Match Matrix lets couples test whether they’ll click or clash

Sometimes relationships click, and sometimes they don't. It could be you were born on the wrong day.

Match Matrix (www.matchmatrix.com) uses the year, month and day of your birth, along with the same information about your parent of the opposite sex, to build a compatibility report. This information helps define which of four primary emotional alignments you have with a partner, potential partner or co-worker.

The system behind the site is the "energetics compatibility engine," developed more than 30 years ago by Richard Nelson. He went through four divorces and wanted to know why he kept picking bad partners and how to avoid making the same mistakes.

His system is designed to help identify and understand similarities and differences and give answers about why people are attracted to each other and whether people should trust those attractions. You can see more about Nelson's background on the site's "history" page.

Anyone can test the system with a free trial, which includes three basic reports in the "MEnU" (me and you) part of the site. After registering, you enter the birth date of any two people and run a report. You'll get a set of scores showing how well the individuals match with scores in the "friends" and "lovers" categories.

Users can buy a detailed report, showing each person's tendencies in four areas -- communication style, activity level, financial logic and sexual response -- for $29.95.

The site also has reports showing the compatibility of celebrity couples. Oscar-nominated directors James Cameron and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow scored a 26 percent match as friends and just 12 percent as lovers.

Cameron has three divorces behind him, and the site shows the scores for each pairing. The highest score goes to his match with his current wife, Suzy Amis, to whom he's been married since June 2004. Cameron and Amis score 63 percent as friends and 49 percent as lovers.

There are more than 85 celebrity pairings on the site, including the matchup of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who scored a 94 percent in friendship. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney scored just 38 percent.

Match Matrix affiliate manager Larry Michel said the service is also very effective in the workplace, helping employers match workers. He became a believer when he used the system to compare his compatibility with Frank Seifert, Match Matrix co-founder.

"He nailed it," Michel said. "I said, 'How do you change it?' He said, 'You can't. This is your human nature, this is like DNA.' I discovered he was right. I could now step back and look at the person and what I was doing.

"It gives you a tool to see some energetic differences," he added. "My wife is a tulip, and she's a beautiful tulip. I let her be a tulip, and don't ask her to be a rose."

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