of where you’re going in life, you then have the basis of reaching out to the world, and going after your dreams for a better life.’
Once you apply this system’s knowledge to your life, the possibilities are endless. But knowledge is not the only qualification I bring to the table. Experience has also been my teacher, and I personally have Human Design to thank for bringing me back ‘home’ and changing my life – a life which was seemingly going nowhere back in 1975.
I was sure the perfect storm was going to consume our 100ft motor yacht. There almost seemed a surreal lull in between the heaving rolls of the 40ft swell as we were driven across the Atlantic Ocean, a lull between life and death. I remember the chill, the pitch darkness and freezing spray of Atlantic water as this hurricane storm suddenly struck two days out of Bermuda. I was at the wheel, between Nassau and Malta, when the mother of all waves hit and the boat was knocked sideways. I gripped the wheel for dear life, convinced we were capsizing and that death was imminent.
Then, with agonizing slowness, the boat righted herself. It was a terrifying experience and the rocky ordeal lasted for nine days and nights. I remember tying myself onto a bunk with ropes, wedged between two wooden drawers, and disappearing into a place beyond prayer. Two days after nearly capsizing, as the storm still raged, it was my birthday – always a time of review and reflection. I took a break in the grey light of day and hunkered down in one of the speedboats tied to the top deck to smoke a rare cigarette by way of meagre celebration. As I did so, everything inside me went quiet, the storm around me seemed to mute and I had a sudden realization of how miraculous our escape had been. I thought to myself, ‘Surely there’s more to my life than this!’
I had dropped out of school in England, travelled the world for two years and then completed an apprenticeship before earning a mechanical engineering degree at university. After taking one or two small jobs in Europe, I’d ended up repairing and delivering luxury motor yachts around the world. But after we’d arrived in Malta and I’d thanked the gods for my survival, I packed it all in and retreated to the Shetland Islands, to the north of Scotland, to take stock of my life. All I knew was that I needed to get away.
I started asking that ‘Who am I?’ question, and don’t mind admitting that such introspection led to a pretty dark time. The remoteness of my croft house on a hilltop in the middle of nowhere was almost a perfect analogy for the personal wilderness in which I’d lost my sense of self. During those 18 months in the Shetlands, my dad, Roderick Parkyn, passed away. Another rope tethering my stability started to fray. Then, one night, sitting in the candlelit gloom of the croft, one week after scattering his ashes on his favourite seashore in Scotland, I felt his unmistakable spirit enter the room. Those who have known grief and have felt another’s spirit will know what I’m talking about. It was a powerful experience and one which released me from my isolation. In a quiet but reassuring voice within I heard him telling me, ‘It’s alright. You can go now.’
A couple of days later, with some synchronicity, I was sitting on the front doorstep, flicking through Exchange & Mart, when this advert jumped out and called to me: ‘Free Trip to Nepal for Diesel Mechanic.’ Propelled by Dad’s reassurance, I applied and successfully landed the job – as both mechanic and driver for the trip to Nepal. This was the start of an exhilarating journey of self – discovery.
I soon found myself driving a Magic Bus on the hippie trail to India, a place that ultimately became my home for five of the next 11 years. In 1979 I was introduced to the ashram of Osho, an enlightened master who at the time was known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Being in his company is another story for another time. For now, let me just say that he continues to touch my heart very deeply.
One guidance Osho offered was that if anyone had really personal questions about themselves, they should visit a ‘shadow reader’ in Bombay (now Mumbai). Of course, I had to do it. This remarkable man met me, smiling, at the door of his apartment. He was clean – shaven, late thirties, wearing a billowing shirt and trousers, and there was a bright twinkle in his eye. In a parking area below his apartment, his son proceeded to measure the length of my shadow, cast into the ground by the sun. Back upstairs, the shadow reader did some calculations, rolled his chair along a huge bookshelf, pulled out one of many identical – looking volumes, turned to a page and started reading in Sanskrit, a classical language of India. Among many things, he predicted that my personal awakening would happen later in life. I would be introduced to a system, would master it and then teach it.
‘System? What system? What is he talking about?’ I thought.
His advice was that I should experiment reading for people to learn the skills of interaction while imparting personal and important information relevant to their lives.
One week later, I met a psychic palmist who gave me a fast – track introduction on how to read hands and faces. And so it was that after some practice makes perfect I began to read palms. It came naturally to me and I loved it. My travels took me to America, Switzerland, Brazil, Holland, Germany and Japan before I settled in Hawaii for the next nine years, reading the stories contained within people’s hands.
Then, in 1993, I heard that a woman friend was organizing classes for a man called Ra Uru Hu who was introducing a system to America called Human Design. I was sent a curious – looking chart in the mail that was supposed to represent my life’s design and it dawned on me that this was the very system the shadow reader had talked about.
Its origins were intriguing. Ra, a Canadian previously known as Alan Krakower, had been a born cynic who had worked as a newspaper advertising salesman and film – maker but had gone through a series of major disappointments which had led to him flying to Europe and catching a bus to Spain. A casual remark by a fellow passenger had directed him to the island of Ibiza. There, an event took place which changed his world.
On the evening of 4 January 1987, he was returning home on foot with his dog, Barley Baker, when he saw a light shining from inside his remote cottage. He knew perfectly well that the lamp had no oil in it, so he wondered what was going on.
As man and dog entered the property, Barley started to growl, then fell prone to the floor. Ra himself described feeling some kind of internal explosion. Within moments, he was standing in a pool of his own perspiration. He then heard a male ‘voice’ insisting he get to work. He was receiving something profound from the Universe. Call it channelling. Call it inspiration. Call it what you will. But he started writing and sketching and continued for eight days and nights. From those writings, Human Design came into being.
As surreal as that story may sound, its inescapable truth can be witnessed in this book, for these are the teachings that Ra brought into the world; a gift from the Universe. It is a system that simply works.
For the next seven years I travelled regularly from Maui to attend classes with Ra, and in the same way that I had learned to read palms, I taught myself to read Human Design life charts. I started giving readings to friends and clients and began to see that the information was both meaningful and empowering. After four years, it was time to articulate all I had learned to a wider audience and I started teaching classes about the system.
One of the people who came to these classes had a profound impact on me, and it felt as if she was opening a whole new magical doorway. Carola was a spiritual astrologer and counsellor, and she could see in her own way how clearly we were connected. Ultimately, she invited me to move to be with her in California and we married. She started using Human Design in her counselling practice and also noticed how it assisted clients to move through certain issues and find clarity about who they were as individuals.
I, too, was well aware of the empowering impact the system could have on people. For many people, it truly was the difference between being lost and then feeling found, granting them permission
