human potential movements

A form of human potential movement — initiative encapsulating self-help groups, encounter groups and sensitivity training in order to attempt to increase human potential

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Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of human potential movement

    I have not listed the many case-studies that have been published about specific Human Potential movements, particularly about est.

    1997, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 48
    5 more examples

    New Age 'world affirmers' fall into the same bracket as the number of less obviously religious Human Potential Movements, such as est (Erhard Seminar Training) (Rupert 1992).

    2001, Ruth Prince, The New Age in Glastonbury, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 21

    According to Westley (1983:185), “most human potential movements, despite the temptations of tax shelters, overtly refute the religious label and claim to be therapies.”

    2004, Hans A. Baer, Toward an Integrative Medicine, AltaMira Press, →ISBN, page 3

    ... it is much more important — at least for the purposes of this chapter — to understand how popular evangelical writers view the New Age, humanism, and, especially, the human potential movements and their potential consequences.

    2005, Jeffrey John Kripal, On the Edge of the Future, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 274

    Sarah, a therapist whose professional discipline falls generally under the rubrics of the closely connected humanistic psychology and human potential movements, first became interested in Rajneesh when she read a book of his collected discourses ...

    2010, Win McCormack, The Rajneesh Chronicles: The True Story of the Cult that Unleashed the First Act of Bioterrorism on U.S. Soil, Tin House Books, →ISBN, page 199

    Also on offer by this spiritual supermarket are the neopagan religions, with their shamans, druids, witches, and sorcerers; the newly founded Satanists and certain suicidal groups; offshoots from the Human Potential movements of the 1960s and from various types of psychology ...

    2012, Erika Wilson, Emotions and Spirituality in Religions and Spiritual Movements, University Press of America, →ISBN
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APA

human potential movements. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20potential%20movements

MLA

“human potential movements.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20potential%20movements. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “human potential movements,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/human%20potential%20movements.

Source: human potential movements on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.