The Enneagram: A Rejection of the Sufficiency of Scripture

I’ll try to keep this short whilst substantiating all my claims. My resolve is that Christians should stop using, and encouraging the use of, the Enneagram personality test. The first contention I have for making this claim is that the enneagram developed from ideas of mysticism, false teaching, and the occult. These things, being erroneous in nature, are a good indication that the Enneagram itself is also misguiding, thus leading the Christian astray, opposed to towards truth. My second contention is that the enneagram is fully reliant upon the Barnum effect. This makes it unreliable pseudoscience. One might as well buy into horoscopes for the same pretend insight. Third, it wasn’t developed to be, “just another personality test”. It was developed with the notion that it had spiritual significance. This places it in direct opposition to the Bible. So essentially, we’re looking at three things. Who developed it? Is it even reliable? And what was the intention behind it?

According to the Enneagram Institute, it was Oscar Ichazo who originally put the system together. However, it should be noted that the general idea had been around long before Ichazo. The Enneagram Worldwide even claims, “The first published Enneagram appears in the writings of Ramon Llull, a Franciscan monk”, in 1305 CE, in a different context. Most articles I have read claim that the first one to mention the Enneagram was the Russian occultist, P.D Ouspensky. Ouspensky was known for having written a book titled, A New Model of the Universe, in which he attempts to reconcile ideas from natural science and religious studies, with occultism in the tradition of Georges Gurdjieff and Theosophy. If you don’t know what Theosophy is, I would encourage you to look it up. It is far out to say the least. Gurdjieff is a Greek American Occultist that Ouspensky attributes the Enneagram to. Gurdjieff merely considered it a symbol of the cosmos. It was Oscar Ichazo that first connected the Enneagram to personality, so that’s why the Enneagram Institute attributes the bulk of the effort to him.

Our Catholic brothers and sisters have been combatting this Enneagram nonsense for years now. The National Catholic Reporter posted a draft on their website from the U.S Bishop’s Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices in regards to the origins of the Enneagram. A portion of the section on Oscar Ichazo reads, “Ichazo claimed to have discovered the personality type meaning of the enneagram while in some kind of ecstatic state or trance under the influence of some spirit or angelic being: the Archangel Gabriel, the “Green Qu’Tub,” or Metatron, the prince of the archangels (the accounts vary). The training offered at Ichazo’s Arica Institute includes preparation for and means of contacting various higher beings…(NATCATH).”

As much as I would love to say that’s where it ends, the list only continues. I could go on about the occultist teachings of Ichazo’s student, Claudio Naranjo, or the false doctrines taught by Richard Rohr, or Don Riso who founded the Enneagram Institute. However, I think the point has been made clear enough that those who developed the Enneagram were far from being theologically sound. Why would a Christian welcome such things into their life? It isn’t mere reading from a non-believer, it is practicing it by taking the test, adopting it, and making an identity claim based off of “wisdom” not found in God’s Word. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Friends of mine have said that it is compatible with Scripture. But an identity claim sourced from occultism, mysticism, and false teaching, is not compatible with an identity found in Christ. It simply isn’t.

Moving on to my second contention, the Enneagram is reliant on the Barnum effect:

“The Barnum Effect, also called Forer Effect, in psychology, is the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them, despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone. The effect means that people are gullible because they think the information is about them only when in fact the information is generic. (Britannica)”

There is an article from The Gospel Coalition that pointed this out to me and I will add a link to that page at the bottom of the post. The article was very helpful and I will be citing it a great deal for this contention. Granted, the majority of this contention is citation because I’m not a psychologist. So, I read several articles, watched a couple different lectures and videos, and emailed one of the Psychology professors at our university for credible sources to read from. In this article there is a quote from Enneagram Institute founder, Don Riso, from his book, Understanding the Enneagram. Riso says, “If the type you have chosen not only stirs up deep feelings but also helps you understand aspects of yourself you have never seen before, then it is probably your type…If your choice leads you to make new connections and see new patterns in yourself and your relationships, then you have probably accurately typed yourself (Riso).”

All the test does is take these generic, adjective based questions and identify them with the “Big Five” personality traits. The TGC article adds, “An influential, though still largely untested, idea within personality theory is the lexical hypothesis. This is the idea that (a) individual differences that are most salient and socially relevant in people’s lives will eventually become encoded into their language, and (b) the more important such a difference, the more likely is it to become expressed as a single word. In other words, personality types are likely to use relevant adjectives (like “quiet” or “friendly”). Once you identify who is most likely to use such adjectives, you can figure out their personality type (TGC).”

My final contention is that the Enneagram is in direct opposition to the Bible. The intention behind is explored within the first contention I presented. It was developed to bring divine insight about the self. The key word there is “divine”. Divination is supernatural insight. Hence the fact that, as mentioned earlier, one of the people who developed it, claimed to have had it revealed unto them from a demon. It is in direct opposition to the Word of God. The sad thing is, even if people actually did their research, in todays culture, it wouldn’t make a difference. People are disregarding the sufficiency of scripture now more than ever. G.K Chesterton once said, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions”. All throughout scripture we see verses expressing that Christians shouldn’t practice or seek insight from mediums, sorcerers, or divination. You’re allowing yourself to be discipled by the world and opening yourself up to things that are not of God. Its sad because so many people that I love a lot have bought into this. And people give me terrible looks when I say I think its nonsense. A friend of mine shared a quote and some scripture with me this morning. It follows my plea here for you to seek truth instead of caving into popular fads that are unbiblical.

“Are you willing to stand alone, being unpopular, hated, and persecuted? With the way the world is going, this is not merely a hypothetical question of ‘if’ you will be hated – but ‘when’. If you follow the standard of the Bible, you will be accused of being a narrow-minded, old-fashioned bigot; and you will be viewed as being unreasonable. Be warned of this and be prepared.” - Paul Washer

John 15:18-19 ESV "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."

Finally, in the interest of concession and refutation, I searched for reasons why people love the Enneagram. Here is what I saw: “It helps me make sense of myself”, “It helps me make sense of others”, “It shows me where I fall short”, and “It shows me what my strengths are.” All of the remarks seemed along those lines. And what is amazing to me was that I was preparing to refute each of these reasons one by one and provide reasoning… but it doesn’t actually require that. I can sum it up in one sentence. The Bible does all of those things better. The only one I would explain further is the last remark because instead of the Bible showing you what your strengths are, it tells you who your strength is. And there’s nothing better than that.

Sourced Websites:

Enneagram Institute: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/the-traditional-enneagram

Enneagram Worldwide: https://www.enneagramworldwide.com/common-enneagram-questions/#question_4

Christian Research Service: https://www.christianresearchservice.com/enneagram-pagan-mysticism-promoted-as-christian-growth/

The Barnum Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2HoscBLIw

The Gospel Coalition: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-what-christians-should-know-about-the-enneagram/

The National Catholic Reporter: http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/documents/ennea2.htm

The Barnum Effect (Britannica): https://www.britannica.com/science/Barnum-Effect

Doug Britton Article: https://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-godchristianityandchurch/astrologyoccultmediumsdivinationsorcery/