Straight Dope on Medicine: Enneagram

Author

Scott Ganser
July 31, 2023

 The Enneagram is a Trojan Horse. It has been cleaned up and introduced to the Christian world as healthy and desirable.

It is anything but.

Graphic Dust Satanic Goat Head Embroidered Patch

Integrative Enneagram Solutions gives the sales pitch.[i]

The Enneagram personality system includes mystical elements and purportedly has ancient origins. It groups participants into 9 types based on the numbers 1-9, with a sub-type, or “wing,” of a different number. The Enneagram has seen a similar marketing trend, especially in evangelical Christian circles after the recent publication of a book that applied the Enneagram to Christian spiritual practice, and a band has even created songs to appeal to each type.[ii]

The word ‘enneagram’ has Greek roots and refers to a nine-pointed symbol consisting of three shapes: an outer circle with a triangle and hexagon inside.[iii] 

Automatic Writing

The pioneer of the Enneagram lied to make it palatable to Christians. He stated that it was a find from medieval Christian times. It was not. He conjured it himself, via automatic writing. Now he is trumpeting the fact.

Claudio Naranjo was a Chilean thinker. A psychiatrist and musician was the successor of Fritz Perls at the Esalen Institute. He participated in the 1960s wave of the Californian counter-cultural movement, the rapprochement between Western and Eastern traditions of spiritual openness. He was a pioneer in transpersonal psychotherapies and the therapeutic use of psychotropic drugs. He developed the Enneagram of Personality, which includes the Psychology of Enneatypes.[iv]

Advocates of automatic writing issue a warning:[v]

So if the people pushing it are sounding alarms, maybe people shouldn’t dabble in it.

Automatic writing is a method for spirit communication, where you let the spirit access your un- and subconscious mind to control your writing. As with all methods, when the psychic lets the spirit take over the body, there are risks involved.

There is “clairaudient” channeling, where the medium hears the words dictated by the (demonic) spirits, as was true for Helen Schucman, the human amanuensis behind the popular New Age A Course in Miracles. Another form is known as “automaticism,” where the spirit seems only to control parts of the body, such as the hands in automatic writing or painting. The Eastern guru Sri Chinmoy, a so-called spiritual advisor at the United Nations, claims to have produced thousands of such paintings (Reference: Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs).[vi]

Scripture

· Leviticus 19:26: Do not practice divination or sorcery.

· Ezekiel 13:20: Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them from your arms; I will set free the people that you ensnare like birds.”

· 1 Chronicles 10:13: Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance.

· 1 Samuel 15:23: For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

· Leviticus 19:31 “‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.”

· Leviticus 20:6 “‘And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.”

Original Sin

Some teachers of the Enneagram have linked original sin to the point when a young child chooses their ego type. What then follows is the idea that we can “fix” our original sin problem through spiritual work. In essence, the Enneagram of personality becomes a works-based means of salvation.

On this view, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross becomes insufficient to deal with the sin problem. We ourselves become the means to our own salvation. We correct our thinking and our shortcomings based on the test, and we remove our sin in the process. While this might help us in our sanctification, it can’t be confused as a way to actual salvation.[vii] 

False Origins

The automatic writing angle isn’t widely known, nor publicly disclosed (for the most part).

What is offered instead?

Some proponents of the Enneagram attribute it to the Desert Fathers, Kabbalists, Sufi mystics, Pythagoreans, the Chaldeans, or other ancient groups. Claims for an ancient origin, however, have never been substantiated.

It was left to another occultist, Óscar Ichazo, to connect the Enneagram to personality. Ichazo claimed to have discovered the personality type meaning of the Enneagram when it was taught to him by the Archangel Metraton while he was high on mescaline.[viii]

In the 1970s, students of Naranjo spread the Enneagram to various Catholic communities, especially in mystical and contemplative circles. Some of the promoters of the Enneagram include the former Jesuit Don Riso, the Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, and late Benedictine nun Suzanne Zuercher.

In 1997, Riso co-founded the Enneagram Institute, an organization that helped bring the Enneagram to a broader audience.

Accuracy

Determining the plausibility of the Enneagram is difficult, since there is no standard test or method for determining the personality types.

The oldest forms of Enneagram typing are based on self-assessment, where a person chooses the number that best fits his or her personality type.

Descriptions of the Enneagram Personality Types

Most Enneagram tests rely on the Barnum effect, a psychological phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to almost everyone.

Over time, every person will show the characteristics of each type of Enneagram. Still, the Enneagram test first determines a person’s "core" type, which never changes. It then works to identify the range of behaviors associated with it, providing insight into someone’s personality.

More recently, a variety of more advanced Enneagram tests have been developed to provide a veneer of scientific legitimacy. Their usefulness is questionable, though, since, like the Myers-Briggs test, the personality number assigned by any particular test frequently differs from other tests or changes upon retesting.

Even the most reliable Enneagram tests are likely to be accurate by accident. Because the most sophisticated Enneagram tests use adjective-based lexical questionnaires, they are likely to simply be identifying an Enneagram number with the Big Five personality traits.

“Big Five” personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Popularity

 On TikTok, the hashtag #enneagram has 370.4 million views.[ix]

In recent years the Enneagram personality typing system has increasingly been marketed as a faith-based or spiritual innovation. In the United States it has become popular with many Evangelical Christians, particularly younger ones.

This development has been seen as disturbing by some more traditional Evangelicals. They worry the core assumptions of the Enneagram are inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible.[x]

Sarajane Case is the prototypical young Evangelical Christian Enneagram enthusiast. With an Enneagram-themed Instagram account that has more than a half-million followers, Case credits her experience with the Enneagram with revitalizing her religious practice. She is now an accredited Enneagram coach who spreads the good word about the system through webinars, in-person workshops and speaking events.

There are some things you just can’t Christianize. Christian Death Metal. Christian Child Sacrifice to Molech, Christian Rape. Christian Murder.

It doesn’t wash. It is antithetical to Christian morals and the will of God.

Sticking the world Christian in front of anything you want to do doesn’t make it palatable to God.

Snake Oil Salesmen

In this case, we know the snake.

Genesis 3 ESV

The Fall

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

This time, he has some aides.

They have been deceived.

The Rev. David Hett, dean of the Burkhart Center at First Community Church in Marble Cliff, said he has used it for years to help couples in premarital counseling.[xi]

"It's to be more authentic in any relationship and also to begin to open our hearts more to ourselves and the world and allow ourselves to become more vulnerable and open and realize we're stronger when we're able to become more vulnerable," Hett said of the enneagram.

It’s to be more vulnerable and open to Satan and his demons.

Alternatives
Why expose yourself to something of dubious origin and nature?

We have the Myers-Briggs personality test and others.

Unlike attachment theory, which was founded by psychologist and psychiatrist John Bowlby in the mid-20th century, or even the less science-driven 5 Love Languages, created by a pastor who conducted decades of couples counseling, the Enneagram test has murky origins that are based in neither science nor experience.[xii] 

“It’s one of the more mysterious [tests] to me in terms of where types come from and on what basis it lies,” said David Watson, a professor of personality psychology at Notre Dame University. “It’s a bit obscure to me.”

Fans of the test like that it goes deeper than your average personality test. Your test result comes with a detailed description of that type’s motivations and weaknesses.

From the depiction of its origin, it does go deep, even to the pit of Hell.

Enneagram Regrets

Testing for Truth writes about the Enneagram experience.[xiii]

I first heard of the enneagram on a Christian podcast in 2017 and was mesmerized. It was so interesting to me and as soon as I heard Ian Cron describe the 9 enneatypes, I immediately identified with one of them. There were things about my personality in what he was saying that I had never been able to pinpoint or articulate. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind when I read about my type was “wow, I am not alone” and I had new, useful language to better understand myself. Gabe and I had just come out of a rough spot in our marriage and were still rebuilding, and the enneagram seemed like a helpful tool to aid in that process. Obviously as newlyweds, there is conflict surrounding your preferences and the way you see the world and ours were only highlighted due to addiction and recovery (see post on our story here). I felt this immense release knowing this is why I am this way. This is how I see the world and Gabe simply sees it differently and now we can understand each other better.

From there, I too became enneaobsessed. I immediately read Ian Cron’s book, The Road Back To You, listened to podcasts, and enjoyed talking about it and telling everyone I knew about it. Not only was it fun and interesting, but it was marketed as a Christian tool to help me understand and improve myself. Fast forward a couple of years and I began to hear several things on this podcast that seemed off and unBiblical. I was growing in my faith and Bible knowledge and had taken more of an interest in that, so I stopped seeking out new information on the enneagram. Then earlier this year I heard information about the enneagram that validated that “off feeling” and made me leave the enneagram altogether. This is what I want to share today because it is completely contrary to what Christian enneagram teachers are saying but is ultimately true.

1. The enneagram’s origins are in the occult.

2. Richard Rohr popularized and Christianized the enneagram.

3. The enneagram puts you in a box.

4. The enneagram excuses sin.

5. The enneagram emphasizes self versus Christ.

I have struggled and gone back and forth on whether or not to speak out against the enneagram. It feels like it has risen to such a level of popularity and become so widely accepted as “Christian” that quite frankly, speaking against it is a little scary. I struggled too because I believed it and defended it. I’ve talked a lot about it and I thought, “how could I have been so fooled?” I know many may think that it is eerily accurate and been helpful, so it has to be good.

Seems good and is good are two different things.

Jeremiah 9:6 ESV

6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
 they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
 and desperately sick;
 who can understand it?

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
 but its end is the way to death.[a]