Erhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend (60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The purpose of est was "to transform one's ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with, clear up just in the process of life itself."^[2][3] The est training was offered from late 1971 to late 1984.

The first est course happened at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco, California, in October 1971. Within a year, trainings were being held in New York City, and other major cities in the United States followed soon after. Beginning in July 1974 the est Training was delivered in Federal Prisons.^[4][5][6] By 1979 est had expanded to Europe and other parts of the world. In 1980 the first est training in Israel was offered in Tel Aviv. The popularity of est peaked in 1981, then enrollment for the various courses began to decline. The last est Training was held in December 1984 in San Francisco; in its place came a newly developed course called "The Forum", which began in January 1985. The est Training presented several concepts, most notably the concept of transformation and taking responsibility for one's life. The actual teaching, called "the technology of transformation", emphasizes the value of integrity.^[7] "est, Inc." evolved into "est, an Educational Corporation", and eventually into "Werner Erhard & Associates". In 1991 the business was sold to the employees who formed a new company called Landmark Education with Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg becoming the CEO.^[8] Landmark Education was structured as a for-profit, employee-owned company; it operates with a consulting division called Vanto Group.^[9]

In William Bartley's biography of Werner Erhard, Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, the Founding of est (1978), Erhard describes his explorations of Zen Buddhism. Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging Zen as the essential contribution that "created the space [for est]".^[1] Bartley details Erhard's connections with Zen beginning with his extensive studies with Alan Watts in the mid 1960s.^[10] Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging:

Of all the disciplines that I studied, practiced, learned, Zen was the essential one. It was not so much an influence on me, rather it created space. It allowed those things that were there to be there. It gave some form to my experience. And it built up in me the critical mass from which was kindled the experience that produced est.^[11]

• 1971 - Erhard Seminars Training Inc, first est Training held in San Francisco, California
• 1973 - The Foundation for the Realization of Man - incorporated as a non-profit foundation in California (subsequently the name of the foundation was changed to the est Foundation in 1976, and in 1981 to the Werner Erhard Foundation)
• 1975 - est, an educational corporation.
• 1981 - Sold assets to Werner Erhard and Associates and est ceased operations^[12]
• 1984 - The last est training was held.^[13]

• Cher^[14]
• 4 members of The 5th Dimension^[14]
• Cloris Leachman^[14]
• Joe Namath^[14]
• Yoko Ono^[14]
• Jeff Bridges ^[15]
• John Denver ^[16]
• Valerie Harper^[17]
• Harry Mathews^[18]
• Joel Schumacher^[19]
• Diana Ross^[19]
• Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)^[20]
• Douglas Engelbart

• The Hunger Project 1977–Present
• Landmark Education

See also the list of associated organizations.

• Large Group Awareness Training
• Human potential movement

• Bartley, William Warren (1978). Werner Erhard, The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est. New York, New York, USA: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. ISBN 0-517-53502-5
• Pressman, Steven (1993). Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 289. ISBN 0-312-09296-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Bry, Adelaide (1976). est (Erhard Seminars Training): 60 Hours That Transform Your Life. Harpercollins. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Fenwick, Sheridan (1977). Getting it: the psychology of est. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-004467-1. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Frederick, Carl (1974). est: Playing the Game the New Way. Delacorte. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Hargrave, Robert (1976). est: Making Life Work. Delacorte. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Rhinehart, Luke (1976). The Book of Est. Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Samways, Louise (1994). Dangerous Persuaders: An expose of gurus, personal development courses and cults, and how they operate. Penguin. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Self, Jane (1992). 60 Minutes and the Assassination of Werner Erhard: How America's Top Rated Television Show Was Used in an Attempt to Destroy a Man Who Was Making A Difference. Houston, Texas: Breakthru Publishing. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• "est: Communication in a Context of Compassion", by Werner Erhard and Victor Gioscia [2]
• "Being Well", by Werner Erhard, Victor Gioscia, and Ken Anbender, from Beyond Health and Normality: Explorations of Exceptional Psychological Well-Being, ed. Roger Walsh and Deane Sharpiro Jr .[3]
• Earl Babbie, "est in Prison", American Journal of Corrections, Nov.-Dec. 1977 [4]
• Interview: Werner Erhard, by John Johns, PSA Magazine, May 1976 [5]
• Werner Erhard on Transformation and Productivity: An Interview, by Norman Bodek, published in Revision: The Journal of Consciousness and Change, Volume 7, Number 3, Winter 84/Spring 85 [6]
• Justin Simon, "Observations on 67 Patients who took Erhard Seminars Training", American Journal of Psychiatry, 1978, 135:686-691, [7]
• Mark Brewerk. "We're Gonna Tear You Down and Put You Back Together", Psychology Today, August 1975
• L. L. Glass, M. A. Kirsch and F. N. Parris. "Psychiatric disturbances associated with Erhard Seminars Training", American Journal of Psychiatry. 1977; 134(3): 245-7.[8]
• Peter Marin. "The New Narcissism", Harper's, October 1975, 251:45-56.
• Perry Pascarella. "Create Breakthroughs in Performance by Changing the Conversation,” by Perry Pascarella. Industry Week, Vol. 233, No. 6 (June 15), 1987. [9]
• Eliezer Sobel. “This Is It: est, Twenty Years Later” (Quest Magazine, Summer 1998)[10]
• "Research on Erhard Seminar Training in a Correctional Institution" (Hosford, Ray, E., Moss, C. Scott, Cavior, Helene, & Kerish, Burton. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1982, Manuscript #2419, American Psychological Association)
• "The est Training in Prisons: A Basis for the Transformation of Corrections?" (by Mark Woodard, Baltimore Law Journal, 1982)[11]
• "Separate Realities: A Comparative Study of Estians, Psychoanalysands, and the Untreated", Rabow et al. [12]
• "The est Experience", Adam Smith, New York Magazine, September 29, 1975 [13]
• "est Outcome Study", Robert Ornstein, Charles Swensionis, Arthur Deikman, Ralph Morris [14]

• www.wernererhard.com
• Werner Erhard and est on Youtube
• Erhard Seminars Training, at the Open Directory Project
• est and Werner Erhard, The Skeptic's Dictionary
• www.erhardseminarstraining.com, The Graduate Review Website
• A look at four psychology fads — a comparison of est, primal therapy, Transcendental Meditation and lucid dreaming at the Los Angeles Times
• Summary of Studies on the Benefits of the est Training
• Behaviordyne Report on the est Training