Lynne Twist

Everybody has milestones and epiphanies. Mine came in the EST training which I took in 1974 with Werner Erhard. It just revolutionized my life. I really came to understand that I could turn my life over to making a difference. That experience led me to be in the right place at the right time when The Hunger Project was born. I heard Werner Erhard say for the first time at a big meeting that he was taking a stand to end world hunger. My whole body started to shake, and I knew that that was why I was born, that that was what I came here to do. It was impractical because I was a very busy young mother, but it was a calling so remarkable that I could not deny it, and so I went with it. That’s what the EST training did for me; What was almost a split personality, between my spiritual path and my more public path, became one. I became fearless about living authentically after the EST training. Then The Hunger Project gave me the platform to express it.

Werner Erhard is a great thinker and genius in ontology, in the ontology of being, and training people in the principles of transformation. Buckminster Fuller was a great scientist and was one of the first people to really see a long-term breakdown that would come from unsustainable practices. He was an incredible man. When they met each other, they met in a setting and in a context that we helped to create, where they actually saw themselves in one another and saw a new future.

Out of that series of conversations with Buckminster Fuller and Werner Erhard, something called the Hunger Project was born. They actually saw that the greatest breakdown in human integrity was hunger. To let millions of people die of hunger in a world awash with food was an integrity issue, not a food issue and not a political issue, but an integrity issue.”

From an Interview with Lynne Twist
Lynne Twist, Soul of Money Institute, acknowledges her work with Werner Erhard in an inspiring interview.

Werner Erhard’s Influence: Individuals Making a Difference Worldwide

The est Training, created by Werner Erhard, inspired it’s participants to make a difference for people in all walks of life.  To fulfill the humanitarian motivations of these est graduates a number of non profit organizations were founded by Werner Erhard along with other original est staffers, notably Gonneke Spits. Through these non profit organizations,  literally hundreds of thousands of people illustrated  the power that “the little individual” could improve the conditions of people all around the world. ‘The Breakthrough Foundation‘ gave ‘Youths At Risk’ new opportunities in their lives, while also fostering and funding development in Africa. Millions of people committed themselves to working to end hunger throughout the world through ‘The Hunger Project‘ and its many offshoots.  The ‘Community Workshop’  gave ordinary people a new opportunity to contribute to their own communities.  These organizations, as well as the Werner Erhard Foundation, inspired est Training participants to go out and make a difference in their lives. They provided forums for individuals to make a difference worldwide. For more information about the Werner Erhard Foundation visit http://wernererhardfoundation.org.