Word: ests
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...bearded young man rises, says calmly that he is nervous and rattled by the icy temperature, but that George's nondemonstration is the last straw. He concludes that est is "utter and complete bullshit." Ron says he just hasn't got it yet. "Got it?" says the man. "The only thing I got so far is hemorrhoids." After thunderous applause, Ron calls the man "a self-righteous s.o.b...
Asking questions is a minefield, because words do not mean the same thing in est as they do in English. "Understand" is intellectual and bad ("Understanding is the booby prize in life"); "get" is experiential and good. "Try" is bad. You either do it or you don't. A woman rises to defend her secretary, who "tries" hard at some jobs and sometimes fails. "You're a self-righteous bitch!" Ron screams. She collapses in tears; Ron says she is patronizing the secretary by approving her failures. A man rises to offer sympathy to the woman...
Nausea, boredom and physical discomfort set in, and a few people begin raising their hands for the official silver-colored est bags to throw up in. By around midnight (no watches are allowed in the room), we have been going more than 15 hours with only two bathroom breaks and no food. Ron announces we will go without a food break today (groans) but we will just do a few exercises and go home (sighs of relief). We go another two or three hours, of course, so the anger can build into fury. We do "processes" (relaxation and meditation exercises...
Sunday. Following the est script, the "logistics team" has set the air conditioners on extra cold. Room temperature is perhaps in the low 40s, and going down. A woman announces that she was so high after yesterday's session that she felt no need for food. A man says that on the way home, Seventh Avenue smelled of clover. A hefty housewife, who is wearing a heavy sweater over a wool dress, asks if the air conditioners could be turned off. Ron says "the temperature will be what it will be," but she is allowed to fetch her coat...
...junior est employee named George comes onstage to demonstrate "the personality profile"-or how to experience people we have never met. George settles into a trance to experience a New Jersey housewife who is not in the group but is an acquaintance of Carol's, a sixtyish woman who is. Does the housewife like playing cards? "Yes," says George, clawing the air with both hands for inspiration. He sees a happy card game with a bowl of peanuts on the table. "No," says Carol, "she never plays cards." George gets about 80% of the questions wrong...