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

I Don't Have To Say "In A Glass"

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

January 23, 2017

"Transformation is being in a conversation for transformation. When you are no longer in a conversation for transformation, you are no longer transformed." ...

I am indebted to John Taylor who inspired this conversation.

Werner Erhard's seminal "Transformation is being in a conversation for transformation; when you are no longer in a conversation for transformation, you are no longer transformed" which anchors ie which grounds this essay, fortunately requires no explanation. I say "fortunately" because in my elementary experience of how this all works, explaining this sort of thing, while it may appear to be a way of doing some good and extracting value, ultimately proves to diminish value. The truth explained, it would seem, simply isn't the truth anymore. So I'm not going to venture an explanation for it. And fortunately it's not necessary to explain it, since it's fully getable anyway. I am, however, going to suggest an emphasis for listening it which may not be apparent upon hearing it for the first time, which will be useful.

Try this on for size: read the quote ie listen it while emphasizing the first "conversation for transformation". Now read it again, and this time listen it while emphasizing "being". The latter ensures to be transformed ie to be in a conversation for transformation, you have to bring who you really are to bear on whatever you're speaking ie you have to be present to it. With the former, there's room to have a conversation about transformation without being present to it. And a conversation about transformation when you're not being present to it, devolves quickly into a debate about transformation, into an argument, an opinion slugfest. Having a conversation about transformation, isn't the same as being in a conversation for transformation. In other words, having a conversation about transformation, isn't transformation.

I'm like a sponge. If I'm good at one thing, it's being coachable. What I've put together in this internet series of essays, except for its presentation, delivery, and style, can hardly be called original work. Almost all the ideas I present in the body of work on this website, aren't mine. They're Werner's. And those which are mine, have in most cases first been run by my coaches, trainers, and committed listeners who've let me know what I'm really saying (we all know by now that whatever the voice in our head is saying when we read our own writing, isn't what we're really saying). There are many, many people who are vastly more skilled and adept at this, who have mastered and delivered this material than I'll ever aspire to be. I don't do what they do. What I personally provide is I bring who I really am to this internet series of essays. When I do that, they're assured a certain authority, authenticity, acceptability, and accuracy. That's the "being" in these Conversations For Transformation.

So when I write these Conversations For Transformation, I'm freed (at least to some degree) from having to articulate each and every nuance, each and every subtlety, each and every syntactic trait of transformation in order to communicate transformation. Make no mistake: accuracy is vital. That said, the thing to bear in mind is a conversation for transformation is only secondarily an opportunity for debating the way (if you will) to transformation. Primarily it's an opportunity for simply being. My intention is to get Conversations For Transformation out of the realm of debate ie out of the realm of "talking about", and squarely into the realm of being. This is the realm in which Conversations For Transformation work. This is the realm in which transformation is communicated. This is the realm in which people get it. Really.

Now, exactly how people get transformation from these essays (or better, from Werner or from any other source for that matter)? is something of a fabulous mystery - indeed it's something of a miracle. I actually need to say very little about transformation for you to get it, as long as we're being in a conversation for transformation together. And if we're being in a conversation for transformation together, you get it anyway without requiring each and every word, nuance, subtlety, and syntactic trait of transformation to be present, in place, and correct. That's the magic of the quality of communication in a conversation for transformation ie that's the magic of being: you get it anyway, and the how simply doesn't matter. Listen, if I ask you for some water, I don't have to say "in a glass": you get it anyway, yes? Like that.

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