Werner's Transformation 

Thanks for the feedback.

The section titled The era of the est training (1971 - 1984) says: He [Werner] started to see the world as perfect "the way it is" and reported an insight that his attempts to change or modify either his physical circumstances or his mental outlook had their basis in a conception of the world (that it should differ from "the way it is") that precluded or at least limited one's experiential and creative appreciation of it.

This attempts to describe a pivotal evet in Werner's life that he referrs to as a transformation. I felt that the description above fell way short of what it was that Werner has said he experienced. I'm not sure what the source of this material is. Describing an experience like this is exceedingly difficult. Seeing the world as perfect actually, I believe, was only a part of Werner's experience of transformation. Here is how Werner described it in his own words in the film Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard.

The way est happened was very simple. I had this transformational experience. I had a transformation. Whoever I had been up until that point I no longer was. I was on my way to work and there was nothing significant about it but I was on the Golden Gate Bridge. I just happened to be there and that's when I had the realization that what my life was about was really meaningless. It was empty. And this realization that the things that I thought were so significant like looking good and winning, just the normal things that most people think are important, that they really had no importance, that it was all empty and meaningless. When I broke through the sadness, broke through the sense of despair of having wasted my life, I all of a sudden realized "My God, I'm free." What's that mean to be free: free to choose, free to create a life that was worth living.

In order to describe it accurately why not quote Werner directly? I did my best to capture his words exactly as he spoke them. Is that considered a reliable source, given that it's a record of him speaking personally?

My purpose in posting this was to improve this section first for accuracy and second to elaborate in an event that was pivotal in his life.