Page 35 - eBook Living Water 2

with all his problems. I moved out of the house with Josh and filed
for divorce. We agreed to use the same lawyer to try to work things
out amicably.

Several months later while waiting for a court date, I got a
phone call from my friend, Jan, in California, my old travel
companion in Europe. She proceeded to tell me about a friend of hers
who had a complete personality transformation occur in his life by
attending EST – the Erhardt Training Seminar. It was a sixty hour
two weekend “self-actualization” training where many people were
experiencing profound changes in their lives. She thought that
perhaps Fred might be interested in attending one.

Fred was willing to do anything that might keep us together. I
was just hoping it might help us remain civil as parents after the
divorce. Fred signed on for a seminar that was being held an hour
away in Edison, N. J. After the completion of the second weekend,
participants were encouraged to invite guests to their last night of
“graduation”. Fred invited me and I said I would attend. There was
time set aside after the ceremony for an EST staff person to sit down
with the guests to encourage them to sign up for their own seminar
experience. Even though I saw no transformational changes in Fred, I
was always open to do anything that might help me with my own
issues to live a more fulfilling life. So, I signed up.

The training had strict rules about when you could go to the
bathroom, when you could talk and when you could eat. The training
lasted ten hours each day. They spent several hours discussing those
rules and answering people’s questions. People who had special
medical conditions could get exemptions added to their agreement.
They explained that the purpose for the strict rules was to show how
loosely most of us hold to our commitments and how crazy we can
get about not keeping them. Many people got angry just listening to
the explanations of the rules. They gave people the opportunity to
leave and get their money back, if they didn’t want to stay. About
twenty percent left at that point.