I am indebted to Geoffrey "Geoff" Fellows who contributed material
for this conversation.
One of the most
extraordinary
things ever to come out of these Conversations For Transformation,
began when my cellphone rang in California, its caller-ID displaying an
unknown incoming number. I'd usually ignore such calls. Inexplicably, I
answered this one. It was from
a graduate
in Thailand who had more than a passing familiarity with these essays.
I asked him how he had come across them. He told me he'd heard them
while
listening
to the radio during the morning commute in Bangkok. I don't recall the
name of the radio station he said he'd heard them on, but if it wasn't
as generic as "Radio Bangkok", that's pretty close. Every morning
during the commute hour apparently, Radio Bangkok read one of my essays
live on the air, then took calls from commuters on their way to work,
who then shared what they got from them with the
listening
audience, likely in the many thousands if not in the hundreds of
thousands.
Ranking second in
extraordinariness
to Radio Bangkok reading these essays live on the air during the
morning commute in Thailand, is a podcast forwarded to me by a reader
in
New Zealand.
A podcast is a
digital audio or video file series distributed via the internet,
typically available for download or streaming. It's a way to share
content on a specific topic. The
New Zealand
podcast lays bare the way Conversations For Transformation work and
what they offer, for which I am excited and
grateful.
Even more than that, because it lays bare the way Conversations For
Transformation work and what they offer, it will also provide
direct access
to
Werner's work.
Anyone wondering "What is
Werner's work?"
(and "Is it worth participating in?") should be directed to this
podcast.
One last thing: there's a subtle yet common error in the podcast for
which I would like to make a correction. It's how it pronounces
Werner's name. During the restructuring of his persona, he took the
name "Werner" from the physicist Werner Heisenberg ("Erhard" came from
chancellor Ludwig Erhard). Werner Heisenberg, being of germanic origin,
would have pronounced his name with the hard "W" ie "Verner" (as would
many people today, if not told otherwise). The restructured Werner
Erhard however, preferred a soft "W", pronouncing his name "Werner" not
"Verner" (the initial "W" is as in "wail" not as in "vail").
We live in
a world
practically drowning in information right now,
a world
which is also (witness any current newspaper headlines or any
prime-time TV news
channels)
lacking any clear-headed response to what we all know need not be
happening, and yet are seemingly powerless to do anything about. We
don't need more explaination about what's happening. We don't need more
change. We've tried both, and we've ended up exactly where we are.
Transformation doesn't come from knowing more, or better, or
differently. Neither does it come from change. What is at stake in
these Conversations For Transformation, is allowing transformation into
our lives in ways that make a difference experientially, more than just
imparting newer
"Why?"
and
"How-to
..." understanding.
