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:<small>Alphabetized by author </small>
:<small>Alphabetized by author </small>
[[Image:Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1996. Page 834.jpg|thumb|{{w|Erhard Seminars Training}} is analyzed in the book '''''[[w:Outrageous Betrayal|Outrageous Betrayal]]''''', which is referenced in testimony to the [[w:United States House of Representatives|United States House of Representatives]], 1995]]
[[Image:Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1996. Page 834.jpg|thumb|{{w|Erhard Seminars Training}} is analyzed in the book '''''[[w:Outrageous Betrayal|Outrageous Betrayal]]''''', which is referenced in testimony to the [[w:United States House of Representatives|United States House of Representatives]], 1995]]
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*There are scores of modern religious cults and sects that have been influenced by Hinduism to varying degrees. Werner Erhard, founder of 'Landmark Education's 'The Forum',' and 'est' seminars, which have about 700,000 graduates, was influenced by Hinduism through Swami Muktananda, one of Erhard's principal gurus.
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**{{cite book|page=216|title=Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs|author=John Ankerberg, John Weldon|year=1996|publisher=Harvest House Publishers|isbn=78-1565071605}}
*''Est'' is subsumed under 'other self-improvement groups'. The latter probably comprise groups for which Paul Heelas coined the term 'self-religions': groups which offer techniques and practices which encourage experience and perfection of the self (Heelas 1982; 1984; 1988).
*''Est'' is subsumed under 'other self-improvement groups'. The latter probably comprise groups for which Paul Heelas coined the term 'self-religions': groups which offer techniques and practices which encourage experience and perfection of the self (Heelas 1982; 1984; 1988).
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*Founded in 1971 by Werner Erhard, the movement, (which has operated under a variety of names), organizes intense weekend seminars intended to break down inhibitions and put the individual in touch with his or her true self. Many participants report occult experiences and encounters with spirit beings toward the end of the seminar, which is officially nonreligious.
*Founded in 1971 by Werner Erhard, the movement, (which has operated under a variety of names), organizes intense weekend seminars intended to break down inhibitions and put the individual in touch with his or her true self. Many participants report occult experiences and encounters with spirit beings toward the end of the seminar, which is officially nonreligious.
**{{cite book|author=Irving Hexham|authorlink=w:Irving Hexham|title=Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements|publisher=IVP Academic|year=2002|isbn=0830814663|page=47}}
**{{cite book|author=Irving Hexham|authorlink=w:Irving Hexham|title=Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements|publisher=IVP Academic|year=2002|isbn=0830814663|page=47}}
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*Another potent element of the new cult milieu was the therapy sect, which offered believers the chance to achieve their full human potential through personal growth and self-actualization by taking total responsibility for one's actions. The prototypical movement of this kind was est (Erhard Seminar Training), in which intense and often grueling sessions forced followers to confront a new view of reality.
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**{{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=Philip | title=Mystics and Messiahs : Cults and New Religions in American History | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=London | year=2000 | isbn=0195127447|page=180}}
*Paul Heelas, for example, includes a significant number of what he calls the 'self religions': groups like Landmark Forum (also known simply as The Forum, formerly est or Erhard Seminar Training) and Programmes Limited (formerly Exegesis).
*Paul Heelas, for example, includes a significant number of what he calls the 'self religions': groups like Landmark Forum (also known simply as The Forum, formerly est or Erhard Seminar Training) and Programmes Limited (formerly Exegesis).
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*Beginning with the concern with self-expression in the 1970s, when cultural developments encouraged self-exploration, the New Age developed from what has been described as self-religions such as EST, a self-improvement method based on Erhard Seminars Training.
*Beginning with the concern with self-expression in the 1970s, when cultural developments encouraged self-exploration, the New Age developed from what has been described as self-religions such as EST, a self-improvement method based on Erhard Seminars Training.
**{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Scarre, Robin Coningham|year=2012|title=Appropriating the Past: Philosophical Perspectives on the Practice of Archaeology|publisher={{w|Cambridge University Press}}|isbn=978-0521196062|page=168}}
**{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Scarre, Robin Coningham|year=2012|title=Appropriating the Past: Philosophical Perspectives on the Practice of Archaeology|publisher={{w|Cambridge University Press}}|isbn=978-0521196062|page=168}}
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*New Age religions, televangelism and fundamentalist religious sects, and ''self-religionist'' or self-actualization movements such as est (Erhard Seminars Training) and Scientology emerged to fill the empty place of any unifying or collective belief system for many Americans in the '80s.
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**{{cite book|page=83|title=Whose Improv is it Anyway?: Beyond Second City|author=Amy E. Seham|year=2001|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1578063413}}
*On federal court orders, I have attended six large group awareness training sessions (sponsored by est, the Forum, Lifespring, and PSI World) and have interviewed dozens of persons who have attended these and such other programs as Silva Mind Control, Actualizations, and Direct Centering, as well as the myriad of other programs now available, some started by former employees and even, on occasion, attendees of the larger well-known LGATs. I have studied the training manuals and videos used to train trainers and have interviewed a number of trainers.
*On federal court orders, I have attended six large group awareness training sessions (sponsored by est, the Forum, Lifespring, and PSI World) and have interviewed dozens of persons who have attended these and such other programs as Silva Mind Control, Actualizations, and Direct Centering, as well as the myriad of other programs now available, some started by former employees and even, on occasion, attendees of the larger well-known LGATs. I have studied the training manuals and videos used to train trainers and have interviewed a number of trainers.
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*Like the NAM, many of the Self-religions (Heelas 1991) have been heavily influenced by Asian, and more generally Eastern, ideas of spirituality and divinity and do not acknowledge an external theistic being but, rather, use spiritual and psychological techniques to reveal the god within and/or the divine self. The Forum and/or est, whose origins are in the United States (Tipton 1982) holds to the belief that the self itself is god.
*Like the NAM, many of the Self-religions (Heelas 1991) have been heavily influenced by Asian, and more generally Eastern, ideas of spirituality and divinity and do not acknowledge an external theistic being but, rather, use spiritual and psychological techniques to reveal the god within and/or the divine self. The Forum and/or est, whose origins are in the United States (Tipton 1982) holds to the belief that the self itself is god.
**{{cite book|page=123|title=The Routledge Companion to Theism|author=Charles Taliaferro, Victoria S. Harrison, Stewart Goetz|year=2012|isbn=978-0415881647|publisher=Routledge}}
**{{cite book|page=123|title=The Routledge Companion to Theism|author=Charles Taliaferro, Victoria S. Harrison, Stewart Goetz|year=2012|isbn=978-0415881647|publisher=Routledge}}
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*Zen Center welcomes visitors, guests, and prospective students, but it does not engage in systematic institutional or network recruiting of new members, unlike the Christian sect and Erhard Seminars Training.
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**{{cite book|page=104|title=Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change|author=Steven M. Tipton|year=1984|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520052284}}
*If the range of religions on offer is a symptom of religious interest, then the second half of the twentieth century appears to rebut any suggestion that the West has become increasingly secular: the counter-culture of the 1960s produced an astonishing array of new religious movements (NRMs). The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (or ISKCON or Hare Krishna), Transcendental Meditation (or TM), the Divine Light Mission and the Healthy-Happy-Holy of Yogi Bhajan (a variant of Sikhism), were imports from the East. Others were what Paul Heelas has called 'self—religions': Erhard Seminar Training (or est, always spelt with lower—case letters), Insight, Exegesis, and Scientology were quasi—religious psychotherapies.
*If the range of religions on offer is a symptom of religious interest, then the second half of the twentieth century appears to rebut any suggestion that the West has become increasingly secular: the counter-culture of the 1960s produced an astonishing array of new religious movements (NRMs). The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (or ISKCON or Hare Krishna), Transcendental Meditation (or TM), the Divine Light Mission and the Healthy-Happy-Holy of Yogi Bhajan (a variant of Sikhism), were imports from the East. Others were what Paul Heelas has called 'self—religions': Erhard Seminar Training (or est, always spelt with lower—case letters), Insight, Exegesis, and Scientology were quasi—religious psychotherapies.