Let's Journey through the Centers of the Human Design Bodygraph! Here’s the source of mental pressures in your life - your Head Center. As the Center that provides inspiration as well as questions, doubts, and confusion, it is also the location of your personality "crystal," which is made of dark matter. Do you see all the calculations in black on the right side of the bodygraph? The neutrino imprinting you received the moment you left your mother's womb is what you identify with as your personality, and the personality crystal is what received that imprint.

Have you noticed that of all the centers in the bodygraph, only one protrudes outside of the outline of the person? That's because this crystal sits on top of the head - not inside the physical body! When you surrender to being the witness to your life rather than trying to control it, you get to see the beauty of what it is to be you - as yourself. Fulfilling your life purpose brings you the sense of satisfaction, success, peace or surprise in life that you were born to experience.

The biological correspondence of the Head Center is the Pineal gland (aka third eye) which is an endocrine system gland that produces Melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of sleep patterns.

Having just three gates - the least of all the Centers - the Head Center brings an incredible amount of mental pressure that is processed by the Ajna below it to make sense of the doubt, confusion, and inspirations. The Head Center pressures our minds to seek inspiration, to make sense of the past and project into the future for us to see and share the nature of what it is to be us.

When your Head Center is defined, you have a fixed and reliable way of experiencing the mental pressure, which is detailed in the gates and lines you have defined there. Learn to enjoy your defined mind as a playground of measurement and comparison without making decisions about yourself from this place. You can practice tuning into the correct timing for decision-making using your strategy and honoring your inner authority to discover the uniqueness of your authentic being.

As you read about the Head Center gates below, have your bodygraph handy to take special note of the ones imprinted in your Human Design. If your Head Center is defined, you can be mentally inspiring for other people. The gates you have activated are the very specific ways you consistently experience your inspiration and pressures to resolve doubt and confusion.

If your Head Center is undefined, the gates waiting to be activated are themes you are genetically programmed to experience when your Head Center is defined by transits or people in your environment. Remember, the mind is always an outer authority only - follow your Strategy and Authority to make correct decisions that lead you to your unique purpose and expression of fulfillment.

As always, remember that Human Design is a dualistic system; the "this and that" of it all means that every gate can express as its opposite as well.

Gate 64 - The Gate of Confusion

Pressure to make sense of the past and to resolve chaos and confusion is shared through Gate 64, “Before Completion,” which is an abstract, collective energy. This pressure of mental activity (or not) is an energy that brings cyclical mental images from the past, all jumbled together. Mental stress comes from trying to make sense of and make decisions from this cyclical energy of mental images of all your past experiences.

Gate 61 - The Gate of Mystery

Inspiration leads to “Inner Truth” which is a mutative pressure to know something new, to know the unknowable. If you have this gate defined, there’s a pressure within to understand life's mysteries, a spontaneous individual knowing that can be empowering to yourself or others. Like all individual gates, this is an acoustic knowing that has a melancholic chemistry and operates in a pulse.

Gate 63 - The Gate of Doubt

Gate63, "After Completion," is always being pressured / underpressure to make sense of mental patterns through doubts, and toproject into the future new patterns based on logic. Doubt and suspicion are natural pressures when the pattern does not project successfully into the future. These questions can be deeply stirring, and it takes determination to find the way through your doubts or share your recognition or the question and search for the answer.

If your Head Center is defined, the conditioned behavior possible is that you may turn mental pressure in on yourself, causing deep anxiety, self-doubt or depression. You may try to resolve this pressure by taking action with hasty and inappropriate mental decisions. You can be incapable of remaining patient and miss opportunities for inspiration.

The effect of your defined Head Center on undefined Head Center people is that you can pressure others to act on things that inspire you that may not be correct for them. Conversely, you can also pressure others to give up things that are worthy of inspiration.

Your behavior as someone with a defined Head Center when operating correctly is that you naturally create a mental pressure in the world to grasp and understand things. You are comfortable with the experience of confusion, doubt and clarity as a natural process with its own inner timing and resolution. You can uplift and empower others with your insights and inspiration and be an outer authority for others.

Undefined or Open Head Center

If you have an Undefined Head Center, your inspiration comes from external conditioning. You have an openness and flexibility in experiencing mental pressure, with themes particular to the gate and line activations present in your design.

When operating incorrectly, you may notice that you lose focus easily, becoming lost or overwhelmed and make decisions from doubt, confusion or wanting to understand WHY?! If you have an undefined Head Center, ask yourself... am I occupied with thinking about myself, or questions that don’t matter to me? Am I trying to answer everyone else’s questions without invitation?

Trying to release mental pressure through action, or trying to resolve other people's questions by taking on the worries of others may result in you experiencing the not-self theme of your Type.

Also, if you have an Open Head (with no gates defined), not knowing what to focus on, or what is really important to you is a strong theme when you are not operating correctly. It is so very important for you never to give authority to your open head - the moment that you do that, your actions are from a deeply conditioned place, and you cannot live out your unique potential.

When you are operating correctly as someone with an undefined or open Head Center, you have an ability to develop wisdom about the variety of mental pressures you encounter in life. Because you tend to amplify the confusion, doubts, and pressure to know, there is an opportunity to cultivate wisdom through the exploration of ideas and inspiration coming from all directions. Being open to the wonder of the unknown and uncertainty is healthy for you.

When operating correctly (following your strategy and authority), you won’t act on mental pressure or take on the pressure of other people’s need for answers. You can simply enjoy the pressure to know more without becoming identified with it or make decisions from it. Enjoying the questions and trusting that doubts or confusion will become clear (or not) is another signpost. And using your mind as an outer authority for others to draw from, rather than as a decision making tool for yourself, can become second-nature.

The Mechanics of Conditioning In Action

Personally, my undefined Head Center has a Dormant Potential of Gate 61.3 via a Conscious Moon. This is also what is known as a Conditioning Receptor. Anytime my head gets turned on, this fixed gate is how I learn about mental pressure, and my driving force is to want to know the mysteries, to discover what works (through experiencing what doesn't!) when it comes to resolving this individualized internal pressure. When invited, I can use this pressure to help other people know things about their inner truth. It's one of the ways I can make money by providing my perspective when I am invited to collaborate with my clients. From the Rave I-Ching:

3rd line - Interdependence

It is exceedingly difficult for truth to stand alone.

Moon Exalted The ability to establish relationships for the actualization of truths, and through their nurturing and protective power to ensure a stable environment in which they can continue to grow. The pressure to know enhanced through collaboration."

The Harmonic Influencer here is at the other side of the channel, Gate 24. This gate makes my conditioned mind think I have to rationalize every personal decision to deal with and resolve the internal pressure! It can also force me to want to open my mouth and share the rationalizations my mind sees for other people's behavior. 
 
My Not-Self Gates are the Hexagram 63 and Hexagram 64. This is where my mind can see that the other person has a problem and is confused or at ease, doubtful or has clarity. 
 

Questions for Inquiry: 

Have you noticed yet that your mind will continually try and make your decisions? Have you noticed how your mental dialog relates to your undefined/open centers? Making decisions from the pressures of mind won't relieve the pressure for long and can often lead to frustration, bitterness, anger or disappointment. What examples of the thoughts below, which may come up on behalf of your deeply conditioned mind, do you recognize in you?

I need some inspiration.
Maybe if I do this or go there, I’ll find inspiration.
I need to figure out the answer to these questions.
Where can I go to find answers; who has the answers?
I have to understand this; I need to make sense of things.
Am I supposed to be interested in that?
What am I supposed to think about?

No matter the configuration of your Head Center, you are perfectly designed exactly as you are. Remember that everyone has everything present and functioning in the bodygraph. Certain areas are consistently energized and specific in the way they show up in your life, while others are open to experiencing the abundance of possibilities and potentials that you can learn from and hopefully grow wise about over time.

You were born unique. Following your Strategy and Authority is key to releasing your mind's conditioning and control over your life. Over time, this experimentation with Living Your Design expands your awareness, eventually transforming your physical body’s chemistry and your experience of your life.

Living your Human Design helps you to live the fulfillment of what it means to be authentically you. Would you like to share any of your Head Center epiphanies or feedback with the Human Design Community below? You’re invited to ask questions as well.

A version of this article was written for and published by JovianArchive.com in 2015, republished here with permission.