Discover The Person You Were Meant to Be An Interview with Chetan Parkyn and Carola Eastwood by Steve Hays For over thirty years, after a revelatory reading from a seer in India, engineer Chetan Parkyn has been giving readings of his own for clients who come to him for insight. After fifteen years of exploration of traditional wisdom traditions, in 1993, he came upon the Human Design System, which revolutionized his way of helping people to understand and to deploy their unique ways of being in the world by giving a comprehensive picture, as he puts it, of†“their personal DNA.” He recently released his book, Human Design System, which allows readers for the first time to gain an understanding of this system for themselves. The Light Connection's Steve Hays spoke with Chetan about this system and was able to ask his wife and fellow Human Design teacher Carola Eastwood about her experience with it. Carola writes the Planetary Cycles astrology column that appears each month in The Light Connection. In addition to providing Astrology readings, life-coaching, and counseling, since learning about Human Design in 1998, Carola Eastwood has become a Human Design consultant and assists her husband and partner in giving Human Design Trainings and Experiential Seminars world-wide.  As a team, Carola and Chetan provide readings and classes that catalyze awakening to one's Higher Self. They will be giving a workshop in Las Vegas in September and in San Diego in October. (Details at end of article.)

Steve Hays: How do you describe the Human Design System?

Chetan: The Human Design System, in its simplest description, is a self-remembering system. It basically directs you to remember everything about yourself: what you came here to live out, who you are, how to interact in the world on your terms. It's basically all about describing how to be yourself—just be yourself.

In what sense do we need to know how to be ourselves?

Chetan: We are conditioned by our parents, teachers, the media and society to “behave” in certain ways. Many of us are emotionally and psychologically wounded, out of touch with our true self, and feel lost. Basically, we live in a society where we're juggling all kinds of rule systems that don't work anymore as evidenced by the financial collapse and the economic collapse and the health industry collapse and all these old rule systems and sacred cows that we've taken for granted for so long. If you're applying old ways of finding meaning, they don't work so the Human Design System is a process of remembering exactly how to live one's way through life on one's own terms.

How do you deal uniquely with the world on your terms?

Chetan: Everyone comes in as a unique individual. A lot of the systems set up in the world take it that everybody is the same, and we're not, of course. For instance, children are taught with this cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all approach. Because children are unique individuals with unique designs, they would benefit enormously from having their parents and teachers respect their individual nature–as shown in their Human Design Life Chart. So Human Design pinpoints your unique individuality and indicates within this system exactly how to live it out.

A question for Carola, you have been giving expert astrological advice for many years. How does using the Human Design System differ from using Astrology? What are some of the things Human Design covers that are outside the realm of the astrological?

Carola: Having worked as a professional counseling astrologer for the past 28 years, I have become quite clear about what astrology can, and can not provide.  Briefly, with astrology, I read the life-purpose, and see the pattern of unfoldment designed by the soul before incarnating.  The real art of astrology is it's use as an intuitive mandala from which to gain insight about a person's progress along their soul path.  Unless one knows astrology very well , one must have a professional interpret the symbols for you.   I have now been  working with Human Design for ten years, and have experienced it to be a very different tool, providing completely unique information, not available with any of the ancient esoteric systems, or the modern personality evaluative systems.  Human Design truly is a tool for the twenty-first century; there are two main distinctions that set it apart:  One, it is the only system on the planet that reveals the unconscious, inherited, (or past-life, if you will),  patterns from  previous generations.  This is a huge contribution to self-awareness.  Secondly, apart from simply providing information, a person's Human Design Life Chart gives Three Keys to  living a successful and fulfilling life.  With these three keys, a person is no longer dependent upon any source outside of them self to navigate life successfully.

Are there circumstances where you would definitely want to use one rather than the other?  

Carola: Persons looking for specific predictions of future events will do better with astrology, although predictions at best are only a very educated guess. Truly, I suggest that we can benefit from both.  As a reader, I always use both, as they provide completely different information and guidance for my clients.  But, for a person deciding whether to have an astrology or a Human Design reading, I would suggest that if you already know yourself fairly well, and you are  comfortable with your life-path, choose to have a Human Design  reading , as it will be a revelation in your life, empowering you  to find your own answers and create much more successful relationships with everyone in your life. 

What are the system's roots?

Chetan: Briefly, the Human Design System is a synthesis of four esoteric systems and at least two of what we would call modern day science systems. The four esoteric systems are Astrology, the I Ching, the Kabbalah and the Chakra system and the modern day, science systems, are Astrophysics, in particular Neutrino theory, and the Genetic Coding system.

Neutrinos are basically the messengers of the universe. They carry mass; they move near the speed of light. They pass through everything and are, basically, emitted by stars around us. One is born into a particular moment of neutrino streams.

The Human Design System gives you an exact coding, according to the moment of your birth. Everybody is born in a unique place and time and so everybody comes in with a unique nature. The beauty of Human Design is that it shows not only what one is born to live out consciously, but it shows all the unconscious patterns as well. Whether you'd want to describe these unconscious patterns as part of your genetic inheritance or as past life influences, all of these instances are written into one's genetic makeup. This genetic makeup is what is presented in the Human Design life chart.

How were you introduced to this?

Chetan: I was living in India in 1979 and visited a man who was working with a system somewhat similar to Human Design but a much more ancient system; he basically told me that I was going to be working with a system that was yet to come and advised me to get ready for it by practicing giving readings to people. I took him up on his advice in a sense of trust and sure enough, in 1987, Human Design was a system that was introduced to the world. It was channeled in its entirety and when it was brought to America in 1993, I was one of the first people to hear about it and I recognized right away this is what this man in India had told me about.

So this has been around for a while, yet many people have no idea about it. Why are you written a book now? What is significant about the timing?

Chetan: When I first heard about it in 1993, I was introduced to it through the person who actually channeled it, a Canadian man called Ra Uru Hu. A lot of the language that he used and a lot of the ways in which he saw life and the ways in which he expressed things really didn't appeal to me at all. He had a very particular way of reading the system according to his own interpretation. So I've spent the last 16 years reviewing everything, reviewing the system, cutting it back to its pure terms and trying to render it in a way that is simple to comprehend and basically empowering for people; so people can grow through recognizing what it is they've come to live out as a unique individual. I've expressed this in the book in a way that anybody can find it empowering.

I was comparing notes with someone else who has this done with you and I was wondering how you address conversations such as, “Oh, I've got a good chart.” Or “I've got a bad chart.”

Saying something is good or bad or black and white or making any kind of comparison is ridiculous because you can walk down any beach on this planet, any beach around the world, and you will not pick up two grains of sand that are the same. We are each unique individuals. So, where does this whole idea of comparison come from?

In Human Design charts what we see is that every design has three, what we call KEYS, their Type, their Authority and their Profile. Each person is born with a particular Type—there's are five Types—and a particular Authority, which is basically how they make decisions that are correct for themselves—there are 6 different Authorities—and with a particular Profile. There are 12 different Profiles. So any individual who understands their Type, Authority and Profile automatically has keys to be able to interact in a way, in this world, that works for them as an individual. So it's not about comparing. It's not about having a good or a bad design. It's about recognizing how to play with your design in a way that's effective for you.

Could we take one of those things, say like Authority, and look at a couple different ways that people make decisions?

Absolutely. It's about making decisions. If we could pinpoint anything in life that causes us the biggest sense of disaster and despair, it's about making poor decisions, decisions that basically don't work out for us, that leave us grasping or dissatisfied. My wife, Carola Eastwood's counseling office has been filled for two decades with people suffering from the effects of having made bad decisions, either in career choices or in relationships. A lot of this poor decision-making comes from the fact that most of us have gone through schooling systems that have told us to try and think our way through life: To try and be rational, to “work it out” on a mental basis. All of us get to find out it doesn't matter how hard you use your mind, mental decisions always leave us coming up short because there's always a fork in the road. You could always go one way or the other.

What Human Design points out for each individual is there are these six different Authorities that provide the key to making right decisions in life every time. Each person has one of these Authorities; they get to use their Authority and recognize how it works. Some Authorities require a great deal of patience, particularly what we call an emotional Authority. These are people that have to feel their way into things. Some Authorities are much quicker. These are people that live through their intuition and instincts. Depending on what authority you have, when you attune to your Authority and you work with it, you start making decisions that are consistently right for you and making these right decisions carries through life in a way that's effective and satisfying for you.

So when you say—using that example—patience, you're allowing yourself to discover how you feel about it? Trying it on for size in a sense and seeing how it feels?

If you have this, what we call emotional Authority, it basically means that you have to ride out what we might describe as an emotional wave that has times when you're up and all excited about things, and times when you're down and not so excited about things. The tendency is to want to rush to make a decision. Perhaps in a good mood, you'd make a decision that would say, “Oh yes, I want to do this,” and you wake up the next morning and find out, perhaps, you don't want to do it after all. You don't feel like it anymore and yet you've already committed yourself to it.

When I use the word patience, it's about seeing what's being offered to you when you're in a good mood and when you're in a not so good mood and finding out what is the enduring truth that is not attached to either mood, but comes instead from a resonance of emotional clarity. In my readings I teach people how to access this key.

So, some people really are best to sleep on it and wait until the morning to move?

Absolutely. If you have emotional Authority, unless you're a very, very clear person, you cannot jump into things just on face value. And sometimes it's going to take a few nights' sleep to be waking in the morning with crystal clarity.

Do you think that this is being brought to the forefront right now, in what you call “these chaotic times” because it is filling some special need?

Yes, absolutely. It is an essential tool for these times. If we look at the history of the world, we've come out of what we might describe as the tribal age, where whatever the king said was supposed to happen into the collective times where democracy has ruled with this understanding that a fifty-one percent majority is going to carry the day. Democracy's a very nice idea but it comes up very short because forty-nine percent of the people are not being fulfilled through it. So what we see happening, particularly in these turbulent times, is that we're moving into the age of the individual, where the individual is somebody who takes responsibility for himself and thus naturally attunes to what is his nature The Human Design System points out exactly what is his nature, what he's here to live out and how he's here to live it out. When somebody lives in integrity with their own nature, there's a rippling effect into the world around them because they're taking responsibility for themselves, so everybody picks up on that responsibility. In ages to come, and I'm perhaps looking quite a ways down the road here, when everybody takes responsibility, we'll see that there's no longer a need for armies and nationalities and religions and all these things. They will all just dissipate because people are just being true to their own nature.

We will necessarily call it an age of enlightenment and Human Design is very much pointing the way for that to take place.

True to your own nature. I get that to mean true to your purpose as well as true to the way you operate– is that what you're saying?

Yes. I am often asked by people to direct them towards their purpose in life, as in “What am I here to fulfill?” The first thing I have to tell anyone is that they come here to be themselves, whatever that entails. No one comes here to be a “good” this or that, a cog in a piece of machinery or a robot following some made-up set of rules. Our purpose is to be our unique self. Human Design gives us each specific and personal guidelines to recognize and rejoice in our uniqueness.

Tell us about the online feature of your book.

When we wrote the book, we wrote a parallel computer program so that anybody can draw up their Human Design Chart using the program. It's a free software; it's available from our website. You can draw up your own chart and all your family members and people you work with, then you can follow through in the book and see exactly how what you find in your chart is related in the book. We've had some very amazing feedback from people worldwide who say they're getting a really clear view of who they are and what they're here to live out in this lifetime and it's giving them a great sense of fulfillment.

I set up personal readings with people too. I've read for people all over the planet. I like very much to read in person, but also I read for people over the phone or using Skype, and on odd occasions when we can't make a phone connection, I do remote readings for people. All the readings are empowering. A lot of people say to me, literally, they finally feel like they've been recognized in life and that they feel a huge sense of relaxation that they can now just get on with it. My wife Carola Eastwood and I also give trainings and seminars all over the world for people that want to learn more about themselves and the system of Human Design.

Is this for people of a particular age group or for all ages?

All ages. Most tend to be between thirty and sixty, but the oldest client I've ever had was 92 years old, and the youngest was just two or three days old. Of course, I read for children's parents. But you know, when a parent understands who it is that has come into their life and how they can best be guided to relate and empower their child, it is a huge revelation for them.

What excites you about doing this?

You know, on the advice of this person that read for me in India 30 years ago, I've been reading for people for 30 years.

I started out reading people's hands and faces and Tarot cards and the I Ching and Astrology and I went through a number of different esoteric systems. My whole background was an engineer, you know? That reading I had in India really changed my perspective on life dramatically. The greatest thing I've ever come across is when I've been describing to somebody what I see in their makeup, whether it's through reading their hands or particularly when it's through reading their Human Design, and all of a sudden there's that magical moment where they get it and they just drop into that space inside themselves where they feel complete and whole and embraced and recognized and appreciated, and that is the most amazing thing. When people go from a reading with me and I just see this glow around them, that they're completely connected into their life, that is the most exciting thing that anyone could ever ask for.

What's the best way to learn more about this?

I would really encourage your readers to get the book. It's the summation of 30 years' work, particularly addressing the Human Design, which in all senses is the first Aquarian system. We are moving into the Aquarian age, and this book is a vital tool for these times, for an individual to recognize their individual journey through life. A lot of energy and a lot of work have gone into this book, which has been beautifully presented by Harper Collins. I've had tremendous backing and support from them. The software goes with the book. It's very, simple to use and it's an essential tool for these times.

I haven't noticed anything else about Human Design System out there. Is this really the first?

There's very little because it was basically all being kept within a closed boundary, as it were. The only books available were very technical teaching manuals. It had never been effectively communicated for the public. And, as the name of our website implies : www.HumanDesignForUsAll.com, I see Human Design as a tool everyone anywhere on the planet can use; a tool for us all .

Plus, it's not a system you're tapping into, it's more, as you said, it's your evolution, all the things that you've been into. Your unique look at it.

I asked two very good psychics a while ago about Human Design. Where did it come from and what was it all about? They told me without hesitation, “Oh, it's a very old system. It's been around forever and now it's just being interpreted for use in these times in this place.” I point out to people it's a very vital, very accurate system and I just encourage people to play with it. And, honestly we have not yet seen the scope of changes that are coming.

Carola Eastwood and Chetan Parkyn , author of Human Design: Discover the Person you Were born to Be (Harper-Collins) can be reached for personal sessions at 760-298-0918, : [email protected] .  They will be presenting Experiential Workshops in San Diego and Las Vegas in September, and a Two-Day Human Design Training in San Diego, October 10-11.  For more info, phone, email or www.HumanDesignforUsAll.com

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