A Guide for Consuming Human Design: Organic vs Artificial

“What is this BS this person is telling me?!?!” I’m asking myself while sitting on a cushion on the floor of a warehouse turned dance studio. A woman who considers herself a Human Design (HD) “Specialist”, microphone in hand, is looking at my bodygraph which is currently being projected onto a screen the size of a small area rug. About twenty others are gathered on the floor, standing around or lounging on couches listening to her interpretation of what she is seeing.

My eyes darted around the room to get a read, curious to see if anyone else is alert to what I am noticing. I’m looking for confusion, disbelief, or shock because significant parts of what she is sharing is dangerously incorrect, partially true, or, at times, seemed made up. This could potentially lead someone to experience even more anger, frustration, disappointment or in my case, bitterness. It didn’t happen, no one else seems to be aware of it, and then I remember this crowd is a mix of both newbies and those possibly well-versed in their HD experiment.

How do I know it wasn’t correct? I study The Human Design System — not just self-study. I’ve learned from a teacher who shares source material and I’m currently a Professional Analyst-in-Training. I know the keynotes to my chart, especially the more significant ones that someone might quickly go over in a short time frame.

In the 5 minutes of her looking at my chart, maybe 10–20% of it included keynotes. (I’m being generous in my assessment). The rest? It was mechanically incorrect and I had no idea what she was talking about.

I need to take a moment to talk about the importance of keynotes. When learning a language in a particular field or a language of another country, there are words that are given specific meaning so that it’s easy to communicate with each other. For example, if you learn French and you speak to someone else that speaks French, you’ll be able to communicate with them and vice versa. There’s an understanding that you call a flower in French “fleur”. All French speakers understand what “fleur” means when mentioned. In HD, the same principles apply when describing elements of a HD bodygraph.

Keynotes are keynotes because they have a specific meaning and frequency.

I went to this event expecting to speak a similar language and connect with others by sharing our experiences in our respective HD experiments. This did not happen in the hour I was there. What did happen was the equivalent of expecting to hear French, only to witness two of the event co-hosts sounding like they were speaking French and presenting themselves as knowledgeable experts. If you didn’t know any better, it really sounded true. In reality, I could not understand their inauthentic, HD keynote-lacking interpretation.

Since this was not my event, nor was I about to make a scene to correct her in front of everyone, I just agreed with what she said and didn’t follow up with any questions. Trust me, my conscious 18–58 Channel of Judgement wanted to speak up, but I wasn’t being recognized and invited to correct (so instead I’m going to share my experience in writing).

On the inside, I was flabbergasted and disgusted that I just witnessed two of the hostesses run an event as if they were “experts” and spouting information that was not entirely true. I then realized that this is perhaps why upon arrival to the space, something didn’t feel right.

In Human Design terms, I have Splenic authority. It’s an instinctive and intuitive awareness center. Think of the saying about following an “animal instinct” to keep yourself safe. Long before I knew about HD, I found myself just knowing things intuitively and had an instinct about others and places. Sometimes it’s loud and sometimes it’s subtle. When I arrived, I checked in with my body to get a sense of the space and something was off. My mind chalked it up to being in a new city, new neighborhood, new place, and meeting new people.

I couldn’t sit with the group anymore, so I moved to the back of the room to get some distance and to introduce myself to the one person in the crowd I recognized from the Projector Facebook groups. He was the only one that I saw who knew what he was talking about before I decided I had to get out of there. I just instinctively knew I could not continue to be in this space and listen to what was being said.

On my Uber ride home, I was in deep contemplation. Why did I even go to this thing? My body kept looking at the event information and there was energy to go.

Why do people mess with the information just to make it “tolerable” or more understandable?

How is it that people have the gall to believe they can learn this information in a weekend or just months and just parrot it to make some money?

How do people not have any integrity or sense of responsibility for the information shared — knowing it’s not entirely mechanically correct or correct at all?

Do they even know what type of damage they may be causing by guiding others with incorrect information?

All these questions added to an already growing annoyance with what I’ve been observing with the rise in “pop(ular)” HD over the last few years, and the increase of self-proclaimed HD experts who just discovered it.

Quick side note, what I mean by “pop HD” is anything that falls under the umbrella of generalized HD information learned only on social media and teachers changing source material (especially without a disclaimer). For the newly self-proclaimed “experts”, I’m referring to those who just learned HD in a weekend or over a short time period. This knowledge isn’t just something you quickly learn, check off like a to-do list and then you become it.

I felt compelled to write about what I’m seeing. There’s two primary intentions for sharing this: First, to provide caution to anyone, new (or new-ish) to HD. Second, to speak to those “experts” who are sharing/teaching HD that isn’t source HD and may not be aware of the possible consequences.

What is source HD information? Source HD information can be referenced back to The Definitive Book of Human Design, official content taught by International Human Design School (IHDS) to students and those who are learning so they can teach the mechanics and keynotes.

As I contemplated what I was observing at the event while considering all my questions, I puzzled together some possible answers for what was happening.

In HD, there’s an aura type (Generator/Manifesting Generator) that makes up about 70% of the population. One of the keynotes of this type is that they are here to learn about themselves, so it’s no surprise that they may respond to learning about how they operate and how to use their regenerative energy to feel satisfaction over frustration.

The balance of the population is split with Projectors (20%) and Reflectors (1%) who can be conditioned to be like a Generator/Manifesting Generator or to initiate like a Manifestor (9%).

Depending on their design, it’s potentially a lot of people looking for love and direction, wanting to increase their self-esteem, discover their emotional truth, wanting to know how to manifest, or learn to be certain. In addition, we live in a world where we are taught and encouraged to find an expert to tell us what to do because they know better.

Having a large population looking to learn about themselves to de-condition, coupled with a lack of awareness of shadow behaviors and a belief that answers lie outside of oneself, the situation is ripe for this aura type who may discover this system to feel overwhelmed by it and will pay anyone who claims to be an expert.

If you’re in the camp of HD newbies here are a couple of tips and considerations for you:

Run your chart from a reputable site:

You can easily enter your birth data on a variety of sites or applications out there, but here are my recommendations:

• Jovian Archive: They offer a lot of free information throughout their site to get started.
• MyBodyGraph: This site also has some free information and opportunities to upgrade for more information.

All the basic foundational pieces are listed. If you get a reading, notice if they use these same keywords and are able to expand on its meaning in relation to your chart. By the way, if you get your chart via mybodygraph.com, it will provide you some insights about your not-self or shadow tendencies (this alone might be enlightening for you).

Check your source:

Where did they learn this information? Self-study? Who was their instructor?

You don’t hire anyone to perform a service without asking for this kind of information and references. I can easily see someone being told incorrect information and trying to live or implement false information. (If you feel you need to experience this in your journey, by all means go for it.)

I’m not in the camp of “they must be officially certified through IHDS” to learn or hear about HD from people. I am in the camp of transparency of an “expert” using or not using source material, especially when they are referencing or claiming to have HD knowledge. The “expert” should disclose how they learned it and how long they have been in their experiment.

In my observation of others and through my own personal experience, if someone has been in their experiment long enough, who they were when they found HD and who they are now are very likely NOT the same person. Ask about their transformation. Ask how it is for them to follow their Strategy & Authority. Also, you have the right to ask if they use or reference source material. I can appreciate that someone who is new may or may not know the difference, but you get to ask. If you prefer pure, organic and you’re willing to pay for it, you should get it. If you are about to consume artificial, diluted ingredients, you should be informed.

Do they share their chart? Do they share their lived experience?

You are providing information about yourself and they will have insights about who you are. Don’t you want theirs?

On receiving a “reading”:

The bodygraph at first glance looks complicated and you may not have any point of reference that could help you interpret or read it so the next inclination is to either try to learn how to read it yourself or find someone to read it for you. There are “experts” out there who claim to know how to read or interpret the chart. It’s really easy to use the term “reading” when looking at the bodygraph as someone can say they can interpret or read the bodygraph beyond the surface. However, many people don’t know that if you’re going to study HD and become an analyst, it’s a prerequisite to get a Foundation Reading from a IHDS Certified Professional Analyst (they can be found on IHDS). So, if you think that might be a path you take, consider speaking to an analyst.

My hope for you is that you’re better informed and equipped to get supportive information from sources who are transparent and honest.

Now, to speak to the “experts”:

I get it. You’ve just discovered the system, you want to tell the world, and you want to do it your way. My judgment and correction comes from a place of looking out for the collective who may come to this knowledge and be misled because you may have wanted to jump on the bandwagon of this “trend” to earn a buck, prove yourself, need the attention or to lure those who are looking for direction.

In my seeing, here are the problems:

Lack of integrity and responsibility:

As the person who has learned this information, it’s irresponsible to share, teach or communicate information that you know is not accurate. Please have enough integrity to inform the potential client/customer which one is the source or your information (experience or interpretation) because they don’t know the difference. You know the difference. A perfect example of this is when watching movies or shows that were based on historical events. They indicate some liberties were taken. If you really want to know the facts, you can research it. The viewer knows. Please respect the customer/client in the same manner.

Confusion & Consequences

There are tangential consequences for people who were misled and eventually find out the information they were presented was inaccurate. It doesn’t provide good will, creates mistrust and confusion of the system. While you might be well-intentioned, your not-self behavior ripples out. How would you feel if someone misled you?

Education

If you know your stuff, where did you learn? How did you learn? Your education and lived experience can be shared with your potential customer/client. Self-proclaiming an expertise and throwing a title because you said so is a slap in the face to those who’ve put in the time and energy to learn. If someone still wants to learn from you and what you know, at least they know what they are getting themselves into. (See my first point regarding integrity and responsibility).

Whether you’re consuming or dishing out HD information — at a minimum my practical guidance is to:

• Follow your strategy and authority.
• Review and reflect on the not-self questions (easily found on the chart on mybodygraph.com)
• Ask your source their references and duration of experience living their design.

My hope is that you feel empowered to ask the questions that can assist you in discerning learning organic versus artificial HD information so that you are supported early on in experimenting with living as your design. For those who are currently sharing their love of HD, my hope is to create an awareness, responsibility and care for how the information is shared with others.

P.S. If you’re curious about my Human Design experience, I discovered HD in March 2016 after sharing with a coach about a recent experience of how there were several women in a community that I was part of who were complaining to me about how I’m always invited to things. I was not asking or seeking the invitations. She asked if I was a Projector and I had no idea what she was talking about. We ran my chart and that’s where my life changed in discovering that I am a 5/1 Splenic Projector Left Angle Cross of Distraction 2. To view my chart, HD education and bio: ninnaamora.com

I self studied for a few years before being invited to study HD with Laveena Archers. Laveena is a highly-respected and qualified HD faculty instructor at IHDS, BG5 and the owner of ICONIC Human Design. I’ve taken my HD and BG5 Foundational classes with her and I’m currently an analyst in-training.