Power vs. Force

"The International College of Applied Kinesiology and its current and past two presidents, John Diamond and applied kinesiologists in general, as well as scientists and scientific skeptics, do not accept as workable Hawkins applied kinesiology." -Arjuna Aletheia, Secrets of David R. Hawkins: Hawkins Applied Kinesiology

"L. Ron Hubbard's emotional tone scale...may be considered as the most proper genesis of Hawkins' map..." -Arjuna Aletheia, Secrets of David R. Hawkins: Map of Consciousness

"Lee Iacocca, Sam Walton, and Mother Teresa...replied to having received the manuscript [of Power vs. Force]--they did not offer endorsements of it...Hawkins twisted the replies of Walton, Iacocca, and Mother Teresa to make them appear to be endorsements...[T]his was untruthful and unethical...After being introduced to Hawkins' work, many of his students (including myself) stopped questioning. We came to the conclusion that Hawkins had the truth, putting our faith in his calibration method...[Be cautious of] the destructive side of the Devotional Nonduality cult." -Scott Jeffrey, Power vs. Truth: Peering Behind the Teachings of David R. Hawkins (pp. 20-22, 196-97)

"It seems David's not interested in details and the accuracy of his statements...He has a tendency to exaggerate and a flair for the dramatic." -Scott Jeffrey, Doctor of Truth, The Life of David R. Hawkins (p. xiv)

"Terrifically interesting ideas, but caught in subtle reductionism and the myth of the given. All the `hidden determinants' [Hawkins] mentions in the subtitle are monological instead of tetra-logical." -Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World (p. 286)

"One of the things [Hawkins] does is use [applied] kinesiology, which is muscle testing, to test the truthfulness of statements...making a kind of lie-detector test out of it...The hidden ego hook is that now the student's attention is being put on the wrong place, focused on an illusory test of an illusory thing in an illusory world...[Hawkins] calibrates different teachings at various levels, from 1 to 1,000. People love it...[But] the Course [says]...'Spirit has no levels, and all conflict arises from the concept of levels.'...Enlightenment has no levels...things like tests and calibrations distract the student...and all it really leads to is a lot of wasted time...Add the lie-detector test to the mix and you have a lifetime's worth of distractions...Don't be discouraged by those who borrow from the Course instead of teaching it." -Gary Renard (fellow controversial, Wayne Dyer-endorsed Hay House author), Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death (pp. 196-98)

"There is a heavy use of pseudoscience when it fits and leaping to spirituality to fill in the gaps. If you are cautious about the leap, then you just are not sufficiently spiritual. Try a dab of appeal to authority combined with ad hominem to fill in the holes, i.e., the enlightened master has spoken and who are you to challenge these words?" -"Dr. Doctor David Hawkins's AK Quackery," The Skeptic's Dictionary Newsletter 58, August 23, 2005

"Dr. Hawkins has apparently taken a grandiose road less traveled, and...may have morphed into a malignant pied piper." -Peter Olsson, M.D., author, Malignant Pied Pipers of Our Time: A Psychological Study of Destructive Cult Leaders

"Special Thanks to...My spiritual teacher & Lord, Dr. David R. Hawkins...Literally growing up in a community which was deeply routed [sic] on a blind faith of the God of Kinesiology...At one point people would calibrate to form a cult, at another to commit to immoral or even illegal activities because their muscle testing would tell them to do so...[including testing] unlawful things like killing somebody." -Jakob Merchant, Hawkins student, CommunionWithLove.com

Muscle testing (applied kinesiology) "is no more useful than random guessing." -PubMed.gov

"Hawkins uses applied kinesiology, a New Age pseudoscience, to calibrate everyone and everything's level of consciousness in the universe. Jesus is at 1000 in his system, and Hawkins himself calibrates one of his books at 999.8. He believes he is God." -Cults.co.nz

"Hawkins Ph.D...was earned from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited diploma mill that was shut down by court order." -Dr. Robert Todd Carroll

"Hawkins...assertion that what he does is AK [applied kinesiology] is akin to suggesting that lancing boils is total medical practice. This type of testing is not part of any `approved AK material'..." -Eric Pierotti, President, International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK)

"Hawkins should certainly be able to use his arm-pressing technique to win our million-dollar prize!...But will he apply? No, of course not. Why? The answer is obvious." -James Randi, James Randi Educational Foundation

"Dr. Hawkins refers to the `absolute replicability of test results,' yet makes no mention that [applied] kinesiology has never been verified by [authentic] double-blind studies..." -Spiritualteachers.org

"David Hawkins attended one seminar of my husband's [John Diamond, M.D.] way back in the mid 1970's and that is it...Hawkins has had no training in Applied Kinesiology..." -Susan Diamond

"[A]ll [experts] consider Dr. Hawkins' version of applied kinesiology to not be true...[Offers] nothing more than his own personal delusions as your objective spiritual truth." -Guruphiliac

"When I heard that Hawkins was claiming to be able to use AK/muscle testing to discern the Truth of A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G, I could instantly find a few major holes in such a proposition." -David Portney, AK expert

"Hawkins...has leaned rather too heavily on what turns out to be a thin stick...and [utilizes] a classic cult invalidation tactic..." -Sarlo's Guru Rating Service

"Hawkins...is a cult [leader] masquerading as a 'scientist' and making a lot of money in the process on his false claims." -quoted by International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)

"I'm far from the only one disenchanted with this cult." -Marilyn Gang, Dowsers.info

"[A] truly twisted theory...cleverly [removes] the foundation on which we normally stand to detect deception..." -Mary-Sue Haliburton, PESWiki.com

"Most other cult leaders don't even pretend to be scientific and so they cannot be falsified by science...This is a cynical exploitation of science..." -John Smith

"I would caution against book [sic] as a tool of judgement to 'measure' the consciousness level of other people..." -Ilchi Lee (fellow controversial New Age practitioner, who was endorsed by David Hawkins)

"Hawkins of course is not a cult expert, so finding himself to not be a cult leader while actual cult experts do is a bit self-supporting." -from "David R. Hawkins" at Cult Education Institute Forum

"The New England Institute of Religious Research (NEIRR)...has applied [to Hawkins] Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton's cult and mind control criteria outlined in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism." -Rev. Robert Pardon (Th.M., Princeton Theological Seminary), NEIRR (paraphrased)

"I have not been as interested in following Dr. Hawkins work...[due to] the more personality oriented following he seems to have developed." -Dr. Jonathan Reams, Gonzaga University

"Whatever use [applied] kinesiology may or may not have, it's [obvious] that it is useless for testing and calibrating historical figures, political documents, and I suspect anything else." -Reverend Keith, PathsToKnowledge.com

"Hawkins... has a way of pulling the Truth out of everything and everybody. Or maybe just pulling his own 'truth' out of his...oh, never mind." -Cosmic Connie, Whirled Musings

"[C]lassic fundamentalism...[A] rejection of Hawkins' philosophy is an affirmation of true spirituality." -EnergyGrid Magazine

"It is proper to doubt in things that are doubtful." -The Buddha

"You are already and eternally That." -Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Updated April 20, 2014]

The scale of consciousness is a very powerful and useful concept, and the chapters showing how they apply in different areas of life so it's understandable is just awesome. I've definitely absorbed this work into my life and has made a substantial impact. Also, I've read a few of Hawkins books after this one, but, this one was the best so far.

Review of Power vs. Force by John Beasley
Dr. Hawkins introduces a number of issues in his book, Power vs. Force. He deals with ascending levels of consciousness and then introduces Kinesiology as a means for testing the relative value or usefulness of products, activities, philosophies, opinions, and emotions.

The inherent problem with writing a book on ascending levels of consciousness is that language, the medium of books, is located within the left hemisphere of the brain. Ascending consciousness occurs specifically by transcending the language center, that is, learning to use divergent parts of the brain other than the language center or conceptual self located within the left hemisphere of the brain.
That being said, Dr. Hawkins equates levels of conscious to us in story form i.e. how these levels of consciousness appear to manifest themselves in experiential reality, rather than how to manifest them. To learn to use the various centers of the brain is conceptually, rather simple. How to consciously use the frontal lobes, both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum and the brain stem can be explained in 20 or 30 minutes, but actually learning to use these various parts of the brain and intentionally connecting the conscious and unconscious mind can constitute a life long pursuit.
Dr. Hawkins appears to be combining Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs theory with Social Darwinism and asserting that aspiring to higher levels of consciousness is a developmental process or evolutionary process. I would tend to disagree with that understanding. Having learned to use all my brain consciously, I would say it has nothing to do with social conditioning, and that in fact social conditioning tends to impede human development in the interest of conformity.
In an effort to ascend to these higher levels of consciousness Dr. Hawkins advises readers to learn to rely upon kinesthetic testing to estimate the impact an idea, product, activity, philosophy, opinion, or emotion is likely to have upon their life. The only way to prove the value of kinesthetics is to try it for oneself. Even if conclusive clinical documentation existed that proved kinesthetics works such knowledge would be conceptual, i.e. linguistic and only recognized within the language center of the brain. The individual attempting to evolve to higher states of consciousness has to venture outside of the language center and learn to use other parts of their brain. For this reason, each person needs to do the fundamental research to validate kinesiology testing for him or herself.
Dr. Hawkins book brings us one step closer to realizing Nietzsches prediction that the next significant step in social evolution would be one of increased consciousness in which humans would ascend to the level of Ubermench.

The top 3 books In Western Civilization are:
1. The Bible
2. The United States Constitution
3. This book "Power vs. Force"
Yes I do say that this book is the third most important book ever written because author David Hawkins has created a scale that measures and explains the levels of "ENLIGHTENMENT", or "How well am I doing with my life".
The scale has been scientifically validated and gives all people a thorough tool to be used in personal development.
Since there is only one human race on the planet why don't we all contribute to ourselves and the world by embarking on life's journey toward enlightenment so we can each become the person we want to be. Without a scale you can't tell where you are on your journey. With the scale in this book we each have a tool that can help show us each who and where we are on life's journey.

Power vx. Force has been one of the greatest books that I have ever read. It is a total and complete interpretation of the Scale of Consciousness and that is what I wrote of in one of my own books without knowing of this actual scale. That is how Spirit works when you are being guided by the Spirit Guide of your own Soul. I am extremely impressed with the knowledge and the application of this knowledge produced within the cover of this book. It is a #1 for anyone on their own path to recovery of Soul merging into their own Spirit. Your own Soul must surrender to your own Spirit to get to the Kingdom of Lights offered in the ancient writings of the apostles: the books you are told to steer​ clear of are the books of untold truth of Christ stay on earth. .

This book does a great job in explaining the power we all have within. It explains consciousness very nicely. It is very motivating and inspiring. A must read book for those who want to be part of the global conscious evolution that is very badly needed to transform the humanity and to save the planet!!

If you're looking for self discovery and spiritual growth, this book is a must read. In the search for truth we come across many pieces of a very large puzzle. Power Vs. Force is one of those pieces and contains a wealth of information about the history of consciousness, its importance to mankind, attractor patterns, and how to raise your consciousness and stay spiritually strong.

The book also focuses on kinesiology as a means to discover truth. Dr. Hawkins is absolutely convinced of the validity of muscle testing which he uses to calibrate the attractor force of whatever is being tested. According to the theory, the collective unconsciousness of mankind knows the truth. An individual can tap into this knowledge and test weak or strong, depending on what is being tested. Instructions are given for how to do the muscle testing.

Whether you believe muscle testing works or not, there are many spiritual aspects of this book that ring true and Dr. Hawkins gives clear examples of power and force and explains how and why power wins over force. While reading the book, I was reminded of the old fable in which the wind bragged to the sun that he was stronger and could force a man to remove his coat. The wind blew and blew and the man got cold and wrapped his coat more tightly about himself. Then the sun tried. The sun didn't use force. Instead, the sun used the power of his rays to shine gently upon the man, who became warm and removed his coat.

Power Vs. Force is the kind of reference work I will keep and refer to again and again. Great book.

This book looks at human behavior and its relationship to individual and social consciousness. The book's value is that it transcends the traditional doctrinaire and pre-scientific justifications for human virtue while destroying popular justifications for the use of force in a post-Nietzschean value-relative world. This book relates many types of force used in terrorism, preemptive war, and personal and national self-interest to low levels of development of human consciousness. It argues that genuine power comes through virtuous living rather than subjugation by force.

There is a classification scale of 0-1000 level of consciousness that many teachers and policymakers will resist, in part because many of them will fall low on this scale in today's society, and their counterparts 200 years ago would have probably ranked much higher. This type of analysis should be an essential part of any public or private school education, and even assigned to politicians running for office. A charter school I am advising is considering a goal graduating students that score 500 on this scale. It would indeed be an achievement to see a society operating at that level (most current political campaign slogans and many commercial advertisements are near the bottom of this scale).

I recommend reading this book for anyone interested in producing good people and good societies in a post-doctrinaire (whether of a religious fundamentalist, rationalist, or ideological variety), and post-pluralistic/relativist society.

This book changed my life, Dr. Hawkins' vision is beautiful and opened my eyes to where true power lies. I believe this is a world changing book and it's place in history will only grow as more and more people understand it's message.

David Hawkins book provides a deep insight into the mysterious realm of spirituality and
enlightenment. He looks deep into our souls and provides benchmarks that allow us to
search for higher levels of consciousness. The book is well written and interesting.
For those on a spiritual journey, this is a MUST READ reference book.

The book is good with interesting ideas. I gave it a 3 because the ideas are expressed in what seems to me a convoluted way. It's a tough read at best. There was probably a better and more positive way to express these ideas.

A classic of spiritual development. The concept of gradually rising states of consciousness and motivation is fascinating. If we think of an angry person (like so many loud voices in the public sphere) in a negative light, we miss the fact that they are no longer mired in guilt, shame and apathy, and that anger can also be a stepping stone to the development of courage, which can then lead to pride, and thence to a certain neutrality and acceptance. Or a person who cultivates acceptance, then willingness, can grow into a stronger state of joy, etc. Each state has its negatives, but also its positive energy, which with the right encounters, can lead to much more satisfying states such as love and compassion, and higher states of peace and enlightenment. Very rich in insights and multi-faceted. No easy answers but a helpful way of understanding human dynamics.

By sprucing the writing early with cool terms like chaos theory (the book came out in early 90's; Jurassic Park during the same time was also talking about chaos theory as if it was the best thing to be invented) this book quickly indicated that it was eager to gain some authority with the serious crowd. What followed were hollow and incomprehensible explanations of highly suspect techniques and inferences based on them. New foreword completely killed the whole argument by basically stating that, "well, things change and so all these measurements could fluctuate, etc." - i.e. the '95 book's main ideas were largely void 10 years later.

Reading this book brought about valuable self-realizations. Regardless of what one thinks about muscle-testing and calibration levels, I found that merely reading this book has increased my overall levels of gratitude and therefore satisfaction in daily life.

Definitely a fascinating read, but I give it a three as far as having any kind of concrete evidence for its claims. The method of measurement used to determine various levels of consciousness was extremely subjective to me. I was never sold on the method of measuring consciousness, which the entire book is pretty much basing itself on. However, with that aside, it was an engaging read. I probably won't be basing much on the contents, but I do enjoy an intelligent read about fascinating subjects the author writes about. It's tough to find books focused on subjects like this, so if its premise sounds engaging, it's probably worth checking out.

Great book! It came highly recommended by a personal friend. I read this in preparation to read and more fully understand Hawkins' "Transcending the Levels of Conciousness". I recommend all of Hawkins' books.

If you read more than one of Hawkins' books, you will find that he repeats his foundational concepts in each book. I find this helpful to "cement" the concepts more solidly. These can be skipped over easily and Hawkins recommends this for some readers.

Certainly, if we all applied ourselves to the principles that Hawkins espouses, our lives and culture would improve. Hawkins is not the only one saying and proposing this.

In this book Hawkins explains that all events in the universe are recorded in a Field of Consciousness beyond time, locality, and the recall of memory. This record is then retrievable forever by a simple physiological phenomenon called muscle testing (or kinesiology). Hawkins is then able to determine the truth or falsehood of any statement.

Through kinesiology calibrations taken over 20 years, Hawkins analyzed the whole spectrum of human consciousness, on a scale from one to 1,000, and created a profile of human experience which he calls the Map of Consciousness. Levels under 200 are considered to be “false”: destructive, draining, depleting of energy, and temporary. Levels over 200 are considered to be “true”: self-sustaining, constructive, energizing, and invincible.

Hawkins claims that this technique provides people the means by which to calibrate levels of truth and determine whether they are being misled in any situation.

Amazing stuff. I Loved this book.

This book is amazing, truly eye opening and revelatory. There is so much information in this book that one reading of it will not be enough. It was truly fascinating to read as there was so much new information that I learned. I'm at a point in my life where I can receive what this books teaches. I will be going back to my highlighted areas to review the material to keep the information at the forefront of my mind until it stays in my mind. I don't want to forget what I've just learned.

As a personal coach, I have observed that most clients who find me are challenged in the face of a puzzle or paradox and very motivated to get over, around or through this roadblock in their life. Reading "Power vs. Force: the hidden determinants of human behavior" was helpful in understanding where in one's growth and development personal coaching fits.

The author tells us that the attainment of wisdom is slow and painful, and few are willing to relinquish familiar views (even if they're inaccurate). Nevertheless, there remains free choice and a considerable potential for individual mobility and variety of experience, which makes alternate options available.

Once a commitment to be coached has been made, the person begins to experience a different, more benign world as his or her

perceptions evolve to meet the personal challenge.

Dr. Hawkins convincingly conveys that when life is viewed as a teacher, then it becomes just that. But unless we become humble and transform these experiences into gateways to grow and develop, the painful life lessons that we deal ourselves are wasted.

This was heavy going.
A very scientific book but one that I still read a lot.
I believe I have read it 3 times and found some thing interesting each time.
If you can believe the premise of the book it is priceless.
If you can't don't waste your time.

This book COULD have been great. For a moment at least, let's take the major premise of kinesiology testing at the author's word. If true, this would be a MAJOR breakthrough in man's ability to discern truth from fiction in the world. The author himself mentioned that he's undertaken millions of kinesiological tests over the past number of years. So, you would expect to find out all kinds of interesting "eye-opening" facts in the book, wouldn't you? Don't hold your breath. The author divulges a sum total of 30-40 test results throughout the entire book (mostly how historical persons such as Jesus and Hitler calibrated). If he's so confident in his system, why not publish a book of the 1000's of interesting facts that could be ascertained using this method (e.g. "Did O.J. do it?"). It would be the most interesting book ever written (again assuming the testing system is what the author claims it is). Instead, the author goes through chapter after chapter of telling you how the method COULD be used by the reader (e.g. to choose politicians, make company decisions, etc.).
One other MAJOR note...the mathematical assumptions in this book are absolutely atrocious, and frankly embarrassing for someone of Dr. Hawkins' reported credentials! For instance, the author claims that simply by reading this book, the average reader increased their calibration by 35 points. If you know the math behind the logarithmic scale the author uses, this means that the average reader increased his consciousness calibration by 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times!!! You mean to tell me that by reading one 300-page book, I've increased my consciousness trillions and trillions of times over? C'mon Dr. Hawkins! Another example is how Dr. Hawkins laments how the average human "only" gains 5 calibration points over a lifetime. Only? 5 points is 10 to the 5th power, or 100,000. Wow I only wish I could increase my consciousness by a magnitude of 100,000X in my lifetime! A mere surface review of the book from a mathematical angle shows these HUGE flaws in the "scale"...which makes me highly skeptical of how accurate the author's entire methodology is!
With that said, I have conducted some very preliminary tests of the kinesiology method, with a good deal of success (O.J. did do it by the way, according to my testing, and Bach tested positive versus a negative for Slayer). I'll also give the author commendation on his general writings about what it takes for us all to improve ourselves. But I remain HIGHLY skeptical about the entire premise of the author's mathematics and the "scale" derived from that faulty math, and therefore give the book 3 stars out of 5.

The new science of kinesiology ushered in a powerful diagnostic tool called "muscle testing". (Muscle testing is a simple procedure for testing strong/weak responses, such as that of an outstretched arm, in response to questioning). Despite the revolutionary nature of these discoveries, most people are willing to rationalize that something other than the "conscious mind" is at play, something whose function it is to oversee the well-being of the individual and manage the body's myriad complex subsystems. It could then be extrapolated that this benign functionality - "subconscious mind", "field" or whatever - would be willing to communicate with the "outside world" when matters regarding the well-being of its charge were concerned.
Dr. Hawkins, however, has taken a quantum leap with the idea of muscle testing. Rather than simply regarding the field or subconscious mind as the governing mechanism of the individual's body, he applied muscle testing in the context of traditional metaphysical paradigms stating that all things are connected, that all events, actions, thoughts and emotions are written into the unlimited Database of Consciousness, and that as participants in this universe, we all have access to that Database. Thus through muscle testing we have the ability to get the answer to any question we can formulate (except pertaining to the future, which has not yet been written into the record). The implications of this are staggering. Did O.J. do it? Is the government telling the truth about thus-and-such? We now have the means for direct knowledge.
Most authors would be content to base an entire book solely on these revelations, but surprisingly this is merely the groundwork laid out by Dr. Hawkins for the rest of the book! Based on thousands of studies using these methods, striving for 100% repeatability on the tests, he explains many aspects of human experience including a Spectrum of Consciousness. Based on a logarithmic scale of 1 to 1000, all ideas, emotions, concepts, thoughts, works of art, literature and science, resonate at some level. Above the level of 200 these energies are considered nurturing, positive and "good" (Power). Below 200 are energies that are destructive, negative and "evil" (Force).
Dr. Hawkins explores how "attractor" energies (mathematics from chaos theory) influence art, science, medicine and sports and examines the specific mechanisms leading to health and disease. He examines the quality of our institutions and discusses the nature of Consciousness and the path to enlightenment. All concepts are presented with exceptional clarity and lucidity, without any sign of pedantry. Finally, as the title of the book suggests, one may attain a quantitative understanding of the difference between Power and Force. (Examine the handling of the Elian Gonzales case based on these criteria).
This book is an absolute must for anyone searching for a better understanding of "how reality works". And so we thank those who calibrate high on the Scale Of Consciousness, who lead the rest of us forward, kicking and screaming, on the path of enlightenment...