What a 4-dimensional 'hypercube' looks like in 3-dimensional space according to mathematicians

In Issue Five of the Journal we presented an interview with Don Riso and Russ Hudson. Along with the Katharine Downing Myers interview and other papers and dialogues from previous issues, this piece continues to be available in our Archive.

In the present issue we are pleased to be able to report on a conversation that John recently had with an internationally renowned physicist, Brian Greene, on the topic of the fundamental structure of physical reality. In the course

A CALABI-YAU SPACE A six-dimensional space drawn on a two-dimensional surface. According to 'string theory', the universe has six extra dimensions that are curled up into tiny Calabi-Yau shapes that occur at every point in the ordinary four dimensional world we experience with our senses. In string theory, it seems to make sense to speak of the 'infinite' as identical to the 'infinitesimal', rendering physical reality 'liminocentric'.

of our recent series on the 'Enneagram as Mandala, we found it necessary to discuss the view that consciousness may have a structure that is fundamentally paradoxical in nature - one that wraps back on itself like a series of nested 'Chinese boxes' in which the innermost box is identical to the outermost box. As John learned in the conversation that we report on in this issue, if 'string theory'(an area of physics in which Dr. Greene is one of world's foremost authorities) is right, our physical world may be similarly structured!

In our series we referred to such looped structures as 'liminocentric', and showed how mandalas are organized in this way in order to achieve the 'reconciliation between incommensurable orders of existence' for which they are celebrated.

We also argued that the enneagram, as mandala, displays such an organization. This is what ultimately allows us to interpret the 'conflicts and contradictions' that are usually used to characterize specific enneagram types as lower-level expressions of enlightened 'Qualities' that are unconsciously seeking to break through in the individual on his/her path toward self-actualization.

In the Conclusion to our series, which appears in this issue of the Journal, we attempt to locate the 'mystery' or 'riddle' that underlies each enneagram type, and manifests such curious structurings. We find it, ironically, not in the enneagram type descriptions per se, but in what Jung has written about the paradoxical 'enanantiodromic' relationship that exists between the dominant and inferior functions in the specific JUNGIAN TYPE that is PROTOTYPICAL of each enneagram type.

In 'The Structure of Consciousness - Liminocentricity, Enantiodromia, and Personality Formation', we go into more detail about what it means to say that consciousness has a liminocentric structure, and how this is reflected in the Jungian approach to personality.

Our focus on science in this issue developed naturally out of a number of earlier themes. Our seven-part series led us inevitably to ask what advanced spiritual systems were trying to say by sometimes insisting on taking what seemed to be figurative truths rather literally. But is this not what SCIENCE sometimes does? In our paper on hyperbodies, for instance, we saw how one strange scientific construct (regarding bodies that have more dimensions than is permitted by the spaces in which they 'appear') provided Salvador Dali with a handy symbol for the relationship between 'Christ' and the invisible 'Godhead' that he 'embodies'. We borrowed that construct to shed light on the relationship between the Jungian 'Self' and the 'Ego'.

"The Guy Who Invented the WEEL [sic]" (as depicted in a New Yorker cartoon) "No, it's not 'exactly the same as the WHEEL' ", he protests. "Look, mine has a flower on it!" "But if you want to use it like a wheel," he concedes, "that's YOUR business." If this guy had not felt a need to be considered a hard scientist and had simply called his 'weel' a 'mandala' he might have easily avoided the misunderstanding and ridicule directed at him by the New Yorker.

Taking the Mandala Literally is a paper that follows up on the science thread. It looks into some rather remarkable parallels that exist between the 'mandala' and the 'couette systems' that are used to investigate turbulent states in fluid dynamics. Who could have imagined that one could take the 'double-mandala' quite LITERALLY and place fluid between the spinning inner and outer rings? Or that by doing so one could elicit in that fluid the strange kinds of pattern that the symbol of the mandala causes us to expect, albeit at a rather abstract level that we have all the reason in the world to want to construe as FIGURATIVE? This paper also deals with how the design of the enneagram displays and breaks 'symmetry', and what this means.

Also in this issue is an email dialogue that took place between James Reynierse and John Gonsowski. When John's article, 'The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Mapping to Circumplex and Five-Factor Models', appeared in a recent issue of The Enneagram and the MBTI, it attracted Jim's attention. Jim, a psychologist and management consultant who has published on theoretical issues related to type theory and the MBTI, decided to email John. The dialogue that resulted is on the topic of 'The Symmetry of Type'. We thank them both for allowing readers of The Enneagram and the MBTI's 'conversations' page to eavesdrop on what they said. We are so happy to have played a part in bringing together individuals of this caliber in order to explore ideas at the cutting edge of personality theory.

Thanks also to Walter Geldart, for his review of the new book by management guru Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century . Although Jungian typology and all of its second-generation off-shoots correctly insist on mitigating the effects of type-bias that result from our own personality-based preferences, it is also true that we must not shy away from recognizing how the preferences of certain culturally valued Types have become deeply embedded in our institutions. If Walter is right, the organizational assumptions that Drucker criticizes as 'outmoded' are the STJ ones that first began to concern us in the early 1990s, motivating the paper that we called 'Toward a Diversity of Type in Organization'.

In this issue two artists display their work for the first time on our Art and Personality page. One artist, who permits us to use part of one of her sketches here, presents a collection of three striking pieces. The other artist offers a collage that is remarkable in the illusion of depth of perspective that is created, and in the colors and textures that are used. The Type Writer page in this issue also exhibits two new works by authors with quite interesting styles. In addition, there is included on the page an index, by author and title, of previous poems and short stories that have appeared in this journal. Please be sure to have a look also at the Letters to the Editor column. A number of interesting points are raised there, and questions asked. You might consider posting replies at our Community Forum message board. Thanks to all who sent in comments, letters, and questions, or posted messages at the board. We value your input. Our gratitude also goes out to those who emailed us survey returns. [Return to Journal]