Speaking to People’s Greatness

What’s interesting is to look back at Werner’s remarkable insights and see the compassion in the man—a man many regarded as the ultimate advocate of tough love.

This site is a tribute to Erhard, and to the organization which he created—and then let go of when his persona became an obstacle to its existence—for the extraordinary good that he and “the technology” he developed did for so many people. I can remember many thrilling and deeply moving instances where individuals in the Landmark Forum experienced profound breakthroughs, freeing themselves from the past and opening up to new possibilities for the future. In my case, it gave me access to an awareness of myself and of Victoria that has kept our relationship alive for nearly forty years.

For many years I held back from speaking and writing about the Forum, partly in response to the repeated warnings to treat every word and idea as proprietary, and partly out of concern that I could not do it justice on the printed page. The power of the Forum lies in the dynamic engagement with the listener in real time, the sudden a-hah that occurs when we see the truth about ourselves as revealed through the eyes of another.

In the end, I think Werner will be recognized for his remarkable contribution to ontology, the study of being: to its presence beyond words, which he nonetheless conjured up through a disciplined practice of interaction and conversation. He took his own advice to heart and dealt with people as if they were perfect, while giving space to allow them to let their garbage go.

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