Werner Erhard and Associates
| Private sole proprietorship(defunct) | |
| Industry | Personal development, Large Group Awareness Training |
| Founded | February 1981 |
| Defunct | 1991 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
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Key people
|
Werner Erhard (Founder) |
| Products | Seminars, workshops |
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 delivering 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 the est Training was replaced by a more modern, briefer, rigorous and philosophical program based on Werner Erhard's teachings called "The Forum".
In 1991 Erhard sold the assets of WE&A to a group of employees, who later formed Landmark Education. Erhard then retired and left the United States.
For additional Information, see Werner Erhard and est.
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. 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.
The abstract of Charles Denison's PhD dissertation for the College of Education (University of Denver), "The Children of est: A Study of the Experience and Perceived Effects of a Large Group Awareness Training (the Forum)", reported that the Forum had a definite structure, curriculum, and pedagogical approach. The primary concepts of The Forum, called "distinctions", were identified. Data indicate that qualitatively significant results were produced in participants' self-assessed functioning in cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains. Most participants attributed significant life effects to their experience.
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