert Hargrove said "you're going to notice that things do begin to clear up, just in the process of life itself".<ref name="Hargrove" />

The first est course was held in San Francisco, California, in October 1971.<ref name=sf>{{cite news|title=hotel to hospital – farewell to S.F. era|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=Oct 31, 2009}}</ref> By the mid-1970s Erhard had trained 10 others to lead est courses.<ref name="Lewis2001" />{{rp|385}} Between 1972 and 1974 est centers opened in Los Angeles, Aspen, Honolulu, and New York City.<ref name="Lewis2001" />{{rp|385}}