Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior (Power vs. Force, #1)

by David R. Hawkins

In-depth interviews confirm the presence of a very advanced state of consciousness, with all the classic hallmarks: pristine awareness of Ultimate Reality, compassion for all beings, tireless dedication to alleviate suffering, precision and elegance in every word and movement, freedom of being, spontaneity, radiant joy, humor, oneness with all of existence, and a depth of surrender to Reality that is unimaginable to the average person.

Facts are accumulated by effort, but truth reveals itself

There is a desire to use one’s state of consciousness for the benefit of life itself rather than for particular individuals.

It remains for motivation to activate that potential; without the exercise of choice, no progression will occur.

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, his faith in the process of life itself.

Few people know what it is to live without fear—but beyond fear lies joy, as the meaning and purpose of existence become transparent. Once this realization occurs, life becomes effortless and the sources of suffering dissolve; suffering is only the price we pay for our attachments.

Pain exists to promote evolution; its cumulative effect finally forces us in a new direction, though the mechanism may be very slow. How many times is it necessary to hit bottom before a lesson is learned? Perhaps thousands, which may account for the sheer quantity of human suffering, so vast as to be incomprehensible. Slowly, by inches, does civilization advance.

Condemnation disappears with understanding, as does guilt. All judgment reveals itself to be self-judgment in the end, and when this is understood, a larger comprehension of the nature of life takes its place.

In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. What we do to benefit life automatically benefits all of us because we are all included in that which is life. We are life. It is a scientific fact that “what is good for you is good for me.”

Simple kindness to one’s self and all that lives is the most powerful transformational force of all. It produces no backlash, has no downside, and never leads to loss or despair. It increases one’s own true power without exacting any toll. But to reach maximum power, such kindness can permit no exceptions, nor can it be practiced with the expectation of some selfish gain or reward. And its effect is as far-reaching as it is subtle.

On examination, we will see that power arises from meaning. It has to do with motive, and it has to do with principle. Power is always associated with that which supports the significance of life itself. It

If we analyze the nature of force, it becomes readily apparent why it must always succumb to power; this is in accordance with one of the basic laws of physics. Because force automatically creates counter-force, its effect is limited by definition. We could say that force is a movement. It goes from here to there (or tries to) against opposition. Power, on the other hand, stands still. It is like a standing field that does not move. Gravity itself, for instance, does not move against anything. Its power moves all objects within its field, but the gravity field itself does not move.

To say that nothing is real unless it is measurable is already an abstract position, is it not? This proposition itself is nowhere tangible, visible, or measurable; the argument of tangibility is itself created from the intangible.

When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, he created a new M-field. The belief system prevailing in human consciousness had been that the four-minute mile was a limit of human possibility. Once the new M-field was created, many runners suddenly began to break the four-minute mile records.

We are all familiar with the fact that new ideas often seem to arise in the minds of several far-removed people at the same time. Somehow, the M-field acts as an organizing principle, like a sort of general magnetic attraction. An M-field does not have to move anywhere. It is a standing energy field that is everywhere present. Once it is created, it exists as a universally available pattern throughout the invisible universe.

The capacity of the invisible concept to materialize is based on the power of the original concept itself. We might say that the right brain “gets the pattern” and the left brain “makes it visible.”

Simply stated, powerful attractor patterns make us go strong, and weak patterns make us go weak. Some ideas are so weakening that merely holding them in mind makes test subjects unable to keep their arm up at all. Other concepts are so powerful that when they are held in mind, it is impossible to force down the subject’s arm with any amount of exertion.

Moreover, the universe does not forget. There are many sides to the question of karma, but every choice of who and how to be is a choice of great consequence. All of our choices reverberate through the ages.

these reports confirm that we shall eventually have to accept responsibility for every thought, word, and deed we beget and re-experience exactly whatever suffering we have caused others. It is in this sense that we each create our own heaven or hell.

One characteristic of force is arrogance; power is characterized by humility. Force is pompous; it has all the answers. Power is unassuming. Stalin, who strutted military supremacy, has gone down in history as an arch-criminal.8 In contrast, the humble Mikhail Gorbachev, who wore a plain suit and easily admitted to faults, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Through its insistence that the end justifies the means, force sells out freedom for expediency. Force offers quick, easy solutions. In power, the means and the end are the same, but ends require greater maturity, discipline, and patience to be brought to fruition.

Companies that have imitated some of Walmart’s features, in hopes of regaining market share, have not been successful because they merely imitated the A→ B→C instead of aligning with the ABC that is the core concept from which those features emanated.

The motive of the viewer automatically determines what is seen; causality is, therefore, ascribed to factors that are, in fact, a function of the biases of the observer and are not at all instrumental in the situation itself. The concept of “situational ethics” tells us that the right or wrong of behavior cannot be determined without reference to context. As each conditioning factor colors the picture, shades of gray are introduced that alter the significance of the whole scenario.

victim. The way to finesse a high-energy attractor field solution is to seek the answer that will make all sides happy and still be practical. Such solutions involve utilization of both the ameliorative right brain as well as the judgmental left-brain.

In Amsterdam, for instance, one section of the city is traditionally designated as a red-light district, quiet and serene with a pastoral atmosphere; its streets are safe. In Buenos Aires, parts of parks are set aside for lovers. The police patrol these areas in both countries to protect rather than harass, and all is peaceful.

We also see the opposite happen when an athlete starts well because he is competing for the honor of his country, his team, or of the sport itself, but then falters as he nears the goal, as the anticipation of personal glory or triumph over a rival makes him lose strength and form.

If top performers are imbued with the knowledge that their excellence is not a personal accomplishment, but a gift belonging to all of mankind as a demonstration of man’s potential, they will go strong and remain so throughout the whole event.

We celebrate the champion because we recognize that he has overcome personal ambition through sacrifice and dedication to a higher principle. The great become legendary when they teach by example.

Bill W. was an atheist, and found the idea of surrendering to a higher power unappealing, to say the least. The whole idea of surrender was abhorrent to Bill’s pride; he sank into an absolute, black despair. He had a mental obsession with, and a physical allergy to, alcohol—which condemned him to sickness, insanity, and death, a prognosis that had been clearly spelled out to him and his wife, Lois. Ultimately, Bill gave up completely; at this point he had the profound experience of an infinite Presence and Light and felt a great sense of peace. That night, he was finally able to sleep, and when he awoke the next day, he felt as though he had been transformed in some powerful, indescribable way.

From our own struggles to better ourselves, we learn compassion for those still in the grip of inner conflict; out of this grows a wisdom, including compassion, for the entire human condition.

The process of animating genius most commonly involves first formulating a question, and waiting an indefinite interval for consciousness to work with the problem; then, suddenly, the answer appears in a flash, in a form that is characteristically nonverbal.

Great musicians throughout history have stated that they did not plan their music, but rather wrote down what they heard, finished, within their own

Genius, thus, seems to proceed from sudden revelation rather than from conceptualization, but there is an unseen process involved. Although the genius’s mind may appear stalled and frustrated with the problem, what it is really doing is preparing the field. There is a struggle with reason that eventually leads, like a Zen koan, to a rational impasse from which the only way forward is by a leap from a lower to a higher attractor energy pattern. Attractor

This is why it is said that the question and the answer are merely two sides of one coin, and that one cannot pose a question unless the answer already exists—otherwise, there would be no pattern from which the question could be formulated.4 Recognized geniuses may be rare, but Genius resides within all of us. There is no such thing as “luck” or “accident” in this universe. And not only is everything connected to everything else, but no one is excluded from the universe. We are all members. Consciousness is a universal quality, like the quality of physicality. Because genius is a characteristic of consciousness, genius is also universal. That which is universal is, therefore, theoretically available to every man.

Those who are humble and grateful for illumination received continue to have the capacity to access genius. Those who arrogate the inspiration to their own ego soon lose this capacity, or are destroyed by their success. High power, like high voltage, must be handled with respect.

The capacity to finesse genius can be learned, though often only through painful surrender, when the phoenix of genius arises out of the ashes of despair after a fruitless struggle with the unsolvable. Out of defeat comes victory; out of failure, success; and out of humbling, true self-esteem.

The basis of this non-materiality, this seeming naïveté, is a radical understanding of the nature of the universe itself: that which supports life is supported by life; survival is thus effortless, and giving and receiving are one and the same thing.

One characteristic of genius is the capacity for great intensity, which is often expressed in a cyclic form. When inspired, the person of genius may work twenty hours a day to realize a solution while it is still fresh in mind. These periods of intense activity are interspersed with intervals of apparent stasis that are in actuality intervals of fermentation, a necessary part of the creative process. Therefore, the personality of the genius sometimes seems to incorporate polar extremes. Geniuses understand the need for creating a space for ideas to crystallize. The stage is often set by complete distraction. Creativity occurs under appropriate inner, not outer circumstances. We all know stories of people who have gotten the answers to complex problems while sitting in traffic on the freeway.

The small self is the part of us that is vulnerable to flattery; the big Self is an aspect of our more evolved nature, which is humble and grateful for success. The self aligns with weak attractor patterns; the Self is aligned with high power energy fields.

The connection between mind and body is immediate, so the body’s responses shift and change from instant to instant in response to one’s train of thoughts and the associated emotions.

Malice literally makes us sick; we are always the victims of our own spite. Even secret hostile thoughts result in a physiologic attack on one’s own body.

Beware the humorless, whether in a person, institution, or belief system; it is always accompanied by an impulse to control and dominate, even if its proclaimed objective is to create prosperity or peace.

disease process is evidence that something is amiss in the workings of the mind, and that is where the power to effect a change resides. Treating an illness as a physical process only, within the A→B→C illusionary world of effects, does not correct the origin of the dysfunction, and is palliative rather than curative.

It is instrumental not only in recovery, but for any major advancement of consciousness to have compassion for oneself and all of mankind as we go through the painful struggles of evolution. Only thus do we become healers as well as healed. And only thus may we hope to be healed of any malaise, physical or spiritual.

The “connection” between these two events occurs only in the observer’s consciousness—he “sees” a connection and describes a “pair” of events, hypothesizing a relationship. This relationship is a concept that exists solely in the mind of the observer; it is not necessary that any corollary external event exist in the universe. Unless there is an underlying attractor pattern, nothing can be experienced. Thus, the entire manifest universe is its own simultaneous expression and experience of itself.

Extraordinary individuals live primarily in the world of the ABC. (Those who live beyond that, in the completely formless domain of pure consciousness itself, we call mystics.) To such individuals, the origin of everything is obvious; they are uninterested in the process of making things visible and manifest.

The yet more advanced—mystics—conclude that only their inner ABC level of awareness is “real” and that the observable world is a dream or illusion. It should be pointed out, however, that this is only another limited point of view. There is neither real nor non-real, only that which is. That which is, is so, from all viewpoints or none.

The universe is very cooperative. Inasmuch as the universe is not different from consciousness itself, it is happy to create whatever we wish to find “out there.”

Time, then, is a locus of the perception of a holo gram that already stands complete; it is a subjective, sensory effect of a progressively moving point of view. There is no beginning or end to a hologram. It is already everywhere, complete. In fact, the appearance of being “unfinished” is part of its completeness. Even the phenomenon of “unfoldment” itself reflects a limited point of view. There is in reality no enfolded versus unfolded universe; there is actually only a becoming awareness. Our perception of events happening in time is analogous to a traveler watching the landscape unfold before him.

All of the foregoing has been expressed at various times in man’s intellectual history by sages who have moved beyond duality in their awareness. But even then, to claim that the comprehension of the non-duality of existence is superior to its realization as dual is again to fall into another illusion. There is, ultimately, neither duality nor non-duality; there is only awareness. Only awareness itself can state that it is beyond all concepts such as “is” or “is not.” This must be so, because “is” can be conceived only by consciousness itself.