Enneagram Levels

[Amethyst]

Based off of this thinger:

http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/descript.asp

Click on your enneagram type, and then determine what level you think you are at at this current time in your life (which are at the bottom). Then post what level and the description you most relate to here, if you so choose.

EDIT: Here's another place where you can look different levels and want to go by that instead.

http://sites.google.com/site/upatel8/personlitytype9

 

[Amethyst]

7w8

I think I'm a level 4 striving to be more at level 3.

Level 4: As restlessness increases, want to have more options and choices available to them. Become adventurous and "worldly wise," but less focused, constantly seeking new things and experiences: the sophisticate, connoisseur, and consumer. Money, variety, keeping up with the latest trends important.

and

Level 3: Easily become accomplished achievers, generalists who do many different things well: multi-talented. Practical, productive, usually prolific, cross-fertilizing areas of interest.

I think I relate to the level 3 description in the other link more than the 4 I think. Particularly 'To do those things which will insure that they will have what they need' really stands out to me.

 

[JocktheMotie]

Type 5

Level 4: Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.

Level 5: Increasingly detached as they become involved with complicated ideas or imaginary worlds. Become preoccupied with their visions and interpretations rather than reality. Are fascinated by off-beat, esoteric subjects, even those involving dark and disturbing elements. Detached from the practical world, a "disembodied mind," although high-strung and intense.

Elements of both, at the moment.

 

[Udog]

I'm a pretty classic Level 4 E9, although during my better moments I take on a lot of 3 traits. Just that right now isn't one of my better moments!

Level 4: Fear conflicts, so become self-effacing and accommodating, idealizing others and "going along" with their wishes, saying "yes" to things they do not really want to do. Fall into conventional roles and expectations. Use philosophies and stock sayings to deflect others.

I prefer the below description a bit more. I've largely overcome my paralyzing fear of significant change (mostly because life forced significant change on me, and I became stronger for it). Oddly enough, a lot of these traits really are improvements to how I was 4 years ago.
http://sites.google.com/site/upatel8/personlitytype9

The Average Levels Social Role: Nobody special.

4. Level of Imbalance

B-Terms		A-Terms			Secondary Desires		Fears
Agreeable	Self-Effacing		To avoid conflicts 		Of any significant changes
compliant	accommodating		(by acquiescing to 		/ disruptions in their 
excusing	idealizing others	others: "Inner Sanctum"		world
conventional	sentimental		
pleasant	unquestioning		
"fitting in"	simplifying		
respectable	philosophizing		
[B]*loyal*[/B] 	discounting self	
		*dutiful*

 

[Amethyst]

I'm a pretty classic Level 4, although during my better moments I take on a lot of 3 traits. Just that right now isn't one of my better moments!



I prefer this description a bit more. I've largely overcome my paralyzing fear of significant change (mostly because life forced significant change on me, and I became stronger for it). Oddly enough, a lot of these traits really are improvements to how I was 4 years ago.
http://sites.google.com/site/upatel8/personlitytype9

As do I.

Hope you don't mind if I throw it in the OP.

 

[Forever_Jung]

I am an e6, level 5, who has been level 6 before.

Level 5: To resist having more demands made on them, they react against others passive-aggressively. Become evasive, indecisive, cautious, procrastinating, and ambivalent. Are highly reactive, anxious, and negative, giving contradictory, "mixed signals." Internal confusion makes them react unpredictably.

 

[Arclight]

Type 6.. the 9 stages

Transcended states

1-self-affirming courage
2-faithful affection
3-responsible discipline

Balanced states

4-dutiful loyalty
5-anxious ambivalence
6-belligerent scapegoating

Unbalanced/Unhealthy states

7-needy conformism
8-paranoid obsession
9-self-destructive panic

 

[Arthur Schopenhauer]

5w4,

Both of these are suitable definitions, as a mixture:

Level 6: Begin to take an antagonistic stance toward anything which would interfere with their inner world and personal vision. Become provocative and abrasive, with intentionally extreme and radical views. Cynical and argumentative.

Level 7: Become reclusive and isolated from reality, eccentric and nihilistic. Highly unstable and fearful of aggressions: they reject and repulse others and all social attachments.

 

[Such Irony]

I'm a type 5 and I operate mostly at levels 4 and 5. On a really good day, I can get to level 2 or 3. On a really bad day, I can sink down to level 7.

Level 4: Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.

Level 5: Increasingly detached as they become involved with complicated ideas or imaginary worlds. Become preoccupied with their visions and interpretations rather than reality. Are fascinated by off-beat, esoteric subjects, even those involving dark and disturbing elements. Detached from the practical world, a "disembodied mind," although high-strung and intense.

 

[CuriousFeeling]

Enneagram 4w5:

My levels:

4:

Level 3: Highly personal, individualistic, "true to self." Self-revealing, emotionally honest, humane. Ironic view of self and life: can be serious and funny, vulnerable and emotionally strong.

Level 4: Take an artistic, romantic orientation to life, creating a beautiful, aesthetic environment to cultivate and prolong personal feelings. Heighten reality through fantasy, passionate feelings, and the imagination.

Taking into account my 5 wing:

Level 2: Observe everything with extraordinary perceptiveness and insight. Most mentally alert, curious, searching intelligence: nothing escapes their notice. Foresight and prediction. Able to concentrate: become engrossed in what has caught their attention.

Level 3: Attain skillful mastery of whatever interests them. Excited by knowledge: often become expert in some field. Innovative and inventive, producing extremely valuable, original works. Highly independent, idiosyncratic, and whimsical.


Level 4: Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.

 

[Zarathustra]

I've actually been having difficulty identifying my enneagram type, but I think, by doing this exercise, I've now got it!

Type Five—More Depth by Level
Healthy Levels
Level 1(At Their Best): Become visionaries, broadly comprehending the world while penetrating it profoundly. Open-minded, take things in whole, in their true context. Make pioneering discoveries and find entirely new ways of doing and perceiving things.

Level 2: Observe everything with extraordinary perceptiveness and insight. Most mentally alert, curious, searching intelligence: nothing escapes their notice. Foresight and prediction. Able to concentrate: become engrossed in what has caught their attention.

Level 3: Attain skillful mastery of whatever interests them. Excited by knowledge: often become expert in some field. Innovative and inventive, producing extremely valuable, original works. Highly independent, idiosyncratic, and whimsical.

Average Levels
Level 4: Begin conceptualizing and fine-tuning everything before acting—working things out in their minds: model building, preparing, practicing, and gathering more resources. Studious, acquiring technique. Become specialized, and often "intellectual," often challenging accepted ways of doing things.

Level 5: Increasingly detached as they become involved with complicated ideas or imaginary worlds. Become preoccupied with their visions and interpretations rather than reality. Are fascinated by off-beat, esoteric subjects, even those involving dark and disturbing elements. Detached from the practical world, a "disembodied mind," although high-strung and intense.

Level 6: Begin to take an antagonistic stance toward anything which would interfere with their inner world and personal vision. Become provocative and abrasive, with intentionally extreme and radical views. Cynical and argumentative.

Unhealthy Levels
Level 7: Become reclusive and isolated from reality, eccentric and nihilistic. Highly unstable and fearful of aggressions: they reject and repulse others and all social attachments.

Level 8: Get obsessed yet frightened by their threatening ideas, becoming horrified, delirious, and prey to gross distortions and phobias.

Level 9: Seeking oblivion, they may commit suicide or have a psychotic break with reality. Deranged, explosively self-destructive, with schizophrenic overtones. Generally corresponds to the Schizoid Avoidant and Schizotypal personality disorders.

I identify most strongly with the bolded.

In my good days, I'm some combination of 1-3 (2 resonates most strongly); the goal of my life is to be at 1. (bolded only)

In my bad periods, when life is not going as well, I'm more in the 4-5 area; I stop acting, and start "preparing". (bolded and underlined)

I went through a period in college when I would dip into 6-8. When I almost wrote my honors thesis on the inevitability of the reversal in the slave-master dialectic between mankind and technology, I was at about an 8. If I'd let myself get to 9, I probably woulda been like that guy who wrote that 2,000-page manifesto and shot himself on Harvard Yard... (underlined only)

At my worst, nowadays, I might fall into a 6, but that is very rare, if it even happens at all.

Type Six—More Depth by Level
Healthy Levels
Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-affirming, trusting of self and others, independent yet symbiotically interdependent and cooperative as an equal. Belief in self leads to true courage, positive thinking, leadership, and rich self-expression.

Level 2: Able to elicit strong emotional responses from others: very appealing, endearing, lovable, affectionate. Trust important: bonding with others, forming permanent relationships and alliances.

Level 3: Dedicated to individuals and movements in which they deeply believe. Community builders: responsible, reliable, trustworthy. Hard-working and persevering, sacrificing for others, they create stability and security in their world, bringing a cooperative spirit.

Average Levels
Level 4: Start investing their time and energy into whatever they believe will be safe and stable. Organizing and structuring, they look to alliances and authorities for security and continuity. Constantly vigilant, anticipating problems.

Level 5: To resist having more demands made on them, they react against others passive-aggressively. Become evasive, indecisive, cautious, procrastinating, and ambivalent. Are highly reactive, anxious, and negative, giving contradictory, "mixed signals." Internal confusion makes them react unpredictably.

Level 6: To compensate for insecurities, they become sarcastic and belligerent, blaming others for their problems, taking a tough stance toward "outsiders." Highly reactive and defensive, dividing people into friends and enemies, while looking for threats to their own security. Authoritarian while fearful of authority, highly suspicious, yet, conspiratorial, and fear-instilling to silence their own fears.

Unhealthy Levels
Level 7: Fearing that they have ruined their security, they become panicky, volatile, and self-disparaging with acute inferiority feelings. Seeing themselves as defenseless, they seek out a stronger authority or belief to resolve all problems. Highly divisive, disparaging and berating others

Level 8: Feeling persecuted, that others are "out to get them," they lash-out and act irrationally, bringing about what they fear. Fanaticism, violence.

Level 9: Hysterical, and seeking to escape punishment, they become self-destructive and suicidal. Alcoholism, drug overdoses, "skid row," self-abasing behavior. Generally corresponds to the Passive-Aggressive and Paranoid personality disorders.

These really just don't resonate with me.

Thanks to this, I really don't think I'm a 6...

Type Eight—More Depth by Level
Healthy Levels
Level 1 (At Their Best): Become self-restrained and magnanimous, merciful and forbearing, mastering self through their self-surrender to a higher authority. Courageous, willing to put self in serious jeopardy to achieve their vision and have a lasting influence. May achieve true heroism and historical greatness.

Level 2: Self-assertive, self-confident, and strong: have learned to stand up for what they need and want. A resourceful, "can do" attitude and passionate inner drive.

Level 3: Decisive, authoritative, and commanding: the natural leader others look up to. Take initiative, make things happen: champion people, provider, protective, and honorable, carrying others with their strength.

Average Levels
Level 4: Self-sufficiency, financial independence, and having enough resources are important concerns: become enterprising, pragmatic, "rugged individualists," wheeler-dealers. Risk-taking, hardworking, denying own emotional needs.

Level 5: Begin to dominate their environment, including others: want to feel that others are behind them, supporting their efforts. Swaggering, boastful, forceful, and expansive: the "boss" whose word is law. Proud, egocentric, want to impose their will and vision on everything, not seeing others as equals or treating them with respect.

Level 6: Become highly combative and intimidating to get their way: confrontational, belligerent, creating adversarial relationships. Everything a test of wills, and they will not back down. Use threats and reprisals to get obedience from others, to keep others off balance and insecure. However, unjust treatment makes others fear and resent them, possibly also band together against them.

Unhealthy Levels
Level 7: Defying any attempt to control them, become completely ruthless, dictatorial, "might makes right." The criminal and outlaw, renegade, and con-artist. Hard-hearted, immoral and potentially violent.

Level 8: Develop delusional ideas about their power, invincibility, and ability to prevail: megalomania, feeling omnipotent, invulnerable. Recklessly over-extending self.

Level 9: If they get in danger, they may brutally destroy everything that has not conformed to their will rather than surrender to anyone else. Vengeful, barbaric, murderous. Sociopathic tendencies. Generally corresponds to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

I can appreciate a lot of what's in here, but it doesn't resonate as much as the enneagram 5 level descriptions do...

When I read these, I think about my ENTJ side, which I can employ, but which is not my "basal" personality; they also resemble me when I'm put in situations where I must be employing this ENTJ side, like at my job.

I would say I identify most with levels 1-4, and that I can see some of levels 5-9 in me (mostly 5 and 6, with maybe the tiniest smidgen of 7 and 8), but I rarely, if ever, engage in those, because, if I were ever tempted to, I would consciously catch myself doing so, and tell myself to snap the fuck out of it cuz I'm acting like a dickhead...

As such, I think that, because I identify most with 8s when they are acting healthily, 8 is probably my integration point. Interestingly enough, as such, my enneagram integration would seem to be correlated with my effective balancing of introversion and extroversion in MBTI.

 

[Kasper]

On a good day I love everyone and everything I feel enormous gratitude for what I have in life and see beauty in everything which aligns with level 1, at the depths of depression I'm impulsive, hedonistic and avoidant which could align with all the unhealthy levels, I can also combine those two things, simultaneously seeing good everywhere and feeling hopeless. There's something in each level that rings true and something that is not me in the slightest.

On a consistent basis I don't say "no" to myself [level 5], I am adventurous but unfocused, constantly seeking new things and experiences [level 4], excitable [level 2] and am awed by simple wonders of life [level 1].

On the link Udog provided level 4 sounds about average for me. As my basic desire is "To increase the number of sources of stimulation (to do more)" and basic fear is "That they will be bored or frustrated (and negative feelings will arise)".

I think I need to pin this on my wall!

â–  Recognize your impulsiveness, and get in the habit of observing your impulses rather than giving in to them. This means letting most of your impulses pass and becoming a better judge of which ones are worth acting on. The more you can resist acting out your impulses, the more you will be able to focus on what is really good for you.

â–  Learn to listen to other people. They are often interesting, and you may learn things that will open new doors for you. Also learn to appreciate silence and solitude: you do not have to distract yourself (and protect yourself from anxiety) with constant noise from the television or the stereo. By learning to live with less external stimulation, you will learn to trust yourself. You will be happier than you expect because you will be satisfied with whatever you do, even if it is less than you have been doing.

■ You do not have to have everything this very moment. That tempting new acquisition will most likely still be available tomorrow (this is certainly true of food, alcohol, and other common gratifications—that ice cream cone, for instance). Most good opportunities will come back again—and you will be in a better position to discern which opportunities really are best for you.

â–  Always choose quality over quantity, especially in your experiences. The ability to have experiences of quality can be learned only by giving your full attention to the experience you are having now. If you keep anticipating future experiences, you will keep missing the present one and undermine the possibility of ever being satisfied.

■ Make sure that what you want will really be good for you in the long run. As the saying goes, watch what you pray for since your prayers may be answered. In the same vein, think about the long-term consequences of what you want since you may get it only to find that it becomes another disappointment—or even a source of unhappiness.

 

[Arclight]

I think at this point in my life .. I fluctuate between level 3 at my best and level 5 at my worst.. I am not as unhealthy as I might think I am sometimes.. but definitely a ways away from where I would like to be.

Level 3: Dedicated to individuals and movements in which they deeply believe. Community builders: responsible, reliable, trustworthy. Hard-working and persevering, sacrificing for others, they create stability and security in their world, bringing a cooperative spirit.

Average Levels
Level 4: Start investing their time and energy into whatever they believe will be safe and stable. Organizing and structuring, they look to alliances and authorities for security and continuity. Constantly vigilant, anticipating problems.

Level 5: To resist having more demands made on them, they react against others passive-aggressively. Become evasive, indecisive, cautious, procrastinating, and ambivalent. Are highly reactive, anxious, and negative, giving contradictory, "mixed signals." Internal confusion makes them react unpredictably.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I feel like I fluctuate regularly. I can see myself at different points here just in the past year...I can see myself anywhere from level 7 to 2 of my e4 type

As for my 5 wing (funnier how that is easier to identify), I'd say I am at level 4 or 5, quite average. Maybe I have glimpses of level 3.

 

[Fluffywolf]

Hmm... It's okay to be on a lot of levels? Depending on my mood and situation, I may show signs of all levels from level 1 to 5. (Enneagram 5)

 

[Udog]

There surely has to be some degree of fluctuation, especially since some of the traits are pretty general. However, I'm not sure if it's meant to be a wildly oscillating thing, either.

I think the important thing is to understand which the basic fears most resonate with you, and go from there. With me, "fear of conflict, external and internal" is my major road block right now. That's a level 3 fear, but it leads into the Level 4 traits.

I no longer have the level 4 fear, "fear of significant change". (I do fear the conflict required to make significant change, though.) There are times, sometimes lasting months at a pop, where I'm forced into conflict and simply accept it as a necessity. During those times, I notice that I take on a lot of 3 traits, even to the point where I thought I was level 3 for awhile. However, my equilibrium is at Level 4, so that's what I'm going with.

 

[PeaceBaby]

My (primary) fear now is a level 2 fear "of losing peace of mind" ... I think I mostly operate in level 3, sometimes level 2 when in a feeling of deep flow, and can enter level 4 in situations where I am caught off guard with feeling very insecure of myself, uncertain.

I pretty much inhabited level 4 for most of my twenties, until personal crisis meant I had to evolve out of my "comfort zone" there.

Level 1 seems fleeting atm.

 

[Udog]

^Yeah, then I would take a solid look at various level 3 descriptions for you.

I would say that I spent most of my life around level 6. I did everything I could to avoid a reality that made me deeply unhappy. Around my early/mid-20s, I had a couple of key revelations and chased after a couple of dreams. They didn't go anywhere, but the action was good for my growth. It probably put me around Level 5, as I rejected the notion that I was "just killing time until I was dead", and started to focus on the meaning in my actions.

And of course, I've talked enough about the series of incidences a few years back. Having that thrust upon me forced me to evaluate things and choose to make changes or give up completely. That was largely my transition to Level 4.

 

[Llewellyn]

I would say type 9 with health level 5:

Level 5: Active, but disengaged, unreflective, and inattentive. Do not want to be affected, so become unresponsive and complacent, walking away from problems, and "sweeping them under the rug." Thinking becomes hazy and ruminative, mostly comforting fantasies, as they begin to "tune out" reality, becoming oblivious. Emotionally indolent, unwillingness to exert self or to focus on problems: indifference.

Though I am optimistic, and have my good and worse times.

 

[PeaceBaby]

^Yeah, then I would take a solid look at various level 3 descriptions for you.

I would say that I spent most of my life around level 6. I did everything I could to avoid a reality that made me deeply unhappy. Around my early/mid-20s, I had a couple of key revelations and chased after a couple of dreams. They didn't go anywhere, but the action was good for my growth. It probably put me around Level 5, as I rejected the notion that I was "just killing time until I was dead", and started to focus on the meaning in my actions.

And of course, I've talked enough about the series of incidences a few years back. Having that thrust upon me forced me to evaluate things and choose to make changes or give up completely. That was largely my transition to Level 4.

Thanks Udog. Recent events have certainly shown me how much I do fear losing "peace of mind" ... and in high stress, still there's that tendency to "numb out" ... I know it's from overstimulation, but when you're in the moment, you just have to deal with it.