Human Design is a CULT?!
TL:DR - You tell me
Periodically I’ll take to a search engine to see what the internet is saying about Human Design. Most recently I came up with a few results saying it’s a cult, and stay away!!!
Interesting take, given the whole point of exploring your own Design is to become more of an individual, rather than like everyone else. Sort of the opposite of the culty agenda.
Let’s take a look and see, are these allegations legit?
The BITE Model
Dr Steven Hassan developed what he calls the BITE model to help folks clarify if a group is using authoritarian control (i.e. if a group is culty):
Behavior control — what you can or can’t do, who you can or can’t do it with, what you MUST do to remain a member of the group, using coercive means to enforce rules, etc
Information control — withholding and/or controlling available information, limiting access to non-cult information (including former members), emphasizing outsider vs insider information, etc
Thought control — emphasis on increasing cognitive distortions in favor of the group (black and white thinking, wishful thinking, justification, rationalization), forbid questioning of the group and/or its leaders, etc
Emotional control — limit emotional expression and/or emphasize wide emotional swings from high highs (love bombing, etc) to low lows (intense guilt and shame), promote feelings of fear, guilt, and worthlessness, etc.
You get the common theme here, of course.
Control.
Over the last 5 years or so, the lingo of cults and culty groups has come into vogue. Documentaries have shed light on such varied groups as NXIVM, LuLaRoe, Institute of Basic Life Principles, Rajneeshees… I’m sure the list is longer, but those come top of mind.*
Severity and Context
The groups in the list above have documented practices that are coercive to the point of harm, be it physical, emotional, psychological and/or financial.
Culty groups exist all over the place, some causing more or less harm. They warrant the moniker ‘culty’ because they use tactics to keep folks where they are. Groups that, if you speak out against, or leave, will shame publicly at the least and offer threats at the most.
Social media often fuels this dynamic, strengthening the emotional control (outrage!!), information control (you’ll get more of what you get, but ever more extreme), thought control (this is what we think, this is what you must also think), and behavior control (you don’t want to be shunned). Even though online is online, it can feel impossible to unplug from social media circles — the emotions (fear, anger, connection) are real and in the body regardless of whether you’re talking to folks in person or through text or video on a screen.
Coming (back) to Human Design
My introduction to Human Design (HD) came from a friend (who I respect) over a pizza lunch after having finished our board exams. She pulled out her phone, typed in my birthday and then showed me a ‘chart’ the likes of which I’d never seen.
Then I never thought about it again until January of 2021, when I sat at my computer in the midst of a family crisis, and a post from Jenna Zoe came through my Instagram feed. My memory of exactly what I saw is blank, but it was compelling enough that I started taking courses about Human Design. Types, strategy, authority, how to eat for your HD type, etc, etc, etc. I bought unofficial books and the official book, The Definitive Book of Human Design, The Science of Differentiation by Ra Uru Hu.
In other words, I was hooked.
I’ve since completed Jenna Zoe’s Human Design Reader training, and have started taking classes through the International Human Design School.
IMO, Human Design is Not a Cult…
I started using Human Design with health coaching clients, young women who were overtaken with shame simply for being who they were. Women who felt behind their peers, who were facing impossible odds to find work, much less develop something resembling a career.
These young women, shoulders up to their ears with shallow breathing, when confronted with their Human Design chart, relaxed. Visibly. They found relief in the idea that they weren’t broken after all, but that there was perhaps a different way to approach life that would work best for them. They experienced validation in the black and white (and red) on the screen outlining gifts and talents they’d been downplaying as nothing special. These women, experiencing and learning about their Design, came home to themselves, became more whole and did some healing.
Now.
My experience is not everyone’s experience. The Human Design teachers I’ve had (both Jenna Zoe and through the International Human Design School [IHDS]) are some of the least coercive folks I’ve ever met. The teachers at the IHDS say, often, do this, or don’t. It’s an experiment. Try it out… or don’t, it’s up to you.
This is not the voice of coercion. The voice of coercion says Do this, or else. Think this way, or I will leave you. Do what we say, or we will abandon you. I’ll only help if you follow my rules.
As an idea or system gets out into the world, it gets twisted. Christianity is a good, well known example. Jesus: loving, caring, working miracles for the individual and the many, be nice, pray, etc. We’re watering this down quite a bit, but you understand. Fundamentalist Christian churches: do what we say or leave, fit into this very specific box of identity and theology or you’re nothing to us (also you’re going to hell, so have fun with that).
I’ve not come across them myself, but I’ve no doubt that there are such folks in the HD world. Folks who have twisted up interpretations of what Ra Uru Hu shared, who use coercion to keep folks in line.
Yes, culty. These folks have lost the plot and are missing the point altogether.
Human Design, as shared by Ra Uru Hu is (it’s in the title for goodness sake) ‘The science of DIFFERENTIATION.’ (italics, bold, underline, caps added by me). Human Design, as a system, recognizes that we, each of us, are on earth for different reasons, with different skills and weaknesses, different lessons to learn and gifts to share.
If we’re following our own design, we each have a specific, embodied system to make decisions via our strategy and authority. Mine will feel different from yours — how could I possibly expect you to make decisions in the same way as me? (hint: I couldn’t)
Of course, not everything out there is for everyone. Human Design is a weird, kind of out there, kind of spiritual sort of thing.
If it’s helpful, awesome, use it!
If not, awesome, don’t use it!
Either way, do ditch the gurus so that you can be fully YOU!
Thanks for visiting — its an honor to have you here!
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If you’re interested in a virtual Human Design reading or a quick start human design guide,
*As an aside, the podcast A Little Bit Culty with Serah Edmonson and Nippy Ames is full of great conversations about all sorts of people who have experienced all kinds of controlling groups.
Note: This post is intended for information and entertainment purposes only; nothing in this article or episode is a substitute for medical or mental health treatment; do not delay necessary medical care; please work with a qualified and licensed health care provider in your area.
