 The author Robert Hargrove said, “you’re going to notice that things do begin to clear up, just in the process of life itself.”

The first est course was held in San Francisco, California, in October 1971.Erhard led all the early est courses himself, but by the mid-1970s he had trained ten others (doctors, attorneys, and businessmen and -women) to do so.Est centers opened in Los Angeles, Aspen, Honolulu, New York, and many other cities, and est was enthusiastically endorsed by celebrities and people of influence such as leadership and business academic Warren Bennis, philosopher Walter Kaufmann, social activist Jerry Rubin, business magnate David Geffen, author and businesswoman Arianna Huffington, artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, singer-songwriter John Denver and actress Valerie Harper.