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Werner Hans Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg, 5 September 1935) authored transformational models and applications for individuals, groups, and organizations.

Erhard is best known by the general public for the "est Training" (1971 – 1983) and the “Forum” (1984 – 1991), which were offered to the public through by an organizational structure that included Erhard Seminars Training Inc. (1971 - 1975), est, an educational corporation (1975 - 1981), and Werner Erhard & Associates (WEA, 1981 – 1991).

In 1991, about the time of his retirement from WEA, Erhard sold his intellectual properties to a group of his former employeees who had formed Landmark Education — after which he left the United States.

Erhard, along with John Denver, Robert W. Fuller, and others, founded The Hunger Project in 1977.

Impact

Werner Erhard is considered by many to be a cultural icon of the 1970s. Millions of people have been influenced by Erhard’s work through direct participation or the cultural change that occurred as a result of people participating in his transformational programs. Erhard’s seminars received much attention, some balanced reporting and some vituperative and unfounded. Erhard's business associates throughout the world, such as Peter Block, Warren Bennis, and Michael Jensen, as well as celebrities such as John Denver, and Diana Ross, spoke highly of Erhard. As noted in Sports Illustrated, Tiger Woods' father said "What I learned through est was that by doing more for myself, I could do much more for others. Which is where Tiger comes in. What I learned led me to give so much time to Tiger, and to give him the space to be himself, and not to smother him with dos and don'ts. I took out the authority aspect and turned it into companionship. I made myself vulnerable as a parent. When you have to earn respect from your child, rather than demanding it because it's owed to you as the father, miracles happen. I realized that, through him, the giving could take a quantum leap. What I could do on a limited scale, he could do on a global scale." Over the years, Werner Erhard’s philosophy has been cited in helping to promote a multi-billion-dollar personal growth industry based on Erhard's original concepts.

Early life (1935-1971)

John Paul Rosenberg graduated from Norristown High School, Norristown, Pennsylvania, in June 1953, along with his future wife Patricia Fry. Rosenberg married Fry on 26 September 1953 and they had four children together. He left Fry and their children in Philadelphia (1960), traveled west with June Bryde, and changed his name to "Werner Hans Erhard". Rosenberg chose his new name from Esquire magazine articles he read about then West German economics minister Ludwig Erhard and the philosopher and physicist Werner Heisenberg. June Bryde changed her name to "Ellen Virginia Erhard". The newly-renamed Erhards moved to St. Louis.

In (1961), Erhard sold correspondence courses in the Midwest, then drove to California to seek a better territory, and eventually moved to Spokane, Washington. After a few months, he took a job with Encyclopædia Britannica's "Great Books" program, and was soon promoted to area training-manager. In January 1962 Erhard switched to the Parent's Magazine Cultural Institute, a child-development materials division of Parents Magazine. In the late summer of 1962 he won promotion to the position of territorial manager for California, Nevada, and Arizona, and moved to San Francisco; and in the spring of 1963 to Los Angeles. In January 1964, "Parents" promoted Erhard and transferred him to Arlington, Virginia as a southeast manager.In August 1964, Erhard resigned his position in Arlington over a dispute with the company president and returned to his previous position in San Francisco. Erhard and his second wife moved into an apartment in Sausalito and had a second daughter, Adair, on December 27, 1964. Erhard began a close friendship with Alan Watts. In the next few years, Erhard brought on-staff at "Parents" many people who would become important in est, including Elaine Cronin, Gonneke Spits and Laurel Scheaf. In 1967 Erhard was promoted to vice president.

Early influences

In California in the 1960s Erhard engaged in a wide variety of spiritual, New Age and transformative activities.

Tipton wrote: 'Erhard calls Zen Buddhism the “essential” one of all the disciplines that he has studied. and 'Various observers of est have traced its ideas to Zen, Vedanta, and Christian Perfectionism; behaviorist determinism, Freud, Maslow, Rogers, and Perls; Korzybski's General Semantics, Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, and the self-image psychology of Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics. Its methods have been traced to hypnosis, autosuggestion, revivalism, psychodrama, encounter, Gestalt therapy and behavior modification; Subud and yoga; military, monastic, and penal institutions, sales and business motivation courses.

Bartley noted in his biography of Erhard that in addition to Zen Buddhism, Dale Carnegie courses, Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics, Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy, Abraham Maslow's transpersonal psychology, Scientology, and Subud, were among other psychological and spiritual influences. In 1963 Erhard took part in Esalen seminars, becoming involved with encounter groups. In 1967 he completed a Dale Carnegie course in sales and further courses in Gestalt therapy and in transactional analysis.

Zen

In William Bartley's biography, Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, the Founding of est (1978), Erhard describes these explorations. Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging Zen as the essential contribution that "created the space for" est Bartley details Erhard's connections with Zen beginning with his extensive studies with Alan Watts in the mid 1960s Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging:

Of all the disciplines that I studied, practiced, learned, Zen was the essential one. It was not so much an influence on me, rather it created space. It allowed those things that were there to be there. It gave some form to my experience. And it built up in me the critical mass from which was kindled the experience that produced est.

Scientology

William Bartley, in his biography of Werner Erhard, wrote:

“When I asked Werner to sum up the differences between est and Scientology, he reflected for a moment.

'...The essential difference between est and Scientology is two-fold. The first has to do with Scientology’s emphasis on survival and its idea that the purpose of life is survival. est sees the purpose of life as wholeness or completion – truth – not survival..
The other main difference between est and Scientology lies in the treatment of knowing. Ron Hubbard seems to have no difficulty in codifying the truth and in urging people to believe it. But I suspect all codifications, particularly my own. In presenting my own ideas, I emphasize their epistemological context. I hold them as pointers to the truth, not as the truth itself.

I don’t think anyone ought to believe the ideas that we use in est. The est philosophy is not a belief system and most certainly ought not to be believed. In any case, even the truth, when believed, is a lie. You must experience the truth, not believe it.'

The era of the est training (1971 - 1984)

Erhard reported having experienced a revelation while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge on U.S. Route 101 in Marin County, California in 1971. He started to see the world as perfect "the way it is" and reported an insight that his attempts to change or modify either his physical circumstances or his mental outlook had their basis in a conception of the world (that it should differ from "the way it is") that precluded or at least limited one's experiential and creative appreciation of it. Erhard, who had become an instructor of Mind Dynamics put together an intensive two–weekend course he called "est".

Werner Erhard and Associates (1981 - 1991) and "the Forum"

In the 1980s, Erhard worked with Fernando Flores — philosopher, senator of Chile and businessman — on aspects of language, setting up sets of practices which make a distinction between, on the one hand "speaking that describes being" with, on the other hand, "speaking that brings forth being". These seminars culminated in Erhard's announcement in 1984 of the retirement of the est-training, after the participation of 750,000 "graduates", and its replacement by a new program called "the Forum", inaugurated in January 1985.

Erhard intended this new "work" to acquire more mainstream respectability and to appeal to business and management markets. What est had called "space" or the "space of being" now became "the domain of possibility" or the "possibility of being for human beings". Where part of est's "Day 4" had included a "three-circle talk" on "being, doing, and having", the Forum now featured three distinctions of the domains of "possibility, presence, and representation"

On February 1, 1991, some of the employees of Werner Erhard and Associates purchased the assets of WE&A, licensed the right to use its intellectual property and assumed some of its liabilities, paying $3 million and committing to remitting up to $15 million over the following 18 years in licencing fees. Shortly afterwards the new owners established Landmark Education. Presentations that evolved from the "Forum" developed by Werner Erhard and Associates continue to take place today in major cities in the USA and worldwide as the "Landmark Forum" under the auspices of Landmark Education.

1991 - present

Since his retirement in 1991, Erhard has kept a low profile, except for a few public appearances. He appeared on Larry King Live in an episode titled "Whatever Happened to Werner Erhard?" via satellite from Moscow in Russia on December 8, 1993.

He has worked in the area of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland with author Peter Block. He attended an event on May 11, 2004 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, entitled "From Thought to Action: Growing Leaders in a Changing World". The event took place in honor of a friend, Warren Bennis, who had taken Erhard Seminars Training and then consulted for Werner Erhard and Associates.

In recent years Werner has devoted his time to rigorous academic investigation and presentations in writing and lectures of his ideas. In 2007, Werner Erhard presented a talk exploring the link between integrity, leadership, and increased performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for Public Leadership, led a course on integrity at the 2007 Sloan School of Management’s SIP (Sloan Innovation Period), and spoke at the Harvard Law School program on Corporate Governance. In 2008 he took part in a presentation on integrity at Depaul University and co-led a course on Leadership at the Simon School of Business.

As of 2001, Erhard reportedly lived at least part time with Gonneke Spits in Georgetown, Cayman Islands

Awards and acknowledgments

• The Gandhi Humanitarian Award , 1988, from Gandhi Memorial International Foundation; this award-giving organization and its founder Yogesh K. Gandhi was later investigated by the United States Senate and the United States Department of Justice for fraud.

Disputes

Charlotte Faltermayer in “The Best of est?” in Time Magazine, March 16, 1998, reported on allegations made in a 60 Minutes segment on Werner Erhard that "was filled with so many factual discrepancies that the transcript was made unavailable with this disclaimer: 'This segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons.'"

Celeste Erhard filed an unsuccessful $2 million lawsuit against the San Jose Mercury News, saying she “was defrauded and her privacy was invaded during interviews”. She stated on the record that the articles and her appearance on CBS television's 60 Minutes were to get publicity for a book." Charlotte Faltermayer reports that Celeste Erhard's allegations of incest were recanted.

In 1992 a court ruled that "The Forum" had not caused any “mental injuries” to Stephanie Ney; though it entered a default judgment of $380,000 against Werner Erhard — in absentia.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found Erhard did not have grounds for changing a previous tax decision February 8, 1995, in the case "Werner H. Erhard v. Commissioner Internal Revenue Service.

In September 1996, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) settled for $200,000 in a damage suit Werner Erhard brought against the IRS for false statements IRS spokesmen made to the press about his tax information.

Public perception

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The psychiatrist Marc Galanter described Erhard as "a man with no formal experience in mental health, self help, or religious revivalism, but a background in retail sales."

Related organizations

The Hunger Project

Main article: The Hunger Project Along with John Denver and Oberlin College President Robert W. Fuller, Erhard co-founded The Hunger Project. In 1977 Erhard authored the Hunger Project Source Document, subtitled, “The End of Starvation: Creating an Idea Whose Time Has Come” .

Landmark Education

In 1991 the group that would shortly form Landmark Education purchased the intellectual property of Werner Erhard. In 1998, Time Magazine published an article about Landmark Education and its historical connection to Werner Erhard. The article stated that: "In 1991, before he left the U.S., Erhard sold the 'technology' behind his seminars to his employees, who formed a new company called the Landmark Education Corp., with Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg at the helm." Landmark Education states that its programs have as their basis ideas originally developed by Erhard, but that Erhard has no financial interest, ownership, or management role in Landmark Education.

In Stephanie Ney v. Landmark Education Corporation (1994), the courts determined Landmark Education Corporation did not have successor-liability to Werner Erhard & Associates, the corporation whose assets Landmark Education purchased.

According to Pressman in Outrageous Betrayal: Landmark Education further agreed to pay Erhard a long-term licensing fee for the material used in the Forum and other courses. Erhard stood to earn up to $15 million over the next 18 years." However, Arthur Schreiber's declaration of 3 May 2005 states: "Landmark Education has never paid Erhard under the license agreements (he assigned his rights to others)."

In 2001 New York Magazine reported Landmark Education's CEO Harry Rosenberg said that the company had bought outright Erhard's license and his rights to the business in Japan and Mexico. From time to time Erhard consults with Landmark Education.

In film

The Century of the Self

Werner Erhard appeared in the 2002 British documentary by Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self, featuring in episode part 3 of 4. This segment of the video discusses the est Training in great detail, and includes interviews with est-graduates John Denver, and Jerry Rubin.

Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard

In 2006, Erhard appeared in the film Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard. The film was co-produced by Erhard's attorney. Newsday commented on the film: "The movie claims to ask 'hard questions' about Erhard's life and work, though concerns about the film's agenda already are circulating on the Web. Walter Maksym, who has served as Erhard's attorney, is listed as an executive producer of the film on the Internet Movie Database."

Books

Biographies

• Bartley, III, William Warren (1978). Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est. NY, NY, USA: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. ISBN 0-517-53502-5.
• Pressman, Steven (1993) Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile. New York, New York, USA. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-09296-2
  • Second edition: Pressman, Steven (April 22, 1995). Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile. Random House. ISBN 0517143356. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Other books

• Kettle, James: The est Experience. Zebra Books, 1976.
• Marks, Pat R.: est: The Movement and the Man. Playboy Press 1976.
• Raising Hell: How the Center for Investigative Reporting Gets the Story. (Chapter on "Let Them Eat est.") Addison-Wesley, 1983. ISBN 0-201-10858-5
• Rhinehart, Luke: The Book of est. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.
• Self, Jane (1992) 60 Minutes and the Assassination of Werner Erhard: How America's Top Rated Television Show Was Used in an Attempt to Destroy a Man Who Was Making A Difference. Breakthru Publishing. ISBN 0-942540-23-9
• Fenwick, Sheridan (1976). Getting It: The psychology of est. Philadelphia, PA, USA: J. B. Lippincott Company. ISBN 0-397-01170-9

See also

• Erhard Seminars Training
• Werner Erhard and Associates
• Scientology and Werner Erhard
• The Hunger Project
• Landmark Education

Notes

1. Werner Erhard
2. ^ Bartley, William Warren (1978). Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of EST. Clarkson Potter. ISBN 0-517-53502-5.
3. "Distilled Wisdom: Buddy, Can you Paradigm", Fortune Magazine, May 15, 1995
4. Bruce Schulman: The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics, Da Capo Press, April 16, 2002, pages 96-98
5. Peter Block: Community,the Structure of Belonging, Berrett-Koehler, 2008, pg.14
6. Warren Bennis, Leaders, Strategies for Taking Charge, page 68-69
7. Peter Block: Community,the Structure of Belonging, Berrett-Koehler, 2008, pg.14
8. Warren Bennis: Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, Harper Collins, 2003, pg 201
9. Peter Block: Community,the Structure of Belonging, Berrett-Koehler, 2008, pg.198
10. Christopher Silvester: Grove Book of Hollywood, Grove Press, November 30, 2000, pg 556
11. Thomas Adrahtas: A Lifetime to Get Here: Diana Ross: The American Dreamgirl, AuthorHouse, November 20, 2006, pg 157
12. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1996/sportsman/1996.html
13. http://www.transformationfilm.com
14. Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife;Hay House Inc.,January 31, 2008, pgs x, xi
15. Casey Hawley:100+ Tactics for Office Politics (Barron's Business Success Guides); Barrons Educational Series; 2 edition, June 1, 2008, page 173
16. ^ Pressman, Steven (1993). Outrageous Betrayal. St Martin's Press. ISBN 0312092962.
17. Bartley, William Warren, Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of EST, Clarkson Potter, 1978. ISBN 0-517-53502-5 pages 117-138
18. Steven M. Tipton: Getting saved from the sixties: moral meaning in conversion and cultural change. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1982, page 329. ISBN 0520038681
19. Steven M. Tipton: Getting saved from the sixties: moral meaning in conversion and cultural change. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1982, page 329. ISBN 0520038681
20. AGPF web-page on Erhard, est etc: "1963 nimmt Erhard an Esalen-Seminaren teil. Er trifft Fritz Perls und ist in mehreren Selbsterfahrungs- und Bewußtseins-Gruppen (Encounter Training)."
21. AGPF web-page on Erhard, est etc: "1967 absolviert er ein Verkaufstraining bei Dale Carnegie und einige andere Kurse in Gestalt-Therapie und Transaktionsanalyse."
22. Pressman, Steven, Outrageous Betrayal: The dark journey of Werner Erhard from est to exile. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. ISBN 0-312-09296-2, p.33-34
23. Wilson, Brian R. (1999). New Religious Movements: challenge and response. Routledge. pp. 56, 72, 280. ISBN 0415200490. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
    "Especially influenced, it would appear, by his time with Mind Dynamics at the beginning of the 1970s, Erhard went on to found est, (the first seminar ran in October 1971)."
24. Hoffmann, Frank W. (1992). Mind & Society Fads. Haworth Press. p. 119. ISBN 1560241780. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
25. Fernando Flores, website, "biografia"
26. Republica de Chile Senado, website, Senate of Chile, retrieved 9/14/2006
27. See Industry Weekly June 15 1987 article (vol 233, no 6), "Create Breakthroughs in Performance by Changing the Conversation," by Perry Pascarella; among other sources forthcoming.
28. Compare Bärbel Schwertfeger, "Foreword" in Martin Lell, Das Forum: Protokoll einer Gehirnwäsche: Der Psycho-Konzern Landmark Education , Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1997, ISBN 3-423-36021-6, page 8 : "Am 31.1.91 verkaufte Erhard seine Anteile für drei Millionen Dollar an seine Mitarbeiter, die die Organisation in Landmark Education umbenannten. Landmark verpflichtete sich zudem, in den folgenden achtzehn Jahren bis zu fünfzehn Millionen Dollar Lizenzgebühren an Erhard zu zahlen."
29. "Landmark Education Corporation: Selling a Paradigm Shift", Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA, Karen Hopper and Mikelle Fisher Eastley, 9-898-081, p.1, Rev. April 22, 1998. Availability restricted by Harvard "to faculty and staff of universities" (see Alex Beam, "Church takes to bully pulpit" in the Boston Globe, April 2 1999, page F01; transcribed at http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/l/landmark/beam.htm, retrieved 2007-10-21).
30. Mastery Foundation
31. http://content.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=1
32. http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/spotlight-category.php?c=leadership
33. http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/corporate_governance/speakers.shtml
34. http://fac.comtech.depaul.edu/khowe/integrity.htm
35. http://www.simon.rochester.edu/alumni/jensen-vanto-group-leadership-program/index.aspx
36. ^ Pay Money, Be Happy, New York Magazine, Vanessa Grigoriadis, July 9, 2001.
37. Past Menus, Christmas Dinner, Lighthouse at Breakers, December 19, 1997, Grand Cayman chapter, Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
38. . V. J. Fedorschak, Shadow on the Path : Clearing the Psychological Blocks to Spiritual Development, Hohm Press, October 1999, ISBN 0-934252-81-5
39. Yogesh Gandhi Charged with Tax Evasion, Mail and Wire Fraud and Perjury, Press Release, United States Department of Justice, March 8, 1999
40. Kurian, Rupa (July 1999). "Sentencing Date for Yogesh Gandhi Set; Could Serve A Year In Prison And Deported to India". Rediff (in English). Rediff India. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
41. Cole, Richard (1998). "Feds Add Fraud To Gandhi's Woes". CBS News (in English). Associated Press. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
42. http://www.believermag.com/issues/200305/?read=article_snider believermag.com]Believermag.com retrieved 2007-10-21
43. "Daughter of est founder sues Mercury News over two articles", San Jose Mercury News, July 16, 1992
44. Faltermayer, Charlotte (2001-06-24). "The Best Of Est?". Time. Retrieved 2007-09-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
45. Werner H. Erhard v. IRS (9th Circuit 02/08/1995)
46. "IRS Settles Lawsuit brought by Werner Erhard," Business Wire, September 11, 1996.
47. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/LEADER+OF+EST+MOVEMENT+WINS+%24200%2c000+FROM+IRS.-a083966944 Leader of est Movement Wins $200,000 From IRS
48. Marc Galanter: Cults: faith, healing, and coercion. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN 9780195056310 , page 80.
49. net
50. "The Best Of Est?". TIME. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
51. Landmark Education, media Q&A
52. Case reference, Rickross.com
53. Declaration filed 5 May 2005 at the US District Court of New Jersey, civil action 04-3022 (JCL), pp 3 and 4, via Rickross.com. retrieved 2006-11-15
54. Landmark Education website
55. ^ McClure, Laura (August 2009). "42 Hours, $500, 65 Breakdowns: My lost weekend with the trademark happy, bathroom-break hating, slightly spooky inheritors of est". Mother Jones. Vol. 34.
56. Guzman, Rafer (August 14, 2008). "Movie Buzz: WHO Werner Erhard, THE DEAL The founder of the controversial training program called est". Newsday. Newsday, Inc. p. B9.

External links

• Werner Erhard Biographical Website - WernerErhard.com
• est and Werner Erhard, The Skeptic's Dictionary

• Personal development
• The Hunger Project
• People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
• 1935 births
• Living people
• American Episcopalians
• Former Scientologists
• People associated with the Human Potential Movement