Power vs. Force: The hidden determinants of human behavior
by David R. Hawkins, MD, PhD
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 Carlsbad, CA: Hay House 2002 (orig. 1995) 341 pp Notes 13 pp Refs 10 pp $14.95 David Hawkins had a spiritual opening in childhood and pursued further spiritual development throughout his life. He shares in this book ways in which we can understand levels of spiritual development; muscle testing methods for assessing degrees of development of people, books, events, etc.; group validation of these assessments; and the value of the presence of the therapist as an instrument for promoting healing.
Hawkins points out that logical, left-brain approaches to understanding the world are self-limiting. “… the logical arrangement of data serves mainly to enhance a pattern-recognition system that then becomes ‘truth.’ But nothing is ever ‘true,’ except under certain circumstances, and then only from a particular viewpoint, characteristically unstated.” (p. 28)
Hawkins strongly advocates for using intuitive assessments for measuring the value of various truths, stating that everyone can use intuition with accuracy and reliability. He reports that he has found these assessments to be entirely consistent across a broad spectrum of questions tested and through assessments of multiple individuals and groups of individuals. Where discrepancies were found, he claims that they were invariably resolved through removal of various blocks, reversals, or limiting beliefs that caused distortions in intuitive perceptions. While this claim is supported by what appears to be impressive, statistically significant research (p. 120), he provided no references where any studies were published. This leaves his research open to questions of procedural validity, at the least.
Using this system, he finds levels of spiritual development along a spectrum that includes Shame, Guilt, Apathy, Grief, Fear, Desire, Anger, Pride, Courage, Neutrality, Willingness, Acceptance, Reason, Love, Joy, Peace and Enlightenment. Through kinesiology, he reports consistent identification of numerical values for each level, ranging from 20 for Shame to 700-1000 for Enlightenment. The scale is logarithmic, so each increment is by a factor of ten times the previous, lower numerical level. Thus, a few enlightened beings can counterbalance and raise the collective levels of human development because their contributions are enormously greater than those of individuals at lower levels.
The average person will advance only 5 points along this scale in a lifetime. Through inner work of psychotherapeutic and spiritual growth, we can progress more rapidly from one level to the next.
He finds that the entire cosmos is imbued with Spiritual inspiration and energy.
Man thinks he lives by virtue of the forces he can control, but in fact, he’s goverendd by power from unrevealed sources, power over which he has no control. Because power is effortless, it goes unseen and unsuspected. Force is experienced through the senses; power can be recognized only through inner awareness. Man is immobilized in his present condition by his alignment with enormously powerful attractor energy patterns, which he himself unconsciously sets in motion. Moment by moment, he is suspended in this state of evolution, restrained by the energies of force, impelled by the energies of power.” (p. 37-38)
Force is the use by individuals or groups of physical or psychological means of coercion to achieve their ends at the expense of others. Power is the manifestation of Spirit in the world through the presence of people at higher levels of development. “Whereas power always results in a win-win situation; force produces win-lose situation…” (p. 167) The levels of Courage (200 on his scale) and above are positive; below that, negative in their spiritual effects in the world. I fully agree with Hawkins’ observations that
It’s as though every individual is exploring life with a compass that has a unique setting. (p. 113)
Concordance emerges from the organizing patterns hidden behind apparent chaos; thus, the evolution of mankind progresses despite the apparently aberrant signals of individuals at any given moment. Chaos is only a limited perception. Everything is a part of a large whole; everyone is involved in the evolution of the all-inclusive attractor field of consciousness itself. It’s the evolution, innate to the overall field of consciousness, which guarantees the salvation of mankind, and with it, all of life. The nobility of man is in his constant struggle with his own unasked-for existence in a world that is a house of mirrors – his sole support, and his faith in the process of life itself. (p. 113-114)
This book is a treasure of wise observations about the human condition, development of higher awareness, and the evolution of consciousness.
I feel that a caution must be sounded, however, regarding Hawkins’ overconfident statements about the certainty of his intuitive assessments and those of others he has tested. My own experience is that intuition is correct some of the time but not all of the time. The degree to which it is reliable appears related to the levels of development of the individuals making the intuitive assessments.
There are also questions raised by several specific statements in the book. I find a glaring discrepancy between Hawkins’ assessment of Walmart as a business that cares for its employees and those of most of the reports from Walmart employees – finding that Walmart is a crass exploiter of manufacturers and staff, and primarily dedicated to earning profits, regardless of the human costs. Hawkins also contradicts himself, stating on the one hand that no “…reliable result [can] be obtained from inquiry into the future; only statements regarding existent conditions or events will produce consistent answers.” (p. 61) Yet he makes diverse recommendations later in the book for using intuition to predict successes in business and other endeavors, suggesting that one can rely on these predictions. Return to Master Book Reviews Table of Contents
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