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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Standing For Health

Drop-In With Two Forum Leaders For Indian Americans [Online], Landmark Worldwide

August 23, 2025

This essay, Standing For Health, is the companion piece to Breakfast With The Master II: Future Health.

It is also the thirty third in an open group inspired by Landmark Programs:

I am indebted to Gopal Rao and to Balvinder Singh Sodhi who inspired this conversation.

Werner Erhard with Swami Muktananda

While for the most part it's still something rare, every once in while Werner's work is offered for specific groups ie for people with some common culture / some common interest - for example: Indian Americans, People of African Descent, the group known by the acronym LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer / Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and the + sign which represents non-straight and non-cisgender identities not covered by the other letters of the acronym), and others. It may seem (at least on the face of it) that we're saying transformation is essentially different for Indian Americans, People of African Descent, and gay people - to mention a few. Notably there are also offerings for young people and teens from one, some, or none of the above groups, separate from adults. And as far as I know, there've been no special offerings (at least so far) of Werner's work for men separate from women. If there were, would we be saying that transformation is essentially different for men than women?

I've inquired into this. Well? Are we? By offering Werner's work to all of these different groups, are we indeed not saying or suggesting (or insinuating or implying) that transformation is fundamentally different when experienced by Indian Americans, People of African descent, gay people, young people, old people, males, females ... and I've concluded that we're not insinuating that at all. What's more likely is accepting an invitation from such groups to discover what may be possible for them and their lives out of participating in Werner's work, is simply comfortable for people who are already a match for those groups, while having no bearing whatsoever on their experience of transformation. Said another way, transformation is an experience human beings have. As such, it's the same for everyone. There isn't a version of transformation for Indian Americans and another for People of African Descent, one for straight people and another for gays, one for old people and another for young people, one for men and yet another for women. That notion at worst conveys being unclear on the concept, and at best, just being naïve.

Recently I participated in an online seminar for Indian Americans to discover what may be possible for them and their lives out of participating in Werner's work. I wanted to see (my sub-text was) what a presentation to a specific group would be like. In all likelihood, I was the only white European version of a human being in that entire group. I expected the conversation would soon turn to what it's like to be an Indian American, what prejudices they face, what unfairness they endure (and that would explain why they had their own introduction) etc etc. But it never did. Not once. Not ... one ... single ... word ... was spoken about what was possible for Indian Americans and their lives out of participating in Werner's work. Rather, the conversation pivoted entirely on what may be possible for human beings (who just so happened to be Indian American human beings) and their lives out of participating in Werner's work.

At some point in the proceedings, we were asked to share what we realized would be possible for ourselves and our lives out of participating in Werner's work. Some people saw wealth as a possibility. Others saw an intimate relationship. I saw health. What I got as a possibility for myself and my life out of participating in Werner's work, was health / the possibility of being healthy / the possibility of standing for health. It wasn't a Laurence possibility per se. It was a possibility available to all human beings, not merely to Indian Americans. When we were asked to enter our possibility into the chat, I did so ... and was pleasantly surprised to notice how empowered it became when a group leader read it (and all the others) out loud for the entire group to listen (didn't the man promise "You can have anything you want for yourself and your life, that you invent as a possibility, and enroll others in your having gotten"?).

That's how I got to the possibility of standing for health. It's a possibility that's available for all human beings, no matter what group you're in or align with.

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