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

by David R. Hawkins

everything in the visible world issues from the inner planes.

Power vs. Force constitutes one of the first modern demarcations of the highest levels of human consciousness (Self-Realization, the Void, Nothingness vs. Allness, Full Enlightenment) and their differential phenomena.

Man’s dilemma—now and always—has been that he misidentifies his own intellectual artifacts as reality.

The basic law of the universe is economy. The universe does not waste a single quark; all serves a purpose and fits into a balance—there are no extraneous events.

nothing is ever “true,” except under certain circumstances, and then only from a particular viewpoint, characteristically unstated.

“critical point,” where the least force exerts the greatest effect.

that a slight variation over a course of time can have the effect of producing a profound change,

Orthomolecular Psychiatry, by this author and Nobelist Linus Pauling,

whenever force meets power, force is eventually defeated.

The key to Joy is unconditional kindness to all of life, including one’s own, which we refer to as compassion.

In Grief, one sees sadness everywhere: the sadness of little children, the sadness of world conditions, the sadness of life itself. This level colors one’s entire vision of existence.

Below 250, consciousness tends to see dichotomies and to take on rigid positions, an impediment in a world that is complex and multi-factorial rather than black and white. Taking such positions creates polarization, and polarization in turn creates opposition and division.

suppression of the low notes does not create the high ones; it merely reveals their presence.

Commercialized sexual allure, for instance, is used to sell many products endlessly, but the enjoyment of actual commercial sex is forbidden as immoral.

enormously presumptuous to assume that life elsewhere is even three-dimensional or detectable by human senses at all,

All judgment reveals itself to be self-judgment in the end,

Chaos merely means a mass of apparently meaningless data—for instance, a bunch of dots—in which one cannot see any inherent organizing pattern.

With the advent of advanced computer technology, it was discovered that inner organizing patterns could be found by computer analysis in what looked like disorganized data; that which appears to be incoherent actually has an inner hidden coherence.

universe is indeed coherent, unified, and organized around unifying patterns.6

On the left are adjectives describing powerful (positive) patterns, which calibrate above 200; on the right are weak (negative) patterns, which calibrate below

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 of the main problems of genius is how to transform that which is perceived in one’s private understanding into a visible expression that is comprehensible to others.

And not only is everything connected to everything else, but no one is excluded from the universe.

A formula followed by all geniuses, prominent or not, is: Do what you like to do best, and do it to the very best of your ability.

all stress is internally generated by one’s attitudes. It is not life’s events, but one’s reaction to them, that activates the symptoms of stress.

introduction of vitamins B3, C, E, and B6 decreased the expected rate of this terrible neurologic disorder from 25 percent to .04 percent.

even thoroughly modern surgeons are very reluctant to operate on anyone who is convinced that he will die during the surgery, because not infrequently such patients do just that.

The fact that pursuing these steps has resulted in the recovery of millions of people suggests that this experience may have a universal applicability to all disease processes.

It is hard to oppress people who have a good sense of humor.

The notion that there is a “knower” verses a “known” is in itself dualistic, in that it implies a separation between subject and object

Existence is, therefore, merely a statement that awareness is aware of its awareness and of its expression as consciousness.

We never lose the innate innocence of our own consciousness; it persists, naïve and trusting, like an impressionable child.

As an example, our studies of the so-called “poor” have made it evident that “poorness” is not just a financial condition, but that the really “poor” are poor in all areas of life: poor in friendships, poor in verbal skills, poor in education, poor in social amenities, poor in resources, poor in health, and poor in overall level of happiness. Poorness, then, can be seen as a quality characteristic of a limited self-image resulting in a paucity of resources.2 It is not a financial condition, but a level of consciousness.

intellectual recognition of our addictions has never given us the power to control them.