Posted on 12/01/2016 5:57:49 PM PST by Steely Tom
Did anyone here at Free Republic ever attend Erhard Seminars Training, back in the 1970s? Did anyone know another person who did?
If so, do you have any observations to share about the experience? Did it have any lasting influence over you?
Was it just an exercise in groupthink? Erhard certainly seemed to think he was on to something.
No, and I wasn’t there.
I did, but I got up to go to the bathroom and they didn’t let me in. (If you get this, then you have been there).)
Go watch the movie “Semi-Tough”! Even though its satire you will learn all you need to know about EST training.
Ah yes, the whole bathroom thing. Was that a major part of it?
Thanks, I didn't know that. I'd heard of the movie, but have never seen it.
I not only did est, I did some “grad” courses. The two most important things I left with were that I was responsible for making my life the mess it was and that being a “victim” was a choice. A couple of these tenets of being an adult would be very helpful to some of these “snowflakes” on campus today. I also remember getting “it”—a memory I had forgotten until tonight.
It’s also a very funny movie!
No, but I had Six Sigma training at GE and that was all smoke and mirrors, too.
Ha! First thing that came to my mind.
I'm thinking, Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson. Wasn't Jill Clayburgh in it, too?
The younger folk wouldn't get it - just us old farts from the 60's/70's.
I've got my A-course certificate! Not smoke and mirrors.
Great movie, sends up the theraputic culture of the 70’s perfectly.
Pelfing was the best part.
TQM (Total Quality Management) had more smoke & bigger mirrors!
This aspect of it is what I'm interested in.
I listened to the (audio only) video that's linked above last night, and some of the things Mr. Erhard said about responsibility and getting over yourself resonated for me, across all the decades.
Did you achieve within yourself any insights that led to improved problem-solving skills? Or was it more fundamental than that, that the problem you learned to solve was your own resistance to problem solving?
Good friend of mine did EST in San Francisco about 1974. What little he said about it was bizarre, like a secret society on par with Scientology, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, or the Knights Templar. It was like they were going to come and get him if he said anything about it at all.
I never saw what he got out of it, but fortunately, it didn’t seem to change him.
What brings this up in 2016?
Yeah, we did that before Six Sigma and the quality of our appliances went down.
That was part of the sales plan, if they freely divulged what they learned how would they get more suckers, I mean customers, in the door for the seminars?
I believe nowadays it’s called the Landmark Forum.
I went to a Totalled Quality Management seminar once.
I never really went. A friend went for 3-4 hours and they were told to suck it up. Then I saw a movie where they wouldn’t let the guy go to the bathroom. So not a direct witness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.