Werner Erhard

Werner Erhard Biography

Werner Erhard is a critical thinker who has influenced the academic community worldwide with his revolutionary ideas first expressed in The est Training. He introduced the 20th Century notion of transformation and has had an enormous impact as a thought leader, humanitarian and business man. Currently retired from business, Werner Erhard devotes his time to speaking, publishing his ideas in academic papers and developing courses and other materials for Universities such as Harvard, Dartmouth, and Erasmus.

Werner Erhard Foundation Video

Video from 1982 which describes the many projects created by The Werner Erhard Foundation.

PHYSICS CONFERENCE
"Novel Configurations in Quantum Field Theory"

Sponsored by The Werner Erhard Foundation

January 22 through 24, 1977 San Francisco, California

The Werner Erhard Foundation Physics Conference, like the early Solvay Conferences, brought together a relatively small group of renowned physicists who experienced a close working relationship in a supportive and congenial environment outside of a university or professional society setting. This particular group of outstanding physicists had never before met together in a conference. This was the first opportunity for these distinguished physicists to participate directly with each other.


NAMES OF PHYSICS CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Eduard Brezin C.E.N. Saclay Gif sur Yvette
Curt Callan Universite de Paris - Sud
Geoffrey Chew University of California at Berkeley
Sidney Coleman Harvard University
Roger Dashen School for Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study
Richard Feynman California Institute of Technology
David Finkelstein Yeshiva University Jean-Loup Gervais Universite de Paris - Sud
Fred Goldhaber State University of New York at Stony Brook
David Gross Princeton University
Roman Jackiw, M.I.T.
T. D. Lee Columbia University
Claudio Rebbi M.I.T.
Stanley Mandelstam University of California at Berkeley
Leonard Susskind Yeshiva University
J. A. Swieca Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janiero
Steven Weinberg Stanford University
John Wheeler University of Texas
Edward Witten Harvard University

Werner Erhard Physics Conference - at scribd.com

Jeff Bridges Works To End Hunger

From the days of doing Werner Erhard’s est Training and co-founding the End Hunger Network, which, among other things, put on the first Live Aid concert, to his role in 2010 as national spokesman for No Kid Hungry Campaign, Jeff Bridges has been passionate about making a real difference in people's lives.

“Poverty is a very complex issue, but feeding children isn’t,” he said, unveiling an initiative that suits today’s political and economic climate because it requires no new money, or programs. Federally funded programs are in place but only half the kids eligible for a government-funded breakfast receive it, and only 15 percent of kids eligible for assistance during the summer get it. Bridges has signed on with Share Our Strength, a nationally recognized nonprofit, in what he says is “like a public-relations assignment,” to publicize the gap and get governors to commit to closing it.

Bridges has been involved in the hunger issue for a long time, and in 1983 helped found the End Hunger Network, which among other things staged the Live Aid concerts in 1985 and produced the movie “Hidden in America,” about a father who can’t provide for his children, starring his brother, Beau Bridges. Asked to be more specific about what triggered his interest in the issue, Bridges revealed that it goes back to “est” and the human-potential movement headed by Werner Erhard, who challenged his followers that once they knew the facts—that widespread hunger could be overcome—they shouldn’t look to others to solve the problem but should take action themselves.

From: The Most Significant Thing He’s Ever Done - Newsweek November 12, 2010

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 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 .

Video on YouTube

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

International Transformation

The support of the Werner Erhard Foundation made possible groundbreaking conversations between leaders, scholars and officials from virtually all parts of the world. in the field of human achievement and transformation As a result of this support, exchange programs were launched that provided new ground for international cooperation.

One such program was the US/USSR Project, launched in 1979 and designed as an educational exchange to explore the principles of communication, management, and creative thinking with the people of what was then the Soviet Union. After several delegate exchanges, Werner Erhard was invited to conduct the first of many courses and lectures in Moscow, under the auspices of the Znaniye (All Union Knowledge) Society—the prime vehicle for education in the (former) Soviet Union.

In 1988, the Znaniye Society took steps to extend the availability of these programs in the U.S.S.R. A brochure describing the project work stated:

“Radically new, non-traditional solutions will need to play a big role in the perestroika of our economic, social and political systems. Only solutions of this class will allow us to reach our goals. But solutions at this level demand that we break through the habitual contours of our thinking so that we can see new possibilities and new methods of addressing theses issues…

“In this regard, the technology offered by (The Werner Erhard Foundation) is of immediate and practical interest to a broad audience of Soviet people and it would be valuable to study and master its methodology and practice.”

To this end, independent of the Foundation, avenues for continuing this exchange between the people and organizations of the U.S. and the new Commonwealth of Soviet Republics. were expanded These included a series of videotapes designed to make this work widely available to the Soviet public, over a sustained period of time.

Werner Erhard and Buckminster Fuller

Werner Erhard and Busckminster Fuller

Gordon Starr, Starr Consulting Group - From a letter dated October 14, 2006 - http://www.wernererhard.com/letters.html

“Having not looked at a newspaper for two or three days, I was floored when I saw in the NY Times that Muhammad Yunus, who created the idea of microcredit when he started the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, has been chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize. I have been bubbling with excitement ever since.You undoubtedly know he was chosen. You may not know your role in that coming about. Here is the story. Sam Harris, a quiet, retiring and almost shy music teacher in Florida, attended a Hunger Project event in 1977, having earlier taken the est training. Like me and tens of thousands of others, he was deeply moved by the idea that “the little individual” could make a difference. He checked the little box that said “I will create my own form of participation”, and in doing so created what would become a lifetime commitment to ending global hunger. He started Results which rapidly became the largest and most effective grass roots lobbying organization in the United States for the end of global hunger. Sam (who is now Sam Daley-Harris after marrying Shannon Daley) told me this afternoon that he met you personally in 1987 and talked with you about Results. It was that same year he first met Muhammad Yunus. They have been close friends and partners ever since.The Grameen Bank took off like wildfire in Bangladesh, shattering traditional myths regarding banking, credit and the very poor. With Muhammad, Sam created the idea of the Microcredit Summit Campaign to take this success global, using many of the principles of The Hunger Project. In Washington D.C. in 1997, the Microcredit Summit Campaign was launched in a two-day event with (if I remember correctly) over 2,000 people from over 100 countries, including 14 heads of state, and of course Muhammad Yunus as the source of the initiative. Hillary Clinton made an hour-long speech. Queen Sophia was there. In one breakout room, I looked in the row behind me and there was Robert McNamara. The commitment was to reach 100 million of the world’s poorest families with microcredit by 2005. It was launched with a global support structure that was brilliantly designed and robust. That launching event was profound – and Sam, then around 50, put it all together with a team of only 12 twenty-somethings, mostly volunteers, armed with only passion – no group of 12 high-powered CEO’s could have done nearly as well. Sam has been the director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign ever since. It has been outrageously successful. It put microcredit on the global stage. Sam, who is the distinction Enrollment, has campaigned for five years to get Muhammad nominated, specifically through his personal relationships with Hillary Clinton and President Vicente Fox of Mexico. While microcredit is Muhammad’s invention, and flourished under his courageous, sourceful and visionary leadership, I am clear the wide global impact it is having today would not be possible without Sam’s own visionary leadership and work in support of Muhammad and his idea. Sam asked that I let you know how profoundly you, the est training, and The Hunger Project have inspired his life and his work. Sam says that without your influence he probably would have lived his life at 4 feet tall but instead has been able to live it at 9 feet tall. He sends to you his deep appreciation and gratitude for your contribution to his life. Thank you for being the possibility of being for human beings. http://www.wernererhard.com/letters.html

Presentations of Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller

The Werner Erhard Foundation sponsored "Conversations with R. Buckminster Fuller" (1976-77) and "Making the World Work for Everyone" (1979), seven presentations in seven cities in which Dr. Fuller, mathematician, comprehensive designer, architect, inventor, cartographer, philosopher, poet, and global citizen, presented information on how the individual can be effective in making the world work for everyone and exchanged views with Werner Erhard.