EST was very popular in the Bay Area around the time that Frank did the Personal Theater:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training
It was in this context that Frank did the Personal Theater.
from FRANK MOORE HISTORY TAPES – VOLUME 1, pg. 32-35.
“Personal Theater dares you to take the ultimate trip. Everything you want within 48 hours or your money back. DARE YOU! IF YOU’VE TRIED EST, TM, PRIMAL, ERICA, SILVA MIND CONTROL, GESTALT, SCIENTOLOGY, SEX, DRUGS, POLITICS, ALCOHOL, MONEY AND YOU HAVEN’T GOT EVERYTHING YOU WANT, WELL …”
COREY: Did you get calls from these?
FRANK: Yes.
COREY: When was this?
FRANK: Mid-70s to late.
“Personal theater: Are you willing to get everything you want?”
“To get a way to be a rock star
To quit smoking
To stop feeling inferior
To stop trying to prove myself
To feel good consistently
To be open and close with people …”
(That was a list of someone who did a process.)
“To feel satisfied with regard to sex
To not let anger get in my way
To make a decision about having a baby
To stop drinking
To stop overeating
To be happy
To not be alone
To get a way to be a rock star
To not be scared
To stop being bitchy and defensive.”
COREY: How many people did the 48 hour processes?
FRANK: We did a couple of group processes, but besides them, maybe eight.
“PERSONAL THEATER: “What do you really want? What is everything you want, really want? The personal theater is about getting everything you want…
“The first step in getting what you want is knowing what you want and knowing what your priorities are …”
FRANK: In fact, it is eighty percent.
(So when Frank had the person make a list and he went through it with them before the process to define their goals, that was like most of it, eighty percent, just seeing what they really wanted …)
“Most people go around with vague feelings of dissatisfaction. They can always tell you in very concrete terms what they do not want, but they can not pin down exactly what would make them satisfied.”
FRANK: Whereas I always know what I want.
“You cannot focus on getting something that you are at best just vaguely aware of. Beyond not knowing what their real personal wants and needs are, the next common block to getting everything is either not knowing what their priorities are or not acting according to their priorities. Most people settle. Most people flow on the path of what looks like least resistance. Most people give themselves space to not really do what they want to do. Not really be what they want to be, not have what they really want. So they settle for being a bitch. It takes less work than being happy. They settle for buying a house rather than making their relationships work. Everyone knows how to buy a house, it just takes years of work to get the money, and then maybe the house will be the right setting for their relationship. It never works. After years of work chances are they are still working to pay the mortgage and still are not satisfied. The irony is that if they had focused on their highest priority, their relationship, the house would have been much easier to get.”
“This is why Personal Theater offers a special six-hour seminar that enables you to define concretely what your goals are, what your order of priorities is and what your basic life theme is. All you need for this seminar is the willingness to be honest with yourself. After this seminar, if you act consistently according to your priorities, you will have a better chance of getting everything you want. The goal seminar is led by Frank Moore and costs 20 dollars. The goal seminar is designed for everyone, but the Personal Theater also offers a 48 hour process as a very intense way for you to focus on getting everything you want. Mr. Moore and his staff create a fantastic and at times surreal 48 hour experience suited to each individual’s personality in which you are led to realize what you need to do to achieve your goals and then are pushed to do it.”
“Let’s back up and see what this really means. In the Personal Theater, unlike most growth or therapy situations there is no pre-fabricated structure or process. The experience is totally built around you and your goals. This is especially true in the single process in which you are the sole focus of attention. But it is also true in the group process which contains no more than five people and has the added dimension of inter-relationships. No getting lost, or hiding in a crowd of hundreds of people. For the 48 hour Mr. Moore and his staff will be intimately involved with you. Unlike EST, there is no vague “it” to get. You come into the process to work on getting the concrete goals on your list. You will know when and if you have gotten a certain goal because you will have made it concrete and therefore testable before starting the process. The process is not therapy. It is not focused on what is wrong with you. You will be focusing on getting what you want and being what you want to be. If this means dealing with and resolving certain problems, that may be a part of the process. Although Mr. Moore sometimes leads the person back into his past, the process does not lay emphasis on why you do not have what you want, but rather on getting and keeping what you want. The Personal Theater has an amazing track record. Everyone who has gone through the process has felt they have gotten at least a large number of their goals by the end of the 48 hours. Moreover, most people who have gone through the process have said they realized all of the goals on their list by the end of the 48 hours. Some have realized all of their listed goals in as quickly as 30 hours, leaving 18 hours to work on new goals. There is no limit to how many goals you can have on your list. One woman had 22 goals. She realized all of these within 32 hours. One man achieved the only goal on his list: to have fun. Some of the other goals which people have achieved during the process are:”
(This is where the list is {above})
“The process is a 48 hour intense push, a giant kick in your life to get you out of your ruts. Mr. Moore will include things in your process that expand you beyond the limits that are keeping you from what you want. This pressure at times will not be comfortable. Are you willing to be pushed to get what you want? The entire success of your process will depend on your willingness to be pushed beyond your limits. The process may include things you might rather not look at, rather not do. But everything in the process is designed to get you your goals. Everything is designed around you. But it is like a roller coaster. Every time Mr. Moore pushes you beyond your limits, your first impulse might be to resist out of fear. But if you remember that it is possible for you to do everything in your process, you can enjoy the dips and the loop-the-loops on this 48 hour ride. Although you can stop this ride at any time to resist, there is only one track to the end, down the deep dips and around the loop-the-loops.”
“You have to reach the end of the ride to get everything you want. Mr. Moore will work with you when you stop by resisting to get you started again and will speed up the remainder of the ride so you can get to the end in time. But if you use your 48 hours in resisting, you will get only what you have gotten to. Mr. Moore takes responsibility for designing the 48 hour experience and guiding you through this experience. This is what you will be paying for. But if you do not take the responsibility to let Mr. Moore guide you through the entire process, you will not get everything you pay for. It is that simple.”
“Your 48 hour experience may include activities ranging from magic, impromptu plays and dances to reliving your childhood or relationship counseling. People within your life may be called into your process. Your process may take you to different places, such as cafes and discos. It may even include extremely mundane, non-glamorous tasks such as scrubbing the floor, or taking one step every three seconds.”
“In short, it may include anything and everything that will get you what you want. It will include things that you may not understand until after your process. It will not include sex or violence.”
“There are three ways to do the process. The single process may be the most intense way, because Mr. Moore and his staff focus entirely on you. A single process costs 700 dollars. There is the relationship process in which two people who have a relationship together, be it a marriage or a friendship or a business relationship, work on their personal goals, but also on their goals within and for the relationship. This costs 400 dollars per person. Mr. Moore and his staff do a group process in which up to five people are in their individual processes at the same time. These individual processes are played off one another. The cost to do a group process is 300 dollars per person. Basically the Personal Theater seeks to draw each individual into a slow and peaceful world in which he can experience freedom and closeness with others. The Personal Theater is a part of Inter-Relations Incorporated, a non-profit organization which also offers individual and relationship counseling and workshops in personal closeness.”
FRANK: Amazing how much we have done.
COREY: Were there any kind of records kept of the processes?
FRANK: Slides and tapes.
