Werner Hans Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg; September 5, 1935) is an American author and lecturer known for founding est, which operated from 1971 to 1984. He has written, lectured, and taught on
self-improvement
Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
.
In 1977 Erhard, with the support of John Denver,
Robert W. Fuller
Robert Works Fuller (born 1936) is an American physicist, author, social reformer, and former president of Oberlin College.
Biography
Robert Fuller attended Oberlin College, leaving without graduating in order to earn his Ph.D. in physics at ...
and others, founded
The Hunger Project
The Hunger Project (THP), founded in 1977 with the stated goal of ending world hunger in 25 years, is an organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. It has ongoing programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where it implemen ...
,"The Hunger Project". ''CSO-Net''. Economic and Social Council. Retrieved 30 Nov. 2015. an
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
accredited by the United Nations in which more than four million people have participated with the goal of establishing "the end of hunger as an idea whose time has come".
In 1991 Erhard retired from business and sold his existing
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
to his employees, who then adopted the name
Landmark Education
Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, that offers personal-development programs.
Landmark Education started in 1991 with the licensing of rights to use i ...
, renamed in 2013
Landmark Worldwide
Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, that offers personal development, personal-development programs.
Landmark Education started in 1991 with the licensi ...
.
Early life
John Paul Rosenberg was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, on September 5, 1935.Steven M. Tipton, ''Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, p. 176. His father was a small-restaurant owner who left Judaism for a Baptist mission before joining his wife in the Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday School. They agreed that their son should choose his religion when he was old enough. He chose to be baptized in the Episcopal Church, served there for eight years as an acolyte, and has been an Episcopalian ever since.
Rosenberg attended Norristown High School in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he received the English award in his senior year. He graduated in June 1953, along with his future wife Patricia Fry, whom he married on September 26, 1953; they had four children.
From the early mid-1950s until 1960, Rosenberg worked in various automobile dealerships (starting at a Ford dealership where he was trained by Lee Iacocca, then Lincoln Mercury, and finally Chevrolet), with a stint managing a nearly defunct medium-duty industrial equipment firm, which became successful under his management.
In 1960, Rosenberg left Patricia and their children in Philadelphia, traveled to Indianapolis with June Bryde, and changed his name to "Werner Hans Erhard"; he chose the name from '' Esquire'' magazine articles he had read about
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent serie ...
. Bryde changed her name to Ellen Virginia Erhard. The Erhards moved to St. Louis, where Werner took a job as a car salesman.
Patricia Rosenberg and their four children initially relied on welfare and help from family and friends. After five years without contact, Patricia Rosenberg divorced Erhard for desertion and remarried.
In October 1972, a year after creating
Erhard Seminars Training
Erhard Seminars Training (marketed as est, though often encountered as EST or Est) was an organization, founded by Werner Erhard in 1971, that offered a two-weekend (6-day, 60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The sem ...
, Erhard contacted his first wife and family, arranged to provide support and college education for the children, and repaid Patricia's parents for their financial support. Between 1973 and 1975, members of his extended family took the est training, and Patricia and his younger siblings took jobs in the est organization.
Career
''Parents'' Magazine Cultural Institute
In 1961, Erhard began selling correspondence courses in the Midwest. He then moved to
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...
, where he worked at
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
's "Great Books" program as an area training manager. In January 1962, Erhard began working at ''Parents'' Magazine Cultural Institute, a division of W.R. Grace & Co. In the summer of 1962, he became territorial manager for California, Nevada, and Arizona, and moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and in the spring of 1963 to Los Angeles. In January 1964, ''Parents'' transferred him to
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...
, as the southeast division manager, but after a dispute with the company president he returned to his previous position as west coast division manager in San Francisco. Over the next few years, Erhard brought on as ''Parents'' staff many people who later became important in est, including Elaine Cronin, Gonneke Spits, and Laurel Scheaf.
Influences
While largely self-educated, Erhard was influenced by or worked closely with philosophers, leadership and business academics, physicists, and Zen masters. Philosopher Michael E. Zimmerman said of Erhard, "He had no particular formal training in anything, but he understood things as well as anyone I'd ever seen; and I've been around a lot of smart people in academia." During his time in St. Louis, he read two books that had a marked effect on him: ''
Think and Grow Rich
''Think and Grow Rich'' is a book written by Napoleon Hill in 1937 and promoted as a personal development and self-improvement book. He claimed to be inspired by a suggestion from business magnate and later-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Firs ...
'' by
Napoleon Hill
Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted th ...
(1937) and ''
Psycho-Cybernetics
''Psycho-Cybernetics'' is a self-help book written by Maxwell Maltz in 1960. Motivational and self-help experts in personal development, including Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy have based their techniques on Maxwell Maltz. Many of the ...
'' by
Maxwell Maltz
Maxwell Maltz (March 10, 1899 – April 7, 1975) was an American cosmetic surgeon and author of '' Psycho-Cybernetics'' (1960), which was a system of ideas that he claimed could improve one's self-image leading to a more successful and fulfilling ...
(1960). When a member of his staff at ''Parents Magazine'' introduced him to the ideas of Abraham Maslow and
Carl Rogers
Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach (and client-centered approach) in psychology. Rogers is widely considered one of the founding fathers of ps ...
, both key figures in the
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
, he became more interested in personal fulfillment than sales success.
After moving to Sausalito, he attended seminars by
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...
, a Western interpreter of
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), an ...
, who introduced him to the distinction between mind and self; Erhard subsequently became close friends with Watts. Erhard also studied in Japan with Zen rōshi
Yamada Mumon
was a Rinzai roshi, calligrapher,Ford, 116 and former abbot of Shōfuku-ji in Kobe, Japan.Harada, ix Mumon was also the former head of the Myōshin-ji branch of the Rinzai school of Japan.
His most prominent student (and Dharma heir) is Shodo ...
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
as an essential contribution that "created the space for" est.
Erhard attended the Dale Carnegie Course in 1967. He was sufficiently impressed by it to make his staff attend the course, and began to think about developing a course of his own. Over the following years, Erhard investigated a wide range of movements, including
Encounter
Encounter or Encounters may refer to:
Film
*''Encounter'', a 1997 Indian film by Nimmala Shankar
* ''Encounter'' (2013 film), a Bengali film
* ''Encounter'' (2018 film), an American sci-fi film
* ''Encounter'' (2021 film), a British sci-fi film
* ...
,
Transactional Analysis
Transactional Analysis (TA) is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions (or “transactions”) are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult-like) as a b ...
,
Enlightenment Intensive
An Enlightenment Intensive is a group retreat designed to enable a spiritual enlightenment experience within a relatively short time. Devised by Americans Charles Berner along with his wife Ava Berner in the 1960s, the format combines the self-en ...
,
Subud
Subud (pronounced ), acronym of Susila Budhi Dharma, is an international, interfaith spirituality, spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s, founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (1901–1987). The basis of Subud is a spir ...
and
Scientology
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a Scientology as a business, business, or a new religious movement. The most recent ...
.
In 1970 Erhard became involved in
Mind Dynamics
Mind Dynamics was a seminar company, founded by Alexander Everett in Texas in 1968. The company ceased operating in December 1973 after the death of co-owner William Penn Patrick and the resignation of President Robert White, alongside investiga ...
and began teaching his own version of Mind Dynamics classes in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The directors of Mind Dynamics eventually invited him into their partnership, but Erhard rejected the offer, saying he would rather develop his own seminar program—est, the first program of which he conducted in October 1971. John Hanley, who later founded
Lifespring
Lifespring was an American for-profit human potential organization founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. The organization encountered significant controversy in the 1970s and 1980s, with various ...
, was also involved at this time. In their 1992 book ''Perspectives on the New Age'', James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton write that Mind Dynamics, est, and LifeSpring have "striking" similarities, as all used "authoritarian trainers who enforce numerous rules," require applause from participants, and de-emphasize reason in favor of emotion. The authors also describe graduates recruiting heavily on behalf of the companies, thereby eliminating marketing expenses.
est (1971–1984)
Starting in 1971, est, short for Erhard Seminars Training and also Latin for "it is", offered in-depth personal and professional development workshops, the initial program of which was called "The est Training". The est Training's purpose was to transform the way one sees and makes sense of life so that the situations one had been trying to change or tolerating clear up in the process of living itself. The point was to leave participants free to be, while increasing their effectiveness and the quality of their lives. The est Training was experiential and transformational in nature.
The workshops were offered until 1984, when the est training was replaced by the Forum. As of 1984, 700,000 people had completed the est training. American ethicist, philosopher, and historian Jonathan D. Moreno has described the est training as "the most important cultural event after the human potential movement itself seemed exhausted" and a form of "Socratic interrogation". Erhard challenged participants to be themselves and live in the present instead of playing a role imposed on them by their past, and to move beyond their current points of view into a perspective from which they could observe their own positionality. The author Robert Hargrove said, "you're going to notice that things do begin to clear up, just in the process of life itself".
The first est course was held in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, in October 1971. Erhard led all the early est courses himself, but by the mid-1970s he had trained ten others (doctors, attorneys, and businessmen and -women) to do so. Est centers opened in Los Angeles,
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...
,
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, New York, and many other cities, and est was enthusiastically endorsed by celebrities and people of influence such as leadership and business academic
Warren Bennis
Warren Gamaliel Bennis (March 8, 1925 – July 31, 2014) was an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies.Walter Kaufmann, social activist
Jerry Rubin
Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman. He is known for being one of the ...
, business magnate David Geffen, author and businesswoman
Arianna Huffington
Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of '' Th ...
, artist and peace activist
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
Valerie Harper
Valerie Kathryn Harper (August 22, 1939 – August 30, 2019) was an American actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut as a replacement in the musical ''Li'l Abner''. She is best remembered for her role as Rho ...
.
Werner Erhard Foundation (1973–1991)
In the early 1970s the est Foundation became the Werner Erhard Foundation, with the aim of "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." The foundation supported projects launched by people committed to altering what is possible for humanity, such as The Hunger Project, The Mastery Foundation, The Holiday Project, and the Youth at Risk Program, programs that continue to be active. It also organized presentations by scholars and humanitarians such as the Dalai Lama and Buckminster Fuller and hosted an annual conference in theoretical physics, a science in which Erhard was especially interested. The annual conference was designed to give physicists an opportunity to work with their colleagues on what they were developing before they published, and was attended by such physicists as
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfl ...
Leonard Susskind
Leonard Susskind (; born June 16, 1940)his 60th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium at Stanford University.in Geoffrey West's introduction, he gives Suskind's current age as 74 and says his birthday was recent. is an American physicis ...
.
Werner Erhard and Associates (1981–1991) and "The Forum"
In the 1980s Erhard created a new program called the
Forum
Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to:
Common uses
* Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States
*Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city
**Roman Forum, most famous example
*Internet ...
, which began in January 1985. Also during that period he developed and presented a series of seminars, broadcast via satellite, that included interviews with contemporary thinkers in science, economics, sports, and the arts on topics such as creativity, performance, and money.
In October 1987 Erhard hosted a televised broadcast with sports coaches John Wooden,
Red Auerbach
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He served as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. ...
George Allen George Allen may refer to:
Politics and law
* George E. Allen (1896–1973), American political operative and one-time head coach of the Cumberland University football team
* George Allen (Australian politician) (1800–1877), Mayor of Sydney and ...
to discuss principles of coaching across all disciplines. They sought to identify distinctions found in coaching regardless of the subject being coached.
Jim Selman
James C. Selman (born February 7, 1942) is an American consultant, coach, and author.
Born in Oklahoma City, Selman received his B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1965, where he majored in social psychology and philosophy.
Subsequent work
After retiring from Werner Erhard & Associates, Erhard continued to make public appearances. One of these was the December 8, 1993, episode of CNN's ''
Larry King Live
''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly.
Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...
'', "Whatever Happened to Werner Erhard?" Erhard participated via satellite from Moscow, where he was working with the All Union Knowledge Society and a number of the members of the newly formed Russian parliament. During this time he worked on peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and on some occasions with author Peter Block.
Erhard has devoted his time to scholarly research, writing, and teaching his ideas on integrity, leadership, performance, and transformation. He authored a paper on integrity with Michael C. Jensen and Steve Zaffron. Author Bartley J. Madden wrote of Erhard's, Jensen's, and their colleagues' new paradigm of individual, group, and organizational performance that it "emphasizes how one's worldview shapes and constrains each individual's perceptions. The paradigm takes one to the source of performance, which is not available by merely explaining performance through linear cause and effect analysis", that "the source of performance resides in how actions correlate naturally with the way circumstances occur", and that "language (including what is said and unsaid in conversations) plays a dominant role in how situations occur and so is instrumental in improving performance".
A major part of Erhard's current work is devoted to the creation and development of the course "Being A Leader and The Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model", which he and his colleagues have led at numerous universities and is taught by 34 professors at their own schools. The ''Financial Times'' management editor Andrew Hill wrote that the course contributes to the field of business education and furthers academic research.
Erhard is the author of the final chapter of ''Hayek: A Collaborative Biography'', a book about economist
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
, edited by Robert Leeson.
Critics and disputes
Erhard became the object of popular fascination and criticism, with the media tending to vilify him over several decades. Moreno has written, "Allegations of all sorts of personal and financial wrongdoing were hurled at him, none of which were borne out and some f whichwere even publicly retracted by major media organizations." Various skeptics have questioned or criticized the validity of Erhard's work and his motivations. Psychiatrist
Marc Galanter
Marc Galanter is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Previously he was the John and Rylla Bosshard Professor of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and LSE Centennial Professor at t ...
called Erhard "a man with no formal experience in mental health, self-help, or religious revivalism, but a background in retail sales". Michael E. Zimmerman, chair of the philosophy department at Tulane University, wrote "A Philosophical Assessment of the est Training", in which he calls Erhard "a kind of artist, a thinker, an inventor, who has big debts to others, borrowed from others, but then put the whole thing together in a way that no one else had ever done." Sacramento City College philosophy professor Robert Todd Carroll has called est a "hodge-podge of philosophical bits and pieces culled from the carcasses of existential philosophy, motivational psychology." Social critic John Bassett MacCleary called Erhard "a former used-car salesman" and est "just another moneymaking scam." NYU psychology professor Paul Vitz called est "primarily a business" and said its "style of operation has been labeled as fascist."
In 1991 Erhard "vanished amid reports of tax fraud (which proved false and won him $200,000 from the IRS) and allegations of incest (which were later recanted)." The March 3, 1991, episode of '' 60 Minutes'' covered these allegations and was later removed by CBS due to factual inaccuracies. On March 3, 1992, Erhard sued
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' reporter John Hubner and approximately 20 other defendants for libel, defamation,
slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
,
invasion of privacy
The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...
, and
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...
. On May 20, 1992, he filed for dismissal of his own case and sent each of the defendants $100 to cover their filing fees in the case.''Werner Erhard vs. Columbia Broadcasting System'', (Filed: March 3, 1992) Case Number: 1992-L-002687. Division: Law Division. District: First Municipal.
Cook County Circuit Court
The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...
, Chicago, Illinois. Erhard told
Larry King
Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. ...
in an interview that he dropped the suit after receiving legal advice telling him that in order to win it, he would have to prove not just that CBS knew the allegations were false but that CBS acted with malice. Erhard told King that his family members had since retracted their allegations, which according to Erhard had been made under pressure from the ''60 Minutes'' producer.
Erhard's daughters retracted the allegations of sexual abuse they had made against him. Celeste Erhard, one of the daughters featured on ''60 Minutes'', sued Hubner and the ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' for $2 million, accusing the newspaper of having "defrauded her and invaded her privacy", saying she had exaggerated information, been promised a $2 million book deal, and appeared on ''60 Minutes'' to get publicity for the book. Celeste claimed that her quotes in the ''Mercury News'' article were deceitfully obtained. The case was dismissed in August 1993, the judge ruling that the
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
had expired, that Celeste "had suffered no monetary damages or physical harm and that she failed to present legal evidence that Hubner had deliberately misled her", which is legally required for damages.
CBS subsequently withdrew the video of the ''60 Minutes'' program from the market. A disclaimer said, "this segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons".
In 1992 a court entered a
default judgment
Default judgment is a binding judgment in favor of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favor of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear ...
of $380,000 against Erhard
in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in ab ...
in a case alleging negligent injury. The appellate court stated that he had not been personally served and was not present at the trial.Wikisource:Ney v. Landmark Education Corporation and Werner Erhard
In 1993 Erhard filed a wrongful disclosure lawsuit against the IRS, asserting that IRS agents had incorrectly and illegally revealed details of his tax returns to the media. In April 1991, IRS spokesmen were widely quoted alleging that "Erhard owed millions of dollars in back taxes, that he was transferring assets out of the country, and that the agency was suing Erhard", branding Erhard a "tax cheat". On April 15, the IRS was reported to have placed a
lien
A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the per ...
of $6.7 million on Erhard's personal property. In his suit Erhard stated that he had never refused to pay taxes that were lawfully due, and in September 1996 he won the suit. The IRS paid him $200,000 in damages. While admitting that the media reports quoting the IRS on Erhard's tax liabilities had been false, the IRS took no action to have the media correct those statements.
A private investigator quoted in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' stated that by October 1989, Scientology had collected five filing cabinets' worth of materials about Erhard, many from certain graduates of est who had joined Scientology, and that Scientology was clearly in the process of organizing a "media blitz" aimed at discrediting him. According to Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg, "Werner made some very, very powerful enemies. They really got him."
Impact
A 2012 ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' article stated that Erhard's influence "extends far beyond the couple of million people who have done his courses; there is hardly a self-help book or a management training programme that does not borrow some of his principles." In 1995, ''Fortune'' magazine's 40th anniversary issue wrote that Erhard's ideas about methods for empowering people were one of the major innovations in management thinking of the previous two decades. Erhard's work has impacted millions of people's lives through his programs for individuals, organizations and business leaders. His work has been cited as having a significant cultural impact on America in the 1970s. Erhard's teachings have influenced the field of professional coaching and been noted as having a positive impact on society.
Other organizations
The Hunger Project
In 1977, with the support of John Denver, former Oberlin College president
Robert W. Fuller
Robert Works Fuller (born 1936) is an American physicist, author, social reformer, and former president of Oberlin College.
Biography
Robert Fuller attended Oberlin College, leaving without graduating in order to earn his Ph.D. in physics at ...
, and others, Erhard founded The Hunger Project, a nonprofit NGO accredited to the
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...
in which more than four million people have participated. Erhard wrote the Hunger Project source document "The End of Starvation: Creating an Idea Whose Time Has Come."
Landmark Education
In 1991 the group that later formed
Landmark Education
Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is a company, headquartered in San Francisco, that offers personal-development programs.
Landmark Education started in 1991 with the licensing of rights to use i ...
purchased the intellectual property of Erhard. In 1998, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine published an article about Landmark Education and its historical connection to 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
Steven Pressman
Steven Pressman (born 1955) is an American documentary filmmaker, journalist, author of two books ('' Outrageous Betrayal'' and '' 50 Children''), and director/producer of the documentary film '' 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. K ...
in the 1993 book ''
Outrageous Betrayal
''Outrageous Betrayal: The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile'' is a non-fiction book written by freelance journalist Steven Pressman and first published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press. The book gives an account of Werner Erhard's e ...
'', 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 May 3, 2005 states: "Landmark Education has never paid Erhard under the license agreements (he assigned his rights to others)."
In 2001, ''
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
'' reported that 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.Pay Money, Be Happy ''New York Magazine'',
Vanessa Grigoriadis Vanessa Maia Grigoriadis is an American journalist. Her work has been featured in ''The New York Times'', '' Vanity Fair'', and ''Rolling Stone'' among other publications.
Background
Grigoriadis is of Greek descent and grew up in New York City. Whe ...
, July 9, 2001. From time to time Erhard
consult
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servic ...
s with Landmark Education.
Further reading
''Bartley, William Warren III: Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est'', New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc. (1978) ISBN 0-517-53502-5.
''Speaking Being: Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a New Possibility of Being Human'', Hyde, Bruce and Drew Kopp: Wiley (2019) ISBN 978-1119549901. "Being Well" Chapter 5 in ''Beyond Health and Normality: Explorations of Exceptional Psychological Well-Being'', edited by Roger Walsh and Deane H. Shapiro Jr., Van Nostrand. 1983. with Victor Gioscia, ''The Journal of Current Psychiatric Therapies'', Volume 18. 1978. with Victor Gioscia. Biosciences Communication 3:104-122. 1977.
NBER
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
) #19986, March 2014; 2European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) Finance Working Paper No. 417/2014; and Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.
See also
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Large-group awareness training
The term large-group awareness training (LGAT) refers to activities - usually offered by groups with links to the human potential movement - which claim to increase self-awareness and to bring about desirable transformations in individuals' person ...