# preserve/navigate/transmit -- a subtly different take on instincts?



## Pelopra (May 21, 2013)

Enneagram Learning International



> THE THREE INSTINCTUAL BIASES
> 
> Preserving: Focused on “nesting and nurturing” and on ensuring that fundamental survival needs are met for things like food, water, clothing, shelter, and overall safety from harm.
> Navigating: Focused on “orienting to the group” and on building alliances, creating trust and reciprocity, and understanding where oneself and others fit into the group.
> Transmitting: Focused on “attracting and bonding” and on passing genes, beliefs, values, interests, and worldview to others in order to make them carriers of that information.


sp stays the same, but this is a different take on Sx, So.


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

That's Sikora's take on the instincts. I've seen it before but didn't find it useful so I didn't get very deep into it. The sexual has that biological element of "passing genes". The term "transmitting" just doesn't cut it for me.

I notice they also talk about preferences and a particular ordering.



> With the instincts, there is a predictable ordering of domains that occurs in us. One domain is primary, meaning that it is our home base—the area in which we feel most comfortable and which influences our behavior the most. We call the secondary domain “adolescent territory” because we are drawn to this domain but often feel inadequate or uncomfortable in it. We tend to have a conflicted, love/hate relationship with this domain and it is home to many of our shadow issues. The tertiary domain is under-active; we have little emotional “juice” for behaviors related to this area and we tend to ignore it to a large extent. The ordering tends to go as follows:
> 
> 
> Preserving, Navigating, Transmitting
> ...


It looks like their primary domain is referring to what most people would call the secondary instinct. Their secondary domain "adolescent territory" is what I would think of as the first instinct.

My sx/sp/so would get re-ordered sp/sx/so. Translating to their terms it would then be:

Preserving, Transmitting, Navigating

which isn't even in their list of how ordering tends to go according to them.

What a mess...


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## Pelopra (May 21, 2013)

enneathusiast said:


> That's Sikora's take on the instincts. I've seen it before but didn't find it useful so I didn't get very deep into it. The sexual has that biological element of "passing genes". The term "transmitting" just doesn't cut it for me.
> 
> I notice they also talk about preferences and a particular ordering.
> 
> ...



so i don't really understand how instinct order works, then.

how would you order the following:

-i want this taken care of but i wish someone else would take care of it
-i will take care of this (and like it when others appreciate that)
-i wish this didn't need to be dealt with

?


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

Pelopra said:


> so i don't really understand how instinct order works, then.
> 
> how would you order the following:
> 
> ...


I'm not sure what you're asking. I don't know what instincts your bullets are referring to.


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## Pelopra (May 21, 2013)

enneathusiast said:


> I'm not sure what you're asking. I don't know what instincts your bullets are referring to.


im saying what order that would go in. i tried to make it vague, ie any instinct could be stuck in each slot.
basically i don;'t understand the meaning of instinct order.


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

Pelopra said:


> basically i don;'t understand the meaning of instinct order.


It's typically the order of your preferred instincts (e.g., I prefer sx/sp/so). I think of it as:
1st - the instinct you seek
2nd - the instinct you're comfortable with
3rd - the instinct you avoid

or you can say Positive, Neutral, Negative in your attitude towards the instinct. Other people may do it differently. Sikora seems to switch the 1st and 2nd from what I'm used to (that's what I was talking about in my first reply).


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## Nothing1 (Jan 22, 2014)

For some reason, transmitting reminds me of STDs. I wonder if there is a correlation between STDs and SX i.e. transmitters, e.g. they have a higher likelihood of contracting STDs. Only my personal observation (no offense intended), every sx dom person I know has had a significant history with contracting and/or having STDs (usually diseases easily prevented with a contraceptive). They all seemed to care a little bit less about contraceptive use for whatever reason.


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## Arya (Oct 17, 2012)

Pelopra said:


> Enneagram Learning International
> 
> 
> 
> sp stays the same, but this is a different take on Sx, So.


I can't relate to the transmitting one hardly at all..... And I'm SX dom by most standards. I'd have to entirely change my stacking going by that.


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## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

Eh I see it more as this, but that's actually pretty okay.

SP- Powerlust
SX- Aestheticism
SO- Influence


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## Pelopra (May 21, 2013)

Reality Hazer said:


> Eh I see it more as this, but that's actually pretty okay.
> 
> SP- Powerlust
> SX- Aestheticism
> SO- Influence


i wonder if this is your type-9 speaking. could you elaborate/expand? especially sx but really all of them


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## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

Pelopra said:


> i wonder if this is your type-9 speaking. could you elaborate/expand? especially sx but really all of them


It's not very complicated really. The core essence of self preservation instinct is generally about being adaptive and also about being strong. Considering the human capacity to abstract this is translated in the general sense of mind that one always has to be able to be strong enough to endure whatever troubles one has. As such the SP is generally focused on power seeking.

The sexual instinct is generally what I'd like to think of it as the inner will to live, as well as being "impregnated" by the feminine half of the mind. It is the desire to be afflicted, to spawn and to feel things. It is about being selective and also not selective and to meld into things. You could say that it is a form of barrier that shields oneself from the influences of the outside world, as well as being passionate. Creating preferences, and other such things to make oneself more attractive. Thus the SX is aestheticism, because without it we'd probably wouldn't be able to reproduce and also we'd probably sustain only on ourselves.

The Social instinct is all about being a moving force that impacts objects. It is the masculine half that is largely considered in many cultures to be the "active" half of the sexes. It is generally directed outward. This is not to be confused with extroversion, but merely in that one has a physical presence in the world. That you matter, and ect cetera. It is largely "detached" from the self and transmitted to other objects, and whenever you extend your arms outward, you are creating yourself in something else. You are impregnating things. Thus So is about influence.

Hope that is clear enough. I don't think being a type 9 influenced my reasoning tho.


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## Pelopra (May 21, 2013)

Reality Hazer said:


> It's not very complicated really. The core essence of self preservation instinct is generally about being adaptive and also about being strong. Considering the human capacity to abstract this is translated in the general sense of mind that one always has to be able to be strong enough to endure whatever troubles one has. As such the SP is generally focused on power seeking.
> 
> The sexual instinct is generally what I'd like to think of it as the inner will to live, as well as being "impregnated" by the feminine half of the mind. It is the desire to be afflicted, to spawn and to feel things. It is about being selective and also not selective and to meld into things. You could say that it is a form of barrier that shields oneself from the influences of the outside world, as well as being passionate. Creating preferences, and other such things to make oneself more attractive. Thus the SX is aestheticism, because without it we'd probably wouldn't be able to reproduce and also we'd probably sustain only on ourselves.
> 
> ...


.......ah, no, i don't feel i understood that. sorry =(


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## Entropic (Jun 15, 2012)

I think the biggest fault enneagram theorists do is when they try to link instincts to evolution.


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## Sixty Nein (Feb 13, 2011)

ephemereality said:


> I think the biggest fault enneagram theorists do is when they try to link instincts to evolution.


Yes. I just view the instincts as a form of attunement really.



Pelopra said:


> .......ah, no, i don't feel i understood that. sorry =(


Don't worry that shit was convoluted stupid shit. I'd question more if you did understand it.


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