Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wivax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!dyer From: dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: Lifespring, est, etc. Message-ID: <19585@wivax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 2-Jun-84 15:29:54 EDT Article-I.D.: wivax.19585 Posted: Sat Jun 2 15:29:54 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Jun-84 03:51:54 EDT References: <997@hao.UUCP> Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma. 01879 Lines: 47 I cannot speak for anything but my own experiences with est, so I do not know whether "Lifespring" or organizations are exactly like it. I took the est training about 3 1/2 years ago on the encouragement of a very close friend whose opinion I value very highly. And there was no pressure there, merely the statement that she got a lot out of it. Now, I felt no real need for therapy or self-help at the time, but I *am* pretty adventuresome, and I was about to switch jobs, so I thought that it would be an interesting experience with potential benefits--if not, I had at least given it a shot. I found the whole experience fascinating and very valuable. Briefly, the est training is about personal responsibility and the power of one's choices. In some sense, no new knowledge is conferred, but it is the way the training forces one to reconfront basic truths about oneself that is so useful. Skeptics might say that locking 300 people up in a hotel ballroom for two weekends without doing anything else would be as profound as the two weekends of the est training. Maybe! But even now, I find the material presented useful, especially when I occasionally feel overwhelmed by events. Now for the geeky side. Yes, there is a lot of Amway/Shaklee/MaryKay revivalist/capitalist crud which comes along with all of this, most strongly once the training is finished. People are encouraged to enroll in "graduate seminars" which meet every couple of weeks. And aside from the material treated within the seminars, which can be valuable, one is encouraged to bring uninitiated guests for their own special seminars wherein the training is explained and the opportunity is presented for the guests to enroll themselves in the training (read: bring your friends for a sales pitch.) est has no advertising, so the only way additional people are found to enroll is through word-of-mouth. Hence, the concentration on "recruitment." I finally got fed up with the trappings of the organization, despite the value of the training. Many of the hangers-on around the programs including the people who worked in the Centers simply weren't my kind of people--I didn't feel comfortable with them nor what the est program seemed to be for them--a kind of secular "church." So, there is a lot of ambiguity here. The training can be valuable AND the organization as a whole is a bit geeky. I would still recommend that people investigate it. Is it worth $400? I don't know what anyone else would feel. I was satisfied. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA