Customer Reviews

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinations of Human Behaviour

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

If you are looking to change the world to make it a better place, then go read another book first: "Controlling Others for Love and Profit" by James R. Quinn.

If you are looking to change yourself to become an even greater gift to the world, then I can recommend no greater books than the ones written by Dr. David R. Hawkins. And yes, I have read Chopra, Dyer, Myss, Ruiz, Tolle, Walsch, Williamson, et al. and found them wonderfully helpful, as well as "A Course In Miracles" (which Hawkins highly recommends).

The greatest gift we can give the world is to raise our own level of consciousness. In an average lifetime, a person will raise their level of consciousness about 5 points. Simply by being exposed to this material, a person's level of consciousness will raise on average about 35 points. This is equivalent to 7 lifetimes of personal growth.

My own subjective experience of this is that it is true. My family members and friends have shared with me feedback indicating that they see the difference in me of the positive shifts that have happened since I started working with this material.

"Power vs Force" is difficult to get through in places, as I and some of my family members and friends have found. "The Eye of the I" had a great positive effect on me and I have read it a number of times. I very rarely read a book more than once. "I" had a hugely positive effect on me and I have read it many times. "Truth vs Falsehood" is an interesting book, helping me put the world and "everything outside of me" into perspective. "Transcending the Levels of Consciousness" is an amazingly practical book that is helping me to understand and see where I am on my journey to enlightenment, and to help me avoid pitfalls along the way. While I wait for the next book, the DVDs, files available in the Yahoo groups, and discussion with my study group, are helping me to keep focused on changing my perspective of content as it expands closer to context.

If you too find it difficult to get through "Power vs Force", consider jumping to "The Eye of the I" and then "I", and come back to "Power vs Force" if you feel drawn to do so.

Metta.

I was given this book at a critical time in my life. Head over heels in self exploration exploring the idea did my circumstances create my reality or was it the other way around.

And mad at society for not having the answers.

And sad that I didn't understand.

And frustrated that nobody seemed to be able to accurately put the pieces together.

Then I was given this book.

I read. I read in awe. Because it coresponded with my own experiences. And rang true.

It drew me, and helped me.

And then to my great joy, I found out that he was still alive!

And that Eye of the I had been released! A sequel to the most satisfying book I had ever read.

And it was in another league all together.

If you read this, or any other of hawkins books. Or see tapes, or read any other writings of a true sage. How blessed you are.

And the best part is, you don't have to get it.

The getting it happens of its own.

: )

I am so gratefull for Dr. Hawkins and his wife Susan who urged him to publish and everyone around him and the infinitely complex circumstances that lead to this trilogy. It has transformed my life for the better and is just the most wonderfull thing.

God bless you,

keep reading,

Jonathon

Dr Hawkins, is definitely enthusiastic about the amazing subject matter in this book, but he doesnt make any verbal acrobats that i can see. He is an intelligent man and a doctor who are normally biased when it comes to using medical terminology that are not well understood by non doctor people/laymen, he is considerate and uses very little of this.
His lifes work is easy to follow and shocking to read.
Power vs Force is eloquent and very clear. He uses prominent figures, well known books etc as subject matter for his testing of his theories which i think are brilliant (i.e Ghandi - excellent example of the use of power winning over force - british ), he puts forward theories that are well documented, supported and ultimately, extremely believable.
His theories resonate and support and add to those theories put forward by such conscious writers as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr Deepak Chopra etc. He uses scientific, kinesiological testing with patients, subjects and volunteers that puts forth the definite idea that we are all one and connected to a collective conciousness that permeates everything and everyone. Carl Jung understood this with his study of archetypes in dream analysis etc.
Whether we know something to be true or not our body, our cells, know the truth of whatever question is put to us by the tester.
You can do this test at home. Hold an organic banana close to your heart and have a friend try to press your arm down as you hold your arm straight out at a 90 degree angle from your body, are you able to resist with great strength? I can guarantee you will. Now hold pesticide treated fruit to your heart and try the same test, you will go weak. Packets of vitamin c and artificial sugar ( they look identical ) were handed out to an audience who were given the same test, all went weak with the artifical sugar. You can try the same test when posing the idea or thought of someone with a low resonating energy pattern, such as the wonderful Adolf Hitler, all will go weak. Try having your test subject think of Mother Theresa, all will go strong at the thought of this wonderful, compassionate human being. Getting excited, now you can understand Dr Hawkins excitement as well as those of his readers and colleagues. This form of testing should be used when treating patients with physical or mental illness. Even if your ego mind isnt aware of any illness or disease forming in your body, your body/mind/spirit is. You can use the same test in respects to music, art, color...the implications are endless. We are all made strong or weak by our thoughts and it is wise to avoid all thoughts that weaken you. YOu will easily see which thoughts weaken thought this test, if you werent already aware.
Helplessness, depression, grief, anger, bitterness, envy, resentment etc...feelings and thoughts create your life, your world, your health, your everything and Dr. Hawkins is just one of many individuals who are connecting to this powerful knowledge at this time in our evolution and bringing it forth for those receptive enough and intelligent enough to accept it and use it.
We are all blessed to have this book.

Did you ever have the feeling that most of our culture is pure BS. Well, there is now a way to prove it, and David Hawkins is showing us how.

It is interesting to read the negative reviews of this book and test for the level of the author. They only confirm exactly what David Hawkins communicates so well. Only 20% of the population can use kinesiology for testing, and if you are not at that level you just won't get it without serious desire and effort on your part.

This book is not for everyone. If you are at the level necessary to benefit from this knowledge, it will be tremendously validating and quite uplifting. If not, it will be quite devastating to the ego and it will fight tooth and nail to invalidate the message. As Hawkins says in his third book, the ego will filter from perception all things that do not fit its reality.

I taught my teenagers to use this technique. They took to it like ducks to water. It not only helps them with the BS of peer and cultural pressure, but cuts down on arguments by my saying well, lets just test it.

I have a rule: never take seriously anything that discusses quantum physics unless it contains equations. Although Dr. Hawkins makes numerous references to "advanced theoretical physics" he never ties it to anything in his work. Thus the book is full of questionable science. (For a really good book tying quantum phenomena to consciousness, see "The Physics of Consciousness" by Evan Harris Walker.) For example, when he gives the power, in megawatts, of a negative and positive thought, there is no discussion of how he derived those numbers. Nor is there any real explanation of how he derived his scale of levels of consciousness or why it is logarithmic. Nor are all of his terms mutually exclusive. It seems to me he has built a self-referential system that is true because the system tests as true using kinesiology.

Whis is unfortunate, because I have seen kinesiology used to diagnose serious illnesses. Yet in the hands of untrained people who might be working an agenda, this could be, to be charitable, misleading. And why would just reading his book increase one's level of consciousness? What will be the noticeable effects upon one's outer life?

I also have a problem with his use of the term "strange attractor." It seems clear he has little understanding of chaos theory, since a "strange attractor" is a mathematical abstraction that explains certain observed phenomena. He treats is as though it is a real, physical entity, and goes on to discuss "attractor fields" as though they are real and measurable. Even the discussion in "Chaos" by James Gleick, which is a brilliantly written book for the layman, goes beyond what Dr. Hawkins knows. A more complete discussion can be found in "Fractals Everywhere" by Michael Barnsely. Read these, then see if anything Hawkins says makes sense as anything other than an analogy. A simple magnetic field would be a better analogy, however.

Something else I have always wondered about is why organically-grown fruit and such are always so much better for us than those grown with fertilizers. I can understand the harm of pesticides, but not simple inorganic chemicals that are transformed by biological processes. And why has life expectancy increased so dramatically in countries that use both chemical fertilizers and pesticides? If these things are so inimical to life, why don't they kill us quickly?

Hawkins' discussion of the value of twelve-step groups is quite good, and he even has his points about consciousness. However, as for much of the rest of his work, I just don't like something so poorly substantiated to be offered as good science. I'd like to see his statistics on the double-blind studies, for example. So read this with a critical eye and questioning mind if you read it at all.

I just went through 8 spirtual books in a two week period. This was the last one I read and it certainly provoked me the most.

Dr. Hawkins makes lots of claims which readers will judge. However, what's unique about his book is that Dr. Hawkins gives a method whereby you can evaluate the validity of what he says. (And in the second and third books of the series he's much more exact about how to do it).

For example, he says that Consciousness can be represented on a scale going from 1 to 1000 with 1000 being the level of Krishna, Jesus and Buddha. He also says that enlightment begins at 600 and integrity (taking responsibility for your life) begins at 200. The human race currently calibrates at 207 - with only 22% being above 200.

And, of course, numerous other statements are made that will provoke you. I was taken back by his statement that A Course in Miracles calibrates at 600 while Power versus Force calibrates at 850 - and the third book in the series calibrates at 999.8. Interesting, but every statement he makes should be testable by anyone who is above 200.

Again, as I said, it's guaranteed to provoke you -- whether positive and negative. And books that provoke you can often help you with profound paradigm shifts. That's why I gave it a five star 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.

I rarely post reviews, but in this case I'm adding my voice to the mix because I value this book (and the other two in this trilogy) so highly. You'll note WIDELY disparate takes on the content and quality of this book, so the discerning shopper is aware that Dr. Hawkins' take on things is a tad controversial. If you're wondering whether to buy it, here are a few things to keep in mind: 1) if you're looking for a study and/or how-to on kinesiology exclusively from the scientific (or even humanist) point of view, this isn't the right book. The main thrust of this book is spiritual growth, and kinesiology is one tool Hawkins puts forth; 2) if you ARE a spiritual seeker, you already know that not every path is for everyone. This particular path is the only one in a lifetime of seeking that has resonated 100% for me. I feel I've found my teacher at last!! The reviewers here who regard this book as superficial or as a rehash of the same old stuff we've all heard a million times do not--forgive me--get it. I do NOT mean they are stupid or foolish. I mean that because it's not the right thing for them, they can't hear all the levels. If it's right for you, even in part, trust me--you won't find it superficial or redundant.

This book has many good philosophical/spiritual concepts mixed in with much that is questionable. I question the fact that according to the author this book calibrates at a higher level than most of the world's greatest literature and spiritual writings. Perhaps a subjective bias crept in when Mr. Hawkins started calibrating his own book. I also think that this type of material creates a methodology for the judgement of others. After all no one objects when Mr. Hawkins states that Hitler has a low level of calibration, but they might object if Mr. Hawkins calibrates their own political or spiritual leader as low on the scale. Perhaps anyone Mr. Hawkins does not agree with could find themselves low on the calibration scale (as calibrated by him). Calibration creates a form of spiritual elitism. Of course in all humility, a man like Mr. Hawkins would not say come out and say he himself calibrates higher than anyone else, but the implication is there. This questionable "scientific" method could also be used as a way to justify judging or even punishing others. It kind of reminds me of the tests they used to determine if someone was a witch or not. It also smacks of the "God is on our side" mentality. In the past we knew he was on our side because our religious leaders said so, now we know Why? because we calibrated it. I also think some of the so called stats Hawkins uses (e.g. for every one "Avatar" at a high level (1000) a gazillion negative people are counterbalanced) comes straight out of a subjective fantasy land. Mr. Hawkins recently lead a seminar for a bookstore in the Chicgo area. There was a V.I.P. meal with a high admission fee for this event. It seems strange that Jesus (calibration level 1000) never had V.I.P. dinners with expensive admission fees. He hung out with people (publicans, prostitutes, tax collectors, etc) with very low calibration levels. He told us not to judge (or in other words "calibrate") others. He just told us to love them. If he was so highly evolved (a 1000 on Mr. Hawkin's scale) and so in touch with the truth, how come he said "judge not that you be not judged". I am not a christian, but I believe Jesus basic teachings and he never mentioned calibrating people. Another issue I have with this whole testing thing is didn't Jesus say we needed faith. Why would anyone need faith if AK testing could determine the absolute truth of everything. We could just test whether or not there is a God and belief could be a thing of the past. It would greatly simplify all the great mysteries of life. We could also then establish a state religion based on AK testing. No one could disagree because after all we tested it and we KNOW what is the truth. I know there are Hawkins fanatics so I am going to keep this review anonymous because I do not want to get into a mud slinging contest. However, I am sure someone will say I calibrate low, because I am not jumping on the Hawkins bandwagon. In conclusion, I believe Mr. Hawkins is on the right track with some of his spiritual ideas, but I think he is using the tool of Applied kinesology to forward his own views and agendas and establish a following. I think that there really are no simple answers to all of life's questions and this book could lead to some possibly dangerous fascistic and simplistic viewpoints.

In this junk-science based book, Hawkins relies on the method of "applied kinesiology" to determine the power of many aspects of life. Unfortunately, not only have double blind scientific studies of this technique shown it to produce results no better than random, but a review of research papers published by the International College of Applied Kinesiology from 1981 to 1987 found that none of the studies which supposedly support it used adequate statistical analyses. So there is no science behind it, just testimonials.
Even ignoring the use of this invalid technique, many of Hawkins' examples are absurd and show very shallow research on his part. In one example he states that more simple cultures rank in the low 200s vs. the more advanced cultures in the 300s where the main form of entertainment is watching TV! Many studies have shown that people who are living in a more simple traditional culture are happier, healthier and less stressed but that when they begin to adopt "modern" ways their health deteriorates, alcoholism, drug abuse and crime all skyrocket. Surely joining us folks who calibrate higher should only bring good things to those unfortunate traditional cultures! Just ask a Native American!!
Another clunker is Hawkins' example of Wal-Mart as a high calibrating business. Excuse me, is this the same behemoth that has spread like a cancer across the country putting small family owned stores out of business by selling mass-produced crap? That has had numerous complaints of union-busting and employee mistreatment and which was being sued by the US Department of Labor for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for not paying overtime to employees? This is a high-calibrating win/win company?
Another dud is Hawkins' incorrect examples concerning treatment of alcoholism. While extolling AA to high heaven, he ignores the studies which have shown that alcoholics have the same success rate trying to quit by themselves, using psychotherapy, rational treatments, or AA (around 5%). AA is the only therapy which insists that a person must "better themselves" or promotes a transcendent spiritual/religious "cure", yet it has no better sucess rate than the alcoholic who just quits or enrolls in a program that stresses a rational approach. Why should AA calibrate so high when it is no better than any other approach? Probably because it fits in with the author's paradigm.
The rest of his conclusions could have been reached with plain common sense: forgiving is better than resenting, joy is better than anger...like I really needed this book to tell me that?