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

Crowning Jewel

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

July 15, 2018

Early on: "Transformation shows up in my mouth."


...

Later on: "You will leave this course being a leader and exercising leadership as your natural Self-expression in any situation and no matter what the circumstances."


...		promising the Leadership Course: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model

This essay, Crowning Jewel, with Life, Love, And The Whole Damn Thing, On The Created Future, and Experience An Ontological Shift, is the sequel to the trilogy The Leadership Course:

in that order (in a very real sense, any and all Conversations For Transformation essays written following the trilogy The Leadership Course are all its sequels).

It was conceived and written at the same time as

I am indebted to Kimile "Kimi" Pendleton who inspired this conversation.

As anyone who's ever participated in Werner's work of transformation can tell you, transformation is slippery. That's counter-intuitive, by the way. It's also contrary to expectations. What we (think we) want from transformation is an experience that comes, and then stays with us permanently. What we get in actuality, isn't that. What we get in actuality is an experience that comes ... and goes ... and comes ... and goes. And just when you think you got it permanently, you notice it's gone. And as soon as you notice it's gone, you get it again. That's its nature ie that's its true nature.

Which is why I call it slippery. Relate to it as slippery (in other words, tell yourself the truth that it comes and goes) and you can get it back again when you notice it's gone. Pretend it's not, and you're setting yourself up to be both disappointed and disillusioned, not to mention ill-informed as well as unclear on the concept.

I'm a graduate of Werner's Leadership Course. In it, Werner delivers exactly what he promises (read Werner promising the Leadership Course at the top of this page). I left the Leadership Course being a leader and exercising leadership as my natural Self-expression in any situation and no matter what the circumstances. Look: I don't know how he does it. And some time ago (a long time ago, actually) I gave up trying to figure it out. In any case, it does me no good dissecting what Werner does, trying to figure out how what he does, works. There's no power in doing that. Yet it's clear that in the Leadership Course, Werner sources something very extraordinary happening. And the way what happens manifested for me, is a clearing ie a new pathway in my brain if you will, appeared and became available. So far, it's nearly ten months later. Without any practicing, without having to remember anything, without affirming anything or chanting or any of the like, it's still available ie it's still open.

If there were to be a banner headline heralding this new pathway, it would be this:

HERE, TRANSFORMATION IS ACCESSIBLE AT WILL.

How does this jibe with my assertion that transformation comes and goes and comes and goes, and just when you think you got it permanently, you notice it's gone?

A good place to start is by asking "What does 'at will' mean?". What "at will" means for me as a graduate of the Leadership Course, is whenever I choose to engage in sharing transformation / leadership, where it shows up is right here in my mouth. This is where it always shows up. Didn't you find it here in exactly the same place, the last time you shared it? And the time before that? And the time before that? Now when I notice it's gone, I have no more questions, doubts, and / or uncertainties about where to go or what to do, to get it back. I know to just open my mouth and speak it again ie to open my mouth and express it again. It's that simple. Really.

That's what "transformation is accessible at will" means. And this is the take-away from Werner's extraordinary Leadership Course: transformation, and being a leader and exercising leadership as your natural Self-expression in any situation and no matter what the circumstances. That's Werner's promise delivered. Just don't ask me why it works this way. And even more so, don't even bother asking how he does it. Wait! Don't inquiring minds want to know? So why not ask why or how it works? They're valid questions, yes? Because it's just a waste of your time: there's no cheese down that tunnel. You don't get it that way. It's that simple (trust me on this).

If the erstwhile est Training and the latter day Landmark Forum are the flagship programs of the plethora of (inexorably evolving) participatory theatres comprising Werner's work of transformation, then the Leadership Course is its crowning* jewel.

"Crowning" Jewel or "Crown" Jewel?

The Leadership Course is the crowning jewel of Werner's work of transformation. And yes, I do mean "crowning" jewel, not "crown" jewel.

Saying "crown" deploys a noun, a static object, a thing. Saying "crown-ing" deploys a verb (an inflected verb actually), a present participle, a gerund to be exact. There's process in it, something's happening, it's ongoing.

So "The Leadership Course is the crowning jewel of Werner's work of transformation", not "The Leadership Course is the crown jewel of Werner's work of transformation" which is ubiquitous, milquetoast, simply not as powerful.

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