Rating: 
Summary: Scientific Paradigm Shift
Review: Dr. Hawkins has detailed the methods by which any individual, or group, may query God Mind and receive direct answers. The only difficulty with employing the kinesiologic "arm" testing method that he advocates is the extreme necessity of framing all questions in the positive, and the receiving of binary "answers" ... as in yes/no. This means that one must construct a decision tree to follow. Separately, one "gets" exactly, absolutely exactly, what one "asks". Unless extraordinary care, along with precise linguistics are used in formulating the questions (actually a series of positive statements) one will easily misunderstand the answers, or become very confused. Equally as important, Dr. Hawkins has succinctly outlined the fundamental energy nature of manifest reality ... the stuff of everyday moment-to-moment life. His Map of Consciousness is an outstanding contribution to the understanding of individual life circumstances and further, where one must begin looking for potential solutions. The whole notion of an individual's summation of personal beliefs, whether consciously held or not, being reflected by his/her overall level of consciousness as outlined by the Map of Consciousness is unique ... and extraordinarily accurate. The consequences of beliefs, and their subsequent expression as thoughts and actions result in the creation and maintainence of virtually every human disease, and psychological disturbance recognized by conventional medicine. To suddenly become aware that "out there" ain't kickin' my butt, or that my disease sneaked up and glommed on to me uninvitedly ... but I really have "invited" it to myself is a genuine revelation! Hawkins' low key message seems to be wake up ... you ARE cause in the matter of your life and its circumstances. Once understood, one now has the clear opportunity to become healthy, wealthy and happy.
Rating:
Summary: The best of the best
Review: This book is one of finest I have read in my lifetime. It is a gift to anyone who reads it. The basic premise is that any organization, group, individual has an energy that can determine its ability to prosper or destroy itself. I have found this to be true throughout my life. The negative traits that result in this eventual destruction are clearly stated. If any entity is moving in a negative direction it gives you clear ways of knowing. Thank you Dr. Hawkins. Perhaps the most moving part of the book for me was the last chapter that beautifully described the author's path.
Rating:
Summary: Love is So Much Stronger Than Hate!
Review: (by the author of Cancer As Initiation: Surviving the Fire) Grasping the concepts Hawkins presents in this book has changed my life in many ways. Just reading it lifts the spirit because of the hope it brings for humankind to reach higher levels of spiritual development. Learning to muscle test ideas and decisions for their value on his Map of Consciousness shows how beneficial or destructive something will be, thereby greatly increasing one's discernment. Understanding the true strength of power versus the unstable base of force fills one with hope for the future of humanity.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive study on consciousness.
Review: If you are attracted to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, or The Course In Miracles, but your "left brain thinking" has detered your spiritual progress, then you may find this book helpful. Read this book in any way that you are attracted to; last chapter first, the author's story, many people start on page 50 with the Map of Consciousness, and many people read the first 50 pages last, or open the book at random. Also, if you have a friend who is a person of the mind, and you would like to see them read something spiritual, this could be the gift. Remember this book was reviewed by both Mother Teresa and Lee Iacocca.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive study of consciousness.
Review: If you are attracted to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, or The Course In Miracles. But you are detered by your old "left brain" thinking, please consider either paper or hard back copy of this book. I find the "Map of Consciousness" useful every day, and hope you will.
Rating: 
Summary: The mathematics in this book is a joke
Review: If a doctor were to tell you that your backache was caused by "halitosis of the femural artery located in the sternum", you would know that he doesn't know what he is talking about. This is exactly what Dr. Hawkins does with mathematical terms.
Dr. Hawkins rates everything in the universe on a scale of 1 to 1000 based on how good or bad it is. To explain this scale he uses a lot of technical-sounding mathematical terms, but he uses those terms incorrectly- to the point of being gibberish. Since he knows his discussion would be above most readers' heads Dr. Hawkins can get awy with it.
He claims that the scale is "logarithmic" and base 10, but in his explanation of what a logarithm is, he confuses logarithmic functions with exponential functions and repeats this mistake throughout the book. Essentially,someone at level 201 has ten times the power of someone at 200, someone at 202 has 10 times the power of someone at 201 and so on.
This "logarithmic progression" is then completely contradicted by his chart which states how many people at one level counterbalance someone at another level. One of the statements on this chart is that "12 people at level 700 equals one avatar at 1000". On his "logarithmic"(actually exponential) scale it would take 10^300 people at level 700(that's a one with 300 zeros in front of it) to equal the power of one person at level 1000. Since when does 12= 10^300? He uses the calculus term "critical point" and claims that his scale has a critical point at 200. In mathematics a critical point is the point where the derivative of a function equals zero. On a graph, it is the point where the tangent line is flat-the point where you are neither rising nor falling. What Dr. Hawkins didn't realize was that neither logarithmic functions nor exponential functions have critical points. Their derivatives are always positive. In this case, he just threw in a mathematical term without bothering to find out what it means.
He discusses chaos theory, because it is new and trendy, but he misses the point entirely. He seems to think that chaos theory implies that the world is more orderly and easily explained than previously thought, when in fact chaos theory implies just the opposite.He does this because he likes the word "attractor" which he overuses throughout the rest of the book
In other cases, bad math like this could be overlooked. He is after all a psychiatrist, not a mathematician. In this book, however, the technical terms are used to impress the readers with how scientific the system is, and the claim is that it is based on research. If you can understand what these mathematical terms actually mean, it becomes clear by the gibberish that he is just making this stuff up. If his "mathematical" system was revealed to him through muscle-testing (as opposed to outright fiction), then it shows just how unreliable this system is. Perhaps the most blatently incompetent statement he makes is that a loving thought has the energy of " 10^-35 million megawatts"(I'm using the symbol ^ because this this font won't allow superscripts) and claims that the quantity is "so enormous as to be beyond the capacity of the human imagination to comprehend" The truth is that this quantity is so miniscule as to be beyond our capacity to comprehend. 10^35 million is a one with 35 million zeros in front of it- a huge number indeed, but 10^-35 million is 1/10^35 million -- a mind-bogglingly tiny fraction. If you were to multiply the mass of the entire galaxy by a fraction that tiny, you wouldn't even have enough mass for a single electron. If the minus sign was a typo, without it the energy level described would be great indeed -probably be along the order of the big bang and our heads would have exploded (and caused a supernova) a long time ago. In this case, he just threw together the most confusing notation he could think of, without a clue as to what it meant. He did this to make it appear scientific. He figured that his readers would be too dumb to know the difference. I don't think this can be written off as a mere honest mistake
Other laughable statements are that organically grown tobacco is actually healthy, and that taking one gram of vitamin C per day will counter all of the harmful effects of smoking.
He also states that adrenaline causes the muscles to go weak. Adrenaline is the stimulant hormone associated with the fight/flight response and its entire purpose is to give you EXTRA strength and energy in an emergency. As a doctor, he should know this
This book would be funny if it wasn't so scary.This man claims to be an MD and as far as I know still has a license. If you have a degree in math, physics, engineering or something similar, this book can pretty entertaining. It is fun to pick apart,but as a source of truth it is worthless.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: Dr. Hawkins has presented the ultimate rendition of spiritual truth in this book. And it's no wonder we've never seen the truth presented in such clear language - our intellects are not geared toward understanding such things due to our social conditioning and the inherent fallibility of our power of perception. But don't fear, quiet reflection on the ideas presented in the book will open new windows of understanding to the reader.
This new understanding has had a powerful effect on my own life in the past 3 months. I now know that all is indeed well, and has always been so. Dr. Hawkins has opened the door for me, and I'm on my way to a new life. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm, maybe so, maybe not
Review: The author David Hawkins has had some mystical experiences that came about without trying very hard. Once he almost froze to death in the snow, and had an ecstatic moment in which he felt one with everything and an otherworldly peace and joy. Another time he was deathly ill and asked God to help him, and the next morning he began feeling better and from then on had trouble suppressing his joy and lost all interest in egotistical pursuits of everyday life such as furthering your career or reading the news. He would also see himself in other people and saw them as wonderful beings who had forgotten that they are wonderful.
But then he settled down and became interested in the world again and discovered kinesiology, a way of determining whether something is good or bad for you by testing the muscles of your outstretched arms to see if they will resist strongly for a yes or weaken with a no. Supposedly, you can also determine the energy level of a person, place, thing, or idea by this method also, but he does not exactly say how this is done. I had wished that he had gotten more specific about the goodness or badness of different books, people, and foods and so on, while listing the energy level of them also.
The energy levels go from 0 to 1000 from shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, love, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment. Below 200, the energy levels are negative and weakening, above 200, they are strengthening and positive. Courage is at 200. The world has moved up from 190 to an average of 217 in recent years, according to Hawkins. Societies like the US are probably at 300 to 350, from what I could determine from his descriptions. 85% of the world is below 200 in consciousness, but the ones above that outweigh them with their higher consciousness. Most nations are still wrapped up in the angry pride of nationalism.
Results from testing often support liberalism such as the wrongness of the death penalty or the general negativity of nationalism. According to Hawkins the test results are the truth and go beyond opinion. Left wing and right wing tyrannies test out low. Nelson Mandela tests out high. The major religions in their beginning pure forms test out at the enlightenment level of 700 and 1000, but have degenerated to lower levels as time has gone on. Angry, judgmental, political fundamentalism tests out below 200. Fundamentalism tests out considerably lower than mysticism. Hard rock music and gangster rap tests below 200, unlike other forms of pop music.
The book was most interesting covering the enlightenment levels are giving some examples of how things test out in the real world. Some sections are theoretical and the reader may lose interest in these sections. Hawkins is asking you to become a true believer in his methods. He covers the history and science behind kinesiology and the psychology academics who pioneered the work. One could say it's a new age book, but to its credit, it does offer up some support for its claims. It's not some "guru" talking to himself and claiming he's god and scribbling down his "divine" interior monologue. There is none of that silly and annoying stuff going on in this book, so I can take the book somewhat seriously and not laugh at it. One disadvantage is that you have to get a bosom kinesiology buddy to do the tests. It seems it takes two to get reliable results. I tried doing the briefly mentioned self test, but could not get reliable results. Hawkins goes over how the tests are done fairly well and what pitfalls could mess up the results.
One of my doubts is that sounds a little too simple and easy to figure out the truth. I think life and the world is too ambivalent, complex, and confusing to figure the truth out with a simple test. Things are often not what they seem and several of the historical figures and facts he refers to can be interpreted negatively or positively. I'm aware of alternative history and some of the historical "facts" and figures he refers to may not be what they seem.
It is hard to determine truth because people have an emotional need to believe things whether they are true or not and also clever sophists can use their rhetorical skills to make their arguments sound like the truth. This test supposedly cuts through all that. It's so easy, it takes the challenge away and feels like your cheating. Hawkins is not the first on the scene promising grand results, but I'm afraid he may leave his followers empty handed. It's better to stay a cynic, that way you're never fooled. I read about applied kinesiology on skepdic.com and came to conclusion that this book probably should be considered interesting entertainment and nothing more than that. It's easy to get fooled by someone referring to Doctor So and So and what his results were. Many academics and seemingly intelligent people peddle pseudo-intellectual ideas.
Rating:
Summary: This book can change your life
Review: This book is amazing! If you read it with an open mind and reflect on your own life experiences in the the process, you will find tremendous validity in Hawkins' suppositions. While this is not an easy read, unless you are a psych major (which I'm not) if you can get through it, many life truths will be answered for you. I have studied other spiritual movements, such as Kabbalah, Christianity, and Buddhism, and it's funny that all of the basic tenets of each are explained through Hawkins' theories. Bottom line: If you don't have any sort of revelation in reading Power vs. Force, you may not be ready, or, try reading it again because your perception of the world will be altered significantly. And for myself, I've become much calmer and at peace with his knowledge (and I'm an anxious, controlling type "A" personality, so that's no small feat.)
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Review: This is probably one of the most thought provoking books I've read on Spirituality. I appreciate it somewhat from the scientific/psychological viewpoint. If one has read any of the Cayce books on consciousness you will definitely see a connection. The whole idea of the "Collective consciousness", while still not very apparent within our society seems to be gaining more acceptance with our greater scientific discoveries in quantum mechanics. This IS a heavy read and requires one definitely have an open mind - but with that said, be prepared to enjoy some awakening of your own and perhaps as a result - help for others.
|
