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The Bear Test

violet_crown

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Imagine you're walking in the woods alone and you spot a bear.

You care to offer any expert analysis of some of the responses here, Herr Ginkgo?
 

redcheerio

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Is anyone else noticing how enneatype appropriate these answers are? I've noticed both 4w5s and Jennifer (another e5w4) gave descriptions similar to my own: looking for something/food. Gromit and Peacebaby (both e9) both said the bear leaves them alone after a while. And there are others that seem appropriate to their enneatype as well. It makes sense, given the 'meaning' of the bear. It might even be a useful tool to find someone's enneatype.

[edit: I *think* Jennifer is 5w4, if my memory serves correct.]

Mine (which I did write before reading any others) : It’s rummaging through something for food, like in a looking for honey kind of way. It’s kind of slow moving. I’m not really afraid of it, it’s not interested in me, it’s more concerned with finding what it’s looking for. It’s big, and looks like a grizzly. It’s big enough to do real damage if it wanted to, but I don’t think it wants to, I think it really just wants to calmly find what it’s looking for.

Interesting. I'm also E9, and mine also fits your E9 group.
 

QuentinBeck

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I come upon it standing on its hind legs in the middle of my path, big but not huge. We stare at each other. I'm nervous, but not as scared as I should be. I keep staring. It shrugs, gets back down on all fours and goes back to munching berries in the forest, watching me as I walk by.


That's just about how I imagined the bear as well. I also didn't run but walked away. In my scenario, the bear was holding an apple.
 

miss fortune

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a big woolly grizzly bear walking the opposite direction across the clearing back towards the woods... it turns and glances back at me before ambling onward towards wherever it's headed... the bear doesn't really give a fuck that I'm there in the least :sadbanana:

 

Noon

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It says walking alone, but I imagined myself and 1 other person :/
Sorry. It was an accident.

The bear had black or brown fur. No particular size, but it was quiet, heavy and slow-moving. A little imposing?

When I came across it, it was eating. It looked up at me, I looked back at it, and then I froze. A lot of uneasiness. It then growled (low, but a growl nonetheless), and I was extremely worried that it would attack if I either made one wrong move or failed to make one right one quickly enough.

So I was waiting for the right time to run, but it was so much to think about at once that I was still pretty much frozen. I couldn't decide whether it would be safer to run, or whether I should do nothing except maybe close my eyes and hope by some miracle that the situation would be over soon.

After reading the spoiler this situation is kind of sad lol. But true in most cases.
 

PeaceBaby

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This is what my ESTJ husband says (although I can't officially say what his enneagram is):

It's a black bear, kind of medium sized, sitting on it's bum with front legs out, near a tree. There's a lot of low growth around, but the bear is not really hidden in any way. The bear has one paw on the tree, and it just looks over at me when it hears me. But it's moving slowly, glances slowly over, and I just watch it and stop moving. The bear eventually goes back to what it was doing.
 

Totenkindly

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Jennifer: too bad, your imagination limits you!

No, it's not me who lacks imagination -- it's my bear! :static:

z buck mcfate said:
Is anyone else noticing how enneatype appropriate these answers are? I've noticed both 4w5s and Jennifer (another e5w4) gave descriptions similar to my own: looking for something/food. Gromit and Peacebaby (both e9) both said the bear leaves them alone after a while. And there are others that seem appropriate to their enneatype as well. It makes sense, given the 'meaning' of the bear. It might even be a useful tool to find someone's enneatype.

[edit: I *think* Jennifer is 5w4, if my memory serves correct.]

Yes, my 4 score is typically only a few points under the 5... and 9 follows a few points later.

I'd explore especially the three approaches to strife/challenge: Moving against, moving toward, and moving away.

I think my bear would have been more terrifying earlier in my life, but I feel more confident nowadays and also don't see problems as something I am not equipped to face.

noon said:
When I came across it, it was eating...

I can't help but ask, what was it eating? (maybe I don't want to know! :D)
 

Noon

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I can't help but ask, what was it eating? (maybe I don't want to know! :D)

Some animal carcass; didn't imagine which animal.

Walking in on it was a lot like this

overview.jpg



After reading the responses whose bears were eating things like berries, I wondered why mine couldn't have been eating something like that.
 

violet_crown

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[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION], too bad, your imagination limits you!

It's easy to say, "The bear's a Koala in a tutu! Life goes on lol." But the question's not interesting if the bear's not.
 

PeaceBaby

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Is anyone else noticing how enneatype appropriate these answers are? I've noticed both 4w5s and Jennifer (another e5w4) gave descriptions similar to my own: looking for something/food. Gromit and Peacebaby (both e9) both said the bear leaves them alone after a while. And there are others that seem appropriate to their enneatype as well. It makes sense, given the 'meaning' of the bear. It might even be a useful tool to find someone's enneatype.

Curious - how do you interpret those answers as correlating to e9?
 

miss fortune

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at least yours wasn't just a live action version of the Charmin bear :dry:

1charmin-bear-7174261.jpg
 

Z Buck McFate

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Curious - how do you interpret those answers as correlating to e9?

I actually didn’t know if Gromit was e9, but after seeing both your answers a light kind of went off and I asked her. I don’t even really know how to explain why. I guess because the fact that seeing it leave- as part of the image that comes to mind to describe the bear scenario- seems to stand out a little bit. It’s an important enough part of what you see to mention it. Some people mention being able to pass the bear or get away from it without incident (or the bear just not caring they’re there, or getting mauled), but only you two mention picturing the bear itself leaving the scene. But then Redcheerio is e9 and she described the bear letting her exit without incident (instead of the bear being the one to leave), so I don’t know.

I don’t even really get the ‘searching for food’ thing, I just noticed it was something CF, OA, Jennifer and I pictured- so I wondered if it had something to do with e5/w5. For some reason, that’s the first thing I imagined- a bear foraging around for food. Then I noticed that it didn’t seem to care that I was there, so I wanted to watch it for a while.

And there are just a couple other answers that seem (to me) vaguely reflective of a person’s enneatype. But there are also some that seem neither here nor there to me. It’s not like I put a lot of thought into this, I just thought it was kind of interesting at first and wondered if it was occurring to anyone else. “It might even be a useful tool to find someone's enneatype.” is just me thinking aloud, it might not be useful at all.
 
R

ReflecTcelfeR

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Difficult to give it shape, but it was roughly the same size as me and aggressive, white with a long stripe going down the middle with long claws, standing on two legs... I stand my ground.
 

redcheerio

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I actually didn’t know if Gromit was e9, but after seeing both your answers a light kind of went off and I asked her. I don’t even really know how to explain why. I guess because the fact that seeing it leave- as part of the image that comes to mind to describe the bear scenario- seems to stand out a little bit. It’s an important enough part of what you see to mention it. Some people mention being able to pass the bear or get away from it without incident (or the bear just not caring they’re there, or getting mauled), but only you two mention picturing the bear itself leaving the scene. But then Redcheerio is e9 and she described the bear letting her exit without incident (instead of the bear being the one to leave), so I don’t know.

Well actually, mine mostly left. At first it was standing on its hind legs right in front of me on the path (like a hiking trail) that I was walking on, we stared at each other, then it crawled on all fours into the underbrush to the left, away from the path, and watched me walk by as it ate berries.
 

redcheerio

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at least yours wasn't just a live action version of the Charmin bear :dry:

1charmin-bear-7174261.jpg

 

sciski

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My bear is a big browny-black one that's standing on all fours by the side of the road. We're both startled to see each other, assess each other for a while, then I hold out my hand and the bear walks over slowly and sniffs my hand. I give the bear a few pats on the head, and he sniffs me again then walks away into the underbrush.
 
A

A window to the soul

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I was camping in Colorado one summer near Cripple Creek. After a long day fishing with no luck and all out of instant coffee, I decided to take an invigorating dip into the icey cold creek for an instant pick me up. What an incredible feeling: crystal clear water dancing over the rocks, over my toes as I inched my way in until I am half in and chillaxin on a rock daydreaming up at the sky. Suddenly, I feel something tickling my toes and look down to see a little bear cub there drinking water. I really wanted to pet him, but I've always heard the mom is nearby and will attack. So, I look around and wonder, where the heck is she? and what if I'm petting the cub and she shows up? What then, certain death? Could it be this cub is an orphan? Maybe. Maybe not. There's no time for this circular logic, this is a rare opportunity that only happens once in a lifetime, do it! So I take my chances, I pet the cub and out of sheer excitement I shouted out, "whoo hoo, I pet the bear cub and I'm still alive!!!" Startled, the cub runs away into the woods.

WORTH IT!
 

redcheerio

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[MENTION=8543]Nerd Girl[/MENTION]

That's insanely awesome!! :shocking:

:banana2:
 

Totenkindly

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Some animal carcass; didn't imagine which animal.

Walking in on it was a lot like this

overview.jpg



After reading the responses whose bears were eating things like berries, I wondered why mine couldn't have been eating something like that.

Some bears are meatatarians, I guess...
 

mmhmm

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big brown bear catching fish. sometimes it catches.
sometimes it misses. i think it's funny. and i run towards
it to take fotos and pretend i'm playing national geographic.
and wonder if jock will be my naked tribesman for my
next shoot.

 
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