Conclusion

 

It is truly stimulating to discover coincidences between the teachings of the Enneagram and the findings of Science. The Enneagram talks about the three minds much before the present technical sophistication.

At the present time, Neurology supports the teachings of the Enneagram, and it could multiply its expansive force by providing the rational and scientific backing required by a mass in desperate need of answers to the problems of existence.

If we place the conclusions of Neurology in the symbol of the Enneagram we can see a perfect parallelism of three brains with the three centres that comprise personality.

 

Three Brains Enneagram

 

 

The same occurs with the nine intelligence and the nine personality types. In general terms, the features of each type of personality coincide with the capacities of each brain.

 

Enneagram of the Multiple Intelligence

 

 

 

This is a tool that is practical, direct, versatile and fast, truly appropriate for the Man of today that desires and searches for this kind of effective solutions for his development.

The process of human transformation includes three successive steps none of which can be taken before the previous one. In the root at the point of ignition it is desire, subsequently objective self-observation, self-knowledge and finally self-development which implies the transformation and the birth of the New Man. It is a process of inner unification. We see outside what we have within. If we are divided we will only see incoherent parts. To see the Totality with the eyes of Personality is impossible. We need to incorporate the fine energies of the Essence and reach a whole with it in order to complete the vision. The Enneagram shows the way to achieve it.

Although essence and intuition are not the same thing, I believe there is a parallelism with what Elaine de Beauport considers as a key to the total development of the human potential: the perfectly harmonious union in the neocortex of the two maximum functions of the brain: thought and intuition. This would place Man in the privileged position of directing his emotional and basic brain such that the evolutive function of each person in the planet would be ensured. This would give Man the capacity to reach the Knowledge of God. A different language but the same objective.

As a psychological system of self-typification, the Enneagram has an intrinsic value that leads us to consider it as a model of wisdom because it demonstrates graphically Why each individual manages the potential of each centre in a specific manner, How the use of those potentials are limited and optimised and Where, or which path to follow to access the capabilities of each centre and to become able to influence decisions and facts of everyday life. It encompasses all the elements to consider it a truly effective instrument of transformation.

Additionally, an adequate knowledge of this system allows to make an accurate diagnosis of the degree of effectivity that a person is achieving in the use of his potentials and apply it to the study of the relationships among the types of personalities or multiple intelligence.

All was given to us and remains with us, in our intimacy, to be used.

A teaching like the Enneagram which, as it seems, has more than four thousand years of existence is given generously and without restrictions to us after having been during all that time within the reach of very few. I particularly like to look at it with the vision of the present times in the context of satisfying the needs of today’s man, the man in the threshold of the third millennium with a historic, spiritual, philosophic, political, scientific and technological heritage that places him in the situation, never before accomplished, to take a transcendental evolutive step.

The Enneagram reaches a new dimension as a symbol of the union of scientific and intuitive knowledge. A model in which science and spirituality embrace each other. A path to adapt the person to the expressions of the Spirit.

This was the longed for dream of visionary minds such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J. o Gurdjieff as it is still now for outstanding men in the different fields of science, philosophy or theology and,- why not?- many ordinary men who look forward the confluence in the Spirit of divided mankind.

Bibliography:

The Three Faces of Mind. Developing your Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Intelligences . Elaine de Beauport and Aura Sofía Díaz. Quest Books, Wheaton , Illinois. November 1996 

Las tres Caras de la Mente . Elaine de Beauport y Aura Sofía Díaz. Editorial Gala. Caracas

Emotional intelligence. Daniel Coleman. Bantan Books. N.Y. 

Comentarios psicológicos sobre las enseñanzas de Gurdjieff y Ouspensky. Maurice Nicol.  

Psicología fisiológica. Mark R. Rosenzweig. Arnold Leiman. E.Mc Graw Hill  

El Porvenir del hombre. P. theilhard de Chardin. E. Taurus.

Caracas, Marzo 1997 Agustina Burgo de Martínez . All rights reserved.