A publication of the International Enneagram Association

bringing news and more to the global Enneagram Community

April 2009

IEA Conference Pre-day Event

By Beatrice Chestnut
What’s Inside
Last year, Helen Palmer and David Daniels celebrated the 20th
Anniversary of their Enneagram Professional Training Program (EPTP).
At this year's IEA conference, they, along with EPTP co-teachers Terry
Saracino and Peter O'Hanrahan, will open our annual meeting with a
rare day-long presentation of recently developed material from
Enneagram Studies in the Narrative Tradition.

This program joins Palmer's research conclusions about the

Enneagram’s pre-Christian history with new understandings from
interpersonal neurobiology about the plasticity of the human nervous
system. This integration joins ancient learnings about specific type-
based barriers to spiritual transformation with 21st-century insights
about how our brain can be re-patterned through conscious self-work.

With a focus on expanding consciousness, Palmer, Daniels, Saracino,

and O'Hanrahan will show how each type structure recreates nine
unconscious habits and therefore pinpoints the precise patterns that can
change through applied self-work. By directly addressing the “somatic
piece” in their day-long presentation, the EPTP team will help participants
to experience how inner change actually takes place, once the recurring
patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving can be recognized.

As Terry Saracino explains, “the somatic piece is about how our reptilian
brain patterns automatically engage in ways that can be hard to
recognize from the perspective of thoughts and emotion. We are going to
present ways of working with the body that allow us to recognize and stay
present to the felt sensation of inner resistance just a little bit longer. That
conscious pause interrupts ongoing habit so that inquiry about why the
habit kicked in can take place.” She goes on to say, “the exciting thing
about the Enneagram modality is that it really brings all aspects of self
1

Sao Paulo, Brazil
San Francisco, CA, USA
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Brisbane, Australia
Boulder, CO, USA
Birmingham, AL, USA
-
Brisbane, Australia
Columbus, OH, USA
(5)
Napa Valley, CA, USA
Madrid, Spain
)
Philadelphia, PA, USA
To submit an article for publication
or send comments to the editor:
IEA
4100 Executive Park Dr., Suite 16
Cincinnati, OH 45241 USA
ninepoints@internationalenneagram.org
IEA Conference Pre-day Event continued
together. It demonstrates how all three centers of human experience can unite through
practice.”
This presentation will thus integrate diverse elements of the Enneagram system as well
as self-development practices for a multi-level experience of how self-work generates
greater awareness. With their focus on somatic, psychological, and spiritual integration,
these leading teachers will show how growth necessarily combines an understanding of
how the cognitive-emotional pattern of type originates in the body, and how that pattern
both helps and hinders the emergence of spiritual awareness that is attuned to the unity
of all things.
Using a variety of methods - meditation, somatic exercises, panel inquiry and lecture --
Palmer, Daniels, Saracino, and O'Hanrahan will guide pre-conference participants
through an experience of how to work with current type issues.
Previewing the
2009 IEA
Conference
I began studying the Enneagram as part of my theological studies in
the 1980s. In 1994, I established the Australian Enneagram
Project, which has three different elements. The first is a free weekly
program to introduce people to the Enneagram framework using
panels of exemplars live in front of an audience. Over 23,000
people have now participated in this program. The second aspect is
a contemplative program that involves weekend, 5-day, 9-day and
13-day silent meditation retreats held throughout the year. These
are run at our Andelaine campus at Natural Bridge in Queensland, Australia. Finally, I
established the Australian Institute for Enneagram Studies in 1996, which trains teachers
in the psychology, philosophy, and history of the Enneagram, with a particular emphasis
on the clinical assessment of personality type through interviews.
I have written two books on the Enneagram and numerous articles in journals and
magazines. For the last 15 years, I have also been a management consultant working in
Australia’s leading business, legal, and banking and tertiary institutions, using the
Enneagram framework.
I was involved in theological studies at the Australian Catholic University, when one of
my fellow students walked into the room, very excitedly waving nine photocopied sheets
describing the nine personality types of the Enneagram.
I was later to discover that these were in fact the personality type descriptions used by
Bob Ochs’s students, some of whom had been teaching in Australia. Fortunately, my
2
spiritual director at the time had studied the Enneagram with
Jerry Wagner in Chicago, and so I was able to receive solid
information on the subject.
As part of my doctoral research, I have studied extensively
the writings of a third century Christian
monk called Evagrius of Pontus. I also
studied the written by
St. Denys, a Syrian mystic of the 5th century.
Q
What became increasingly clear was that the
nine passions and virtues described by
Evagrius, and later refined by Denys, were
the origins of the Enneagram personality
system as we know it today. The
psychological commentary written by
Evagrius remains poignantly relevant and
applicable in the modern age. St. Denys’
synthesis of the entire Desert tradition makes
him an incredibly important figure within
both Western theology and philosophy.
These studies have informed both the
community development and teacher training
A
components of the Australian Enneagram
Project, to use the Enneagram effectively in
organisations and on a personal level.
The Enneagram is a key that unlocks a door
or starts an engine. It isn’t the engine, but the
means to the engine. As the Buddhists say, it
is the finger which points to the moon, but is
not the moon. To understand the importance
of the Enneagram, one must understand the mysteries that it
unlocks.
The Tao Te Ching is a remarkable text that so parallels the
writings of Denys the Areopagite, that Allan Watts proposes
that Taoists themselves made contact somehow with St
Denys during the 5th century.
When I first read the Tao Te Ching, I was immediately struck
by the similarity in spirit to the writings of St. Denys and also
the clumsy nature of many of the English translations of the
Tao commonly in use. So I translated the Tao Te Ching and
wrote it in a manner that is in spirit similar to that of Denys
the Areopagite.
3
The cosmological and philosophical basis of Denys’s
synthesis is in my opinion almost identical to that which
inspired Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Common to both is a
profound understanding of the passions of human
psychology, and the importance of managing such
passions, for the good of human and community relations.
Both of these learned men understood the passions to be
the obstacle to an experience of divine enlightenment by
human beings.
I believe that if the Enneagram is to be a
credible instrument, either as a psychological
or organizational development tool, it needs to
be rigorous and viable.
I have made it my work for almost the past two
decades to provide a consistent, reliable, albeit
confronting, understanding of the Enneagram
people find credible and personally useful.
I believe that if the Enneagram is ever to have
special appeal, there needs to be a consistent
method of accurately assessing personality
type that is consistent between people and
cultures. It does not serve our movement well
when, for example, three leading teachers all
disagree on the assessment of the personality
type of a specific individual.
I have been attending IEA conferences since
Stanford University in 1994 and have been
privileged to be present at some inspiring
endnote presentations. My particular strength is
that I am an Enneagram teacher, with
significant experience within the IEA community.
The endnote presentation will consider the importance of
the Enneagram from an international perspective, and the
way that the future of its use is in the hands of a new
generation of Enneagram teachers, which will allow for its
development and use worldwide.
 Ask Dr. J.
Q that’s what Fritz Perls, the
I’m a long-standing fan of Clint Eastwood both as
A an actor and director. Ambiguity is a theme in
many of his movies. I’m thinking of
, , and
his two movies about Iwo Jima: one for each side.
There are no black or white characters in Eastwood’s films.
Every character is a mixture of good and bad, moral and
immoral, lovable and unlovable. Particularly the characters
in embody this ambiguity. There’s
something right about each one and there’s something
wrong about them. You want some of them to get killed
off; and then when they do you feel sorry because they
weren’t that bad.
It’s with this ambiguity in mind that I respond to two
questions sent my way. We are all blameless and culpable;
we all have our high side and our low side.
Jeff, a One, and his fiancé, an Eight, are going at each
other. Shocking! Eights want to have it their way and Ones
want to have it the right way (which often happens to be
their way.) It’s like a snappy dog grabbing hold of a bear’s
foot. Usually it’s the One that won’t let go till they feel
justified. Here the Eight won’t let go till she feels
vindicated. If the other person is coming back for more,
apparently the situation wasn’t finished and the person is
still looking for closure. I’d suggest asking the fiancé what
still feels unfinished. If there’s resentment on either side,
4
founder of Gestalt therapy,
called the hanging on bite. To
let go of the resentment you
either have to bite all the way
through and fully express your anger
or open your mouth and let the anger go. I like the simile
that resentment is like swallowing arsenic and waiting for
the other person to die. Ambiguity. You say your fiancé is
being unfair and punitive. I wouldn’t rule that out when
Eights are in a bad space. So maybe she needs to say
what’s still bothering her and then stop kicking your dead
body. On the other hand, you might be uncomfortable
with your own anger and so are projecting it onto your
partner and then stirring her up a little to let process
your anger. The problem is she’s not swallowing it. Eights
tend to throw out (or up) what they don’t like. So re-own
your anger and process it yourself.
The One’s vulnerability is being wrong or being wronged;
the Eight’s vulnerability is being weak or controlled. Ones
cover their vulnerability by striving to be right; Eights defend
against their vulnerability by taking charge.
What do you both really want? Defensiveness? Justification?
Vindication? Ones say they want to be respected and loved.
Eights say they want to be treated justly and equitably.
Underneath the arguing, you might both want similar
things. So you could talk with each other about what you
need from each other. You may have to squeeze that out of
your fiancé but she’ll probably appreciate your asking.
One other thing, you might both look at your expectations
for each other. Are your arguments about hurt feelings
because your expectations weren’t being met? Did you
express those expectations? Are they reasonable? Are you
exaggerating how much the other person failed to come up
to your expectations? One’s expectations of perfection and
rightness tend to be calibrated pretty high. What would you
say: from 50 to 100 % higher than anyone elses? And
Eights tend to expect subservience. Are you challenging the
Boss and is she miffed (and fearful) that you dare to do so?
It might be a useful dialogue to surface what these
expectations are.
Meantime may your anger be a way to connect with each
other and not knock the other out of the ring. And, by the
way, keep the stools out of the ring.
**********
 Ask Dr. J.
Q
A
Beatrice, a Two, is experiencing difficulties with her
friend, a Five. Again, a shocking situation! Here
we have the dilemma of the and the
. As the Two the Five, the
Five the Two. Karen Horney would love
it.
On the high side Twos are relational and they have good
people smarts. On the low side they are overly dependent
on others for affirmation and approval. Twos have a
problem with independence/dependence. On the one
hand, they don’t want to be dependent on others for their
self-worth; on the other hand they are dependent on others
for good feelings about themselves.
On the high side, Fives are good observers and have good
intrapsychic smarts. On the low side they are hyper-
independent and seek to do everything for themselves and
keep things to themselves.
Heinz Kohut, the father of Self Psychology, said we all have
needs for , , and . That is, we
want to be recognized and admired by others; we want to
look up to others, admire them and feel safe with them; we
want to feel like we are akin to others and belong on the
same team with them. When we’re little, other people serve
as for us; that is, they do for us what we can’t
do for ourselves, yet. Gradually we are able to treat
ourselves the way we are treated through a process of
. Then we can admire ourselves,
soothe ourselves, and feel like a peer among peers. Even
when we’re adults, we still have these three basic needs.
It’s not that we outgrow them, we just tame them down. So
Twos might need to know that they are loved and approved
of, that others will take care of them (just as well as they
take care of others), and they are like others in that
everyone is both a helper and a helpee. There isn’t a split
5
continued
between being either a helper or a helpee but we are
both/and in the human family. Fives have the same needs,
they just put up more resistance to them. Fives, too, want to
be noticed. They’re just uncomfortable when they are. And
they want to be taken care but aren’t sure they can trust
others to do so. And they would like to belong but manage
to put themselves outside of any group with astonishing
speed.
John Bowlby, the attachment theorist, described various
forms of attachment we can form in childhood that carry
over into adulthood. sees others as
reliable and oneself as lovable. , or
anxiously insecure, sees others as maybe reliable and
oneself as maybe lovable. Fearing that they are somehow
deficient or unlovable, those with insecure attachment tend
to either cling to attachment figures or aggressively demand
reassurance. or sees others
as untrustworthy and oneself as not so great, either. These
folks tend to deny their need for attachment.
Twos in a stressful space can act like anxiously insecure
individuals and Fives in a bad space act like avoidant
individuals. As the Two attaches and demands
reassurance, the Five detaches and heads for the library.
So Beatrice, you might express your feelings to your Five
friend (after you explain to her what feelings are). And you
might tell her that you appreciate your relationship and all
she offers you since Fives don’t believe they have much to
contribute. You might also make it clear just what you do
want from her and put some boundaries around the time
this will take. That may help her breath easier -- though
you may have to take a deeper breath yourself.
What you can breathe in is the calming and comfort that
you get from others and do that for yourself while the Five is
waiting to return your call. Fives don’t want to set up the
expectation or reward the behavior that they will respond
immediately to calls, requests, and demands. So while
you’re waiting, you can practice taking care of your own
needs. Trust that even though you’re off the ventilator, you
can still breath on your own.
And your Five friend, might want to be honest about how
much contact she wants with you. That might sound a little
aggressive and Eight-like to avoidant Fives, but practicing
negotiating is a way for Fives to counteract their
maladaptive belief that the world is not negotiable. And
who better to negotiate with than a cooperative Two? This
would be a good practice for both of you. To negotiate,
both parties have to put their needs on the table, then
brainstorm how both of their needs can be met. This isn’t
going to be easy for either one of you but it’s a process you
 Ask Dr. J.
can offer to each other.
continued
Two and not be like the clinging antagonist in
.
Fives also need to know that they are important to other
people and can actually make a difference in someone’s
life. So your friend might need to connect with you in a
more generous and timely manner. She can benefit from
the friendship and love she receives from you and she can is the author of the
grace you with the awareness and attention she offers you. ; the
(WEPSS); and
So your Five friend may not want to model herself on the
archetypal Clint Eastwood taciturn hero but rather be more . Jerry has been researching and teaching the
interactive. And you may want to be a more self-sufficient Enneagram for over 30 years.

World Enneagram Day

The Board of Directors of the International Enneagram
Association has declared May 30, 2009 to be the first-
ever World Enneagram Day. The intention behind World
Enneagram Day is both to promote the Enneagram sys-
tem as an important and potentially life-changing tool for
raising individuals’ level of awareness and to communi-
cate the larger goal of the urgent need for humanity to
attain higher consciousness as a collective around the
world.
World Enneagram Day will be a day dedicated to free
Enneagram teachings and contemplative practices to
promote self-awareness and raise global consciousness. It
is an opportunity for people around the world to gather
together to demonstrate our shared commitment to the
goals of higher consciousness, global unity, and world
peace.
On May 30, 2009, the IEA board of directors would like
to encourage all IEA members and friends of the
Enneagram to pause and reflect on the importance of
cultivating awareness and presence in service of
consciousness. As our collective consciousness is
heightened, we become aware of the essential unity that
includes and connects us all. When we consciously
inhabit an intention to improve ourselves and our
individual level of awareness, we become beacons of light
for the further illumination of global consciousness.
We invite you to join us in offering service by teaching free
Enneagram classes, leading group discussion, and
generating conscious
intention through meditation
and prayer for the benefit of
all beings in the name of
abiding world peace.
Here are some types of
services you can offer:
•Free Enneagram courses
offered to populations in
need who usually do not
have access to personal growth courses.
•Free Enneagram workshops in schools, universities,
community centers, or government agencies.
•Individual and group prayer and meditation sessions
around the theme of consciousness, unity, and peace.
•Articles on the Enneagram as a tool for increasing
awareness and raising consciousness in your
organizational newsletters or blogs.
•Approach media sources regarding World
Enneagram Day and offer to be interviewed about the
Enneagram as a tool for consciousness, unity, and
peace.
The IEA wants to create a catalogue of all that happens
around the world on this first World Enneagram Day,
so please list your event on our web site. To register
your World Enneagram Day event, please send an
email to ela@internationalenneagram.org and let us
know all the details.

6
Conscious...Computing?
By Darryl Hadfield that you can run on your computer called, "iTunes."
iTunes lets you access a publicly available environment
Yes, you read that right. Things they are-a-changing, called the iTunes store, which includes music, video, and
and it's important to maintain some degree of sanity - you guessed it - podcasts.
throughout it all.
The term Podcast comes from a combination of the word
Hello everyone - I'm Darryl Hadfield, a new(er) addition broadcast - and the name of that now ubiquitous little
to the IEA Global board of device, the iPod. Anyone in the
directors, and over the next few world - YOU included - can create
weeks, months, maybe even your own audio or video file, and
years, you'll be seeing a number then with a little bit of know-how,
of things happening around you you can share your message with
with the IEA logo on them - with the world, through a podcast that
the desired end result being that can be freely available - as the IEA
you have more options available is now doing with its series of
to you as as member of the IEA. podcasts.

One of the first you're likely If you haven't got an iPod,

already aware of is podcasting. however, don't fret. You aren't
We have begun to create an being excluded! You can still
informational diet of interviews listen to the IEA podcasts, by going
with leading Enneagram experts to the following link in your
and community notables and are internet browser:
recording those interviews in
order to make them available for http://sites.internationalenneagra
you to consume at your m.org/pc/Home/feed.xml
convenience. If you're unfamiliar
with podcasting - well, let's talk By using this link, you can view
about that! and listen to the podcast through
your browser - no iPod needed!
Everyone's familiar with the idea
of “broadcasting” - we're all aware of what that means Now why would this be of any use to you? Well, funny
on television and radio. However, given the you'd ask that.. one of the cornerstone pieces of the
“broadness” of broadcasting, it can be difficult to find functionality of this concept is the ability to subscribe to
content that specifically suits one’s individual taste. the podcast - so that when a new one comes out (and
we'll be doing this about once a week!) - your iTunes, or
First, some background. Several years ago, Apple your computer's browser - will automatically get the new
Computing introduced the “iPod” - a portable, futuristic “episode” and have it ready for you to listen to or watch!
replacement for the then-available portable musical And another reason you'll want to listen to these
device product niche (remember the portable audio tape interviews is that they will be conducted by the IEA's own
player, the “Walkman?”). The iPod is an MP3 player - in highly skilled, Enneagram-savvy professional
a nutshell, it stores broadcaster, Ron Esposito. Many thanks to Ron for
music (or, in many donating his services for this podcast series
cases, other audio or
even video) in files, on That's about it for this time around - if you have
a little device you can questions, feel free to contact me at
listen to and/or watch darryl.hadfield@internationalenneagram.org and I will
at your convenience. At do what I can to help you out!
the same time, Apple
produced a program - D.

7
Untrue to Type:
Dionysus and the Repair of Imagination
By Michael J. Goldberg
When it comes to the debate within the Enneagram
community about the need to scientifically validate type, it’s
like the age-old sibling rivalry between Apollo and
Dionysus.
Apollo, the older brother, dignified and sober, dark curly
locks, a straight arrow, tall and classically handsome (like a
Greek god), is the brilliant god of the Sun.
The bright Sun brings the world into sharp relief: light and
shadow, with precise distinctions.
Apollo science and the scientific
method and has been its principal
proponent since the earliest days. For him
the nine are well researched, well described,
modern scientific types. When we hear of a
movement to fully standardize the
enneagram types, that’s Apollo.
As such, Apollo delights in enneagram tests.
He inspires and guides the latest enneagram
research on brain waves and MRIs and even
handwriting analysis.
Serious about self-improvement, Apollonians
advocate the hard personal work necessary
to master the fixation and move up the
developmental ladder, step-by-step, toward
the higher aspects of type.
But Dionysus, Apollo’s provocative younger
brother, is a force of nature, of
transformation and metamorphosis. As god of wine, he
loosens people up.
Far from Apollo’s light, Dionysus guides initiation into the
mysteries. He connects humans to their spark of the divine.
Apollo generates crisp answers in bullet points and power
points. Dionysus raises unsettling questions, or tells
midrashim, that have to be wrestled with, that intensify and
expand experience, and open one to unconventional
sources of wisdom.
Of course we need both Apollo and Dionysus; the Greeks
knew they are flip sides of the same coin. And the
8
remarkable perspicuity of the nine types must be sustained.
But the work ahead is to hold that clarity in its broader,
natural context, and that is a generous Dionysian
engagement with depth and imagination. This means to be
cautious about concretizing the nine at the expense of their
essential meaning. As Jung wrote about archetypes, “Every
attempt to focus them more sharply is immediately punished
by the intangible core of meaning losing its luminosity.”
Like the enneagram’s scientists, Apollo stands outside; he
wants to be objective. (“Just the facts,
ma’am.”). Dionysus goes another way: he
wants intimate participation, engagement,
empathy; he gets well under the skin. He
can admit one enneagram type to
experience the inner world of another (no
small thing, but not scientific).
Oddly, the scientists are in the same boat
as the fixated. The scientists seek
Apollonian certainty and unambiguity, just
like someone who is fixated: for what is a
fixation but a demand for unambiguity?
An enneagram fixation is the clinging to one-
sidedness. Each fixation holds the belief, spoken
or not, conscious or not, that one knows certain
absolute truths about how the world works; and
these truths are esteemed over other values,
without regard for the situation at hand.
The problem with a fixation is not that it is
wrong, or unreasonable, or unproductive.
(They frequently are none of these.) The problem is that it is
one-sided.
Each of the fixated are fundamentalists: they are devotees
of a single-values set, which is the source of all the trouble
that a fixation causes. Each type sees the world in this
particular, singular way, and does not easily imagine or
participate in alternatives.
Each of the fixations is, at its core, most crucially, a failure
of imagination.
For example, the Eight is a failure of imagination about
power; when fixated, Eight knows only how to ramp it up
or, possibly, down. A fixated Eight has little time for subtlety
Untrue to Type:
Dionysus and the Repair of Imagination cont.
or nuance, for imagining an indirect or circumscribed
course.

The Seven, for her part, is a failure of imagination about

imagination itself. Seven’s imagination is rigidly stuck on
the upside, unable to seriously consider alternatives, as for
example, the downside.
The repair of failed imagination is the work of Dionysus.
Each fixation needs more images, more possibilities, the
kind that come from life’s adventures, lived and told in
stories and fables, and especially from intimate
engagement with the other eight.
Yet, as we focus on upgrading our own fixation, frustrated
by its unforgiving lower aspects, yearning for the saintly
higher aspects, ambitious for personal mastery, the other
frames of reference- the crucial other numbers which are
the way out- fade into the distance, and become even more
inoperative, inaccessible and unavailable.
We become more stranded in our type, not less. Nothing is
so fixating as an enneagram type trying to get better.
The real work of the enneagram is not self-improvement
–to refine and shine up your fixation so that you don’t get
caught with your number showing.
Quite the opposite: the work is to
to loosen its hold, to destroy its faith. (A fixation is a true
believer.)
Down Under
The IEA has now established its southern-most outpost with
the incorporation of IEA Australia – the international
affiliate of the IEA located in Australia.
Founded in Brisbane, IEA Australia has attracted interest
from across all Australian States, and its Board is
representative of not only the geographical corners of the
country, but different Enneagram schools as well.
There are seven members on the Board of directors of the
Affiliate, each of whom have trained with leading
Enneagram teachers such as Helen Palmer, David Daniels,
Russ Hudson, Don Riso, and David Burke. All members of
the Board are deeply committed to the aim of having a truly
representative Australian body participating in IEA events
and being the “hub” for sharing ideas and teachings
related to the Enneagram in Australia.
Activities are planned for and will be promoted in Brisbane,
Sydney, and Melbourne.
With four lifetime memberships already committed to by
members of the Board, IEA Australia is about to launch a
nationwide membership drive and is keen to attract
members from around the nation.
Anyone interested in joining should contact the Rachel
Weeks, the current chair of IEA Australia, at
rweeks@enneagram.org.au.

My good friend Odysseus intensely engages each of the

nine enneagram types on his journey, in order no less,
taking them to himself as he goes. By the end, he is wise to
them all. As a consequence, he earns the famous epithet,
, “the man of many turns” (tropes,
ways of being, mental models). No longer fixed on a single
perspective, he moves easily between frames of reference.
Odysseus has learned the Dionysian lessons: he is versatile,
fluid and multifarious.1

Goldberg, Michael J.
1

, CI Press, 2006

Michael J. Goldberg wrote and

He has taught at graduate schools
of psychology, management and law. His website is
www.9WaysofWorking.com.

9

The Nine Points Bulletin
I’ve been working with the IEA since the end of 2002. My
first conference was in Santa Monica in 2003. I wasn’t at
Minnesota in 2002. The woman that I bought the company
from knew Tom Flautt [the IEA president at the time], and
Tom knew that she did some work with associations. He
contacted me thinking he was contacting her. He and I had
breakfast, and I put in a proposal. And it came down to me
and another company, and they chose the other company.
Less than six months later, he called me and said they’d
made a mistake, and they hired me. I believe that things
always work out as they should, as it was good for me that
they hired me later because I think when they called the
second time, I was more ready to support the IEA.
I love this work. My favorite part of the business is that it is
relationship-based. We customize our program to the exact
needs of the associations we support. I like customer
service, and I like the variety of doing different things for a
variety of organizations. For each association we wear
different hats and do a varied list of things. And I like all
the diverse people I get to meet.
I am from Cincinnati, Ohio [USA] originally, but I lived in
Arizona for 13 years. In that life I was the director of
catering for a resort hotel. But I moved back to Ohio in
2001 to be near my family.
Oh, my favorite thing! [Sandy is being sarcastic here: a Two
10
on the Enneagram, Sandy doesn’t
like to talk about herself.] I’m very
happily married. I have sixteen
nieces and nephews. I have a new
puppy – a six-month old Yorky-
poo. I like scrapbooking and
other crafts. I’m active in a bible
study group my husband and I
have been in for almost two years.
I’m active in my church. I’m also a poker shark. I play
tournament-style Texas Hold ‘em.
Well, I don’t want to get into details, but I’ve won a few
tournaments.
I’m a Two. I learned the Enneagram system while working
with IEA board members – Tom Flautt and I talked about it
early on. I also listened to some of Helen Palmer’s tapes.
And Debbie Ooten did a training with my employees. I
don’t know a lot about the other types, but I have to admit I
fit the bill for Type Two. I wish I had more time to learn
about it, but there’s often so much going on I don’t
manage to get there – like at the conference, I always try to
get to a session or two, but there’s so much to do that I
don’t get to attend any sessions.
I love the people on the board. Everyone is so good-
hearted. Often people on boards have risen to the top of
their fields, and they are also people who want to give
back. So usually I am working with good people who are
dedicated to a good cause.
I love planning the annual IEA conference. I love the
challenge of negotiating the deal with the hotels to get the
best prices and put on a good conference economically. I
love when the conference goes off well and looks effortless,
although of course it does take a lot of work.
And I also like the people I meet at the conferences. They
are so appreciative of a well-run event. The conference is
great because I get to meet the people whose names I’ve
seen all year. At the conference I finally get to put names to
faces and talk with people face-to-face.
It’s expanding in leaps and bounds in every direction. I
can’t believe how much is happening right now. It’s very
exciting.
By Uranio Paes
The result was already amazing: in a very short span of
time, the IEA Spain had been formed with 32 Founders
Creating an IEA Affiliate is not an easy job. It usually takes a
working together harmoniously amidst an excellent collegial
great deal of leadership, communication, diplomacy, time,
atmosphere. Further, this group could legitimately call itself
and dedication to get most teachers, practitioners, and
“IEA Spain” in that it represented a wide array of different
schools within a country to join one countrywide community.
teachers and schools. At this point, you may be asking: Did
On one hand, most people get quickly excited with the idea
this group experience less resistance from different people
of exchanging views on Enneagram theory and applications
connected to the Enneagram than is usual? No. Several
and building joint efforts to stimulate quality and promote
people expressed concerns, others had complaints, some
the Enneagram. But, on the other hand, putting Greeks and
groups spoke against the formation of the affiliate, and
Trojans together is, in practice, a very difficult task.
others did not show up at all in this first meeting. However,
Nevertheless, twelve countries have already walked
none of these potential obstacles amounted to a
this path successfully and are doing great things
justification to postpone the plans for the
on behalf of the IEA.
creation of IEA Spain, and Isabel Salama
and her group decided to hold a space
At the IEA Board of Directors, we have
for all of this to happen.
become accustomed to waiting a
period of one or two years for Affiliates
How much time do you believe is
to become official and another one or
needed for a new Enneagram affiliate
two years for them to organize a first
group to organize an IEA Conference?
local IEA Conference. Even more time
Well, Spain did it in 8 months. The
is usually needed for other projects to
group that gathered on March 08
mature. And this pace has made sense
agreed it would be a good idea, and so
given how difficult it can be to bring a
they did it.
variety of Enneagram students and
practitioners together in one organization.
-
However, the formation process and the
- The same University, why not?
accomplishments of the IEA Spain have shifted
-
our perceptions about how quickly an affiliate can come
- Whoever wants to present will send a request and
together and reach important milestones.
we will try to accommodate everyone.
-
In December 2007, AEneagrama, the Spanish IEA-affiliated
- Why not still in 2008? On November preferably, as
Enneagram Association, was created by a first group of
December is Christmas time.
pioneers led by Isabel Salama, a psychotherapist and
-
Enneagram teacher from Madrid. This happened soon after
- Let’s make it simple: one day only, with an
Oscar Ayala, from Colombia, and myself started talking
introduction the previous evening.
with Isabel about how an IEA Affiliate could work.
Immediately, this group scheduled a General Assembly for
Out of this simple process and with a strong will to make it
March 2008, aiming to open up the group and invite all
happen, IEA Spain put on their first conference, just 8
possible Enneagram teachers, schools, and enthusiasts from
months after forming. They just had to spread the word,
all over the country. The meeting was a success: it was very
which was not difficult, given that the whole project had
well attended by people from all over Spain. It happened at
started in the right way. The conference had 138 attendees
the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, one of the most
and 19 teachers, including a majority of Spanish
traditional Universities in Europe (where the Enneagram has
Enneagram teachers: Alfonso Colodrón, Antonio López,
been taught by professor Jose María Poveda at the Medical
Borja Vilaseca, Ignacio Arregui, Isabel Salama, Jose María
School for over 15 years). This meeting in March 2008
Poveda, Julieta Balart, Lluis Serra, Maite Melendo, and
marks the date when AEneagrama officially became “IEA
Raquel Torrens. The conference program also included
Spain.”
11
well-known presenters from other countries: Agustina
Burgos, Arnaldo Pangrazzi, Eduardo Insignares-Carrione,
Giovani Maria Quinti, Jorge Mendoza, Russ Hudson, Tato
Gomez, Thomas Condon, and Uranio Paes. And, at the
end, the audience was rewarded with the presence of the
very well-known singer, Miguel Ríos, singing together with
Tato Gomez and with special guest star Russ Hudson on the
guitar.
Today, IEA Spain has 99 members, a team of 14 Directors
on its Board, a very good website, financial stability, and
plenty of new ideas. Some of them are: several different
events that will be part of the World Enneagram Day on
May 30th; a local version of the IEA Accreditation Plan that
may represent an upgrade of the global plan; and a
planned larger Conference for all Mediterranean countries
in Europe, Africa, and Middle East in April 2010. IEA Spain
has also been organizing courses with different teachers –
the next one will happen in June, with Tato Gomez,
presenting some of the Arica teachings. IEA Spain is also
helping the IEA promote the Las Vegas Conference and will
send two representatives to participate in the first General
Assembly of Affiliates on July 29th. And, the latest good
news is that Isabel Salama has agreed to join the IEA
Global board, bringing with her all her enthusiasm and
leadership!
Similar good initiatives and results are happening in all
other current IEA Affiliates: Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Iran, Korea, USA,
and Venezuela. However, IEA Spain is gifting us all with an
example of how a new IEA organization can come together
in a short period of time, one that proves that the IEA’s
dreams are quite alive and feasible in all parts of the world.
In addition, the IEA Spain experience reminds all us of the
immense power of this special kind of fuel called higher
purpose. A fuel that is cheap, available for whoever
searches for it and, most importantly: renewable.
Uranio Paes
IEA President

An IEA Production:
Perspectives on Enneagram Typing:
Lessons from Leading Enneagram Teachers
You won’t find anything like this anywhere else! On this fascinating
2-hour DVD set, you will hear leading Enneagram teachers discuss
Enneagram typing: how they do it, what they observe, and the ethical
issues that arise when trying to type other people. Hear what these
Enneagram teachers have to say:
Tom Condon
Theodorre Donson
Michael Goldberg
Russ Hudson
Kathy Hurley
Ginger Lapid-Bogda
Helen Palmer
Don Riso
You can order directly from the IEA office. Phone 1-513-232-5054.
$45 USD for IEA members. $55 for non-members, plus tax and shipping.
Credit cards, checks and money orders accepted.
This DVD set would not have been possible without the support of Chad
Jorgensen of NU-EAR, a US-based hearing aid device manufacturing
company that is dedicated to using the Enneagram for staff development
and building customer relationships. Thanks also to those teachers who
agreed to be part of this project.
This was the best-selling item at the IEA Conference ’07 bookstore!
12
By Mario Sikora
Michael Shermer
We all have stories about ourselves and the world around
us. The patterns and beliefs that Shermer refers to above
form the basis for our personal and collective narratives,
and those narratives provide a sense of clarity and certainty
for each of us. They help us make sense of the world so that
we can cope psychologically, and they provide valuable
advantages so we can survive physically. (After all, those of
our ancestors who could infer a connection between rustling
bushes and lurking lions lived to breed another day.)
While this capability serves some very necessary functions, it
can also cause us to become stuck in outdated narratives.
Since the brain loves patterns, and will create them even
when they don’t exist, our Story quickly becomes calcified:
We form opinions and beliefs and prejudices about
ourselves and our world that, even if they were accurate
when first formed, can quickly become obsolete. Behaviors
based on our Story soon become habitual and when the
world changes around us we often react to it in
inappropriate and ineffective ways.
When working with the clients I coach, I help them expose
the persistent themes of their Story—the collection of micro-
and macro-narratives; tales large and small about
themselves, their co-workers, the business climate, or life in
general—that may be hampering their growth. Of course,
their Ennea-type is at the heart of their Story; it’s the prism
through which they see the world and it colors everything,
and recognizing their Ennea-type and the role it plays in
shaping their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors is invaluable
in efforts to improve. Once they understand their
unconscious and habitual story they can become active
dismantlers and rebuilders: challenging their own
assumptions and beliefs when they see the influence of
Ennea-type and rewriting their Story in adaptive ways rather
than continuing along maladaptive paths. Rather than being
characters in the story of their lives they learn to become
active and deliberate authors of the Story, taking control
and re-scripting the narrative with more-adaptive themes.
While most of my clients become interested in the
Enneagram, only a few become aficionados. Oddly enough,
this light embrace works to their advantage in some ways
because they use the Enneagram to recognize its affect on
their worldview, make some changes to the way they see
their world, and then go back to living their lives. The
danger of being an Enneagram aficionado is that our
perception of our type and the types of others can become a
13
new, just-as-calcified
story. It can become
simply another form of
habitual, stereotypic
thinking that we should
be trying to eradicate.
Zen teacher Sunryu
Suzuki Roshi once said,
“Zen is like soap: use it
to clean, but then rinse it
off.” The Enneagram
should be used the same
way; but often the
opposite is the case. If
you’ve been to a
conference or workshop
you’ve seen the
behavior: People seem to
love their type, regaling others with evidence that shows they
are a Six or a Nine or a Three, breathlessly pointing out
when someone demonstrates type-related behavior,
debating the Ennea-types of the people in their lives or on
TV. It becomes a badge of honor, almost, and witnessing it I
can’t shake the image of people caked in suds.
It’s understandable behavior, of course; the Enneagram is a
mesmerizing tool and can make us feel like we are seeing
life clearly for the first time. Once we have this clear vision
we fear losing it, so we hold on to it. We seem to see a
deeper layer to the people around us, and the Enneagram
becomes like a decoder ring, helping us to fathom the
otherwise strange-seeming behavior of our fellow travelers.
We benefit so much that we want to share it with the people
we care about and, like most converts, we can become a bit
obsessive.
But it’s very easy for the Enneagram to become a central
part of a new but similarly calcified Story about our world.
We believe a coworker is a Three so we assume all of her
actions are driven by a focus on image and surely she
couldn’t do charitable work because how could a Three find
success in that, and, now that you mention it, I never did
trust her because we know Threes are “deceitful.”
Such automated and clichéd characterizations rob us of the
opportunity to see the individuals around us as they truly
are: complex and contradictory and human. They lead us to
make inaccurate assessments about people as we start to
believe the Enneagram is some sort of fool-proof predictive
model that will tell us everything a person can and will do,
rather than seeing it as a descriptive model that helps us to
understand past behavior in a deeper context or to be open,
responsive, and non-judgmental in the present moment.
A case in point: At a recent conference someone asked me
to read an article, prefacing the request with the assurance
that it was short and he knew that I was an Eight and that
“Eights aren’t readers.” I couldn’t imagine that someone
who would say that could write anything I’d be interested in
reading and the article in fact remained unread.

Worse still, these characterizations are simply boring. Each

time I hear someone say something to the effect of “Oh, I’m
such a Seven!” I simply want to scream. Don’t get me
wrong, I’m not trying to disaffect the reader from the
Enneagram; nor am I saying that our knowledge of the
Enneagram should not be used in our daily lives. I love the
Enneagram and I doubt an hour goes by when I don’t think
about it in one way or another: I’m on the board of
directors of the IEA; I’ve co-authored a book about the
Enneagram; the Enneagram is central to my work. But we
must be careful that the Enneagram does not become
another static, repetitive Story for us. We must ensure that
we use it to help us see our maladaptive habitual patterns
and begin to dismantle them so we can respond to life Whether you are an
more openly and appropriately. We should use it to Enneagram enthusiast or teacher,
understand the traps that others can sometimes fall into and
to ensure that we are more compassionate toward them in this comprehensive 3 DVD
our interactions. Each time we feel the nagging dis-ease or
frictions brought about by unsatisfying relationships with the
set provides insight in the
people around it, we should pull out the Enneagram and subtleties of type. Professional
give ourselves a quick scrub, followed by a thorough rinse.
Walt Whitman proudly
moderators lead panelists
wrote “I contradict myself; through engaging questions that
I am large, I contain
multitudes.” He also reveal the central themes of
understood himself, and a Each type in an informative
central truth about human
nature. We should and entertaining way.
embrace those same
qualities about ourselves. A six hour set.
So, should we meet, don’t Complete set $100 for members
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probably see your Ennea-
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me see the multitudes, the real you, the one that contradicts
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For information:
administration@internationalenneagram.org

14
The IEA board of directors is pleased to announce the addition of five new board members: Darryl Hadfield, Daniela
Hauptmann, Isabel Salama, Mario Sikora, and Rachel Weeks. Each of these people bring a wealth of experience to the
board, and together they represent a diverse group of dedicated volunteers who will contribute a lot to the IEA at this
crucial time of expansion and growth. Here are the IEA’s five new board members:
Darryl was born and raised in
Canada, where he lived until
joining the Canadian Military in
1994. At that point, he traveled
throughout most of Canada, as
well as many other countries and
continents throughout the world. After serving four years
in the military, he began a career in technology. He’s
been working with technology for over 20 years, since he
was 11-years-old. He says that he has always had an
affinity for technology, and now it is both his profession
and his hobby.
Darryl is new to the Enneagram community, as he learned
the system only last year. His partner, Beth O’Hara, a
member of the new IEA-USA board of directors, has been
involved with the Enneagram through the School of
Conscious Living in Cincinnati. He explains that after he
met Beth last year, “she got me in touch with Debbie
Ooten – the rest, as they say, is history.”
Darryl’s efforts on the IEA global board will be centered
on the use of technology for the betterment of those who
use it, as he has been doing professionally for the last two
decades. In addition to his professional work with
technology, he also enjoys working with technology in his
free time, providing refurbished computers to those who
do not have the means to purchase one for themselves. In
supplying computing tools to those that would not
otherwise have them, this “green” practice also supports
his personal ecological goals as it ensures that viable
computer hardware doesn't end up in a landfill. In his
personal time Darryl enjoys Karate, Paintball, Target
Shooting, Archery, Mountain Biking, and Motorcycles.
And although his involvement with the Enneagram started
only the middle of 2008, his spiritual path has been a
lifelong journey.
15
Daniela Hauptmann has found
herself embracing three major
pursuits throughout her life: art,
education, and personal
development. Born in Bavaria,
Germany, Daniela studied art, first
in Munich, then in New York. From
that passion for art grew a career in advertising and
marketing as a freelance illustrator. At about the same
time, Daniela began studying in the Arica Institute. For
much of her life, she has been immersed in the work of
Oscar Ichazo’s Arica school. She is a certified Arica
teacher, and has been studying actively and teaching and
organizing Arica trainings for over 35 years.
Early on in her life, she lived for a while on an anarchist
commune in the South of France, herding goats and
making cheese. She loves painting, drawing, nature,
philosophy, history, anthropology, quantum physics,
hiking, swimming, internal martial arts, meeting people,
wining and dining, cooking, and entertaining.
Daniela became involved with Arica 35 years ago in New
York City, after returning from France where she studied
Gurdjieff. She is a renegade Sufi of the Qadiri-Rifai order,
although as she explains, “in my heart I still am a
universal sufi.” She also studies internal martial art (Tai
Chi) with grandmaster Sam Tam.
In (year?) she moved to the Napa Valley in California with
her husband (now deceased), 5 suitcases, and a baby,
after a brief stay in Germany, where they experienced
some of the radioactive fall-out from the Chernobyl
nuclear power accident. She’s been living in Napa ever
since.
Daniela has extensive experience promoting, organizing
and managing Arica seminars and workshops
internationally (in the USA, Canada, and Europe). Further,
her work focuses not only on adults’ self-development
work, but also on personal growth programs for teenagers
and young adults. She feels particularly passionate about
working with young people to help them aquire their
internal witness. The mother of two children, Daniela
realizes the importance of creating a solid foundation for
today's youth. Her current interests center on developing
educational programs for young people that combine the
themes of sustainability, global leadership, and awareness
as seen through the prism of global unity. In her work
centered around the goal of global unity, she seeks to foster
peaceful cooperation and understanding regardless of
culture, ethnicity, or gender.
In addition to her abundant experience in self-development
using the Enneagram and many other Arica methods,
Daniela also has extensive experience in advertising and
marketing, both locally and internationally. Daniela's
background in promotion, coupled with her years of
experience in teaching provide her with many skills that will
support her in her plan to be an active member of the IEA
board, helping to effectively lead the IEA into the future.
Isabel Salama is from Madrid,
Spain. She is a 49-year-old mother
of three wonderful children. She
has a doctorate in Clinical
Psychology from Universidad
Autonoma de Madrid. She also
has a pedogogy degree from
Universidad Complutense de Madrid. For many years she
has worked as a psychotherapist and a self-development
teacher using the Enneagram and other specific techniques.
One of the “different” techniques she uses the most is
psychotherapy supported by animals and nature.
According to Isabel, “above all, I am a researcher and a
student of how human beings behave.” One of her main
priorities in her work is to always try to find ways to achieve
a state free from suffering. As she explains, “based on my
own experience and self-observation, I try to understand,
accept, and seek for the keys to well-being, harmony, love,
and acceptance.” She uses many different tools and
approaches, both in working with herself and helping others
to develop.
In Enneagram terms, Isabel is a Sexual Four with a Three
wing. Her hobbies are travelling, being in nature, spending
time with her cats, riding horses, and reading. The
Enneagram came into her life in 1995, and it has been an
invaluable tool for her own inner work and development.
Just as she has used it to understand herself more deeply,
she also uses the Enneagram to gain insight into other
people with different personalities and other styles of
processing information.
16
Currently, Isabel uses the Enneagram both in her clinical
practice and in Enneagram workshops that she has
developed over the years. She is also president of
Aeneagrama, the Spanish IEA Affiliate. About expanding
her role in the IEA, she says, “I am delighted to be joining
the IEA global board of directors. My wish is to help IEA
affiliates get structured in Mediterranean Europe and Africa,
Latin America, and some Middle Eastern countries.”
Another one of her current goals is to help to organize an
exciting Mediterranean IEA Enneagram Conference in April,
2010. Isabel encourages anyone interested with helping
with the plans for the conference to contact her through the
IEA office.
Mario Sikora was first
introduced to the Enneagram
by Bob Tallon, the co-author of
his book, who recommended
Don Riso’s to
him in the early 90s. He was
fascinated with Riso’s
description of the Eight, which
he quickly recognized as accurate to his experience of
himself. He had been exposed to other personality models
before but had never came across anything that seemed
both so accurate and so immediately useful. He was quickly
hooked and began devouring anything he could get his
hands on: books by Naranjo, Palmer, Hurley and Donson,
Rohr, etc.
A Social Eight, Mario is managing partner of Awareness to
Action International and co-author (with Robert Tallon) of
“Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional
Intelligence, and Change” (University of Scranton Press).
Since 1998, in addition to a variety of general
management-consulting interventions, he has conducted
Enneagram-based training programs in more than a dozen
organizations, including Motorola, Rohm & Haas, Tyco
Electronics, Aramark, Panasonic, and Johnson & Johnson.
Over 200 executives have completed his Enneagram-based,
one-on-one executive coaching/leadership-development
programs and many more have attended his corporate
workshops. He was a featured presenter in Motorola’s
“Leadership Essentials” training program and has also
taught the Enneagram in a variety of universities and
government agencies. Mario lives in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, with his wife Tanya and their three sons.
Since he has three boys under six years old (and will have a
fourth by the time by the time this is published), fun revolves
around the family. Mario says, “my kids are my greatest
teachers and they make it possible to see life afresh
everyday.” Much of his free time is spent wrestling, playing
soccer, going to the playground, or playing Knights vs.
Pirates, or some such variation. Any time left over is focused
on his wife, Tanya, a Seven who he says is in every way his
better half.
When he is able to carve out time for himself, he’s a bit of a
book collector, with a library of about 5000 books. When
he travels for work he tries to build in time to visit local
bookstores and search out hidden treasures. He is also
building libraries for his children, which he hopes they’ll
appreciate more when they are older than they do now.
(Upon opening a copy of Gogol’s “Collected Stories” on his
fourth birthday, Mario’s son Alec indifferently dropped it on
the floor, punched him in the knee, and went on to the next
gift.)
Mario is excited to be joining the IEA board for a number of
reasons. First, he thinks the Enneagram is an important tool
and that if more people knew about it the world would be a
slightly better place. And he believes the IEA is the
organization with the greatest potential for raising
awareness of the system. Second, he thinks the IEA is
making progress toward being a true hub for knowledge
and insights about the Enneagram, and is taking real steps
toward increasing the professionalism with which the tool is
used. He’s very happy to be able to support that. Finally, he
appreciates the “big-tent” attitude of the IEA—the desire to
create a community where people of different mindsets can
come together and share ideas in a spirit of openness and
mutual benefit. One of his goals for his involvement in the
IEA is to help protect and support that spirit of diversity and
eclecticism so the Enneagram does not become entrenched
in dogma.
Click the Ad Below to View Conference Details and Full Conference Program
17
Rachel was raised and educated in
Australia. She studied law and
modern Asian studies, and has a
Masters in international copyright
law from Korea. She has spent
many years travelling and studying
law and language throughout
Japan and South Korea. Rachel is
a partner at an Australian law firm that specializes in
corporate law.
She enjoys learning languages, speaks Japanese and
Korean fluently, and has a deep interest in all things Asian,
including Japanese and Korean poetry and music. She fell
in love with Rumi through the translations and poetry of
Coleman Barks, and she wishes Joseph Campbell was still
alive so that he could speak at the next IEA conference. She
is also a closet science-fiction fan, and she takes great
delight in the wisdom and philosophy of series such as
Babylon 5, Firefly, and the original Star Wars trilogy.
Rachel currently serves as Vice President of the IEA global
board, and she is also the conference chair for 2010. In
addition to these responsibilities, she is the chair of the IEA
Australia Affiliate and a director of two not-for-profit
Australian Enneagram organizations. In her work on the IEA
board and within Australia, Rachel looks forward to focusing
on the international element of the IEA and increasing
participation from all corners of the globe. She believes that
the Enneagram is best understood through and in
community with others, and she brings this conviction to her
work on the IEA board to strengthen the worldwide
Enneagram community.
 Are You An Enneagram Practitioner Looking
for a Way to Stand Out From the Crowd?:
By Beatrice Chestnut
At the beginning of this year, the IEA launched its new
Accreditation for Enneagram
teachers, training programs, and
schools. The IEA Accreditation
watermark is intended to serve as
a mark of excellence – in terms of
Enneagram experience, quality,
and ethical conduct – that
communicates to the public a
certain level of achievement and
adherence to ethical standards
among Enneagram practitioners.
The IEA initiated this Accreditation Program to allow
qualified Enneagram teachers all around the world to have
a meaningful way of distinguishing themselves in
communicating their work to the public. The IEA
Accreditation demonstrates that a given teacher, training
program, or school has attained a specific level of quality
and integrity in his or her or its Enneagram work.
To become accredited as a teacher, you must submit an
application showing that you have 200 “points” toward
accreditation, with at least 100 points, or hours, coming
from direct Enneagram training.
The Enneagram is a powerful tool for self-development.
People who teach the Enneagram without the knowledge,
training, and experience required to communicate it
effectively and ethically harm all of us in the Enneagram
community.
18
As the IEA tries to meet the needs of the growing
international community, we hear from people in local
communities that the Enneagram is sometimes taught by
people who have very little training. This trend has the
potential to undermine the larger Enneagram movement as
people who are unqualified to teach the Enneagram may
create a negative perception of the system. In addition,
there is the possibility that inexperienced Enneagram
practitioners may mislead and misinform individuals who
seek help with their personal growth process in good faith.
The IEA has formally identified the following three key
reasons for developing this accreditation:
To increasingly promote a high international
standard of quality for all Enneagram teachers,
training programs, and schools through
establishing an accreditation that demonstrates the
achievement of certain minimum standards of
ethical Enneagram work.
To provide a way to communicate to the public that
participating teachers, training programs, and
schools meet certain minimum standards and agree
to adhere to a defined set of ethical guidelines.
To reinforce to the public that the IEA is a self-
regulating community that maintains a high level of
standards worldwide for the teaching and
communication of the Enneagram system by its
members.
The IEA’s accreditation is a yearly accreditation that is
awarded according to the calendar year. Each accreditation
must be renewed yearly. You can apply any time, and if you
apply after July 1, you can pay half of the fee, but this is the
only option for partial payment. The yearly fee for teachers
is $50, the fee for training programs is $20 per day of
training, and the fee for schools is $500 per year. And,
once accredited, in addition to paying the yearly renewal
fee, teachers must earn 25 additional “renewal” points per
year.
The IEA’s accreditation applies internationally. Information
about the IEA’s Accreditation Program and downloadable
applications are available on the IEA’s web site. Questions
about the application process can be sent to the IEA office
at administration@internationalenneagram.org.
Taking the teacher accreditation application as an example,
to be accredited as a teacher, you would download the
accreditation application from the IEA’s web site. To
complete the accreditation application, teachers need to
provide the following:
Information about educational background.
Information about direct Enneagram training,
including what trainings and dates completed.
Information about any certifications received, and
through which schools or training programs.
In Memoriam: The International Enneagram
Community Loses a Valuable Member,
Dr. Eneas Riú of Argentina
Dr. Eneas Riú, a member of IEA
Argentina and a medical doctor
who has done important
research into the Enneagram’s
connections with homeopathy,
died recently. According to
former IEA board member Oscar
Ayala of Columbia, “Dr. Eneas
Riú’s sudden disappearance has
been very unfortunate for all of us, particularly for
the newly formed IEA Affiliate in Argentina.”
The following is a memorial comment on Dr. Eneas
Riú and his work by Aniceto Sanabria, President of
IEA Argentina.
ABOUT DR. ENEAS RIÚ
As a synthesis, not signifying by this to simplify or
diminish in a few words his years of research, study,
19
Any licenses or certifications received from any
governmental or regulatory authorities (i.e., if you
have a license to practice psychotherapy from the
state).
Any Enneagram-related publications you have
written.
Any IEA-sponsored conferences attended.
Other related experience or personal growth
experience (such as one-to-one therapy or group
work).
Three references: one personal and two
Enneagram-related.
You must provide your signature indicating you
have read and agree to the IEA’s ethical guidelines
(which can be found on the IEA web site).
All applications must be accompanied by a $50
fee.
Please allow 4-5 weeks for your application to be
processed.
By participating in the IEA’s accreditation program, you
both ensure that your Enneagram-related credentials can
be communicated easily and effectively and you support the
IEA’s ongoing efforts to maintain high standards of
Enneagram work around the world.
robustness, or the depth of his works, I would like to
describe the unique way in which Dr. Riú utilized the
Enneagram for determining diagnoses in his work
with patients according to the homeopathic
repertoire. Dr. Riú based his approach on restoring
health by finding the unique medicine, the
"desideratum civilinum" (total change), which would
cause a rebirthing for the patient, or a rebirth into a
fuller and happier life.
Through the use of such medicine, he attempted to
give back to the patient a path that he had
abandoned earlier in life, a path he had missed
walking, the frustrated road, now to re-encounter his
"inner child.” He believed that the initial cause for
disease was the loss of "being," in other words, the
"primary psora" (first problem) is the suppression of
Being. According to Dr. Riú, this early loss of being
was the origin of the deeper and most primitive
In Memoriam: The International Enneagram Community
Loses a Valuable Member, Dr. Eneas Riú of Argentina cont.
deviation of self; based on a wealth of experience
and years of research, he stated that this is the true
cause of all diseases.
In the abstract of his presentation for the First
Enneagram Journey held in Buenos Aires
(Argentina), on March 7, 2009, Dr. Riú states,
among other things, the following: “The core
objective for Homeopathy is to obtain ‘health’ and
not the mere ‘healing’ from one particular physical
pathology.”
Dr. Riú established connections
between the Enneagram and
Homeopathy around the idea of
the endogenous causes of
human disease. By exploring
how consciousness develops in
the “pre-egoic phase” and the
“egoic phase,” he showed how
the egoic phase is linked to the
Enneagram of Passions, and
through this, how disorders caused by the passions
constitutes a secondary cause for disease.
According to Dr. Riú, the journey of man is
expressed through the Enneagram of Virtues and
the Holy Ideas. Travelling the path toward the
virtues and holy ideas allows an individual to enter
the post-egoic phase, where it is possible to
achieve the higher purposes of existence,
completing the "wholeness of the being," and
experimenting with the happiness of resting within
the "absolute plenitude of the being," which is God.
The depth of Dr. Riú’s thinking and his practical
applications can be read in his book
. Those of us who
met him and worked at his side, are convinced that
Dr. Eneas Riú not only knew the Enneagram
intellectually, but also felt and lived it intensely,
achieving Unity in his Being, and becoming totally
integrated in his three centers. This made him a
marvelous being, full of light, energy, love, good
humor, and passion.
These characteristics plus others, allowed us to see
Dr. Riú’s commitment toward his personal and
spiritual development; he was a generous and wise
20
man, with high human values, with a kind heart
and always committed to his patients, friends, and
family; he was a great enthusiast and loyal
collaborator for our newly forming IEA Argentina,
the Argentinean Enneagram Association.
I’d like to share this Little anecdote which reflects
the pure soul of Eneas: In December 2008, we
were organizing a pizza party at Laura’s house, to
celebrate the visit of (IEA global board member)
Oscar Ayala to Buenos Aires and the founding of
IEA Argentina. Before this party,
we decided to set up a private
meeting, so that Eneas could
meet Oscar Ayala. For Eneas,
that meeting made him very
proud in that he had the
opportunity to share his ideas
with a member of the IEA’s
International board. His eyes
glowed in happiness, like an
excited child in reaction to all that
he heard and shared, and most especially, when
he heard about the possibility that he might
become a presenter at the International
Enneagram Association’s Conference in Las Vegas
(Nevada - USA).
Dr. Riú’s emotions and happiness were even
higher when he received the official note from the
IEA announcing him as presenter for the
Conference, a designation that really made him
excited about the possibility of sharing his work,
and which also motivated him to consider
translating his book into English, so his message
could reach other parts of the world.
The strong commitment we have to the kind of
institution we dream that we might become at IEA
Argentina needs to be nourished by enlightened
men and women just like Dr. Eneas. We are truly
convinced that his spirit will be present in every one
of us, so we will be able to enhance and promote
Enneagram work in our country and around the
world in the alive and happy way Eneas Riú did
and shared with us.
Always with you, Eneas!!
ANICETO SANABRIA
President, IEA Argentina