Gut Triad

According to Ichazo, The Conservation Instinct is the organism’s instinct to feed itself in order to preserve its life. It results from the needs of the alimentary tract, and its center is felt at the top of the abdominal cavity, in the solar plexus.

The innate non-verbal question projected here is “How am I?” This question has to be answered constantly by the organism, instinctually establishing whether one feels hunger and tension, or satisfaction and relaxation.

The need to meet the demands of the Conservation Instinct produces a concentration of our attention on that area, which leads to the development of an artificial “ego” or “I” with which we become identified. This ego will have its own particular concerns, demands and strategies for success. Through experience, it learns how to get the food that is needed for survival.

Because it learns from past experiences, Ichazo calls this “ego” the Historical Ego. Our sense of property, possession, and the accumulation of wealth are all related to this Ego because these contribute to a sense of being secure in our ability to meet the demands of the Conservation Instinct.

The Historical Ego is further subdivided into a triad of egos: Ego-Vengeance, Ego-Indolence and Ego-Resentment. These correspond to points 8, 9, and 1, respectively, on the Enneagram symbol.

As a natural development, the Conservation instinct will become infused with the “instinctual poison” of Greed. Greed, in turn, can be broken down into the three poisons at the root of the three egos: Avarice (ego-vengeance), Greed (ego-indolence), and Possessiveness (ego-resentment).

When the Conservation instinct is consistently threatened during childhood, the entire self then centers its attention on the lack of a feeling of well-being in that area. This leads to the development of a fixation in one of the three points of this triad, producing three “types”: Over-Justice-maker (fixated in Ego-Vengeance), Over-Nonconformist (fixated in Ego-Indolence), or the Over-Perfectionist (fixated in Ego-Resentment).