Are you a ‘Specific’ or ‘Non-Specific’ Manifestor?
By John Cole & Amy Lee
We’ve been hearing talk about “Specific and Non-Specific Manifestors” on social media and getting asked about it by some of our clients. The question usually goes, “I know I’m a Generator (or Projector), but am I a Specific or Non-Specific Manifestor?” Given that we have never encountered this concept in many years of Human Design professional education, we were curious to see if we could decipher the term.
This concept seems to be an interpretation of a particular element of the Human Design System, known as Variable, that is being used in a very different context than in any Human Design training we have seen. With that in mind, we’d like to clarify the nature of Variable as taught by Ra, and how the question of “manifesting” is understood within Human Design as we know it. We hope that this will help maintain the integrity of the knowledge, and clear up any confusion for newcomers experimenting with the system.
On the surface, Variable can be seen by the four arrows near the top of the BodyGraph in the Advanced MMI view. Each of the arrows points either to the left or the right. Based on our research, those promoting the “Specific or Non-Specific Manifestor” concept appear to be using the Personality Nodes Variable (see the bottom right arrow with the green box in the chart above) to make the distinction. Left being “Specific” and Right being “Non-Specific” (also referred to in this approach as “Abstract” or “General”). Some go on to give examples where in order to “manifest”, “Specific Manifestors” should make lists of very specific or detailed wants (like a red convertible or a blond surfer) and that “Non-Specific Manifestors” should make general lists or those with more of a range of desires (like a cool car or my soul mate).
It’s understandable how this explanation would cause confusion for new people coming into Human Design as it appears to deviate significantly from the original transmission of the system as taught by Ra Uru Hu. According to our understanding of his teaching as well as what was shared by our Human Design instructors, the underlying Tone of the Personality Nodes (the triangle to the right of the Nodes) fixes the individual’s Perspective into either a Focused (Left) or Peripheral (Right) view of their environment.
This aspect of Variable is all about the particular perspective we are designed to have and what we are here to see our environment. It is basically indicating whether the person is designed to focus on specific things in their environment or hold a wider view, taking everything in as they see the world. Nowhere in the source material is it suggested that Nodal Tone has anything to do with one’s auric Type or manifesting/creating potential. Note: If anyone can point us to where this is stated or described in the source material, we would love to hear from you.
While it’s fashionable these days to talk about manifesting your dream life, there is very little in the Human Design System that supports this in the context of the Personality Nodes. In Human Design, “manifesting” is a question of energetics or mechanics. That is, whether one of the body’s motors (Sacral, Ego, Solar Plexus, or Root) can bring its energy directly to the Throat center (representing action, communication, metamorphosis, etc.). It requires energy to bring something into form or to have an impact on the world. Simply thinking about or wanting something is rarely enough.
Approximately 10% of the population, Manifestors, as a Human Design Type, have a motor connected to the Throat center by at least one channel in their design. The 90% of the population that does not have this definition is designed to “manifest” under certain external conditions and circumstances. For example, Generators can bring things into form in response and when the actual conditions of their life support it (ie. when there is an energetic connection to the Throat by auric interaction or planetary transit). Projectors can manifest in a similar way in the context of relationship when the available energy and conditions support it. Reflectors can bring things into form through time and connection with others and the larger planetary program.
Many newcomers in Human Design seem to envy the Manifestor in its capacity to initiate and be visionary. It is generally revered in modern culture to be self-made and a go-getter. There seems to be a misconception that Manifestors can create whatever they want. Even for Manifestors, initiation is designed to emerge through the body’s impulses. Patience, interdependence, and trust in nature seem to contradict a popular notion that we can do and have whatever we want. For all of the Types, experimenting with Strategy and Authority and learning to wait can interrupt the not-self mind’s compulsive behaviors. It can serve as a reference point as one begins to move through life in a way that reduces the risk of getting involved in situations that simply don’t work or expending energy in ways that do not bring a deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Generators are not here to work for money, attention, or recognition. The Generator energy is designed to work for the love of the work. Money is a byproduct. A Sacral Authority will tell you when you have the energy for it and whether it’s actually correct for you or not to engage in this activity. Those with Emotional Authority can come to clarity on the truth of whether an experience is correct for them and the desire for it persists. Projectors are here to experience true success through being welcomed for their presence, expertise, and awareness rather than how much they can produce, perform, or imitate conditioned versions of getting attention or being successful.
There are two dynamics here. This is not the go with the flow of spirituality. And this is not the break the doors down, make this world the way you want it to be sort of hard-core re-arrange and manifest reality gospel that you get in some circles either. You are walking a tight rope continually between being moved and then surfing that, taking control, and prescribing your environment in the near range. And in the near range, I mean in your physical and contextual scope of decision making every day in relation to the people who are around you. You are continually pushing your reality one step further into a higher form of manifestation, and that’s quite active and involves you taking responsibility for yourself. It’s not so much about shaping yourself according to everyone around you and then just moving with that. It’s more about sensing and moving with that dynamic but then bringing forward your own individual ingredient at the same time taking responsibility for what happens and looking after your body as you go through that, noticing what your body signals to you and learning about its way of working.
– Dr. Jacqueline Hobbs, Oracle Girl
Going back to the question of Variable, the Personality Nodal Variable indicates whether we are here to see our environment in a ‘focused’ (Left) or ‘peripheral’ (Right) way. This view is fixed by the underlying Tone in the substructure. Tone exists below the Gate, Line, and Color, and is not a level of our design that we can manipulate directly. Rather, it is something we can watch or tune into as it relates more to the body’s senses or the structure of our mind’s deep awareness. Suggesting that we can initiate and act intentionally from our underlying Tonal frequency is like saying that we can manipulate our senses or other bodily functions like our heartbeat.
Even Color which exists at a higher level of the substructure is not something that we can manipulate from the mind but simply recognize and align with through our correct environment and perspective, dietary regimen, or psychological motivation. In the Personality Nodes, the Color tells us something about the themes we are drawn to see in the environment around us. Through aligning with our correct environmental perspective, we are able to offer our unique awareness to those around us. This creates the potential for a communion of awareness, connections through which we are able to see and share a unique view in life. The body guides us to the opportunities for this.
A key point of Ra’s teaching was that the body is designed to guide the truly differentiated life. This means that each individual has the potential of entering into a totally unique expression of frequency and purpose. Many “manifestation” strategies appear to amplify our unconscious fixation on survival, getting attention, and proving self-worth. As such, this question about how to manifest can often be a distraction from the important process of deconditioning, where we learn to allow the body to lead and let the mind take its place as a tool, a measurement device, a source of awareness for others, and a witness to life as it unfolds.
Most deep and experienced explorers of Human Design say that their lives have turned out to be very different and much richer than they ever could have imagined. They may not be the most wealthy or visible, but their material and survival needs have been met. Human Design suggests that we are not here to just survive or compete materially, though we live in a world of forces that condition the vast majority of us to have little room for anything other than survival concerns and competition for attention and recognition. While survival was no doubt a concern for the 7-Centered human, today the majority of those who are fortunate enough to have an interest in Human Design are already living on a level of material security that goes beyond anything common in the past. Yet as real as our survival concerns may seem, Human Design suggests that we, as 9-Centered beings, are here for something beyond that: consciousness.
The conditioned mind can rarely imagine, construct, or create a reality comparable to what the body can reveal through direct engagement with life as it is. The mind may be able to manipulate material into the forms we think we want but those “manifestations” are often replicas of what we have been conditioned to want. We may think we need that new car, job, romantic partner, or 100,000 followers on Instagram, but do we really? Where are those desires actually coming from? Are they coming from our embodied awareness and alignment with our true nature, or are they being fed through conditioning and imitating what we see others having? An alternative to focusing on “how to manifest” is to notice what is driving our needs and desires. Where are they coming from? By learning about the mechanics of design at a deeper level, we can often see whether the source is rooted in our nature or our conditioning. For those early in the process of studying the system or offering it as guidance to others, this awareness could be immensely helpful in clarifying what is of true value to us.
In closing, the suggestion that even though you are not a Manifestor by Type, you are a “Specific or Non-Specific Manifestor” based on this Variable indicator is a confusing (re)use of the term at best. It is likely to feed into the addiction many of us suffer from which is the vanity of the mind to think it ought to be in control. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to create a better life for oneself, and we are not suggesting that Human Design promotes an ascetic life, these mental attempts at controlling material can often come at a cost to our health, well-being, uniqueness, or integrity.
We take ourselves so seriously, human beings. The not-self is a very serious creature, it really is. Everything upsets it. Everything is important. Everything is “this and that.” It doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s not what we’re here for. It’s not what the nine-centered being is all about. It really isn’t. The nine-centered being is here for consciousness. We’re not here for the survival game. We’re not here for the fear game. We’re not here for all of that. We’re not here to organize ourselves. We’re not here to dominate the planet.
Each and every one of us is here for the possibility of us, nothing else. The serendipity of your existence is the treasure. They come and they go. It’s all about what you do while you’re here. In this incarnation, in this life, the only measurement is awareness. There is no other measurement. There isn’t. It’s not about what you have or where you go, it’s about awareness. It’s only in awareness that you get to see what this is for, how beautiful it is. How amazing. And all of that is rooted in you.
And it doesn’t matter what our costumes are, our crosses are, or our designs. We each have a unique grounding in this world. And we each have a gift. It is our uniqueness, and the expression out of that uniqueness. This is what the promise is, a more interesting world, deeper and deeper and deeper communion. It’s what’s possible.
– Ra Uru Hu
