The reason I’m so hype about the Enneagram is that it unifies my two main interests in life: psychology and spirituality.

I remember the moment when I realized I was interested in psychology.

Kyeli and I had recently published The Usual Error. I had just given a speech to my Toastmasters Club about one of the chapters, “I am not green.” It’s about how you can create peace in your heart and in your relationships by not taking things personally.

My speech evaluator said, “Psychology, what a great topic to choose for a speech.”

“Psychology?” I thought to myself. My speech wasn’t about psychology. It was about communication, relationships, and managing your thoughts.

Oh. I guess that is technically psychology.

I had never thought of communication, relationships, and self-work as psychology. Psychology is this dry, stuffy, academic, official degree that you get. It’s not lively or fascinating. It’s not wild.

But what if it could be?

That was the day I started thinking of myself as a wild psychologist.

I remember the moment when I realized I was interested in spirituality.

I used to be a die-hard skeptic and measurementist, but I was curious about spirituality and the supernatural.

I took a class called “Geek Spirituality”, which built a bridge for me.

The teacher explained spirituality and magic in scientific terms that made sense to my rational brain.

This bridge was sturdy enough to convince me to open my mind just a little bit and try some of the magickal experiments we did in class.

I experienced magickal things that made absolutely no sense to my rational brain. I could rationalize them afterwards, but in the moment, I had to believe in the magick for it to work.

This experience basically broke my brain, and was the first step on my spiritual path.

I remember when I discovered the bridge.

It was the moment when I read this quote:

[…] saying that one is interested in spirituality but not psychology (or vice versa) is like saying that you want to learn to be a writer but are not interested in spelling or grammar, or that you want to be a doctor but do not care about biology.

Psychology that does not address peoples’ spiritual hungers is not going to lead to any complete and satisfying result. It is like climbing only half way up a mountain, or taking a dish out of the oven when it is only half-baked. We still get some benefits, but do not achieve the final goal.

Psychology without spirituality is arid and ultimately meaningless, while spirituality without grounding in psychological work leads to vanity and illusions.

Either way, disappointment and deception result. To be most effective, spirituality and psychology need to go hand in hand to reinforce the best in each other.

from Understanding the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson

When I read this, I literally smacked myself in the forehead and said, “So that’s why I’m so hype about the Enneagram! It’s a bridge between psychology and spirituality!”

So that, my friend, is why I’m so hype about the Enneagram. It’s a bridge between psychology and spirituality.

The Enneagram is about understanding the nature of our minds so that we can transcend them.

In other words: