What's Your Type? The Enneagram Obsession

Personality tests have been around since the early 1900s. One of the most popular ones is the Myers-Briggs personality test. This test is used to tell you more about who you are and which category of type you fall into. It’s a way to organize people by assigning them 4 simple letters. This test is widely used in colleges, companies and churches across the globe. Myers-Briggs has become commonplace.

Lately, there’s been a new personality test that has gained popularity in recent years, called the Enneagram. I had never heard of the Enneagram until last year, but after some research it seems that certain aspects of the test have been around for centuries. The purpose of the Enneagram is similar to Myers-Briggs in that it seeks to tell you more about your strengths and weaknesses, explaining how we relate to one another based on a number. A quote from the Enneagram Institute “About” page states, “At its core, the Enneagram helps us to see ourselves at a deeper, more objective level and can be invaluable assistance on our path to self-knowledge.”

What do we turn to in order to understand who we are in relation to God?

Now let me pause and ask, as Christians what do we turn to in order to understand who we are in relation to God? And what should we turn to, in order to know what God wants us to do with our lives? The Bible. This might seem like a cliché Sunday school answer but Scripture is clear about God’s word being sufficient for living a godly life, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, and it is full of verses that explain our fallen nature and the remedy for it, which the Enneagram seeks to resolve apart from God.

Origin of the Enneagram

It’s been said that the Enneagram has existed since ancient times but in fact the Enneagram is the result of a New Age practice called automatic writing. The Enneagram was created by a man named G. I. Gurdjieff and gained popularity by a disciple of his, Oscar Ichazo, who had an affinity for shamanism, and many other occult practices. The root of this “benign” personality test is distinctly New Age and rooted in occult spiritualism. On their website you will find the following:

“To grasp the significance of these diagrams and the relationship between them, we must remember that the system was designed primarily to help elucidate the relationship between Essence and personality, or ego. In Ichazo's own words:

‘We have to distinguish between a man as he is in essence, and as he is in ego or personality. In essence, every person is perfect, fearless, and in a loving unity with the entire cosmos; there is no conflict within the person between head, heart, and stomach or between the person and others. Then something happens: the ego begins to develop, karma accumulates, there is a transition from objectivity to subjectivity; man falls from essence into personality.’" (Interviews with Ichazo, page 9)

There should be many red flags that go up when reading the paragraph above. Scripture tells us the complete opposite. In essence, we are not perfect we are sinners and born unreconciled to God. Rom.3 :10-18.

What do Myers-Briggs and Enneagram have to do with each other?

Before I knew anything about the origin of Myers-Briggs I asked a friend about their thoughts on the Enneagram and if the church should be wary of it. To paraphrase their response, they said,“Well, it’s just a way to find out more about ourselves, and as long as we’re not using it for any occult purposes there should be no problem, it’s just like the Myers-Briggs test.” I began to think to myself, “Well, what are the origins of Myers-Briggs?” I eventually stumbled across a book called “The Personality Brokers” by Merve Emre which shed a lot of light on this famous, and trusted test.

The co-founder and the brain behind Myers-Briggs is Katherine Elizabeth Cook, who’s motivation for fine-tuning her own personality test was inspired after reading Psychological Types by Carl Jung, a well known 20th century psychologist who came up with the notion that humans can be classified according to their personality. He was convinced that we can

look to ourselves for the answers, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” -Carl Jung. Jung was also heavily involved in occult practices from seeking out mediums to witches, in order to support his psychological findings.

For Katherine, during a time in her life when she was very depressed and seeking meaning, fulfillment and significance, instead of turning to God she turned to Carl Jung. She even referred to him as her savior, while developing quite an unhealthy obsession with him. She deliberately abandoned the Christian faith that she had grown up with in order to seek the meaning of life within herself.

Myers-Briggs is simply a Jungian byproduct and a more palatable version of Psychological Types. Myers-Briggs, Psychological Types and the Enneagram are not scientific; none of these tests or theories are backed by scientific data. They are merely pseudoscience that appeal to our human desire to know our purpose in life.

So, what are they?

Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram are nothing more than glorified horoscopes. I did not find any of this out until after I had personally taken the Enneagram. The symbol the Enneagram uses caused me to wonder about the origin of this trendy test. It wasn’t until I read about their history that I understood its New Age origin and use of New Age numerology. The deceptive nature and purpose of these tests is a journey to look inward. The root and the purpose are the same: Self discovering self, for the sake of self. The self is the means and the end.