The development of the SAT

The beginnings of SAT in Berkeley, California

Following a profound spiritual experience of expanded consciousness in Arica with Oscar Ichazo, Claudio returned to California, where Inspired and charismatic, he began offering weekly sessions, organised in three-month cycles, focused on deep work on personality structures in order to make them transparent to an inner truth of a transpersonal nature.

“It was above all by helping people become aware of their mental issues that I awakened in them a thirst for transformation, a motivation to awaken and free themselves.” — C. N.

These early gatherings, which had no formal structure, were based on a psycho-spiritual model integrating a range of Western and Eastern approaches:

• Psychotherapeutic work
• Spiritual awakening
• The creative and artistic dimension

Claudio created a synthesis of what he had learned from the vision of Gurdjieff, Idries Shah, Oscar Ichazo and Buddhist meditation, together with his knowledge of neurosis, which included the combined influences of Freud, Fromm, Horney and Perls.

“My intention, when I embarked upon this improvisation, was to work within the framework of what Gurdjieff called the Fourth Way: to work across all dimensions, offering a set of practices that would encompass not only a spiritual facet and a therapeutic-emotional dimension, but also a physical aspect and a mental panorama.” — C. N.

Without a formal programme, he shared his understanding of the different personality structures and explored possible paths for transcending them. It was in this way that he began to conceive what he would later call the psychology of the Enneatypes.

“To claim that I was teaching the Enneagram, as is often said, is not entirely true, although the notes taken by my listeners became the first descriptions of the Enneagram types… It would be more accurate to say that the group meetings provided the opportunity for an ongoing encounter, and that much of what I said about personality types arose from my observations and comments on the traits that emerged in the participants’ contributions.” — C. N.

One of Claudio’s gifts was his ability to offer a holistic psycho-spiritual approach within a group setting:

“Little by little, the idea came to me of transforming the group into an ‘ego-grinding machine’ and a system of self-healing. For the group spirit itself seemed to me to be a factor of healing — except when the opposite occurs. A group can indeed also encourage, through conformity, less awareness, less intelligence and less responsibility.” — C. N.

Important figures were invited to contribute their expertise to this experiential laboratory, such as Rabbi Zalman Schachter, the Taoist master Ch’u Fang Chu, and Sri Harish Johari, who was deeply versed in the Tantric tradition. It is interesting to note that during these gatherings Claudio did not share his knowledge concerning the Subtypes and the Virtues.

“As I had abandoned the idea of a formal programme, much of what I had learned was never integrated into my work during my Californian years: the Subtypes and the Virtues. Indeed, throughout the entire period of my Berkeley group, I felt that there was already so much to be done through the work on the Fixations and the Passions, and people were gaining so much through the combination of self-analysis, relational healing, spiritual aspiration, meditation and self-surrender, that it seemed neither necessary nor even appropriate to introduce other themes.” — C. N.

Claudio decided to create an institute which he called SAT. Reza Leah Landman and Kathy Speeth were involved in this new venture:

“What had begun as the organic unfolding of an improvisation project became SAT: an institute and a non-profit organisation with its own staff, guest teachers and a core curriculum.” “I chose ‘SAT’ in response to a sudden flash of inspiration when, in a single instant, I perceived the simultaneous meanings of these three letters: the Sanskrit word meaning ‘being and truth’, the initials of Seekers After Truth, and a phonetic emblem for the three principles corresponding to those which Gurdjieff presented as active, receptive and reconciling — principles that had been a fundamental and implicit inspiration in my work.” — C. N.

Claudio then entered a phase that he experienced as a “dark night of the soul”. He therefore decided to withdraw:

“At the end of my charismatic and expansive period, my groups noticed that the SAT gatherings had begun in a warm and family-like atmosphere, but that over time my style had transformed into that of a spiritual authority who not only knew what he was talking about, but had also begun telling others what they should or should not do. In retrospect, I would say that this reflected a nascent ‘contraction’: because I was feeling increasingly insecure, I had to become more assertive.”— C. N.

SAT in Babia (Spain)

The SAT now consisted of three modules, each lasting one month, and was organised around a structured programme. It took place in an isolated location in the Mojácar desert, within a communal living environment. Apart from the specifically therapeutic work, participants were responsible for daily tasks such as cleaning, shopping, cooking, tending to the garden, and so on.

“Whilst the first SAT in Berkeley had been an improvisation, the one I developed in Spain became a fully-fledged programme. My contribution took place in the mornings; in the afternoons, collaborators led other activities. A description of the components of our first programme can only give a vague idea of the considerable intensity of the dynamic process within this community, whose isolation in the desert fostered the development of deep relationships amongst all the participants. This allowed their problematic character traits to come to the surface.” — C. N.

The Components of the first SAT Programmes in Spain:

Meditation

Cultivating attention to align the three centres — motor, emotional and mental — was an important focus of the programme. Claudio offered a path of meditation within the framework of Buddhism and also, at the end of the complete cycle, an intensive ten-day retreat.

“From the outset, I had planned that in the three successive modules that would be offered, I would present the three principal contemporary schools of Buddhist meditation: the Theravāda tradition, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism.” “The SAT programme in Babia also benefited from the very beginning from a more substantial addition in the form of a solitary meditation retreat, in which I combined Buddhist meditation with what Oscar Ichazo taught about working with catalysts, or the holy ideas.” — C. N.

The Enneagram of Personality

“With regard to understanding one’s own personality through the Enneagram, I planned a presentation of the subject in three successive levels. In terms of psychotherapy, I included an adaptation of the psychoanalytic approach, which I presented as ‘free association within a meditative context’, together with elements of Gestalt therapy (in the form of interpersonal exercises) and an adaptation of cognitive-behavioural therapy to work on dysfunctional beliefs and the virtues corresponding to the different Enneatypes.” — C. N.

The body-centred and artistic approach

During the full month in Babia, sensory awareness was explored and developed through movement, contact, massage, as well as a work centred around birth. This work of bodily awareness and expression made it possible to deepen and support the process of introspection and proprioception. Cherif Chalakani was collaborating with this new programme and led the bodywork together with Graciella Figueroa, and the birth experience together with Ilse Kretschmer.

Work on the parental figures

“I presented my version of the work around overcoming childhood conditioning, which I had developed years earlier based on my experience of working with Bob Hoffman.” — C. N.

Supervision work, the introduction of therapeutic theatre and mutual support work

“During the third module, several Italian Gestalt therapists who had been participating in the programme since the previous year led sessions in the afternoons, and I also suggested to Ramón Resino that he run a workshop in which he could combine his experience as a theatre director with Gestalt and his understanding of the Enneatypes. I set up a process of mutually assisted therapy with supervision, which was not as effective at the time as it would become after several years of persistence.” — C. N.

Psychedelic work

Claudio considered that the occasional use of psychotropic substances, within a therapeutic framework and accompanied by professionals trained for this purpose, could open the doors of perception and facilitate the work of analytical introspection. Very soon, however, for legal reasons, this specific work was discontinued.

“When I speak of a ‘psychedelic revolution’, I am not thinking along the lines of those fervent advocates of the anarchic use of hallucinogens, but rather of a political shift that would propose, instead of the ‘war on drugs’, a judicious use of psychotropic substances. This could lead us to something similar to what happens in shamanic cultures, where the special abilities of experts are simply recognised and where the whole population has the possibility of benefiting from the extraordinary healing power of so-called ‘magical’ plants.” — C. N.

The SAT in Spain and around the world

After the beginnings of SAT in Babia, the three programme modules offered, while maintaining their fundamental structure, were from then on reduced to a duration of ten days each.

“The SAT programme itself has continued to evolve over the years, becoming something that could hardly have been invented or conceived theoretically, since it is the fruit of a gradual evolutionary process. One aspect of this process has been reducing the duration. The month-long programmes were first shortened to around fifteen days and then, little by little, compressed into the current format of around ten days a year. But this reduction in duration was only made possible through an increase in the effectiveness of the work, itself arising from greater experience in combining the various components and in the subtle process of bringing to light the interrelationship of the different aspects of a living programme as they unfold.” — C. N.

In summary, here are the elements of the three core modules:

Module I offers a Dionysian perspective. It explores Vipassana meditation, the passions and fixations of the Enneagram of Personality, and expressive bodywork centred on movement and theatre.

Module II draws on an Apollonian inspiration. It introduces Zen meditation, the Subtypes, the crazy ideas and virtues of the Enneagram, while the afternoons are devoted to work on parental figures and other significant relationships.

Module III offers an initiation into Tibetan meditation and examines the different theoretical approaches concerning the origins of neurosis. During the afternoons, under supervision, participants address the difficulties encountered in the experience of mutual support, difficulties arising from the interference of personality traits. The experience centred on the metaphor of birth enables a leap to another level of consciousness.

SAT programmes were first held regularly in Spain, and later in Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Germany, France and Russia.

“When the programme was longer, there was scope for visual and musical expression, but when we switched to the shorter ten-day format, I chose dramatic expression as an alternative. I incorporated the experience of what became a unique culture of therapeutic theatre.” — C. N.

Le SAT for educators

During the 2000s, Claudio entered a more activist phase and sought to transform patriarchal society through a transformation of educational structures. He created a SAT programme for educators, which continues only in Mexico.

“Over time, we realised that these groups, conceived as a preliminary activity prior to the SAT programme being introduced into institutions, were not achieving this result and that there was no justification for continuing to offer educators programmes distinct from those we were already offering to the general public.” — C. N.

Two further modules were introduced

These two new modules help to maintain and nurture the communication and solidarity of the SAT community and may be repeated by participants.

Module IV: invites the community of seekers to come together around a reflection on the transformation and evolution of each Enneagram subtype through the metaphor of the “hero’s journey”.

“Initially, a five-day SAT IV was created in response to the participants’ wish to remain in contact with one another and with me, given the stimulating effect this had on their development process. It has become a space for reflecting on the process of transformation in general and for analysing the personal development process— not only in the light of its universal characteristics but also taking into account the differences between the Enneatypes.” — C. N.

Module V: invites participants to move from a process of individual transformation to a commitment to collective change. Contemporary societal themes are explored, such as power, sexuality, death and ecology.

“SAT V, which appeared later, was a response to the wish of my disciples to remain in contact with me and with one another, but it also provided an opportunity to address themes that were not included in the previous modules.” — C. N.