Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est is a biography of Werner Erhard by philosophy professor William Warren Bartley, III. The book was published in 1978 by Clarkson Potter. Bartley was a graduate of Erhard Seminars Training and served on its advisory board. Erhard wrote a foreword to the book. The book's structure describes Erhard's education, transformation, reconnection with his family, and the theories of the est training. The book went through five editions in its first year. Reviewers generally commented that the book was favorable to Erhard, and a number of critics felt that it was unduly so, or lacked objectivity, citing Bartley's close relationship to Erhard. Responses to the writing were mixed; while some reviewers found it well written and entertaining, others felt the tone was too slick, promotional, or hagiographic.
Background This biography tells Werner Erhard's early life story and the creation of the est Training which he designed to provide people with access to their own transformational experience. Werner Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg), a California-based former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, created the Erhard Seminars Training (est) course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training, and was part of the Human Potential Movement. est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time. The program was very intensive. Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes. est was widely ridiculed in the popular press and aroused a great deal of controversy. In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs". In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor. In 1991 a group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education, purchasing The Forum's course "technology" from Erhard.
Author William Warren Bartley, III, professor of philosophy at California State University, Hayward from 1973, prior to writing his biography on Erhard, had authored The Retreat to Commitment (1962), on the epistemology of Sir Karl Popper; Wittgenstein (1973), a biography of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein; edited (1977) Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic of 1896; and authored a book titled Morality and Religion (1971). Bartley was first introduced to and referred to est in March 1972 by a doctor whom he had consulted about his nine-year struggle with insomnia. As a result of his experience in the est training his insomnia was cured. He then became very involved in the est organization, and served for several years as the company's philosophical consultant. He received payments of over US$30,000 in this capacity during the two years he spent writing the book. He also served on the "Advisory Board" of est. Bartley interviewed a number of individuals who were involved in his subject's life and made use of quotations from a wide array of sources. Bartley commented on his subject in an article on the book in The Evening Independent, stating: "He's not a huckster, although he's a great salesman. I think he's a very good man, a very important man. ... He's a fascinating man. People are interested in him."
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