The Gospel for the Enneagram 5

The Observer or Investigator

Photo by Jeremiah Lawrence on Unsplash

The 5’s: The Observer/Investigator

The Observer most longs for the knowledge and wisdom of God so they can capably engage in the world.

In new situations, 5’s hesitate at the door, scan the room, figure out what’s going on, who’s there, where are the exits—their eyes are like vacuums taking in data, analyzing, gathering—and then the 5's place themselves where they most feel safe and capable, where the fewest people will notice them or ask them for things, where they can talk about what they know. 

They do this because the 5’s are trying to compensate for all there is to know that they don't know and that feels scary to them. The 5’s distance themselves until they can figure out how they’re going to play this game called life. They detach by escaping into their minds where they experiment and create. They can seem awkward and stiff and robotic because they are not inhabiting their bodies. To others, this can make the 5’s can seem aloof, withdrawn, stand-offish, stubborn or arrogant.

The 5’s guard and maintain their personal space, often jumping if touched or if anyone intrudes into their safe space. 

There a large number of philosopher 5’s: staying separate from the world to theorize and study at a safe distance. They are non-stop learners and gatherers. They gather information, books, trinkets, money, supplies, whatever makes them feel like they have—thus their primary sin is greed. But they fool themselves into thinking they’re just trying to have enough to survive. They can become a relative “expert” in one area to the total neglect of other areas, and still feel like they don’t know enough in their field. And they are right. Worldly knowledge can never secure them, but God’s wisdom can.

Examples of people who act like 5’s: Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Emily Dickinson, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Dr. Strange, Sherlock Holmes, some people think that Nicodemus, Zaccheus, and Doubting-Thomas in the Bible had 5 tendencies. Now before you start marveling that 5’s are a bunch of geniuses, what if we could see into these people’s hearts and discover that Albert Einstein was so persistent at his inventions because he didn’t feel capable of handling the other aspects of his life?

Dear 5’s, I have a message for you. Do you know that safe place you go? It may be that particular world in your mind or a physical room in your house. We feel the need to go there after too much social interaction or after encountering seemingly-dangerous new ideas or when we have to plan a course of action.

Make that safe place: God. And then, you will always have enough.

To those who may have a 5 in your life. One of the most precious gifts that you can give a 5 is space and time. But what is even more precious than that is the truth about their security. When the 5 in your life says, “I need to leave now!” or you see they’re pulling out, checking out, focusing on the minute details, you can remind them of the truth: “God knows everything about this situation, this person, this new thought. And you have the Lord. You may have run out of your own resources, but God hasn’t. You don’t need to understand everything to engage. You can be here because the Lord is with you.”

That’s the Gospel for the Enneagram 5 in a nutshell.

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