I don't remember the Circle of Gold and, like you, would have been very unlikely to support such a thing. I did take est in San Jose in 1978 and participated in quite a few graduate seminars for some years after so your story checks out. Sorry I don't remember your red afro. I'm amazed you remember me!
As scammy as it probably was (Werner Erhard mostly just cribbed from Alan Watts and others) est was a very formative experience for me as a 21-year-old. I think it has stayed with me ever since. I was just thinking about that the other day, in fact.
My fondest memory of est was a lesson in forgiveness.
I'd started assisting at Franklin House, Werner's residence. (As you know, "assisting" meant "working for free!")
My first task was to draw up a schematic of the home automation system under Werner's bed. You would flip up the top of the bed and underneath it was a point to point circuit of relays, and no one knew what it all did or how they connected together.
I don't know why this system of relays was under his bed, but there it was.
So I traced out all the wiring - there was a lot of it! - and made the schematic.
They found out I enjoyed cooking, so I started assisting in the kitchen.
Werner loved scallop quenelles, and we made a lot of them.
Then he had his first physics conference, with Richard Feynman, John Wheeler, Leonard Susskind, and many other luminaries.
And I was the breakfast chef!
I made custom omelets to order for all the physicists, and as far as I know, they all enjoyed them.
After that success, they asked me to fill in for dinner one night when his chef was on vacation.
My menu included French onion soup, and sautéed broccoli and scallops with brown rice.
For some reason I thought I would throw some brewers' yeast into the soup. You can't go wrong with that, can you? So I put in a lot! It was pretty terrible, and someone else there said "It's time to save the soup!" So he threw in bouillon cubes and who knows what, and it got worse and worse. But we served it anyway.
Now we get to the sauté. Werner was on some kind of no-fat diet, so I decided to "sauté" the scallops and broccoli in white wine with no oil. As you can imagine, it came out very sour and unappealing.
All in all, it was the worst meal I've ever cooked.
A few days later, I got a note in the mail from Werner, thanking me and saying how much he appreciated me and not a word about how terrible the meal was.
When anyone disappoints me, I hope I can treat them with the same courtesy.
As scammy as it probably was (Werner Erhard mostly just cribbed from Alan Watts and others) est was a very formative experience for me as a 21-year-old. I think it has stayed with me ever since. I was just thinking about that the other day, in fact.