Letter from Ken Wilber to the IEA

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This letter was published at the Conference Booklet of the 19th Enneagram World Conference f the IEA that will be held in Denver, CO, from August 2nd to 4th, 2013.

Letter from Ken Wilber to the IEA

 

The Enneagram is a remarkably useful, accurate, and helpful psychospiritual system. What is amazing is how unerringly accurate the various types actually are—something rare in a typology with as many types as the Enneagram has.

 

Of course, there are always ways to make any system more complete and useful, and here are a few suggestions I might have for the Enneagram:

 

One, is to include a developmental component for the types. Several theorists and researchers have already done so, to great effect. The advantage to having a developmental component is that consciousness itself really does develop —from, for example, egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric to Kosmocentric, with each advance possessing a wider identity, a greater capacity for love, care, and compassion, and a larger capacity for taking more perspectives. The types themselves therefore also undergo certain fundamental shifts in their characteristics, and being able to follow these makes the system all that more accurate and useful.

 

Another item to keep in mind is that the types themselves can be looked at from within —by acquaintance —and from without— by description. Most people, although they circulate through all the types under certain conditions, are located primarily at one type station, and so they see that type from within—and they look at the world without through that type. The rest of the types are known not so much by acquaintance as by description. Part of some Enneagram systems is to train consciousness to be able to move through all the types with more fluidity and ease, thus getting to know each type more and more by acquaintance, and less just by description.

 

It’s also worth remembering that types are more like structures of consciousness, in addition to which there are states of consciousness. States are experienced in such things as meditation — and the world’s great contemplative traditions each have their own specific maps of the stages  of state development as meditation progresses— usually from something like gross to subtle to causal to pure Witnessing to pure nondual Unity. The important point about types is that a person will tend to interpret these states according to their primary type—and this is very important information to have. Not everybody experiences subtle states or causal states the same way—a 5 and a 9, for example, will have some very different experiences of these meditative states, and knowing that can be of inestimable value in the overall growth and evolutionary process.

 

Another useful item is to realize that each of these types can be viewed through different perspectives—such as 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person views. 1st-person is the person speaking, and is represented by pronouns such as I, me, my, singular; and we, us, ours, plural. 2nd-person is the person being spoken to, and is represented by pronouns such as you, thou, singular; and youse (or you guys) plural. 3rd-person is the person or thing being spoken about, and is represented by pronouns such as he, her, him, she, his, hers, it, singular; and them, they, theirs, its, plural. Each of these perspectives —representing things like art, morals, and science; or the Good, the True, and Beautiful, will be experienced differently by different types, which is definitely worth keeping in mind. Often when somebody (say, a 3) is discussing morals they have something utterly different in mind than somebody else (at, say, a 7).

 

The important point with all of these differences is that none of them are the “right” or “correct” ways to view things; all of them are important and worth consideration. It’s just that a “one-size fits all” is not the most useful way to construct a typology, and the more dimensions we bring to bear on the issue, the more complete and integral it becomes. The same is true of the Enneagram.

I send all of you my very best wishes for this wonderful gathering of those interested in this most compelling of psychospiritual systems. Much love and much light to you all!

 

Very best wishes,

 

 

Ken Wilber