Oscar Ichazo Interview 2003 With Professor Walter Effross

2/6/2021 Interview with Professor Effross
INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR EFFROSS
OSCAR ICHAZO INTERVIEW

Biography with Professor Walter Effross
Five Tenets
Transpersonal Walter Effross is a Professor of Law at the American University
Effross Interview
Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. He approached
Oscar in January 2003 about a law review article he was writing
“to analyze in depth the legal issues raised in the litigation
brought by several spiritual/'human potential' groups (notably,
Arica, Scientology, and Avatar) to protect their intellectual
Member Login property, particularly in the age of the Internet.” Among his
Contact Us sources, besides reported court decisions, were “a number of
Home publicly-available works about the Arica School, its trainings, and
the enneagram system, including the trial transcripts from the
litigation that Arica brought against HarperCollins and Helen
Palmer.”;
Professor Effross has no affiliation with the Arica Institute or The

Oscar Ichazo Foundation. His article, “Owning Enlightenment,”
was published in the Buffalo Law Review, Vol. 51, No. 3, pages
483-678, Summer 2003, and he is currently revising it into a
book.
A: THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF

ARICA TEACHINGS AND TECHNIQUES
PROFESSOR EFFROSS’ question A1: How does a teacher of

material and techniques such as yours establish his credentials
and authority to teach, particularly if he is presenting material that
he has independently developed?
OSCAR ICHAZO: My credentials and authority to teach were

presented first in 1968 to a group of Chilean scholars,
philosophers, medical professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists,
artists and business leaders who worked under the name of the
Instituto de Gnosiologia in Arica, Chile, and were presented
thereafter to the Instituto de Psicologica Aplicada, Santiago,
Chile, under the sponsorship of the Asocîacion de Psicologos de
Chile. I presented a complete system of philosophy, from
philosophical teachings to theological, theosophical and theurgic
teachings and practices, with the final proposition of
transcendence. At that time I circumscribed my exposition only to
the psychological level of the system, which was founded
fundamentally upon a triad of primary instincts. This
psychological basis included two primary drives that in the
system appear as the libido—the primary drive of a species' self-
preservation—and the drive to know, as the individual spiritual
self-preservation. Thus, in the presentation it was clear that any
psychology towards acquiring states of awareness, illumination
and transcendence, or its theological, theosophical and theurgical
aspects respectively, had to show proper foundations.
https://www.arica.org/articles/effross.cfm 1/21
As a system's basic proposition, a psychology should have

foundations rooted in our biology and in our environment. With
the knowledge of the instincts and the drives, it is possible to
establish a series of three triads, each one corresponding to a
pre-determined instinct and each instinct in itself also divided into
a triad of aspects in which the instinct manifests. By a method of
analysis in the system known as Autodiagnosis, from the very
beginning of the trainings that were then given mainly at the
Instituto de Gnosiologia in Arica, Chile, I lectured on the theory of
Fixations, or of Protoanalysis, which is the actual title by which
the system was being presented at that time. This theory
describes which of the three possible points in each instinct was
affected and thus in a way injured or handicapped. This
traumatized point demands complete attention, since an
unfulfilled instinct provokes an obsessive Fixation upon the
instinctual point that has been hurt. The importance of the
Enneagram of the Fixations is that it can define the points where
our psyche has been wrongly predisposed, since the Fixation, in
fact, implies a deficiency and a lack that will completely color and
define a personality type. It is important to see that in my original
system we worked with three Fixations (Trifix), or a triad with one
Fixation per instinct.
The theory explains that in the typology produced by this triad of

Fixations, the actual personality can be recognized by
understanding the theoretical presentation and through
experiencing the interrelationships of group work. The ego-
conditioned behavior has the appearance of being completely
mechanical, or the work of an automaton whose behavior is
dramatically obvious and repetitive. In accordance with the
theory, by recognizing the Fixations through a process of a
guided study, analysis and experience of our own Trifix, it is
possible to acquire a knowledge that can pinpoint these obvious
and recurrent patterns of behavior. This knowledge automatically
produces states of profound catharsis. The instincts and the
drives are directly connected with our endocrinal system and the
major circuitry of neurotransmitters from the pons, cerebellum,
encephalon and limbic system, and the changes produced by the
liberated instincts and drives accomplish a sense of unity and
Totality beyond the particular types and their monotonous, pale
and repetitive behavior.
By a process of working with a triad of Fixations or the Trifix, it is

possible to establish a point of view or a center of attention that
can give one distance to enter into a process of self-observation,
and it is this new awareness of the innermost psychic processes
upon which our entire life depends that becomes a permanent
witness that can continue developing all the human potential that
here is understood in its integrity as the completeness of a
human being developed to its full potential.
The theory and the system is further presented in superimposed

levels, or Spheres of Knowledge and Existence, that cover six
Realms of Being (in the sense of ontological reality), namely, the
Biological Realm, the Psychological Realm, the Conscious Realm
of intentionality, epistemology and logic and a further intuitive
level based on the aesthetic and ethical values of an Intuitive
Mind. From this follows the Realm of Enlightenment or

transcendence of pure mentality, in the sense of an actual
intelligence which corresponds to the world of Platonic Divine
Forms or Divine Ideas. The next Realm is that of the spirit, the
Spiritual Realm. This is the realm of abstract metaphysics on the
basis of Divine Principles and four foundations of ultimate
metaphysics. Finally comes the Divine Realm, the realm of
transcendence of the Eternal, Unchangeable One.
It is necessary to say here that the methodology of all these

studies has its foundation in formal Aristotelian logic and its
reference to the three principles of Formal logic, as compiled by
Alexander of Aphrodisias, which in this method has a particular
connection to metaphysical principles. Secondly, Dialectical Logic
based on the Aristotelian theory of opposites develops into a
synthesis which combines and harmonizes the two previous
manifestations into one harmonic whole, in itself integrated and
perfect. It is important to observe that my system is based
exclusively on Aristotle, and there is no relation to Hegelian logic
and Dialectics or Marx, Engel and Lenin’s materialistic Dialectics.
Thirdly, we have the presentation of a logic that can support or
that can be foundational for the logical analysis of our common
reality. This reality does not proceed in an endless line of future
events, but rather in cyclical series that proceed themselves from
a triad of forces which are elementary and basic for the criterion
of movement.
This third way of logic, which I call Trialectics, is my specific

contribution to logical theory. The other two terms of logic are
reinterpreted in my conception. First, Formal logic establishes its
foundations upon metaphysical principles of the One and the
many, of unity and plurality and of identity and contradiction.
Second, that which I refer to as Aristotelian Dialectical doctrine
(logic of syllogisms), or the theory of change from potentiality to
actuality, in my interpretation describes the process of change
and becoming, and consequently describes the ontology of the
logic of time and becoming, movement and change. This, of
course, is fundamental to any scientific appreciation of motion
and time. In my interpretation, this second logic, Dialectical logic,
gives an ontological foundation to motion, change and time. The
third logic, or Trialectics, refers to the logical description of reality
and time as a structure composed of cyclical patterns that are not
only repetitive and recurrent but develop upon a pre-established
pattern that presents reality as levels of becoming and as a
transitory process that in itself has the seed of unchangeable
patterns. Thus is possible the union of endless change and
becoming as established in unchangeable patterns and
processes. This third form of logic defines reality upon the
metaphysics of ultimate ideas of pattern.
I have synthesized the three Laws of Trialectics in the figure

known as the enneagram. Consequently, all the series that
belong to different spheres can be described intelligently in the
figure of the enneagram. However, without the understanding of
the cycles and the laws described in the figure of the enneagram,
this figure is simply meaningless and becomes rather an
ornamental and mysteriously esoteric symbol ready to prompt
even more fantastic elaborations and suppositions about

sources. To insist that the enneagram belongs to the Sufi
tradition, as Mrs. Palmer and others do, totally misconceives and
misuses its real purpose. It is the esoteric flavor of this supposed
Sufi mystery that I want to separate myself clearly from, since I
am speaking about logical terms of a serious science and
philosophy, and not about anything that corresponds to the
vagueness of the enneagram theoreticians.
The entire system is based upon scientific as well as logical

principles in the same sense as Aristotle, for whom scientific
knowledge essentially states that effects in reality necessarily
have certain causes. Also in the same manner, the conclusions in
syllogistic logic follow from a major and a minor premise because
of the application of the necessary logical terms, in order that any
happening or event in reality could be explained by maintaining at
the same time absolute identity and a proposition of change and
growth in time. Finally we have a proposition of cyclical order
established by the three Laws of Trialectics. Thus, the entire
system is based on the biological science of the major human
systems that, in accordance with this theory, are founded upon
our deepest and most basic organic systems, and the gradual
development on further levels of somatic energies produced in
the endocrinal system and in the circuitry of the neurotransmitters
of the brain. These somatic energies ascend into the level of our
instinctual reality or our actual state of affairs at an unconscious
level far removed from the surface of conscious awareness. They
promote a pattern of behavior that compromises fundamental
aspects of the human personality, such as one’s own self-esteem
or a sense of being in general, a sense of personal value that
affects decisively all the acts of our life. We do not sense these
patterns to be behavioral patterns but instead sense them as a
continuous life with an ever-changing reality. In accordance with
this theory, reality is then not only limited but it is strictly guided
by laws which are founded on a triad and described in an
enneagram that delineates the entire cycle and its respective
points that become the foundation of an instinctive and psychic
reality.
The first instinct is known in Protoanalysis as the Conservation

Instinct. It is our general preservation and our innermost sense of
being. The second major instinct is known in Protoanalysis as the
Relation Instinct, meaning the social group inclination and
solidarity between human communities, our sense of belonging to
a social group which is basic and fundamental for the success of
our life, and which depends entirely on one’s own society. The
third instinct, known in Protoanalysis as the Adaptation Instinct,
refers to the primary function of human life—which shows the
purposefulness of all biological beings to preserve themselves—
as well as to the function of the systems and organs of the
human anatomy to have a pre-established function—such as the
eye having strictly the pre-established function of vision. This
third instinct is also known as the Aristotelian doctrine of
teleology or finality, which is conceptualized in Trialectics as the
general inclination to adapt ourselves constantly to our
environment in order to survive. This inclination to adapt to the
environment develops in human beings into the ability to adapt
the environment to our purpose. This means the development of

tools and systems of work which are fundamental for the survival
of humans in a given environment. Of course, the ground of all
three instincts is to be found in the general inclination of any
living creature to preserve itself.
The Relation Instinct—the reality of human relations—is

presented in the next level of the system, as the Levels of
Consciousness upon which all human social manifestations
depend and are actually manifested. It presents life in itself as a
harmonious development that follows rigorous laws, and studies
the cycles of life which repeat themselves at different ages and
attitudes of life. The importance of the study of this level is that
our conception of life depends entirely on our life cycle and what
is being manifested in each one of the stages. Thus, the Levels
of Consciousness in relation to the human life span can give us
clear points for seeing our society as an alive organism which
appears to reproduce on a great scale the same basic instincts
that we saw at the instinctive and unconscious level. This level or
sphere is where we apprehend our society through real, vital
connections that are established in accordance with the different
Levels of Consciousness.
The third basic instinct is the Adaptation Instinct. Its

predisposition is to accommodate ourselves to our environment
in such a way that we can use it, and in the case of the human
species, to modify the environment in accordance with our needs.
This basic instinct is responsible for our ability for tool making,
the cultivating of grains and the taming of herds. This level is
established by the Functions of the social self, and is the sphere
of wealth, social power, fame and authority, or the functions of
economics, politics and morality. Here end the levels that
correspond to our psychological level of unconscious and
subconscious causes and motivations.
The next levels correspond to the Intellectual Realm. Here is first

established the sphere of intentionality—the primary intentions,
motives or interests which produce specific Domains of
specialized interests about how we manage our life, reflected in
the particular interests which concern the sentimental life, our
actual physical health and the other motivations of the series.
These establish our intellectual predispositions, inclinations or
intentions. The next sphere presents the area of logic,
epistemology and physical calculations, and includes the spheres
of logic, mathematics, music and measure. The final sphere of
the Intellectual Realm is that of the Intuitive Mind, which is itself
divided into aesthetic realities and art. The three superior realms,
namely the mental, spiritual and transcendental, correspond to
the levels of ontology, metaphysics and theology, respectively.
From the beginning there was, of course, some difficulty in the

presentation of this rather large system of philosophy, which is
centered in doctrines of awareness and spiritual transformations
that were alive in classical Greece, but also in the even more
ancient civilizations of the Near East and the Fertile Crescent,
namely Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia. These doctrines were
dislocated and fractured with the advent of Western civilization
and the beginnings of its Dark Ages. This dislocation establishes

what we can really call the problem of our time. The realization of
the loss or lack of actual spiritual awareness—known as
enlightenment in all true mystical and spiritual traditions—
becomes the problem of nineteenth century philosophy, where
the advance of science produced a separation between
empirically tested knowledge and theoretically determined
philosophy. Upon this tragic inclination into the materialistic
propositions of science, there appeared in the Western world a
reaction that manifested as a true scholarly investigation of the
Eastern cultures, most especially the Indian mystical philosophy
that was centered in the Unity of God, the possibility of the
transformation of man by developing his inner potentiality, and
even more by the Buddhist tradition of awakening out of the
illusory world of appearances which is radically devoid of Being.
The point is that Western metaphysics collapsed as such in

Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, which was re-evaluated by
German Idealism, which in itself became bankrupt by the
Materialistic Dialectics of Marx and the phenomenological
analysis of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Brentano, Husserl,
Heidegger and Derrida, the Positive Analysis of Frege, Russell,
Moore, Austin, the Pragmatism of Pierce, James, Dewey and
Searle, the Existential Analysis of Kierkegaard, Jaspers, Sartre,
Foucault and Marleu-Ponte, the Structural Analysis of Strauss
and the Hermeneutical Analysis of Gadamer, which all inevitably
end in the complete collapse of metaphysics in Western
philosophy.
That metaphysics has completely collapsed in our Western

culture shows in the devastating history of war and destruction,
and the horror of the results that an unfounded materialism can
produce upon the guidance and aims of a culture and civilization,
because of the bankruptcy of any community of values and
interests. This has created profound gaps and divisions between
all types of relative groups and minorities, in race, sex, class and
religion, and because of these materialistic divisions, any
possible unity or harmony inevitably conforms to an individual’s
own material interests and is in open contradiction with the
position of others. Here we are not referring to the loss of a
sentimental humanitarianism, but the serious loss of values that
are founded in transcendence.
Of course, this fundamental premise of transcendence is the

cornerstone of all the Platonic, Stoic and Neoplatonic traditions,
because the authority of these values and spiritual interests was
founded concretely on the ability of metaphysics to act as a
transformative tool of the human body, soul and spirit in such a
way as to promote the development of the intrinsic Good that
exists potentially and inherently in every human being. Thus we
can say that a metaphysics only works in reality if it can produce
not only ontological changes upon the Essential Being and
existence, but also epistemological changes where our capability
for knowledge advances in degrees from material darkness into
the illumination of the Spirit. This epistemology, of course, is
incoherent without a logic that can explain systematically the
universal parameters of space or Eternity, time and cycles, and
this is what Trialectics attains.
What is tragic in Western culture is the frustrated spirituality of

metaphysicians, theologians and mystics in general, which
erupted into an enormous movement of investigating ancient
traditions in search of the Philosopher’s Stone that fulfills the
Totality of the intellect, which is certainly a most high realization
when it is found in its truly Divine Reality. However, Western
seekers have not always found the ancient secret, and instead
came to a kind of esoteric occultism where the Truth was said to
be veiled in Mysteries. This gigantic movement was started in the
early 1800s and pretty much moved at the same pace with the
scientific advances of the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment
of the Encyclopaedists of the eighteenth century, and then grew
rapidly in the nineteenth century with the Industrial Revolution,
the rise of Socialism and Materialist Humanism and in the
twentieth century with the advent of electricity and the explosion
of mass information. Esoteric theories and occult societies
proliferated in extraordinary abundance during the periods before
the First World War and during the post-war period which was
nothing but the preamble for the Second World War, in which the
final work of all these theories of pseudo-spirituality—which
produced absolutist terms of totalitarian politics that oppose the
radical freedom of humanity—simply had to end in the atrocious
tragedy of the Holocaust.
The system of philosophy that I have been presenting since 1968

was, of course, the fruit of a long investigation of Western
philosophy, theology and science with the intention to recreate
not only what I consider the real interpretation of the Platonic-
Peripatetic-Stoic-Neoplatonic traditions, but the methods and
practices towards the attainment of true enlightenment, all by way
of philosophical clarification and mystical transcendence.
Thus this philosophical system has a practical application and

methodology towards transformation and spiritual development,
and these types of exercises correspond to exercises that can be
found in all real traditional mystical paths in the same sense as
Neoplatonic Mysticism, whose aim and promotion is towards
Enlightenment, Truth and concrete experiences of the
Transcendental and Divine. These have the transformative power
of true Divine Spirit.
A2: How are Arica Institute (“Arica”) trainings developed, and by

whom? To what degree do they incorporate and synthesize
traditional techniques and practices?
Oscar: The trainings are developed by me in order to work the

theoretical material in practical and experiential terms, and in
order to embody it, in the sense of coming into true possession of
the subjects, items and objects of practices of awareness,
meditation, contemplation and interpersonal practices of
catharsis and sharing of awareness and spiritual reality through
observation, guided imagery and attainment.
The stance of Arica is that since it is a structure that is aligned

mainly to the Neoplatonic tradition, there is a universal schema of
the problems and questions asked, which are answered with

determinant exercises and practices that can be found in every
culture. However, the exercises and methods proposed in Arica
are the outcome of the application of methodical Trialectics and
consequently scientific propositions with a claim to results and
specific conclusions, and the study of the universal patterns of
cycles produced in nine levels. In this way, the Arica work is
unique and original in itself.
A3: How has the social, spiritual, and legal culture of the United
States affected traditional considerations of lineage, authority,
and secrecy in the transmission of spiritual material?
Oscar: The sense of considerations of lineage, authority and

secrecy in the transmission of spiritual material is not unfamiliar
to the American culture if we think of the well-established secret
Masonic Lodges. Other than this, our culture lacks the
understanding of the importance of sustaining the lineage and
authority of traditions which is basic in order for the transmission
of spiritual Truths and values.
A4: I understand that in Protoanalysis trainings you personally

identified the fixations of students by looking at their photographs,
but that in a new Arica training called Autodiagnosis the student
determines her own fixation. Why has Arica’s approach to
determining fixations changed?
Oscar: Autodiagnosis was the original method for determining a

student’s three Fixations or Trifix. This work was done on a one-
on-one basis. The same procedure was followed in the first Arica
training in 1970 in Arica, Chile. The photographic method was
part of a research regarding expression and the functions of the
twelve cranial nerves, but this study had not been finalized
adequately to be useful, and it had the extreme danger of
promoting subjectivity of the analysis of a personality, which
implies a prejudicial stand, rather than the psychological and
analytical proposition that the Autodiagnosis questioning
provides. Now the Autodiagnosis questions for establishing the
Trifix can be carried out by the student independently and without
any other person’s determination.
B: THE UNAUTHORIZED DISSEMINATION OF

ARICA’S MATERIALS
B1: To what degree did you impose a duty of confidentiality

(whether written or oral) on individuals exposed to your teachings
and techniques?
For instance, were the psychologists in the audience for your

Protoanalysis lectures in the Instituto de Psicologia Aplicada
(Santiago), which were given under the sponsorship of the
Chilean Psychological Association, under such an obligation?
When were such agreements formally developed in writing for

students in the Arica School? Before Claudio Naranjo left? Before
John Lilly and Joseph Hart’s article, “The Arica Training,” in
Charles Tart’s 1975 book, Transpersonal Psychology?
Oscar: Regarding the confidentiality of the Teachings and

techniques I propose, since they were Teachings and practices
that were being passed only partially and not in their entirety, it
was imperative that this information be kept in the Arica School.
Unfortunately some of this information found itself in the hands of
seekers and well-intentioned researchers, who took incomplete
schemas and propositions that were not clearly explained upon
foundations, aims and results, and presented the material without
structure, basis or true understanding, thus turning the Teachings
and material into unfounded, subjective projections.
Of course, I cannot do anything but oppose the unfounded

representations that have become subjective and materialized
projections of the people who teach this work without having a
real understanding of its meaning and application.
There is agreement in the School that all the Teachings,

exercises and methods must be covered by a formal
Confidentiality Agreement. From the beginning in the Instituto de
Gnosiologia, there was always an introductory agreement that
the materials would be kept confidential, and this was also clear
during my lectures at the Instituto de Psicologia Aplicada.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of people who studied with me
caused them to write articles and start teaching outside the
parameters of the Arica School. This is the basis upon which the
material of the School was published incompletely and without
my permission.
I worked for three months with Claudio Naranjo during the series
of lectures at the Instituto de Psicologica Aplicada under the
sponsorship of the Chilean Psychological Association. Afterwards
he participated in the Arica ten-month training in 1970 in Arica,
Chile. Because of certain circumstances of the training itself, I
worked with Claudio Naranjo personally and separately from the
group, on the theory of Fixations and the nature of the Fixations
themselves, which are catastrophic lacks or failures which
correspond to a determined ego-typology. Later I explained to
him the methods of antidotes for using the Fixation in itself as a
guide to find the remedy, in the superior and parallel higher levels
of self and existence where the psychological levels of the
Fixation become transmuted into corresponding higher Divine
Ideas and the Superior Virtues.
This is a process of integration and completion of the human Self.

We are talking here of a work that is interdisciplinary and
correlated structurally, and thus we can speak of a psychology of
real transformation, because the psychological level is converted
into the highest mental ideal world of metaphysics and onto-
theology, which then unfolds into an ethical and spiritual world of
Essential Love and theosophy, entering into states of the
Supreme and Ultimate Love. Finally we enter the Transcendental
level beyond all relative manifestations, into a State of Divine
Union or Theosis, in accordance with the classical principles of
theurgic work towards the union with the ever-mysterious One,
which we can never, ever define.
My work with Naranjo in Arica, Chile, as well as my work with the

main group of the already-established School was by common
agreement and consent, and in this way a School of Knowledge
was especially developed with a scientific, philosophical and
theological basis. At that time my explanation of Protoanalysis
corresponded only to the psychological level of teaching, with an
emphasis on the doctrine of the Fixations in accordance with the
theories of the enneagram, as they are explained logically by way
of Trialectics.
A lot can be said about my relationship with John Lilly, who

unfortunately didn’t finish the training in Arica, as was also the
case with Naranjo. Consequently, they didn’t complete the actual
work with the Fixations plus the theoretical explanation of how
the system of the Fixations comes to be and manifests and
behaves in the world of man. Unfortunately, John Lilly published,
and Naranjo taught, an extremely partial rendering of the theory,
which at that point became over-emphasized as a theory of the
enneagram, producing an extraordinary wave of confusion with
the consequently mistaken interpretation and trivialization of the
material, to a point where the work becomes almost
unrecognizable and tends to become a script about types that are
nothing but subjective constructions of the authors themselves,
without any explanation about their methodology, the structural
psychology and the epistemology absolutely necessary in order
to establish foundations of knowledge and existence.
Without these absolutely necessary steps for any serious

commitment in matters of philosophy, theology and science, it is
clear that it is not possible to sustain a coherent philosophical,
theological and scientific stand. After the stampede of authors
that became known as the “enneagram authors, teachers and
practitioners,” I was at pains to separate myself and my work
from this incredible parody that fits both the best comical and the
best tragic script that anyone could imagine.
It was in the 1980s, when I was passing unpublished material to

the School exclusively, that signed Confidentiality Agreements
were necessary. This necessity arose from the need to have
specific instructions for the understanding and completion of any
new material, and in the trainings and exercises we entered into
paths that require initiatory knowledge upon clear philosophical,
theological and scientific bases.
B2: You have criticized various writers about the enneagram for
attributing it and related teachings to a “Sufi oral tradition.” What
is an “oral tradition” in the spiritual context? Why were such
traditions created and maintained? Is the need for such traditions
greater or less in the current era than in previous times?
Oscar: My understanding of an “oral tradition” is that it is a

tradition transmitted under great secrecy, only and directly from
Master to student or from mouth to ear—an oral approach that is
never to be put in writing because of the limitations of human
language and conceptuality. In other words, the Truth can only be
transmitted by means of initiation into the Supreme real Union
with the Transcendental One. This, of course, is the only and
supreme goal of any Teaching with a claim to attaining

illumination and Supreme Realization. In this sense, there is in
Arica an oral tradition or a transmission by way of initiation and
acquiring the actual State of Transcendence.
I do not need to qualify the importance of all this, but when the
people of the enneagram community insist that my sources are of
Sufi origin, in fact, they are not. As I said, they are, strictly
speaking, aligned to Platonic and Neoplatonic Teachings in the
sense of positing the existence of a triple transcendental
foundation, consisting of the One, the Intellect or Nous and the
Soul or Logos. From this foundation my entire series of Spheres
of Knowledge and Existence develops, consisting of eighteen
spheres, divided into six realms. This integration of all disciplines
and sciences into one coherent schema, as well as its entire
methodology and logic, is my original work, as I outlined before,
and which I presented as Integral Philosophy.
As a matter of fact, I have been honored by knowing intimately

the most traditional and respected Sufi sects, which have great
centers distributed in India, the Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran and
Turkey. My ability to have a profound understanding of their main
doctrines and practices was based on the fact that all traditional
Sufi sects—from their instantiation by the first Caliphate of Abu
Baker and later Ali and the twelve Imams of the Shiites, as well
as the seven Imams of Ishmaeli—are based strictly on Platonic,
Aristotelian and Neoplatonic sources. It is this philosophy that
came to fruition with the great philosophers and theologians of
the Arabic Middle Ages (al-Kindi, Avicenna, Suhrawardi, al-
Ghazzli, Ibn ‘Arabi and Averroîs), with their historical transmission
of these ancient Greek doctrines to the western world by way of
the Scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages and also through
the Jewish philosophy of ibn Gabirol, Jadah Halevi, ibn Ezra and
Moses Maimonides, and the development of the emanationalists’
doctrines of the Kabbalah which are restated in esoteric terms in
the Jewish Kabbalah, which is mainly of a Neoplatonic structure,
and corresponds to working with the Divine Names of
Neoplatonism. Because of my interpretation and understanding
of the highest Neoplatonic theurgy, such as we find in the line of
Porphyry, Iamblichus, Syrianus, Proclus and Dasmascius, my
dialog was made possible when I had the great honor to find
these ancient traditions in their real source, doctrinal Truths and
perfect practice.
The answer to your question, “Why were such traditions created

and maintained?” is that there is a need to have a real
interpretation of the ancient knowledge found in all great ancient
traditions. This is precisely one of my points for the positing of my
entire work as a real tool that can clarify all the points of doctrine
and practice in such a way that there is no need to restrain the
work to small groups. This, in fact, is a revolution, because the
need for secrecy and the personal relationship that is necessary
between Master and disciple becomes superceded by a method
and a doctrine capable of producing initiatory realities and
attainment of the Higher States of Being, Knowledge and
Existence. This is why I have insisted since 1968 that my work
should be kept confidential until I publish my complete work,
which has to necessarily be established in a School that has

actually embodied and realized the goals and purposes of the
theory and doctrine. Otherwise, as we have seen, the integrity of
the work is lost to a relative and subjective misinterpretation by
those authors who have used the work with a lack of
understanding and upon the basis of erroneous assumptions.
B3: Does Arica have an oral tradition? If so, what type of material
does it include?
Oscar: If we take oral tradition as meaning the type of secrecy

that is limited to the transmission of knowledge under
circumstances of personal interrelationship between a Master
and student, many of the different trainings of Arica contain such
a type of Teaching that implies the presence of a particular
knowledge, which for the student is manifested as a guidance
and a direction that in itself transcends words and concepts. If
these trainings are passed without what we inevitably have to call
'inner keys'; and 'core instructions'; (which require careful
treatment and intuitive correctness in the sense of a state of
Being that can certainly be suggested but that will only acquire
reality under the light of the transmitted knowledge, special
stance or a state of Being that has a view), they are rendered as
useless and baseless, to say the least. This view of Being in the
Protoanalytic theory is referred to as the 'arising witness', and it
can instantly produce order and awareness of our existence in its
freedom and stability.
Below is the list of trainings of the Arica School curriculum that

form the body of the Teachings that we call the "Line of the
School." The meaning of this is related to the concept that the
Teaching is a line of interrelated Spheres of Knowledge and
Existence (thus Integral) that has a unique and ultimate finality,
purpose, goal or telos, which defines implicitly the initiatory
purpose of the entire line of trainings. This means clearly a final
point of absolute and complete ultimate initiation, which in reality
is a series of initiations into the final and ultimate grounds of our
existence as a Totality, in Trialectical terms of eternity, time and
cycles. This last point can only be discerned if the initiation and
transmission is concretely and specifically established by true
credentials of lineage and Masters. This requirement is basic in
any real tradition, and it points out the source of the tradition that
inevitably stands out as a definitive authority, which, of course,
itself is guaranteed by a true doctrine, true Teachings and true
School of Knowledge. We can find this requirement throughout all
the Platonic tradition, including the Arab and Western Platonists,
with remarkable similarities in Mahayana Buddhism in the lineage
of the Madhyamika, Yogacharya, Vajrayana, Highest Yoga Tantra
and Dzogchen and also in Ch'an and Zen Buddhism.
The Arica Line of the School Trainings include:
• Nine Hypergnostic Systems Training (group)

• Autodiagnosis Training (group)
• Advanced Fixations and Autodiagnosis Training (group)
• Levels of Consciousness Training (group)
• Advanced Levels of Consciousness Training (group)
• Four Functions of Reality Training (group)

• Doors of Compensation Training (group)
• Advanced Doors of Compensation Training (group)
• Mentations/Deviations Training (group)
• Domains of Consciousness Training (group)
• Kinerhythm Training (individual or group)
• Pneumorhythm Training (individual or group)
• Psychoalchemy Training (individual or group)
• Opening the Rainbow Eye Training (individual and group)
• The Alpha Heat Ritual (individual)
• The Cutting of the Adamantine Pyramid Training (individual and
group)
• Eighth Level Preparation (individual)
• Golden Eye Ritual and Meditation (individual)
• Mandala System of the Great Telesmatta (individual)
• Telegnostic Guardian Meditation (individual)
• Divine Nature: The Stages of Completion of the Telesmatta of
Truth (individual)
• Divine Mind Meditation (individual)
• Divine Ideas Meditation (individual)
• Initiation into the Universe of Light Ritual (individual)
• Crazy Wisdom Meditations & Contemplation (individual)
• Velocity Training: Doctrines of Minds, Lights and Methods
(group)
• Velocity Meditations (individual)
• Ultimate Guardian Meditation (individual)
• State of Divine Transcendence • Meditations • Contemplation •
Theosis (individual)
Other group work trainings or practices include:
• Arica Day of Unity

• Arica Day of Light
• Arica Team Training
• Black Earth of Perfect Harmony
• Crazy Wisdom Meditations & Contemplation (group practice)
• Divine Ideas Day
• The Couple for Evolution
• Octagon
• Illumination and Completion in the Process of Death Training
• Velocity Meditations (group practice)
• Wave of Divine Love
B4: Why didn’t Arica settle its litigation against Helen Palmer the
way it did with the Dimension Books defendants?
Oscar: The authors of Dimension Books were students of

Claudio Naranjo. It seems that Claudio and everyone else was
surprised by the unwarranted publication of all the material that I
passed him in Arica, Chile. I had no other solution but to instigate
a lawsuit in order to obtain clarification about the origin and
source of all that material, which, in fact, had no correlation with
the followers of Gurdjieff and his extremely vague assumptions
about the enneagram, a point that can only be clarified with a
reference to Trialectics. When the authors of Dimension Books
were presented with the evidence that they were publishing
material that I had already presented but had not yet published,
in front of Judge Robert P. Patterson the authors declared that, in

fact, the source and the ideas were mine and they acknowledged
this fact. This was fundamental for me because it pointed out the
error of the dissemination and misinterpretation of my ideas
without any basis and without any methodology. My ideas had the
grave risk of becoming trivialized, if only because they opened a
variety of points of view that gave immediate richness, but if
taken by themselves without appropriate grounding, could
become an endless subjectivity with no clear purpose, let alone a
scientific presentation.
When Mrs. Palmer came out with her book, not only was it
entirely composed of Arica material but she gave it a further twist.
Because of the obvious difficulties of diagnosing an ego-type or a
Fixation by simply trying to give meaning to the word or term that
defines the Fixation through the use of analogies and metaphors,
she gave to each type assorted qualifications and supposedly
incisive observations that were redundant, inarticulate and
baseless. Mrs. Palmer also informed her audience that the Arica
material was, in fact, nothing but a repetition of Gurdjieff’s and his
student Ouspensky’s work. This was an outright absurdity, but to
her uninformed audience, Mrs. Palmer presented my material as
simply being part of the Gurdjieffian tradition and then talked
about her own meaningful contribution to the enneagram
movement.
Because I went ahead with the lawsuit, she finally had to agree in
front of the judge that, in fact, all the enneagrams and typology
presented by her were originally from Arica. With this declaration,
I found the work of the School vindicated. This was the purpose
of the lawsuit from the beginning. There followed a public letter
from Mrs. Palmer where she felt free to insist on her stand that all
this work was nothing but Gurdjieff’s standard teachings. She
claimed that the theory of three centers and the division of
essence and personality, as well as the different levels of
awareness, were Gurdjieffian. At this point I considered it
necessary to answer her public letter with another letter of my
own, addressed to the Transpersonal Community, where I
pointed out that the vague three centers, essence and personality
and doctrines of levels of consciousness were, in fact, the central
doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, developed into the late
Neoplatonist systems of Plotinus, Iamblichus and Proclus. Of
course, the main point of my letter was to remind her that she
had already agreed in front of the judge that the system of
enneagrams that she was using in her books and trainings were,
in fact, from Arica exclusively. This, for me, pointed to an end to
this misinformation.
B5: According to page 76 of the Winter 1990 issue of The Arican,

Arica was then “initiating lawsuits against Harper and Row, Helen
Palmer, and Claudio Naranjo.” Was Naranjo named in the suit
against Palmer and Harper & Row, or in a separate action? What
happened to the legal action against him?
Oscar: In 1990 when Claudio Naranjo knew my intentions

concerning the Arica material, he let me know that his situation
was rather different, in that he never denied the origin of the
material he used concerning the Fixations. With this clarification

on his part, I had no reason to move ahead with a lawsuit against
him.
B6: Does it concern you that the transcripts of your lectures in

Chile, and several other documents deposited by Arica as
“unpublished” with the U.S. Copyright Office (The Domains of
Consciousness Manual; The Doors of Compensation Manual;
Levels of Consciousness; and Protoanalysis Manual) can be
viewed by the general public under certain restricted conditions?
(As I understand it, and as my article discusses, once a request
is made and a fee paid, the Copyright Office will transfer an
“unpublished” deposit from its warehouse to a special viewing
room in Washington, D.C. where the person requesting it can
read it but cannot make photocopies, take photographs of it, or
make any notes.)
Oscar: I am not concerned that my unpublished material can be

viewed at the Copyright Office.
B7: In a 1993 interview with Michael Goldberg, you said that if an

author interpreting the enneagram system of fixations were to
give you proper credit as the source of the original material, the
interpretation would be “absolutely okay. That’s what it’s for,” and
that even if you disagreed with the interpretation, “It’s not my
responsibility any longer.”
Why did your attitude towards possible misinterpretations of

Arica’s work change between the Dimension Books and Palmer
litigations and that time? Have your views on this issue
developed further since 1993?
Oscar: As long as the original source of the Fixations material is

properly credited, I am satisfied. However, if the interpretation of
the material is different than mine, this needs to be clearly
pointed out, since the Arica Protoanalytical theory of the Fixations
has a complete system that starts at the base of the ego and
ascends through a pre-determined and pre-established series of
levels of manifestation that end in the higher states beyond ego
and relative concepts and language. Any other presentation
would be merely a subjective and relative interpretation of the
author, for which only the author is responsible. See also points
B4 and B5.
C: THE REASONS FOR “SPIRITUAL SECRECY”
C1: Gurdjieff has been quoted by Ouspenky as insisting that

knowledge is material and that "it is far more advantageous that
[esoteric] knowledge should be preserved among a small number
of people and not dispersed among the masses." Do you agree?
Oscar: It was during the late ‘40s and early ‘50s that I
encountered the books of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff, which
provoked great attention in all circles of philosophical and
esoteric research. I made an observation to a group of scientists
and philosophers that were adherents to the French Martinist
society, as well as to Theosophical and Anthroposophical
societies who were concerned with the recent Ouspensky and

Gurdjieff publications. I pointed out to this rather informal reunion
of interested people held in Buenos Aires that the material of
Ouspensky and Gurdjieff had an enormous lack of direct
scholarship about problems that had been extensively debated,
mainly in the philosophies of the Late Hellenism and Imperial
times. I clearly showed the straight parallels to certain concepts
that seemed outrageous, such as the idea that Judas was, in
fact, not only the most important disciple of Jesus, but the only
one who really knew the entire truth about the events that were
about to happen. This idea can be found in Irenaeus’ book
Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter XXXI, under the heading of
“Doctrines of the Cainites.”
In the same way, it was necessary as well to point to the

doctrines of the three centers (Plato), division of essence and
personality (Aristotle) and the Cosmic Ray of Creation (a Gnostic
idea developed to its utmost consequences by Neoplatonism). To
these kinds of propositions belong the idea that knowledge is
material, a concept that can only be understood if we remember
that in the Atomists’ theory of knowledge under the Stoic
interpretation of Zeno and Chrysippus, our knowledge of external
reality was due to atomic impressions that were material
emanations apprehended by the senses, which received these
types of material impressions that have as a main content a
subtle energy upon which life depends. These Stoic concepts
insisted that the subtle material impressions could only be
acquired or apprehended by people who were open to the
reception of reality, in the state of awareness that transcends the
personal and individual subjectivity that works through a series of
filters and veils which project themselves as images of
interpretation, blocking the subtle energy of material impressions.
This theory, while certainly debatable, can be reasonably
understood if we base our proposition that knowledge is material
on the entire system of the Stoic tradition and its own sources.
But to simply imply that knowledge is material and consequently
can be kept as a material thing that, because of its limitation of
quantity, would be wise to keep for the benefit of small groups
rather than disperse it among the masses, is simply an
impossible proposition that actually takes the concept of
materiality to an obvious extreme and points to a serious and
impossible misunderstanding on the part of Ouspensky and
Gurdjieff.
To answer the question, I do not agree that knowledge could be

material in this or any other sense, and that it should be
preserved for a small number of people is untenable and absurd.
C2: To what degree must the Arica work be personalized for each
student in order to be effective? Is the necessity for
“customization” of trainings one of the reasons for secrecy in the
spiritual context—whether in Arica or more traditional schools?
Oscar: At the beginning of the Arica School, because the

trainings were based on a one-on-one relationship plus a group
relationship, it could be said that the instruction was somewhat
“customized” for the obvious reasons of the individual’s personal
understanding, but later on, I developed further trainings

precisely with the aim of presenting a method that, because of its
scientific and logical presentation, could dispense with the one-
on-one relationship that was necessary at the beginning of the
School.
As to the necessity of secrecy with certain trainings, besides the

obvious reasons of initiation, there were sets of techniques to
speed up the process of internal questioning about our life and
states of Being that could shock us into the realization that we do
not have control over our existence, our life and our behavior.
These techniques give us a concrete experience that inevitably
shocks us into the awareness that we live a life that can be
characterized as somnambulistic, that of an automaton who lacks
self-awareness and consequently is not self-conscious—the
realization that we live in a state of dreamlike illusions and
endless repetitions of states and situations of depression, anger,
anxiety and fear. This, of course, is an inevitable situation that
only the light of consciousness and self-awareness can clarify
and solve. These techniques involve doctrines which are
conducive to the realization that the illusory life can be dispelled
and instead a state produced which is supported by the outside
reality, and that self-awareness and consciousness rest upon real
foundations, instead of the illusory and fantastic ones of the
previous state, which has been traditionally, since Heracleitus,
known as the condition of being asleep, in contraposition to a
person who has awakened into his own reality and has been able
to pair objectively his own subjectivity to outside reality.
The big problem of not keeping these techniques secret has to do

with the fact that because of the tremendous potential for
producing psychological benefits, these techniques of awareness
can be used for the exclusive purpose of helping people to
overcome their basic state of constant depression, anger, anxiety,
fear and the terrible burden of being a stranger to their own life.
Unfortunately, some of these techniques have been
misappropriated by people who realized their potential for a
profitable business when postulated as a psychological service.
This has been a catastrophe of an incredible magnitude in our
culture, with the further catastrophic misinterpretation of the
theory and system of Arica, trivializing it, with the consequence
that the result of these plagiarized versions is not only the
contraposition of Arica’s propositions, but prevents such people
from attaining real transcendence in this life.
C3: By some accounts, different spiritual teachers and schools

have carefully observed the behavior of applicants before
accepting them as students, and also have declined to provide
additional training to those accepted students that they deem
unworthy of receiving it. Does Arica have a similar process of
declining to teach individuals, on an introductory or an advanced
level? If so, what are the reasons why the School might decline to
provide instruction to someone?
Oscar: The Arica School does not put any conditions or limits on
being accepted into the work of the School. The Arica School
depends on a Charter which establishes all the parameters of
belonging to the School, working in the body of the School and

the trainings and the democratic process of total participation,
and is itself governed by the Ethics Council that is elected every
five years by the members of the School. Only the Ethics Council
can actually ask an individual to withdraw from participating in the
School and in its Teachings, after a process of clarification
employing the Enneagram of the Arica Ethos. Since 1968, only a
few people have withdrawn from the process of the School.
C4: How much of the Arica work can be assimilated purely

intellectually—that is, by someone who reads Arica’s manuals,
journals, and other publications, but does not perform the
exercises or participate in any Arica trainings? Do you consider
that approach to be spiritually dangerous?
Oscar: The Arica work is intellectually presented, but it is

because of its true foundations that it is possible to transcend
from vital, emotional and mental states into spiritual and
transcendental ones. The science of the entire Arica system
consists of the integration of all the states of Being which are
connected structurally or hierarchically. They are interdependent
and interdisciplinary. This implies the claim that Arica, as an
integral philosophy, ultimately integrates philosophy, theology and
science by clarifying common foundations and related structural
levels of meaning and knowledge.
C5: Can you give any specific examples of the mental or spiritual
harm that has been caused to someone by the misappropriation
and/or misinterpretation of Arica teachings and techniques?
Oscar: As I said in the above C2, the mental and spiritual harm
caused by the misappropriation and/or misinterpretation of Arica
Teachings and techniques goes along with the loss of the
opportunity to receive instruction conducive to the states of self-
awareness, enlightenment and freedom, thereby falling into the
absolute contrary or opposite condition, in which the world of
attachment and illusory suffering manifests. What is possible to
say here with confidence is that when psychic processes are
sped up by techniques and internal work, if the direction is not
extremely and clearly manifested in the process, the illusions and
disadvantages are camouflaged and transformed into lower
states, in which the dreamlike mechanical functioning of the
psyche becomes increased, with all the dangers of a psyche that
is overloaded with fantastic and baseless inferences that have no
syllogistic characteristics, and instead present propositions that
are merely sophisms and thus logically erroneous.
What is extremely dangerous is the creation of an artificial self

which is modeled upon formulas and defined by scripts of self-
improvement. It is inevitable that this personality will become
crystallized, producing a stable condition of hypnosis and total
dependence upon the belief of being in a process of self-
discovery and awareness. This false status of being ends in a
blind fanaticism capable of producing tremendous ego inflation
and an atrocious sense of vain superiority. The artificial self feels
that it has transcended the lower levels of discerning the human
good and evil and that it can promote its individual realization
with the fullness of its will, in mind and spirit. This means the
formation of an internal idol to which its entire life will be
sacrificed. The result is a pronounced state of internal as well as
manifested arrogance, which immediately promotes in the
artificial self a sense of uniqueness and cleverness that gives it
the false and unfounded idea that it has the right to become a
leader, a lawmaker and wealthy. This idea it then promotes by
means of aggression, violence and falsehood, thus provoking a
fundamental and terrible division in society. This equates with the
death of any possible freedom in the sense of having a free mind
and spirit, unattached to the false and erratic claims of the
artificial self. It also equates with the death of any true spirituality,
because every false conception tends to be founded on common
materiality, manifested as insatiable lust, concupiscence, envy
and blind arrogance.
C6: Is Arica concerned that unauthorized transmission of

information concerning its higher level trainings could provoke
ridicule?
Oscar: Any information concerning the higher level trainings can

in no way become an object of ridicule inasmuch as the
information is complete and accurate.
C7: Does Arica see any of its confidentiality requirements

(whether they are presented as formal agreements for students
to sign, or, more informally, as moral obligation) as themselves
being important means of increasing the students’ energy, focus
and discipline (for example, by restricting energy wasting
chatter)?
Oscar: The confidentiality requirements establish the guidelines

and the ethical ground of integrity upon which students
commence the Arica work and their relationship with the School.
C8: Who should decide when a student of spiritual material such

as Arica’s is ready to teach it—the student himself, the teacher, or
both?
Oscar: There is a body in the School called the Teachers and

Sponsors Coordinating Committee (TASCC) that approves and
authorizes individuals to sponsor and teach Arica trainings. Any
person passing the work knows that serious preparation and
embodiment of the material is necessary in order to teach. All
trainings have complete training manuals that require following
the guidelines, structure and presentation of the material at a
standard level. All Arica teachers are aware of the level required
and make their best effort to pass the work in a professional,
objective and natural way, where one’s personality and individual
manner supports the process for the participants but doesn’t
distort the training by putting on a show.
D: ARICA’S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
D1: How are the Arica teachings continuing to evolve, both at the
highest level of the Arica curriculum and with regard to revisions
made to earlier trainings? Why was Psychocalisthenics changed
to Master Level Exercise?
Oscar: The Arica trainings have been in themselves first

developed and practiced only in the School. Since there is a
hierarchy of levels in the curriculum of work where there is a
relation between a higher and lower level, it is natural that
exercises and trainings are thereafter conditioned on the new
characteristics and levels attained in the School.
Psychocalisthenics is still called Psychocalisthenics. The book of

the exercise system is titled “Master Level Exercise,
Psychocalisthenics.”
D2: Some writers have suggested that Gurdjieff forced

Ouspensky to leave him so that Ouspensky, and the Gurdjieff
work itself, could develop in new directions. In a 1993 interview
with Michael Goldberg, Claudio Naranjo has implied that his
separation from Arica may have resulted from similar issues.
Does the nature of certain spiritual teachings tend to complicate

the relationship between the teacher and the student, and thus
issues of authorization to teach and of lineage?
Oscar: I cannot see any relation between what happened

between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and between Claudio Naranjo
and me. As I said before, Naranjo left the training in Arica, Chile
early, and without my authority decided to teach incomplete Arica
material while in Berkeley.
Teachers, students, authorization to teach, the lineage, etc. all

have to proceed in accordance with ethical and pre-established
guidelines as established by the Teacher.
D3: How have Arica’s litigation experiences in protecting its

intellectual property affected Arica’s administration of current
trainings, its development of future trainings, and its production of
other intellectual property (such as journals and books)?
Oscar: To protect the intellectual property of Arica has been an

arduous and difficult task because the enneagram community
that depends directly on the Teachings of Arica has made a
profession of denying the School and proclaiming that the Arica
Teaching and System is nothing but a plagiarized version of the
well known Gurdjieff-Ouspensky lineage or, absurdly, a Sufi
tradition. There is also the misguided implication that the
Teachings have a Catholic root.
There is a branch of enneagram theoreticians that follows the line

of Jesuit and Catholic religious people who have found that the
doctrines I expose could be paralleled in a certain way with
Neoplatonic Christianity, which in fact is historically and
philosophically disconnected with the real Neoplatonic tradition.
Because of the appropriation and dislocation produced in all the
theoretical material furnishing Christianity with a Neoplatonism
that has lost its ability to attain true states of awareness,
enlightenment and mystical union, and because the Catholic
authors have found a treasure of doctrines and psychological
processes in Arica that appear to give real substance to their

Catholic stand based on St. Thomas Aquinas, once more we can
see that the misinterpretation—although in itself it appears to be
closely related—as a matter of fact really gives a completely
opposite direction.
As I said above in A1, the Arica Teaching is not an occult,

esoteric School with doctrines like those of the Gurdjieffian
movement, the Golden Dawn Society or the Thule Society. On
the contrary, it is a philosophical, theological and scientific
doctrine with methods that are established upon current
scholarship and investigation, and not a matter of mysterious or
esoteric occult matters.
D4: How have the Internet and the World Wide Web affected the
development of Arica?
Oscar: Up to this moment, the Internet has been bombarded by

the misconstrued information provided by Helen Palmer and her
associates, the Enneagram Community and the Catholic priests
and nuns with their followers. When the numerous Arica web
sites are completed, a total perspective of the work of the School
will be presented and the false information about the School and
its Teachings will be clarified. The School will therefore develop at
its natural rate into the world culture.
All rights reserved. ©2021 Oscar Ichazo.

Oscar Ichazo Interview 2003 With Professor Walter Effross

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Oscar Ichazo Interview 2003 With Professor Walter Effross

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2/6/2021 Interview with Professor Effross

INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR EFFROSS

OSCAR ICHAZO INTERVIEW

Professor Effross has no affiliation with the Arica Institute or The

A: THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF

PROFESSOR EFFROSS’ question A1: How does a teacher of

OSCAR ICHAZO: My credentials and authority to teach were

As a system's basic proposition, a psychology should have

The theory explains that in the typology produced by this triad of

By a process of working with a triad of Fixations or the Trifix, it is

The theory and the system is further presented in superimposed

Mind. From this follows the Realm of Enlightenment or

It is necessary to say here that the methodology of all these

This third way of logic, which I call Trialectics, is my specific

I have synthesized the three Laws of Trialectics in the figure

even more fantastic elaborations and suppositions about

The entire system is based upon scientific as well as logical

The first instinct is known in Protoanalysis as the Conservation

the environment to our purpose. This means the development of

The Relation Instinct—the reality of human relations—is

The third basic instinct is the Adaptation Instinct. Its

The next levels correspond to the Intellectual Realm. Here is first

From the beginning there was, of course, some difficulty in the

and the beginnings of its Dark Ages. This dislocation establishes

The point is that Western metaphysics collapsed as such in

That metaphysics has completely collapsed in our Western

Of course, this fundamental premise of transcendence is the

this is what Trialectics attains.

What is tragic in Western culture is the frustrated spirituality of

The system of philosophy that I have been presenting since 1968

Thus this philosophical system has a practical application and

A2: How are Arica Institute (“Arica”) trainings developed, and by

Oscar: The trainings are developed by me in order to work the

The stance of Arica is that since it is a structure that is aligned

the problems and questions asked, which are answered with

Oscar: The sense of considerations of lineage, authority and

A4: I understand that in Protoanalysis trainings you personally

Oscar: Autodiagnosis was the original method for determining a

B: THE UNAUTHORIZED DISSEMINATION OF

B1: To what degree did you impose a duty of confidentiality

For instance, were the psychologists in the audience for your

When were such agreements formally developed in writing for

Oscar: Regarding the confidentiality of the Teachings and

Of course, I cannot do anything but oppose the unfounded

There is agreement in the School that all the Teachings,

This is a process of integration and completion of the human Self.

My work with Naranjo in Arica, Chile, as well as my work with the

A lot can be said about my relationship with John Lilly, who

Without these absolutely necessary steps for any serious

It was in the 1980s, when I was passing unpublished material to

Oscar: My understanding of an “oral tradition” is that it is a

supreme goal of any Teaching with a claim to attaining

As a matter of fact, I have been honored by knowing intimately

The answer to your question, “Why were such traditions created

which has to necessarily be established in a School that has

Oscar: If we take oral tradition as meaning the type of secrecy

Below is the list of trainings of the Arica School curriculum that

The Arica Line of the School Trainings include:

• Nine Hypergnostic Systems Training (group)

• Four Functions of Reality Training (group)

Other group work trainings or practices include:

• Arica Day of Unity

Oscar: The authors of Dimension Books were students of

in front of Judge Robert P. Patterson the authors declared that, in