Luke Rhinehart - The Book of est

There are only a handful of booksthat have dramatically influenced my life. Theres The Magic of Believingand The Robert Collier Letter Book. But number one on the list is TheBook of est. It beat out Think and Grow Rich, and even the Bible. Iknow thats bold and controversial. But its also the truth.

Here are two reasons why I lovethe book:

The book is the famous est experiencein written form. est, or Erhard Seminar Training, was the controversialself-help movement of the 1970s and beyond. Anyone who withstood the heat ofthe weekends were never the same again. Lives were transformed forever. Youfaced yourself and your story in a way that was confrontational and oh so real.

I never got to do est. Iwas a skeptic and a hold out. I made fun of it when I saw all the articlesabout it. But I was afraid of it. I was young and in college and unsure ofeverything, including myself. By the time I got around to wanting to do est,it was gone and reincarnated into something called The Forum. I did the Forumand endorse it today. But its no est.

The Book of est puts youinto the room and gets you to feel the intensity. You somehow experienceest. When my late wife began to type up the book to be republished by me,she had to keep stopping. She said it was intense and dramatic. She died duringthe transcription process. But that had nothing to do with the book. It hadmore to do with her choices and what the book urged her to face.

Obviously, a book isnt a drillsergeant self-help instructor yelling in your face about what isnt working inyour life. But The Book of est comes close. Its safe. Its easyreading. But its still real. Oh so very real. Just reading it can cause you toawaken your own patterns. And once you see them, you can let them go. Or not.After all, what you get from the book is what you get.

But thats only the first reason Ilove The Book of est.

The second reason I love this bookis because the writing is, well, hypnotic. Its riveting.

Luke Rhinehart has the gift ofwriting dialogue and description that puts you in the room with the charactersexperiencing est. In many ways, this was one of the first examples Iever found of what I eventually labeled as Hypnotic Writing. While I laterwrote a book called Hypnotic Writing, it was Luke Rhinehart who pavedthe way for me to know what it was when a true master was at work. For me, thisis one of the best written books of all time.

The author wrote some other cultclassics, too. The Dice Man is a masterpiece. Its well written,engaging, humorous and in some ways dangerous. Just like The Book of est.But where The Dice Man is alive and well in print, The Book of est hasbeen gone for decades.

Search on eBay or Amazon and youmight find copies going for one hundred dollars on up to a thousand dollars.Ive paid that much for copies, too. I collect them. The Book of est isone of the rare life changing gems that I cant get enough of or read enoughtimes. Sometimes I give the book away. Usually I dont. Usually I just keep itfor myself, as one of the most powerful books of all time kept hidden in my ownsecret vault of wisdom.

The good news for you is this:Luke is now a friend of mine. Weve corresponded, shared books, and decided tojoin a partnership. With the help of my friend Mark Ryan, the most powerfulself-help book of all time is now available to you. And all you have to do isturn the page to begin it.

Aude Aliquid Dignum,

Dr. Joe Vitale

September 2008

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