Werner Erhard and Associates

Werner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as "personal-growth" programs. Initially WE&A marketed and staged the est training (in the form of the est seminars and workshops), but in 1984 it introduced a modified, shortened and less intensive introduction to Werner Erhard's teachings, dubbed "The Forum".

In early 1991 WE&A faced notoriety from an impending 60 Minutes television exposé and from investigations by the Church of Scientology — see also Scientology and Werner Erhard. Erhard sold the assets of WE&A to a group of employees, who later formed Landmark Education. According to a "Site by Former Associates committed to providing accurate and reliable information about Werner Erhard", Erhard then retired. He left the United States in 1991.

Timeline
For additional Information, see Werner Erhard and [Erhard Seminars Training |est]].




 * February 1981: Werner Erhard and Associates (WE&A)set up
 * 1984: WE&A replaces the est training with "The Forum"
 * 1991: Between the disappearance of WEA and the emergence of Landmark Education (in 1991), the organization temporarily incorporated as "Transnational Education", as "The Centers Network," and (in Japan) as Rancord Company, Ltd.

Evaluations of "The Forum"


In their self-published book Self Realization: The est and Forum Phenomena in American Society, Espy M. Navarro and Robert Navarro stated:

What is a fact is that the collective experiences of over 1,400,000 human beings who have gone through either the est training or the Forum series, and each of their particular contributions that have resulted from these experiences have certainly had an impact on America and the world. Werner Erhard, without any formal credentials, degrees or advanced educational training used his innate intelligence, intuition and insight to promote self-awareness in the United States. In the 1970’s he was right for the times — in synch with the fledgling "me generation." By the time that he had retired the est training in 1984, and when he left the Forum in 1991, almost 750,000 people had undergone the courses that he had developed and marketed ... providing one of the best and quickest opportunities available to radically alter one’s life. The importance of the est training and the Forum series, especially in the United States, is in the form of individual contributions that have transformed and enabled the people of this nation to enjoy a new level of spirituality, empowerment, perception and enhancement of their personal enlivenment and contribution.

A scientific study, commissioned by Werner Erhard and Associates and conducted by a team of psychology professors, concluded that attending the Forum had minimal lasting effects, positive or negative, on participants' self-perception. The research won an American Psychological Association "National Psychological Consultants to Management Award" in 1989.

The results of the research study appeared in two articles in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1989, and in 1990 , and in 1990 in a book titled "Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training". See also Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training.

Income-flows


The diagram shows international income-flows associated with Werner Erhard and Associates (appearing as "WEA"), as detailed for a United States federal tax-case hearing. Compare Margolis scheme.