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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Reconciling The Contradiction

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

July 2, 2026


"I don't believe in what I'm doing at all. I have absolutely no belief in what I'm doing. I already know how it's going to turn out. The way it turns out is fait accompli. I mean there's nothing I can do about the way it turns out. I know exactly how it's going to turn out. You know, it's going to turn out exactly like it turns out. It's been doing that for eons. So you say 'But then Werner: what's your motive? What are you working all those hours for?'. I'm not motivated. There isn't any motive. There's no damn vision  motivating me. You know, if I stopped doing it tomorrow, it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. And if I keep doing it right to the end, it won't make any difference. The only thing that's going to happen is what happens. But that doesn't fit into our structure. That doesn't fit into our categories."**
... 
responding to a hypothetical suggestion that he believes in what he's doing because he's motivated by a vision
"Events happen, deeds are done. But there is no individual doer of any deed."
... Lord Siddhārtha Gautama Shakyamuni of India aka the Buddha
This essay, Reconciling The Contradiction, is the companion piece to A Dog Trying Not To Be A Dog.

I am indebted to Sanford "Sandy" Robbins who inspired this conversation.


In this conversation, I'll take a look at how much transformative* control I really have over my life. This is a straight-forward enough inquiry, the result of which I am assuming will be almost obvious: that I have some degree of control over some areas of my life and no control over the other areas, which - regardless of what I might say, will, or do - don't depend on my control: they're on automatic. My fingernails grow. And there's nothing I say, will, or do to make my fingernails grow. It's on full automatic. My digestion digests. There's nothing I say, will, or do to make my digestion digest. It's on full automatic.

My heart beats. There's nothing I say, will, or do to make my heart beat. It's on full automatic. Being startled by a ghost on Halloween (when someone dressed up as Casper creeps up behind me very quietly and says "BOO!" very loudly) is on full automatic - and there's nothing I say, will, or do to not  be startled by a ghost on Halloween ("BOO!") either. It's on full automatic. In case you assume from those examples that I'm saying only our bodies are on full automatic, when I look closely and tell the truth about it, I see my emotions, feelings, and mental processes are all on full automatic too. Don't believe that emotions, feelings, and mental processes are all on full automatic also just because I said so. Rather try it on for yourself to see if it's true for you as well.

So what's now in focus is I have control over some areas of my life, and the rest are on full automatic. It's not easy for me to get I'm not fully in control of my life. It's even harder when I inquire into exactly how much of my life I'm not in control of. Is it 10%? Is it 20%? Is it 50%? Is it 95%? Some of us have been around the block a couple of times with this one. And what's emerged is the possibility that our lives are 100%  on full automatic. You won't arrive at that via reason and logic. You may however arrive at it by observing it, by experiencing it, and by telling the truth about it and what you notice about it.

The next thing I noticed was the apparent exceptions to the rule ie the places in my life which I've always taken for granted are not  on full automatic. What about choice? What about free will? What about thinking for myself? etc. If my life is really 100% on full automatic, then what about them? It would seem to contradict  them - that is to say if my life is really on 100% full automatic, it would contradict my being able to choose, my having free will. It would impact my ability to think for myself. Even though I entertained the possibility of my life being 100% on full automatic, I didn't fully accept it. I was frantically looking for exceptions to the rule: what about this? what about that? You know, I had seen the possibility of it. But I couldn't grasp the totality of it. I couldn't let it in that I am a machine 100% on full automatic. There must  be an exception to life and living 100% on full automatic. There has  to be.

(*** SPOILER ALERT!  ***): But there isn't. It's all 100% on full automatic. This notion of "100% on full automatic" seems to directly contradict us having choice, free will, and thinking for ourselves. This contradiction has to be reconciled. If not, are we to get we have no free will, or the ability to think for ourselves? If that's so, we are merely machines whose lives are 100% on full automatic. There's no way out. At that point, the very clothes I was wearing began to reek of the stink of congested thought. As this inquiry reaches its inexorable conclusion, see if you're listening for the exception, for a way out - you know, for anything  that will fix this, for anything that will get you off the hook that you are a machine, that life is 100% on full automatic. Anything.

(*** SPOILER ALERT! II  ***): I'm sorry, but there's no way out. You are a machine, and your life is 100% on full automatic. There is no "do-er" in your life, like an "I / me"  who is some kind of entity inside you who's the one that's doing the things you do, and you have no free will. You don't like that? Too bad.

Be mindful: it's all  100% on full automatic. Having choice, having free will, and thinking for ourselves are subverted by it's all 100% on full automatic. We're now entertaining the possibility of it all being 100% on full automatic. We're machines, 100% on full automatic. It's universally experienced that human beings have trouble accepting that we are machines 100% on full automatic. We try to make that be not so. We look for a way out of it being so. And I'll bet you're listening to this conversation, waiting for me to say "Gotcha! Only fooling! You're not really a machine. You have free will, and you're the doer in your life.". And no, I'm sorry. You are a machine 100% on full automatic, and you have no free will, and that's  how you reconcile the contradiction.

"But" as Werner says, "that doesn't fit into our structure. That doesn't fit into our categories.".

**  Click here to listen Werner speaking this quote on archive.org, the internet archive.

Werner is speaking at a research seminar sponsored by the Center for the Study of New Religious Movements, Graduate Theological Union on Thursday April 23, 1981.

Look for and select the 29:37 mark on side 2.

Technical support is unavailable for accessing this audio of Werner.
*   Transformational or transformative?

transformational: pertaining to  transformation

transformative: causing  transformation

Citation: wikidiff Werner.

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