A Tale of Theft, Appropriation, Accusation, and Lying, Or Enlightenment?
Discovered in a folder dated January 10, 2021, the day that Oscar Ichazo published his “Letter to the Transactional Community.”
This is a tale dire enough for spiritual warfare, Light vs Dark, worthy of the most gnostic sectarian cult. Oscar Ichazo was not your run-of-the-mill desert shaman. He might have traveled back to third-century Mesopotamia to enlist the Manichees rather than a 15th-century Sufi sect for his Enneagon. He displayed the fervor of a religious zealot rather than a crafty Murshid in his lawsuit, and today, in his "Letter to the Transpersonal Community."
Let me recast the story as a Manichean saga. It will still include Metatron, the archangel who is the Almighty’s scribe, as well as the usual cast of warring parties.
The Enneagon sprang forth from Oscar Ichazo, full-blown, a vision of Light. He hiked to the northernmost point of Chile, the Atacama Desert, where he gathered a small group of disciples for the first initiation. One of these disciples, a real doctor and psychotherapist named Claudio Naranjo, stole away with his numbered binder containing a complete outline of the system. Naranjo appropriated it as the Source of his variant system. He called it the Enneagram. Naranjo then gathered his own students in a rival school, which he tried to tie to the teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff. Among Naranjo’s students was a sweet, bright, and remarkably naive Jesuit, Father Bob Ochs, who disseminated this purportedly esoteric information as if it were Jesus on a hot cross bun. Ochs, who had just completed an advanced theology degree in the post-Vatican 2 Institut de Paris, began preaching to a small group of enthusiastic fellow Jesuits who quickly and efficiently established independent schools and study centers.
When Naranjo heard there were Jesuit cells, he realized he’d been far too lax, but the donkey had already escaped its pen. His “Seekers After Truth” students had signed what in his world was a karmically binding pledge to keep secrets secret, but it was just a photocopy of a generic non-disclosure form, the one Ichazo required of everyone in the Arica — no need to reinvent the wheel for another sect. But when Naranjo learned that the Jesuits had not pledged to keep their mouths shut forever, or until he gave permission, he cast Ochs into outer darkness. When one of Ochs's Jesuit students did what Jesuits do and published a book, Ichazo got wind of it, and he, too, was angry, but he added teeth of legal action in a US Court.(1) However, O'Leary proved jesuitical. He agreed to state publicly that Oscar Ichazo was the sole originator of the theory of ego fixations and the system of Enneagons, but Ichazo was unable to halt the publication of the book.` On only one point was everyone agreed: no money changed hands between the plaintiff and the defendants.
In the high Andean deserts, the pay scale for shamans is generally not on the high end; witch doctors are a dime a dozen. But forlorn Bolivia sets a particularly low bar. Poor Ichazo convinced himself that his zombie-like seven-day “transformational” experience had accrued some cash value, and his pyrrhic victory over Dimension Books encouraged him to set his sights on the sweet, innocent-looking Rosacrucian lady, along with the deeper pockets of her publisher, Harper and Row.
One bold action set Transformational Community ablaze with rumors of rainbows and pots of gold. In Kabbalistic heaven, the Archangel Metatron heard useemly rumblings and accusations of theft, lying, misappropriation of the Holy Teaching, or just plain greed.
Metatron summoned Ichazo, Naranjo, Ochs, Palmer, and O’Leary.. After the appropriate trumpet fanfare and drum roll, the accused fell to the ground in prostration. This was the real deal. There was no escape. When Metaron appeared, Ichazo said, “Holy shit. I thought I was being guided by an abstract (even possibly imaginary) archangel.” Metatron said offhandedly, “Be more careful. I’ve heard that excuse before.”
Metatron continued: “This mess smells like trafficking in stolen goods, Spiritual Goods, which is a grave matter, but you all lack imagination. Steal-lie-launder-justify; steal-lie-steal-launder-spin-repeat. You, Oscar, suggest that Naranjo spirited away your proprietary notes. Naranjo then gave the contents, which he had annotated and claimed were his property, to Father Ochs. Ochs followed his vocation and went on a preaching spree, giving the system to a few smart and well-trained Jesuits. Then innocent-looking Helen Palmer, trained by the beleaguered Rosacrucians, gathered copious notes (either honestly or by sleight of hand) from various sources, domesticated them, and sold them to a boatload of students. When pressed, Palmer lies with a straight face: ‘I did attend nine sessions of a public enneagram class with no ‘secrecy’ requirement.’ (2) (Ireland has the receipts: Everyone signed the NDA. He participated in the sessions and signed an NDA, despite already having signed one. Catherine Swiniarski testifies that Palmer handed her a signed copy of Naranjo’s NDA agreement. She was the registrar for the event.)
Metatron: “This scenario is absurd. I almost forgot one important but amusing allegation: Naranjo claims that no one owns anything because the whole system was a secret oral teaching from some well-hidden Sufis passed onto an irrasible Armenian-Russian madman called Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff himself told me that he had no idea what anyone was talking about. The whole lot of you don’t know what you’re talking about, but the choir sings ‘That’s the esoteric script. That’s what they’re supposed to say.’”
Metatron to Ichazo: “You sued Jesuits? What were you thinking? Suing Jesuits is one thing, but suing them for trying to help others is an entirely different matter. And you accuse them of furthering parochial theological goals. Oh, Ichazo, from you, this is rich, truly rich.
“You, Oscar, claim that you didn’t make any money. Accounting is one of my things: no one made any money, except the lawyers. There was only one amicus brief filed in this matter, from a group called ‘The Big Mind Association of Trial Lawyers.’ Lovely high-sounding name, almost Buddhist. Can I chuckle? I hear a lot from Canon Lawyers (3) and the Sharia Courts, so I thought this might be a welcome change of pace, but, alas, in the end, sectarian lawyers are lawyers. Sex workers may be the oldest profession on earth, but in the religious world, the first ecumenical profession is the Law. I heard from no one else, Oscar Ichazo — not even your gypsy auntie, who gets paid for reading cards. She doesn’t think you deserve a single peso.
“I want to ask the obvious question: ‘Are you so sure that you’ve interpreted this nine-pointed figure correctly, or fully? How did you arrive at this conclusion with any certainty?’ But before I do, I want to point out your arrogance and cruelty.
“You, Oscar, suggest that Helen Palmer casts herself as a martyr, and not just an ordinary run-of-the-mill blasphemer. Instead, this sweet Godmother of the Enneagram is right up there with Savonarola, the fire and brimstone preacher who was burned at the stake for his attempt to end the Renaissance in Florence. Only in your mind is Palmer a fundamentalist. It’s you who have assumed the role of Grand Inquisitor and introduced this spectacle of religious barbarism. There is no hint, no innuendo of fanaticism in her writing. You say that she has every right on earth to say what she wants, but I don’t believe you.”
The Archangel considers filing a Charge Sheet against Ichazo.
Metatron: “You, Oscar, did a lot of suing. Maybe I, Metatron, should sue you, Oscar, in the Divine Court for allowing the Sacred Enneagram to be reduced to the level of the Daily Horoscope on the back page of a cheap tabloid.
“You might ask what real damage I have actually done? Even from the position of an archangel, it’s challenging to ascertain evidence of harm in the marketplace of spiritual practice: How many people actually undertook the difficult work of self-analysis and introspection compared with how many were dissuaded? How many were misled or wasted time chasing a chimera or a rumor? Hard numbers in the world of the transcendent have always been a difficult matter, but if we measure the level of distraction by the number of words and titles that come up with a Google search for ‘the real origins of the Enneagram,’ the answer would be ‘considerable confusion.’
“In another time and place, your arrogance and cruelty would have tasted the flames. If you were trying to be funny, the Love and Light crowd is a dreary lot and wouldn’t get the “The Lady’s Not for Burning” joke. If your 41 pages of tightly argued documentation indicate that you are serious, your reference to one of the most barbaric periods of Western religious history forfeits any claim to teach anyone. In the end, Oscar Ichazo, you could just be a stark raving maniac, but I will have to search for another remedy. We just don’t do burning for heresy anymore.
“I have to ask myself if there is a way through this bickering among Aricans, Palmerites, Naranjo enthusiasts, and other “created from nothing” schools? If we allow ourselves just to hurl insults and dogmatic threats, we’ll stay stuck forever.
“Let me suggest a kind of Enneagram anthropology, one that comes from the lived experience of using the system and discovering its inner logic. I propose several simple steps. Firstly, speak simply.
“The courts did a reasonably good job given the limitations of the materials they were allowed to consider. By defining terms and language that could be “uncopyrightable,” the court declared that, you, Oscar, could not copyright sloth, lying, and cowardice (4), although I suppose that Scientology’s “engram” and “bank” might be as well as Mr. Gurdjieff’s gibberish: "Aieioiuoa," "Kerkoolnonarnian," "Sekronoolanzaknian," and “Kundabuffer.”
“Spiritual concepts, at least in the introductory stages, should be expressed in language as simple as possible. Even if and when language disappears, as most mysticism indicates, the benevolent guardians of the Universe have allowed for some language, like baby talk, to point us in the right direction. If writing and testing, rather than automatic writing or divine pronouncements, might begin to lay out a path, we've made a decent start.
“Oscar, you say that the only reason that you attempted to copyright the Arica material was ‘because the psychologists and religious people publish their work, using Arica descriptions mainly of the fixations without appropriate acknowledgment of what is Arica's and what is their own input - as a linear therapy in the case of the psychologists or as a way to Christian redemption by the group of priests and nuns.’ (5) I do not recall that anyone elected you Pope.
“Secondly. Stop lying and hiding behind some outrageous ‘Histoire de Jour:’
“Ms Plamer, asserting that you did not sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Narajo, probably saved you from paying a penalty to Ichazo that he claims he wasn’t seeking, but it is a lie. You are both lying. On the other hand, Naranjo never admitted that he didn’t return Ichazo’s numbered workbook for the initial Arica Training, and oddly, Ochazo never mentions it. It only became a cause célèbre when Beesing, Nogosek, and O'Leary published their work, and Palmer began her rewrite.
“I have a difficult time assigning blame, but there’s more than enough blame to go around. All of you, Ichazo, Naranjo, Ochs, and Palmer, share some of it. It would take a full team of lawyers to sort this out, which would be expensive (and probably beyond the statute of limitations), but really, questions about who said what when, and whether or not you signed a mimeographed DNA that was filed and forgotten, don’t matter that much.
“Thirdly, aim for compassion and steer clear of retribution. In this new pan-creedal world, I shy away from any sectarian slant, but I will still repeat the words of Jesus. He is very clear:
‘You have heard that it was said, Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." (Matthew 5:38-42, New International Version). Cooperation and working together might help you overcome base instincts.
If the practice of using the Ennegram for introspection survives, it will be in the hands of the people who do the hard work and talk openly about the results, the same kind of people who have been struggling with the nine-pointed figure for nearly six decades since it captured the imagination of a small segment of modern mystics. In the big picture, it is in its infancy.
Fourthly: Quit the cult. Put me out of a job.
Notes:
1 Beesing, Maria, Robert Nogosek, and Patrick O'Leary. The Enneagram: A Journey of Self-Discovery. Denville, N.J.: Dimension Bks, 1984.
2 Helen Palmer, quoted in “Special Forum: The Enneagram in Contention,” Gnosis, No. 42 (Winter 1997), p. 13.
3 Almost 25 years ago, (10/23/2001), in a pastoral letter warning Catholics about using the Enneagram as a tool for spiritual direction, the U.S. Catholic bishops' Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices, stated that "sin is indeed unhealthy behavior and can be combated by an improved understanding, but it is at its root a moral problem, so that repentance before God and one’s neighbor must be the fundamental response. Enneagram teaching thus obscures the Christian understanding of sin."
4 Arica Institute, Inc. v. Palmer, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York - 770 F. Supp. 188 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). August 5, 1991. “The Court in its prior opinion found numerous aspects of plaintiff's works uncopyrightable: Ichazo's system of nine ego fixations, the sequence or arrangement of the ego fixations within that system, individual words describing the traits of each ego fixation and the one- and two-word labels for points on the various enneagrams from which the system of ego fixations is derived. Any similarity between Ichazo's works and The Enneagram based on these non-copyrightable elements does not constitute copyright infringement.”
5 Oscar Ichazo, Letter to the Transpersonal Community, Page 27.
