The Awareness Center is The Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA)

Case of Werner Erhard

(AKA: John Paul Rosenberg)

 Founder EST (Erhard Seminars Training, Inc.)

and Landmark Forum

Accused of incest (which were later recanted) and cult like practices.

Werner Erhard was born September 5, 1935, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founder, Erhard Seminars Training (EST). Born John Paul "Jack" Rosenberg. His self-esteem enhancement programs are considered a cult by some. Launched EST in 1971

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Table of Contents:  

Timeline

1980

1. Primer for the Psyche  (10/26/1980)

1982

• EST: Is it Boon or Hoax?  (08/15/1982)

1984

1. Goodbye to est As far as  (12/16/1984)

1988

1. IDEAS AND TRENDS: Selling Preactical Elightenment; EST Leaders Recharge the Batteries of a New Clientele   (03/13/1988)

2. Training Course Sparks U.S. Suit By Market Workers  (12/08/1988)

1989

1. Workplace: Employers' 'New Age' Training Programs Lead to Lawsuits Over Workers' Rights  (01/09/1988)

1991

1. Chronical   (02/13/1991)

2. Founder of est sells assets afteer abuse is alleged  (02/13/1991)

3. The Sorrows of Werner: For the founder of est, a fresh round of charges  (02/18/1991)

4. Guru ERHARD Accused of trying to hide assests (03/27/1991)

1998  

1. The Best of EST   (03/16/1998)

Also see:  

1. The Awareness Center's Brochure  

2. Cults, Missionaries, Sexual Victimization and the Jewish Community

3. Landmark Education - Rick Ross

4. Landmark Forum (LGAT) / est and other Large Group Awareness Trainings - Freedom of Mind Center (Steve Hassan)

5. Rabbis, Cantors and Other Trusted Officials

6. Offenders: Problems Our Parents Wouldn't Speak Of

7. Recidivism of Sex Offenders  (U.S. Department of Justice: Center for Sex Offender Management)

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New York Times - October 26, 1989; pg. A.31

Behavior Modification is an is an umbrella term for various processes aimed at changing various behaviors. Examples are: systematic desensitization to conquer phobias; biofeedback to teach control of bodily functions such as heartbeat and respiratory rate, and aversive conditioning to tie undesirable actions to unpleasant stimuli and thereby break habits. Behavioral therapy can sometimes be completed in as few as three sessions of about an hour's duration. Longer treatments may last months. Individual sessions range from $20 to $120. Groups cost about $25 or $30 per person.

Cognitive Therapy is a relatively short-term, problem-oriented treatment devloped by Dr. Aaron T. Beck of the University of Pennsylvania. It is based on the premise that a person's thought processes go a long way toward determining psychological disturbances. By identifying and modifying specific, habitual errors in thinking, the cognitive therapist helps the patient to a more realistic world view through the use of reason and logic. Sessions are 45 minutes long and cost from $15 to $40 at the university's Center for Cognitive Therapy. A course of cognitive therapy may last from six weeks to three months.

Dynamically Oriented Brief Psychotherapy is based on Freud's principles of unconscious conflict, but can be accomplished in a fraction of the time usually devoted to traditional psychoanalysis. The brief therapies, such as Short-Term Anxiety-Provoking Therapy, usually entail eight or nine 45-minute sessions and are offered in the outpatient clinics of large hospitals or university health services, where per-session costs average from $30 to $50. est (Erhard Seminars Training) is a program for self-realization offered to groups of about 250 individuals at a time, who spend $350 each to meet in a hotel ballroom for two consecutive weekends and three evening seminars. Designed by Werner Erhard, a former management consultant, the 60 hours consist of various forms of enforced physical discomfort and the constant repetition of the est message: ''If you are willing to acknowledge that you are the cause of your own experience, then you can run your own lives instead of being run by them.''

Family Therapy refers to several behavioral and psychoanalytical, crisis-oriented treatment approaches that are applied to the family as a unit. It has its most obvious application in problems involving marriages and child rearing, but requires the willing participation of all concerned parties. On the average, fees range from $40 to $120 for sessions that usually last 50 minutes. In most cases, the course of treatment tends to be briefer than in individual therapy.

Gestalt Therapy was developed by Frederick (Fritz) Perls (1894-1970) of Esalen Institute fame to make the individual fully aware of his moment-to-moment experiences, thoughts and feelings, and thus promote personal growth. The word ''Gestalt'' means an integrated unit, and Gestalt therapy treats the whole human being in the context of his environment, including his culture and social experiences. Private sessions of 45 minutes to an hour cost between $25 and $65 (or as little as $12 from therapists in training at a clinic). Group participation costs from $15 to $30 for meetings that last up to three hours.

Hypnosis is used to promote behavior change and in psychoanalytical treatments to help patients uncover repressed memories or dreams. The therapist induces a trance state, or altered condition of awareness, in the patient by guiding him through several stages of relaxation and concentration. Some patients can be taught self-hypnosis. In an outpatient clinic where hypnosis is used for specific aims such as to help people quit smoking, four or five sessions at $10 to $40 are the norm.

Jungian Therapy. Originally a pupil of Freud's, Carl Jung (1875-1961) grew to disagree with his mentor and thought he could enhance psychoanalysis by engaging the patient's ''active imagination.'' Patients in Jungian analysis are frequently asked to draw or paint an image - or dance or act out a fantasy conversation - because Jung believed that this process, like a dream, was a road to the unconscious. Duration and cost are comparable to psychoanalysis, below.

Pharmacotherapy is the use of drugs to treat psychiatric symptoms. The neuroleptics, introduced about 25 years ago, are widely used to control the hallucinations of schizophrenia, although patients often complain that the drugs carry side effects ranging from extreme drowsiness to disfiguring facial contortions; maintenance may cost an individual $50 per month. Many antidepressants and tranquilizers are routinely dispensed not only by psychiatrists but by general practitioners. Although most psychotropic drugs are intended as interim measures or as an adjunct to psychotherapy, lithium is administered as a lifelong stabilization for manic depressives, costing about $8 to $12 for the medicine, plus $12 to $30 every three months for the necessary blood tests and approximately $150 per year for four half-hour visits to a psychiatrist.

Psychoanalysis, originated by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), is a technique for curing neuroses with talk. Sessions are three to five times a week for anywhere from two to 15 years. During these sessions, the analysand reports dreams, fantasies and early memories, struggling to interpret their significance and transferring the deep emotions in this material onto the analyst, who remains nonjudgmental and noncommittal. One 50-minute hour of psychoanalysis costs between $40 and $125, depending on the analyst and the city in which he practices.

Rolfing, or Structural Integration, was developed in 1940 by Ida P. Rolf (1896-1979) as ''an approach to the personality through the components of the physical body.'' All the individual's bodily motions are carefully observed by the Rolfer, then manipulated with the participation and cooperation of the client, who can expect increased energy, Rolfers claim, as a result of the process. Treatment consists of 10 sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, costing $50 to $60 each. - D.S. Copyright 1980, The New York Times

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New York Times - August 15, 1982

EDISON THE message of EST - Erhard Seminars Training, the self-improvement movement developed by a former automobile salesman from California - is being heard in New Jersey.

At well-attended ''guest'' seminars held regularly at hotels and convention centers throughout the state, EST ''graduates'' persuade the uninitiated - usually friends they have invited to come along - to sign up.

The series of two marathon weekend sessions and two weekday refresher meetings costs $400, which does not include food or lodging. The price and other discomforts -such as being kept up until 2 or 3 A.M. by shouting ''trainers'' are what executives of the organization's Edison-area center say make it work.

According to EST executives and most EST graduates interviewed, it is only this kind of discomfort that can pierce someone's outer defenses and enable him to ''get his act together.''

Critics of the method, many of whom are psychologists and psychiatrists, contend that EST's concentration on maintaining total control over what participants say and do during these sessions results in the creation of robots whose main function is to pull others into the program.

EST graduates hotly deny this. New Jersey graduates maintain that, if anything, the experience and its effects cannot be adequately described.

''It's like trying to explain what lemon meringue pie tastes like to someone who has never tasted it,'' said Sheldon M. Simon, a Morris Plains lawyer who took the training in New York in 1975 and has since then continued to enroll in ''postgraduate'' programs.

''EST just is,'' Mr. Simon said. ''It's like when you learn to walk. You struggled to walk, and then suddenly you walked.'' Like most EST graduates, Mr. Simon was reluctant to go into details of what takes place during a weekend. But all asserted that while the experience could not be precisely explained, it had had immediate positive effects for them.

Robert Coultis, owner of a printing company in Morristown, said that he went through the training last May and that after it he found himself acting differently.

''I used to have a wonderful temper,'' he said. ''I would really shout and scream when I got mad, but now I don't get as mad at people.

''Now I try to make reality fit the picture I want to see.'' According to Douglas Platt, a former engineer and now director of the EST area center in Edison, 12,000 people in the state have taken the training since the center opened in 1980.

''Actually, there is no organization called EST,'' he said when asked where its headquarters was. EST people are fond of saying that no one owns EST, that it is a spontaneous response to the experience. But its critics point to a labyrinthine, secretive internal structure.

Mr. Platt did admit that his paychecks came from Werner Erhard and Associates in San Francisco (EST was named for Mr. Erhard, who developed the system).

When the question comes up - and it invariably does - of how EST money is used, its adherents speak of the Hunger Project. The project is a vaguely defined effort, ostensibly separate from EST, whose stated purpose is to raise world consciousness about hunger. But it is difficult to verify how much money EST actually donates to the project.

According to Mr. Simon, the project is recognized by the United Nations, but officials there said that it simply had been placed on a list of organizations with permission to distribute United Nations materials.

The project, a United Nations spokesman said, has not made any report of its activities to date, although it was placed on the list two years ago. If it does not submit a report by the end of 1983, it will be dropped, the spokesman declared.

Some EST graduates have emerged with less than the complete faith that so many others exude. Daniel Drench, president of Artisan Electronics in Parsippany, is an atypical graduate. He explained that he went into the training with few expectations and came out with none of them realized.

''It seemed to me that the EST people took a lot of time to do what they had to do,'' he said. ''There was a lot of duplication and a lot of commercialization.

''They spent a lot of time touting their postgraduate programs. I wouldn't recommend it with any enthusiasm. I do not think it's worth the time and effort.''

As for what the local psychiatric community thinks of EST, Dr. Harvey Hammer, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Morristown Memorial Hospital, said:

''Generally, I think most psychiatrists don't have a favorable opinion of the EST program. Some effects are in evidence for a very short time, but this is dependent on the rest of the world being supportive and understanding, which is not reality.

''Once people leave the EST fold, they are back where they were before.'' Judith Hoopes qm

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New York Times - December 16, 1984; pg. A8

Werner Erhard is concerned, est isn't where it's at any more. Mr. Erhard, who in 1971 founded Erhard Seminar Training (est) and through it peddled his brand of personal transformation to an estimated half million people, said last week he was ending the program and replacing it with something called ''The Forum.'' A spokesman said the decision had nothing to do with a recent decline in est enrollment or the fact that Mr. Erhard's wife is divorcing him and demanding a piece of the est action.

Rather, Mr. Erhard said in a statement, the change was in response to ''a much different mood among people today.'' Interest no longer centers on ''getting it together,'' he said, but on ''making it happen.'' A spokesman elaborated, more or less, ''The nature of the breakthrough involves what it means to be something.''

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By Mark Landler

New York Times - March 13, 1988

WHEN Woody Allen complained in the film ''Manhattan'' that his neurotic wife had left him to join EST, he could hardly have chosen a more evocative symbol for the self-help movement of the 1970's. Known for grueling sessions in which hundreds of people paid hundreds of dollars each to subject themselves to hour upon hour of verbal abuse, tedium and other means of ''personal transformation,'' EST became one of the most notorious - and least understood - examples of a loose-knit industry offering transcendence for sale.

A decade later, EST is defunct, but its founder, Werner Erhard, and other leaders of what has come to be called the human potential movement, have retooled their programs to offer a more practical kind of enlightenment. Last month, Mr. Erhard completed an eight-city swing through the United States, promoting the Forum, an outgrowth of EST that he started in 1985 to appeal to business managers and entrepreneurs.

EST, or Erhard Seminar Training, was based on the notion that, with the help of a ''trainer,'' people could be pushed to challenge much of what they take for granted about the way the world works. Thus they could be sprung from their prisons of common assumptions to lead freer, more satisfying lives. ''Getting it,'' the catch phrase of the training, meant seeing the world without one's old misperceptions obstructing the view.

Unlike people in EST, participants in the Forum are not confined to their chairs for hours at a time, discouraged from taking bathroom breaks or subjected to profanity. ''EST was the boot camp approach,'' said Michael C. Ray, a Stanford Business School professor who teaches a course called Creativity in Business. ''They've become much more mellow.''

''American business has always been practical,'' said Mr. Ray. ''They see the old structures are not working very well, so they're willing to try anything.''

As American companies struggle to remain competitive, human potential programs make a powerful claim: that they can teach employees how to release untapped energies. Werner Erhard & Associates says it enrolls more than 20,000 people a week in sessions ranging from basic courses to advanced seminars. Mr. Erhard has also spun off a consulting business, Transformational Technologies, which franchises a program based on the Forum to more than 45 independent consulting firms. Two other groups, Lifespring and Insight, both based in Santa Monica, Calif., sponsor courses in more than a dozen cities in the United States and abroad. Insight Consulting Group, a division of Insight, has offered seminars at Chemical Bank, Lockheed and other companies. The founder of Lifespring, John P. Hanley, was a colleague of Mr. Erhard's in Mind Dynamics, which pioneered human potential training in the early 1970's. Applied Philosophy

Carl A. Rashke, a professor of religion at the University of Denver, who has studied the human potential movement for a decade, said the waning of the Reagan era and the specter of economic decline have created an ''atmosphere of uncertainty'' in which self-help programs like the Forum thrive. A similar thing happened in the 1970's with EST. ''Galloping inflation and the oil embargo gave the sense that things were coming apart,'' he said. ''As the American dream shattered, the dream was changed to dabbling with otherworldly things.''

The popularity of these programs is also part of a more sweeping phenomenon, the New Age movement, which draws on a range of esoteric beliefs including eastern mysticism and medieval occultism to provide followers with a spiritualism for the '80's. According to the New Age gospel, there are energies - unmeasurable with any of the tools of physics - that are powering a worldwide spiritual revolution. Crystals, Tarot cards, pyramids and other occult merchandise supposedly can be used to tap the source and join in the transformation.

Mr. Rashke classifies human potential programs as the less mystical side of the New Age. Spokesmen for Mr. Erhard describe him as a self-taught philosopher, and indeed, EST and the Forum draw on beliefs that include Zen Buddhism, the existentialism of Martin Heidegger and the linguistic theories of Jacques Derrida. What these theories have in common is the notion that reality is something people create - by their actions, their decisions, even by what they say. In this context, yelling at people and provoking emotional outbursts - the verbal pyrotechnics that made EST famous - can be seen as a philosophical device.

This subjective (some would say self-centered) world view seems to appeal as readily to the entrepreneurial followers of the Forum as it did to EST's introspective devotees.

As in the 1970's some critics, many of them fundamentalist Christians, maintain that the human potential movement subverts traditional moral and religious values by imposing an elitist and egocentric outlook.

They accuse the programs of eroding family relationships and causing psychological trauma. The Cult Awareness Network, a Chicago-based group whose founders include former cult members, believes that the Forum and Lifespring brainwash participants into signing up for ever more advanced courses.

Leaders of the organizations deny that they are doing anything nefarious - people simply like the classes, they say. According to surveys by Werner Erhard & Associates, 80 percent of participants regard the Forum as a ''valuable experience.'' Noting that 25 percent of participants in the Forum have professional degrees, a spokesman said, ''How they think you can take highly educated people and in two weekends turn them into brainwashed idiots, I don't know.''

Mr. Rashke believes these programs threaten society because of their ''incredibly narcissistic and self-inflating perspective.'' Mr. Erhard belongs to ''a long line of positive thought evangelists,'' he said. Viewed in that light, the growth of the programs might simply indicate that happy customers make great missionaries.

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By Martha Brannigan

Wall Street Journal - December 8, 1988

ATLANTA -- Eight former employees sued a local farmers market, alleging it violated their civil rights by coercing them to attend the Forum human development training sessions developed by Werner Erhard.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court here yesterday seeks to enjoin the DeKalb Farmers Market Inc. and its owner, Robert Blazer, from forcing workers to participate in the so-called New Age programs. It also seeks back pay and compensatory and punitive damages for the ex-workers who complained they were humiliated and harassed, and suffered psychological trauma.

Forum is a human potential program operated by Werner Erhard & Associates. Mr. Erhard also created Erhard Seminars Training, or EST, which he then dropped in 1984.

Edward D. Buckley III, an attorney for the market and its owner, said he hadn't seen the complaint and couldn't comment.

One worker said he was kept inside a training session and prevented from going to the bathroom. Some said they were urged to abandon their lifelong beliefs and values, to disclose intimate details about their private lives, and to embrace the Forum concepts or face discharge.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the workers, said at a time when employee training sessions are burgeoning at corporations, the case could be significant in defining how far employers can impinge on individuals' freedom to require participation.

Carl Raschke, a professor of religious studies at the University of Denver, said the case highlights an increasingly significant workplace issue. "Many of these training programs, particularly at large corporations, claim to be purely psychological, aimed at improving productivity and morale and loyalty. But in fact they are religious," said Mr. Raschke, who may be a potential witness for the workers.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which reviews employment discrimination complaints, said it has increasingly been receiving complaints about New Age programs in the workplace -- including a complaint filed last year by the farmers market workers -- and expects to issue a ruling on one case shortly. In September, the agency issued a policy guidance notice, saying if an employee objects on religious grounds to such programs, employers must provide "reasonable accommodation" unless it creates "an undue hardship" on the business.

Also named in the farmers market suit are Consulting Technologies Inc., an affiliate of Transformational Technologies Inc., Greenbrae, Calif.; Consulting Technologies' owner, Mike Smith, and Marty Yura, who was an employee of Consulting Technologies, and Nancy Loewnau, a supervisor at the DeKalb Farmers Market.

Transformational Technologies, founded by Mr. Erhard, isn't named in the suit and declined to comment. Consulting Technologies officials couldn't be reached for comment.

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by Martha Brannigan

Wall Street Journal - January 9, 1989

ATLANTA -- When co-workers told Franklin Marsengill that, because of religious reasons, they didn't want to participate in a training program urged by their employer, the DeKalb Farmers Market Inc., he said he wasn't going -- and that they didn't have to either.

"I told them, 'Don't join. This is America, and if you don't want to, you don't have to,'" recalls Mr. Marsengill, who was the market's security director. "I didn't go. Look where it got me."

Where it got Mr. Marsengill was out on the street, he says. In a suit filed in federal court here in December, he and seven other former employees of the local farmers market say they were fired or pressured to quit after objecting to the Forum human-potential sessions developed by Werner Erhard & Associates.

The former employees say the Forum sessions, held outside of work, as well as separate programs introduced at the market by Consulting Technologies Inc., a consulting firm, clashed with their religious beliefs, which range from Christianity to Hinduism. They are asking the court to enjoin the market from forcing workers to attend the sessions, which their attorneys describe as "New Age." The suit seeks back pay as well as damages for psychological trauma the workers say they suffered.

Whatever its merits, the case marks a growing trend. The burgeoning use of so-called New Age training programs on the job is spawning legal challenges by employees with religious and philosophical objections -- and raising new questions about the rights of employers and workers.

Training programs described as New Age vary widely and draw on a myriad of sources, from Eastern mysticism to positive thinking. Some include traditional management training methods in communicating and cooperation. Others use meditation and hypnosis.

Dong Shik Kim, a Korean-born Christian who was a supervisor at the DeKalb market, claims in the suit that he went to the Forum sessions at his boss's behest only to encounter "emotional confessions, psychological conditioning and programming" designed to produce a breakthrough "equivalent to being 'born again.'" Mr. Kim says he was urged to shed his beliefs and see the world through new eyes. In the suit, he says that Robert Blazer, the market's owner, urged him to recruit subordinates and, when he balked, made work conditions so difficult he had to quit.

Ranjana Sampat, a bookkeeper and member of the Hindu faith, says in the suit that in another program at the market she was asked to confess intimate details of her life, including sexual relations.

The market denies the allegations. Edward D. Buckley III, an attorney for the market and Mr. Blazer, says workers were encouraged, not coerced, to go to the Forum sessions, which were held outside of work. He adds that ideas introduced at the market by Consulting Technologies weren't religious or philosophical and didn't impinge on employees' personal beliefs.

Jan Smith, co-owner of Consulting Technologies, based in North Miami Beach, Fla., declines to discuss the suit. She says, however, that the company is a "typical management consulting company," and "not at all New Age." The Forum, which wasn't named in the suit, says it would never sanction coercing people to participate in its programs.

The training programs now in vogue at some companies are raising new legal questions because of their scope, says Herbert Rosedale, a New York attorney and president of the American Family Foundation, which monitors groups that use coercive persuasion and in 1987 sponsored a seminar on New Age training in business. He says the training sometimes goes beyond improved job performance and aims to alter employees' fundamental beliefs.

"The issue is what is permitted interference by an employer into an employee's life," Mr. Rosedale says. "Suppose an employer says you should attend a New Age program and sit under a pyramid?"

Most consulting firms, especially those catering to Fortune 500 companies, eschew the New Age label, which they say conjures up notions of cultism and the bizarre. They assert that their programs aren't religious or manipulative and don't intrude on personal beliefs.

But many critics, such as Kevin Garvey, a Hamden, Conn., consultant on psychological training, say problems arise when the programs include controversial psychological techniques dealing with theology. Employees should be informed of the techniques beforehand, Mr. Garvey says, and allowed to choose whether to attend. "Otherwise it constitutes a forced religious conversion," says Mr. Garvey.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects workers from discrimination based on religion as well as race, sex, age or national origin, requires an employer to "reasonably accommodate" a worker's religious beliefs unless it creates "undue hardship." Until recently, though, most cases of religious freedom on the job involved issues such as allowing a worker to have the day off on the Sabbath.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it increasingly is seeing complaints about training programs that employees say infringe on their religious rights. In September, the agency issued a policy-guidance notice saying that New Age training programs can be handled under traditional Title VII guidelines. If a worker challenges a training session on religious grounds, the EEOC says, employers must provide a "reasonable accommodation" unless it creates an "undue hardship" on the business.

In a suit filed in 1987 and set for trial next December in state court in Pierce County, Wash., Steven Hiatt sued Walker Chevrolet, a Tacoma car dealership, claiming he was fired as a sales manager after objecting that a program called "New Age Thinking to Increase Dealership Profitability" conflicted with his religion. In the suit, Mr. Hiatt says he and his wife were sent to a five-day session offered by the Pacific Institute but left after deciding it was un-Christian.

Jack Maichel, an attorney for Walker Chevrolet, says Mr. Hiatt was fired because of his job performance, not objections to the program. Jack Fitterer, president of the Pacific Institute, a Seattle firm that provides cognitive-psychology training, says the sessions "in no way touch on personal belief systems or religion."

William Gleaton, one of the first workers to complain about New Age training, sued Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., in federal court in Albany, Ga., in 1985, alleging, among other things, that he was fired as human-resources manager at the company's Albany plant after refusing to permit a training program.

The case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms, but Mr. Gleaton says he sometimes regrets giving up the battle.

"I just didn't have the money to fight it," says Mr. Gleaton, who felt the program went against his religious beliefs as a Christian. "But there are constitutional issues to be raised here. Individuals may want to be loyal to a company but have a personal conflict."

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New York Times - Feburary 13, 1991; pg. B 13

By Susan Heller Anderston

WERNER ERHARD, the founder of the Erhard Seminars Training, better known as EST, has sold his empire to a group of 180 employees for an undisclosed sum, he announced yesterday.

Werner Erhard & Associates , based in San Francisco, reported revenues in the United States of $45 million in 1989. The sale includes and an 18-year licensing agreement, as well as real estate in California and New York.

In 1971 in San Francisco, Mr. Erhard began seminars on assertiveness training. EST was in the vanguard of the human potential movement and gained considerable notoriety with its emphasis on "me-ness" and control, taught in workshops by Mr. Erhard and his followers.

EST was replaced in 1984 by workshops called the Forum. Bill Barnes, Mr. Erhard's spokesman, characterized them yesterday by their "more relaxed attitude" and as "a way to maximize personal effectiveness."

Mr. Erhard, 54 years old, plans to do just that: write a book and train executives in the Soviet Union, among other projects.

The company formed by the employees, the Transnational Education Corporation, will operate Forum programs in 21 cities in the United States, and 10 other countries.

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Baltimore Sun - February 13, 1991

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stung by a series of damaging allegations by family members and business associates, est founder Werner Erhard is selling off the assets of his human potential movement empire.

Mr. Erhard, whose much-lampooned weekend workshops became synonymous with the "Me Decade" of the 1970s, is selling the assets of Werner Erhard and Associates to a group of employees.

Spokesman Bill Barnes said the holdings include real estate in California and New York, computers, furniture and an 18-year licensing agreement for the "technology and intellectual property" used in the weekend workshops.

Werner Erhard and Associates reported U.S. revenues of $45 million in 1989.

Mr. Erhard's problems began early last year after the San Francisco Chronicle reported allegations by former employees of the pop psychology guru. The employees said they were forced to obey Mr. Erhard in a manner "akin to God" and to submit themselves to "numerous instances of verbally and physically abusive behavior."

Those allegations, contained in affidavits filed in San Francisco Superior Court, were followed by statements from two of Mr. Erhard's daughters, (Name Removed), 26, and (Name Removed), 28, who told of family "meetings" at which est staff members kicked and choked their mother and Mr. Erhard's former wife, (Name Removed).

This week's Newsweek contains a full-page article headlined "The Sorrows of Werner," and the CBS television show "60 Minutes" is expected to air its version of the story in the next few weeks.

Mr. Erhard could not be reached for comment.

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By SUSAN HELLER ANDERSON

New York Times - February 13, 1991

WERNER ERHARD, the founder of the Erhard Seminars Training, better known as EST, has sold his empire to a group of 180 employees for an undisclosed sum, he announced yesterday.

Werner Erhard & Associates , based in San Francisco, reported revenues in the United States of $45 million in 1989. The sale includes and an 18-year licensing agreement, as well as real estate in California and New York.

In 1971 in San Francisco, Mr. Erhard began seminars on assertiveness training. EST was in the vanguard of the human potential movement and gained considerable notoriety with its emphasis on "me-ness" and control, taught in workshops by Mr. Erhard and his followers.

EST was replaced in 1984 by workshops called the Forum. Bill Barnes, Mr. Erhard's spokesman, characterized them yesterday by their "more relaxed attitude" and as "a way to maximize personal effectiveness."

Mr. Erhard, 54 years old, plans to do just that: write a book and train executives in the Soviet Union, among other projects.

The company formed by the employees, the Transnational Education Corporation, will operate Forum programs in 21 cities in the United States, and 10 other countries.

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By David Gelman with Pamel Abramson in San Francisco and Elizabeth Ann Leonard in New York

Newsweek - February 18, 1991

SECTION: Life/Style; Mind; Pg. 72

In the 1970s, when war-weary Americans began turning to thoughts of self-improvement, along came just the vehicle they seemed to be looking for: the human-potential movement. The movement's smashing success story was something called est (Erhard Seminars Training), run by a former used-car salesman named Werner Erhard. For a few hundred dollars plus a lot of verbal abuse and physical deprivation, est offered a "transforming experience," designed to "get rid of old baggage" and provide a fresh slant on things. "Your life doesn't work," a trainer might bellow for openers at one of est's marathon encounter sessions. "Wipe that stupid smile off your face, you a-hole." It was heady stuff, and most of the estimated 700,000 paying customers who signed u p (at $ 250 to $ 625 a head) for est or its Yuppified 1980s version, The Forum, agreed they'd been transformed -- or something. Most, but not all. Over the last 10 years, Erhard has found himself under an increasing barrage of allegations that he was running not so much an enlightenment program as an authoritarian cult. Former disciples have come forward with stories of violence and intimidation by Erhard and his staff. Last year, after a longtime member of Erhard's inner circle sued for wrongful discharge, several people filed supporting declarations, charging Erhard with using abusive tactics to enforce obedience. This year alone, three lawsuits -- involving allegations of wrongful discharge, wrongful death and fraud -- are expected to go to t rial. Now, two of Erhard's daughters, (Name Removed), 26, and (Name Removed), 28, have spilled their own harrowing tale of alleged physical and emotional abuse inflicted, they say, on them and their mother, (Name Removed).

The problem about life with father, the daughters told the Marin Independent Journal last month, was that he tended to bring his work home with him. Instead of family get-togethers, he held monthly "meetings," complete with agendas and time sheets. S ometimes he forgot their names, they said, and often he threatened them. At one family meeting, the women told the paper, staff members kicked and choked (Ex-Wife Name Removed) after Erhard accused her of infidelity. Then, they say, he put her on a rehabilitation regime n that required her to scrub floors. "We were petrified of him," (Daughter's Name Removed) told the paper. "He was," added (Daughter's Name Removed), "a total control monster."

Erhard acknowledged, in a deposition for their divorce proceedings, slapping his wife once and said that at another time, he shook her and pushed her. He had pushed her, he said, to shake her out of what he called "an hysteria of lying." In response t o his daughters' charges, Erhard issued a statement to NEWSWEEK, saying: "The only adequate response is healing, which is my intention. To say anything more would only further exploit my family." (Ex-wifes Name Removed) Erhard has declined comment on the story because of a 1988 divorce agreement to remain silent about her ex-husband.

Erhard's drill-sergeant tactics have been controversial almost from the beginning. Amid the shocks of Vietnam and Watergate, est was an idea ripe for the times. It enjoyed a huge vogue in the '70s, enrolling well-known names like Diana Ross, Yoko Ono and John Denver. Even some psychiatrists had good things to say about it. As est's luster dimmed, Erhard updated it with The Forum. Six years ago, he formed a management-consulting firm called Transformational Technologies that brought his ideas to corporate America as well as the Soviet Union -- earning him the title "Guru to the Gulag." But just when his enterprise seemed poised to go global, a memo leaked last year claiming Werner Erhard and Associates (WE&A) was in serious financial trouble, l osing up to $ 100,000 a week. The memo, written by a senior executive in one of Erhard's companies, recommended that he consider financial reorganization.

Court date: It was in 1988 that Charlene Afremow, one of Erhard's closest associates, filed a $ 2 million wrongful-discharge suit against Erhard and WE&A, claiming she was fired when she opposed such policies as making employees work in excess of 12 hours per day and six days a week. Because trainers were overworked, she said, some of their clients suffered psychotic episodes. Erhard has called the suit "frivolous and malicious." In sworn testimony on behalf of Afremow, Michael Breard, a former Erhard aide, claimed part of his job was to massage his boss's feet every morning. He said Erhard screamed obscenities at him if he didn't perform his tasks to Erhard's liking. Afremow's suit is set for trial this year.

Two other suits are also headed for court, one by the family of a client, claiming he suffered a fatal heart attack during a training session, the other by a man who claims he suffered a manic episode after taking an advanced est course. In both cases, the defendants deny responsibility.

Once lionized, Erhard now finds himself embattled on all sides. This week, it was announced that major parts of his empire had been sold to a group of former employees, who chose the interim name Transnational Education Corporation. According to spok esperson Ann Overton, they will continue to run The Forum and other programs that had been run by WE&A.

Whether that means the end of the Erhard era isn't clear. "It's all so sad," says writer George Leonard, perhaps the grand-daddy of the consciousness movement and a former est participant. "If half the things they're saying are true, it's disillusioning for everyone."

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Los Angeles Times - March 27, 1991

By Martha Groves

Werner Erhard, the pop psychology guru who in the 1970s parlayed his est human-potential program into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, has been accused of attempting to thwart creditors by transferring valuable assets to close associates under the guise of a sale.

In a suit filed in Marin County Superior Court, Charlene Afremow, a former Erhard associate, said Erhard arranged a phony deal to shift the assets of Werner Erhard & Associates to Transnational Education Corp., which is controlled by Erhard's brother , Harry Rosenberg, and several longtime Erhard associates.

The complaint also alleged that Erhard established a trust and set aside funds to be used to pay attorneys' fees in a variety of cases in which Erhard is a defendant.

Among other things, the suit contended, Erhard conducted a sale of personal property, including valuable wine, art and clothing, to raise cash. According to the documents, the actions were part of a plan by Erhard to transfer assets to "persons acting under his control (and) to liquidate for cash" considerable amounts of property, with an eye toward putting the assets out of the reach of creditors.

"Erhard has both removed and concealed assets," claimed the suit, which was filed Friday. "The circumstances strongly suggest that Erhard made the transfers with the actual intent to defraud, delay and hinder his creditors."

The papers allege that Erhard is to receive half the profits on the sale of any real estate assets, 25% of Transnational Education's profits and a portion of the revenues from the sale of courses and programs that he originated. No cash changed hands in the "sale," the suit alleged.

Superior Court Judge Richard Breiner on Friday ordered Erhard and Transnational officials to temporarily refrain from transferring additional funds.

Afremow -- a longtime Erhard associate who led seminars in est (Erhard Seminars Training) and its 1980s successor, the Forum -- is also suing Erhard and two other officials of Werner Erhard & Associates for $2 million in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging wrongful firing, age and sex discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.

Various other claims for personal injury and emotional distress, arising out of the seminar business, have also been filed recently against Erhard, a former used car salesman from Philadelphia, and Werner Erhard & Associates. Several individuals have alleged that they suffered psychological traumas after taking the courses, which were characterized by drill-sergeant-like trainers and infrequent bathroom breaks.

Afremow, 56, claimed that she was fired after criticizing such policies as making employees work 12 to 16 hours a day and six days a week, with burdensome travel schedules. In her suit, she claimed that employees were ordered to consider Erhard as "Source" -- in other words, the "source" of everything in their lives -- and were expected to emulate him.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge John Dearman on Monday assigned the Afremow case to Judge Alex Saldamando. Jury selection is expected to begin April 8.

Dearman on Friday had rejected a request by John Keker, Erhard's attorney, to postpone the trial for six months because of adverse publicity arising from a "60 Minutes" program, on which one of Erhard's daughters accused him of incest. Andrew H. Wilson , Afremow's attorney, told Dearman that Erhard has liquidated his assets and fled the United States for the Soviet Union, where he apparently is teaching human-potential and management courses.

A key issue in the San Francisco case is whether the judge will order Erhard to appear, as Wilson has requested. Keker has accused Wilson of attempting to turn the trial into a "media circus" by insisting on Erhard's presence, despite the brouhaha of publicity.

Last week, Erhard attorney Susan Harriman, a colleague of Keker, described the "60 Minutes" segment as a "hatchet job" that "succeeded in portraying Erhard as a depraved monster." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Harriman's court filings include the results of a lie detector test in which Erhard denied ever sexually molesting, raping or abusing any of his children.

Keker, who led the prosecution of Oliver North in the Iran-Contra case, had no immediate comment on the Marin County complaint, except to say that it was "unusual and, in my view, outrageous when you have a pending lawsuit . . . to go file in another county" without telling the opposing side.

"It's sort of a cheap lawyer's trick," he added.

Transnational Education Corp. has declined to comment, although a statement from the company in February noted that Erhard "will have neither an ownership nor management role in the new company."

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Werner Erhard's legacy lives on in a kinder, gentler and lucrative version of his self-help seminars

By Charlotte Faltermayer

Time Magazine - March 16, 1998

http://www.rickross.com/reference/landmark/landmark1.html

When Werner Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg) founded Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. in 1971, the former used-car salesman from Philadelphia had a hook. Born of the theater-of-the-absurd atmosphere of the late 1960s, est (Latin for "it is") promised to help people get "it," whatever "it" was. Erhard's 60-hour seminars were strenuous ordeals, complete with "body catchers" and barf bags for the weak of mind and stomach. Trainers applauded bladder control and cursed those who didn't get it. Still, Erhard and his message proved popular, even winning celebrity advocates. Then, after two decades and two divorces, the self-help messiah 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).

Unlike Erhard, est is still around – sort of. 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. Rosenberg admits that Erhard was in Toronto briefly last June for a family reunion, but will not elaborate: "I'm not my brother's keeper. I'm not his spokesman."

But he has proved to be an able keeper of his brother's legacy. Landmark appears to be thriving. At its core is a four-part "Curriculum for Living," which starts with a 3 1/2-day seminar called the Forum and proceeds to courses that expand upon its brand of enlightenment. Since 1991, approximately 300,000 mostly professional and well-educated seekers have taken the introductory Forum (an estimated 700,000 took Erhard-era seminars). Revenues, which had been averaging $34 million annually, hit $48 million in 1997, with profits approaching 4%. Landmark is becoming a global brand name, with 42 offices in 11 countries, including a well-appointed San Francisco headquarters. Says Rosenberg: "If we were doing a bad job, we wouldn't have the growth that we have."

The secret of its success? Landmark lacks est's showcase celebrity following, but its programs are not as costly (tuition is down some 50% from Erhard days); they are not as lengthy (the basic course was originally spread over two weekends); and – most important – they are less in-your-face, nearly devoid of the shouting and door monitoring imposed by est's stern trainers. Says a former estie who attended a 1997 Forum: "est was much more militant. You had to have a doctor's note just to go to the bathroom. People humiliated themselves for it. est tried to break you. Landmark doesn't do that."

At a recent Forum weekend in a nondescript room on Manhattan's East Side, 52 men and 47 women gathered for a variety of reasons. The meek sought a voice; the proud, humbling; the lonely, companionship. All had signed a form stating that they are mentally and physically well. It is important that attendees be healthy. The Forum, which costs $350, still requires endurance. It consists of three 12- to 16-hour days – with time out for meals – and (after a one-day breather) a one-evening wrap-up.

The Forum started promptly at 9 on a Friday morning, when a svelte, spiky-haired woman named Beth Handel walked in and introduced herself as the Forum leader. The Forum, she said, is a game called transformation. Like every other game, it calls for good sportsmanship. One should be "coachable," or open-minded about the Forum's concepts, and committed to "forwarding the action." The name of the game is participation or, more specifically, "sharing," which was to take place at three microphones. The weekend, Handel warned, will be "an emotional roller-coaster ride."

First, though, Handel took a few preliminary questions. "What is Werner Erhard's role?" someone asked. Handel simply described him as the man who developed and sold the technology behind Landmark. "What if I doze off?" "Then you doze off," Handel replied with a shrug. A visibly nervous woman stepped up to the mike. "You said this was going to be a roller-coaster. But I'm afraid of roller-coasters. I never get on them." "You will learn how to stop letting fear hold you back," Handel reassured her.

Handel, 39, then drew diagrams on a blackboard as she held forth on a series of concepts: facts have no meaning; it is the stories we concoct out of those facts that give them meaning. She explained that "our rackets," that is, ongoing complaints, are "killing our lives." And "our winning formulas" are really losing formulas. She cautioned that Landmark's ideas ("Be for each other like that" and "People 'is' to death") aren't meant to fit together: "The Forum is holographic. It's not linear."

But outreach was clearly part of the agenda. Pupils were assigned to call or write people with whom they "want to make a breakthrough," thereby introducing others to Landmark. On graduation night participants were encouraged to bring guests, who were then led away to learn more and sign on. From Day 1, attendants were told that for a limited time, the Forum's tuition included a $95 follow-up, "The Forum in Action." The crowd was also repeatedly invited to sign up for the $700 "Advanced Course." Act now and get a $100 discount.

Some Forum grads weren't sold. Rabbi Yisroel Persky, 24, who chose to get his money's worth and take "The Forum in Action," today remains "unfazed" by what he calls the Forum's common-sense concepts cloaked in esoteric packaging. For Richard Giordanella, 49, a software executive, the Forum was enough: "I'm still high on the Forum's main message, that my life is in my control. But I can do without the narcotic effect of their reinforcement."

Others, though, are hooked. Anthony, 32, a stockbroker, came to the Forum because he didn't know whether he wanted to be married anymore. He owned up to stashing $50,000 in cash for a clean getaway. During the Forum, he said, "I had been pointing the finger at my wife. But I've got to work on me." Now Anthony has completed the "Advanced Course," and is taking the final course in the curriculum, "Self-Expression and Leadership." He says he feels like a newlywed. His wife agrees. "It's a miracle," she says. And the woman afraid of roller-coasters? Mildred Rodriguez, 33, has signed up to be a Landmark volunteer. Says she: "I'm glad I got on for the ride."

Critics say Landmark is an elaborate marketing game that relies heavily on volunteers. Says Tom Johnson, an "exit counselor" often summoned by concerned parents to tend to alumni: "They tire your brain; they make you vulnerable." Says critic Liz Sumerlin: "The participants end up becoming recruiters. That's the whole purpose." Psychiatrists who speak on Landmark's behalf dispute these claims. But Sumerlin says a 1993 Forum turned her fiance (now her ex) into a robot. She organized an anti-Landmark hot line and publications clearinghouse. Landmark officials made sounds to sue her.

Landmark alumnus Walter Plywaski, a Colorado electronics engineer who took on the company after his daughter ran up a $3,000 tab on courses, thinks Erhard is still pulling the strings. Says he: "Erhard is like the Cheshire Cat. He has gone away, but the smile is there, hanging over everything." Rosenberg says his brother is not and never has been involved in Landmark. Steven Pressman, author of a scathing 1993 biography of Erhard, calls that slick corporate maneuvering: "They've gotten out of the yoke of Werner because he became their worst p.r. man. But it's one of the greatest success stories in mass marketing."

Indeed, the transformation has been such a success that it was the subject of a recent case study by the Harvard Business School. According to the study's co-author, Karen Wruck, the product that Landmark sells is "an abrupt or jarring change, like an 'aha'" – a "peculiar" one, certainly, but patently marketable. But Landmark, the study notes, has challenges ahead. It will have to gauge the effectiveness of its volunteers in expanding the business and weigh the need to raise outside capital. Perhaps, Wruck says, it will need to go public.

– With Reporting by Richard Woodbury /San Francisco

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Last Updated:  01/27/2006

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

--Margaret Mead

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