The Human Design System aims not to "define" a person, but to interpret the "flow of energy."

If you search for "Human Design" online, information (including from ChatGPT) will likely tell you that it consists of nine centers and 36 channels, each center and channel representing different aspects of human life experience. By analysing the position and connections of these centers and channels in your body graph, Human Design can provide insights into your strengths, challenges, and potential life path. They can help you understand how to make decisions that align with your true nature and live a more fulfilling life.

Many books, and possibly the creator of Human Design himself, Ra Uru Hu, use the term "differentiated science" to explain what Human Design is. They emphasise that Human Design is not a belief system and you don't need to believe in anything. Rather, you can use it as a personal design map to rediscover your own power. However, many people, including myself, were initially confused when we heard the term "Science of Differentiation". We struggled to understand what it meant and found it hard to believe that it was a science. After all, Human Design has only been around for a little over 30 years and is still in its infancy as a discipline. It's likely that people who first encountered astrology or the Chinese zodiac also spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to explain them.

As I delved deeper into my research, I came across a blank Human Design mandala and marked all of my gates on it with black and red dots (later realising that IHDS reports also do this). I found that the black areas of the mandala perfectly matched the positions on my natal astrology chart! These black areas represent the "personality" in Human Design, or what we perceive as ourselves, and also correspond to where the planets were located at the moment of our birth.

But to say that Human Design is merely an extension of astrology seems too simplistic.

The Human Design system not only defines a person, but also interprets the flow of energy beyond our conscious awareness, in ways that traditional astrology cannot match. The planetary neutrinos at the moment of birth open the black gates, while those from the three months prior open the red gates. The gate positions combine with chakras and the Jewish tree of life, revealing which chakra and primary energy function each gate corresponds to. The interpretation of gates and channels also draws on the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching, providing a more comprehensive explanation. The four gates that make up 70% of our conscious awareness (the black and red suns and the positions of the Earth) are interpreted through the 64 genetic codes, becoming the themes that everyone encounters in their journey through life energy.

Traditional astrology/fortune telling has been questioned for its accuracy by many, including myself, mainly for the following reasons:

1. Are there only 12 types of people in the world, as the difficulty level seems to suggest?

2. The contents of astrology/fortune telling are all "cold reading" and can make anyone feel that it is accurate. It seems to be about human nature rather than individuals.

3. Many astrological theories try to explain how the energy of the planets affects people of different constellations by means of astronomical phenomena such as retrograde Mercury. Will every person encounter different things with different difficulties?

These three points are my own puzzles, but I have been reading astrology/fortune telling since I was young, because I think there might be some inspiration or reminder. Maybe there are some messages that I need to hear at that moment. Whether it is astrology, eight characters, Zi Wei Dou Shu, or predictions about the weather in public interests and seasonal changes, as well as geographical movements, they are all based on a doctrine of "universal gravitation" with thousands of years of data as the foundation, and they must have some reference value. Today, what I want to say is that the "Human Design" system seems to be able to clearly explain these puzzles.

Many familiar with astrology can solve the first mystery above, in fact, the sun sign is not accurate, astrologers tend to use the birth chart as the basis for a person, and if the birth chart is accurate, it is truly unique to each individual, and each person's birth chart can also be combined with the current year, month, day, or other people's charts, to infer good or bad fortunes. These are interesting to me personally, but they have not been of much help to my life, for example, I was told very early on that according to my birth chart, I was someone who would divorce, which turned out to be true, and there were also many suggestions that I should relax a little, not be too harsh on myself and others, etc., but every time I find it difficult to implement these suggestions in every moment. Have you ever tried not knowing whether to listen to your own analytical brain or intuition at a given moment?

The teachings of "Human Design" and astrology divination have one distinct difference, which is that they both use the mutual gravitational force between planets and us as the basis for each of us, including the subconscious part that is more encompassing than traditional astrology, and they are not primarily dominated by personality, but interpret these forces based on the flow of energy. Everyone has their own stable and unstable energy, and when we are influenced by the gravitational force of the current planets and the energy of people around us every second, our "non-self" gateways will also be opened or constrained. So, in fact, everyone will experience the feelings and energy brought to us by all the gateways, and what we need to do is to find our own stable and reliable energy, use it healthily, and also find the source of our own unstable energy, correctly distinguish it in every moment, and choose whether to ignore those energies or be aware of the warnings those energies bring us.

This can explain why it seems that all divination teachings seem to have a place where everyone can find a fit, because energy is inherently interrelated, and we will all experience the energy brought by the planets every day, and be influenced by the energy of different people around us; it can also explain why larger astronomical phenomena can broadly affect most people.

However, the focus of Human Design is not to speculate on how every day or the people around us will affect us, but to focus on how we can be aware and respond with our most stable strategies when we are influenced, and make the best choices and decisions.

As an example, here is my own human design chart:

There are eight areas in my human design chart that have stable energy. However, this is not necessarily good or bad, as when I use these stable energies in an unhealthy way, I can negatively impact others. For example, my emotional center is unstable, and when I receive emotional energy from others or from the day, I sometimes have no emotional reaction or an excessive emotional reaction. Both of these unhealthy reactions can trigger my other eight centers to negatively affect myself or others. For instance, if I make plans with a friend and they are late, sometimes I have no emotional reaction and don't like conflict, so my brain will make excuses for the friend's lateness, and I will unfairly burden myself. On another day, I might have an excessive emotional reaction, causing the maximum impact of my other eight energy centers to be unleashed, harming both my social relationships and others.

Therefore, the more we explore, the better we can understand that the original meaning of RA URU HU may be to differentiate between our stable and unstable energies. Regardless of stability, there is no "good" or "bad" distinction, so he uses "this" and "that" to describe them. As for the definition of "science," it is based on the acceptance of various theories, such as the gravitational pull and neutrino effects on different planets. It is similar to how some people may not consider intangible theories, such as "energy" and "soul," to be "scientific." "Science" itself is built upon societal consensus, majority validation, and a "moral view" that serves the majority's interests. Therefore, for those who accept it, human design may be considered a science, but for those who do not, I may explain it in the future as "the theory of energy flow" or "a guide to navigating the flow of life."