The mid-1980s and early 1990s saw my first encounters with the two major strands on which EnneaMediCina is based.
A great curiosity of mine, driven by an existential malaise that sought answers, guided me along a path that now finds increasing confirmation in neuroscience studies and cutting-edge theories of the functioning of the human psyche-soma.
The Enneagram and Chinese Medicine speak different languages, and it could not be otherwise, since one belongs to Western culture, while the other finds its foundation in ancient Chinese medical-philosophical culture.
“But, if the whole has a common matrix,” I told myself, “all that remains is to find the common thread”.
This conviction and years of study, reflection and connections between the various parts have resulted in the ‘summa’ of EnneaMedicina, in the common message that body, soul and spirit have always contained for people of all latitudes.
“What is it that causes one person to respond to a given event in a way that, over time, will lead him or her to suffer from certain problems, both psychological and physical, while another person will receive the same stimuli without experiencing the same consequences” – I asked myself?
Psychology has long explained how different psychological reactions are the result of specific genotypic traits in interaction with phenotypic traits.
Also for Chinese Medicine, Man is the result of the mixing of a ‘something’ that, although not defined as genetic, includes the energy of the parents at the moment of conception of the new being, but not only, as also the energo-astral movements, as well as the situation in which the union takes place: whether in time of peace rather than war, between people in love, rather than following an act of violence, etc., gives rise to unique and unrepeatable subjects.
This starting substrate gives rise to what is called ‘personality’.
As both epigenetics and PNEI have long been showing, childhood experiences are consolidated into beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that mark the individual’s life course. If the child is supported to develop its personality in a loving and protective environment, it is facilitated to face difficulties with more optimism and confidence.
As scientifically proven by the PNEI, this stimulates the release of feel-good hormones, rather than stress and discomfort hormones; it is the quality of thinking and confidence in one’s own personal potential that helps the human being stay healthy.
According to PNEI, emotions are biochemical facts that translate into cascades of molecular messages, which reach the body, including the immune system.
According to the latest experiments, the brain can in fact be regarded as a sack full of hormones and the psyche as the regulator of neurotransmitters that establish a continuous dialogue between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems.
Recent studies show how unexpressed emotions expand in the body, leading to symptoms affecting various systems.
This has been affirmed for millennia by ancient Chinese Medicine, according to which health is the result of balanced nutrition, breathing, defence against both external and internal pathogens, and the harmonious flow of the so-called ‘five emotions and seven feelings’.
Should an imbalance occur, it will be the organ and viscera connected to the element, to the predominant structure characterising the individual EnneaSymbol, that will be the first to signal disharmony and fall ill. Nel tempo, se il problema non trova soluzione, l’intera struttura psicofisica ne risentirà.
It now seems clear even to Western science how the unity of body and mind are fundamental to the processes of treating and healing illnesses, and how the harmonisation of the ‘Five Emotions and Seven Feelings’ of Chinese Medicine are closely interconnected with what in epigenetics is called the ‘healing of psychological wounds related to limiting patterns and beliefs’.
For epigenetics, contrary to what was once believed, however, genetics is not an insurmountable obstacle to change.
We can determine to alter the course of our existence by activating what is called neuroplasticity, i.e. the brain’s ability to change limiting beliefs about itself and the world. There seems to be more and more evidence of how DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and energetic frequencies: what ancient Eastern therapeutic practices have always claimed!
According to the EnneMediCine, all this is called ‘following the direction of the arrows against the current’, i.e. activating unusual response strategies with respect to one’s own type, utilising the resources of other EnneSymbols, in the search for the ‘closing of the circle’ of self-unification.
Both Chinese Medicine and Western science now agree on the importance of emotions as a bridge between the conscious mind and the body.
Temperament and personality, encompassed in the various facets symbolically represented by the nine basic Enneatypes of the Enneagram, are therefore united in EnneaMedicine with the fundamental laws of Chinese Medicine to broaden the overall vision of Man in the search for a global and conscious wellbeing.
What is the EnneaSymbol that most characterizes me? What psycho-physical issues characterize it? What psycho-spiritual dynamics are the matrix?
In this book, starting with these fundamental questions and the identification of one’s predominant typology, one can verify both the physical problems associated with it and the psycho-spiritual dynamics underlying it; it is only through the unravelling of one’s unconscious dynamics that one can free oneself of heavy burdens.
Taking EnneaSymbol 9 as an example, whose theme relates to “decision-making capacity, self-realisation and the transition to other levels of consciousness”, we will see how the emotion, which, in its undeveloped stage, characterises it, is unacknowledged and expressed anger.
This EnneaSymbol belongs to the triad of instinct, the reptilian brain, and thus to issues related to survival, reproduction, and territoriality.
Should the underlying issues of this emotion not be resolved, this EnneSymbol may manifest imbalances at both the physical and psychic levels, such as:
Physical: digestive functions, weak tendons and joints, testicular and prostate disorders, female genital inflammation, menstrual rhythm, tremors, spasms, tics, blockage of the diaphragm and perlvi, paresthesia, vision problems, arthritis, obesity, psoriasis….
Psyche: excessive dream activity, rambling, exaltation, emotional and energy swings, depression, instability, lump in throat, shyness,
In order to get out of the dynamics underlying these problems, in a path of EnneaMediCina, the individual may decide to embark on a path of knowledge of his or her own ‘other’ potentialities (the path of neuroplasticity I have already mentioned), triggering patterns of response to internal-external stresses, according to the laws that link him or her to the other EnneaSymbols.
To activate the new pathway, the 9 can, therefore, turn towards EnneaSymbol 3, whose future-oriented and success-oriented psychic dynamics will help him get out of the ‘pacifism’ of convenience that blocks him in action.
This first step will be followed by all the others and, as one of my Masters said, ‘this practice can change your destiny’….
