Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

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Men Are From Earth, Women Are From Earth

Napa, California, USA

July 30, 2026

"Men are from Mars, women are from Venus."

... John Gray, addressing what's different in men and women

"Men are from Earth, women are from Earth."

... Laurence Platt, addressing what's the same in men and women

I am indebted to Mindy Greenfield who inspired this conversation.

Not long after Werner's work burst forth onto the world stage fifty five years ago, copy cats and spin-offs started to appear. I've got no quarrel with copy cats and spin-offs. After all, Werner's work inspires people to share. Just as long as copy cats and spin-offs maintain integrity, I have no quarrel with them.

Individuals modeling themselves after Werner began delivering their own courses using material patently lifted from Werner's work. Some acknowledged Werner as the source of the material. Some didn't. Some of them said they deliver transformation separately for men and women, their theses being that transformation is essentially different for men and women because men and women are essentially different, so it must be delivered separately. Examples of those courses were "Men, Sex, and Power" seminars for men, and "Women, Sex, and Power" seminars for women. And books like John Gray's runaway bestseller "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"'s main tenet touted genetic behavioral differences between men and women. It was a monster hit.

<aside>

John Gray and I both served Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Europe in 1972, the year he designated as "The Year of the World Plan".

I delivered meals to him when he called for them after midnight, affording me precious one-on-one private time wth him.

John walked ahead of Maharishi as he made his way to the couch from where he gave discourses, on which John had unfolded the deerskin he carried which Maharishi always sat on.

We called John "the skin boy".

<un-aside>

Of course there are undeniable and essential physical differences between men and women. Anyone with eyes to see, knows that. There are also not so easy to see endocrinal differences between men and women resulting in different moods, feelings, and emotions. Who would be naïve enough to deny that? But merely distinguishing them is not a transformative* act. Whatever distinguishing the differences may or may not do, stops short of transforming them if transformation is construed as different for men and for women. In the realm of actual, real, thrilling transformation, there's no difference between men and women. And how could there be? Authentic transformation pertains to being, not sex or gender. That men and women both be, is fait accompli.

One of the earliest formulations of the purpose of Werner's work was "to transform your experience of living so that the things you have been putting up with or trying to change, clear up just in the process of life itself". In it, no mention is made of men, women, sex, or gender. The generic "your" and "you" it deploys, purposefully includes both sexes and all genders. That is the promise of authentic transformation. And how could it not include us all equally?

There are many examples of where the ideas of Werner's work are leveraged by both men and women even-handedly and equally: honoring your word is the essence of integrity (different than keeping your word); what you feel and think is not the harbinger of what's true and real; who you really are, is not always who you present yourself to be; there's no way you can tell with certainty that people are a particular way, there's only the way they occur / show up for you; you don't need fixing, you're already perfect just the way you are, and just the way you aren't, and there are barriers to getting that perfection.

The take-away experience from participating in Werner's work, is as individual and as varied as there are graduates of its programs. That said, I'm willing to ante with impunity that the most powerful insight it teases out is the realization that you are not your mind. That alone is worth the price of admission. Being able to differentiate between my mind and who I really am, is the beginning of transformation (or as some people might call it, the beginning of the enlightened** state). And the ability to make that distinction is inherent in the skillset of men and women equally. You could say we're all born this way.

Transformational or transformative?

transformational: pertaining to transformation

transformative: causing transformation

Citation: wikidiff

Enlightenment or transformation?

In chapter nine called "True Identity" in part III, "Transformation", of "Werner Erhard - The Transformation of a Man, The Founding of est", Professor William Warren "Bill" Bartley III (Werner's official biographer) re-creates Werner's seminal experience on the Golden Gate Bridge, and asks Werner "Was this enlightenment?".

I've distilled Werner's response thus:

He sometimes calls it enlightenment, yet he has two reservations with describing it as such. Firstly, enlightenment connotes a kind of eastern mysticism, a context he doesn't require. Secondly, the transformation he underwent on the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't so much an enlightenment experience, as it was a shift of the context in which he held all content and all processes including experience and including enlightenment. Hence he describes what occurred as transformation, and prefers not to use the words enlightenment / buddhahood / satori / nirvana / salvation / Self-realization et al, at all.

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