David R. Hawkins

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

Doctor David R. Hawkins is an American author, mystic, spiritual teacher, and psychiatrist in Sedona, Arizona. He is a proponent of using applied kinesiology to calibrate the consciousness level of ideas, things, and people. Hawkins directs the non-profit Institute for Advanced Spiritual Research and operates Veritas Publishing to publish his work.

Contents

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Background

His promoters claim he is unique in that he achieved a very advanced state of spiritual awareness and his scientific and clinical background enables him to explain his spirituality in a clear and comprehensible manner. The stated objectives of Hawkins' research and teaching are to facilitate spiritual understanding and to confirm the reality of spiritual truth in the individual as well as society, focusing on spiritual aspects of consciousness and the road to enlightenment.

Hawkins is best known for his 1995 book Power Vs Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour where he presents the findings of twenty years of studying using a methodology known as applied kinesiology (AK). Applied kinesiology, Hawkins claims, is a means of discerning degrees of truth that is directly available to anyone whose overall spiritual growth and awareness have achieved a sufficient level of consciousness. He both seeks and encourages a personal alignment with the highest good which is served by verifiable integrity, and is an advocate for healing methods with demonstrable results that focus on living by spiritual principles, such as A Course in Miracles and the Twelve-Step program.

Theologically, he is aligned with Monism, the belief that God is manifested in all that is seen and unseen. Although this idea fits well with Hinduism and many other Eastern belief systems, it contradicts the Western notion of a separation between Creator and Creation.

Since God is immanent, and everywhere, Hawkins asserts that by way of his methodology for applied kinesiology, the human body (e.g., arm muscle resistance) can be used to calibrate the degree of truth or "consciousness level" of any "physical" or "material" thing: individuals, animals, movies, music, government policies, scientific theories, societies, countries, etc.

Hawkins' claims are controversial as mainstream scientists consider AK a pseudoscience that has been disproved using the scientific method [1] [2] [3] [4]; this is evidenced by double-blind studies, plus research and reviews contained in the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health website [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12].

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Early life and professional development

Born in Milwaukee on June 3, 1927, David Ramon Hawkins is the son of Ramon Nelson and Alice-Mary (McCutcheon) Hawkins. He grew up in rural Wisconsin. At this time as a paperboy, in winter, he had a near-death experience. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1945-1946, about one to two months of which were during World War II between June and August before Japan surrendered, aboard a minesweeper. After the war he earned a B.S. from Marquette University (1950) and received a medical degree (M.D) from the Medical College of Wisconsin (1953). He trained to be a psychiatrist, and also underwent four to five years of his own psychoanalysis. He married Margaret Hawkins, whom he later separated with. He moved to Arizona in 1979. He subsequently re-married to Susan Humphrey, who is also his applied kinesiology partner. He has one daughter named Sarah.

In Arizona, he discovered that he is "a true scorpiophobe," i.e., someone who has a phobia of scorpions, and that it his opinion that "the best place for scorpions is encased in plastic paperweights" as "scorpions are ugly, scary and they wish you no good." [13]

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Professional life

Soon after beginning professional life as a psychiatrist, Hawkins fell ill of "a progressive, fatal illness that did not respond to any treatments." The illness was not named by Hawkins, though it has been suggested that it could have been alcoholism. He recounts that, as an atheist on the brink of death at the age of 38, he gave up by calling out to God and had an enlightenment experience which altered his life completely. He later resumed clinical psychiatry practice in New York where he claims to have built the largest psychiatric practice in New York with 50 therapists and other employees, 2000 out-patients, a suite of 25 offices and laboratories, and 1000 new patients each year. He remained silent about his enlightenment throughout this time.

He was medical director of North Nassau Mental Health Center in Manhasset, New York from 1956-1980; director of research at Brunswick Hospital in Long Island, New York 1968-1979; and president Academy of Orthomolecular Psychiatry in New York City 1970-1980. He was a guest on TV shows including McNeal-Lehrer, Barbara Walters and Today.

His 1973 book, co-edited with Nobel-prizewinner Linus Pauling, entitled Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Treatment of Schizophrenia was influential in its time, and has the distinction of apparently being the first psychiatric text to consider the healing effect of nutritional supplementation (vitamins) on patients suffering from mental illness (schizophrenia). Orthomolecular psychiatry in the treatment of schizophrenia by using megadoses of vitamins has since been shown to be of no use.

His study of applied kinesiology began in the 1970s, when he attended a lecture by John Diamond, M.D., on the subject and observed potentials which he felt had been previously overlooked by past practitioners for describing and calibrating human consciousness and behavior.

Admitted to the program on March 21, 1991, Hawkins received his Ph.D. from the unaccredited correspondence school Columbia Pacific University on September 30, 1995. (In December 1995, CPU's approval to operate was revoked by the State of California after a period of review and response that began with Columbia Pacific's application in 1994; pending appeals, CPU was authorized to issue degrees through June 25, 1997. [14] [15] [16] In 1997 California's Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin called CPU "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years." The Associated Press reported that the school "had virtually no academic standards." [17]) Hawkins' CPU faculty mentor was Sheldon Deal, a chiropractor who was then the president of the International College of Applied Kinesiology (ICAK). The studies that came out of ICAK were found to have "no valid conclusions" [18]. He does not disclose the source of his Ph.D. in his books for sale or on his web site.

Derived from his doctoral dissertation, "Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis and Calibrations of the Level of Human Consciousness," in June 1995 Hawkins published Power vs. Force. This book, which included a map of consciousness, earned public endorsements from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer (as emphatically stated on PBS in his presentation "The Power of Intention"), and, according to Hawkins, Lee Iacocca, Mother Teresa and Sam Walton.[19]

To publish his books he started Veritas Publishing, which is based in Sedona, Arizona. ("Veritas" means "truth" in Latin.) The Institute for Advanced Spiritual Research ( formerly known as the Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research) was founded by Hawkins as a non-profit institute. It is here that he carries out applied kinesiology muscle tests primarily on his wife, Susan Hawkins, the results of which he publishes in his books and reports in his lectures.

Hawkins was the chief of staff at Mingus Mountain Estate Residential Center Inc. in Prescott Valley, Arizona in 1995. He lectured widely at universities (University of Notre Dame, University of Michigan, Oxford University, and others) and to spiritual groups from Westminster Abbey to Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhist monasteries.

Hawkins grows and smokes his own tobacco. He calibrates organic tobacco to be positive and commercial cigarettes to be negative.

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Spiritual teaching

Hawkins has worked closely with the New Thought Movement and shares many similar beliefs. He is formally affiliated with the largest New Thought church, Unity Church, and its ministerial education arm, Unity School of Christianity, which offers continuing education credits for attending his lectures. In Truth vs. Falsehood he describes New Thought churches as follows: "The liberal "New Thought" religions emphasize tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion towards self and others as well as toward other religions."

Conversely, his research has led him to be dismissive of New Age concepts, which are sometimes confused by its critics and associated media with New Thought. In Truth vs. Falsehood, "New Ageism" is listed in a table titled "Marginal Spiritual/Religious Belief Systems (Ideology)" as calibrating at "185," which is below the minimum level of integrity (200). Also listed is "Full-moon Gatherings (New Age)," calibrating at "180."

Other quotes from pages 356, 359-361:

  • "Low calibrations prevail in variants of New Ageism, which push credibility to the limits with glamorized claims of extraterrestrials, spirit guides, guardian angels, and prophesies of earth disasters. Other sources are claims of secret codes of God hidden in various disguises such as the stones in the pyramids, the Hebrew alphabet, DNA, famous paintings, and other imaginative obscurities. New Ageism (despite its own erroneous beliefs) is not, technically speaking, "spiritual," but instead is actually "astral" in its practices and interests."
  • "...The world of pseudospiritual fantasy also produces the imaginings of "Indigo children, star children, star families, star people, fifth-dimension incoming messengers of the future," etc. Common to all of these is a sense of uniqueness; magic; romanticized, naïve, imaginative fantasy; and the attraction of "specialness" itself."
  • "...The ego is attracted to the limitation of form, whereas the essence of Divinity is beyond all form, yet innate within it."
  • "From the viewpoint of the evolution of consciousness, atheism results from the refusal or inability to let go of the illusion that the narcissistic care of the ego is sovereign and is the source of one's life and existence..."

Hawkins principally describes his spiritual teaching as "Devotional Nonduality", a form of Monism, which has its origins in his research for Power vs. Force and was further developed afterwards. Hawkins believes the concept of "Devotional Nonduality" resonates with many religions (such as Hinduism) that hold the belief that "all is One". Other concepts believed by Hawkins to be analogous to his description of nonduality are Logos (in the religious sense) and Tao.

This belief is also argued to be congruent with modern quantum physics' concepts of nonlocality, such as that expressed by Bell's Theorem. Hawkins sees nonduality as forming a bridge between science, philosophy and cognition, similar to the concepts embraced by quantum physicist Dr. David Bohm, particularly in his metaphysical concepts regarding holomovement, and the merging of physics and metaphysics described by Fritjof Capra in "The Tao of Physics". Hawkins' concepts of nonduality is also similar to that described by a number of modern writers and philosophers, including Alan Watts, Ken Wilber, and G. Spencer Brown (as related in his book Laws of Form).

Nonduality is a highly expansive and inclusive concept of God, and includes all which is of form and not. Kindness, prayer and meditation are highly encouraged by Hawkins. Alignment and erudite familiarity with the existing religious teachings calibrated by Hawkins methods to be especially true (that is, "high calibrating"—e.g., the Bible, the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Krishna, etc.) are seen as a means of achieving some of the highest known truths and raising one's consciousness in the process.

He also teaches about reincarnation, karma, astrals and the collective unconscious, among other ideas. He clarifies the difference between out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences. He believes the next step in human evolution is from Homo sapiens to the "awakened man" who marks "the beginning of the emergence of a new, evolutionary branch of mankind called HOMO SPIRITUS." [20]

Hawkins states that he can clearly recount past lives from that point onwards when he reached a certain consciousness level (600 on his scale). In seminars he sometimes gives small episodes from his past lifetimes, e.g. being a Christian knight during the Crusades and a pirate who stole gold (and he states that he still knows where it is buried today).

He also believes that he had a temptation from Lucifer similar to Jesus Christ in which he was offered the power to control worlds, though he states that he rejected this temptation. He claims to experience the classical attributes of God: omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. He teaches that he existed prior to the beginning of the universe, and that he will exist after it ends. An archangel is said to have brought about Hawkins' enlightenment. He further claims to have been to the lowest depths of Hell, which lasted for an "eternity" and resembled the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and the description of Dante's Inferno.

Hawkins makes the point that all are One in God. He also supports the Christian concept that "the Kingdom of God is within you." He discourages cult-like followings of any sort. He further cautions students to question all sources of knowledge, and to "judge them by their fruits."

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Calibration

One of Hawkins claims is that through AK, it is possible to muscle test and determine how in line with truth something is. He calls this "calibration", which runs on his own developed logarithmic scale [note that observers claim the scale is exponential] of 1 (least true as possible) to 1000 (most in line with truth). Hawkins calibrates institutions, religions, books, governments and emotions.

Through the use of this technique, he has calibrated the teachings of varous institutions and religions, and even his own work. For example, one of his books calibrated at 999.8, which is .2 away from Jesus Christ, Buddha and Krishna, who are all "1000" (the highest level possible for a human being) in Hawkins' system.

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Quotes

  • "The true teachers can be seen to have no interest in fame or in having followers, prestige or trappings...The teachings and not the teacher are what is important. Inasmuch as the teachings do not come from the personage of the teacher at all, it does not make sense to idolize or worship the personage. The information is transmitted as a gift because it was received as such."
  • "We change the world not by what we say or do but as a consequence of what we have become. Thus, every spiritual aspirant serves the world."
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Books

  • Hawkins, David R.; Pauling, Linus (ed.) (1973). Orthomolecular Psychiatry: Treatment of Schizophrenia. New York: W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 0-716-70898-1
  • Hawkins, David R. (1995, 2002). Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior. Carlsbad, California; London: Hay House. ISBN 1-561-70933-6
  • Hawkins, David R. (1996). Goodbye, Scorpion; Farewell, Black Widow Spider: How to Avoid the Stings and Bites of the Southwest's Dangerous Arachnids - And What to Do If You Don't. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-964-32612-4
  • Hawkins, David R. (1998). Dialogues on Consciousness and Spirituality. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-964-32617-5
  • Hawkins, David R. (2001). The Eye of the I. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-964-32619-1
  • Hawkins, David R. (2003). I: Reality and Subjectivity. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-971-50071-1
  • Hawkins, David R. (2005). Truth vs. Falsehood: How to Tell the Difference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Axial Publishing.[21] ISBN 0-971-50073-8
  • Hawkins, David R. (2006). Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-9715007-4-6
  • Hawkins, David R. (2006). Devotional Nonduality. Sedona, Arizona: Veritas Publishing. ISBN 0-9715007-6-2 (not yet released)
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References

  • Dyer, Wayne W. (2004). The Power of Intention. Carlsbad, California; London: Hay House. ISBN 1-401-90355-X
  • Herbert, Nick (1987). Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-23569-0
  • Shermer, Michael (2002). Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. New York, NY: Owl Books. ISBN 0-805-07089-3
  • Spencer-Brown, G. (1969, 1994). Laws of Form. Portland, Oregon: Cognizer Company. ISBN 0-963-98990-1
  • Watts, Alan (1966, 1989). The Book : On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-72300-5
  • Wilber, Ken (2001). A Theory of Everything. Boston: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 1-570-62855-6
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External links

Criticism & Reviews


--Angel 08:23, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

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