The Book of Est

I have taken the Forum and have had many additional breakthroughs from reading this book. This book is much more focused on opening up to your experiences the the Forum was. This re-creation of an EST event is more harsh then the Forum with the leader addressing people as A-Hole directly. I had a racket (Est/Landmark jargan) about this at first but then I got the distinction made in the book. An A-Hole is someone who thinks he/she is not a machine (more Est/Forum jargan) and resists in the name of their so called freedom. They do not take responsibility for their experience and this keeps them small. A non-A-Hole is someone who gets they are a machine, accepts it, rolls with it, observs it, and is free as a result. When the arguments between participants and the leader were recreated I felt like I was back in my forum all over again. One of the most powerful breakthroughs for me when reading this book was that I stop resisting and I Take What I Get and I Don't Take What I Don't Get. I was no longer resisting. Resisting what you may ask? Feelings, stories, experiences, being present to others, etc... By not resisting and taking what I get, I feel so much lighter. This is such an important concept as for one, what you resist will persist and number two, if you experience something to its fullest, it will disapear and that is a very freeing feeling. Concepts from the Landmark Advanced course are also covered yet with a different spin, such as the Ultimate test for knowing what is Real. The Forum states that Physicallness is the ultimate test for reality yet the focus in this EST book is that experience is really what reality is. It is all how you experience it. One quick example from the book is if you are hit by a bus and you don't know its a bus because your eyes were closed, AND (big "and" here) you experience it as being run over by GOD, then to you it was "really" GOD that hit you. You created your experience and it was real for you. Incedentally, since you create your own experience and are responsible for creating all of your experiences, this makes you a God as well. The paradox that is pointed out in this book is that not only are you a God but you are also a machine as you are not in controll of your thoughts all of the time. Simply close your eyes and try to think of nothing for over 3 minutes and you will probably find this imposible. No matter how much you will it, want it, try for it, controll it, thoughts will still pop up and so you are not in controll. What you are left with is the power to Choose freely. Often, I have found myself having to put this book down so I can apply what I have read to my life or just observe the distinctions created happening out in my life. It is definitly a different flavor of the Forum so if you have taken the Forum and want to get a wider scope of freeing and enlightening perspectives, this book is well worth the price.

This book was facinating. The reviews...even more so!! My goodness are people cynical, skeptical and frighteningly mistrustful. Landmark Education is yes, a buisness... how awful!...owned and operated by its employees. Its mission, to bring peace to individuals, relationships and society as a whole. The nerve of them!!!! Are those involved enuthsiastic?? Absolutely, because the results one gets from participating in the work of this education are nothing short of extraordinary... why? because of what the people who participate are willing to own up to, let go of, and forgive with those whom they know and love...and sometimes those they don't love. Thereby leaving room for relationships to get real, and more satisfying and fulfilling then they might be otherwise. Landmark education does not take credit for that. It gives credit where credit is due: To human beings and what we are cabable of being and doing. So, there is nothing cult like, absurd, devilish, or manipulating about EST or Landmark Education. People need to chill out. Anything that causes people to reconsider whether they are who they think they are will always be the target of cynicism and fear. By the way, its a legitimate company doing great work with large well known companies (Nike), govermental agencies (the UN)and every day people (like me, a wife, mother of a 11 month old beautiful baby girl, and hospice social work).

I had the opportunity of doing the est Training 25 years ago, and this book is the best example of what went on inside the training room. It is an account of one person's experience and everytime I read the book I can "get" the training all over again.

What would it be like to give up all the silly games you play while you flit through life and to experience life as it happens? Luke Rhinehart does a wonderful job of relating his experience of going through the 'est' seminar; and in doing so, shows that it is possible to give up the games and expeience life. He has condensed the seminar expeience into a format that reads like a superior novel. At the end of the book he goes through the effectiveness and the history of some of the ideas brought forth during the seminar. I would have enjoyed this book if it didn't have anything to teach but from my viewpoint it is the best self help book ever written.

I read this book from cover to cover. It thouroughly engaged me. I had done the Land Mark Education "Forum" program, and this book helped me re- live that program. It did much more than that for me. I was reminded to be vulnerable and to completely be with an upset I was experiencing. I completely gave up my concern about survival and sat with my upset. I remember feeling scared as I sat with my upset and chose to be present to that fear and see what turned up. After a couple of significant memories, I found myself in early childhood experiencing the identical upset. Tears flowed and flowed. Now when I get that upset I am present to it`s origin and experience freedom enough to make choices where in the past I would have been emersed in a sense of helplessness. This book transformed not only me but also helped me develope a commitment to my family and friends and this in turn created a space or opportunity for their own transformations. These days, I hug my parents, my children and past spouses. And guess what they hug me. My adolescent children tell me they love me.