The term “Authority” is used to describe which aspect of a person’s design can be relied upon to consistently yield the ‘best’ experience as the result of a person’s decision. Authority always comes from a defined center in the bodygraph. As we shall see, only certain centers when defined become your authority.

We all have to make decisions and we have many internal dynamics that compete to make them. We have highly developed brains that are the product not only of millennia of evolution but also, for most of us, many years of cultural immersion, peer group role modeling, and formal education. We make decisions based on past experience, future goals, current impulses, even based on the decisions of those with whom we are close (spouses, children, parents, friends, mentors).

One of the most notable aspects of HD is the recognition that each person comes genetically wired with a decision making process that is “correct” for that person. This wiring is not simply a ‘separate’ dynamic, but one that is fully integrated with the whole state of being of the person.

When we make decisions from this genetically wired “authority”, those decisions result in an experience that is “correct” in that the experience is ideally suited to be properly aligned with other dynamics (e.g. type, definition, profile). We may or may not “like” the results of the decision. We may interpret the resulting experience as comfortable or unpleasant, but regardless of our interpretation of the outcome, a decision properly made from our authority is one that overall will profit us the most in a whole sense.

In the subsequent sections we will look more closely at each authority and their connection to type, profile and circuitry.

Before we go into those details however, it is important for you to understand that nobody can speak very reliably about any authority other than their own. We can learn what others think about the various authorities, we can listen to how others describe their experience of their own authority, but we can never directly experience any authority other than our own – and even that is a tenuous understanding at best.

Keep in mind that the results of any decision can unfold over the course of many years – even an entire lifetime and none of us can ever know what the results would have been had we decided differently. This is one of the most onerous and perhaps tragic aspects of our existence. Our inability to know what would have happened if we had decided differently severely limits our ability to make well informed decisions. We are always “playing the odds”.

When an analyst does a reading for a client it is important to help the client discover for themselves how to access their own authority. As an analyst it’s not your job to “make” the client see, understand or accept. That belongs to the client and they will come to it in their own way in their own time – or not. It’s not something to belabor in a reading, but something to gently insert and encourage them to test.