Where Are You On The Ladder Of The Nine Levels Of Development?

Discovering that my Enneagram type has been the most transformative experience of my life. It happened 14 years ago, and this incredible Aha moment propelled me into a journey of progressively greater joy and freedom.

Finding your Enneagram type when you are in a place of pain or confusion is life-changing. It’s like suddenly realizing that:
• You’ve been operating in a very low state of health, without even knowing it.
• Radiant health does exist and is available to you not matter how dire your current state of health is.
• A personalized healing protocol can bring you back to great health.

Not only am I living this journey myself, but I also get to share it intimately with my friends at Enneagram Prison Project. Furthermore, we get to witness this Aha moment happen to others on a regular basis as we teach the Enneagram to very hurting incarcerated men and women in jails and prisons. There is nothing more heartwarming than witnessing someone going through that life-changing experience of self-discovery.

Now, why is this personality system such an extraordinary tool for transformation?

To my perspective, there are three main reasons:

1. Our type is located on a circle uniting all nine types:

All the types are connected to one another, on a circle and through other lines in the symbol. The nine types described in the Enneagram are not isolated from one another in boxes or columns. Although we have only one type, we have access to the other eight types. Our journey of growth leads to expanding our presence to all nine energies - it’s actually our birthright as human beings to be able to use the gifts of all nine types.

2. Our type describes our unconscious motivation:

Our Enneagram type is not a simple description of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors ending with a piece of advice about what we should do or not do with our life. In our type is grounded the unconscious underlying motivation that gives rise to our patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. And discovering the autopilot that has been running us since birth is what is incredibly life-changing and transformative. Yes, we’re run by an autopilot that we had no idea existed - until we learn where to watch.

3. Our type operates on a continuum of nine levels of presence:

Each type evolves on a ladder of nine levels of development. These levels are called levels of development, health or presence.

The top three levels are considered healthy and correlate to states of great presence. The middle three levels are considered average and correlate to states of progressively increasing reactivity. And the bottom three levels are considered unhealthy and correlate to states of great pain, ongoing crises, and sometimes personality disorders.

Basically, the higher up we find ourselves on the ladder of development, the more self-mastery we possess:
• We made contact with our True Nature (Essence), and therefore no longer take ourselves for who we are not (Personality/Autopilot).
• We have a great understanding of our reactivity and have developed creative ways to bring ourselves back to presence when we are triggered. We have a lot of freedom in responding to whatever happens, both internally and externally.
• We have developed and integrated our three Centers of Intelligence (Body, Mind, and Heart) and we have made contact with the gifts of the other eight types.
• We are part of loving and nurturing networks of support consisting of other present and integrated individuals.

So, what’s your level of presence?

Once we have discovered our type, the next step is diagnosing our level of development. It’s usually lower than we thought it’d be! Now let’s be clear: it’s not comfortable to realize that we’re not as present as we thought we were, and it can be an extremely vulnerable process to go there. But radical honesty with our self is essential if we want to heal, grow, and reclaim our birthright of living free and joyful. Our journey of healing consists of climbing back up the levels of presence until we get into the healthy zone of the ladder.

When we’re there, we no longer wonder why life happens the way it does, why we feel the way we feel, why we get sick, or why we have relationship problems. Actually, we have less of all of these problems in the first place since they’re all directly or indirectly connected to a lack of presence. Yes, even a bad cold or a migraine is related to a lack of presence. We have much more power than we might believe!

Personally I find this climbing adventure the most exciting aspect of being a human being. I’m in awe at the vast expanse of uncharted territory that hosts and generates my True Nature. It’s a never-ending voyage - that requires no flight or hotel booking!

And remember, no matter how low we might find ourselves on the ladder – in a place where life feels painful, crazy, perhaps even on fire, when we might believe that we’re either extremely unlucky, hopeless or even unredeemable, we can always rely our inner capacity for healing, evolution and redemption. The higher up on the mountain of presence, the greater our vantage point is. Life looks and feels very different up there.

And it’s our birthright to understand our self and life in this way.