Post thirteen of fourteen, in section About Awakening
One aspect of awakening is opening to transpersonal qualities that go beyond the individual experience, and another aspect is the individuation process.
Awakening includes stopping making your experience different from what it is and deepening into the uniqueness of your being. No one is going to have an experience that is exactly like yours, and this is in part what I was describing in the previous post on Imaginal Worlds.
Another really helpful and more systematised way of relating to this is through the Enneagram. The Enneagram describes 9 personality types that are fundamentally different in their motivations, their ways of being in the world, and their challenges. Each person embodies one of the core types as their main way of being.
Working with the Enneagram is really helpful from two perspectives. Firstly, it can help you understand yourself a lot better and see where you might have some development to do that is counterintuitive to your natural way of being. It lays out a model for a development path that is specific to the individuation process for your type.
Secondly, it helps you understand how other people’s experiences can be different from yours, including in ways that you would never think to question, and gives an insight into their world.
Being aware of how different the different ways of being are can be like becoming aware that there are 9 different sub-species of humans walking around in the world.
When working with the Enneagram, it can take some time for people to wake up to the underlying mechanisms of their inner experience and start to unravel some of the deeper patterns. There are also lots of subtleties to working with the Enneagram, and there are additional dimensions to just the 9 types, including subtypes, tri-types, and wings.
It can be quite hard to know where to start with the Enneagram. Me and my friend Joost recorded a podcast about the Enneagram and Awakening, for people who want an introduction.
I have also found that other systems, like MBTI, can be helpful for creating similar insights, but none have been as effective for me as the Enneagram. I find the 9 types of the Enneagram incredibly elegant, and I’m able to feel the gestalt of a person much more clearly if they share their Enneagram type with me.
The World of an Enneagram 9
A couple of years ago I moved to the centre of Amsterdam to live with my partner, David, and while it’s a cool place to be, I miss living in nature a lot; there’s a depth of resonance available in nature for my way of being that is hard to reach with human connection. David recently bought me a star projector lamp as a small way to be more in touch with nature.
I’m an Enneagram 9, and I was joking that lying on the floor in a cosy way, with the Universe all around you and some vibey music playing in the background, would be a very good way for other people to get a taste of what it is like to be an Enneagram 9.
The Milky Way and Mystic Mountain being projected on my ceiling
The World of Different Enneagram Types
The conversation evolved into a jokey idea for an entire interactive Enneagram exhibition space, where there are 9 different rooms – one for experiencing what it is like to be each Enneagram type. Stepping into each room would be like stepping into the inner world of that type.
In November 2024, I asked Claude AI if it would design this exhibition for me, and it came up with the suggestion below. It’s an interesting and amusing read if you want to get a taste for how different people’s experiences can be.
I also asked Claude to design two further exhibitions – one that has a room for each of the Enneagram types’ development journeys and one that represents what it is like to be the fully developed version of each type.
It sounds like it’s been written by an AI (because it has), but I’ve still found them interesting as a way to show how different types need to focus on different practices to mature and that the end result of awakening can have different qualities for different types.
The main insight that I think the Enneagram affords is a sense of being able to be aware of your own way of being as well as how different other people’s fundamental experiences can be. And that there is no single right way of being.
You can read the further two examples that Claude designed in this PDF.
Inner Worlds: An Enneagram Exhibition
Room 1: The Perfectionist’s Chamber
A pristine, minimalist white space with perfectly aligned geometric shapes. One picture frame hangs slightly crooked, creating immediate tension. A constant soft ticking of multiple metronomes fills the air, each slightly out of sync. Digital displays show endless to-do lists with items that can never quite be checked off completely. Inner voice recordings play gentle but persistent critiques about minor imperfections. A central workstation allows visitors to attempt arranging objects “perfectly,” but the definition of perfect subtly changes as they work.
Room 2: The Nurturer’s Haven
A warm, circular room with multiple cosy seating areas, each containing half-finished cups of tea and open journals. The walls display dozens of screens showing people in various emotional states seeking help, all calling out simultaneously. Phones ring with loved ones’ needs. Every time a visitor sits down to rest, another urgent request lights up. The room’s temperature adjusts to others’ comfort levels rather than the visitor’s. The floor subtly tilts toward whoever else enters the space, creating a physical pull toward others’ needs.
Room 3: The Achiever’s Arena
A mirrored room with constantly updating social media feeds and achievement boards. Digital projections show multiple versions of the visitor in different successful scenarios. A desk displays numerous awards, but they fade unless constant attention is given. A treadmill faces a screen showing an ever-moving finish line. The room tracks and displays metrics for everything: steps, posture, smile brightness, and social approval ratings. Business cards and congratulatory messages rain down but turn blank if caught and examined closely.
Room 4: The Individualist’s Gallery
A dimly lit space with dramatic spotlights and deep shadows. The walls shift between intense colours reflecting emotional states. Melancholic music plays but transforms into something different when others hear it. A vintage film projector displays scenes of beautiful melancholy. Mirrors fragment the visitor’s reflection into various versions of themselves. Art materials invite creative expression, but each creation disappears once completed, emphasising the eternal search for authentic self-expression.
Room 5: The Investigator’s Observatory
A library-like space with endless corridors of data visualisations and research stations. Transparent screens display interconnected theories and ideas. Visitors observe other rooms through one-way glass, collecting data but remaining separate. The room features a “knowledge meter” that never reaches full, no matter how much information is absorbed. Private nooks provide sanctuary for deep contemplation, with star-like points of light representing each new connection made.
Room 6: The Loyalist’s Watchtower
A room with constantly shifting architecture – walls that appear solid but occasionally become transparent to reveal potential threats. Security cameras display both real and imagined scenarios. A “trust meter” fluctuates with each new person who enters. Safe spaces like bunkers are available but require complex access codes. The floor occasionally trembles, testing visitors’ faith in the structure. Support systems (ropes, harnesses, emergency buttons) are abundant but may or may not work when tested.
Room 7: The Enthusiast’s Playground
A vibrant, kaleidoscopic space with multiple simultaneous attractions: video games, art installations, dance floors, and adventure simulations. New doors constantly appear with exciting possibilities behind them. The room rearranges itself whenever someone becomes too focused on one activity. Bubbles of euphoric experiences float by but pop if held too long. A subtle timer creates gentle pressure to experience everything before it changes.
Room 8: The Challenger’s Domain
A powerful space with bold, dark colours and strong geometric shapes. The room responds to decisive action – lights brighten with confidence and dim with hesitation. Visitors must push through physical resistance to enter. Interactive scenarios present moral choices with real consequences for other rooms. A throne-like central position offers a commanding view of all other rooms, with controls that can influence their environments. The space intensifies any show of strength but also reveals hidden vulnerabilities through subtle reflections.
Room 9: The Peacemaker’s Sanctuary
A space that seems to exist between all other rooms, with elements of each blending at the edges. Comfortable seating merges so gradually with the floor that it’s hard to tell where one begins and another ends. Gentle white noise blends all external sounds into a harmonious hum. The temperature is perfectly neutral. Multiple paths are always available, but none demand to be taken. Time moves differently here – clocks show different times, suggesting that all moments exist simultaneously. The room subtly encourages meditation through architectural flow patterns but never insists.