Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

Not an easy book to read if you attempt to understand it with your conscious, rational mind. I found immense pleasure and insight in the understanding that happened 'beyond the mind' and found myself in unexplainable lightness and joy at times.
Hawkins description of consciousness is very interesting and thought provoking.
At what level of consciousness are you?

There are very few books I have read which I have hurled across the room in disgust. The author apparently is hoping that none of his readers remember their high school mathematics. If they did, they would find co-opted terminology and faulty mathematical reasoning leading to ludicrous conclusions. I take no issue with spiritual or "new age" books which attempt to make their case using evidence from inner experience. But intentionally dressing it up with bad math in hopes that the layman will swallow this hogwash as science is unconscionable.

This is a unique book - I’ve never read anything like it before.

The book is worth reading for the preface alone. Here Hawkins discloses his various awakening experiences, beginning at the age of three. At one point, when caught in a blizzard, he enters “a state of peace beyond all description … accompanied by a suffusion of light and a Presence of infinite love”. This was indistinguishable from his own essence. Later in life he enters a permanent state of bliss. He was “an instrument of the Infinite Presence, and … did as it willed”.

His chronic maladies disappear. He heals incurable catatonics and other desperately ill psychotics in an instant just by “loving” them. He sees in each patient “the shining essence of show more love and beauty” and the patient is healed by his/her own recognition of who he/she really is. He sees that “all pain and suffering arises solely from the ego and not from God”.

This preface is a revelation. Make sure to read it.

But the main content of the book is about the author’s discovery of kinesiology – that the truth or falsehood of any statement can be tested by means of muscle testing. Our bodies in their infinite wisdom know the answer to everything.

Hawkins devises a scale of calibration ranging from 0 – 1000. O is presumably death, 700-1000 is enlightenment. Shame, Guilt, Apathy, Grief, Fear, Desire, Anger, Pride range from 20-175. At the 200 level, which is Courage, power first appears.

When subjects are tested at all the energy levels below 200, all go weak. Everyone goes strong at levels above 200.

Neutrality is 250, Willingness is 310, Acceptance is 350, Reason is 400, Love is 500. (The love referred to is “unconditional, unchanging, and permanent”.) Joy is 540, Peace is 600 and, as stated, Enlightenment is 700-1000.

The collective level of consciousness of mankind is currently at 207 (the book first appeared in 1995, so perhaps the average level of consciousness has now increased).

The level of Nobel Prize Winners, great statesmen, Einstein and Freud calibrates at 400. From level 540 up is “the domain of saints --- advanced spiritual students and healers”. The level of 600 is associated with “transcendence, self-realization, and God-consciousness”. “It is extremely rare, attained by only 1 in 10 million people.” Mahatma Gandhi calibrated at 700. Gandhi won in the struggle against the British Empire because his position was one of far greater power. The British Empire represented Force (calibrated at 175) and power always wins against force.

Hawkins has calibrated each sentence and chapter in the book to check for their truth. The calibrated levels of truth of the chapters are given at the back of the book and range from 710 to 890.

I would thus strongly recommend everyone to read this book - you may raise your consciousness! show less

This is a discourse of what it means to understand and act upon one's intuitive and higher mind capabilities. The premise is that our bodies will respond to things that are "true" or have power, with a level of ease. Alternatively, when something is "false" it will have an element of forced nature to it- trying to make something that it isn't or shouldn't be. I appreciated the simplicity of the conversation and also the scale in which we move through the levels of that sensitivity. It is not a scale to be graded on, as some reviewers may suggest- but rather a road map of how far we have ascended from complete unawareness, apathy, and disillusionment.

While David R. Hawkins was a legitimate, highly-trained psychiatrist earlier in his career, his later work is widely considered pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific and medical communities.

Informative book on consciousness. However, I do not believe human consciousness can be graded on a scale. I believe we are very fluid and our consciousness move from high to low. Also, I believe we can have mutliple emotions and personality depending on what we are doing and thinking and as such, we will have different consciousness, subconscious or not.

3.5 stars. will reread again in the future.

This is an excellent book that speaks of the difference between power and force. Power is quiet and requires no explanation. Force is coercive and creates an automatic counterforce.

This has great applicability for couples, parents and bosses. Standing on the side of truth, justice and all that sustains life is power. This is strength of its own merit. Force represents all that is negative and life destructive.

Whenever you attempt to make someone do something that they don't want to do, you are applying force. We do this through any number of behaviors such as manipulating, blaming, guilting, bribing, complaining, criticizing and coercing. This always creates a counterforce. Whenever you attempt to coerce someone else, you create a show more measure of resistance. This resistance may not show itself in your presence but it will manifest in the world in some way.

People will undermine your authority, talk behind your back, rally other's support or confront you to your face. You cannot win with force. If you think you have, know that it is only temporary. What goes around comes around. Read the book. Its message is powerful! show less