Methods & Editorial Policy

Epigraphs

“The infidelity of many thinking men is fairly attributable to this, that they have never examined the evidence of Christianity. It does not seem probable that a book which has been so much the subject of examination as the New Testament, and of examination in every age and country since it was written, should contain no proofs of its authenticity, no reason to believe the accounts which it delivers. Had these men read the books of Christian apologists, they would have found in them, I think, little indeed to justify the contempt with which they speak of the subject. This contempt prior to examination is an intellectual vice, from which the greatest faculties of mind are not free.”

Provenance. This is the closest verified Paley source for the idea later popularized as “contempt prior to examination.” The widely circulated smoother version (“There is a principle which is a bar against all information…”) is a later reconstruction and is often misattributed to Herbert Spencer.

“Do not go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that certain things are skillful, blameless, praised by the wise, and lead to welfare and to happiness, then you should enter and remain in them.”

Provenance. This is a sourced passage from the Kalama Sutta, often cited as a statement of disciplined inquiry. It is a better documentary fit than modern unsourced paraphrases such as “Accept nothing that is unreasonable; discard nothing as unreasonable without proper examination.”

Scope

This archive documents the Human Design System as a historical, institutional, and sociological subject. Its scope covers:

• The founder Ra Uru Hu — his stated biography, the 1987 transmission account, his own words in published lectures and interviews
• The teachers who trained under him and transmitted the system — their documented roles, dates, and contributions
• The institutions he established — Jovian Archive, the International Human Design Schools, and their successors
• The trademark and copyright record — USPTO filings, the 2020 Florence court ruling, and the documented legal status of the system's marks
• The scientific research record — what formal study has been conducted, what it found, and what a validation would require
• The divergent schools and derivative systems — documented, compared by their own stated differences
• Primary documents — contracts, filings, archived pages, published letters, recorded statements — where publicly available

This archive does not teach the system, sell its materials, conduct readings, offer certifications, or take a position on whether the system is true, valid, or useful.

Method

Primary sources first. Every load-bearing factual claim is traceable to a publicly verifiable primary source: the teacher's own published materials, USPTO trademark records, court documents, archived institutional pages, contemporaneous news reporting, or published interviews. Where no primary source exists, no claim is made.

Quotation over paraphrase. Where a document says something, it is quoted directly and cited with a link to the source. Paraphrase is used only where the underlying source is too long to quote in full, and the paraphrase is clearly marked as such.

Interpretation is labeled. This archive distinguishes between “the record shows X” and “this suggests Y.” Interpretive readings are flagged with language like “interpretation note” or “this archive reads this as.” They are never presented as settled fact.

Retrieval dates are recorded. Every URL-based source is retrieved and dated. Where a page has changed since retrieval, the Wayback Machine permalink is the reference.

No argument from silence. The absence of a document in the public record is noted as absence — not as evidence of suppression, concealment, or any particular inference.

Contested Narratives

The Human Design System has a contested history. Where two sources conflict — Ra Uru Hu's birth year in Jovian Archive materials versus the Montreal Gazette death notice; the founding date of a school; who held a particular role — this archive sets out both documented positions with their sources and states which figure it uses and why. It does not resolve the dispute by assertion, and it does not pretend one version does not exist.

Where the institutional record has changed — pages removed, teachers no longer listed, historical claims quietly revised — this archive notes the change and links to archived versions where they exist. It does not infer motive from the change.

Where the archive's own reading of the record differs from the institutional narrative, the difference is stated plainly, with sources on both sides.

Gaps and Limits

This archive covers what is in the public record. Much of the early history of the Human Design System was not recorded in publicly retrievable documents. Teacher biographies may be incomplete because the teacher has not published their own account. Dates may be approximate because contemporaneous documentation does not exist. The archive states these limits where they apply rather than filling them with inference.

The archive makes no claim to completeness. It is a living document. Where new primary sources become available, the relevant pages are updated and the change is logged in Corrections or Updates.

Living Subjects

Profiles of living teachers are held to the same sourcing standard as all other pages, with additional care:

• Birth data for living teachers is published only where the teacher has shared it publicly on their own platforms or in their own published materials.
• No private information is used.
• Living teachers may request correction or removal of their profile through the contact form. Opt-out requests are honored within 14 days. Correction requests are reviewed against publicly verifiable sources and processed within 14 days.
• Profiles of living teachers include a visible correction and opt-out notice.

Where a living teacher disputes a factual claim on this archive, the archive takes the dispute seriously, reviews it against the public record, and corrects or annotates the relevant page if the claim is not supportable. The fact of the dispute itself is not suppressed.

Independence

This archive is not an official publication of, and is not operated, sponsored, or endorsed by, Jovian Archive, the International Human Design School (IHDS), or any Human Design organization, certification body, or commercial program. It has no affiliation with any derivative system — Gene Keys, Quantum Human Design, BG5, or others.

It is not a school. It does not sell readings, certifications, courses, or materials. Its operating costs are covered by hosting fees; some book links are Amazon affiliate links and are identified as such. No advertising or sponsored content appears on this archive.

The organization that operates this archive does not identify its founders or staff. The reason is stated in About: the identity of whoever made it is not relevant to whether the content is accurate.

Citation Philosophy

Every factual claim on this archive is meant to be checkable by a reader who has access to nothing but the public internet. Citations link to the source, not to this archive's description of it. Where the original source is behind a paywall or has changed, the Wayback Machine permalink is used.

This archive is itself citable. Pages are stable, permalinked, and free to cite. A citation requires three things: the site name, the page URL, and the date retrieved — for example:

The Science of Differentiation, “The Public Record,” thescienceofdifferentiation.com/record, retrieved July 2026.

A machine-readable index of the archive's canonical pages is published at /llms.txt. The primary sources used throughout this archive are listed at /sources.

For guidance on citing specific pages, see About → Citing This Archive.