Breakthrough

There are a variety of academic, business and cultural organizations that have been influenced by the work of Werner Erhard. These websites reflect some of the breakthroughs that people have had through experiencing his work.

Werner Erhard - Conversations on Compassion at Stanford University: Werner Erhard and CCARE’s founder and director, Dr. James Doty, discuss Erhard's life and work and the topic of compassion at Stanford University on November 16, 2017

History of The Werner Erhard Foundation: The Werner Erhard Foundation was established in a time of transformation and transition. Old values, ideals, and beliefs were being challenged; new ideas and insights, new ways of seeing old problems, and new solutions were coming into view. Historians will likely view this period as an era of profound change, a time when human beings discarded old limits, explored new visions, and embraced new realities.

Global Leadership Is Desperately Missing. It’s Costing Us Our Future. Can we transform our crisis of leadership?: Gordon Starr writes, "After graduating from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business some 47 years ago, and helping pioneer computer retailing as president of ComputerLand Europe in the early 1980’s, I developed a passion for leadership and started empowering visionary leaders as my profession. Over the years I have had the great privilege of supporting extraordinary leaders in business, science, and education. In the process, I have witnessed the inherent limitations of our traditional approaches to developing leaders, and have had the thrilling opportunity to participate in an emerging new science for leadership. In January I travelled from San Francisco to Dubai to participate in an eight-day workshop entitled Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership. The workshop was led by Werner Erhard, the principal author of this new science, along with his co-authors including Michael Jensen, a world renowned economist and professor emeritus at Harvard Graduate School of Business."

Werner Erhard in Capitalism and Society: Announcement for a new issue of Capitalism & Society, featuring papers by Edmund Phelps, Pankaj Ghemawat and Werner Erhard and Michael C. Jensen

Werner Erhard featured in The New York Times: November 28, 2015: "The silver-haired man dressed like a waiter (dark vest, dark slacks) paced the aisle between rows of desks in a Toronto conference room. “If you’re going to be a leader, you’re going to have to have a very loose relationship with this thing you call ‘I’ or ‘me,’” he shouted. “Maybe that whole thing in me around which the universe revolves isn’t so central!” He paused to wipe his brow with a wad of paper towels. An assistant stood by with a microphone, but he waved her off. “Maybe life is not about the self but about self-transcendence! You got a problem with that?”

“Harvard economist Michael Jensen, who is famous in financial circles for championing the concepts of shareholder value and executive stock options, [said] “I became convinced we should work to get this kind of transformational material into the academies,” he said, adding that he considers Mr. Erhard “one of the great intellectuals of the century.” Peter Haldeman – New York Times, November 28, 2015

Werner Erhard Interviewed by Charlie Rose: "The issues that we deal with lie at the heart of the matter and have since civilization began. What's different about our work is that the approach to these issues shows up in people's lives as a kind of breaking open in very practical, down-to-earth way as a real sense of freedom in the things they are handling in their lives."

Werner Erhard in Conversation with Robert Reich: "It is possible to exert enormous leadership in this society, not being a formal leader but being a person who has a vision, has some common sense, has some power."

Tonight Show with John Denver and Werner Erhard, 1978: "The kind of thinking that we train people for is not positive thinking - It is honest thinking. It's a notion that if you've got some negative thoughts and you butter them over with positive thoughts, those negative thoughts express themselves unconsciously, and while you might have the things you've been striving for in life, the joy in life isn't there with them."

Speaking Being: Academic Book Review: Rhetoric Review, Volume 39, 2020 - Issue 2

Werner Erhard and Martin Heidegger on Being: During these challenging times of uncertainty and disruption, we are spending many hours with our attention on what's no longer available to us and what might happen and might not happen. Perhaps for that reason alone, the new book Speaking Being, has never been more relevant.

Integrity – The Foundation of a Leader: Ofer A.-Lidsky, Founder-and-CEO, Excellent-Brain-Ltd writes, "As part of my self-growth I came across a very special type of leadership model that was introduced by Mr. Werner Erhard and Prof. Michael Jensen and called Leadership as an ontological/phenomenological model." In 1995 I did The Landmark Forum, and I was profoundly impacted. There were around 150 people there from every different walk of life. A lot of very successful people and some who were struggling. Some of them were excited to be there and some really didn’t want to be there — they were stuck. People you would’ve thought were never going to change. They had issues with their parents, their work, their relationships. And so did I, by the way. However, everyone in that room, including myself, walked out as a new kind of person.

A Different Take On Integrity: "If I spend my time sharing interesting concepts and ideas with you, I am like what the founder of EST, Werner Erhard, once described as "a guy in a diner" -- someone who has an opinion on everything without ever experiencing anything. But if instead I restrict myself by and large to describing what I see, there's nothing to argue with and nothing to push back against."

Integrity Is More Than A Virtue: The May edition of HBS Working Knowledge features an ambitious research paperby Werner Erhard and Michael C. Jensen entitled Putting Integrity into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach.”  The authors strive at length to define “a purely positive theory of integrity that has no normative elements whatsoever” and to demonstrate how it applies to both individuals and organizations. They draw from behavioral economics and behavioral finance to argue that organizations operate counter to their long-term self interest by systematically engaging in “out-of-integrity” behavior, due in part to the way integrity has been historically (mis)framed.

Werner Erhard: Website inspired by Werner Erhard'd ideas and applications in the domain of phenomenology and ontology.

Werner Erhard Didn't Get the Last Laugh: One woman's reflections on her est Training in 1978: "When I look back from 2011, I recogize some of the principles of EST are still with me and are commonplace in today's social structure.  The concepts about personal responsibility, accountability, truth and honesty are a part of my personal fabric.  Staying in the moment comes easily to me and therefore I believe I experience life more fully.  The realization that I alone have the power to change any given situation, or how I respond to it, is second nature.  These are tools I use each day."

Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger and Being: Groundbreaking ideas introduced to a new generation of thinkers via bestselling book. Erhard's transformational ontological work and Heidegger's philosophical work brought together for the first time.

Quoting Werner Erhard:"What’s so is always just what’s so. What’s so doesn’t care what you think, feel, intend or wish; it will not bend...

Werner Erhard on Pinterest

Werner Erhard: The Center On Capitalism and Society, Volume 12, Issue 1, May 2017

Werner Erhard Still Making A Difference: While it is understandable that any book about the 1970s would include a reference to Werner Erhard and the est Training, what was not mentioned was that, far from simply being an iconic figure of that era, Mr. Erhard’s ideas and work continue to make an enormous difference, and his seminars spawned an entire self-development and coaching industry. Today, Mr. Erhard consults and lectures at top universities and institutions around the world.

Werner Erhard: Follow the ideas of Werner Erhard through time in this compilation of his work and ideas. The timeline illustrates the development of Werner Erhard’s work, for personal, business and academic communities, including notable expressions and acknowledgements, from the inception of Erhard‘s models for transformation made widely available in 1971 through to the present.

Werner Erhard: Taking A Stand For The Future

Werner Erhard and The Physics Conferences

Werner Shows Us The Way: "Werner Erhard has been quoted often in this blog and elsewhere in a way that makes him appear to be an oracle spouting words of wisdom. Werner, however, is not a guru or a saint. He is an academic and intellectual whose current teaching at universities has made it clear that the EST Training that he put together in the 1970s was a rigorous intellectual exercise that produced real transformation in people’s lives and has had an enormous impact on our culture."

Serene Ambition: Jim Selman writes, "I have had the privilege to work in education and research with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of transformation and management, including Fernando Flores, Warren Bennis, Peter Senge, Richard Pascal, Werner Erhard and Ken Blanchard among others."

Werner Erhard - Being A Leader and The Effective Exercise of Leadership: This Leadership course was created by some of the top thought-leaders of our time.  By applying the ontological and phenomenological approaches to their study of leadership they have discovered actionable access to altering the way in which you occur for yourself in situations requiring leadership. This means you will naturally act as a leader WITHOUT having to remember what strategies or techniques to apply. Rather, you will be left being a leader and exercising your leadership effectively as your natural self-expression in any situation and no matter the circumstance.

During the course conventional ways of thinking will be challenged, new ways of thinking will emerge naturally, and you will find yourself naturally acting to create even greater success in the areas of life and leadership that matter most.

Spear's Magazine: "We’re encouraged to take responsibility for our lives and ‘get it’ by discovering there’s nothing to get. (I think that’s what happened at 4.52pm on Sunday.) Our conventional perspectives and decision-making patterns are challenged, creating a shift in thinking and a freedom from the past. We’re encouraged to take risks. To be our authentic selves. To live an empowered life. To be present and focused. And we’re provided us with the tools to effect change.It becomes clear that these approaches will improve a staff’s level of engagement, creativity and performance, accelerating productivity; make a difference to people’s ability to lead and manage; increase their personal and hence business effectiveness; allow insight and action; and help people relate, communicate and perform."

Landmark TED Talks: This collection of TED talks by Landmark Graduates includes moving talks by acclaimed conductor Benjamin Zander discussing the power of classical music to actually cause transformation and noted philanthropist Dan Palotta who helped invent the multiday AIDS Rides and Breast Cancer 3-Days which raised $582 million in nine years, along with many other moving presentations.

Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard: "Erhard's course and ideas, thought of by some as strictly a phenomenon of the '70s and '80s, have permeated the very fabric of society today...With exclusive and rare footage, you'll step inside est seminars, and hear provocative interviews with peers, naysayers, family members, participants and experts."

Werner Erhard Didn’t Get the Last Laugh: The writer of this article took the est training in 1978. She writes, "When I look back from 2011, I recogize some of the principles of EST are still with me and are commonplace in today's social structure.  The concepts about personal responsibility, accountability, truth and honesty are a part of my personal fabric.  Staying in the moment comes easily to me and therefore I believe I experience life more fully.  The realization that I alone have the power to change any given situation, or how I respond to it, is second nature.  These are tools I use each day.

Speaking Being: Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a New Possibility of Being Human: From Good Read's Listing: "The purpose of this book is to show how communication of the unspoken realm of language--speaking being--is actually accomplished in The Forum, and to demonstrate how Erhard did it in 1989. Through placing Erhard's language use next to Heidegger's thinking--presented in a series of "Sidebars" and "Intervals" alongside The Forum transcript--the authors have made two contributions. They have illuminated the work of two thinkers, who independently developed similar forms of ontological rhetoric while working from very different times and places. Hyde and Kopp have also for the first time made Erhard's extraordinary form of ontological rhetoric available for a wide range of audiences, from scholars at work within a variety of academic disciplines to anyone interested in exploring the possibility of being for human beings."

More Praise for Speaking Being: "While some readers of Speaking Being may be familiar with The Landmark Forum, most don’t know its connections to the philosophical tradition. Hyde and Kopp have woven together concise explanations of Heidegger’s notoriously difficult thinking with an actual transcript of Erhard’s Forum—by turns moving, funny, and shocking. This juxtaposition draws the reader into the experience and powerfully illuminates the teachings of these two thinkers. ~ David Storey, Associate Professor, Boston College, author of Naturalizing Heidegger

How to Make Better Decisions: In his blog post Bryan Miller writes, "One of my heroes, Werner Erhard talked about. He said that, “Stunning breakthroughs aren’t the process of thinking, they’re the process of seeing.”

Without Integrity Nothing Works: We often equate integrity with morality, but... there is more to it than that. Integrity involves bringing honor to your word AND operating from a place of power. It’s about taking promises seriously and taking responsibility for your current circumstances. Integrity means being complete or unbroken. And without it, nothing works. Georgiana Kovel draws from Werner Erhard's work. Her favorite quote, "Responsibility begins with the willingness to take the stand that one is cause in the matter of one’s life. It is a declaration, not an assertion, that is, it is a context from which one chooses to live..."

Your Art - What You Love: "We’re amateurs in the noble sense that as long as we have the wonder of the child, the world, and life is constantly new. Werner Erhard said we choose who we are going to be in any moment. Perhaps, choose the sense of wonder, as well."

Little Black Stretchy Pants: Author Chip Wilson writes, "By the early 1970s, my dad went to San Francisco and took an Erhard Seminar Training (EST) course, which was the precursor to Landmark. I remember my dad coming back and telling me he’d discovered the meaning of life. “It’s living in the moment,” he said."

Declaring A Possibility: “In this conversation we discover another possibility: living in a way, now, moment to moment, that makes a difference to life. We discover that as human beings we can live in a possibility instead of in what we have inherited, that instead of just being a human being because we were born that way, we can declare the possibility of being for human beings. This is the work of transformation: bringing forth a breakthrough in the possibility of being human.” ~ Werner Erhard

The Power of Possibility: "Look at the power that is available to each of us. These ideas are taken from Werner Erhard’s theories presented in Peter Block’s book, “Community: The Structure of Belonging.”

The power of language: Have a conversation that you have not had before, one that has the power to create something new in the world.

The power of context: Nothing in our life will shift until we can question, and then choose once again, the basic set of beliefs that lie behind our actions.

The power of possibility: Possibility is a declaration, a declaration of what we create in the world each time we show up. Our thoughts and values are present in the world ‘each time we show up’.

Each day we live into the future. It is not just our past that shapes us. The future that one lives into shapes one’s being and action in the present.

Werner Erhard - Transformation: “I gave 5 stars to acknowledge what Werner’s humanity and commitment contributed to the world. When I think of him, I am moved to tears–not because of a fawning cult figure adoration. Like myself, I am aware of his many human flaws and failures. I am moved to tears because when I remember Werner Erhard, I remember who I am."

A Way To Transformation: Werner Erhard writes, "The subject of this article is transformation – a deep, profound and committed choice about the way we live our lives. Transformation is the possibility for a breakthrough in our living, a clearing for aliveness to show up in our everyday activities, self-expression and commitments."

Werner Erhard Foundation: "The Werner Erhard Foundation, was established in a time of transformation and transition. Old values, ideals, and beliefs were being challenged; new ideas and insights, new ways of seeing old problems, and new solutions were coming into view... The Werner Erhard Foundation (originally founded as The est Foundation) fostered and supported this emerging paradigm by providing financial and organizational support to individuals and groups engaged in charitable and educational pursuits – research, communication, education, and scholarly endeavors in the fields of individual and social transformation and human well-being."

Paths To Knowledge: "What happens is that most of us think that our very strongly held beliefs, you know those things we hold, our opinions, that are very strong, we think that that is thinking for ourselves but it isn’t really. The ability to think for yourself really means the ability to think something that you haven’t thought before. To think outside the allowable range of thoughts rather than just inside the allowable range of thoughts.”

Werner Erhard: La vida de Werner Erhard ha sido dedicada a la creación de ideas. Algunas de sus ideas fueron convertidas a programas para el público, algunas estuvieron a disposición a través de organizaciones sin fines de lucro, y algunas fueron usadas por consultores empresariales en sus tareas de consultoría a corporaciones y entidades sin fines de lucro. Después de más de 35 años, muchas de sus ideas transformacionales se han convertido en parte del pensamiento y la cultura social de todo el globo.

Center On Capitalism and Society: Capitalism & Society is Open Access journal. Unique among economics journals, Capitalism & Society focuses on what makes capitalism dynamic: innovation and entrepreneurship.

Self Growth: The first est Training was held at the Jack Tarr Hotel.in San Francisco in October 1971.  Original est staffers include Gonneke Spits, Jack Rafferty and Laurel Scheaf.  Gonneke Spits remains a close colleague of Werner Erhard to this day.

est Training: "What the est Training was and was not: The training was not about people’s problems per se. What the training was about is related to those rare moments in life, which while rare, seem to come into everyone’s life at some time or another. They are moments in which one is absolutely complete, whole, fulfilled – that is to say, satisfied... In the training, one finds the opportunity to discover that space within yourself where such moments originate, actually where you and life originate. In the training, one experiences a transformation -a shift from being a character in the story of life to being the space in which the story occurs – the playwright creating the play, as it were, consciously, freely, and completely.”

10 Ways I Benefited from Doing the Landmark Forum: "Doing the Landmark Forum made me fall back in love with humanity. I am not sure when that stopped but it had. I could see everyone in there – their vulnerabilities, their courage and their beauty – and it changed my focus. So I started seeing everyone in my life as their possibilities, not their most stressed out, angry, upset, victimised versions. And stopped paying so much attention to their flaws. Of course, that has meant I stopped paying so much attention to my own, too. It is misguided to think that I can just go and be out in the world in a negative mood and not expect that to affect other people. I became someone who understood their impact on others. After I completed the Landmark Forum, I started to see myself as a powerful person. It took a lot of courage to make those calls and to ask of myself the questions. I emerged from that process with a new found awe and respect for myself."

Werner Erhard still making a difference (Washington Post): While it is understandable that any book about the 1970s would include a reference to Werner Erhard and the est Training, what was not mentioned was that, far from simply being an iconic figure of that era, Mr. Erhard’s ideas and work continue to make an enormous difference, and his seminars spawned an entire self-development and coaching industry. Today, Mr. Erhard consults and lectures at top universities and institutions around the world. Laurel Scheaf, San Francisco

Health is a Function of Participation: Werner Erhard's work is called forth in the article Create A Bigger Picture of Health on the Healthy.net website. They write, "The participation that Erhard talks about is participation in relationships and participation in work that serves a vision or a context larger than your own personal survival. Your health and wellness are by-products of a life that is focused and ripe with meaning, full of generous engagement with others in the creation of a world that works for everybody."

Est: Werner Erhard and the est Training brought to the forefront the ideas of transformation, personal responsibility, accountability, and possibility – and over the next decade, over a million people “Got it”. The est Training was as much a sign of the times as bell bottoms, peace rallies and space travel.

The Americans: est continues to have an impact.  “The Americans,” a critically acclaimed TV show, prominently features the est Training in a truthful depiction of the fictional lead character and Russian spy attending est programs which allowed him to examine his past and question his purpose.

Transformation: "Transformation: The Life & Legacy of Werner Erhard" provides a look into who Werner Erhard really is and how his ideas have been making a difference throughout the world. In 1971, in a hotel ballroom in San Francisco over 40 years ago, transformation burst on to the national stage. Werner Erhard and the est Training brought to the forefront the ideas of transformation, personal responsibility, accountability, and possibility.

What is Transformation? "In 1971, Werner Erhard developed The est Training, an approach to individual and social transformation...Because much of Mr. Erhard's recent work has focused on transformation in corporations and because his influence has been so broad, we asked our guest editor, Norman Bodek, to interview him in his San Francisco office. What follows is a discussion not only of transformation in the workplace, but of the art and discipline of transformation itself." Norman Bodek asks, "What do you mean by your use of the word 'transformation'?" to which Werner Erhard replies, "We use the word 'transformation' to name a distinct discipline. Just as psychology, sociology, and philosophy are disciplines, so too we see transformation as a distinct discipline, a body of knowledge, and a field of exploration."

Werner Erhard’s Ideas About Transformation: "Werner Erhard is known as one of the pioneers and foremost leaders of the personal training industry. Having introduced the breakthrough notion of transformation to the general public over 40 years ago, Werner Erhard’s ideas about transformation subsequently came to be seen as a powerful, practical, and relevant resource in contemporary society, particularly in business and academia."

Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man,
The Founding of est, by William Warren Bartley III: Written by noted philosopher and logician W.W Bartley III. Well-known for his work on logic and philosophy of science as well as intellectual history, Bartley has woven together one of the most multi-leveled biographies ever written – a complete account of Werner Erhard’s utterly unpredictable and unconventional life. Reviewing the book, the late Dr. W. Kaufman, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, wrote: “Bartley’s book answers all of the major questions about Werner Erhard.  It tells a fascinating life story beautifully… you are bound to find this biography as gripping as a novel.”

The Mastery Foundation: As an interfaith organization, the Mastery Foundation is committed to working in those places where religious differences are a source of conflict. The Mastery Foundation grew out of a series of conversations in the late 1970s and early 1980s among Christian and Jewish clergy who had experienced a personal transformation when they participated in The est Training. Their interest was in finding a way to make that kind of transformation widely available to others in religious ministry and to the institutions of religion.The group requested that Werner Erhard, the creator of The est Training, develop a program designed specifically for this constituency, and Werner agreed. As part of the design work, Werner Erhard requested that the founders of the new Mastery Foundation enlist experts on clergy development and practice who could represent the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths. Currently, the Mastery Foundation is doing this work in Northern Ireland and Israel.

Robert Rauschenberg and Werner Erhard: In this conversation Werner Erhard and artist Robert Rauschenberg discuss the sources of creativity. (recorded on 11/19/1988) Considered by many to be one of the most influential American artists due to his radical blending of materials and methods, Robert Rauschenberg was a crucial figure in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to later modern movements. One of the key Neo-Dada movement artists, his experimental approach expanded the traditional boundaries of art, opening up avenues of exploration for future artists. Although Rauschenberg was the enfant terrible of the art world in the 1950s, he was deeply respected and admired by his predecessors. Despite this admiration, he disagreed with many of their convictions and literally erased their precedent to move forward into new aesthetic territory that reiterated the earlier Dada inquiry into the definition of art.

David L. Smith: Economist, Market Strategist, Futurist and Geopolitical Commentator David L. Smith writes of the est Training, "Invariably, most est graduates emerged from the training in a state of euphoria, bonded by the common harrowing and sublime experience of the training, feeling liberated from their "baggage," able to see the familiar transcendentally as if for the first time, overflowing with new "realizations," imbued with a newfound sense of responsibility for and control over their lives..."

Werner Erhard - Ideas in Conversation

Discussion with Werner Erhard on the Film “Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard”: In April 2016, the University of Pennsylvania hosted the first annual Bioethics Film Festival, as a way to celebrate of the way ethical issues are discussed in movies. One of the films showed during the festival was “Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard”. After the film, Werner Erhard was interviewed by Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Dr Jonathan Moreno, discussing Erhard’s ideas, his career, his work, the way the controversies of the est program as well and its accomplishments affected society, as well as what he has been doing since the early days of est.

Werner Erhard: Werner Erhard es el creador de modelos transformacionales y aplicaciones para la transformación individual, social y de la organización. Sus innovadoras ideas han estimulado conversaciones académicas en muchas universidades, más recientemente en las áreas de integridad, liderazgo y desempeño. Werner Erhard ha disertado en Harvard University, Yale University, Escuela de Negocios Simon de la Universidad de Rochester y Erasmus University.

Werner Erhard: Werner Erhard est le créateur de modèles transformateurs et leur application pour les transformations individuelles, organisationnelles et sociétales. Ses idées innovantes ont stimulé des conversations académiques dans maintes universités. Il écrit des documents scientifiques-universitaires dans les domaines de l’intégrité, du leadership, de la performance et de la transformation. Werner Erhard est intervenu comme conférencier à Harvard University, Yale University, University of Rochester Simon School of Business, et Erasmus University.

One of My Heros is Werner Erhard: Twenty four years ago I did the Forum. My life was profoundly changed in two weekends and an evening. While Werner Erhards name is often disparaged in the media, he is one of the most brilliant thinkers and social innovators of our time. His work continues to impact the world. Every undertaking that I have accomplished in the past two decades has been influenced by the coaching in integrity, possibilty and accountability that I experienced in that short time. To me, this is the epitome of successful social innovation.

What Does It Take To Be A Leader And For Leadership To Show Up?: Harvard Business School Professor and former Medtronic CEO, Bill George posts the following on his blog from guest blogger Maz Iqbal: "Leadership matters.  Whilst there are many ways of grappling with leadership, I value the ontological lens and in particular the ontological model of leadership that has been developed and is being taught by Werner Erhard et al. In this post I continue the conversation on being a leader..."

We're All Doing The Best We Can: In this Huffington Post blog, motivational speaker and coach Mike Robbins writes “As Werner Erhard said,'In every human being there is both garbage and gold, it’s up to us to choose what we pay attention to.' Looking for the good in others (as well as in life and in ourselves), is one of the best ways to find things to appreciate and be grateful for and we remember that not everything is about us all the time."

Reclaiming the Word Power: In referencing the work of Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen and Steve Zaffron, Integrity: A Positive Model , Narelle Hanratty writes, "Power comes up in several contexts when discussing the matter of leadership with others. Most people, however, are thinking about something else when they talk about power; they’re thinking about force or coercion which they have mixed up with power. Consider that power has nothing to do with force or coercion. In fact, the presence of force indicates a loss of power. Force can show up in the obvious ways including “guile, anger, bossiness, righteousness, defensiveness, manipulation”, and in the less obvious including “playing the victim and helplessness." Power, on the other hand, is connected to acting and speaking in a way that is consistent with one’s commitments. It’s about standing unabashedly for what one is standing for, and taking whatever one gets. All of us are innately powerful. It’s time we reclaimed the word power."

Werner Erhard on Education: Erhard's influence lives for those of us whose lives he has touched. I am forever grateful. He puts himself out there for us all. Thanks Werner. In this video Werner Erhard speaks to Kennedy School students on his latest work: “Why We Do What We Do: A New Model Providing Actionable Access to the Source of Performance.”  

Patterns For Building Community: Chris Corrigan in his review of Peter Block's Book, Community: The Structure of Belonging, says that Block takes inspiration from great thinkers to create some basic patterns for collective transformation.... From Werner Erhard, "The power of language. What we say about things and people makes a huge difference.  Speaking and listening (and therefore conversations) is the basis of changing things. The power of context. Contexts are the worldviews which we employ to see things. Powerful contexts enable powerful transformation.  For example, in First Nations the context of self-government vs. Indian Act government represents a powerful context for community development. The power of possibility.  Once a possibility is declared, it comes into being and with skillful invitation, work can organize around it."

Creating a Working America, an America That Works: "Faced with a crisis of the proportions of the one that is sweeping America right now, we might be too fazed to see the opportunity it presents to us.  Old structures are falling. The dead hand of a corrupt ruling class is losing its grip on us. Economic policies based on greed and corruption are proving themselves bankrupt. The fall of these unworkable institutions and policies presents us with an unparalleled opportunity. We have the opportunity to build in their place a new and uncorrupted economy and society – a world that works for all of us, and not just a few of the rich and powerful – and right from the ground up....I am convinced that Werner was absolutely right and that "We can choose to be audacious enough to take responsibility for the entire human family. We can choose to make our love for the world be what our lives are really about. Each of us now has the opportunity, the privilege, to make a difference in creating a world that works for all of us. …It is much more radical than a revolution – it is the beginning of a transformation in the quality of life on our planet.”  (Werner Erhard, Graduate Review, February 1980.)

Michael Zimmerman: Becoming Authentic – Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger and the Human Transformation Movement: In this episode Jeff Carreira talks with Professor Michael Zimmerman about how the German Philosopher Martin Heidegger influenced the development of The Forum in the mid-1980’s. In the first half of the twentieth century Heidegger developed a ground breaking perspective on human potential by rising beyond the customs and norms that we are generally absorbed in.

What are the ways we view our reality: The following is an excerpt from Coffee at 5:36 Am, By Kris Williams - "On December 14, 2009 Werner Erhard addressed this question when he spoke to Harvard Kennedy School students on his latest work:  “Whey We Do What We Do:  A New Model Providing Actionaly Access to the Source of Performance.”  During his talk he distinguished that reality usually occurs for us as both an “over there” and an “in here” phenomenon. 

In his lecture that day to Harvard Kennedy School students, Erhard suggested something very radical.  He asked his students to consider that who they really are is a “clearing where it (their life) all shows up”.  To me this suggested that we are not our thoughts and emotional reactions to what’s happening “out there” or believe is who we are “in here”.  When we get we are a conscious space in which everything occurs for us, something new shows up; the phenomenon of “out here” suggests Erhard.

Navigating through life from the perspective of “out here” changes everything.  We can begin to have a say about our life that is beyond the habitual, pervasive False-Yes/No paradigm that controlled our choices before this opened up for us.

To be in life without being used by our automatic desire to deal with everything in the context of what it means to me and what I want;  where the mental chatter is minimalized to just a consideration in the background mentally, is to live a life free from inflicting unnecessary pain and suffering on ourselves and others.

Masterful Coaching: By Robert Hargrove, "by observing leaders like Werner Erhard in personal transformational events engage people in a dialogue that resulted in people experiencing the freedom to be and finding new openings for action, I found that coaching often requires going beyond the normal social grease and really bringing people up on the mat."

The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life: Lynne Twist acknowledges Werner Erhard in their book by saying, "Werner Erhard has been and continues to be one of the most brilliant teachers I have ever known.  The programs and courses he created and the programs of Landmark Education have provided insights, distinctions, and the very context from which I live and see the world.  For this and so much more, I am deeply grateful."

Eranos Yearbook 69: 2006/2007/2008: "Werner Erhard, in the early 1970's, introduced the notion of 'transformation' to the public in a way that had not been heard before.  The methodology he developed provided individuals and organisations with a means to design new contexts and paradigms, allowing people to think more creatively and independently, and to take effective action that made a lasting impact on the important concerns of their lives.  For the last 35 years, he has continued to create innovative ideas and models of individual and social transformation.  While he may be best known for applications he derived from those models (among others, the est Training, The Landmark Forum, the Hunger Project, and the Education Network), the models have been the source of new perspectives by thinkers and practitioners in fields as diverse as philosophy, business, psychotherapy, third world development, medicine, conflict resolution, and community building.  Werner Erhard has lectured for a wide variety of prestigious institutions and professional associations around the world, including Stanford University, USC, Rochester University, De Paul University, Erasmus Academie in the Netherlands,  The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University,  MIT, the Harvard Alumni Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Oxford Union, the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and UNESCO.  In 1988, he was awarded the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award in recognition of his contribution to people and society."

Before It's News: While it may not be obvious, a great deal of what appears on this site owes a large debt to Werner Erhard, who, in my opinion, was one of the seminal western thinkers of the Twentieth Century. (1) I’ve just kept unfolding and unpacking things he said ever since taking the est Training in 1978

One of my Heroes is Werner Erhard: "Twenty four years ago I did the Forum. My life was profoundly changed in two weekends and an evening. Werner Erhard's work continues to impact the world."... "Our thinking needs some new possibilities and new opportunities. I’m not giving people answers, but rather attempting to bring forth a breakthrough in opportunities to think creatively. I like that Chinese proverb which says, “If we don’t change our direction we’re gonna wind up where we’re headed.” We need a new paradigm of being and thinking and acting. We need to be aware that our answers are shaped by the paradigm of thinking in which we work out solutions and not merely do more, better or vari­ations of the same kind of thinking. I’m asking people to stop and take a look behind their thoughts." Werner Erhard

Does Positive Energy = Positive Results?: In order to create a new future, we need to resolve our past; "One of my master mind groups is currently studying Peter Block's newest book "Community" which tells us that in order to create a new future, we need to resolve our past (not forget it, just complete it, to use the language from the book) and declare a new future to live into. It's really no different when talking about individual communities, businesses or a nation - the process is similar. Energetic and hopeful conversations create new energy which attracts people into new results. Or as Block points out in "Community," creates conversations which touch, move and inspire to join in the new possibilities."

SSRN-Barbados Group: Prawf'sBlog: The Barbados Group's work will establish "a new paradigm" that brings "a new understanding of the source of action that provides powerful access to elevating individual, group and organizational performance." 

Creating Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland: Werner Erhard developed the Ireland Initiative for the Mastery Foundation in 1999 bringing community leaders together to work on peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Having Your Relationships Work: "In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d write a post about what I know for having relationships work. I am writing from being married for 33 years. A lot of my success I owe to a gentleman named Werner Erhard. He led a day-long event in 1978 entitled “Celebrating Your Relationships.” It formed the basis with which I transformed all of my relationships. Attending seminars by Werner Erhard, and est in the 70s (no longer exists), and Werner Erhard & Associates in the 80′s (it no longer exists), and in the 90s and 2000s Landmark Education (a current and international entity) has helped me create relationships that work." - Jim Tsutsui

Being An Artist: "You are a leader, a business professional; you have the potential to go beyond cultural, religious, and political boundaries to influence the masses, if you do your job right" To quote from Werner Erhard, "“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.”

Werner and Me: A Memoir and Current Journal - "Werner Erhard, through the programs he designed, has had a huge impact on me. I participated in the est training, many graduate seminars, many assisting opportunities, the Six-Day course, and became a Guest Seminar Leader during the period 1980-85...One of the greatest things I discovered in my work in Erhard-designed programs, and in listening to Werner Erhard recordings (tapes which were widely available in the early 80s), is the capacity we have to take full responsibility.

Michael Jensen and Werner Erhard's Talk on Integrity: The Harvard Law Corporate Governance Blog, Posted by Robert Jackson, Managing Editor, Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog, on Friday November 9, 2007. In Harvard Law School’s Seminar in Law, Economics, and Organization, Professor Michael Jensen and Werner Erhard presented a paper on integrity that they co-authored with Steve Zaffron.

Werner Erhard's Still Got It: Personal Blog by Lynn - "John Denver did it. So did Cloris Leachman, Diana Ross and even Dr. Phil, Yoko Ono, and Jeff Bridges. Yup, they all did the est training back in the 70's and 80's. Valerie Harper acknowledged Werner Erhard publicy when she received an Emmy for Rhoda in 1975 after taking est. When I took the est training in DC at age 29 in May 1980, I got the good news and bad news that I was the only one responsible for how my life was going to go. The est training was the very first of many things I've done that made a profound impact on my life's direction."

est in Australia: "TWENTY-FOUR years ago this month a new phenomenon arrived in Melbourne that revolutionised the manner of business teaching. It was a personal development training from California called "est". Although it worked on the individual, its effects were so startling that businesses quickly picked it up as a method for motivating their staff. It Started in 1971 in the US, by the time it reached Australia it had gained millions of adherents world-wide..."

Benchmarks for Workplace Goals: "Want results? Have clear benchmarks for your workplace goals. Many years ago I took EST -- Erhard Seminar Training -- a personal growth workshop held on two consecutive weekends. It was intense, challenging and confrontive, but produced amazing results."

Werner Erhard speaks at 2009 NeuroLeadership Summit: ...some of the most brilliant minds of our time were involved in this year's event, including Warren Bennis, Werner Erhard and Daniel Siegel

Visioning for CEOs: N2Growth Blog Where CEOs Come To Grow "Visioning for CEOs is a topic that I often address on this blog...In today’s post I’m going to share a few brief thoughts on visioning for CEOs, as well as providing you with the thoughts of others on the importance of vision. Examine any list of great leaders and you’ll find that to the one, they have a clarity and purpose of vision... “Create your future from your future, not your past.” - Werner Erhard

About Werner Erhard: Jane Self discusssing her book about Werner Erhard and 60 Minutes: "My background in journalism led me to write a book in 1992 about the founder, Werner Erhard, who had been maligned on CBS' "60 Minutes" and subsequently sold his organization to his employees. The yearlong investigative work on this book required extensive traveling both nationally and internationally to research court documents and interview family members, former and current employees and participants.

The War Paradigm: Everything Under the Sun... To Start With! - "Werner Erhard when dealing with human awareness and potential tapped into ontological spaces or a way of 'being' that can determine operative paradigms."

Insights- Taking Your Life and Your Leadership to the Next Level: Bill Pullen: Purpose and Aliveness - By Werner Erhard
"The only two things in our lives are aliveness and patterns that block our aliveness. As patterns are experienced out, our lives become clearer. Things begin to make more sense. What we do makes more sense.
It’s funny, but when the alive you emerges from behind the smokescreen of all those patterns and begins to participate in life directly, life really does have purpose. It all somehow makes sense, in a fantastic way."

Blissful Bohemian: Personal Blog by Annie Coe: The film called "Transformation" blew me away. Even though it just scratched the surface of the man I could tell that Werner was a genius of the highest order. I have spent the last 2 months reading anything I could get my hands on about Werner...There was a lot of bad press and allegations against Werner and I have chosen to disregard most of it because for me the proof is in his work and from what I can tell he helped a whole lot of people change their lives. The words that I have read that come from Werner himself are magic and they are life enhancing in every way.

Simply Success Life Coach: Iris Benrubi: I am very impressed by what Werner Erhard was able to create and his impact on the world. As my mom would say "Chapeau bas" - "Hats Off". He has impacted my life and 100's of thousands of others' lives. Wishing him continued success and the acknowledgment he deserves for making this world a better place.

The est Transformation: Joe Vitale: I’ve been waiting since last July — almost an entire year — for the release of Transformation, the documentary about est founder Werner Erhard. It’s finally out and I finally saw it. It’s riveting, inspiring, and unforgettable. Seeing the old clips of Werner delivering est trainings in the 1970s, hearing him today, getting the inside story on how the media exploited him, was eye-opening. At the end of this terrific film, as the credits are rolling, Werner says “There’s something great sitting in your chair,” and he smiles a little as he reflects on that exciting idea.

Transformation: Shazamzing: I watched a stunning documentary, "Transformation" and I suggest anyone touched or interested in the history of the human potential movement take a look. It is about Werner Erhard, the controversial founder of EST and Landmark. I kind of forgot how much Werner Erhard and EST actually influenced our culture... Erhard found a way to use his own brand of brilliance for the good of the world."

Werner Erhard: White Light Black Light... Werner Erhard introduced transformation to the world through the est training and The Forum. He continues to create methodologies that help improve the lives of people around the world.

The Other Side Of Fear Is A Miracle: Wealth Abundance and Joy Now - "I invite you to look and see what irrational fears you are attached to.  Notice what the payoff is in hanging on to these fears and choose, in courage, to let go. Let go right into your miracle.  It's right here waiting on the other side of fear. 'A miracle is something that validates who you are rather than diminishes who you are. ~ Werner Erhard'"

Who Am I This Time: Elizer Sobel: "When I was younger and spending time in the presence of various teachers, such as Ram Dass and Werner Erhard among others, I had a fantasy that one day it would be me in front of the room, enlightened and spreading the word...."

All Things Health and Spirit: John W. Travis, M.D."The "participation" that Erhard talks about is participation in relationships and participation in work that serves a vision or a context larger than your own personal survival. Your health and wellness are by-products of a life that is focused and ripe with meaning, full of generous engagement with others in the creation of a world that works for everybody."

The Coaching Paradigm - Way of Being, Way of Life: The Coaching Commons - Jim Selman is an authority in the field of organizational transformation and culture change. He worked with Werner Erhard to found Transformational Technologies in the mid 1980s. which brought the concepts of communication, integrity and comittment into American corporations. Selman introduced coaching as a new paradigm, or context, for management and communication. He presents the idea that communication is the primary (perhaps only) lever we have if we are to deal effectively with an increasingly uncertain future.

Rock and Roll Lessons: Designed to Connect the Dots Between Business, Organizational Behavior, Psychology, Philosophy, Political Science, Economics, and.....Rock & Roll: After studying at the feet of the Masters—including Werner Erhard -- and working with over a thousand organizational leaders and hundreds of business teams, I’m now bringing together my two careers in my book-in-the-making, Cool Teams! Business Lessons From Rock & Roll Bands. My simple thesis: business teams have much to learn about innovation, passion, collaboration, brand, ambition, and independent thinking from the great rock bands.

Motivating Quotes: Daily Motivating Quotes and Readings To Keep You Focused: “My notion about service is that service is actually that kind of
relationship in which you have a commitment to the person. What I mean, in
fact, is that for me what service is about is being committed to the other
being. To who the other person is. To the degree that you are, in fact,
committed to the other person, you are only as valuable as you can deal with
the other person’s stuff, their evidence, their manifestation, and that’s
what’s service is about. Service is about knowing who the other person is
and being able to tolerate giving space to their garbage. What most people
do is is to give space to people’s quality and deal with their garbage.
Actually, you should do it the other way around. Deal with who they are and
give space to their garbage. Keep interacting with them as if they were God. And every time you get garbage from them, give space to garbage and go back and interact with them as if they were God.” - Werner Erhard

Werner Erhard Interviews World Renowned Artist Alice Cahana: Celebrating Life inside of the holocaust experience. An example of living life fully no matter the circumstances.

Reality Creation Coaching: Working as a life and success coach, I like to study the best teachers and mentors and learn from them. One of my favorite of our times is Werner Erhard.

USAFA (U.S. Air Force Academy) Character Corner: To what are you loyal?: "The struggle between integrity and loyalty is older than Mitchell Hall...We must confront how readily we sacrifice our personal integrity, that to which we are truly and deeply committed, in exchange for admiration. Until we are honest with ourselves and confront our own need for admiration, the debate between integrity and loyalty will continue. To what are you most loyal: another person's admiration for you or a commitment to who this other person can become?" - Kari Granger

Mastery Foundation Origins and Early History: The Mastery Foundation grew out of a series of conversations in the late 1970s and early 1980s among Christian and Jewish clergy who had experienced a personal transformation when they participated in The est Training. Their interest was in finding a way to make that kind of transformation widely available to others in religious ministry and to the institutions of religion. The group requested that Werner Erhard develop a program designed specifically for this constituency.

Top Ten Rules of Management: Software and Beer, Steve Mitchell - I was once in a discussion with Werner Erhard in which he said that there are three kinds of things you're doing:
1) what you're doing now (the one thing you're doing right this second)
2) what you're going to do (the things you have scheduled on your calendar)
3) the things you're never going to do (everything else on your 'wishlist").
Don't keep a chain around your neck of things you're never going to do.

Friends of Simplicity: Interview with John O'Leary - "I lucked out again and got to study or work with luminaries such as Werner Erhard, Peter Senge, and Fernando Flores. 15 years later I started consulting under the Tom Peters umbrella. Oh, and in the early 1980s I took some time off to run for US President as an independent—though that was mostly for the fun of it and to write a book about, which is mercifully out of print."

Greening My World: Awakening the Dreamer - Life has changed.  Up until less than 100 years ago we all shared from the same pie and we could only get a big enough piece if they got a smaller piece.  But now we can all get our own pie and we have to figure out how to learn how to consume it well.I saw this wonderful videp by Werner Erhard.  What makes it wonderful is that it was recorded over 30 years ago.  And it says what I’m up to and, I promise, you too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNLuJ1wMGOU

Peter Gabriel speaks about Werner Erhard and the est Training: "Anyone with an open mind wanting to explore the world was drawn to [the est training]... It taught me all sorts of things, of which one was to be responsible for your life and who you are---don't blame others, don't be a victim. I'd been doing that. The analogy is of a boat in dangerous water: would you rather be in the hold bitching about the captain or standing at the helm with the power to change direction? you can only get to that position if you're prepared to take responsibility. It's very logical but very hard sometimes---I can't always stay in that place but I know life works better when you're there. The other thing is to be authentic about who you are, how you feel, and what's going on...It's about being real. We spend so much of our lives not actually being who we are but who we imagine we ought to be."

ThinkExist.com (quotes by Werner Erhard)

Upsets: Where do they Come From?: Living Awake

Werner Erhard Speaks to Kennedy School Students

How Important is “Context” to Becoming Who You Want To Be?: An R. Buckminster Fuller inspired game about making money and sense at the same time