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I think it really became popularized with Baba Ram Dass, this: be here now.

And I think that like so many concepts that become generalized, it's something that's really not understood and because it's not understood, a lot of people suffer as a result of it.

It seems like a valid concept, that is, we are here now in a sense, and to be here now is something that seems to be what the story is about.

Unfortunately, though philosophically it sounds really nice, if you look at the mechanics in Human Design, you see very clearly that there are certain people that are designed to be so-called existential — people that in the purest sense are here to be here now. Particularly, for example, integration people with expressions through the 20th Gate, or people with the Channel 46 - 29 which has a very deep existential quality to it of just being here.

But generally speaking, the way in which we are designed to operate is that though we are physically in the now, the way we take in experience, the way we translate it in terms of our personalities, that sometimes we are off in the future and sometimes we are back in the past.

Not all of us have the mechanical capacity to be here now but we all can be present. And being present is something that's very different. You see, the be here now is about you being involved, but that isn't what it's all about.

Being present is about being a witness of what's taking place in the now. And taking place in the now may be a remembrance of past, may be a projection into future, may not indeed be consciously aware of what is exactly happening all around but totally present in witnessing the process.

You see, we’re here to be passenger conscious. This is what it's about, and passenger consciousness is not involved. It is the witness of, it is the watcher of the experience of the Personality in life itself.

Generalizations are a dangerous, dangerous thing. When you look into mechanics you see that we’re all different, but in terms of awareness, in terms of our consciousness, the key is that we’re all here to be present, to be present in the experience of us.

Ra Uru Hu was the Human Design System’s founder and messenger. Ra dedicated 25 years of his life to the development and teaching of the System around the world until he passed away in 2011.