"The Generalist. The enthusiastic, productive type. Extroverted, optimistic, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, practical, and accomplished, but can also be overextended, superficial, and undisciplined. Acquisitive, seeking constant stimulation, they distract themselves by staying on the go. Uninhibited, excessive, and self-centered. Can be infantile, demanding, and insensitive to others. At their Best: They focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative and joyous." - Don Riso, 1994, "The Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator".
The enlightened quality associated with the Type Seven (who is sometimes referred to as the 'Epicure') is the capacity for 'peak' experience. The term 'peak experience' was introduced by Maslow as a secular synonym for what, in religious traditions, are usually referred to as 'mystical' experiences (or 'transcendental experiences'). According to Maslow, peak experiences are especially frequent amongst a particular group of 'self actualizers' who are the epitome of human evolution and personal development. A peak experience is basically an experience in which the 'infinite' (alternately described as god, the divine, the mystery) is experienced in the finite. Formlessness is embodied in form (despite the paradoxical sound of such a thing). The universe is 'experienced in a grain of sand'. The utlimate experience according to one school of Tibetan Buddhism (the Karma Kagyu) is 'mahamudra', which can be described as a simultaneous experience of form and formlessness, extrinsic (object-oriented) and intrinsic (objectless) awareness. In Maslow's words:
The peak experience is felt as a self-validating, self-justifying moment which carries its own intrinsic value with it. It is felt to be a highly valuable - even uniquely valuable - experience, so great an experience sometimes that even to attempt to justify it takes away from its dignity and worth. As a matter of fact, so many people find this so great and high an experience that it justifies not only itself but even living itself. They prove it to be worthwhile. (Page 62, Religion, Values and Peak-Experiences)
What has been called 'unitive consciousness' is found in peak-experiences - there is a sense of the sacred glimpsed IN and THROUGH the particular instance of the momentary, the secular, the wordly. (Page 68, Religion, Values and Peak-Experiences) We need to teach our children unitive perception, the Zen experience of being able to see the temporal and the eternal simultaneously, the sacred and the profane in the same object. (Page 183, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature)
As the infinite can be equally expressed in multifarious forms, the Seven (who suspects that this is the case), naturally seeks and appreciates a wide variety of experience, cultivating a refined taste for a multitude of pleasures. The D-quality associated with peak experience is, of course, gluttony, the propensity to indulge oneself greedily, saturate oneself, fulfill one's desires to excess. A quest for peak experience can readily degenerate into a glut of 'spiritual materialism' about which we are frequently warned in the spiritual traditions.
SEVENS and ENs
7s are individuals who are continually on the outlook for new opportunities. They detect unborn future possibilities, not yet visible but present in seed form in 'the background of the situation'. The 7 is the extroverted intuitive par excellence, continually seeking out adventure in the environment. The prototypical 'ENTP' is similarly described as original, ingenious, operating by 'impulsive' energy. He/she is usually involved in 'a succession of projects', and is versatile, enthusiastic and 'full of ideas about everything under the sun' (p.106, Myers).
7s are similarly seen as enthusiastic (p. 82, Riso). They characteristically 'escape into the limitless possibilities of imagination' (p. 275, Palmer). 'There is a chemistry for peak experience, as if champagne, not blood, were running in the veins', according to Palmer. They are the creative ones who have learned to hone their intuitive skills, but as intuition and sensation are 'polar opposites', it is at the expense of the development of the sensory function that intuition is developed. They are
...so occupied with their creations that they cannot attend to the bringing out of their work. The work itself takes up so much of their energy that they cannot be bothered with how it should be presented to the world, how to advertise it, or anything of the kind. (p. 38, Von Franz)
It is the 7 whose attention is habitually '...attracted to fascinating ideas and dreams', making it very hard for them 'to slow the mind down in order to focus on a single point' (p. 297, Palmer).
This situation is similar to the one that the 'extraverted intuitives' [EN(F/T)P] - who also 'sow but rarely reap' - find themselves in. The inferior introverted sensing function is often manifest in a tendency to ignore the body. The intuitive does not know when he is tired or hungry. Indeed, 'If he is an exaggerated one-sided type he does not know that he has any endosomatic feelings' (p. 39, Von Franz). The 'gluttony' that is associated with 7s may, then, be but an attempt to experience the body by someone whose sensory functions are 'inferior'. It is not surprising that Palmer should similarly describe the gluttony of the seven as a 'bodily hunger' for excitement and experience (p. 298). She says,
Sevens say they are addicted to their own adrenaline. They love the rush of physical energy....