Editing Werner Erhard and Associates

{{Short description|Self-help seminar company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Werner Erhard and Associates
| logo =
| type = [[Privately held company| Private]] [[sole proprietorship]]<ref name="erhardIRS1995">"Accordingly, Werner Erhard and Associates ("WEA") was established as a sole proprietorship in February 1981." Erhard v. IRS, 1995. http://www.assetprotectionbook.com/erhard.htm Retrieved 2007-10-05</ref>(defunct)
| foundation = February 1981
| defunct = 1991
| location = [[San Francisco, California]], [[United States |USA]]
| key_people = [[Werner Erhard]] (Founder)
| industry = [[Personal development]], [[Large Group Awareness Training]]
| products = Seminars, workshops
| revenue =
| operating_income =
| net_income =
| num_employees =
| homepage =
| footnotes =
}}

'''Werner Erhard and Associates''', also known as '''WE&A''' or as '''WEA''', was a commercial [[personal development]] program which operated from 1984 until early 1991.<ref name=gastil/><ref name="nytimes.com"/> It replaced [[Erhard Seminars Training]].  Initially WE&A marketed and staged ''est'' training (in the form of the ''est'' seminars and workshops), but in 1984 the est training was replaced by WE&A with a briefer, a less authoritarian and more marketable program based on [[Werner Erhard]]'s teachings and called [[Landmark Worldwide#Landmark_Forum|The Forum]].<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news |last= Gottlieb |first= Anthony |date= 1990-01-07 |title= HEIDEGGER FOR FUN AND PROFIT |language= en-US |work= The New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/books/heidegger-for-fun-and-profit.html |access-date= 2023-02-07 |issn=0362-4331 | quote = Mr. Erhard's est encounter sessions - which, by some estimates, had as many as 500,000 takers between 1971 and 1984 - attracted plenty of criticism for their authoritarian form of indoctrination. But they also produced hundreds of obsessively eager acolytes: enough for him to set up a watered-down and more marketable organization, known as the Forum, which replaced est in 1984. }}</ref><ref name="Wakefield p.98"/>

In 1991 Erhard sold the assets of WE&A to a group of employees, who later formed [[Landmark Education]]. Erhard then retired<ref name="wernererhard.info">[http://www.wernererhard.info/career.html "Site by Former Associates committed to providing accurate and reliable information about Werner Erhard"]. Retrieved 2007-09-09.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=June 2020}} and left the United States.<ref name=Goldwag/>

== Timeline ==
[[File:Werner Erhard.jpg|thumb|Werner Erhard]]
{{Further|Werner Erhard|Erhard Seminars Training}}

== The Forum ==
{{See also|Landmark Worldwide#Landmark Forum}}

''[[Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training]]'', a [[longitudinal study]] published by [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] in the series ''Recent Research in Psychology'' in 1990 concluded that attending the Forum had minimal lasting effects — positive or negative — on participants.<ref name="fisher">
[[J.D. Fisher]], [[R. C. Silver]], [[J. M. Chinsky]], [[B. Goff]] and [[Y. Klar]], ''[[Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training|Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects]]'', Published by [[Springer-Verlag]], October 1990, {{ISBN|0-387-97320-6}}.
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|last1= Fisher
|first1= Jeffrey D.
|last2= Cohen Silver
|first2= Roxane
|last3= Chinsky
|first3= Jack M.
|last4= Goff
|first4= Barry
|last5= Klar
|first5= Yechiel 
|year= 1990
|title= Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WNjVBQAAQBAJ
|series= Recent Research in Psychology
|location= New York
|publisher= Springer Science & Business Media
|publication-date= 2012
|isbn= 9781461234289
|access-date= 2017-04-09
|quote= [...] with the exception of one univariate effect, no evidence of negative effects was found on any of the measures [...] Many of the potential favorable outcomes of the Forum were assessed on constructs represented in the multivariate analyses (i.e., Positive and Negative Affect, Health, Perceived Control, Social Functioning, Life Satisfaction, Self-Esteem, and Daily Coping). On seven of these eight dimensions, there were no significant short- or long-term multivariate treatment effects. On one, Perceived Control, the short- but not the long-term multivariate comparison with nominees revealed that Forum participants became more internally oriented.
}}
</ref>
The research won an [[American Psychological Association]] "National Psychological Consultants to Management Award" in 1989.<ref name="evaluating">{{cite book
  | last = Fisher
  | first = Jeffrey D.
  |author2= Cohen Silver, Roxane |author3= Chinsky, Jack M.
  | author4= Goff, Barry | author5= Klar, Yechiel
  | title = Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects
  | publisher = Springer-Verlag
  | year = 1990
  | pages = 142
  | isbn = 978-0-387-97320-3  }}<br>'''Page. vii.''' – "The research reported in this volume was awarded the American Psychological Association, Division 13, National Consultants to Management Award, August 13, 1989."</ref> The results of the research study appeared in two articles in the ''[[Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology]]'' in 1989<ref>{{cite journal
  |last1= Fisher
  |first1= Jeffrey D.
  |last2= Silver
  |first2= Roxane Cohen
  |last3= Chinsky
  |first3= Jack M.
  |last4= Goff
  |first4= Barry
  |last5= Klar
  |first5= Yechiel 
  |last6= Zagieboylo
  |first6= Cyndi
  | title = Psychological effects of participation in a large group awareness training
  | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  | volume = 57
  | issue =6
  | pages = 747–755
  | year = 1989
  | doi =10.1037/0022-006X.57.6.747
  | issn = 0022-006X  }}
</ref> and in 1990,<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Klar
  | first = Yechiel
  | author-link = Yechiel Klar
  | title = Characteristics of Participants in a Large Group Awareness Training
  | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  | volume = 58
  | issue = 1
  | pages = 99–108
  | date = February 1990
  | doi = 10.1037/0022-006X.58.1.99
  | pmid = 2319051
  | issn = 0022-006X  |display-authors=etal}}
</ref>

Public-opinion analyst [[Daniel Yankelovich]] did an investigation of the response of participants to their [[experience]] of the Forum.  Yankelovich reported that "more than seven out of ten participants found the Forum to be one of their life's most rewarding experiences".  The study reported that 95 percent of Forum graduates believe the Forum had "specific, practical value" for many aspects of their lives, and 86 percent of those surveyed said that it helped them "cope with a particular challenge or problem".<ref>
{{Cite web |date=2009-02-10 |title=Erhard's Life After Est |url=https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/erhards-life-after-est/ |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=Dialogue Ireland |language=en}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news
| last1                 = Wakefield
| first1                = Dan 
| title                 = ''Outrageous Betrayal[:] The Dark Journey of Werner Erhard from est to Exile''
| url                   = https://tricycle.org/magazine/outrageous-betrayal/
| work                  = Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
| volume                = 3
| issue                 = Spring
| location              = New York
| publisher             = Tricycle Foundation
| publication-date      = 1994
| access-date           = 2017-04-09
| quote                 = [...] according to a study by opinion analyst Daniel Yankelovich, seven out of ten participants in The Forum found it to be 'one of their life's most rewarding experiences,' while 94 percent felt the program had 'practical' and 'enduring' value.
}}
</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of large-group awareness training organizations]]

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=gastil>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Gastil
 |first1               = John
 |author-link1         = John Gastil
 |year                 = 2010
 |chapter              = Learning and Growing
 |title                = The Group in Society
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=a7twxBPEwzwC
 |location             = Thousand Oaks, California
 |publisher            = SAGE
 |page                 = 228
 |isbn                 = 9781412924689
 |access-date          = 11 March 2023
 |quote                = Lifespring, or simply the Forum. The basic procedure of these courses parallels the group training workshops described earlier, but the emphasis shifts from group effectiveness to personal development. 
}} 
</ref>
<ref name="Wakefield p.98">
{{cite book
 | last1 = Wakefield
 | first1 = Dan
 | author-link1 = Dan Wakefield
 | year = 1999
 | chapter = Six Days of Hell
 | title = How Do We Know when It's God?: A Spiritual Memoir
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CW4sPXTM3MkC
 | location = Center Ossipee, New Hampshire
 | publisher = Beech River Books
 | publication-date = 2010
 | page = 98
 | isbn = 9780982521458
 | access-date = 7 June 2020
 | quote = The est training is replaced by a modernized, briefer, less confrontational, more Socratic sort of program called 'the Forum' [...].
}}
</ref>
<ref name=Goldwag>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Goldwag
 |first1               = Arthur
 |date                 = 11 August 2009
 |chapter              = Cults: What Makes a Cult Cultish?
 |title                = Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=88ZvDwAAQBAJ
 |location             = New York
 |publisher            = Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
 |page                 = 29
 |isbn                 = 9780307390677
 |access-date          = 11 March 2023
 |quote                = In 1991, after twenty years and seven hundred thousand customers, Erhard retired and sold his intellectual property to his brother Harry Rosenberg. Investigated by the IRS and hounded by lawsuits from his children and ex-employees alleging abuse and exploitation, he left the country soon after.
}} 
</ref>
}}

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{{wikisource}}
{{commons}}
*[http://www.wernererhard.com/wea.html Werner Erhard and Associates]
*[http://www.skepdic.com/est.html est and Werner Erhard], ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]''
*[[Wikiquote:Werner Erhard|Werner Erhard]], ''[[Wikiquote]]''
{{Werner Erhard}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werner Erhard And Associates}}
[[Category:Werner Erhard]]
[[Category:Large-group awareness training]]
[[Category:New Age organizations]]
[[Category:Privately held companies based in California]]
[[Category:Self religions]]
[[Category:New religious movements established in the 1990s]]