human potential movement

English

Noun

human potential movement (plural human potential movements)

1. (psychotherapy) initiative encapsulating self-help groups, encounter groups and sensitivity training in order to attempt to increase human potential
   • 1999, Jamie Cresswell, Bryan Wilson, editors, New Religious Movements, Routledge, →ISBN, page 35:

     ...the human potential and psychotherapy movements, as well as the more 'life-affirming' New Religious Movements and religions of the self. This was the complex world of the Californian 'psychobabble', of Scientology and est (Erhard Seminars Training, later called Forums Network), of Encounter Groups, meditation techniques and self-help manuals designed to assist individuals 'realise their potential'.

   • 2000, Peter Bernard Clarke, Japanese New Religions: In Global Perspective, Routledge, →ISBN, page 64:

     Rupert (1992) discusses a range of cases where religious or philosophical ideas have been used to underpin business training seminars, including both movements which fall under the 'New Age' umbrella and the so-called 'self religions' such as the human potential movement, est, or Scientology.

   • 2000, Donald A. Eisner, The Death of Psychotherapy: From Freud to Alien Abductions, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, →ISBN, page 60:

     est and Large-Group Awareness Seminars: Arising out of the human potential movement in the 1960s were a number of workshops, seminars and training programs. The most famous human potential program was erhard seminars training known as est. est was an intensive 60-hour workshop designed to alter a person's life view. There are a number of est clones including Life Spring, Actualizations and Forum, which is a successor to est. All of these workshops have several features in common. Participants are verbally attacked. The idea is to break down emotional defenses in order to allow new beliefs and attitudes to take over. There is a significant cathartic element in that emotional release is generated by the est techniques.

   • 2004, James A. Beckford, “New Religious Movements and Globalization”, in Phillip Charles Lucas, Thomas Robbins, editors, New Religious Movements in the 21st Century, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 208:

     The prospect of a new global order is also central to many variants of the Human Potential and New Age movements and Scientology. All these very different kinds of NRM nevertheless share a conviction that human beings have, perhaps for the first time, come into possession of the knowledge required to free them from traditional structures of thought and action. Hence, the confidence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, and of Werner Erhard, the founder of est (now largely reconfigured as the Landmark Trust), that the state of the entire world would improve if a sufficient number of people became sufficiently energetic and disciplined about their spiritual practice.

   • 2005, Christopher Hugh Partridge, Introduction to World Religions, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 445:

     Scientology is thus one of several groups that form part of the Human Potential Movement (HPM) - an umbrella term for organization that offer enhanced quality of life. Werner Erhard, founder of Erhard Seminar Training (est - now Landmark Forum) previously studied Scientology, but other groups have no such influence: for example Silva Method, PSI Mind Development and the School of Economic Science (SES), the last of which is influenced by TM.

   • 2005, Eileen Barker, “New Religious Movements in Europe”, in Lindsay Jones, editor, Encyclopedia of Religion, Detroit: Macmillan Reference, →ISBN, page 6568:

     The majority of NRMs are, however, not indigenous to Europe. Many can be traced to the United States (frequently to California), including offshoots of the Jesus Movement (such as the Children of God, later known as the Family); the Way International; International Churches of Christ; the Church Universal and Triumphant (known as Summit Lighthouse in England); and much of the human potential movement (such as est, which gave rise to the Landmark Forum, and various practices developed through the Esalen Institute).

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:human potential movement.

See also

• encounter group
• intervention
• large-group awareness training
• new religious movement
• psychodrama
• self religion