Posted by Matt on January 30, 2001 at 17:37:56:
In Reply to: Religion and E-types posted by Tom Chou on January 29, 2001 at 22:16:00:
>
> I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on
> which religions seem to attract which types? I don't
> personally belong to any organized religion, but
> in this country that makes me a minority.
> This is a different issue from the Enneagram
> styles of the religions themselves, although
> I suppose they could be correlated.
Funny you mentioned that. I belong to the Baha'i Faith (I happen to be a 4), and over
the past few months I've been trying to get fellow Baha'is to take MBTI and Enneagram
tests. You see two of the most basic principles of the Baha'i Faith are individual independent
investigation of truth and the oneness of humanity. You might say that one of our unofficial
"watchwords" is nuity in diversity. The Baha'i Faith happens to be the most
widespread religion in the world with members of just about all cultures. While our
principles may truly be ideals, the people within it are still human. It's highly
possible that the Faith could take on a different flavor in different cultures.
So I'm trying to type people within the Faith to see if we are truly diverse.
SO far, we need work. I'd say the Baha'i Faith in America has a definite 9 flavor to it.
And I'd say the Faith attracts many 9s, 1s and 2s. Reactive types seem somewhat rare
with the exception of 6s, although it appears most Baha'i 6s are "2nd-generation."
Fours like me are pretty rare. We have our smattering of 3s like any group.
I'll go into more detail about what I'm finding in other posts if you or anyone else
so desires. MBTI data has been quite interesting as well (very few SPs). Ironically,
there's a Baha'i scripture called The Four Valleys that talks about "4 kinds of
mystic wayfarers." It was revealed by Baha'u'llah in the 1850s, and Keirsey's four
tempermants seem to be a dead ringer for it.
Matt