Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 7 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos himself, are reported to have participated in Arica training before shooting the movie. Jodorowsky invited Ichazo, whom he recognized as a spiritual master, to come to Mexico where the film was going to be made so as to receive his instruction. Ichazo accepted this invitation by initiating Jodorowsky into his first psychedelic experience through LSD, which was instrumental in the development of his perspective. Jodorowsky was also introduced to the sensory deprivation tank by a pupil of Ichazo’s in November 1973, along with a host of other representatives of the counter-culture and Human Potential movements (Lilly 1977, 220–21). It has been suggested that the use of psychedelic drugs was a common feature of the Arica training, and Ichazo himself was exposed to these early on in his life, when he had contact with indigenous peoples in South America who used mind-altering substances for ceremonial purposes. He said: “I had contact with Indians and they introduced me to psychedelic drugs and shamanism while I was in my early teens” (quoted in Keen 1973, 64). Claudio Naranjo (1932–2019), a Chilean psychiatrist regarded as a pioneer of the Human Potential movement, was another innovator of the Enneagram of personality types. Naranjo sought to further his understanding of both psychology and spirituality, having visited the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, a leading center for the Human Potential movement. While at the institute, he encountered Fritz Perls (1893–1970), the German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist known as the “Father of Gestalt Therapy,” which influenced his theoretical outlook. Perls’s impact upon the Human Potential movement and modern psychology itself may be summarized best in his own words: “Freud took the first step… I accomplished the next step after Freud in the history of psychiatry” (Perls 1979, 35). Naranjo became apprenticed under Perls and was considered one of his three successors at the Esalen Institute. Naranjo initially learned about Ichazo in 1969, through various Chilean students who shared their experiences with him about Ichazo. Initially, Naranjo corresponded with Ichazo but then decided to visit Chile to meet him in person. Following his return to California, Naranjo spread the word to others about Ichazo and the Arica training. Soon thereafter, Naranjo, along with John Lilly (1915–2001) – a physician and psychoanalyst – were part of the first group of fifty-four Americans (many of whom were from the Esalen Institute and Big Sur) who traveled to Arica in Chile, during July 1970, to study with Ichazo. What precisely took place between Ichazo and Naranjo is unknown and will likely remain a mystery. However, we do know that Naranjo decided to leave Ichazo after several months of training with him and returned to the United States. We might add that, by Ichazo’s own account, he had no dispute with Naranjo. Upon returning to the San Francisco Bay Area, Naranjo began to teach the Enneagram of personality types (or ego fixations) that he had learned from Ichazo. Consequently, Ichazo’s influence on the Esalen Institute was legendary, and many of the early disciples who studied under him in Chile returned to propagate the Arica training at Esalen, which was reflected in The Esalen Catalog (Winter 1972) [5]. In September 1971, Naranjo established the SAT (“Seekers After Truth,” a phrase borrowed from Gurdjieff) Institute in Berkeley in order to amalgamate his knowledge of modern psychological theories, from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and to correlate them with the Enneagram and an assortment of other spiritual methods (for example, Buddhist meditation, Gurdjieffian attention exercises, and Sufi stories). It is important to note the SAT Institute predated, by a decade, the flurry of interest in the Enneagram as it relates to personality types within the New Age movement and mainstream psychology. 4 Claudio Naranjo, the ‘Breach of Secrecy’, and the Enneagram for Mass Consumption Several figures who had trained directly with Naranjo (or received instruction from those who studied under him) are responsible for the mass dissemination of the Enneagram as most people understand it today. Some of those exposed to Naranjo’s early teaching on the Enneagram have gone on to become teachers themselves, such as Robert Ochs (1930– 2018), Helen Palmer, Kathy Riordan Speeth, A. H. Almaas (also known as A. Hameed Ali), Sandra Maitri, Peter O’Hanrahan, and Reza Leah Landman. Naranjo’s commitment to complete secrecy regarding the teachings of the Enneagram of personality types was something that he felt very strongly about, as we can see from his admission (Naranjo 1996, 16): Let me just say that the teaching I did in 1971/73 was restricted to two groups. One met during one and a half years, and the other for only six months, I believe. Both were subject to a considerable reserve. This reserve was made explicit through a signed commitment that nobody
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