Q: I am a Manifesting Generator – what does that mean and how does it work?
A: With Human Design we can distinguish 4 types of human beings. Manifestors, Generators, Projectors and Reflectors. Each of these types can be again subdivided based on the specific authority in a design. The most well known of these subdivisions is the “Pure” Generator and the “Manifesting” Generator. The difference between these types is the way the energy flows.
Manifesting Generators have defined Sacral center and a defined connection from a motor center (Sacral, Root, Ego or Solar Plex) to the Throat center. This means there is a direct flow of energy to the Throat – the center of expression and manifestation. In other words, once the Sacral of a Manifesting Generator is turned on, the energy flow that is activated is directly manifested. The energy is expressed as efficiently as possible.
Pure Generators have a defined Sacral center and do not have a connection from a motor center to the Throat center. This means that the energy stays with them, once the Sacral is activated. The energy is not manifested as quickly, it is not directly expressed. This means that Pure Generators can go deeper and stay longer in a process of energy flow.
In other words, Manifesting Generators are sprinters, Pure Generators are Marathon runners. This is the most basic difference between the two types. All other characteristics that differentiate are the product of this basic mechanic.
A common confusion is that Manifesting Generators are much like Manifestors. Even though they share the word “manifest,” these two types are fundamentally and radically different. This difference is for both types very important to understand.
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Manifesting Generators are beings of this new age. They have amazing power and are here to transform the world with their talents.
Pure Generators are the lifeblood of our society. Their astounding endurance and commitment to their life and work keeps the blood pumping through our collective life.
Manifestors have a superpower that is never replicated. They have the drive to create out of nothing and make a lasting impression on everyone they meet.
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First and foremost, Manifesting Generators are Generators. The “Manifesting” in the Manifesting Generator is an adjective and that means that is is secondary to the noun “Generator”. As a Manifesting Generator, when you focus your experiment and self-discovery only on the Generator part, you will do wonderfully. If you focus on the responses, it will take you anywhere you need to go. Yet, if you focus your attention only on the Manifesting part, you could be going in completely the wrong direction.
The desire to Manifest so strong for Generators that for the majority of them, it consumes their entire life. Generators are here to leave their mark. Construction workers leave their mark on this planet with each building they help build. Doctor leave their mark in each patient they help cure. Teachers leave their mark in each student they inspire. Yet, this is never enough – we believe the best mark to make is one that you manifest. That you create all by yourself. Something that you brought into the world independently, using just your own manifesting power.
The irony is, Generators have no way to Manifest as Manifestors do. The mechanics are not there. Do you remember the expression – if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole like thinking that it is stupid? Generators trying to manifest their ideas is like fishes flopping at the bottom of a tree trying to make it up. Meanwhile the monkeys (Manifestors) think they need to be able to swim like fish and are flopping around in the ocean.
We, as humans, have the genetic imperative to always want to go further, more, bigger, better…! This is the effect of the Root center. It tells us: don’t settle for what you have, go further because there is always better things to achieve! So instead of enjoying the power we have, we search for more power, any other power that we do not already have.
“I have been a construction worker for 30 years. I worked very hard my whole life and contributed to the building of so many places where people are now living their lives.” “Yes, but why didn’t you try to start your own company and gain more power?”
“I am a doctor who has saved the lives of hundreds of people by prescribing them the right medications for their illnesses.” “Yes, but you should move to a different hospital that is much more prestigious and where you would be paid more.”
“I am a teacher who loves the challenge of working with adolescents and I feel a spark of joy every time I see a smile on one of their faces.” “Yes, but if you had gone for a higher degree you could have had a career in science.”
“Yes, but…” It is the sound of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the personal hell each generator creates for themselves when they refuse to accept what is. It always goes hand in hand with frustration, the feeling of flopping around at the foot of a tree. You make so much effort to flop higher and higher, yet still you don’t get anywhere.
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Acceptance is the first and most important step towards giving yourself all the space you need to live a deeply satisfying life.
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We grow up with the epic phrase: “You can achieve anything if you work hard enough!”
This is the lie that keeps Generators flopping at the bottom of trees.
Because, no, you cannot achieve anything. You have limits. You are who you are, nothing more and nothing less. Every aspect of you is perfectly in line with who you are supposed to be. If you want to be a doctor, you can go to school, study and work hard to become a doctor. If you do not want to doctor, theoretically you can go to school, study and work hard and become a doctor. Still, you will never be a doctor. You will be someone who behaves like a doctor.
We are under tremendous pressure from many directions in life. Most of all the pressure comes from ourselves. Those around you who tell you to be different, to do things another way, to try harder – they echo the voices in your head that are not satisfied. The self-critical voices that doubt you and the legitimacy of your decisions, your abilities, and your desires.
Acceptance is knowing that you are designed perfectly and that you are doing an amazing job living your life, regardless of what it looks like. Every part of yourself that you doubt is also an important and loved aspect of you.
The magic of the Manifesting Generator is that the life energy flows through them in an explosive way. They are the most efficient beings on this planet. They receive the energy, respond to it, and BAM WHOOSH BAM, in no time they are done. They always find the quickest way to do something. This means that Manifesting Generators get about 100x more things done in one lifetime than Pure Generators. Simply because Pure Generators, rather than finish a task as quickly as possible, really go into the work. They take their time to get into details and make sure everything is done well. Whereas Manifesting Generators often skip steps. For me this (slightly exaggerated) example makes the difference very clear.
When you ask a Pure Generator to clean the windows, they will take a good half hour to do it. They go into ever nook and cranny to make sure the job they did was done well. When you ask a Manifesting Generator to clean the windows, they get the hose, spray the windows down and call “I’m Done! What’s next?”
There is nothing right or wrong about either way of going about the task. It is simply mechanics. If everyone was the same our society would not function at all. We need people who climb trees as much as we need people who swim. So all you need to do is to take your very specific and unique place in the puzzle. Who you are, the Whole of who you are, is essential to life on this planet. You have a very specific role to play in the whole. And that role is exactly what you hope it is. There is nothing you need to that you do not with all your heart wish to do.
Manifesting Generators have the tendency to not only finish tasks quickly, but to then look for new tasks again right away. They easily fall into a trap of always needing to be busy.
Therefore the most important thing for a Manifesting Generator to learn is patience. The patience to wait for the response. The patience to take a breath, to stop for a second and open yourself up to life. If you do not open yourself up to receive life energy, you will be constantly in a state of searching – trying to find things to do. If you can just stop for one second, and surrender to doing nothing – you will be launched of again like a rocket into space.
There is no need to worry that there will be nothing to do. In fact, there is SO MUCH to do!
Yet, instead of waiting for the energy to come to them, most Manifesting Generators are creating things to do to keep them busy. They are so afraid that if they stop, everything will go wrong and they will lose control of the life they have created for themselves. And that is probably the best thing that could happen to them.
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When you allow life to create for you, it will create a life that is more grand and glorious than you could ever imagine for yourself.
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So don’t settle for the tasks on your to-do lists. Don’t try and initiate projects that do not set your whole body on fire. Go for the real deal. Go for your true purpose. Dream big and believe that you will accomplish even bigger things. You fly to greatness, one response at a time.
Would you like to know more about your design? Take a look at my readings page or send me a me
i dont really know what i am man… i skip steps, yet wanna make sure things are done right… i have naturally low physical energy but at my hights make others go wavy around me. a few years ago it was nothing for me to snuff candles half way across a room or make the flames dance inches above the wick… i dunno what im saying man… chaos has found its way to permeate every facet of my life and i feel lost and afraid…. im not a doctor, no teacher, no great scientist… no builder, no craftsman, no designer… but i seem to be able to put my hands to anything and understand its inner workings… im letting myself pour over this keyboard as i type so bare with me… i feel like im at the precipice of something… and i dont fully know what to do… i dont have the money for a reading but is there anything that you might show my way… … or can you read between the lines and bring some understanding to this chaos im feeling?
Hi Aeonik, thank you for your sharing!
I can read between the lines and I would love to share my perspective with you.
The challenge for manifesting generators is to direct their energy in a deliberate way. Often they have been told at an earlier age that they are too much, that they are wrong and that they are unwanted.
Because of this they learned to suppress their energy and disapprove of themselves. But it’s like holding a balloon under water, if you hold in at one moment, it will explode with double power in another moment.
This is what creates the chaos. With some people, in some situations you hold back too much and you lock yourself up – because you feel it is not safe to be yourself. And then with the people you do feel safe with and in situations where you no longer have control, you explode.
As a result, your energy is misdirected. And this causes harm. Because the frustration and anger that is directed toward those with whom you do not feel safe, explodes in the direction of the people who you do feel safe with – and the latter are usually your loved ones and the people you are closest too.
So what happens is that because you do not feel safe, you create unsafety for the people in your inner circle.
They will allow you to do this for as long as they can handle it. You have likely chosen beautiful, empathetic people to surround yourself with. So they can take it. They can bear your explosions over and over and still love you.
But at some point, they reach their limit. At some point, they cannot handle it anymore.
This is when they are going to tell you to give them space. If they know you well enough, they will instruct you to fix the situations where you don’t feel safe (usually work). In other words, they will try to redirect your energy back to where it is supposed to manifest.
But because you cannot risk rejection, you are afraid to, and don’t. What often happens is that manifesting generators either end up manipulating people to allow them to keep exploding on them, or they find new safe people to explode on.
They may not even realise the impact they are making. Because they are used to rejecting themselves and not seeing themselves clearly.
That is why the first step to directing manifesting generator energy is Becoming Aware of All of Who You Are.
Not just from the perspective that you are used to. Because it is easy to say, I am wrong, I am bad.
Become aware of your uglier side from a loving perspective. Accept that it is a part of you and that it needs to exist. Because it does.
The rejection we fear from others is the rejection we subject ourselves to over and over. We don’t show our harsher side, because we learned to hate it so much.
But the people who love us, love that side too! They are able to show us the loving perspective on our shadow side. As long as we are willing to listen.
If we are just hating and rejecting ourselves, then we take everything they can tell us as hate and rejection. But if we are open to loving ourselves fully as we are, then we can hear the love and acceptance in their words.
This is when the redirection of the manifesting generator energy starts. By truly accepting yourself as you are. No longer disapproving of the parts that are harder to handle.
Then slowly you can start finding ways to share that energy in places where you feel less safe. Because you will feel safer within yourself.
And you will know that even if they do reject you and say the things you fear the most, it will be okay, because they are not the authority on whether you are a good and loving person. You are.
When you can really feel that authority within yourself, and trust it with your whole being, that is when your energy will be well directed.
And any chaos you create, you will be able to handle. Because it is Your Chaos. And you can take responsibility for it.
Because you no longer hate the person who creates it. You love your shadow side as much as you love your light side.