Body of 9 vs. Personality Typing:
Nature vs. Nurture
Body of 9, Nature:
Body of 9 is body-based. This is a critical difference between the Body of 9 process and traditional personality typing and classification models. Your Natural Number is identified through a physical process that is determined by the natural responses in the way your body moves. Body of 9 is primarily a body-based system that is based on your nature which secondarily identifies innate strengths, gifts and attributes common to the group of a particular Natural Number. Personality typing is based on self-reported information about behavior through responses to questions.
Natural Number versus Personality is more of a Nature versus Nurture comparison. Each influences a person’s way of interacting in the world. Natural Number is physical, and we are born with it. For example, all of the people who have Natural Number 7 can have very different personalities that develop over time from their experiences. They may have a variety of results when tested using personality testing instruments. However, there are physical attributes that are consistently demonstrated as being specific primarily to Natural Number 7. This is true with each of the other nine Natural Numbers. These physical attributes are the nature of a Natural Number. Over time, nurture can have an impact on the expression of these physical attributes, as well as on your behaviors and needs.
Your Natural Number is related to a region of the body where a collection of bones, fascia and muscles naturally engage. We each have one naturally active region. You can learn to consciously engage your body in your Natural Number region. This offers access to specific information. Each Natural Number has a kind of filter through which information is interpreted. Activating your Natural Number gives you access to this filter in a more powerful way. It brings forth and distinguishes your self expression, acceptance, and awareness using your innate body-based abilities.
Personality Typing, Nurture:
Determining your personality profile involves a very different process than determining your Natural Number. The personality profiling process involves 1) documenting or observing your behaviors, 2) collecting your answers to questions, or 3) self-identifying into a category using some other method. The results are heavily influenced by your life experience (nurture) and potentially any bias within the test.
The distinction between body-based grouping (nature) and response-based grouping (nature + nurture) is important for many reasons. Personality typing systems measure how we respond using our self-reported perceptions, behaviors, and emotions. Personality typing systems measure something that is a result of both nature and nurture working together. This can also change over time. Your results sometimes vary over the course of a lifetime. In contrast, you are born into the world with your Natural Number as an innate part of you. This does not change.
Body of 9 Compared with Astrology and Human Design
There are other types of systems, like Astrology and Human Design that have their roots in how the energy of the universe is aligned at the moment of our creation/birth. These systems draw conclusions about behavior and tendencies based on the alignment of the universe. Both of these systems are interesting and quite powerful. But neither provides physical adjustments which you can do to alter your interpretation and response to the world around you – where Body of 9 teaches you how to use your body to expand your perceptive abilities and interact with others. And for Body of 9, no additional information about you is required to identify your Natural Number, no need for your birthdate, time or location – it’s all right there in your body.
In Summary, The Difference:
In contrast to Personality Typing, your Natural Number is identified through outside observation of your body’s natural responses. We see it as a “hardwiring”, unchanging through the lifespan. A Natural Number determines some specific innate strengths and attributes about us, which are then further shaped and influenced by nurture. Family, culture, ongoing social interactions, media, education, religion, politics and other systems change our behavior – how we show up in Personality Typing.
Additionally, Personality Typing systems do not provide physical things that you can do. And while they provide insight into others’ behaviors, they do not offer a path to understanding others’ body-based experiences through using our body’s perceptive abilities.
