Truth About Naranjo

The Truth About Naranjo | History of Enneagram | Some History of PDB Community

Author: Pincare

Contact: https://www.personality-database.com/user/134581

If you have stuck around this community for long enough, you have perhaps made the mistake of joining the Personality Database Discord server. If not, you may have heard some of the horror stories of those who had the misfortune of having a run-in with the Discord community associated with the site. If not, I will take it upon myself to hold up this torch and light the path on this journey. Reader beware, you will soon be questioning your faith in God, for this is a horror story so gruesome you will be hesitant to tell it as a campfire story in fear of the fire being extinguished from how quickly the temperature in the immediate vicinity will drop...make sure no children are in the room and we shall embark on this journey.

Given the topic of this discussion, I will firstly address a frequently used term in this community:

• 'Naranjopilled'

This term refers to those who have been enlightened by reading the works of the community's favorite author, Claudio Naranjo. For those who have ever read a book on the Riso-Hudson (RH) interpretation of Enneagram, if you are still contemplating joining the community's Discord server you will have to go through rigorous reading of Character & Neurosis (C&N) until you memorize every line and can conjure up any information from it on the spot in a life-or-death scenario if you wish to survive even a day. This does, of course, mean that if you attempt to cite anything outside of C&N when discussing Enneagram you will be hung for treason [DISCLAIMER: Not literally. Probably].

Now then, to find out what is so appealing about C&N we must discuss some of the history of the Enneagram.

Claudio Naranjo is not to be credited for the introduction of the Enneagram to the western world. Rather, this can be traced back to G. I. Gurdjieff who claimed that he became familiar with the Enneagram during his trip to the Hindu Kush where his understanding of the Enneagram came from the Sarmoun brotherhood. The existence of this mystical school Gurdjieff dated to 2500 BCE is not well-documented. Carrying on the understanding of the Enneagram came Oscar Ichazo, which brings me to my next point which is that Naranjo is not the one who conceptualized the Enneatypes. Rather, this was Ichazo, who credited his understanding of the Enneatypes to the Sarmoun and Sufi sources. Ichazo's understanding of the Enneagram was essential to the Arica School where he offered his--mostly spiritual--teachings. Naranjo's contribution to the Enneagram came in the form of his Seekers after Truth (SAT) group where he coupled his psychological leanings with the spiritual foundation of the Enneagram presented by those before him.

What you will hear a lot from various authors on the Enneagram is that it is:

"...a dynamic flow that connects line points around a circle by a nonlinear path..."

This emphasis on the "shape of the Enneagram" comes from the fact that these spiritual teachings came very frequently with the use of psychedelics, primarily LSD. This is no secret; Naranjo writes on the topic in his book 'My Psychedelic Explorations' and discusses it frequently in interviews, such as the time he took LSD and looked in the mirror and saw his shoes, at which point he realized they were "archetypal Arabian magical shoes" which, in his words, "propelled my understanding" of the Enneatypes. This was what led to the creation of C&N.

These authors paved the way for the modern interpretation of the Enneagram, most popularly reflected in the work of Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson as well as Beatrice Chestnut. On the less mainstream side but still modern, there is A. H. Almaas and his Diamond Approach as well as the most comprehensive exposition of the Enneagram from Sandra Maitri. Helen Palmer is worth mentioning as well. There seems to be a misconception in the PDB community, however, which is that RH is incompatible with the other theories. The idea that RH is a completely new system of the Enneagram is simply untrue and is a misconception originating not from any authors on the Enneagram but rather from communities online. The truth is that Russ Hudson and Don Richard Riso are well-respected and referenced by other writers such as Maitri and Almaas who believe RH to be compatible with the more traditional interpretation of the Enneagram. RH as a system is instead a more elaborated interpretation of the different sides of the Enneatypes which Naranjo himself had expressly acknowledged the existence of but never delved too deeply into. An example of this is the following excerpt on E9:

"When E9 people begin to search it is because they are waking up. When they feel empty it is because they are not so lost in conformity, in self forgetfulness...and those who are most submerged in their neurosis are the most satisfied, while those who begin to feel that they lack something, and develop a true spiritual aspiration, are already maturing." - 'Transformation Through Insight'

This is why many believe that Extraverted and Introverted Intuition dominant individuals cannot also be E9; the side of the E9 Naranjo discusses is the less healthy side of the E9 while the side of the E9 RH discusses is the healthier side. Both sides exist according to Naranjo himself, demonstrating not only that RH is compatible with Naranjo's model but also that Ne and Ni dominant individuals can be E9, most commonly in the case of the maturing E9. Again, MBTI types do change, which I address in my other essay entitled 'Type Combinations.' Further, the wing concept that many believe was introduced by RH was, in actuality, originally conceptualized by none other than Naranjo himself.

In conclusion, Claudio Naranjo had his flaws and his model is far from perfect. To refer to him for information on the Enneagram and him alone is exceptionally limited and does not address Enneagram as a whole. For a more reliable understanding of the Enneagram one must explore many sources. I have constructed a list of every book on the Enneagram I could find and if you would like to learn do contact me through the link at the beginning of this page which leads to my PDB profile. Go to my page, leave a comment and I will respond to you at my earliest opportunity. Alternatively, contact Scriabin#4994 over Discord.