“Straight and narrow is the path…Waste no time.
Gloria in Excelsis Deo!”

David Hawkins opens each of the six books in this series with this bold, challenging statement.

What is the phenomenon of David Hawkins? At the least we have someone who has spent fifty years as a psychiatrist, has seen, and managed, the full gamut of the human condition, at one time running the largest psychiatric practice in New York; has held numerous public/professional offices; is a distinguished 50 year life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association; is a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem; co-authored Orthomolecular Psychiatry with Nobel laureate, Linus Pauling; has been spiritual advisor to diverse spiritual traditions, Zen and Christian monasteries. [You can review the long list of his accomplishments by visiting his website]. At the highest, we have a man who states, openly and without a sense of boasting achievement, to have experienced the most elevated spiritual states, states that are ordinarily referred to as Enlightened.

As Kinesiologists, David Hawkins presents us with a challenge. He was introduced to Kinesiology by another psychiatrist, Dr. John Diamond. Having seen John Diamond demonstrate kinesiology muscle testing, Hawkins felt that it represented more than just a local phenomenon for that specific client: “The kinesiological test is independent of personal opinion or beliefs and is an impersonal response of the field of consciousness, just as protoplasm is impersonal in its responses.”

Using muscle testing he went on to develop a Map of Consciousness or Truth, using an arbitrary, logarithmic scale from 0 to 1000, where 0 represents death or no-life and 1000 the highest level of Enlightenment, as represented by the great Avatars such as Christ or Buddha. He emphasizes that the muscle test can only be reliably used if both the tester and testee calibrate above the critical level of 200, the level of Courage on his Map, which is the level at which integrity begins.

David Hawkins then used kinesiological muscle testing to calibrate the level of Truth or Consciousness of every exploration or statement he has made in his books, even every chapter of every book. He claims that this gives a validity to what he writes, even a reproducible, scientific validity. That claim to scientific validity has left him wide open to criticism by his peers and made it easy for them to just dismiss his work.

As Kinesiologists, can we accept that the humble muscle test can represent an indicator of Universal Truth, an indicator of the Universal field of Consciousness? What are we testing when we muscle test? How far does the potential of muscle testing extend?
Can muscle testing subserve both functions, ie a local phenomenon and a universal one, depending on what is being asked?

However David Hawkins has arrived at the material in these books, they are truly remarkable. As a spiritual seeker for over thirty years, and one who would claim some knowledge [and practice] of the great spiritual traditions of Christianity, Buddhism and Vedanta, how this reviewer wishes he had this material available thirty years ago! The clarity, consistency and insight in these pages are wonderful gifts. I know of no other writer on such matters who can explain and guide you through the difficult terrain of Spiritual development with such power and humour. Specifically, David Hawkins’ explanation of the nature of ego and the dismantling of ego-consciousness, is worth a library of books on spirituality. The remarkable thing is that these books are a guide not about what to do, but how to be.

As we know, the map can never be the territory but an accurate, reliable map is the best friend you can have on the journey. These books represent exactly that for the serious spiritual seeker.

In Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, David Hawkins takes you through the detail of the different levels of consciousness, which is really an exploration of the ego’s diversity of expressions. For each level he details how the world is seen by someone at that level; how they engage the world; the dualities [attractions/aversions] of that level; and how that level is transcended. This information is immensely helpful personally as well as in helping us to understand and assist the client/patient population we work with. This book also provides a guide to the spiritual literature and Teachers that are available to us. David Hawkins offers us not just his opinion of these but the calibrated level using muscle testing. He argues that the human mind of itself is incapable of discerning truth from falsehood – the only reliable test is by kinesiologic muscle testing. And the higher the level of Consciousness of the people involved, the greater the reliability. Whether the calibrations were done by him alone or a team of people is not clear.

Transcending the Levels of Consciousness is not just a book of interesting/useful information - it is really a working handbook for the seeker of spiritual evolution. It has a quality that is rare in books of a spiritual nature; a quality of hard-nosed realism and honesty, presumably brought about by his long-experience of dealing with people from these diverse levels and from the immense depth of his own spiritual experience.

Discovery of the Presence of God is about “making one’s life the prayer”. It really presents the final steps for spiritual commitment, for truly and whole-heartedly orientating one’s life to exploring the depth of our being, to achieving God-realization. It contains the most detailed and honest description of the state of enlightenment, in as de-mystified a way as is possible. To my knowledge such a description is unique in the spiritual literature. It contains really useful “questions and answers” that deals with the core issues that bother all of us.

David Hawkins weaves a consistent theme through his work from the first book, Power versus Force, to this last one. He challenges us to keep “Re-contextualizing” our understanding – seeing the bigger and bigger picture so that we progressively open ourselves to consciousness levels of greater power. The biggest context of all would of course be the God’s-eye view. All of the material he presents fits together like building blocks that build toward a bigger structure – there is no casual, redundant material here; there is no light entertainment/amusement. Like a Beethoven symphony, the work builds to a climactic end –turning your life into the prayer, actually living a life of Devotional Nonduality.

Rendering the spiritual journey and spiritual reality into words seems an impossibility - trying express the inexpressible! David Hawkins has done the best job of this “impossibility” that can be done. Gloria in Excelsis Deo!