In Human Design, Mental Projectors are a unique subtype of Projectors (or Orchestrators as they are known in Quantum Human Design.)
Here’s what it means to be a Mental Projector:
- Authority: Mental Projectors have their authority centered in the mind, but not in the way that traditional thinking and decision-making work. Instead, they need to talk things out and use their environment and people around them as sounding boards to gain clarity on their decisions. They do not have consistent access to their inner knowing through their body (like Emotional or Splenic Projectors) but instead gain clarity through external feedback.
- Centers Defined: Mental Projectors typically have their head and Ajna centers defined (the top two centers in the Human Design chart), meaning they have a consistent way of processing information, thoughts, and ideas. However, they do not have any of the motor centers defined (e.g., Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, or Heart), which means they do not generate energy consistently.
- Role: As Projectors, their role is to guide and manage others. They are here to understand others deeply and to provide guidance. However, they need to wait for an invitation to share their insights and wisdom. This waiting allows their guidance to be received and valued.
- Interaction with Environment: For Mental Projectors, their environment is incredibly important. They thrive in the right surroundings and with the right people. Being in a place that feels good and with people who support and respect them is crucial for their well-being and decision-making process.
- Challenges: One of the challenges for Mental Projectors is to avoid making decisions purely from their mind without consulting their external environment. They need to talk through their decisions with trusted friends, mentors, or advisors to ensure they are aligned with their true self.
- Self-Care: Mental Projectors need to be very conscious of their energy levels and take time to rest and recharge. They are not designed to work in the same way as energy types (Generators and Manifestors) and can easily become overwhelmed or burnt out if they push themselves too hard.
Understanding and embracing these aspects can help Mental Projectors live in alignment with their design, leading to a more fulfilling and balanced life.
Mental Projectors have no defined centers below the throat center. A Mental Projector has a defined Ajna, and either the head or the throat center. Because Mental Projectors have so many undefined centers they are similar to Reflectors in the way that they experience their environment. They are very sensitive to the different energies around them and are easily influenced by social conditioning.
In Quantum Human Design, Mental Authority is also known as Orchestrated Authority. This simply means that you need to talk through your choices to get clarity.
Tips to Help Mental Projectors Live Their Best Life
Here are some tips for you as a Mental Projector to live your best life:
- Wait for Invitations: Trust in the process of waiting for the right invitations and recognition. This allows your guidance to be received and valued by others.
- Seek the Right Environment: Surround yourself with environments and people that feel good and supportive. Your environment plays a crucial role in your well-being and decision-making process.
- Use Sounding Boards: Talk through your decisions with trusted friends, mentors, or advisors. This external feedback helps you gain clarity and align with your true self.
- Rest and Recharge: Pay attention to your energy levels and make sure to rest and recharge regularly. You are not designed to work continuously like energy types, so honor your need for downtime.
- Follow Your Curiosity: Engage in activities and pursuits that genuinely interest you. Your unique perspective and insights come from exploring topics and areas you are curious about.
- Set Boundaries: Learn to say no and set boundaries to protect your energy. It’s important to avoid overcommitting and to prioritize your well-being.
- Embrace Your Uniqueness: Recognize and embrace your unique way of thinking and processing information. Your insights and perspectives are valuable and needed.
- Avoid Pressure to Decide Quickly: Give yourself time to make decisions. Avoid feeling pressured to make quick choices and trust that clarity will come through your process of talking things out.
- Stay Open to Guidance: Be open to receiving guidance and support from others. You don’t have to navigate life alone; others can provide valuable insights and perspectives.
- Cultivate Patience: Practice patience in your life’s journey. Trust that the right opportunities and invitations will come at the right time.
- Focus on Self-Care: Make self-care a priority. This includes physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Engage in practices that nurture and rejuvenate you.
- Honor Your Intuition: Even though your authority is mental, pay attention to your intuitive nudges and gut feelings. They can provide valuable guidance in alignment with your design.
By following these tips, you, as a Mental Projector, can live more in alignment with your design, leading to a more fulfilling, balanced, and authentic life.
How are Mental Projectors (Mental Orchestrators) Different Than Projectors (Orchestrators)
Projectors (Orchestrators) can have the hardest time in life when they don’t understand their type and their strategy. The Projector’s strategy is to wait to be invited. The waiting of the Projector is about big invitations, such as love, career, and living conditions.
Unlike energy types who are constantly responding to life, the Projector gets big opportunities with very little in between. This can sometimes seem to Projectors, and those who do not understand them, that the Projector is “lazy” or just sitting around waiting for something to happen. But, that is really all a Projector is designed to do.
Projectors who do not wait will not experience success. They do not have the energetic configuration to just go do things and “make things happen,” as many will tell them.
Because a Projector has no motor to the Throat and an open Sacral Center, they will struggle to be heard and recognized. Projectors can stand in a crowd and talk up a storm, but if no one has asked them to talk, they run the risk of not being heard, having their ideas stolen, or inadvertently insulting or criticizing the people around them. This can make it difficult for a Projector to get their ideas off the ground.
A Projector who offers up insight without being asked first may appear to others as bossy or controlling, even when they have the best of intentions. It can be very painful for a Projector to not have their wisdom recognized or appreciated. And eventually, they may become dejected or bitter.
When Projectors are living in the false self, they will experience the false-self theme of bitterness. When a Projector is feeling bitter this is a sign that they need to wait for their invitations and take some time alone to reflect.
However, a Projector who waits to be asked, recognized, or invited has an enormous amount of wisdom to share with the world. They can feel the energy of others in a deep way. Intuitively, Projectors know what the other energy types need to be doing to make the best use of their energy—particularly workforce and life force energy.
Projectors need help with recognizing when enough is enough. It is very easy for a Projector to take in Sacral energy and temporarily morph into a Super- Generator. But that is not sustainable.
Unlike Generators (Alchemists) and Manifestors(Initiators), the Projector has a finite amount of time and energy. Most Projectors can act like Generators until they crash around the age of forty. Most burned-out Projectors won’t know what hit them. They will feel exhausted and depressed. Their bodies may be failing, and they might be struggling to make money and to keep their jobs. They may even lose important relationships and support.
It is crucial that a Projector experiencing burnout take some time to recuperate and simply wait for healing and an invitation.
Mental Projectors make up about 2% of the world’s population and are a part of the Projector type in Human Design. This means that they need to live as a Projector but cannot rely on inner authority. Mental Projectors are rare and unique beings who have the insight the world needs to develop and grow.
These are the teachers, the guides, and the sages of the world. As a Mental Projector, you still need to follow the Projector strategy of waiting for invitations, but you have to discover outer authority in order to determine if an invitation is right for you. Outer Authority comes from vocalizing your thoughts and feelings in order to gain clarity.
How Can I Find Out If I’m A Mental Projector?
To find your Human Design Type, visit https://freehumandesignchart.com/. You will need some basic information in order to run your Chart: the location, date, and time of your birth. If you are a Projector with no defined centers below the throat, you are a Mental Projector.
The Mental Projector’s Role / Life Purpose
The Mental Projectors’ role is to offer their unique and thoughtful perspective to the world. They have an intense ability to see the big picture and to guide those around them. Your open centers can be challenging, but as you grow you can learn to discharge energy that is not yours. When you rid yourself of these energies you are able to share your wisdom.
Mental Projector Authority
One of the biggest challenges for Mental Projectors is that they do not have an inner authority. The key for a Mental Projector is to get out of their heads. In order to come to an understanding, or to make a decision, a Mental Projectors needs to talk it out.
To release all their mental energy a Mental Projector needs to hear their own voice out loud to gain clarity. If you are a Mental Projector, make sure you have trusted individuals around you who can act as your sounding board when you need to make a decision. You don’t even need their responses because the sound of your voice is what will bring you the clarity you are looking for.
Mental Projectors also have a unique connection to the body. Splenic responses, emotional authority, and sacral responses are experienced in the body, but with no inner authority, the Mental Projectors need to be aware of how their body is reacting to their environment. It’s not so much an inner authority but a built-in warning system.
Some Mental Projectors experience headaches, changes in body odor, nausea, vertigo, and even a disconnected feeling in the body. These symptoms alert the Mental Projectors that something in their environment is not right for them. It can be challenging to understand what is wrong but allow yourself to trust these bodily reactions. They are often instant, so take note of what is around you when your body sends you a warning signal.
The Mental Projector Aura
Aura’s are a person’s energy field. These are the feelings that someone radiates and it is hard to describe. Every Human Design type has their own aura and the Mental Projector’s aura is focused and absorbing. Projectors of all types have the gift of clarity. They can see deeply and understand complexities that baffle others.
Characteristics Of A Mental Projector
When you look at your bodygraph and you see a defined Ajna center that is connected to either the throat or the head centers, you are a Mental Projector. Below the throat is all open, and your centers will be white, which means you are always taking in energy from the world around you. Your mind is constantly processing information from all these energies and you spend a lot of time in your mind.
Being in the right environment is not only important but it is critical. Similar to the Reflector, you become what is around you. You embody your environment and the more focused attention you put into what makes you feel good; the more you will receive the invitations and recognitions Projectors thrive on.
The Mental Projectors Health
Projectors are here to be wise about others. But their insight about other people sometimes leaves them blind to themselves and their own needs.
Mental Projectors especially do not have the same capacity to know themselves the way other types do. Consequently, they need help seeing when they are overdoing it. They can even need help in recognizing when their bodies are not feeling or working well.
The Projector is not designed to work physically. Working out and exercising are not always suited to the Projector. Projectors do well with gentle workouts and must learn to honor their bodies and what they are feeling.
Because Projectors are so sensitive to the energy of others, they need time alone to discharge other people’s energy out of their system just to feel physically good. This is not personal. It is just a necessity. Remember, the Projector is not hardwired to hold Sacral energy for prolonged periods of time. When they hold on to energy that is not theirs it will begin to take a toll on their bodies.
Projectors may find that they need to nap or take periods of rest, during the day. In order to protect their physical well-being, it is vital that the Projector goes to bed before they are tired. If a Projector waits until they are tired, it’s too late and the quality of sleep will be poor.
The Role Of Deconditioning For Mental Projectors
Deconditioning is a vital process for all humans as we discover our designs. Everyone is subject to aspects of social conditioning, but for the Mental Projector, it is especially important.
With all of your open centers you have absorbed so many different energies over your life that it can be challenging to understand who you truly are. Mental Projectors spend a lot of time lost in their own minds, and the mind is not very eager to begin the deconditioning process. Your mind wants to justify things in order to make you comfortable, and deconditioning can be anything but comfortable. Allow yourself to experience this discomfort so your true self can shine.
Mental Projectors, your body is the key to deconditioning:
1. Sleep alone.
We are always radiating energy- even in our sleep. With all your open centers, you are always absorbing energy, and during rest, your body can rid itself of excess energy. Solitary sleep spaces allow you to get real rest so you can begin each day as yourself. It is also a good habit to lay down before you are tired. The process of resting needs to begin before attempting to fall asleep. Many Mental Projectors may also find that the act of laying down allows them to rest and come back to themselves.
2. Nature.
Our modern world keeps us inside. Mental Projectors benefit immensely from being outdoors and nature acts as an energy filter. Allowing us to rid ourselves of energy that does not serve us and filling us up with what we need. Grounding, or simply standing on the earth without shoes, can be very helpful for Mental Projectors as a way of connecting to nature and discharging energy that is not your own.
3. Allow yourself to be alone.
Mental Projectors need extra time alone to get in touch with themselves and to rid themselves of others’ energies. If bitterness has snuck in, time alone is also very beneficial to bring you back to your strategy of waiting for your invitation. If you are familiar with Human Design profiles, take a look and see if your profile contains Line Two, The Hermit, energy. If you have Line Two energy your alone time is even more critical to your well-being.
4. Planetary Transits.
Everyone experiences transits in one way or another but Mental Projectors are often affected in a greater way. If you find yourself feeling emotions that aren’t serving you, you just might have to consult the sky.
5. Nourishment.
Mental Projectors, and other non-energy types, are very sensitive to the foods that enter their bodies. Pay close attention to your body’s reactions after eating and try to use the highest quality fuel you can. You may have food allergies, intolerances, or sensitivities to ingredients that can cause havoc on your body. Eat good- Feel Good.
It’s good to remember that Human Design Projectors or Orchestrators, as they are known in Quantum Human Design™ language, are a unique energy type that has an essential role worldwide. You are here to help guide and teach others, assist others in managing and focusing their energy in the right areas so they can be successful, and have a deeper insight and understanding of people.
Even though as a Projector you don’t have the same energy levels as other energy types, it does not make you lazy. You need more time for rest, recharging, and self-care to avoid burning out or negative feelings. Others need to appreciate and respect Projectors for their vital role, and the world would not be the same if we didn’t have Projectors helping guide and educate us.
The World needs you to be rested and available to accept the invitations that are meant for you, to help make the World a better place.
Note: The names in brackets above are the Quantum Human Design (QHD) names for these Types. QHD helps us to reframe the ‘Not Self’ or conditioned self in Human Design to explore the potential of the deconditioned self and to live more in alignment with our inner truth.
Curious about the difference between Human Design and Quantum Human Design? Karen Curry Parker explains it in this video:
If you want to learn more about how to read your Human Design Chart, you might like this post on how to read your chart.
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