Book excerpt: We are born with our hearts and arms open wide-trusting, confident, and brimming with vibrant life energy. Over time, though, the challenges of life constrain that flow, leaving us unbalanced. We often find ourselves stuck in inertia, exhausted by overdoing, or strained and preoccupied with trying to control everything. Roaming Free Inside the Cage will help you identify your unique pattern of imbalance and reclaim your inborn freedom so that you can move forward with clarity of vision, confidence in your own power, and composure in the face of life's adversities. "There is much to digest and absorb here, principles and practices, history, symbolism, and poetic expression. This work requires only the caution that, as in much that is written about the Enneagram, we are dealing with subjective internal experience rather than objective external measurement. This is a book on experience of, rather than knowledge about. Come to it with a willingness to use the principles of optimal learning, be receptive and grounded in order to open your heart and mind with curiosity, and have the expectation of benefit. Then you will indeed benefit greatly from this fundamental, deep and penetrating work on the Enneagram and the Dao." -David Daniels, M.D., September 2009, Clinical Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford Medical School