The Book of est

The Book of est

Book cover, 1976 ed.
Author	Luke Rhinehart
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Erhard Seminars Training
Genre	Fiction
Publisher	Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Publication date	October 1976
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	271
ISBN	0-03-017386-8
OCLC	2317910

The Book of est is a fictional account of the training created by Werner Erhard, (est), or Erhard Seminars Training, first published in 1976 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The book was written by est graduate Luke Rhinehart.^[1] Rhinehart is the pen name of writer George Cockcroft.^[2] The book was endorsed by Erhard, and includes a foreword by him. Its contents attempts to replicate the experience of the est training, with the reader being put in the place of a participant in the course. The end of the book includes a comparison by the author between Erhard's methodologies to Zen, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda, and to Rhinehart's own views from The Dice Man.

Reception to the book was mixed. There were reviews in Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Times Book Review. An article about Erhard and est in the religious journal Quarterly Review placed the book among "the most accessible sources about est".^[1] Professor Walter A. Effross of the American University Washington College of Law cites The Book of est in an article in the Buffalo Law Review analyzing the control of new age movements over their intellectual property.