The Enneagram Exposed

I remember when the enneagram started gaining media attention a few years ago. Being an avid lover of personality tests and psychology, I excitedly took the test. A seven! I thought. How exciting. This is SO true!

I texted one of my best friends, Joel, and told him all about this great new tool and how accurately it helped people understand their personalities.

“I don’t doubt that it is spot on…” he continued, “But when I initially heard about it, I got a weird feeling. One of my friends looked up where this test came from, and it was made by some questionable people.”

Something that most people don’t know about me, is that I am a religion and spirituality nerd. I don’t just have a passion for theology, but I am fascinated with other religions, cultures, practices, and cults. Due to this, I have taken countless theology, bible, and world religion classes as a student.

As you can probably imagine, after I heard about said sketchiness, I was on a mission! I wanted to find out exactly who designed this enneagram and why my uber God-fearing friend thought it was worthy of avoiding all-together.

I’m about to unload a lot on you. Don’t worry, I have cited my sources below and used very credible ones that you can check out yourself. The goal of this is not to scare you, sway you, or get you to think exactly the way I do. I believe as the church, we should always use discernment and steer clear of practices that do not put the kingdom of God on display.

The men who formed and founded the enneagram participated in ungodly, disturbing, and demonic spiritual activity over the entirety of their lives. I read interviews, read their biographies, and read a few books they had written themselves. This is (a summary) of what I found:

There are three men widely credited with composing the enneagram we use today.

1. George Gurdjieff — An Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher. He practiced Sufi Islam and hypnosis. A popularized theory of his states that all humans have not reached consciousness, and are in a walking state of hypnosis. He traveled around the east studying the occult and spiritism for many years, including astrology, numerology, fortune telling, demonic possessions and many other new age practices. He reached enlightenment through Sufi Islam and later returned to Russia where he developed the foundations for the enneagram we use today.

2. Oscar Ichazo — A disciple of Gurdjieff
At a young age, Oscar claimed to have out of body experiences/astral projection abilities. He grew up in the church, but left and studied shamanism, hypnotism, yoga, and mysticism in general.
He came to believe in the same hierarchy of spirits like Gurdjieff did. Along his spiritual journey, he learned the enneagram from his mentor and developed the nine personality types we use for this test.

3. Claudio Naranjo — A chilean psychologist & disciple of Gurdjieff as well. Met Ichazo in Chile. They mediated together, and many of these recorded meditations are extremely disturbing. They often wrote about their meditation experiences where they practiced leaving their bodies and attaching their soul’s together as one. Naranjo helped Ichazo develop and later spread the enneagram in America. They specifically targeted the American Christian church as the distributors of the test, and it seems as though their mission has succeeded.

Here is the thing: I don’t want any person or test to tell me who I am, and what I can and cannot do. Much less, a tool developed by individuals who were involved in the occult. The Lord designed me, and knows every little detail about the creation he made! He is all I need on the path to self-discovery. Even if the enneagram is being used now in a “godly” way that strays from its roots, you cannot have a standing and functioning house without a foundation. And sadly, the foundation of this tool, no matter how useful, is blatantly wicked.

If I am being honest, all of this hype about the enneagram is no different than Astrology. Heck, it drew from Astrology! It has a new name, but it is the same game. There is nothing “new” about New Age. It is just another name for the occult that doesn’t bear the same negative stigma. Trust me, I know this from personal experience. I used to think crystals, astrology, signs, the enneagram, and meditation would lead me to discovering myself, but those all just left me in chains. It wasn’t until Jesus set me free that I realized this.

The truth of the matter is this: The enemy will use anything he can to grab a foothold in your life. I don’t know about you, but I am at a place in my walk with the Lord, that if something threatens to get in the way of my closeness with Him, it has got to go. I am not going to tolerate even questionable things anymore, because I don’t have time to be dabbling or flirting with darkness. The bible lays it out, plain and simple: New Age, Astrology, Divination, and any spiritual practice that is outside of Jesus’ teachings, is sin. It is not going to help, benefit, or strengthen your relationship with Jesus. It will actually do the opposite. (Deut 18:12, Isa 8:19, Jeremiah 14:4, Isa 47:13)

Please note that this is a summary article. There are many more stories and experiences in the written works of these men that are available for your research online. The sad part is, the demonic practices I mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg. It gets extremely heavy and shockingly evil the more you learn about these men and what they designed the enneagram to do.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or send me a DM via Instagram @tailahj

I may be standing alone on an island here, but I’m really tired of seeing New Age and the Occult trying to seep into the church. We are the bride of Jesus and he should always be our first love. I hope that this information gave you clarity and new conviction.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

sources:

-Gurdjieff, George I. Herald of Coming Good.
-Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, 3 vols. First Series
-Keen, Sam. “A Conversation about Ego Destruction with Oscar Ichazo,”
-Palmer, Helen. The Enneagram.
-Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types
-Waldberg, Michael. Gurdjieff: An Approach to His Work