[www.angelfire.com]


Arica is now virtually defunct. Its guru, Oscar Ichazo, is now quite old and lives in Hawaii.

Ichazo keeps promising to publish a book, but never gets around to it. He was the propagator of the 'enneagon' which was later adapted to become the 'enneagram' a New Age fad.

Ichazo was a freelance teacher who at times claimed to be a Sufi, or a Gurdjieffian/Fourth Way teacher but was never tied to a verifiable lineage, either of Sufism or Gurdjieff work. From the various reports, one gets the impression that in this crowd, you constantly had to take the word of the teacher.

Constantly taking someone's word for it, with no evidence to back it up is OK in childhood, but if persistently done in adulthood will infantalize you.

John Lilly who decribed his Arica studies in [i:9334d66c94]'The Eye of the Cyclone' [/i:9334d66c94]said that most of the material he learned in Arica was facilitated by use of psychedelic drugs. The problem was that insights gained during these drug trips could not be easily transferred to daily life. Lilly parted company with Ichazo when he sensed that if he continued as Ichazo's disciple, he would have to give up his commitment to scientific and critical thinking.

Ichazo's story kept changing. He claimed to be a Sufi, but never substantiated his sources. (All true Sufis belong to a lineage and can tell you exactly who their teachers are!)

Ichazo said his idea for the 'enneagon' was given to him by an angelic entity 'The Green Qutub' -- in other words, he got it from channelling.

It was from this weird and dubious background, trancey, druggy and based on tale spinner/trickster that the enneagon (later adapted to the 'enneagram' was propagated.

Arica Training was once quite fashionable--it required lots of time and cost a fortune.

But, people never really reached an end to it. The early exercises were reportedly quite powerful, but the later material less so.

Arica training was supposed to endow practitioners with robust health; quite a few of the members have died at relatlively young ages.

After 30 years, not one Arica has ever been 'graduated' by Ichazo and told they're now capable of teaching independently.

Anyone who is involved today with the enneagram is using something that originated in dubious circumstances, was propagated by people who kept changing their stories when pressed to give their sources, and who did not submit the enneagrm for peer review by psychometricians and clinical psychologists who were *outside of their coterie*.

Esotericism/charisma and professionalism/science cannot co-exist.

Esotericism operates in closed societies, often centered on charismatic leaders. It is an atmosphere of power imbalance, fosters childlike regression and does not support critical thinking.

Professionalism and scientific research operate in an open communties, there is a set of objective guidelines all are accountable to. Above all, people can give sources for thier material and they dont keep changing their stories.

After 30 years, not one Arica has ever been 'graduated' by Ichazo and told they're now capable of teaching independently.


Check this out- [www.taichifoundation.org]

I went to this school for the tai chi classes for one year. This was in 1996-97. One of the teachers in particular was always actively promoting Arica, and the other teachers sometimes seemed reluctant to go along with it. It was pushed fairly hard at the tai chi students, but there was no shunning if people weren't interested, but I bet you if you joined the tai chi teacher training program, it would have been. That's why when they asked me I ran the other way. I wish I could remember his name, but this guy was really phoney mr spiritual, a real creep. I always wished the Arica element hadn't been a part of that school. I think it's too weird to ever get very popular.