[Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News

Sat Oct 9 12:30:12 CDT 2010

There's so much I could say. But I'll just say that as someone who
came into the Order fairly young and went from the Order to the Hunger
Project (actually one of the best, most authentic manifestations of
the principles of the Forum, IMHO, for all it's frailties) and a lot
of involvement with Werner Erhard & Assoc and Landmark Education, I
just gotta say -- I found the Hunger Project and WE&A far more
psychologically, physically and psychically healthy than the Order. We
had good theologically but a lot of other things were pretty, uhm,
"whack" as they say.

On 07/10/2010, A.M. Noel <amnoel at comcast.net> wrote:
> I olve the conversation about Landmark Yes I am involved with Landmark
> Eduction and the only committment is to transform life.
>
> A.M. Noel
> 206-321-6274
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marsha Hahn" <mhahn013 at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Monday, October 4, 2010 11:15:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
>
>
> Ditto my own experience.  Several years ago an acquaintance invited me to
> her home to learn about a "leadership program."  I was naturally intrigued.
> It turned out to be Landmark Forum, which I had never heard of before.  At
> some point during the presentation something clicked for me and I made the
> association with Werner Erhardt (sp?).  I asked the presenter if there was a
> connection.  She looked very flustered (not my intention, but interesting)
> and gave me a vague answer.  The more we got into it, the more my "yuck"
> button was getting pressed.  It was getting late, and I decided to excuse
> myself.  The other invitees promptly followed me out the door and shared
> their reactions similar to my own.
>
> However, I do know people who have found their work very beneficial,
> including at least one former Order colleague.  It just wasn't for me.
>
> Marsha
>
>
>
>
> From: Herman Greene <hfgreene at mindspring.com>
> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Mon, October 4, 2010 12:43:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
>
>
>
> A week ago Sunday I was out running and an old friend recognized me and
> stopped his car. He said he was on his way to a Landmark Presentation that
> he was leading on my street and asked me to come over. I didn’t know what it
> was about, but thought I would stop in after my run. I ran pass the house he
> was in and he saw me and came out to the street and asked me to come in
> right then. I said to myself, “Who knows, maybe this is something I should
> know about.” In my sweaty running clothes I went in and there were two other
> newcomers. We were asked to right down problem areas in our life and share.
> About five minutes into that I said, “I’m feeling this is not where I should
> be this afternoon” and left.
>
>
>
> These guys were a little like RS-I recruiters.
>
>
>
> Herman
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
> Of W. J.
> Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 12:55 PM
> To: Order Ecumenical Community
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
>
>
>
>
> Yes, ICA was mentioned in the Hunger Project materials. Maybe Joe Thomas did
> that. Don't remember exactly, so don't hold me to it.
>
>
> I think the point of the Hunger Project was if they talked enough about
> eliminating global hunger and raised enough money to keep talking about it
> more and more, then that alone would raise consciousness enough to eliminate
> global hunger. Or something like that. Voila! Gone. Amazing.
>
>
> A.M. Novel used to be very big on Landmark Education. Wonder what he thinks
> of it now.
>
>
> Marshall
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: frank bremner <fjbremner at hotmail.com>
> To: Dialogue OE <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Sun, October 3, 2010 11:45:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
> Dear colleagues
>
> There was a rumour around, in the late 70s, that Werner Erhard
> (originally Jack Rosenberg) had done RS-I.  I found no reference to this in
> any of the books about est (Erhard Seminars Training, or Latin for "it is"?)
> or Werner Erhard that I came across at that time.  But he did do a lot of
> homework before setting up his organisation.
>
>
> I took the est   training in late 1978 or early 1979, in Chicago .  The same
> things that impressed Beret and Ron impressed me.  Of course, at that time
> anything remotely psychological was O:E/EI/ICA heresy.
>
> I did a followup course in Philadelphia in 1979-80, and another one in
> Adelaide in 1980-81.  They were disappointing, with very litle new content
> or processes.  They assumed that doing another course was the only "next
> step" that was OK, while successive courses just concentrated on doing more
> courses, and on recruiting people to the basic est   training.  The
> volunteer and paid assistants were very poor at participating in discussion
> or dialogue around the edges - they behaved like the " est-ies " of the
> various caricatures and sendups of them in the movies.  Very much "Join our
> movement - it's the best!" in style.
>
> So: at least one good event, but a crap organisation.  [I remember an
> Anglican clergyman saying something similar about EI about 1973:  "Great
> ideas, great courses, but I don't think much of the organisation."]
>
> Worth reading: Luke Rinehart's Book of Est , and Bill Bartley's book about
> Werner Erhard.  Nothing else I came across took "the work" seriously enough
> to do a thorough commentary and critique - most articles and books never got
> inside the est  mindset, and its interplay of Zen Buddhist thought,
> psychology, and the middle-class audience, to be worth much.  I was trying
> to write some papers on "the consciousness movement" at the time, before
> Peter Russell or Marilyn Ferguson achieved any prominence, and I came across
> so much sensationalist garbage in my research.  A colleague said recently:
> "All organisations and movements have their blind spots".
>
> I have heard little about Landmark Education , as the organisation is now
> known.  The est Seminar   has been replaced by The Forum , and has a small
> (?) Australian presence.
>
> In the 1980s, the library at the high school where I was teaching received a
> thick volume about global hunger, as thanks for letting someone speak to a
> lunchtime meeting about The Hunger Project , an endeavour set up by the est
> organisation.  It covered a variety of approaches, including comprehensive
> community/human development.  And in one of the Project's newsletters I saw
> a mention of the ICA work in Maharashtra State , India ; so there was some
> information transferred there - did Werner of somebody visit India ?.  One
> of the Project's themes was "the possibility of eradicating hunger".  Now
> there are T-shirts and so on on this theme - if smallpox can be eradicated,
> why not hunger?  Etc.
>
> Cheers
>
> Frank Bremner
>
>
>
> Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 22:17:07 -0500
> To: oe at wedgeblade.net
> From: beretgriffith at charter.net
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
> I don't think there was any connection between RS-1 and EST. Ron and I took
> the EST training in Chicago in 1976 or 1977. Marshall 's take is on target.
> Ron and I both felt the EST training was a unique avenue to getting people
> to look at their lives rather than escaping from life. It was far more
> aggressive than any thing EI/ICA did with people and I think it was an
> avenue of transformation of many people. There were about three hundred
> people in the training we took. The trainers were outstanding. In any EST
> event I attended trainers used no notes, the set-up impeccable, and no
> excuses were accepted for anything. While at the EST training we became
> acquainted with an interesting couple. We brought them over the Kemper to
> see the ICA . They were more interested in getting us to go to additional
> programs than in the ICA . We did not keep up the connection with them. The
> EST enrollment tactics were high pressure.
>
> There is a film out on his life which I have seen. Enjoyed it. There is a
> site with his quotes.A sample: “Happiness is a function of accepting what
> is. Love is a function of communication. Health is a function of
> participation.  Self expression is a function of responsibility.”
>
>
> -Werner Erhard
>
> I think Erhard is an interesting character. Here is a bit on him from
> http://www.wernererhard.net/
> For nearly 40 years Werner Erhard has been the creator of innovative ideas
> and models of individual, organizational, and social transformation.  His
> ideas and models have been the source of new perspectives for thinkers and
> practitioners in fields as diverse as business, education, philosophy,
> medicine, psychotherapy, third world development, conflict resolution , and
> community building.  He has created new ways of seeing things in areas where
> progress has stalled or where breakthroughs would make a significant
> difference.  A majority of the Fortune 100 companies and many foundations
> and governmental entities have used his ideas and models.  Fortune
> Magazine’s 40th anniversary issue (May 15, 1995), in examining the major
> contributions to management thinking, recognized Erhard’s ideas as one of
> the major innovations of the last few decades.
>
> While Werner Erhard may be best known to the general public for applications
> derived from his models including The est Training and The Forum of the
> 1970s and 1980s, currently Erhard commits his time and intellectual effort
> almost exclusively to the academic world.  Werner Erhard's recent research
> and writing, and lectures and courses can be found on his author page in the
> Social Sciences Research Network – http://ssrn.com/author=433651 .  More
> than two million people around the world have participated in the public,
> corporate and academic programs and courses he has created.  Social
> scientist Daniel Yankelovich said of a study he conducted of participants of
> The Forum: “Several of the study’s findings surprised me quite a bit,
> especially the large number of participants for whom The Forum proved to be
> ‘one of the most valued experiences of my life’. This is not a sentiment
> that people, especially successful, well-educated people, express lightly.”
>
> Werner Erhard is largely self-educated, albeit with tutoring from some
> important thinkers of his time, Sir Karl Popper , Hilary Putnam , Michel
> Foucault , Humberto Maturana and Richard Feynman to name a few.  Professor
> of Philosophy, Michael E. Zimmerman said of Erhard “He had no particular
> formal training in anything, but he understood things as well as anyone I’d
> ever seen; and I’ve been around a lot of smart people in academia.  This is
> an extraordinary intellect I saw at work…”  In recognition of his
> humanitarian work around the world Werner Erhard was awarded the Mahatma
> Gandhi Humanitarian Award.
>
> There is a site with his more recent papers. I'm going to take a look.
> Beret Griffith
>
> At 06:41 PM 10/3/2010, you wrote:
>
>
>
> I choked and gagged reflexively when I read that RS-1 in any way birthed
> Werner Erhard's EST. [pardon me while I throw up].
> The only similarity I can think of might be the style of boxing people into
> a weekend format and forcing them to deal with something rather than
> escaping into their favorite avoidance patterns.
> Hmm, sound familiar?
> Or maybe this one: "There ISN'T any Messiah..."
> Marshall
> And I don't think we made people hold it until they wet their panties--a
> famous Erhard tactic.
>
>
> From: "slottaglobalnews at earthlink.net" <slottaglobalnews at earthlink.net>
> To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Sent: Sun, October 3, 2010 4:04:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] FW: Landmark Education News
>
> I think Landmark Education is a spin-off from RSI through the work of Werner
> Erhard. Once called EST it became Landmark Forum and then Landmark
> Education. It is still recruited pretty much like RS-I.
>
> On Oct 2, 2010, at 10:10 AM, KarenBueno at aol.com wrote:
>
>
>
>
> That looks like a dynamite organization.  I wonder if they have plans to
> replicate it.
>
> Karen Bueno
>
> In a message dated 10/2/2010 8:29:53 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
> amnoel at comcast.net writes:
>
> the following video that has impacted my family and 3 million lives
>
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-- 
  Tracy E. Longacre
  from Lubumbashi, DR Congo

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was
service. I acted and behold, service was joy."    Rabindranath Tagore

  Adventures in Development blog: telglobal.vox.com
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