It sucks and it’s for suckers.
Never heard of it until your post.
I never went to EST myself, but I did observe the negative consequences in many people around me. Broken marriages, ruined careers and kids left in the wake of destruction. This was in Silicon Valley.
As far as your son goes, I was lost at 20 years old. I fixed it by trying different jobs and locations in the US. I soon learned I had no business living East of the Rockies or working for some asshole. Went back to college when I was 25 and made the best of it.
I was friends with a couple who were enthusiastic about est for a while (they later dropped it) and went to some sort of orientation session at their urging.
Either at that session or from my friends I heard that ‘We’re going to end world hunger in 10 years.’ That’s when the BS meter went from red to infrared.
I had been in the Bay Area when Jim Jones was running buses around to transport people to his People’s Temple meetings in SF and had also come across various small fry ‘holy men’ trying to build up their own cult followings. It was all BS and est had that smell about it.