Theism or Non-Theism: That is the Question

To Be-lieve or Not to Be-lieve. That is the question.

Also, it is the title of Mario Sikoras article in the January
2007 Enneagram Monthly. In that article, Mario asked why some people are the-
ists and others are not. Is it a choice? Is it the result of evolution? Is it adaptive or
maladaptive? Moreover, does it relate to enneatype? Marios handling of these and
other questions provides an opportunity to explore a variety of issues pertaining
to the enneagram and its place in the larger sweep of things.
In reading Marios article, I found myself in disagreement at many points. (So
what do you expect from a One?) Yet I commend his consistency, his breadth of
learning, his overall fairness. So I take aim not at him but at certain of the views
he expressed, and the non-theistic assumptions on which they are based.
As I see it, the divide between the views I hold and the views of others who
like Mario understand reality as delimited largely by empirical science, is this: I
believe in physics and metaphysics;
1
they believe in physics only. I locate truth in
the horizontal and vertical levels of reality; they confine truth to the horizontal
level only.
In harmony with a metaphysical view, my enneagram
anthropology employs both the horizontal and vertical or
higher and lower dimensions. I do not claim originality for this. Everyone
who speaks of essence and personality makes the same distinction. It is a dis-
tinction as old as the Upanishads, as old as Plato, as old as the Old Testament. It
distinguishes essence from personality, or spirit from psyche, or spirit
from soul. The terms are interchangeable. Though abandoned by materialists
and those influenced by them, it is a view yet to be disproved. It is simply
ignored.
In my books, I use a diagram to illustrate the triadic anthropology of the
enneagram (see page 17). It serves as both a schema and a symbol to represent the
basic constituents of the human person, these being spirit, soul and body. It rep-
resents not only these basic constituents but the several faculties operative in
them. For our purposes, we will address spirit and soul while dismissing any dis-
cussion of the body. Clearly, the body is important, and I have addressed its
importance at length elsewhere. Yet it is not rele- continued on page 16
Thomas Isham
Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your
Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success
(McGraw-Hill, April 07)
My new book on the Enneagram and leadership grew out of my 30 plus years
as an organization development consultant observing the critical role leadership
plays in creating productive, humane, and conscious organizations. For the past
two years, I have had the good fortune to work both intensively and extensively
with one such organization, and this book evolved from a leadership development
project in which my client asked for the creation of contemporary leadership
competencies and their integration with the Enneagram.
This article, the first of three for the Enneagram Monthly, contains the books
entire introductory chapter and excerpts from chapter 2, Drive for Results,
with examples taken from Enneagram Styles Three, Six, and Nine. Next month,
Part II provides excerpts from chapter 3, Strive for Self-Mastery, and highlights
Enneagram Styles Two, Five, and Eight. The following month, Part III includes
excerpts from chapter 7, Make Optimal Decisions with a focus on
Enneagram Styles Four, Seven, and One and the last few paragraphs from the
books conclusion, Stretch Your Leadership Paradigms.
Introduction
This book is about leadership success extreme success. Its about growing
by pushing your limits personally, professionally, and orga-
nizationally. Along the leadership path, you will encounter
numerous successes, but you may also face detours and challenges. Occasionally,
you may have to forge your own trail through seemingly impassable places. It
helps to take a cue from the sport of extreme mountain biking, where riders look
on such challenges as invigorating opportunities to discover their true capabilities.
I encourage you to keep that approach in mind as you work your way through
the core leadership competencies in this book, challenging yourself to become the
best leader you are capable of being.
Leadership excellence is one of the most critical challenges facing organiza-
tions today. Most top leaders leave their positions in three years or less under con-
ditions of duress, even when they have had highly successful track records in pre-
vious jobs. Companies across the globe are in leadership succession crises, trying
to find and/or develop sufficient leadership talent.
Why is it so difficult to find great leaders? One reason is that an individuals
prior leadership skills may not transfer to a new leadership position, company, or
industry. Another factor involves the demands placed on todays leaders. In a con-
stantly changing business environment, a global marketplace, and the need both
to get products to market quickly and to create sustainable organizations for the
long run, contemporary leaders are faced with confounding ambiguities and com-
peting priorities. However, perhaps the biggest continued on page 19
What Type of Leader are You? Part 1
Ginger Lapid-Bogda Ph.D.
Susan Rhodes to EM
Jack Labanauskas
page 4
the instincts
MarioSikora
page 5
the conversation #20
theusual suspects
page 10
IN THIS ISSUE
M.Goldberg s book review
Lynette Sheppard
page 18
E & prototype theory
SusanRhodes
page 10
March 2007
Issue 135
monthly
ennea
ennea
g
ram
enneagram monthly
2
march 2007
Until we accept the fact that life itself is
founded in mystery,
we shall learn nothing. ~ Henry Miller
For many years following his death in
Baltimore in 1849, Edgar Allan Poes grave
was unmarked and overgrown with weeds.
When his aunt and former mother-in-law
in Richmond, Virginia learned this, she dis-
patched a cousin to place a marker there.
This first marker was destroyed by a
derailed train before it could be placed, and
not until 1875 was there a marker appropri-
ate to the writer who would be hailed as the
father of the modern mystery and the
namesake of the Edgar Award for mystery
writing.
If Poe did not already have a middle
name, it could be mystery. Todays TV crime
scene investigators are the descendants of
Poes 19
th
century sleuth Auguste Dupin
who first appeared in Murders in the Rue
Morgue. And after more than a hundred years, peo-
ple remain intrigued with the contradictions and
inconsistencies surrounding Poes life, and even
more so, his death. The quick and dirty (and most
frequently told) story is that Poe stumbled into
Baltimore from Richmond either already drunk or
soon to be so, and that he died of the demon rum.
Many of his fans call this libel, offering other expla-
nations: cholera, an old brain injury, a new brain
injury, murder.
Here in Baltimore, we claim Edgar Allan Poe as
our own, although other cities dispute our claim.
The Edgar Allan Poe Society oversees the Poe House
and Museum, of which film actor Vincent Price,
star of many Poe adaptations said, This place gives
me the creeps. And every year since the 100
th
anniversary of Poes death on January 19, 1949, a
mysterious visitor known as The Poe Toaster
shows up at the authors grave. Cloaked in black, he
(there has never been any thought that the toaster is
not a man), places three red roses and a half-empty
bottle of cognac on the grave and vanishes into the
darkness.
The identity of The Poe Toaster remains a mys-
tery. In 1993, a cryptic note was found after the
visit. It said only, The torch will be passed, leaving
most of us to conjecture that the original toaster was
aging and less and less able to make his annual visit.
The Baltimore Sun has reported a later note that
said the man, who apparently died in 1998, had
handed the tradition down to his sons.
If you Google the Poe Toaster, youll read that he
comes, offers his gifts, and takes his leave unmolest-
ed because people respect the mystery. Only the
next day do the l ocal news sources reassure
Baltimoreans that the toaster has visited and all is
right in Westminster Churchyard for another year.
But you would not be getting the up-to-date
account. After 57
years of undisturbed
visits, an obnoxious,
nosy, rude, pushy
crowd gathered last
year in an attempt to
identify the toaster.
They were blessedly
unsuccessful.
Fifty-five peopl e
showed up this year,
and Jeff Jerome, Poe
curator, who has
seen the mysterious
visitor every January
19 since 1976, said
that he woul dnt
have shown up if
hed been the toaster
and laid eyes on that
crowd. But the toast-
er did show up, left
his gifts and man-
aged to take his leave
through another gate
as spectators rushed
the main gate to get
a l ook at him.
Although this years
crowd was wel l -
behaved, Jerome will
not give details of
the visittime of
arrival or clothingso as not to assist in identifying
the toaster.
I love this story. It seems to me that Ive always
known it. Although it didnt begin till I was in
kindergarten, I grew up with it, gradually gaining
details into adulthood and through the years I was
teaching Murders in the Rue Morgue and touting the
literary legacy of Poe to adolescents who were fasci-
nated by the real-life mystery of the toaster. I like to
think that I conveyed to them the beauty of the
mystery and that neither they nor their children are
among the irreverent rowdies who would unveil it. I
have no desire to see the toaster much less identify
him. I say let the mystery be.
What will happen if Baltimoreans (and maybe
CNN viewers, if its a slow news day) learn the iden-
tity of the toaster and that mystery is no more?
Worlds will not crumble, and no one will die who
would not have died anyway. Still, something is lost
when mystery goes away. Not everything can be
explained. Yes, its true. Not everything can be
explained, and thats one of the cruel realities of life
that Ive struggled with. I want to know what the
result is going to be before I take an action. I want
to know what is going to happen before it happens.
Please! Tell me the itinerary before we embark. Its
okay if it changes on the way, but Ill enjoy the trip
more if I have a sense of it before we start. Sure, Ill
be happy to help you, but could you explain to me
just what you want me to do and how its going to
help? Give me parameters. Give me context. Deliver
me from the unknown. But not from mystery. That
there is such a thing as mystery is reassurance. There
are some things that no mortal being can know.
Whew! Thank goodness! I thought it was me.
In one sense, embracing mystery prevents me
from having to explain. In a deeper sense, perhaps
mystery is related to acceptance. Acceptance. That
elusive state of being which has nothing to do with
approving or disapproving, nothing to do with any
judgment at all. Just what is. I accept that so much
about Poe is fraught with mystery. Thats easy. I can
accept that the toaster is a mystery. I delight in it.
Why anyone would feel compelled to unmask the
toaster takes mystery to another level for me. No
explanation about that can satisfy. Theres almost a
whole year to wait for those obnoxious, nosy, pushy
rowdies to show their smug faces once again. How
dare they!?! Im not making any promises, but I sup-
pose its remotely possible that by then, some accep-
tance of them will arise for me. So much, after all, is
mystery.
____________________
Ann Kirby is the president of EnnCourage, Inc.
in Baltimore, Maryland and is certified to teach the
Riso-Hudson Insight Approach

to the Enneagram
and is a member of the Enneagram Institute
Network. She started this column because so many
people asked her questions about Six. Shed love to
hear from you: 2043 E. Joppa Road #364,
Bal timore, MD 21234, 410. 663. 2587,
EnnCourageU@starpower.net
SixMix SixMix SixMix SixMix SixMix SixM
by Ann Kirby
M
Y
S
T
E
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E + G W = C
2
Enneagram + Gurdjieffs Work = Consciousness
2
!
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is a diagnosis of a sickness of the heart. By itself, it is mainly a
description of your problem, along with some side benefits of your type.
focuses on the three centers (thinking, feeling and doing). As
presented by Maurice Nicoll, it is a systemof principles and practices which is a
cure for the sickness the Enneagramdiagnoses and describes.
is what happens when you put them together. It brings
wholeness of soul, joy, inner peace, and true love.
When you decide to train with Kathy and Theodorre, this is
what you learn. It is the cornerstone of the
which we call
Level 1: The Enneagram of Transformation It is also the
reason a swan, symbol of spirituality, combines with the
Enneagramin our logo.
When you come to ERI training programs, you also experience deeper work
with the three centers and the nine types, video taped panels of all nine types, and
exercises which loosen your compulsions hold on you. Your active involvement is an
important part of the process. You receive complete course materials and
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Phone: Toll Free:
Website: E-mail:
enneagram monthly
3
march 2007
Susan Rhodes comes to the EM JackLabanauskas 4
Enneagram Monthly gets a head, heart and gut lift. Susan Rhodes brings talent, experience,
intellectual rigor, an open mind and good cheera rare combination of gifts indeed
The Instincts: Taking a Broader View MarioSikora 5
The biology of human nature. Often ignored, but at the root of who we are there is always
a biological explanation that supports and fleshes out the understanding of instincts.
The Enneagram and Prototype Theory SusanRhodes 9
What is typical, what is atypical. A brief exploration of natural categories, standard
exemplars and marginal others that seemingly do not fit in.
The Conversation #20 Carl Marsak, KirbyOlson, JackLabanauskas, 10
LizWagele&MarioSikora
Woes of institutes of higher education when they turn to lower indoctrination, from archetypes to
enneatypes, from conceptual to personal and from the secular to the metaphysical
enneagram monthly
March 2007
Enneagram Monthly
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Phone: 650-851-4806
Fax: 650-851-3113
e-mail: editor@ennea.org
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Volume 12, Number 10 Issue 135
SixMix: Mystery
Ann Kirby 2
Book Review
Travels of Odysseus by Michael Goldberg
Lynette Sheppard 17
Theism or Non-Theism: That is the Question Thomas Isham
A case for Intelligent Design. Reaching beyond the material world for answers to the
question that is beyond the material worldwhere else?
What Type of Leader are You? Identify and Ginger Lapid-Bogda
Grow Your Leadership Strengths to Achieve Success
How do we define.Leadership? Why do individuals prior leadership skills often have a hard time
transferring to a new leadership position, company, or industry?
ON THE COVER
FEATURES
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Visit our web site! www.ennea.org
Check out the updated Index by Author 1995- 2006
and the new Index by Subject 1995- 2006
enneagram monthly
4
march 2007
I
I
would like to welcome Susan Rhodes as staff
writer for Enneagram Monthly. This position
was pining to be filled for 12 yearswaiting
for someone who had a profound understanding of
human nature and the enneagram. Most of all,
someone who in spite of a penetrating familiarity
with the subject, or rather because of it, would have
a broad enough perspective and the ability to be
open to all points of view.
Susan became interested in the enneagram as an
extension of a broader interest in individual differ-
ences among people and the desire to understand
human motivation. Her research background in
cognitive psychology brings a high level of intellec-
tual rigor to her work. At the same time, her writing
is anything but dry.
Since the beginning of the Enneagram Monthly, I
have tried to create a publication that is daring,
occasionally iconoclastic, and always an independent
forum for intelligent discussion. However, I have
sometimes felt that our field was insufficiently broad
in some ways, and Ive always been interested in new
approaches to answer old questions.
With Susan I feel I have found a kindred spirit.
Her depathologizing approach introduces the idea
that type is more than just nine different varieties of
neuroses, egos, or limitations. It also reminds us that
theres more we can do with the enneagram than
simply discover our type.
Im sensitive to the typing issue because of my
personal difficulty in determining my own type. I
came to the enneagram fairly late in life, after a few
decades of seeking for answers in various ways
through meditation and through reading stuff like
Bhagavad Gita, and books by transpersonalists (e.g.
Ken Wilber and Chogyam Trungpa ). I also investi-
gated Taoist philosophy (particularly macrobiotics)
and studied divinatory techniques. In that sense I
was not a virgin when I first heard of the ennea-
gram.
When I was introduced to the enneagram by
John Fudjack, I was immediately electrified by the
inner cohesion of the description of the types. They
resonated deeply and each had the ring of truth.
However, although John is a sincere enneagram
scholar, he nevertheless mistyped me as a Five.
Could I be a Five? Perhaps. Some of the charac-
teristics fit well enough. But it depended which
period of my life I identified with. I found I could
relate with the qualities of most if not all of the
types. Taking tests, attending workshops and talking
to the authors did not clear things up. I seriously
tried on Types 5, 6 and 8, glad that at least I was not
a flaky and fraudulent Seven.
My smugness lasted until one day when Suzanne
Zuercher nailed me during a business lunch as a
Sevenperish the thought. Later, it was confirmed
by some highly authoritative enneagrammers.
Crestfallen, I slowly came around to accepting
defeat.
Seeing myself as a Seven was painful, but maybe
not for the reasons youd expect. Sure, I could see in
myself the Seven-ish behaviorsthe butterfly ten-
dencies, the overly-positive re-framing, the resis-
tance to routine, etc. This made me wince a little,
yes. But what was really tough was not what was
there, but what was missing. The Seven descriptions
captured my faults to a T, but somehow missed the
mark in describing certain key aspects of my inner
life.
Discovering my own type should have been a
liberating experience, but instead it produced in me
a sense of loss. Deep down, I felt I had an affinity
with all the types, and none of the descriptions of
my type really spoke to that feeling. I also had an
abiding interest in truth-seeking, and I didnt see
this reflected in descriptions of my type.
I was willing to look at the negatives of my own
type, but I wanted more than that. I wanted some-
thing substantive (positive?) to work with. Of
course, most enneagrammers would say I was just
being true to my types style. But was it just the
delusions of my type that inspired me to look
beyond the negative? Or was it something else?
I think the something else I was looking for
was a description of type and of the enneagram that
helped me work effectively within the framework of
my point of view. Not to get beyond my type, but
to get with it: to learn the particular way that a
Seven integrates all the nine types. But when type is
described mainly in negative terms, it blocks this
kind of integration. It confines our thinking to nar-
row channels.
One reason I began the Conversation two years
ago was to break out of those narrow confines. I
wanted to create a forum that would address basic
issues about the nature of who we are, how we live,
and what really matters. And the discussions have
been wide-ranging indeed. Sometimes we wander
far a field of the enneagram as we know it, but its
interesting to see how seemingly irrelevant discus-
sions often circle back around to the enneagram in
the end.
But even the Conversation didnt fully satisfy my
hunger for answers. I was still left with the feeling
that type and personality were not properly defined.
None of the books or articles I read quite hit the
nail on the head. Or it could have been that the
truth was there all along and I just didnt see itit
was as if there were a nuance missing. Until now.
Going through Susan Rhodes articles, I felt the
same ring of truth as in more innocent times over a
decade ago and before editing 135 issues of the
Enneagram Monthly. The material was fresh and
lively. It spoke to me of type in a way that I could
accept without a need to first overcome resistance.
Some of the concepts Susan discusses reminded
me of positions that I had encountered in
Advaita/Vedanta teachings. For example, the idea
that our personality is an integral part of our indi-
vidualitythat it is not something we can evolve
out of or get away from, no matter how integrated
we become. Also, that personality is neither a
pathology nor a barrier to spiritual development.
Seeing these ideas in print made me remember
all the questions Id had when I first encountered
the enneagram: How do you know youre a certain
type? How do you know there are just 9 types, not
10 or 11 or 12? What method do you use for typ-
ing a person? How does it work? Can you teach
it to me? Do different types use different meth-
ods? I wasnt satisfied with pat answersI wanted
the real scoop.
Everybody I asked seemed to have an answer, but
none of them completely satisfied me. So I kept ask-
ing questions, even starting this publication as part
of my search for answers. While its been a great
experience, its made me see that real diversity of
thought is hard to come byits easy to think weve
got a fresh approach only to discover that were end-
lessly recycling the old ones.
A fresh approach is what Susan brings to the
EM. Hers is an open-ended perspective, one that
invites readers to develop their own ideas. I hope her
articles will continue to open new doors and
encourage others to explore the enneagram in inno-
vative ways.
Susan Rhodes comes to the EM
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enneagram monthly
5
march 2007
T
T
he instincts are a topic of great interest in
the Enneagram community, but they often
seem to be misunderstood. Much of this
misunderstanding comes from a tendency of
Enneagram authors to be constrained by a spiritual
or psychological paradigm while ignoring the impli-
cations of biology on human nature. A greater
appreciation of evolutionary biology and cognitive
science will expand our understanding of the
instincts, and this article is an attempt to move the
conversation in that direction.
This article will make three main points:
1. There is a broader perspective on the instincts
that extends beyond the physical, and that the
instincts apply to both our genes and our ideas.
2. There is a natural progression of emphasis in
the instincts over the course of a lifetime, a progres-
sion from me to we.
3. There is a predictable ordering of the instincts
in each person.
Some background is in order, however, before
going into these points.
In an episode of the TV series Cosmos, Carl
Sagan discusses the information-containment capaci-
ty of genes, the brain, and culture. He makes the
point that the genome is the original and fundamen-
tal medium of data, passing the recipe for develop-
ment of an organisms structure and behavior from
one generation to another. The demands for more
and more data became greater as life evolved and
became more complex. This led to the evolution of
the central nervous system and the brain, the most
complex version of which exists between our ears.
Information that could not be stored in the genome
could be stored in the brain and nervous system.
Eventually, the ability of humans to communi-
cate led to sharing of useful information; our ances-
tors were then able to tell each other where they
could find water and food, exchange techniques for
hunting prey and escaping predators, etc.
Eventually, the individual brain was not up to the
task of storing all of the possible data that could be
shared. Another medium for data containment
became necessaryculture. Sagan makes a convinc-
ing argument that the artifacts of culturelibraries,
the arts, political systems, etc.are, in a sense, an
extension of the genome.
The capacity for symbolic thinking began taking
shape approximately 37,000 years ago. In time, this
ability led to the development of art and other non-
essential knowledge, but for the most part the storing
and passing of information was related to simple sur-
vival in the harsh environments our ancestors faced.
In addition to the capacity for storage, there must
be a mechanism for acting on the data. Our instincts
relate to the means by which this data is acted upon.
Instincts are non-conscious responses to envi-
ronmental stimuli. Generally, they are considered
to be heritable and non-alterable. That is, they are
passed through the genes and, in most organisms,
they cannot be resisted. They get passed along
from generation to generation because they serve
two fundamental purposes
1
: increasing the chances
of survival and replication.
2
Humans are slightly different from other organ-
isms: The development of our pre-frontal cortex
gives us our ability to reason and over-ride instinc-
tive impulses. Thus, it can be scientifically argued
that humans do not have instincts in the same way
that other creatures do. Humans are also different in
the sense that their ability to share information
through culture is far more sophisticated than any
other creature.
While we do behave in non-conscious, heritable
ways that increase chances of survival and replica-
tion, the ability to override impulses and share
information culturally broadens the scope of our
instinctual behavior.
3
It is this broader scope that must be looked at to
see the breadth of the instincts, how they influence
our behaviors and values, and how they interact
with our personality type.
Traditionally, the three instincts are called self-
preservation, social, and sexual or one-to-one.
These names, and the descriptions of the instincts
found in much of the literature, focus on only a
portion of what is going on in each of these
domains. In order to encompass a broader perspec-
tive on the instinct domains, I have found
The Instincts: Taking a Broader View
Mario Sikora
> > >
In the workshop you wiII Iearn about:
The Instincts-hoh-cohscious drives
IhaI urge us Io saIisIy our heeds, shape
our values, ahd ehsure Ihe survival oI
our gehes ahd our memes
The Strategies-Ihe habiIual Ihemes oI
how we go abouI saIisIyihg our heeds
ahd ihIeracIihg wiIh Ihe world
The Awareness to Action Process-a
simple buI highly eIIecIive way oI creaIihg
chahge based oh Ihe laIesI Iihdihgs abouI
Ihe way Ihe braih really works
Participants wiII take away:
Ah uhdersIahdihg oI The Sikora SIraIegy
Model oI Ihe ehheagram IhaI has proveh
eIIecIive wiIh huhdreds oI busihess
execuIives
ExIehsive Iraihihg maIerials ahd
PowerPoihI slides you cah use Io
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enneagram monthly
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
71 61 85 50 72 59 56 98 56
0
20
40
60
80
100
9
1
2
3
4 5
6
7
8
Peaceful
Perfect
Connected
Outstanding
Unique
Powerful
Excited
Secure
Detached
Enneagram Types Chart
Preserving Navigating Transmitting
35 92 65
0
20
40
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Preserving
Navigating Transmitting
Instinct Types Chart
Take the Sikora SPI today
at www.breckenridgeinstitute.com online store
enneagram monthly
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march 2007
it necessary to change the traditional names of the
instincts when I teach them to my clients.
The Three Domains
It is common to think about the instincts as three
monolithic drives in the Enneagram world. This
view misses the mark; there are not three instincts,
there are many instincts that cluster into three gener-
al groups or domains.
2
Each of these domains com-
prises a variety of specific drives that increase chances
of survival, replication, or both. They do not merely
increase chances of survival and replication of genes,
however; they also increase the chances of survival
and replication of units of cultural data, what Richard
Dawkins referred to as memes.
4
Memes are any
pieces of non-physical data that passes from one
mind to anotheran idea, a tune, a belief, etc.
Jingles or catch-phrases are examples of simple, virus-
like memes; religions or political systems are exam-
ples of more complex memes.
Where the traditional view of the instincts is
generally focused on the survival and replication of
the individual, the gene, or the species, the view
espoused here expands to include survival and
reproduction of memes as well. In other words, we
use the same instinctive patterns to maintain and
pass along our ideas and artifacts as we do to main-
tain and pass along our genetic selves.
Thus the traditional names, especially self-
preservation and sexual are inadequate because
they do not include memetic survival and reproduc-
tion. (The more-politically correct one-to-one
likewise only captures only a sliver of what occurs in
this domain. This term has the added disadvantage
of confusing people, making many think this
instinct is dominant in them because the prefer
one-to-one encounters to encounters with a
group. The truth is, everyone prefers one-to-one
encounters.)
We must also recognize the fact that our expres-
sion of the instincts evolves over the course of our
lifetime, and this evolution occurs in a biologically
logical pattern, moving from a literal and self-focused
version to a more metaphorical and other-focused
version. With normal development over the course of
a life our concerns move from me to we.
Lets look at each instinct domain.
The Preserving Instinct (aka self-preser-
vation)
Youll appreciate this someday, once youre old
and your memories have faded.
Tanya Sikora, to her frequently under-appreciative
husband.
My wife, a Preserving Seven, is an almost-obses-
sive photographer of our three young sons. Every
milestone of their development is captured in both
still photographs and video. No, this is an under-
statementan image from almost every day of their
lives has been captured and stored. The photos are
lovingly placed in photo albums (purchased in
bulk), the videos are clearly labeled and dated; all are
kept safe in boxes in the basement. This behavior
has nothing to do with self -preservation, but has
everything to do with preservation.
Yes, the instincts found in this domain serve to
preserve the individual. People in whom this instinct
is dominant
5
are focused on their physical comfort
and well-being and on matters concerning resources.
This focus increases the likelihood of survival of the
individual, and thereby increases the likelihood of
survival and replication of the gene (in other words,
if you live longer, you are more likely to reproduce).
Humans live well beyond traditional reproduction
stages, however, and this is where the other or
we focus of the preservation instinct comes into
play: the instinct applies to the preservation of other
things: offspring, traditions, artifacts, etc.
People with a dominant Preservation instinct
tend to be protectors of the things that can be
passed from one generation to anotherpictures,
heirlooms, religious or family rituals, etc. They not
only focus on their own physical well-being, but on
the well-being of those they care about, prodding
them to exercise, eat right, save their money, etc.
They prefer durable and practical resources to
ephemeral resources, wanting to get their moneys
worth by purchasing things that will last and can be
passed down to future generations.
This instinct domain assists in the preservation
and protection of memes and preservation types
tend to be conservative in the broadest sense of the
word: resisting change and holding onto the memes
that have stood the test of time.
The Navigating Instinct (aka Social)
For decades, the reigning view had been that
hunting prowess and the ability to vanquish com-
petitors was the key to our ancestors evolutionary
success.. Instead, they rel[ied] on their wits and,
especially, their social skills to survive.
Sharon Begley
7
Weve tended to view our ancestors ability to
survive and thrive on their ability to be the hunter
who preyed on others, using their superior intelli-
gence to trap and kill creatures that were far more
powerful than them. This dominance is a late devel-
opment, however, and our earlier ancestors were
more likely to be the dinner than the diner at the
carnivore buffet. For example, Australopithecus
afarensis, an early relative to us humans commonly
known as Lucy, was a comparatively small creature
who climbed up trees to escape predators and sur-
vived on fruits and nuts rather than burgers.
Our ancestors were prey animals, and prey ani-
mals tend to be social animals because cooperation
and alignment enhances their chances of survival.
The social behaviors that allowed our earliest ances-
tors to survivenamely collaboration, empathy, and
cooperationbecame the origin of human nature.
(Those who dont understand evolution in gener-
al and Darwins phrase survival of the fittest in
particular have a difficult time understanding how
evolution can account for cooperation, self-sacrifice,
altruism, etc. This is a non-problem; fittest refers
to appropriateness or fitness for a given set of envi-
ronmental demands. Natural selection, in a species
dependent on cooperation for survival, would favor
these qualities in individuals and their genes would
be more likely to be passed along, making that qual-
ity take root in future generations of the species.
The finer aspects of human nature are just as
embedded in our genes as the coarser aspects.)
Thus, an instinct domain developed that was just
as critical as fundamental to survival as preservation
and reproduction: a domain for instincts for relating
to the group. Social is a technically appropriate
term for the focus of this instinct domain, but it
tends to be confusing in general usage. We tend to
think that people in whom this instinct is dominant
are outgoing and gregarious, liking to be around and
interact with other people. This is only partially cor-
rect: this domain is really about the workings of the
group and our ability to successfully navigate them;
to create alignment with those who can protect us
and behave in ways that will make us acceptable to
others. It is about figuring out where we fit into the
hierarchy; monitoring the behavior of others and
establishing norms and mores; and presenting our-
selves in socially acceptable ways.
I referred to it as orienting to the group in an
earlier article
2
but I believe that navigating is a
more accurate label for this instinct domain since it
is all about making ones way through the world,
especially in relationship to others.
As far as memes are concerned, the focus of the
Navigating type is on evaluating and positioning
units of culture. Which memes deserve to be passed
along? How can they be presented in the best possi-
ble light? This is the world of criticism (passing judg-
ment and weeding out ineffective ideas) and market-
ing (presenting the memes so they will survive the
test of societal acceptance).
The Transmitting Instinct (aka sexual or
one-to-one)
I have to tell everyone about, bout, bout
myself.
1 Giant Leap, Braided Hair
This line is recited over a scratching turntable on
the album 1 Giant Leap, an exploration of world
music, just before Speech and Neneh Cherry break
into a swooping rap about identity and destiny as
uplifting and sacred as anything to be found in
church, and its funky to boot. I quote it here
because the line, and the song, represents much of
whats at the heart of this instinct domain: the drive
to spread a part of oneself beyond oneself.
Among the definitions of transmit are to send
or convey from one person or place to another and
to convey by or as if by inheritance or heredity,
and this domain comprises instincts that result in
the reproduction or replication of our genes and our
memes.
Again, the standard language is inadequate.
Biologically speaking, sex is a very specific form or
reproduction. The word sexual refers to things relat-
ed to the sex act or to the two sexes. While sex is at
the heart of some of the instincts in this domain, it is
only one means to a broader endreplication. Other
instincts in the domain focus on one-to- > > >
there are not three instincts,
there are many instincts that
cluster into three general
groups or domains
enneagram monthly
8
march 2007
one, intimacy issues. They push us closer to other
individuals, seeking deep connection (which makes it
easier to transmit). Both terms capture part of the
domain, but not the whole, and they completely
miss the element of memetic reproduction.
This domain also includes behaviors related to
attracting attention to ourselves. It is our drive to
dress up, put on jewelry, and preen for others; it is the
drive to draw attention to ourselves; it is the drive to
step up on a soapbox and make our voice heard.
This is also the domain that includes our
instincts related to issues of legacy: what do we leave
behind? What will people remember about us? How
will we have helped to shape the future? It would
also seem that the genesis of creativity lies in this
domainthe act of generating something new
7
and project it out into the world is very much an act
of replication and transmission.
Ennea-type and Instinct
There are many ways to describe the intersection
of Ennea-type and instinct. In l ast months
Enneagram Monthly Susan Rhodes identified a com-
prehensive list archetypal images for each of the 27
subtype variations (nine types multiplied by three
instincts). Others use single words or short phrases
to describe each variation.
These methods can be very rich and instructive,
but they can also be difficult to remember because
they typically require memorization of 27 different
labels. The descriptors I use tie the instinct and
Ennea-type in a simpler way.
First, we have to understand the relationship
between instinct and Ennea-type: Simply put, the
instinct is what drives our desires; our Ennea-type is
how we go about satisfying those desires. This is why I
use the term strategy in referring to what is the
core of type: Ennea-type is not what we are like; it
is how we go about things. Ennea-type is not so
much rooted in motivation as it is in approach.
Motivation is more tied to the instincts.
The chart in Figure One gives a simple descrip-
tor for each of the 27 subtype variations that com-
bines instinct and strategy. The terms used here are
not as evocative, perhaps, as some of the other
descriptors of the subtypes, but they are simple and
logical and they have great inferential power. In
other words, one can infer a great deal from the
descriptors once one understands the concepts of
the strategies and the instincts.
Ordering of the Instincts (aka Stacking)
Finally, a few words about the ordering of the
instincts, which is commonly referred to as stack-
ing. I avoid the term stacking because the rela-
tionship of the instincts to each other is not as sim-
ple as one instinct is dominant, one is secondary,
and the third has less influence on us. Instead, one
instinct is so dominant in us that it informs almost
everything that we do; it is the water we swim in,
and we are so immersed in it that we tend not to
even notice it as we happily go about our day. (At
times of stress, however, our attention becomes
more focused there as we look for something to
grasp to make us feel more grounded, and when an
instinctive need is being impeded it will cause psy-
chological dissonance. Most of the time, however,
we act out our instincts unconsciously and on
autopilot.)
A second instinct tends to be an area of some
inner conflict; it drives us in certain ways, but it
also causes us a degree of angst (in a sense, the sec-
ondary instinct is adolescent territory, we are
drawn there but feel insecure and resistant at the
same time). The third instinct tends to be underde-
veloped; we tend to overlook the important lessons
found in this domain, but we also typically dont
have much angst there.
This may seem like a controversial statement in
some corners of the Enneagram world, but there is
a predictable ordering of the instincts.
People with a dominant Preserving instinct tend
to have a secondary Navigating instinct. They may
appear socially comfortable and have a desire to be
part of the group, but inside they are uncomfort-
able and they often doubt their ability to successful-
ly satisfy social demands. They show concern for
others but often dont feel like they understand the
rul es and feel l i ke they dont fi t i n. Thei r
Transmitting instinct is the least developed; they
typically demonstrate little interest in drawing
attention to themselves, standing out, or showcas-
ing their abilities.
People with a dominant Navigating instinct
tend to have a secondary Transmitting instinct.
They want to be noticed but tend to be leery of
anything that seems to be too flashy or self-promo-
tional; they often display ambivalence about broad-
casting their viewsletting loose in some circum-
stances and holding back in others; and they want
to get close to people but resist efforts of others to
get too close too fast. Their Preserving instinct is
the least developed; they typically demonstrate
insufficient interest in their health and comfort and
often have less respect for tradition than others
might.
People with a dominant Transmitting instinct
tend to have a secondary Preserving instinct. They
tend to be good at accumulating resources, but they
can be i mpul si ve i n thei r spendi ng of those
resources; they focus on their health but push
themselves hard and neglect it; they respect tradi-
tion but may upend it. Their Navigating instinct is
the least developed; they tend to focus on broad-
casting their views and often lack the inner radar
necessary for picking up social cues from others.
Figure Two shows the ordering of the instincts.
There is still much to learn about the instincts,
and many of those revelations will come from a
deeper understanding of biology and neuroscience.
I encourage the reader to view the instincts from
this broader perspective and watch the interplay of
type and instinct in his or her own life.
__________
Mario Sikora is the author of Awareness to
Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and
Change and co-creator of the Sikora SPI
TM
Enneagram type and instinct indicator. We can be
reached at Mario@sikoraspi.com.
Notes:
1
To speak of purpose in relation to evolution
or instinct is somewhat misleading. Evolution is not
conscious or directed (and it is certainly not intel-
ligent); it is adaptive and responsive to environmen-
tal conditions that are complex and unpredictable.
Instincts have no purpose in the sense of an end
to be attained; they produce a result that leads to
their continuation. Language is limited, however,
and purpose will have to suffice.
2
See the article The Notes and the Melody,
Part III on my website at
http://www.mariosikora.com/articles.html for
more on how the instincts enhance survival and
reproduction.
3
I must credit my associate, Mark Bodnarczuk,
for forcing me, in the face of much resistance, to
see the instincts from this broader perspective.
4
See Dawkins The Selfish Gene and Susan
Blackmores The Meme Machine for more on this
idea. The term meme has also been appropriated
by the Spiral Dynamics movement, but the concept
is not the same.
5
It should go without saying that we all have all
of the instincts; we are focused here on preponder-
ance rather than exclusivity.
6
Begley, Sharon, Beyond Stones and Bones,
Newsweek, March 19,2007, p. 56.
7
It would be difficult to find any act of creation
that is not a reflection of its creator.
Figure One: The 27 Subtypes
Preserving Instinct Navigating Instinct Transmitting Instinct
Type One: Striving to be Perfect Perfect Preservation Perfect Navigation Perfect Transmission
Type Two: Striving to be Connected Connected Preservation Connected Navigation Connected Transmission
Type Three: Striving to be Outstanding Outstanding Preservation Outstanding Navigation Outstanding Transmission
Type Four: Striving to be Unique Unique Preservation Unique NavigationUnique Transmission
Type Five: Striving to be Detached Detached Preservation Detached Navigation Detached Transmission
Type Six: Striving to be Secure Secure Preservation Secure Navigation Secure Transmission
Type Seven: Striving to be Excited Excited Preservation Excited NavigationExcited Transmission
Type Eight: Striving to be Powerful Powerful Preservation Powerful Navigation Powerful Transmission
Type Nine: Striving to be Peaceful Peaceful Preservation Peaceful Navigation Peaceful Transmission
Figure Two:
The Ordering of the Instincts

Navigating Transmitting
Preserving
enneagram monthly
9
march 2007
H
H
ow do we determine our enneagram type?
Why is it easier for some people than oth-
ers? These two questions have been
knocking around since people started using the
enneagram to better understand themselves.
EM editor Jack Labanauskas recently raised the
question again. Like many people, Jack did not find
it easy to determine his enneagram type. If the
enneagram is based on a real construct, and if the
enneagram is universally applicable, why do some
people find it harder to determine their type than
others?
In this article, Ill try to offer one possible answer
to that question. Its not the only possible answer,
but its an intriguing one.
The answer is based on prototype theory.
Prototype theory was developed by cognitive psy-
chologist Eleanor Rosch in the 1970s as a way of
explaining how people categorize information.
Rosch was especially interested in what she called
natural categoriescategories that occur in nature
or that are a familiar part of our daily life. Natural
categories include things like types of plants, ani-
mals, cars, foods, toys, and colors.
According to Rosch, all members of a natural
category are not created equal in the perceptual
sense. Some are seen as more central or typical than
others. For example, in the case of the category
Birds, which is a better example or a bird, a robin
or a penguin? The vast majority of people say
robin (unless theyre trying to be funny or
provocative!) If you ask them why they said robin,
they can give you lots of reasons whythat a robin
flies, eats worms, constructs ordinary-looking nests,
lives in trees, etc. Penguins do none of these things
(plus, most of us dont see them around much). As a
result, robins seem birdier than penguins or
ostriches.
Robins are an example of a prototypethat is, a
member of a category that is central or definitive.
Prototypes provide the standard or exemplar by
which other category members are measured. Other
examples of prototypes include table for the cate-
gory Furniture or oak for the category Tree.
Less prototypical category members (for example,
tomato for the category Fruit) are assigned cate-
gory membership either with greater hesitation or
with qualifications.
We can apply Roschs insights about prototypes
to the enneagram. If enneagram types are really uni-
versal, then one each is a natural category. So we
have nine natural categories, each of which reflects a
unique core motivation. For each core motivation,
its possible to generate a list of attributes and behav-
iors that are typically associated with that motiva-
tion. Everybody who studies the enneagram soon
becomes familiar with the most well-known attrib-
utes and behaviors associated with each type. While
authors may argue about the fringe attributes,
they mostly agree with one another when it comes
to behaviors that are most prototypical. We also
know that none of these typical attributes actually
define the typeeach one reflects but one of its
many possible facets.
However, the way that we typically identify our
own type is not by looking directly at our core moti-
vation (which would be difficult), but at our attrib-
utes and behaviors. We compare these with those
listed for each type. If we find a really good match,
we believe weve found our type. (Im oversimplify-
ing here a little, because sometimes it takes a while
to really pin the type down, but this is the basic
process that I see people use.)
Now we know that some people find this much
easier than others. They read the enneagram descrip-
tions once and immediately identify themselves as a
particular type. This was my experience. I read
Suzanne Zuerchers book on Thomas Merton (a
Four), and realized that I must be the same ennea-
gram type. There were just too many uncanny simi-
larities (many of which, unfortunately, made me
more than a little uncomfortable).
I initially thought that everybody had the same
experience. Later, I realized this wasnt so. I met a lot
of people who had trouble recognizing their type,
even after lots of reading and workshops. They just
couldnt match their experience of themselves with
the enneagram descriptions they read. Others had
no trouble making an initial decision about their
type, but later changed their mind, even after years
of living at the wrong point.
One possible explanation for a persons inability
to pin down their
type is that the ennea-
gram is not a univer-
sal system (that is
applies to some peo-
ple but not to every-
one). Another is that
some peopl e have
more insight (or fewer
defense mechanisms)
than others. But a
thirdand more
intriguingpossibili-
ty is that some people
of a given type exhibit
behavior thats very
typical (even stereo-
typical) while others
do not. The core
motivation is identi-
cal, but in the latter
case, its reflected in
behaviors that are
unusual, unexpected,
or atypical. When this
is the case, it can
become tough to link
behavior to motiva-
tion. If we combine
this atypicality with
other factorse.g.,
other interior influ-
ences from wings,
connecting points and
subtypes or from exterior influences from parents
and culturethe picture can become pretty muddy.
Its not that individuals who are atypical exemplars
have less insight or cant be typedits just that the
typing process needs to be adapted to take into
account these atypicalities. Also, its possible that
while individuals who are atypical exemplars are
subject to the identical motivational influences as
more prototypical exemplars, the motivation may
carry a lot more weight with the latter.
These are questi ons that have yet to be
answered. It would be interesting, however, to talk
with both individuals who have had difficulty typ-
ing themselves or who have switched types to
find out whether some of their typing difficulties
are because thei r core moti vati on i s ei ther
expressed in unusual behavior or is hard to detect
because its not as strong an influence. Prototype
theory offers an interesting jumping off point for
further explorations.
___________
References
Lakoff, G. (1987): Women, fire and dangerous
things: What categories reveal about the mind,
London.
Rosch, E. (1973). Natural categories, Cognitive
Psychology 4, 328 - 350.
Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_Theory).
The Enneagram & Prototype Theory
Susan Rhodes
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enneagram monthly
10
march 2007
The Conversation #20
Carl Marsak: I am going to call this response to
Kirby Olsons heartfelt submission in last months
EM: The Shadow of the Academy. So then, what
to do about the closed six mentality prevalent in
the academy today? And related to this, was the
academy at its inception a Sixish institution? I think
so, given that Socrates was almost certainly a Six,
with his insistent, probing questioning of anything
and everything. In the previous conversation, Kirby
spoke about the hijacking (my word) of academic
departments by Sixes/Marxists, and because of my
own experiences his words struck a powerful, reso-
nant and painful chord. This phenomenon is not
limited to English departments of course. My old
Social and Cultural Anthropology department at the
California Institute of Integral Studies in San
Francisco was founded in the 1980s by a woman
whom I believe is probably a Fourthoughtful and
sensitive, deeply empathic to other cultural realities,
creative and artisticand was later taken over by a
Indian professor who married into the department,
Angana P. Chatterji, a woman whom, I believe, can
only be a strongly Counter-phobic 6, and who
brings all sorts of feminist, Marxist, post-colonial,
post-structuralist, and post-modern ideologies and
projects to the anthropological table.
The program now trains social activists more
than anthropologists, which of course is not an
entirely bad thing. But I do wonder if that is real-
ly the higher purpose of the academy, at least as it as
was originally envisioned by Socrates, Plato and later
Aristotle. Certain subtleties and nuances, certain
emotional and artistic sensibilities common to the
Arts and Letters, to what we know as the
Humanities, get left out in the process. For example,
here is part of the departmental statement that I just
took off the CIIS website:
Graduate studies in Social and Cul tural
Anthropology focus on issues of contemporary cul-
tural critique, development, globalization, identity
politics, nation-building, and environmental racism.
The programs emphasize a rigorous research cur-
riculum within the framework of advocacy, as well
as participatory and emancipatory research.
Students engage critical perspectives, including post-
colonial, subaltern, feminist, and poststructuralist,
in order to build capacity for leadership
and create knowledge that challenges dom-
inant systems of truth.
Hmm what I find sad is that anthro-
pology is one of the fields that I think
could most usefully study and utilize
insights and wisdom from the Enneagram.
After all, it seems to be the case that any
well established entity or polity, large
(nation-state) or small (family or village)
will eventually constellate a recognizable
Enneatype Structure. When we integrate
an awareness of emic perspective (under-
standing a culture from the inside out),
and cultural ethos (a coherent, and usually
unconscious, system of values and princi-
ples, beliefs and behaviors, that undergird a
society), with knowledge of Enneatype
then we begin to have a useful methodolo-
gy for listening to and understanding
(rather than aggressively and prematurely
challenging) dominant systems of truth.
Perhaps with this new awareness and some
gentle (non-violent, non-revolutionary,
non-Marxist) prodding constructive
changes will follow.
To continue, between 1999 and 2002 I
watched my Religious Studies department
at NYU get taken over by Angela Zito,
another professor whom I am convinced is
a Counter-phobic Six. She was my advisor
and we had a wonderful relationship, and
she has done some really fine work bring-
ing together Media Studies and Religion,
etc., so I dont want to say anything too
negative, but it was interesting to watch
and feel how the department changed as it
became colored by her critical, cynical,
challenging and often reductionistic take
on religiosity and spirituality (she once
told me that her teaching style was to det-
onate intellectual hand grenades in the
psyches of her students in order to decon-
struct their old cognitive structures and
ways of thinking, in order to
Carl Marsak
> > >
Kirby Olson
Jack Labanauskas
Mario Sikora
Liz Wagele
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open up space for new ideas to emerge and take
hold!). The best pomo (post-modern) term for this
outlook and approach is a hermeneutics of suspi-
cion. Couple this with attempts to bring empiri-
cist, positivist, reductionist, materialist, and social-
scientific methodologies to the study of religion and
we have some formidable obstacles and opponents!
Kirby says that he thought it would be easy to
infiltrate the Laestrygonians [the Sixes/Marxists] and
restore a sense of humor and balance, and to remind
them that literature is first about beauty. Well, I
likewise tried to introduce discussions about the
Enneagram into the Religion department (you
would have thought they would have been at least a
bit interested, given the spiritual background of the
diagram)but to absolutely no avail (although
many of my undergraduate students were actually
quite open to the system). Perhaps we need to infil-
trate (a lovely word that the Tibetan teacher
Chogyam Trungpa used to use in reference to his
students shedding their hippie garb, getting an edu-
cation, growing up and trying to then influence
society from the inside out, often surreptiously) in
different ways? Perhaps by simply refusing to get
involved in simplistic, dualistic and projective theo-
rizing, writing and behaving (cf. Sam Keens book
Faces of the Enemy for the psychodynamics of this
phenomenon, and how it leads to collective vio-
lence)? I have no easy answers, only similar frustra-
tions. It strikes me that Comparative Religion is yet
another field that could usefully appropriate the
Enneagram as alchemical agent for higher reflection,
analysis, and consciousness raising. Imagine how
much insight could come out of the analysis of reli-
gious beliefs, desires and practices coupled with
knowledge of Enneatype structures and dynamics.
Anyway, Kirby, you have my profound sympa-
thies! And you are a more courageous person and
thinker than myself, for I decided as long ago as my
undergraduate days at U.C. Santa Barbara to step
out of the academy for good (which involved a lot
of soul-searching, as my Jewish father is a retired
Professor Emeritus in History), knowing that I
would only be stymied in my attempts to integrate
the Arts and Sciences, Ego and Archetype, Body,
Mind and Spirit. The cultural historian and ecolo-
gist William Irwin Thompson has always been one
of my heroes because, after having had several spiri-
tual openings in the 1960s, he dared to leave a rising
career in the academy in the early 1970s and strike
out on his own as a writer, speaker and intellectual.
One way or another though, inside or outside
the walls of the academy, it is time to begin applying
Enneagram insights and understandings to other
disciplines in rigorous ways. It seems to me that one
phase of Enneagram Studies is rapidly winding
down, that of fleshing out the phenomenology, psy-
chodynamics and spiritual potentials of the nine
types. This has been going on now for a good, solid
generation, since at least 1984, which is the publica-
tion date of The Enneagram: A Journey of Self
Discovery, by Beesing, Nogosek, and OLeary. I
have been to four out of the l ast seven IEA
Conferences, and quite frankly, there is not much
new being presented in these areas, with the possible
exception of the work of A.H.Almaas and Sandra
Maitri, and some of the subtype research by people
like Peter OHanrahan. The most interesting and
useful workshops are those that could be considered
representatives of Applied Enneagram Studies: The
Enneagram and Coupl es Counsel ing, the
Enneagram and Dying, the Enneagram and
Education, etc.
To return to the opening lines, what we have
been seeing on campuses since the radicalization of
pedagogy during the 1960s and 1970s, especially in
the areas of Feminist Studies, Critical Studies,
Cultural Studies, Post-modern Studies, and Post-
colonial Studies, but also in English, Religion and
Anthropology departments is an instantiation (to
use a pomo term) and expression of the shadow side
of the academy, which can be connected back to
psychological and unsavory characteristics of
Enneatype Six. What to do about the closed six
mentality? Refuse to play the game? Otherwise our
alterity (a pomo term that signifies a combination of
otherness and subjectivity) will become marginalized
and rendered irrelevant, or brutalized and rendered
damaged. In this regard, I am going to close with a
quote from one of my all time favorite continental
philosophers and psychoanalysts, Luce Irigaray:
The other cannot be transformed into dis-
course, fantasies, or dreams. It is impossible for me
to substitute any other, thing or god, for the other
because of this touching of and by him, which my
body remembers. To each wounding separation, I
would answer by refusing the holocaust while silent-
ly affirming, for myself and for the other, that the
most intimate perception of the flesh escapes every
sacrificial substitution, every assimilation into dis-
course [including, of course, Marxist], every surren-
der to the God this memory of the > > >
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Kirby Olson: Wow, Carl Marsaks reply in terms
of academia was astonishing. I often have the feeling
that I am the only person in academia who feels the
way that I do. Its great what Carl writes that the
academy under Socrates and Plato was already sixish
(although I would counter in saying that I think
that Aristotle was more of a five). In my case its not
so much courage about staying in its despera-
tion. I felt that the cultural milieu of Seattle was so
saturated with leftist sixish thought that there was
no escape from it. I spent twenty or thirty years
swimming in that muck to try to find the plug that
would drain the swamp. I think the enneagram is
somehow the right tool, or at least a useful tool in
terms of thinking about the problems at hand. But
thats as far as I am. Thanks to Carl Marsak for giv-
ing me a sense that I might have been right. It will
take hundreds of us working together to pull that
giant Marxist plug loose, I think.
Jack Labanauskas: Carl, you say that, Socrates
was almost certainly a Six, with his insistent, prob-
ing questioning of anything and everything. This
describes the alert aspect of sixness which leads to
insights and wisdom. Kirby mourns the absence of
such.
I suppose there is pretty much a consensus that
none of the nine types is inherently more or less
pathological than another and that Enneagram type
generally refers to a particular style of motivation
that influences our process rather than predicts an
end result.
The laments coming from the thinking contin-
gent in academia are about the organized touchi-
ness, the joke police, the seeking safety in bland
solemnity. The paranoia of being accused of big-
otryof having asserted, suggested, or said things
that might possibly be construed to imply anything
that the hair-triggered I am offended minions find
prejudicialIts no use saying youre not prejudiced;
thats what bigots always saybesides, bigotry may
be unconscious, how would you know?
Genuine curiosity and joy of learning need an
atmosphere of freedom. Why else do about 90% of
all inventions, patents and innovations historically
come from free societies?
If there was a polarity aspect to freedom, I would
say that fear is its antidote; and too many folks in
academia chose to trade expressing ideas freely for
the job security the education establishment offers.
Carl Marsak: Im going to call this response to
Susan Rhodes articl e on l ife paths and the
Enneagram, Enneatype as Archetype.
The archetype provides the creative energy she
needs to participate in life; in effect, it sponsors her
trip to Earth. The individual reciprocates by ground-
ing the energy of the archetype by expressing it in her
daily life. When it works the way its supposed to,
theres a figure-8 flow of energy between the archetypal
world and the physical world. Life becomes infused
with magic and light.
Susan Rhodes, Jan. 2007 EM, p. 14
The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
Unknown
First let me say that quite independently of
Susans research, I also have been doing an enor-
mous amount of thinking and writing recently
about the intersection of Jungian and Archetypal
Psychology and the Enneagram, and came to pretty
much the same ideas and conclusions. However, I
dont think that I could have expressed them any
more creatively and eloquently than did Susan. She
has done a marvel ous job integrating the
Enneagram, archetypes and the idea of Life Paths or
Dharma. I find her understanding and perspective
refreshing and stimulating, a necessary corrective
and balance point to the work of people like
Claudio Naranjo. I should say that, unlike most of
my friends, I actually adore Claudios work, and
often return to his psychiatrically informed bible
Character and Neurosis: an Integrative View.
Although they can be hard to read and let in, I find
that his brutal analysis of how our character type
trips us up and perpetuates ontic obscuration keep
me honest about the state of my own (Ken Wilbers
term) lines of development. And yet, and yet
something is being left out, in content and tone or
flavor. Something softer and more gentle, more aes-
thetic and colorful, juicy and rich
As I shared in one of my first articles for the EM,
when I finally typed myself in 1993 I suffered a very
strange mixture of elation and depression. Others
have reported similar affects. Much has been written
about the depressing aspects of coming to type, of
working with and attempting to transform type. On
the other hand, precious little has been written and
shared about the positive aspects of the typing
process. Personally, for me it felt like an enormous
relief, a coming home. There was a sense of excite-
ment that, whereas I was now obviously limited in
this lifetime by type, this structural limitation also
gave me definition and direction. I had already been
reading Jungian materials, and now I threw myself
into not only a general study of archetypes and the
collective unconscious, but also what I believed to
be the Greek myth most closely corresponding to
my own issues and difficulties as an Enneatype 7:
the myth of Dionysos. This process got triggered by
reading one of Jungs most famous quotes:
I was driven to ask myself in all seriousness:
what is the myth you are living? I found no answers
to this question, and had to admit that I was not liv-
ing with a myth, or even in a myth, but rather in an
uncertain cloud of theoretical possibilities which I
was beginning to regard with increasing distrust. I
did not know that I was living a myth, and even if I
had known it, I would not have known what sort of
myth was ordering my life without my knowledge.
So, in the most natural way, I took it upon myself to
get to know my myth, and I regarded this as the
task of tasks, forso I told myselfhow could I,
when treating my patients, make due allowance for
the personal factor, for my personal equation, which
is yet so necessary for a knowledge of the other per-
son, if I was unconscious of it. I simply had to know
what unconscious or preconscious myth was form-
ing me, from what rhizome I sprang.
So I researched, copied and collected, and read as
many versions of the myth (actually there are two
expressions of this God, first as Dionysos Zagreus
and the later Dionysos who went crazy thanks to
Hera, was healed by Great Mother Rhea, traveled to
India, and later met and took Ariadne as his bride)
as possible, from both Classical and contemporary
sources, and from both academic and popular texts.
I lined them up and teased out the structures and
patterns. And I took Jungs advice and entered into
conscious dialogue with this archetypal figure.
Amazingly, I found that this archetype, or God,
needed my body-mind or enneatype to incarnate
and express himself, and I needed his divine energies
to fuel my own aspirations and will. We came to a
negotiated agreement: Dionysos could use my body-
mind from time to time to experience life on Earth,
but he wasnt allowed to burn me out through
manic-depressive episodes, inappropriate sexual
expression, or violence. I could suck off his divine
energies but had to respect his power, personality
and autonomy. And this arrangement has worked
very well for almost 15 years. I found that, as Susan
says so clearly, its possible to envision the type
structure as a transformer that steps down the ener-
gy to a manageable level. It not only steps the energy
down, but focuses it in a particular way, so that cer-
tain things become more salient than others If a
human being can only handle a certain amount of
energy in any given moment [something that certain
types, especially 7s, 8s and 3s, find incredibly hard
to understand when they are young and nave], then
in order for that human being to focus deeply on
something in particular, there has to be a mecha-
nism that screens everything else out. The type
structure is what provides this mechanism
Susan goes on to make a very important point,
one that often gets short shrift in Enneagram theo-
rizing and teaching, namely that from a spiritual
perspective, its possible to see our enneagram type
as a source of inner guidance [this idea and experi-
ence relates in various ways to the Diamond
Guidance that Almaas speaks of in his many books].
If this idea sounds funny, maybe this is just because
we often use words to describe type that suggests
were talking about something inertlike a struc-
ture, category or container The reason it may be
hard to recognize type as a source of guidance is that
its so innatebecause it operates at the level of our
most basic perceptions and cognitions. Also, it has
an impersonal (or transpersonal) quality that we
dont usually associate with the idea of guidance. But
when you really think about it, our enneagram type
often has a profound effect in shaping the life paths
we walk and the roles we play in life. If this isnt
inner guidance, what is? At the very end, Susan
offers a beautiful and wise statement of what I
believe to be objective truth, namely that its possi-
ble to explore type and subtype not in order to tran-
scend them, but in order to fulfill their promise.
Too often, we still find Enneagram teachers and stu-
dents not appreciating the fact that our enneatype as
master archetype is actually intelligent, vibrant,
and al ive. Our given (or chosen?)
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12
march 2007
> > >
enneagram monthly
13
march 2007
enneatype is not accidental, nor is it an unfortunate,
limiting burden. It is in truth a divine gift, one
without which we would go psychotic and be non-
functional, or would become depressed because of
being disconnected from the Upper Worlds, with
their divine, archetypal energies.
Kirby Olson: Essence versus personality. Before
we go off and change the philosophy of the ennea-
gram to Kenneth Wilber (an ambitious project for
all concerned and one that would require two years
of work on my part even to get to the point of con-
sidering), its nice to go back to Gurdjieff, who was a
philosopher in his own right, and one with a long
pedigree. I havent understood Gurdjieff even after
reading most of his books and much of the com-
mentary (Ouspensky, etc.). But what I get from his
split between essence and personality is that
I need to resort to an illustration. Tony Soprano
is the top mobster in the New Jersey crime clan in
the show Sopranos. He is fully capable of putting a
non-paying client into the hospital or using a pillow
to muffle his own mothers breath after she attempts
to have him rubbed out, but at the same time he
loves the ducks that land in the late autumn in his
sparkling swimming pool, and he loves his own chil-
dren. He is a type eight, and his vulnerability, his
love, is separate from his personality type. His
essence is love. His type is eight. Each type has a
brutal way (less brutal in some cases) of making its
way in this world. But the love inside is there, but it
is there as essence.
Type and essence are intertwined, but most of us
have a stronger link to type than to essence. Think
again of the character played by Steve Carrell in The
Office. Hes very good as a Boss, but hes not so
good in love. Hes clumsy, and doesnt know how it
works and is generally rejected. Love is delicate.
Type is a blunderbuss. Type is mechanical, essence is
spiritual.
In Lutheranism we have a two kingdoms para-
digm in which the world is divided into the realm of
heaven, and the realm of law. In this realm we are
types. In this realm there are the hard facts. In the
next, essence alone will survive and everything will
be pure love. Gurdjieff himself argued that there
would be no survival or only temporary survival,
after bodily death. Jesus would beg to differ. This
brings me to Mario Sikora. [but lets slip Liz in
first]
Liz Wagele: Kirby, I thought of going back to see
what Gurdjieff said about essence, when I wrote
about it l ast month, but his concept of the
Enneagram of personality is so different from the
one Im used to, it confuses me. Speaking of
Gurdjieff, and Dawkins and Collins and Chatterji
and - I wonder why I tend to talk about myself or
my experiences, yet the academic types in the
Conversation talk more about historical or famous
or religious figures or movements? I get bored when
things arent personal or artistic and Im addicted to
being critical. For one thing, I learned early on that
criticism was the way to get good grades. Its also the
way my mind works its busy and it likes to watch
things. How can some of you become interested in
old historic things you cant really watch? You cant
observe the subtleties of change and facial expres-
sions and people acting differently from how they
think theyre acting? I speak negatively about things
as a way to have something to talk about. It doesnt
work when I try to talk to people by being positive.
Theres nothing there. This must be why 5s dont
excel in small talk. I identify with 6s being negative,
probing, and questioning. My professor father was
this way, too. That reinforced my habit, I think. Or
vice versa.
Enter my friend the 7 whos addicted to opti-
mism. I have several friends, mostly 7s and a few 2s
and 9s, around whom I have to be careful of my
critical/negative nature. Being around them is tough
sometimes. This 7 friend and I went to hear a jazz
program. The trombone and trumpet drowned out
the female singer. I complained to him after. He was
so offended, he told me to Stuff it. But I would
have liked to tell the managers of the jazz club to
stuff it for neglecting the sound balance and for
hurting my ears. Not to mention my friend! Stuff it,
my foot! A large part of the enjoyment of a concert,
for me, consists in picking it apart afterward good
and bad. You can burst optimism-addicts bubbles
and theyll be rude to you for that, like the 7/8 who
was milking my poppy plants in my front yard in
the 70s. Go away! I said. God put opium on the
Earth for me to enjoy, he protested. Ive been all
over the world collecting it. Its Mine! And he just
kept coming back and bothering my plants. Those
poppies didnt produce seeds after that. Not fair. As
I said, Im addicted to criticism. This same friend
who didnt mind ear-torturing gave me an article
about why we should be optimistic about global
warming, terrorism, and things like that. It was
illogical in its lust for optimism. I started underlin-
ing the fallacies to point them out then decided it
would be as futile to an optimism addict as to be
reasonable with an opium addict. Or a criticism
addict.
Finding truth may be as hopeless when it
comes to terminology as it is concerning religion.
Have you noticed how many strings get dropped in
the Conversations? How can we force ourselves to
stick to one topic long enough to agree on even one
definition? I challenge us to do so. Jack, why dont
you assign us a topic and be the boss MAKE us
stick to it for one issue. A narrow topic. See what
happens. The natural pessimist and optimist will
not meet, nor will the believer and atheist, nor will
those hoping for sainthood and those convinced of
their own sinfulness. Were each too attached to our
Dukkha even if we dont like it, we keep buying
the same ticket so we can stay aboard the train were
on. We just keep on believing what we believe. If an
Ennea Word Committee came up with a definition
we had all agreed to accept, we wouldnt do it. I
dont always sound this pessimistic maybe a little
caffeine would brighten me up.
Jack Labanauskas: Gee Liz, I sure would support
your request for talking about personal experi-
encesif only I could. Is it a male thing to seek
comfort in generalities and concepts, or am I muz-
zled by political correctness?
To speak of what it real and in the moment
requires a modicum of safety. The Russian comedian
Smirnoff had a great line: in the Soviet Union
we have freedom of speechin America you also
have freedom after speech.
I become cautious about shooting off my mouth
after I came to the USA from a decade of blissful
outspokenness in Florence Italy, a city (in)famous
for strong language in a country that is less orally
neutered than we are. Apparently Italians, crushed
by a suffocating bureaucracy and slavery to fashion
and appearance standards, cling to their last free-
domrobust vulgarity in speech.
Conversely, in the USA we pay for the freedom
to wear anything anywhere (compared to the
Europeans); for being able to buy a car, register it,
get insurance and a driving license all in one morn-
ingwith multiculty speech codes. Dont get me
started! However, I would love to incrementally
broaden the conversation and encourage the more
personal. Lets try it and see what happens.
Moving on, not all Sevens are optimism addicts,
Im with you on that one. After a bad concert I
recover my moneys worth by ripping the perfor-
mance to pieces with glee and guaranteed without
one iota of guilt.
Regarding not dropping strings of conversation:
I believe repeatedly bringing up the themes we
dont want dropped could work. Also, if there were
many more submissions than the column can hold,
we could sort them by theme to be released at
appropriate times. I invite everyone to write regu-
lar deposits into the Conversations Saving
Account.
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enneagram monthly
14
march 2007
Kirby Olson: Congratulations to Mario Sikora
on his brilliant article in the last EM which Im
going to attack but first Im going to praise him. I
laughed and laughed at his clever logic and shrewd
parsing, but was also nervous about how he was
trying to eschew the spiritual side of the ennea-
gram (it is definitely there in the Gurdjieff origins).
But I came away thinking with Jack Labanauskas
that the limits of reason are that it reduces every-
thing to its own sphere. Theres another realm
beyond reason. Like spirit, or dreams, essence
belongs to that sphere. It isnt part of evolution.
And I dont think animals have it. Gurdjieff
nowhere indicates that animals have essence.
Gurdjieff himself was a bizarre kind of idiosyncrat-
ic Christian at least partially a Gnostic. But also
very much informed by his Eastern Orthodox
upbringing in the city of Kars which was once part
of the Armenian enclave of northwest Turkey (the
Armenians were mostly killed or forced to flee to
what is now Armenia but Gurdjieff s native lan-
guage was Armenian). Armenia was the first coun-
try to adopt Christianity, and it remains Christian.
Essence is capable of something like an eternal per-
spective and seems to come out of a Christian per-
spective. Personality is limited to the here and now.
That would appear to be crucial to understanding
these terms. When I first read about these distinc-
tions and saw how Don Riso and other Catholics
like Jerome Wagner had dealt with them I thought
that the system had come down the pike relatively
unscathed. If we move to a Buddhist system or to a
purely business system without any reference to
Christian spirituality, somethings going to be lost
in the process, no? A new audience will be gained,
but another audience will be lost.
Mario Sikora believes that most logical people
will simply toss Francis Collins as insufficiently
logical and adopt Richard Dawkins even though he
admits that most Americans remain Christian and
some 95% percent believe in God (even if most
scientists dont). Last summer when Time maga-
zine ran a conversation between scientists Dawkins
and Francis Collins my Christian friends all
thought Collins had won hands down, and my
lapsed and atheist friends all thought Dawkins had
won hands down. Personal l y, I was with my
Christian friends on this, but marvelled at how
both sides interpreted the conversation. And per-
sonally, Id like to continue to see the enneagram
and its terminology remain within a Christian
sphere. Is this going to get to be like fighting over
the tiny bedsheet with those of us in the conversa-
tion struggling to yank it from the others? I hope
so. That kind of thing can be very funny. I hope it
remains funny and doesnt get into anyone feeling
rankled. Convincing another person to drop their
most basic paradigm is not going to happen, or
else it will take decades. I think for now we should
try to remain within the Gurdjieffian origins in
order to understand the basic terminology. I myself
am somewhat frustrated wi th the Eastern
Orthodox theology because they assume that an
i ndi vi dual can become sai ntl y. It i s basi c to
Lutheranism that we are all completely depraved,
and that we cant achieve saintliness and that it is a
sin to even think we can do it. Nevertheless, I
think its important to see Gurdjieff s thinking
first, and then to reflect on our own, and the dis-
junctions between the two, as clearly as possible,
before we proceed to make alterations to fit our
own paradigms.
Mario Sikora: Kirby, While I think you may
have executed one of the worst segues I have ever
seen, Ill thank you for your compliments before I
counterattack; glad you enjoyed the article and
that it made you laugh. I agree that this discussion
should be kept friendly and with a goal of explo-
ration rather than hostility, so please read my
response accordingly.
Regarding your response:
First, lets be careful about setting up blatant
Straw Man arguments (Mario Sikora believes
that most logical ); in addition to being untrue,
it weakens your point. I do not believe that most
logical people will simply toss Francis Collins
and adopt Dawkins views. Many of the smartest,
most logical people I know are people of faith.
Faith and reason, by definition, have little to do
with each other. Just because I have found Collins
justifications for his belief in a creator to be logi-
cally wanting does not mean that I believe that
logical people should reject his perspective. I do
believe that faith is rooted in emotion and non-
conscious processes, and that logic has very little to
do with it.
If The Conversation is going to be a valuable
contribution to the development of Enneagram
theory, we should be more careful with our rhetori-
cal tactics and not state our assumptions as fact
when it comes to what others believe.
I have stated that I have no particular assertion
on whether there is a divine first cause that set the
universe in motion. I will let Protagorass words
stand for me: Concerning the gods, I have no
means of knowing whether they exist or not or of
what sort they may be. Many things prevent
knowledge including the obscurity of the subject
and the brevity of human life. I have no horse in
that race, and I dont concern myself what other
people believe or what they should believe.
What I do care about, however, especially when
it comes to the Enneagram, is the clear separation
of fact and opinion. I hold with Daniel Patrick
Moynihan that everyone is entitled to his own
opinions, but not his own facts. You are welcome
to your opi ni on that we are al l compl etel y
depraved. While I profoundly disagree, it is an
argument of opinion and intelligent, well-meaning
people can disagree.
Matters of fact are another story, however, and
when fact and opinion collide it is opinion that
must change. Views on the role of a possible
Intelligent Designer must fit what we know as fact
about the descent of man through natural selec-
tion. Views of human nature should be subordi-
nate to the science of the biology of the brain and
its influence on what we tend to call mind.
You are welcome to continue to frame your
understanding of the Enneagram within your
Christian perspective, but I see no reason why oth-
ers should feel the same constraints. In his Letter
to the Transpersonal Community (found on the
Arica website at www.arica.com) Oscar Ichazo
makes it clear that he does not see his theory of
proto-analysis as having been derived originally
from Gurdjieff or from Christianity (proto-analy-
sis is, by all accounts, the root from which our
current Enneagram of Personality has evolved).
In fact, he says that Gurdjieff merely appropriated
pre-Christian ideas from Plato, the Vedas, and the
like, and that he did so poorly. At the same time,
modern Gurdjieffians are dismissive of those of us
who use the Enneagram of Personality, going so far
as to eject from their work groups those who pub-
licly teach it. (For a view of the Gurdjieffian view
of us Enneagrammers, see Wi l l i am Patri ck
Pattersons Taking with the Left Hand. Ichazos
views on what has evolved from his original work
are also well known.)
I see no reason at all to be constrained by
Gurdjieff. While there may be some value in his
work, it is filled with bad science (e.g., his believe
that people are food for the moon and other
tenets of his odd cosmology) and flat-out gibberish
(I would venture that the reason you dont under-
stand the bulk of his writing is not due to short-
comings on your part, but rather to the fact that
most of it is simply nonsensical and unintelligible).
Going further, his teaching method was abusive
and hostile (some might see his toast of the idiots
as crazy wisdom, I see it as cruelty). Lets also not
forget that he had a history of being a con man.
(In one famous instance, he painted sparrows yel-
low and sold them as American canaries, high-
tailing it out of town with the cash
> > >
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Paris 2007
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before the rains came. In another, he once obtained
knowledge that a rail line would be built through
certain provincial towns; he rushed ahead of the
news to convince the people in those towns, who
hungered for such a line, that he could ensure that
the railroad went through their town for a fee,
of course. Such stories are generally skipped in the
hagiographies.)
Am I trying to eschew the spiritual side of the
Enneagram? I guess it depends how you define
spiritual. If you are talking about the realm of
subjective experience, I believe were into territory
where we must tread lightly and, again, ensure that
empirical data trumps subjective opinion rather
than vice versa. I am not dismissing the value of
subjective, non-rational experience. Love is non-
rational, as are compassion and, by definition,
every other emotion. My love for my children is
certainly non-rational (while they are beautiful,
smart, and entertaining, they keep me awake, take
up my time, and are really expensive). They are the
most important thing in my world, however,
because they touch something in me in emotional
and non-conscious realms (and in this case, at
least, evolutionary psychology explains that love
and those realms far better than any spiritual tra-
dition). Subjective experience is what makes life
worth living: the sight of my boys playing, the
sound of Coltranes saxophone, the verse of Dante,
the smell of the ocean, the majesty of the physical
universe. These things broaden our experience and
expand our sense of who we are and what life can
be about. If this is what we mean by spiritual,
then Ill echo the words of The Prophet when he
was asked to speak to the crowd about religion:
Have we spoken this day of naught else?
When peopl e start tal ki ng about real ms
beyond reason, however, I begin to get a little ner-
vous; it often seems to be a way to rationalize opin-
ions we want to hold onto in the face of contradic-
tory evidence. Im not sure what your definition of
spirit is, or what dreams have to do with a non-
materi al real m, and I l l
return to essence i n a
moment. However, I find the
discussions going on in the
scientific communitys study
of consciousness to be far
more interesting and sophis-
ticated than those going on
in the spiritual community.
Emergent experi ences of
mind such as thoughts or
dreams are referred to as
qual i a i n the sci enti fi c
study of consciousness and
there i s some on-goi ng
debate over whether or not
qualia can be explained by
purely material processes,
but not much debate. The
debate is more a matter of
figuring out the exact details
and processes than it is about
separate real ms. (Susan
Blackmores Conversations
on Consciousness is a great
introduction to the various views; Francis Cricks
The Astonishing Hypothesis is a pretty good
accounti ng for how consci ousness can be
explained materially. I find these books, and the
scores like them available in any decent bookstore,
far more compelling than concepts like evil and
sainthood.)
You state that Tony Sopranos essence is love,
but that his personality is Type Eight. This seems
like an artificial distinction to me. Rather than
attributing good things to something called
essence and bad things to something called
personality, how about a realistic view of human
nature rooted in science? We can conjecture that
there is a thing called essence and debate how
that is defined, whether it is eternal in the platonic
concept of forms, and what the implications are
of the possible answer, or we can work with the
empirical data from the scientific study of the
brain and understand that the brain is a jumbled,
cobbl ed-together amal gamati on of modul ar
processes that are in conflict with each other. This
conflict occurs because evolution works in adap-
tive ways, solving problems ad hoc rather than in
an intelligently designed and scripted way. The
result: part of us is goodaltruistic, kind,
thoughtful, empathic, etc.because those quali-
ties served an evolutionary purpose; and part of us
is badselfish, violent, defensive, xenophobic,
etc.because those qualities served an evolution-
ary purpose. We seem to have a dual nature
because we do have a dual nature, and such a
nature is perfectly logical from an evolutionary
perspective. It is simply the brain at work. (I rec-
ommend Davi d Li ndens new book, The
Accidental Mind for an empirical view of the
nature of the mind.)
Our goal today should be taking advantage of
one of evolutions other great gifts: the ability to
overcome our shortcomings and override our
instincts; to work to become more of what is
good and less of what is bad and to create a
world that is better tomorrow than it was yester-
day. It becomes easier to do this when we have a
clearer view of the challenges we actually face.
Finally, regarding the eternality of essence and
its restriction to humans: Well, again Darwin
would seem to present a problem. Despite the fact
that over 50% of the US population believes that
humans came into existence fully formed in their
current state, we know for a fact that we have
evolved and that we share a common ancestor with
every other animal on the planet. At what point
along the evolutionary line did essence enter into
humans? And, if it entered at a specific point in
human evolution, in what sense is it eternal? Also,
if it is eternal, how do we account for the current
views in some corners of the transpersonal world
that essence is evolving? Of course, Pope John
Paul II got around this apparent problem by saying
that yes, there is a soul, and yes, evolution is real,
and at some point along the evolutionary continu-
um God breathed a soul into humans and that we
shouldnt worry much more about it because two
truths cant contradict each other.
Does essence work the same way?
Im not sure i f your comment about a
Buddhist system or a purely business system of
the Enneagram was directed at me or not, but I am
interested in neither; Im not a Buddhist and I
wouldnt know what a business system of the
Enneagram would look like (I did make the case
for a pragmatic approach to the Enneagram in
my Notes and the Melody article series, but that
was intended as an alternative view rather than a
universal view). As the Upanishads say, however,
Truth is one, but the sages speak of it in many
ways. The Enneagram, like everything else, is
evolving. Rather than feel constrained by guide-
l i nes establ i shed by tradi ti on, Chri sti an,
Gurdjieffian, or otherwise, perhaps we should
focus on the latest revealed truths, no matter where
those truths come from.
.
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enneagram monthly
16
march 2007
vant here.
For their part, spirit and soul comprise the
human being in its immaterial reality, just as the
infinite or transcendent principle comprises reality
on the metaphysical plane generally. By means of his
spirit, by means of intellect, intuition, conscience
and communion, man is enabled to realize him-
self on the metaphysical plane; hence, to attain
identification and unification with a higher state of
being. Moreover, by means of his intellect, he com-
municates this realization to the faculties of the psy-
che. In doing so, he integrates his psychic faculties
to one degree or another into the wholeness and
objectivity of the transcendent or spiritual plane.
It is important to note that the intellect of the
spirit is not to be identified with the process of dis-
cursive reasoning. Discursive reasoning refers to a
process of formal analysis or demonstration. As such,
it is a work of the psyche. By contrast, the intellect is
intuitive. It is the eye of the heart or in eastern
terminology the third eye. It is that which per-
ceives the light of metaphysical knowledge. It is
that which connects finite man to a state of being
which surpasses him. It is that which raises him
above the status of a clever animal and locates him
at least potentially on the plane of transcendence.
The difference between reason and intellect
was understood traditionally by the terms ratio
and intelligentia. Thomas Aquinas and many oth-
ers made this distinction. Ratio is reason as we
understand it generally; that is, in the discursive
mode. It works by progressing towards an intelligi-
ble truth by going from one understood point to
another, by laboring step-by-step to gather, examine
and correlate data. It is limited by our sensory appa-
ratus, and its principal tool is logic. It is profane
reason, though not to be despised. It serves the race
in innumerable ways; witness the technotopia in
which we live. By contrast, intelligentia, the intel-
lect, does not employ the painstaking, step-by-step
processes of ratio. Rather, it is the simple grasping of
an intelligible truth of the transcendent plane. It is a
form of intuition. One gets it or one doesnt. In a
manner of speaking, it is truth as gift. It is not
earned, although certain rituals and exercises may
render the spirit and soul more receptive to it.
The highest part of our being the spirit is
also the center of our being, a conduit to the tran-
scendent and a monitor of the psyche; it is the
absolute and immutable self within the relative and
variable self. A bit of introspection confirms it as
something over, above and beyond the lower self.
For instance, who gives counsel when we take
counsel with ourselves? Who is it who knows
himself by obeying the Delphic maxim, know thy-
self? Who is it who stands outside the self in
order to advise, comfort, examine, accuse, interro-
gate or otherwise interact with that self? How is it
that we can reflect on our reason reasoning, our
feelings feeling, our will willing? In a word, what
is the self-reflexive consciousness within us, what is
the ability to perceive in the third person? According
to Plato, there is indeed within us an entity that
stands over and above the psyche, an entity to which
he assigned a variety of names, including Leader,
vocal Reason, Mind, Genius, most divine,
eternal part, Immortal Soul and real Self. We
are, he taught, to be governed by this entity, rather
than by the restless agitations of the psyche. This
entity has been recognized under a diversity of other
names. It was Philos Soul of the soul, Hermes
Good Genius, St. Pauls spirit or pneuma,
2
the
Muslims Ruh, the Scholastics Synteris, Meister
Eckharts Funkelein, the African Americans little
me within the big me, the Rig Vedas King of all
beings, and the Upanishads Immortal Leader,
Inner Controller, immanent Genius or impas-
sible immortal, incorporeal Self.
3
The enneagram mainly addresses the psyche. To
be sure, it has ramifications for spirit as well but
only indirectly. As can be seen in the middle circle
of my diagram, the psyche has three principal facul-
ties: emotion, reason and will. The enneatypes of
emotion are, of course, the Two, Three and Four; of
reason, the Five, Six and Seven, and of will, the
Eight, Nine and One. (I use will instead of
instinct for reasons explained elsewhere in my
work). The top circle in the diagram represents the
spirit and illustrates its relationship to the psyche.
Can the presence of two selves spirit and psy-
che be experientially demonstrated? According to
Peter Samsel,
4
the phenomenal reality of the lower
self of the psyche or ego is all too apparent to
oneself, is oneself, if appearances may be believed. In
contrast, the higher Self, the Spirit, is no such phe-
nomenon, can never be any such phenomenon, for it
is not the known, but the Knower. Here, the imme-
diate experience of our being aware of ourselves nec-
essarily implies a subject apart from the phenomenal
self: we are at once self-knower and self-known, at
once the ground and content of our own awareness,
for we both are awareness and yet are aware of our-
selves. Thus from the point of view of spirit, or
transcendence, we stand outside of ourselves; we
observe ourselves and our activities with a certain
detachment. When we apply the enneagram to our
lives, we do this in a highly self-conscious way. Oh,
there I go again, we lament; or, What a troubled
Four I am, or, Hey, for once I have put aside my
perfectionism. Thus we observe ourselves. Thus we
are self-aware, aware of a self apart from the self.
For the balance of the article, I wish to address
several of Marios statements more specifically. By
comparing our views one-to-one, perhaps greater
clarity can be achieved in regard to our differences
and additional light shed on the divide between the-
ists and non-theists.
According to Mario, different parts of the brain
sometimes compel us to behave in self-contradictory
ways. Truth be told, we are indeed fickle and moody
creatures, blown first one way then another. Yet I
think compel is too strong a word, for it suggests a
mechanistic or deterministic process. Different parts
of the brain may indeed incline or encourage us
to behave in self-contradictory ways, but they do not
compel us in the sense of forcing or driving us. We
retain the ability to say no to our compulsions. By
the way, who is the self who is being contradicted,
and who is the contradictor? It brings us back to the
distinction between spirit and psyche.
Elsewhere, Mario says our behaviors are as much
based on biology as they are on ethics, and if we dont
understand how the three pounds of gray matter
between our ears works we will be hampered in our
efforts to work with the mind. It goes without saying
that our knowledge of the material structures of the
brain greatly exceeds that of our ancestors. Yet limited
to empirical evidence as it is, this knowledge is inferi-
or at some points to theirs. If I need a brain surgeon,
I am grateful to find one who is qualified and compe-
tent in his field. Yet as I face the challenges of day to
day living, I am equally grateful to find there is wis-
dom that outstrips contemporary materialistic views.
Such wisdom has been available for a very long time,
cloaked in the traditions of many peoples. It is wis-
dom based on spiritual realities, as opposed to the
endless accumulation of facts or information per-
taining to material realities. Apropos of this, here is a
metaphysical key: The indefinite is analytically inex-
haustible. That is, the material phenomena of the
human and natural orders is of indefinite multiplicity
and therefore unable to be fully grasped by the
human mind. Every new bit of information opens up
further areas for discovery. The process is endless,
inexhaustible. It never reaches closure, never attains
absolute certainty. It can tell us the how of many
things but never the why. Yet humankind has
always wanted to know the why of things. Is the
why knowable or unknowable?
Mario also says: Many approaches to under-
standing the mind, including some of those in the
Enneagram l iterature, take a top-down
approach.That is, they speculate about how the
mind works based on subjective or anecdotal obser-
vations and make philosophical, spiritual, or reli-
gious assumptions.[But the] science of the brain
is based on the science of biology, and modern biol-
ogy is based on Darwins ideas. Thus, anyone inter-
ested in working with the mind must ultimately
come to terms with Darwin. Several points: First,
there seems to be no distinction here between
brain and mind, which I think confuses the dis-
cussion. In my view, the two are separate entities. As
such, they can only be conflated at the expense of
cl arity. Second, Mario speaks of
subjectiveassumptions in regard to spiritual or
religious views about the workings of the mind. But
assumptions are what we all begin with. They are
what we assume. Marios Darwinism is based on a
variety of assumptions that determine how the facts
the strata and the fossils and so forth are to be
understood. In this as in other systems, there are no
uninterpreted facts. Furthermore, Darwinists engage
in assigning agency to use Marios words every
bit as much as theists do. Even as theists assign
agency to God or the gods to explain how or why
things happen, Darwinists do so by identifying vari-
ous natural processes as the agents of evolution.
That they only assign agency to impersonal factors
instead of to deities or anthropomorphic entities
generally argues, to my mind, a weakness in their
mechanistic view, for it fails to account
Theism or Non-Theism? continued from page 1
> > >
enneagram monthly
17
march 2007
for the personal, self-conscious qualities of human
beings. Nor does it explain how personal attributes
emerged from impersonal forces, how the higher
emerged from the lower.
Elsewhere, Mario asserts that Darwins theory of
evolution by random mutation and natural selection
is not concerned with proving or disproving the
existence of supernatural beings, such as the one we
commonly call God in the Judeo/Christian tradi-
tionIn fact, Darwin, who was a theist until late in
life, saw room in his theory for God: evolution was
merely the method God chose to bring about vari-
ous species. Darwin became an atheist upon the
death of a beloved 10-year-old daughter he simply
could not find a way to reconcile the idea of a com-
passionate, involved God with the injustice of his
daughters death. A couple of comments: First,
Darwins mature religious views were never robust.
At the time he was writing The Origin of Species, he
was a deist or perhaps a vague theist. Moreover, he
knew his theory would, if accepted, overthrow the
notion of design in the organic world. That it
attracted many radicals, rationalists and anti-clerical
adherents was no surprise. Second, I am puzzled
why Darwin should have held there was injustice
in his daughters death? Where did he get the idea of
justice? Did not his theories render such a concept
a mere epiphenomenon, unrelated to the survival of
species? If the world as we know it is only the result
of varied forms of natural competition and coopera-
tion among and within species to assure their sur-
vival, the notion of justice at least in regard to the
cosmos is an unnecessary piece of baggage. We
should only be aware of injustice in such a cosmos if
we knew of another and better place, a world or
realm beyond the contingencies of the cosmos in
which we live, a world ruled by a just judge. But
the presence of such a world or realm would compli-
cate the picture of the cosmos as nothing more than
a vast interlocking system of material nature, with-
out beginning and without end, and without mean-
ing except for the survival of species. Perhaps
Darwins daughter died to make way for a healthier
specimen who would be more likely to reproduce
her own kind after her. A cruel thought but valid
enough, unless one believes in a realm of justice
which overarches the material realm and makes
moral claims on the human and natural worlds.
Mario poses this question: Why are some people
of any given personality type believers and some secu-
larists? He continues: There is probably no simple
answer to this because, as with most questions about
human nature there is probably no single answer.
People embrace or reject belief in a higher power for a
multitude of reasons some based in logic, some in
culture, some in emotion. I agree. There is no simple
answer. The important thing to note is the admission
that people embrace or reject belief in a higher
power for a variety of reasons. I do not generally
think logic is one of the reasons, nor is science as
commonly understood. The notion that science
proves one worldview over another is untrue.
Science observes, measures, quantifies; hence its theo-
ries and proofs are confined to the material realm. It
cannot measure spirit or soul. Logic (and discursive
reason generally) gathers facts and marshals argu-
ments to bolster a belief already in place. Credo ut
intelligam, St. Anselm said. I
believe so that I may under-
stand. Faith (or theory) is first,
understanding follows.
At another point, Mario says:
Experiments with brain-scan-
ning technology and meditators
have led to some fascinating
results. Tibetan monkshave
been connected to fMRI
machines that pinpointed specific
parts of the brain that showed
increased activity when the
monks went into altered states of
consciousness.The implication
of these experiments is that there
is a correlation between activity
in the brain and the feeling of the experience of AHP
(Marios abbreviation for A Higher Power). That
the gray matter twitches in response to meditative
phenomena is not surprising, as it responds to stimu-
lating phenomena generally. But if the implication is
that spiritual experience is nothing more than physical
sensation, I disagree. It is indeed more but not less.
The spiritual and psycho-physical worlds function
holistically, thus a response by one is registered by the
other. Spirit impacts matter; matter impacts spirit.
Mario also observes that repetition breeds recur-
rence in the brain through the creation and
strengthening of synaptic connections. As a result,
Those who think about AHP in a does-exist way
will be prone to become more and more convinced
that It does. Those who think in a does-not-exist
way become convinced that It does not. This has
implications for any habitual behavior, including
enneatype fixations and compulsions, as Mario goes
on to point out. This is one reason that religions
have always taught a cultus, a form of ritual and
repetition that ingrains the belief system into its
adherents. Secular movements do the same thing,
through social and political indoctrination.
Elsewhere, Mario refers to the book The Selfish
Gene, by Richard Dawkins, who coined the term
meme in reference to ideas that have the same
survival and reproduction characteristic as genes.
His basic premise [is] that an idea that is useful to a
wide number of people, or that has great usefulness
to a smaller number of people, would survive while
an idea that is not as useful would pass away. That
such memes are useful is by definition self-evident.
The problem with the meme theory, as with the
gene theory and other materialistic explanations
generally, is that they are confined to a naturalistic
universe, to an interlocked and deterministic nature.
As such, they offer no guidance to the ethical life.
After all, people are not programmed to blindly
obey the promptings of memes or genes, any more
than they are programmed to blindly obey the incli-
nations of their enneatype. A meme or a gene may
theoretically incline a man to sacrifice himself on
behalf of the tribe but it does not force him to do
so. No matter how beneficial his actions may be,
their ultimate motive arises from something beyond
the physical and biological spheres. He may say to
himself, Yes, Ill do my bit for the cause. Ill breed
two or three children; Ill sacrifice myself in battle;
Ill keep my nose to the grindstone and be a good
breadwinner. But what if he
thinks otherwise? What if he
thinks, Well, maybe Ill look
out for number one; maybe Ill
pursue pleasure and shun sacri-
fice; maybe Ill take what I
need when and where I need it.
There may be ingrained ten-
dencies based on moral teach-
ing to serve the greater good;
there is no necessity to do so.
Dawkins himself sees the prob-
lem, for in the latter part of his
book he makes philosophical
and moral arguments in favor
of humanity gaining power
over selfish replicators. But
what dimension or faculty of the human being is
able to act outside or above natural necessity to
gain this power? It seems to me he is smuggling in
arguments which have no reasonable basis in his sys-
tem.
Finally, Mario proposes a research project to
survey a statistically significant number of people of
each type to get responses to questions such as:
What is your type?
Do you believe in a higher power? If so, how do
you define that higher power?
What qualities do you believe the higher power has?
What is the content of your spiritual practice?
When you are at your best, how do you view other
peoples beliefs? When you are at your worst?
To jump-start the survey, I submit the following
information: I am an enneatype One. I believe in a
higher power, both transcendent and immanent. I
believe the higher power is also omniscient (all-
knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present), and
omnipotent (all-powerful). My spiritual practices
include prayer, Scripture studies and devotions,
individual and corporate worship, service to others,
and financial offerings. At my best, I view other
peoples beliefs with empathy and understanding,
aware of their differences with me but happy to live
and let live. At my worst, I view others judgmental-
ly, and suspect they are being willfully obstinate in
not seeing the truth as I see it.
I do not make light of Marios survey idea. I think
it could yield interesting and instructive responses. I
suspect, however, that it would not find correlations
between particular enneatypes on the one hand and
particular belief systems on the other. It seems to me
that both theists and non-theists are likely to be equal-
ly represented among them all. For instance, a critical,
principled and conscientious enneatype One could be
either a C. S. Lewis or an Ayn Rand. Then again, a
survey might reveal something altogether different.
Perhaps unexpected correlations would emerge.
In conclusion, the basic difference between
Marios views and my own, whatever the subtleties
and refinements that might be added, is this: He is
grounded or so it seems to me in a positivist and
materialist paradigm; I am grounded in a religion-
ist and idealist paradigm. I do not think the materi-
alistic and mechanistic worldview of mod-
> > >
enneagram monthly
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march 2007
ern science can account for the aspirations and intu-
itions of human beings. As Aristotle said, to under-
stand something, four things must be known. First,
it is necessary to know the material cause, and that of
which the material or stuff is made; second, it is
necessary to know the formal cause, the specific form
or essence that the stuff exhibits, and which makes it
the kind of thing it is; third, it is necessary to know
its efficient cause, or that which brought the stuff
into existence; and fourth, it is necessary to know its
final cause, the end, purpose, or function it serves.
According to the positivists, forms and essences, as
well as ends or purposes (aside from the end or pur-
pose of evolving to evolve or surviving to survive),
are non-existent. Yet I would argue that they point to
the very meaning of life.
Empirical science can render an account of what
makes a thunderstorm happen but cannot tell us its
why. Has the thunderstorm any meaning? Does it
just happen? The primitives assigned agency to
such phenomena. We scoff at this. We find thun-
derstorms to be meaningless occurrences, pre-
dictable as part of the interlocking system of nature
but otherwise insignificant. Yet man is a truth and
meaning-seeking creature. He wants to know the
why of things, not just the how. Is there
agency behind the multiplicity of natural phe-
nomena? Is there meaning behind the thunder-
storm, or in the starry skies above? Just as physical
hunger indicates there is something called physical
food, so spiritual hunger indicates there is some-
thing called spiritual food.
It is said that he who knoweth his own soul
knoweth his Lord. Prior to Freud and his school, psy-
chology was a science of virtues and vices, a means of
detecting and untying the painful knots of conscious-
ness and sub-consciousness. It was axiomatic that one
must heal the spirit to heal the soul. The remedy for
inward distress was objectivity towards oneself. The
source of the objectivity was within and above, in
both spiritual immanence and transcendence. It was
in the Self that is greater than the self.
In a word, it was the essence (or spirit or
intellect). It was the essence that addressed the
variable and restless psyche. The transcendent
essence of God was mirrored in our own essence,
and it was this essence which judged, accepted,
excused, evaluated and otherwise addressed the psy-
che outside of which it stood, but to whose happi-
ness it was dedicated.
Notes
1. As I use the term metaphysics, it does not
refer to an exercise of the reason speculating on
empirical data, but to knowl edge of what is
supra-physical or super-natural, in other
words, to that which is above or beyond or behind
the physical or natural worlds. Thus it is not
something that comes from natural reason, operat-
ing according to its own system, but from a revela-
tion (a divine disclosure).
2. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, St. Paul speaks of the
whole person in terms of spirit, soul and body.
In Hebrews 4:12, the author speaks of the word of
God that penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow. In Galatians 2:20, St.
Paul asserts he has been (metaphorically) crucified
with Christ and no longer lives, but that Christ
lives in me. Here the lesser or lower self has
been replaced by the life of Spirit present in the
Christ who lives in the believer.
3. Most of these terms appear on page 36 of
Ananda Coomaraswamys What is Civilization?
4. Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and
Modernity (M. Ali Lakhani, North Vancouver,
British Columbia, 2007), p. 142.
Book Review: Travels With Odysseus
Uncommon Wisdom from Homers Odyssey by Michael Goldberg
Travels With Odysseus is a must-read tome for any
Enneagram enthusiast. Author Michael Goldberg
engagingly retells Homers Odyssey, a mythic jour-
ney to Home, with a twist. Odysseus home is
Ithaca, but Home is actually the place where he is
known and accepted for his true self stripped of false
assumptions and identity. Each of the stops on
Odysseus long sojourn corresponds to the passion
or fixation of one of the nine Enneagram types. We
travel with Odysseus around the outer circle of the
diagram, from Point Nine to Point One before ulti-
mately reaching Home.
This is a wonderful introduction to the
Enneagram that never uses the words personality,
Enneagram, or system. For those who have
friends, family, and clients reluctant to read any-
thing about personality, this book is the perfect gift.
After they are hooked on the insights, you can let
slip its connection to the Enneagram.
At the conclusion of the Trojan War, Odysseus
leaves Troy for Ithaca, and is first waylaid in the
Niney land of the Lotus Eaters. Comfortable, laid-
back, and narcotized, this land of self-forgetting is
difficult to escape. Odysseus manages to get away,
though I wont give away how.
He then encounters pure, unrestrained instinct
in the Eightish form of the Cyclops. He escapes,
though he is no match in the strength department.
Aeolia is Odysseus next stop, a Sevenish paradise
of non-stop feasting, joyful play, and partying. The
Aeolians help him get close enough to actually see
Home. Alas, events conspire to rob Odysseus of his
vision he will not reach his desired destination for
many years.
The crew incur heavy losses in the Land of the
paranoid Sixish Laestrygonians who believe the best
defense is a good offense. Odysseus is left with only
one ship.
Circe is sorceress and wise mentor on the mini-
malist island of Aeaea. She helps Odysseus, but not
before she turns most of his men into pigs, as they
act out the avarice of Point Five.
Point Four is encountered in two l ands.
Odysseus must journey to Hades and back, where
he confronts ghosts of the past and envy. He passes
the Sirens island where their song of I feel your
pain exerts a profound pull on unwary travelers.
Two lands describe core aspects of Point Three:
those of efficient doing and of image. Odysseus
must be efficient and results oriented in order to
navigate the strait of Scylla and Charybdis He then
visits the Three-ish island of the sun god Helios,
where he is warned not to eat the gods golden cat-
tle. Unfortunately his men disobey, and Odysseus
loses everything.
After floating lost at sea for nine days, our weary
traveler washes up on an island where Calypso, the
ultimate nurturing Two, resides. True succor and
caring nourish our hero but there are strings
attached. This seductive bondage is Odysseus most
difficult challenge. It takes him seven years to break
free.
He finds himself finally in the land of the princi-
pled One-ish Phaecians, where he begins to learn his
own intrinsic value and to live out his gifts. This
penultimate step to Home is critical for all of us.
At long last, Odysseus completes his journey
Home. (Yes, Im giving away the ending, but its not
like we didnt know it.) Yet his story does not end
with merely reaching his destination.
Travels With Odysseus is a delicious read that
youll want to savor slowly. Written in light, clean
prose with deft touches of humor, the insights are so
clear, one wonders how she missed them when read-
ing the original. Goldberg shows us this classic for
what it is: a symbolic journey we are all traveling.
Most important, the author makes the lessons of
each land practical in the here-and-now by showing
us how to recognize when we are stuck in one of
these places and offering solutions to free ourselves.
To help illuminate the challenges of each land
(Enneagram point), world leaders of past and pre-
sent are profiled by the places theyve been waylaid
or stuck. Problems of contemporary companies lost
in the various regions Odysseus encountered are also
examined. Understanding these dilemmas brings us
to aha revelations that we can apply in our own
lives.
While this book is useful in dealing with others
who inhabit the many lands of Odysseus wander-
ings, it may be even more helpful to each individual
reader as he chronicles his personal journey Home.
This book gives us a guide to the inner sojourns of
the Psyche. The wisdom gleaned by Odysseus at each
destination brings us that much closer to Home,
...where you can see clearly without exaggeration or
distortion, inflation or deflation. ...Home is where
you can get out of your own way. And isnt that
what the Enneagram teaches us every day?.
__________
Lynette Sheppard, author of The Everyday
Enneagram, hosts www.9points.com. She can be
reached via email at lynette@9points.com
reviewed by: Lynette Sheppard
enneagram monthly
19
march 2007
What Type of Leader are You? continued from page 1
reason for the leadership shortage today is that we
are not even sure what truly great leadership is,
much less how to develop it.
The most helpful clue about what makes an
excellent leader comes from the field of Emotional
Intelligence (EQ). An individuals EQ is the
strongest predictor of that persons leadership suc-
cess, consistently outranking both traditional IQ
and on-the-job experience. Of course, if you have all
three a high EQ, a high IQ, and relevant on-the-
job experience from which you have learned and
grown your chances for success are even greater.
EQ is composed of two factors: intrapersonal
intelligence, the ability to know and accept oneself
and to become self-managing and self-motivating;
and interpersonal intelligence, the ability to interact
effectively with other people. The Enneagram an
ancient psychological and spiritual development sys-
tem is the most powerful and insightful tool
available to help you develop your EQ.
The leaders with whom I have worked say the
Enneagram helps them to understand and accept
themselves at a very deep level, and is a profound
tool for developing their leadership capabilities.
They find the Enneagram freeing; as one leader
commented, I used to feel I was in a box. The
Enneagram doesnt put me in a box; instead, it
shows me the box Ive been in and provides a devel-
opment path out of these constraints.
To that end, this book focuses on todays most
important leadership competencies and integrates
them with the wisdom and insights of the
Enneagram. Excellent leaders need to be skilled in
the following seven core competency areas:
1. Drive for Results
2. Strive for Self-Mastery
3. Know the Business: Think and Act
Strategically
4. Become an Excellent Communicator
5. Lead High-Performing Teams
6. Make Optimal Decisions
7. Take Charge of Change
In the first chapter, you will learn the Enneagram
system and identify your Enneagram style. The
chapters that follow focus on each leadership com-
petency and include the following information:
Definition of the competency
Description and analysis of how individuals of
each Enneagram style demonstrate both excellence
and developmental needs with respect to that com-
petency
Development stretches for individuals of each
Enneagram style to accelerate their growth in that
competency area
Additional tips to assist everyone, regardless of
Enneagram style, in both personal and professional
development
The final chapter provides additional tools for
working on your personal and professional growth.
If your organization is to continue grow-
ing, so must you. Organizational growth requires a
commitment to growth from both leaders and those
whom they lead. Your challenge is to decide which
leadership path you will take: no growth, moderate
growth, or extreme growth.
You can, of course, take the route of no growth.
If you make this decision and be aware that mak-
ing no decision is a decision you will soon find
that your organization and many of your peers have
moved beyond you.
You can take the path of moderate growth, mak-
ing yourself comfortable and going at your own
pace. If you do so, your teams and your organization
will follow this rate of growth for a while, but then
the organization, your peers, and your followers will
begin to outpace you.
Or, you can follow the path of extreme growth.
If you choose this path, you will be amazed at your
capacity and the vitality that a commitment to
growth brings. You will also find that your rate of
personal development and the growth rate of the
organization are aligned and synchronized. There is
no greater experience.
This book is intended for multiple audiences.
Current and future leaders at all organizational levels
can use this book for their own personal and profes-
sional development. Executive coaches will find this
a valuable aid in helping their clients. Training and
development, organization development, and
human resource professionals can utilize the infor-
mation in this book to help develop leadership capa-
bility within their organizations.
This book is ideally suited for companies com-
peting in the global marketplace. The Enneagram
describes peopl e of every cul ture accuratel y,
although there can be subtle cultural nuances to the
actions of individuals who come from different
countries but have the same Enneagram style; thus,
it offers organizations the opportunity to > > >
- Claudio Naranjo
- Helen Palmer
- Don Riso
- Russ Hudson
- David Daniels
- Kathy Hurley
- Theodorre Donson
- Jerry Wagner
- Tom Condon
- Michael Golderg
A comprehensive training/consulting guide that includes
Training activities
Color PowerPoint slides
Worksheets
And More:
Reduced Early Bird rate and discounts for students and IEA members
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Cost:
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Regular $1100/$1200
IEA member (10%) $990/$1080
Student (50%) $550/$600
Please contact us at (310) 829-3309 or ginger@bogda.com
Information and Registration:
Learn the following theory and skills
Enneagram typing in organizations
Training
Consulting
How to apply the Enneagram to key business areas
- Communication
- Feedback
- Conflict
- Teams
- Leadership
- Coaching
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Program Benefits:
$15.95 (McGraw-Hill 2004)
Book Endorsed by
Perhaps you too will applaud this
book as the single most useful
Enneagram book for organization
development practitioners.
Organization Development Network
Practitioner Online (July 2004)
Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D., has been an organization development consultant for over thirty years, working with Fortune
500 companies, service organizations and lawfirms. An award winning speaker and author, she is the past president of the
International EnneagramAssociation and is a member of NTL and the Organization Development Network (ODN).
COMPANION TRAINING MATERIALS
AVAILABLE FOR EACH BOOK CHAPTER
AT
www.TheEnneagramInBusiness.com
enneagram monthly
20
march 2007
create a global cadre of highly skilled leaders who
share a common frame of reference and a commit-
ment to self-development and leadership excellence.
As an organization development consultant,
training professional, and executive coach for more
than thirty years with clients in Fortune 500 compa-
nies, service organizations, nonprofits, and law firms,
I have observed that every excellent company has
excellent leadership. It is equally true that every orga-
nizational problem I have helped solve has required
that a leader change his or her behavior. This is not
to say that leadership issues are the cause of all orga-
nizational problems, but simply that effective leader-
ship is required to solve all organizational problems.
There is, therefore, a great deal of pressure on
todays leaders, many of whom are already carrying
an overwhelming amount of weight on their shoul-
ders. Leadership is not easy. I have been a leader
myself, in both for-profit and nonprofit organiza-
tions, so I understand leaderships challenges and
rewards. There were times as a leader when I never
felt more fulfilled and inspired, as well as other times
when my fatigue and frustration led me to wonder
whether I even wanted to be in a leadership role.
To be a great leader requires talent, commitment,
effort, and guidance. It is my hope that this book
will provide that guidance to both current and
future leaders and to those who support them.
Excerpt fromChapter 2, Drive for Results
It is important to build credibility with customers
by delivering sustained, high-quality results. Your
customers depend on you to deliver timely and effec-
tive products, processes, and systems. By continually
driving for results and taking the promise of your
own potential to great heights, you can continue to
make gains in productivity, push the envelope of new
product development, excel in your financial goals,
and support your organization as a leader in its field.
Having the ability to Drive for Results means
that you are skilled in the following six Competency
Components:
1. Setting overall direction and establishing com-
mon goals
2. Creating workable plans
3. Assigning tasks effectively
4. Expecting, measuring, and rewarding high
performance
5. Providing ongoing stewardship
6. Evaluating results and utilizing what you learn
from the evaluation
As you read further and reflect on the six
Competency Components of Drive for Results, rate
yourself in each area on a scale of 1 to 5. This will
help you determine your areas of strength as well as
the areas needing development.
The Six Competency Components of Drive
For Results
Component 1: Setting overall direction and
establishing common goals
Placing a top priority on setting challenging
goals, while astutely scoping out the projects end
results; setting explicit performance standards and
clear, unambiguous roles and responsibilities; accu-
rately defining the length and difficulty of the tasks,
the projects involved, and the resources required;
and aligning all work with the vision and strategy of
the project, team, and organization.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
Component 2: Creating workable plans
Developing realistic and well organized schedules
and timelines; making and communicating deci-
sions in a clear and timely manner; defining achiev-
able and high-quality deliverables; and demonstrat-
ing flexibility with all the above so that changes can
be made as needed.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
Component 3: Assigning tasks effectively
Delegating tasks and decisions appropriately to
those who know the work best and who possess the
required skill sets; distributing the workload evenly
and equitably; and empowering others by trusting
people to perform and complete their jobs.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
Component 4: Expecting, measuring, and
rewarding high performance
Creating an environment of accountability by
communicating clear expectations (e.g., expectations
regarding participation, performance, and team-
work); providing ongoing coaching, feedback, and
support for meeting performance goals; regularly
monitoring team and individual performance and
applying rewards, recognition, and sanctions accord-
ingly; personally modeling the behavior you desire
in others, such as demonstrating initiative and high
personal standards of performance as measured
against performance expectations; and looking
inward for reasons when things go wrong.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
Component 5: Providing ongoing stewardship
Monitoring work processes, progress, and results
on a continuous basis; ensuring that feedback loops
are designed into the process and that corrective
action is taken as needed; meeting timeline commit-
ments and anticipating and adjusting for problems;
keeping others informed as necessary; addressing
obstacles in a problem-solving manner rather than in
an avoidant or blaming one; and providing ideas,
insights, coaching, and resources to others as needed.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
Component 6: Evaluating results and utilizing
what you learn from the evaluation
Assessing results on an ongoing basis and at pro-
jects end by employing input from multiple sources
(e.g., customers, project team members, bosses, and
others); evaluating results using multiple measures
of success; and conducting post-project debriefing
meetings to assess project successes and failures so
that insights gained in these meetings can be carried
forward into future projects.
Low High
1 2 3 4 5
EnneagramDimensions of Drive for Results
ENNEAGRAM STYLE THREES
Enneagram Three leaders often feel precisely in
their element when they drive for results. The ability
to maintain a laser-like focus and to achieve out-
standing goals and results are at the core of the
Enneagram Threes personality architecture. Three
leaders know how to select the most important tar-
gets and then to organize both their work and that
of others in the most efficient and effective way, and
other people often respect them for the ease with
which they appear to accomplish these tasks. In
addition, Threes are usually highly responsive to
client feedback and have the ability to earn long-
term client trust.
Because Three leaders avoid work-related failure,
they often have multiple strategies for overcoming
obstacles to success; for the Three, not getting work
done well and on time is simply not an option.
Threes can also be excellent team leaders, particular-
ly when their teams are composed of highly compe-
tent people on whom they can depend.
Here is the positive feedback that Lana, a Three
leader, received:
A great engineer, but also knows the business
side well
Sees the whole organizational picture
Good at customer relations
Credible
Bright
Excellent financial skills
Highly skilled with operations
Well organized
Wide management experience
Gives excellent constructive feedback
Knows when to manage closely and when not to
At the same time, the Three leaders intense drive
for results, combined with a singular, unrelenting
focus, can lead to potential problems. This is a good
example of how a strength, when overused, can
become a derailer. For example, Threes can become
so focused on completing tasks and getting the job
done that they may forget their generally well-honed
interpersonal skills. As a result, they may come
across as cold or abrupt to coworkers, bosses, and
subordinates (although only rarely to clients). This
same overfocus on goals can cause Threes to do the
following: (1) become dismissive of oth-
> > >
enneagram monthly
21
march 2007
ers in the organization whom they do not perceive
to be both competent and confident; (2) become
overly competitive, especially with peers; (3) expect
subordinates to have the same focus on goals as they
do, but without giving them enough concrete direc-
tion on how best to accomplish these goals; and (4)
work themselves to exhaustion.
Here is the negative feedback that Mike, a Three
leader, received:
Doesnt sufficiently organize the work of the
group
Needs to provide more direction and set clearer
expectations
Needs to delegate more
Under stress, becomes irritated or angry, which
makes us lose respect for him
Should be more collaborative with his direct
reports and peers
Needs to balance work and personal life better;
cant sustain 60-hour weeks
Development Stretches for Threes
Provide more explicit directions. While some
who work for you may only need minimal supervi-
sion beyond a simple understanding of the goals and
objectives, others may require greater clarity and
definition of tasks and even some guidance in devel-
oping an effective work plan. Having this latter
work style does not mean that these individuals are
any less competent or confident than you are; it
simply means that they need a greater level of detail
in order to proceed.
Treat your subordinates, peers, and bosses as if
they were clients. If you think of those with whom
you work as clients, you will respond quickly, listen
closely, and pay attention to their needs. Your gra-
ciousness and social skills will be at their best, and
your tendency to focus primarily on tasks will be
supplemented by an equal focus on people. This will
also reduce the tendency you may have to be abrupt
or to give the impression that you dont have enough
time for others.
Ask yourself how you are feeling on a regular
basis. Threes often suspend their feelings when they
work hard, believing that these will get in the way of
achieving results. Because your focus on work may
come at the expense of paying attention to your own
needs and feelings, give yourself time each day to
ask yourself these questions: How am I feeling right
at this very moment? Am I concerned about anything?
Am I angry about something? What am I feeling happy
about? Paying attention to your feelings will help
you be more genuine in your interactions with oth-
ers, appear more human to your employees, and
enable you to feel more empathy when others
approach you to discuss important issues.
ENNEAGRAM STYLE SIXES
Industrious, responsible, and analytical, Six
leaders usually prepare excellent project plans,
know exactly what they are doing and why, and
find a way to include all relevant people in the
planning process. Because Sixes have an eye for
detail and a nose for potential pitfalls, the planning
and execution of results come easily to most Six
leaders. For example, Sixes can usually anticipate
the most likely problematic scenarios and develop
effective contingency plans. Further, with their
focus on team cohesion and loyalty, Sixes are able to
enlist the support of team members and motivate
them to achieve high levels of performance. Team
members frequently feel driven to support the Six
leader, not wanting to let down the person who
watches out for their well-being in so many differ-
ent ways. Always concerned that projects go well
and not derail for some preventable reason, Six
leaders can be counted on to monitor individual,
team, and overall performance on a regular basis,
reminding people of their deliverables and provid-
ing assistance when possible.
Heres an example of an excellent Six team
leader:
Jans group was overworked, but they had all
become used to the idea that sometimes the reward
for excellent work is more work. The team members
knew that the organization counted on them to do
the most difficult assignments because their group
had a reputation for excellent work quality and timely
delivery. When asked the secret of her success as a
leader, Jan would say, Its the great team I have. The
team members responded to the same question by
saying that Jan creates the most cohesive teams in the
company: She asks our opinions, helps us out when
needed, appreciates our individual and col- > > >
Todd Pierce
(vice president for Corporate Information Technology, Genentech)
Pathbreaking! I have seen this book change lives.
Colleen Gentry
(senior vice president for Executive Development, Wachovia)
A unique combination of business savvy, organization development,
and in-depth self development.
Helen Palmer
(author of The Enneagram in Love and Work)
Adroitly describes how different types fulfill the core competencies
of leadership in their own ways.
Don Riso & Russ Hudson
(authors of The Wisdom of the Enneagram)
We recommend this book for anyone in leadership.
David Daniels
(co-author of The Essential Enneagram)
Ginger has once again come up with an outstanding work.
Each chapter is virtually a book in itself.
Tom Condon
(author of The Enneagram Movie and Video Guide)
An excellent booknot just for leaders but for anyone who wants
to grow and excel.
Jerry Wagner
(author of The Enneagram Spectrum of Personality)
If you want to be a conscious leader, this book will wake you up.
Nuala Ahern
(former member of the European Parliament - Ireland)
A superb tool for working with people of different cultures with
intelligence and understanding.
Sara Isabel Behmer
(human resources executive director, AVON, South America)
This book is like a treasure map that shows the nine ways to reach
excellence in leadership.
Pravit Chitnarapong
(president and CEO, Black Canyon Coffee Co. - Thailand)
I highly recommend that leaders at all levels read this book if they
want to create winning teams.
Beverly Kaye
(co-author of Love Em or Lose Em: Getting Good People to Stay)
Chock-full of excellent suggestions, astute examples, and a
multitude of teachable moments.
Cresencio Torres
(senior enterprise associate, Center for Creative Leadership)
A unique combination of both Eastern and Western perspectives
on leadership essence and development. I strongly recommend the
book to anyone on the development journey.
Available at Major Online and Retail Bookstores
Train-the-Trainer Program October 1-6, 2007 (Los Angeles) Companion training tools available www.TheEnneagramInBusiness.com or 310.829.3309
Integrates the Enneagram with global leadership competencies such as achieving results, self-mastery, strategic thinking, teams, decision making, leading change and more
A Crucial Link Between Big Business and the Enneagram
Chad Jorgensen, managing director, NU-EAR Electronics, Inc.
enneagram monthly
22
march 2007
lective contributions, and sticks up for us no matter
what.
The Six leaders strengths also mirror his or her
potential shortcomings or derailers. Sixes usually
start with anticipatory or worst-case planning
i.e., what could go wrong. While this approach has
great value, it also has downsides. The first is that
Six leaders may overfocus on the concerns of their
teams or projects, but do so often unintentional-
ly at the expense of the strategic priorities of the
organization, division, or other work units. This is
referred to as sub-optimization, whereby a sub-unit
maximizes its interests in a way that is not optimal
for other parts of the organization. Second, while
worst-case planning is an important part of plan-
ning and management, so is best-case scenario plan-
ning. Focusing on the negative too early or placing
more emphasis on the negative than the positive
can demotivate a team and lead to overanalysis and
analysis paralysis. Finally, when problems do
arise, its possible that the Six may be extremely
calm, but its also possible that he or she will react
strongly, becoming overly concerned and taking
action that may not be as considered and deliberate
as it could be.
Here is a story about a Six leader who was com-
petent in many respects but was also failing with
his staff:
Although Charles was technically capable and
his staff always commented that they thought he
was a good human being, they had difficulty
working for him. The staff s biggest complaint was
that Charles managed their work too closely,
wanting to know the most minute details of their
plans and progress. They not only believed that
this wasted their time, but they also felt micro-
managed and disempowered. Because they could
not understand why the boss would want to be so
closely involved in the work of staff with their
high level of capability, they interpreted his behav-
ior to mean that he was anxious and lacked confi-
dence. This perceived lack of confidence under-
mined Charless authority as a leader, and the staff
doubted whether he would be able to rise to their
aid, if needed, on important issues (e.g., garnering
resources for the group, fending off new work that
was not in their line of business, or dealing with
any intrastaff conflict).
Development Stretches for Sixes
Each time you think of a worst-case scenario,
think of a best-case scenario as well. It will be
almost impossible for you to not anticipate prob-
lems and, at the same time, you should use your
scenario-planning skills to also create positive
scenarios. Discipline yourself to create a viable,
positive scenario in addition to not instead of
a negative scenario. When you do this as a
regular part of the planning process, eventually
both positive and negative alternatives will come
easily to you.
Use best-case scenario planning with your
team before introducing worst-case scenarios. It is
best to begin planning with best-case scenarios
rather than worst-case ones; the former motivate
people to move forward, while the latter can
deplete their energy and focus. After the positive
possibilities have been discussed, consideration of
the worst-case scenarios will be very helpful for
grounding the decisions and plans in reality.
Stay calm in a crisis. When things go awry, and
they will, people will look to you for ideas, plans,
alternatives, and calmness. There is nothing wrong
with conveying a sense of urgency to resolve prob-
lems. However, it is best to do so in a calm and
deliberate manner. Sometimes it helps to take a
walk before responding or to say some calming
words to yourself e.g., Its worked out before,
and so it will this time, or I know that Im going
into to my Six worrying, and I can choose either to
continue to do that or to stop it if I want to.
ENNEAGRAM STYLE NINES
Enneagram Style Nine leaders coalesce their
teams around common missions and develop well-
organized, well-structured work plans. Because
Nines project a sense of calmness and predictability
in their work, their projects often move along with
attention given simultaneously to both the larger
project purpose and to the details of the work. In
addition, the desire of the Nine leaders for harmo-
ny among people and unity within the team con-
tributes to their ability to create high-performing
work teams whose members have a common sense
of direction. With their affable demeanor, Nines
get along with just about everyone coworkers,
subordinates, bosses, customers, and vendors. In
addition, their ability to solicit and integrate mul-
tiple opinions enables Nine leaders to make deci-
sions that are thoughtful and purposeful.
The following story demonstrates what occurs
when Nine leaders excel:
All the members of Aarons team knew they
could talk to him about anything and that he
would make time for them. Even more important,
they respected Aarons ability to develop and man-
age the process of any project assigned to their
group, and they could trust that he would make
sure everyone on the team followed the agreed-
upon process. They enjoyed coming to work and
felt respected by their coworkers. With the easygo-
ing and comfortable work environment that Aaron
established, his team knew they would be high per-
forming even when the inevitable crises, changes,
and unexpected events came their way.
The Nine leaders strength in creating cohesion
can, however, also become a derailer. Because Nine
leaders value harmony so highly, they may be
reluctant to take strong positions on project-related
issues or to assert themselves fully when teams
need clear guidance. Because Nines tend to avoid
conflict for the sake of keeping the peace, others
often do not know just where the Nine leader
stands on an issue.
Nine leaders also need to pay attention to their
tendency to procrastinate. Their attention can eas-
ily become diffused, switching focus from a high
priority work item to something else much less
important. This forgetting about the task at hand
and moving away from it can result in multiple
items piling up on their desks, creating bottle-
necks in projects. Nines need to learn to move
things off their desks soon after these items arrive
and to pay less attention to small details that,
while necessary to deal with at some point, are not
worth causing project delays.
Theres another side to Nine leaders when they
drive for results, as shown in the following story:
Although Marissa was well liked and was per-
ceived as competent by her staff, she was not per-
ceived by them to be the decisive leader they need-
ed when times got tough. When projects were run-
ning smoothly, Marissas ability to share insights
and bring people together made her much appreci-
ated. However, when conflict arose between team
members, between the team and people in other
parts of the organization, or between Marissa and a
staff member, Marissa seemed to look the other
way or withdraw. Because of this, the team became
conflict avoidant rather than put themselves in a
situation where they desperately needed her inter-
vention and she could not or would not help. As a
result of this, Marissas teams often underper-
formed.
Development Stretches for Nines
Keep the work moving, especially off your
desk. While you may have a desire to do your work
thoroughly and in a time frame that is comfortable
for you, this can create strains, stresses, and bottle-
necks for other people. This is especially true when
projects are large or complex and when people are
depending on you for a response before they can
do their own work. It is especially important that
you keep the work flowing at a more rapid pace
than you might set for yourself alone.
Focus on the big picture. Day-to-day opera-
tions are important, but when you are in a key
role, it is more important that you keep your eye
on the big picture. Delegate more to others, and
when you do, be specific about what you want oth-
ers to do. Dont be hesitant to direct their activi-
ties; this is part of being a leader.
Assert yourself more. The people who work for
and with you really want to know where you stand,
even if they disagree with you. If someone has an
opinion contrary to yours, having a dialogue about
this can bring you and the other person into an
even closer work relationship. Dont keep your
thoughts and insights to yourself. Make a commit-
ment to share more about what you truly think
early in the discussion and to ask others directly for
what you want and need from them.
__________
Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D. (Santa Monica,
CA) has been an organization development consul-
tant for over 30 years and works with companies
such as Genentech, Proctor & Gamble, Medtronic,
Sun Microsystems, Time Warner, TRW, and
Hewlett Packard, as well as service organizations,
nonprofits, and law firms. Ginger is the past presi-
dent of the IEA, and her first book, Bringing Out the
Best in Yourself at Work: How to Use the Enneagram
System for Success (McGraw-Hill 2004), has been
translated into six languages. She can be contacted
at (310) 829-3309 or ginger@bogda.com;
www.TheEnneagramInBusiness.com
Stay tuned, continued
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