The Teacher or the Teaching?

Looking back at my experience with est and Werner Erhard and Associates, I see (at least) two things that worked in some ways yet were inevitably limiting in others.

As Erhard became increasingly famous, he grew extremely controversial--hence my use of the phrase "famous and infamous." It now seems generally accepted that he was the focus of a smear campaign by factions within the Church of Scientology, was attacked by evangelical Christian "anti-cult" groups, the IRS, and most damagingly by the sensationalistic program "Sixty Minutes." The Scientology efforts were unmasked; reputable cult experts agreed that est, WE&A, and its successor, Landmark Education were/are not cults; the IRS paid money to Erhard; and Sixty Minutes had to remove its piece from its archives.

By 1983 or 1984, I took a program which he and Fernando Flores had developed, which had to do with "communication for action," or something like that. The majority of the participants were est graduates, and it was rather openly acknowledged, at least among the est people, that Erhard's name was being seen as a growing liability. Some people wouldn't consider doing something openly associated with Werner Erhard.

In my last post, I wrote of the extraordinary impact the est training and other Erhard-designed programs has had on me, my marriage and post-marital relationship with my ex-wife, and on my relationship with my children and their lives. My experience is not unique; among people who took the training and, from what I've read, the Landmark Forum and associated courses, it is virtually ubiquitous.

All of us who were passionately involved held a conviction that this work offered an extraordinary possibility for others, for relationships, families, organizations, etc. This work had (has) the potential to make a profound difference in the world.

I will say unequivicollly that the est training worked. It was a highly effective vehicle for transforming participants' relationship to life. No question.

Yet the choice to deliver it through the vehicle of proprietary, for-profit workshops had/has a downside. And that is that proprietary, for-profit workshops alienate a lot of people.

So that's the first thing that works and is self-limiting, in my assessment.

The second is that Werner Erhard created, encouraged and/or allowed a culture within the business that was est, and then Werner Erhard and Associates, in which Erhard was seen as the source of transformation for the planet, and that trainers and seminar leaders, etc., intended to "re-create" Werner. Re-creating Werner Erhard the seminar leader, assimilating his attitudes, ways of communicating, etc., was extremely effective. It "works."

What was limiting in this is that it created a strong identification of the teachings with the teacher. I absolutely believe that est was not a cult. But it is undeniable, in my experience, that among many people associated with Erhard as staff members, volunteers, and participants, a personality cult. I don't know that what I am calling a personality cult is necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. Another way to put it is that Werner Erhard, as seen in seminars and films shown at guest seminars, in sattelite presentations, etc., became a primary role model for many of us.

In some cultures, gurus are OK. I remember an audiotape of Erhard talking about a conversation an est graduate in India had with his father. As he was describing Erhard's role in his life, this graduate's father said, "Oh, I understand. You have found your guru."

In the West, guru-like figures become popular and then are torn down. And that happened with Werner Erhard.

The night of the infamous Sixty Minutes episode, my father, who had aways been uneasy, to say the least, with my est involvement, called me and said, quite lovingly, that I should remember that the teaching is not the teacher.

I had enough contact with people who knew Erhard personally, especially est trainers, to know that they knew that Erhard was fully human. On film that was shown in Guest Seminars on occasion was called "Today Is for the Championship," in which Werner learns to race cars as as an experiment in learning what makes organizations work. (OK, I know that it also sounds like a great way for Werner to get paid to fulfill and adolescent fantasy of racing cars, and maybe that was part of it.) In one scene, one of his support team absolutely chews Werner out, just screaming at him (recreating Werner for Werner, you might say). I forget that guy's name, but he led graduate seminars in the Baltimore/D.C. area for a while. He was very clear Werner was human.

The point I want to make is that, as he and he organizations he created and inspired discovered, a personality-centered culture in which the teachings are completely identified with the teacher is self-limiting and culturally alienating.

I don't know what the alternative was or is. Ultimately, there is a ripple effect that can be impossible to document. I dropped the jargon and stopped talking about Werner Erhard long ago, but my way of being and communicating has affected family and friends and students, in ways that impact people I don't meet, and they impact people who impact other people, and so on and so forth.

The radical personal breakthrough that comes from an intense workshop like the old est training or the current Landmark Forum? I don't know how else one could really have that experience except in a structured environment that is designed to bring one's defense mechanisms to the surface so one can observe them.