Radical Transformation offers advanced Human Design tools for transforming our experience with both the Body and the Personality. In the previous article, I discussed some of the body-related awareness experiences that Radical Transformation experimentation has provided.

This article continues this exploration with personality-related awareness benefits or aha moments, which have arisen through practice with these mechanical tools and observational skills, which you can experience for yourself through Radical Transformation.

The Personality is Who We Think We Are Filtered Through the Mind

It is the body that lives the life, but the personality is who we think we are. The development of conscious mental thoughts, or internal dialog, is an evolutionary achievement of the human brain which reached its apex in our 7-centered ancestors. In 7-centered humans, the ability to identify with the thinking process, to be the thinker, was a logical extension of the mind as decision-maker.

As 9-Centered humans, we have the gift of an advanced body which provides us with access to an Inner Authority, to the body’s intelligence as decision-maker; and yet, the personality remains identified with the thinker. For the personality, this trust in the body’s authority, regardless of the personality’s commentary, can shatter the illusion that life is under personality control. This can be disorienting for the personality, as it loses its ‘job’ and influence. However, there is a new role for the personality that the practice of Radical Transformation tools provides: the role of observer of the life, and to be able to communicate what has been learned.

The Personality cannot be fixed, but it can be Observed

Fundamental to the personality is the mind’s ability to measure between this and that. It’s why the mind is so good at arguing both sides of a topic; it can examine infinite possibilities and variations of comparing this and that. It is the great gift of if/then, doubts, questions, confusion, mysteries that arise from this lack of absolutes. Without this ability, humans would be reduced to one linear thought.

The dilemma arises when we imbue the Personality programming with omniscience: the ability to understand what people really mean when they talk, the capacity to predict the future and interpret the past accurately. We begin to think that the voice inside our heads is our protector, our guide rather than software programming.\

The remedy is to begin to observe the programming; to recognize that there is a particular pattern, a mechanical formula for our particular software. Once we begin to observe the mind itself, the tools of observing the mind’s perspective and motivation become essential. Through these tools it becomes possible to recognize the levers and switches of our particular programming. Not to repair it, change it or try to stabilize it; but rather to observe its particular ‘this and that.’ Awareness develops through observation.

Out of this awareness develops a distinct way of seeing experiences from our unique perspective. This becomes the foundation for new, aware pathways for observing the way our mind operates. Our individual way of thinking and expressing develops through the practice of observing our perspective and its distraction; and awareness of our mind’s motivation as it expresses how we see and think about our experiences of life.

These observations, when asked for, can be communicated and provide value for others.

Example: My Perspective is the 3rd Color, Power. This perspective allows me to see how things work in the strategic, hierarchic world. In my life, I am infinitely curious about how everything works, including Human Design. I’m a big fan of the Olympic Games, watching the Oscars, and reading reviews of movies that I will likely never watch, and learning about new products, most of which I will never actually use.

My distraction is Personal: my mind makes up personal stories about how I need to get ahead, and what I need to be doing to make it in the world. When I’m lost in my distraction, I’m always looking to compare my life to others, and my life never measures up to my mind’s hierarchy of worldly attainment; and what I should do in order to get ahead and be loved. These stories are tied to my open G and open Root Centers. By observing this movement between my Power view, and my Personal distraction, I begin to be aware of how my mind actually translates experience, and how it makes up imaginary stories.

Perspective shapes the mind’s outer Authority

We are aware of the body intelligence through our Inner Authority; we can become aware of the personality intelligence through our Outer Authority. Outer Authority is the personality’s capacity to express what has been learned through observation, through one’s unique perspective.

The key aspect of Outer Authority is that it is not for our own life; what the mind expresses is for others, when they ask for it, and when our Inner Authority determines that it is correct to respond. Outer Authority is called out by the other, it is for the other. Communication is one of the great gifts of being human, to be able to share one’s individual experiences of life, how one sees and thinks about those experiences. We are not here to be all things to all people. We are here to live out our body’s narrow, specific path and to be able to share that experience with others. In this way, all our lives are enriched through communication. Your observations of your life are going to be so different than my own; I will never have your experience, even if I sit beside you.

Over time, I’ve begun to be aware of how my way of seeing informs and shapes my mind’s motivation. My mind’s Motivation is the 4th Color, Need. When I’m asked for my observations, my communication expresses what is needed by the questioner. It’s not about what I think I want to say, or the stories my mind has been imagining. The questioner literally draws out a specific expression from my mind. My wonder at how things work, and my ability to observe my personal distraction, gives me a unique basis for thinking and expressing what is needed. It is why I can write this particular article. If someone else wrote on this topic, it would be an entirely different article.

By Experimenting with Radical Transformation, we become aware of our Passenger

Gradually through ongoing experimentation with the tools of Radical Transformation, we begin to experience the stabilization of the form, and we experience the alignment of the body to its unique path in life.

Slowly, awareness of the mind itself begins to take place rather than identification with the mental voice. We begin to realize that there is the capacity to observe our moment by moment experience of the body/mind, the awareness of self-realized consciousness while in form. Although the passenger is not separate from the design;; there can arise the distinct awareness of the passenger, simply relaxed and observing the unique binary of body/mind.

"…And this expression of unique awareness, the perfection of this unique awareness in this form, this is what we can get out of it. I know something now that I never understood before. I understand now that the passenger can contemplate what is not within the program. That is something that I'm experiencing." ~ Ra Uru Hu
 

Leela Swann-Herbert has been teaching Human Design mechanics since 2007. Trained by Ra Uru Hu, she began her experiment in 1999, and brings a wealth of experience to her understanding of Human Design. She is also an author of “Your Own Authority - A Beginners Guide to Human Design,” available from our eBook shop.