Werner Erhard Foundation

The Werner Erhard Foundation was established in 1973 to provide opportunities for individuals to express their commitment to altering what is possible for human beings in life. The Foundation's mission was to foster and support projects that would provide breakthroughs in fields related to personal and social development. The Foundation brought people together from all over the world to contribute to and participate in ground-breaking work in the area of human achievement and transformation.

In the nearly 20 years of its existence, the Werner Erhard Foundation provided funds for research, scholarly endeavors, and voluntary action. They supported more than 300 diverse individuals and organizations from a variety of disciplines. Working in many different fields and surroundings, these people made a profound contribution to human thinking, growth, and achievement.

Contributions from the Werner Erhard Foundation helped avert a catastrophic famine in Ethiopia, rebuild an elementary school in Mexico City following a devastating earthquake, and also made the work of Buckminster Fuller more widely known. The work of transformation and personal responsibility was brought to the former Soviet Union and the Werner Erhard Foundation launched projects such as The Hunger Project, The Mastery Foundation, and the Youth at Risk Program, which continue to be vital and active today.

Werner Erhard Foundation Website

"What we create together is a relationship in which we work on making a difference in people’s lives. I welcome the unprecedented opportunity for us to work globally on that which concerns us all as human beings." Werner Erhard

The Werner Erhard Foundation was committed to bettering the human condition through non-profit, voluntary action. Many of the projects founded by the Werner Erhard Foundation have evolved into independent self-sustaining organizations that continue their work in bringing about a transformation in the quality of life on our planet.

Read more at the new Werner Erhard Foundation Website

Werner Erhard, Buckminster Fuller and John Denver

Werner Erhard, John Denver and Buckminster Fuller in September 1980.

Werner Erhard and Buckminster Fuller

The Werner Erhard Foundation, was established in a time of transformation and transition. Old values, ideals, and beliefs were being challenged; new ideas and insights, new ways of seeing old problems, and new solutions were coming into view.

Historians will likely view this period as an era of profound change, a time when human beings discarded old limits, explored new visions, and embraced ne realities. We are witnessing the emergence of a new and unexpected paradigm, a new model for humanity, characterized by a demand from individuals and communities for effective action, for translating the new insights into concrete results. For all of us there is the opportunity to redefine what it means to be a human being.

Werner Erhard and the Physics Conference

For ten years the Werner Erhard Foundation produced an annual theoretical physics conference attended by the leading thinkers in the field. Some of the discussions later evolved into now-leading edge theories in physics, including Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind .

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Bruce Gregory, the Senior Science Educator at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said, “I was surprised and delighted to read of the impact of one of Werner's get togethers of physicists, on Leonard Susskind (founder of String Theory) in his new book, The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. Susskind's take on Werner Erhard: "I liked Werner. He was smart, interesting, and fun." (Still is!).

Werner Erhard and Buckminster Fuller

Werner Erhard and Buckminster Fuller

Presentation of His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa

As head of the Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism, which is the medium of transmission of the meditative teachings known as the mahamudra, His Holiness performed the ancient ceremony of the Vajra Crown during five presentations in four U.S. cities to more than 10,000 people in 1977. The sixteenth in an unbroken succession of Karmapas dating back to the 12th century, His Holiness heeded the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and embodied, represented and guideed its accumulated spiritual energy.

Werner Erhard made a special trip to Sikkim, a small Himalayan province, to visit with the Karmapa. He was greeted with unreserved enthusiasm, inspired by His Holiness' boundless joy and

enlightenment and the wayswhich these qualities manifested in the people he serves. Werner invited him to be with est graduates and their friends during his upcoming visit to America. The Karmapa accepted with delight.

Werner Erhard introduced the Karmapa on four evenings sponsored by the Werner Erhard Foundation. As a special acknowledgement for est graduates, the Karmapa performed the 14th century Black Crown ceremony, in which few westerners have participated and that only he is empowered to perform. Tibetan tradition holds that a glimpse of the Black Crown ensures getting off "the wheel of life and death" in this lifetime.

The Werner Erhard Foundation in support of the world's rich spiritual and cultural heritage of transformation, presented His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa in San Francisco on Feb 22, 1977, Los Angeles on February 26, 1977, New York on April 27, 1977, and in Boston on May 1, 1977.