Power vs. Force material, followed by Applying the Concepts of Power vs. Force to Training in Power
A book by David Hawkins, MD, PhD.
This topic includes two sections: A Power vs. Force synopsis, followed by Power vs. Force concepts as applied to Training in Power. Power vs. Force helped me to identify the overall confusing contradictions I felt and saw in Training in Power. Its concept can be used to gain perspective, assist communication, resolve conflict and establish the truth (life supporting energy) of any issue one faces in life. On a more esoteric level in a spiritual seeker’s life, using kinesiology gives the means to assess for oneself the vibration, or the level of awareness of a teacher and teachings. It can be used as a map of empowerment, or self-awareness. Power vs. Force contains a calibrated scale that calibrates life draining energy (below 200) and life supporting energy (200 to 1000). You can use it to know the truth of matters beyond intellect.
Below you will find a Consciousness Chart, the kinesiology (muscle testing) technique and a summary of the levels of consciousness. The book gives details as to how these calibrations were done, their implications, and limiting factors to be aware of in both the tester and the tested. The premise here is that the mind cannot at times see, outside of its own programming, the true from the false when it is immersed in its own consciousness level. We need help at times until we reach a level of awareness out of our limiting beliefs. Good teachers and counselors help with this process, bad teachers and counselors damage or delay it.
Specifically, if a spiritual teacher (or anyone in a leadership or an authority position) takes advantage of the trust put in them and usurps the student’s choices with their own agenda, even if it’s “for your own good”, a grave spiritual error is being committed. It is called brainwashing. How do we know if a teacher is is guiding us or brainwashing us?
By reading through the summaries of the levels of consciousness below one gets a feeling of the overall picture of enlightenment, which then exposes glaringly that which is not supporting the seeker’s path to freedom and health. For example, in the training, if a teacher teaches the release of fear yet uses fear to do it, the contradiction is obvious. If one teaches freedom from guilt but uses guilt to motivate students, one can see how this reinforces guilt in the psyche, confusing the student and creating vulnerability. It can be seen that a spiritual teacher is not inspiring you to self awareness if they are demanding allegiance or compliance to their own belief system or in any way professing to know what is best for you under conditions of coercion.
This low vibration methodology uses negative life-draining energy below 200, which only serves to reinforce the student’s internal confusion and emotional energies below 200. As is the case in the training, the student does not get well and is kept relying on continued coursework for more answers through the years. This reliance on the teacher’s belief system for help does not deepen the student into their own truth, their own Self realization.
Levels of Human Consciousness
From Power VS Force
According to the book, these replicable calibrations are the result of tests done on thousands of people. All energy levels below 200 tested “weak” and are life draining. Above 200 are life supporting. At 200, Courage begins the climb to empowerment and higher awareness. At 310, Willingness, the lower levels of consciousness are extinguished or no longer tolerated. At 500, Love, one sees others as themselves, and this is the level of vibration that healing occurs. This scale is relative, as all of us have aspects of these behaviors at some time or another mixed together. What is important here is to look at how we are generally operating within this scale of possibilities. Refer to David Hawkins’ book, Power vs. Force, Veritas Publishing, for complete information.
The Chart:
God-View
Life-View
Level
Log
Emotion
Process
Self
Is
ENLIGHTENMENT
700-1000
Ineffable
Pure Consciousness
All-Being
Perfect
PEACE
600
Bliss
Illumination
One
Complete
JOY
540
Serenity
Transfiguration
Loving
Benign
LOVE
500
Reverence
Revelation
Wise
Meaningful
REASON
400
Understanding
Abstraction
Merciful
Harmonious
ACCEPTANCE
350
Forgiveness
Transcendence
Inspiring
Hopeful
WILLINGNESS
310
Optimism
Intention
Enabling
Satisfactory
NEUTRALITY
250
Trust
Release
Permitting
Feasible
COURAGE
200
Affirmation
Empowerment
Indifferent
Demanding
PRIDE
175
Scorn
Inflation
Vengeful
Antagonistic
ANGER
150
Hate
Aggression
Denying
Disappointing
DESIRE
125
Craving
Enslavement
Punitive
Frightening
FEAR
100
Anxiety
Withdrawal
Disdainful
Tragic
GRIEF
75
Regret
Despondency
Condemning
Hopeless
APATHY
50
Despair
Abdication
Vindictive
Evil
GUILT
30
Blame
Destruction
Despising
Miserable
SHAME
20
Humiliation
Elimination
The Muscle Test:
This is a test for using the body to determining empirical truth or falsehood, and whether objects or ideas calibrate above or below the Healthy/Unhealthy power level of 200. To do this test, you’ll need two people, about a minute to prepare, and then about 10 seconds for each actual test. Both people should remove their jewelry, watches, and any head coverings made of synthetic materials. Here is a brief summary, please refer to the book.
- Both people shake out for a few seconds, pause, breathe slowly and fully, ground, and clear your minds.
- Either person makes a declarative statement to be tested (“My name is Shirley Schwartzstein”, “Candidate X is telling the truth”, “The butler did it”…), or presents an object or idea to be tested (a nutritional supplement, a book, a photo of person…).
- The ‘subject’ person stands holding one arm out straight to the side, shoulder height, parallel to the ground, palm down.
- The other person says ‘resist’ and uses two fingers to press down on the subject’s arm, at the wrist. The subject resists with full strength. If the arm stays strong, the query is supported. If the arm lowers, the query is not supported.
Synopsis of Each Level of Consciousness
Here are the summaries of the calibrated levels of consciousness from Power vs. Force. The higher the number the stronger the life supporting value. Keep in mind we are all mixtures of these general feelings, but the less debilitating emotion we carry around within us the more functional, peaceful and joyous our lives become:
20 Shame. An overt consequence of this level would be conscious suicide, a subtle consequence would be the failure to take steps to prolong life, take care of oneself. Pain of ‘losing face’, becoming discredited, or feeling like a ‘non person’. In Shame, we hang our heads and slink away, wishing we were invisible. Banishment is a traditional accompaniment of shame, and in the primitive societies from which we all originate, banishment is equivalent to death. Early life experiences that lead to shame, such as sexual abuse, warp the personality for a lifetime unless these issues are addressed and resolved. Shame produces neurosis. Shame is used as a tool for cruelty (control), and it’s victims in term may be cruel (control) to others. Someone motivated the consciousness of shame at 20 is dangerous, they’re prone to hallucinations of an accusatory nature, as well as paranoia; some become psychotic. Some shame-based individuals compensate with perfectionism and rigidity, becoming driven and intolerant (the very extreme would be a vigilante group). Since it pulls down the whole level of personality, Shame results in a vulnerability to other negative emotions, and therefore often produces false pride, anger and guilt. Either/or.
30 Guilt. Commonly used in our society to manipulate and punish, and produces the whole gamut of symptoms of victimhood. Some suffer from it, others amorally deny it altogether. Guilt domination results in a preoccupation with ‘sin’, an unforgiving emotional attitude exploited by religious leaders, who use it for coercion and control. These ‘sin and salvation’ (your bad but can be saved) leaders act out their own guilt or project it onto others (you’re ‘sick’, unhealed)
50 Apathy. This level characterized by poverty, despair and hopelessness. Pathos is the theme of life. The victims of Apathy are needy and lack resources or energy to help themselves in some way. Apathy is the level of abandonment of hope, and few have the courage to really look in its face.
75 Grief. Level of sadness, loss, and dependency. Most experience it for periods of time, but those who remain there live in constant regret and depression. Major losses early in life make one vulnerable to passive acceptance of grief, as though sorrow were the price, the cost of life. This level colors one’s entire vision of existence. (Armored people are numb to their grief and never put themselves into similar vulnerability again!) There is a generalization from the particular, so that a loss of a loved one is equated with the loss of love itself. At this level, such emotional losses may trigger a serious depression or death. Grief still has more energy than Apathy, for once a patient begins to cry, we know they are getting better and will eat again.
100 Fear. More life energy available at this level; fear of danger is healthy. Fear runs much of the world, spurring on endless activity. Fear of enemies, of old age, of death, of rejection, and a multitude of social fears are basic motivators in most people’s lives. From this level, life looks hazardous, full of traps and threats. Fear is the favored tool for control by oppressive agencies, and insecurity is the major stock and trade of major manipulations of the marketplace. The media and advertising play to Fear to increase market shares. Once Fear is one’s focus, it becomes obsessive and may take any form. It may balloon into paranoia or neurotic defensive structures and, because it is contagious, become a dominant social trend. Fear limits growth of the personality. Because it takes energy to rise above fear…the fearful seek strong leaders who appear to have conquered their own Fears to lead them out of its slavery. The fearful are vulnerable to the control and manipulation of charismatic leaders in religions and societies.
125 Desire. At 125 there is yet more energy available. Desire motivates vast areas of human activity, including the economy. Advertisers play on desires to program us with needs linked to instinctual drives. Desire moves us to expend great effort to achieve goals or obtain rewards. The desire for money, prestige or power runs the lives of many of those who have risen about Fear as their predominant life motif.
Desire is also the level of addiction, wherein desire becomes a craving more important than life itself. The victim of Desire may actually be unaware of the basis of his motives. Some become addicted to the desire for attention and drive others away by their constant demands. Desire has to do with accumulation and greed. But Desire is insatiable because it is an ongoing energy field, so that satisfaction of one desire is merely replaced by unsatisfied desire for something else. Desire is a much higher state than apathy or grief, for in order to ‘get’ you have to first have the energy to ‘want’. TV has had a major influence on oppressed people, creating ‘wants’ and energizing their desires to the degree they move out of Apathy. Desire can, therefore, become a springboard to yet higher levels of awareness.
150 Anger. As anger stems from frustrated want; it is based on the energy field below it. Frustration results from exaggerating the importance of desires. The angry person may, like the frustrated infant, go into rage. Anger of this type has an erosive effect on all areas of a person’s life.
175 Pride. Pride has enough energy to run the US Marine Corps. It is the level aspired to by the majority of people today. People feel positive as they reach this level. This rise in self esteem is a balm to all the pain experienced at lower levels of consciousness. Pride is far enough removed from Shame, Guilt or Fear that to rise, let’s say, out of the despair of the ghetto to the pride of being a Marine is an enormous jump. Pride is socially encouraged; yet as we see from the chart of levels of consciousness, it is sufficiently negative to remain below the critical level of 200. This is why Pride feels good only in contrast to the lower levels. Pride is defensive and vulnerable because it is dependent on external conditions, without which it can suddenly revert to a lower level. The inflated ego is vulnerable to attack. Pride remains weak because it can be knocked off its pedestal into Shame, which is the threat that fires the fear of loss of pride. Pride is divisive and gives rise to factionalism; the consequences are costly. Man has habitually died for Pride: religion & political ideologies.
The downside of Pride is arrogance and denial. These block growth; in Pride, recovery from addictions is impossible because emotional problems or character defects are denied. Pride is a very sizable block to the acquisition of real power, which displaces Pride with true stature and prestige.
200 Courage. 200 is the critical line that distinguishes the positive (life supportive) and negative (life draining) influences of life. At the level of Courage an attainment of true power occurs: therefore, it is also the beginning of empowerment. This is the zone of exploration, accomplishment, fortitude and determination. At the lower levels the world is seen as hopeless, sad, frightening, or frustrating; but at the level of Courage, life is seen to be exciting, challenging and stimulating. Courage implies the willingness to try new things and deal with the vicissitudes of life. At this level of empowerment one is able to cope with and handle effectively the opportunities of life. Growth and education become attainable goals. There is the capacity to face fears or character defects and to grow despite them, and anxiety does not cripple endeavor as it would at lower stages of evolution. Obstacles which defeat people whose consciousness is below 200 act as stimulants to those who have evolved into the first level of true power.
People at this level put back into the world as much energy as they take; at lower levels populations as well as individuals drain energy from society without reciprocating. Because accomplishment results in positive feedback, self-reward and esteem become progressively self-reinforcing. This is where productivity begins. The collective level of consciousness of mankind remained at 190 for many centuries, and curiously, only jumped to its current level of 204 within the last decade.
250 Neutrality. Energy is released from the positionality which typifies lower levels. Below 250 consciousnesses tends to see dichotomies and take on rigid positions, an impediment to a world which is complex and multifactoral rather than black and white. Taking such positions creates polarization, and polarization in turn creates opposition and division. As in the martial arts, a rigid position becomes a point of vulnerability; that which does not bend is liable to break. Rising above barriers or oppositions which dissipate one’s energies, the Neutral condition allows for flexibility and non-judgmental, realistic appraisal of problems. To be Neutral means to be relatively unattached to outcomes, not getting one’s way is no longer experienced as defeating, frightening or frustrating.
At the Neutral level a person can say, “Well, if I don’t get this job, I’ll get another.” This is the beginning of inner confidence; sensing one’s power, one is not easily intimidated. One is not driven to prove anything. The expectation that life, with its ups and downs, will be basically okay if one can roll with the punches is a 250 level.
People at Neutrality have a sense of well-being; the mark of this level is confident pability to live in the world. This is the level of safety. People at the Neutral level are easy to get along with, safe to be around and associate with, because they are not interested in conflict, competition or guilt. They are comfortable and basically undisturbed emotionally. This attitude is non-judgmental and does not lead to any need to control other people’s behaviors. Correspondingly, because Neutral people value freedom, they are hard to control.
310 Willingness. This is the gateway to higher levels. Growth is rapid here; these are people chosen for advancement. Willingness implies that one has overcome inner resistance to life and is committed to participation. Below the 200 level people tend to be close-minded, but by this level a great opening occurs. People become genuinely friendly, and social and economic success seems to follow automatically. They are not demeaned by service jobs or by starting at the bottom. They are helpful to others and contribute to the good of society. They are also willing to face inner issues and do not have major learning blocks. At this level self-esteem is high and is reinforced by positive feedback from society in the forms of recognition, appreciation and reward. Willingness is sympathetic and responsive to the needs of others. Willing people are builders and contributors to society. With their capacity to bounce back from adversity and learn from experience, they tend to become self-correcting. Having let go of Pride, they are willing to look at their defects and learn from others. They are easily trainable and represent a considerable source of power of society.
350: Acceptance. At this level of awareness a major transformation takes place with the understanding that one is oneself the source and creator of the experience of one’s life. Taking such responsibility is distinctive of this degree of evolution characterized by the capacity to live harmoniously with the forces of life. All people at levels below 200 tend to be powerless and see themselves as victims. This stems from the belief that the source of one’s happiness or cause of one’s problems is ‘out there’. An enormous jump, taking back one’s own power, is completed at this level with the realization that the source of happiness is within oneself. At this more evolved state, nothing ‘out there’ has the capacity to make one happy, and love is not something that is given or taken away by another, but is created from within.
Acceptance is not to be confused with passivity, which is a symptom of apathy. This form of acceptance allows engagement in life on life’s own terms, without trying to make it conform to an agenda. With acceptance, there is emotional calm and perception is widened as denial is transcended. One now sees things without distortion or misinterpretation; the context of experience is expanded so that one is capable of ‘seeing the whole picture’. Acceptance has to do essentially with balance, proportion and appropriateness.
The individual at the level of Acceptance is not interested in determining right or wrong, but instead is dedicated to resolving issues and finding out what to do about problems. Tough jobs do not cause discomfort or dismay. Long term goals take precedence over short term ones; self discipline and mastery are prominent. At the level of Acceptance we are not polarized by conflict or opposition; we see that other people have the same rights as we do and we honor equality. While lower levels are characterized by rigidity, at this level social plurality begins to emerge as a form of resolution of problems. There is an awareness that equality does not preclude diversity; Acceptance includes rather than rejects.
500 Love. Love as depicted in the mass media is not what this level is about. What the world refers to as love is an intense emotionality combining physical attraction, possessiveness, control, addiction, and novelty. It is usually fluctuating, waxing and waning with varying conditions. This level is characterized by the development of a love which is unconditional, unchanging and permanent. Not dependent on external factors, loving is a state of being. It emanates from the heart, is not intellectual. It has the capacity to lift others and accomplish great feats because of it’s purity of motive. Reason deals with particulars, love deals with wholes, rising above the separation of positionality. It is then possible to be ’one with another’ as there are no longer any barriers.
Love is therefore inclusive and expands the sense of self progressively. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all its expressions and augments that which is positive. It dissolves negativity by re-contextualizing it rather than attacking it. This is the level of true happiness. Although all viable religions calibrate at 400 or over, it is interesting to note that only .4% of the world’s population ever reaches this level of evolution of consciousness.
540 Joy. As love becomes more and more unconditional it begins to be experienced as inner Joy. Joy arises from within each moment of existence rather that from any outer source. 540 is also the level of healing and of healthy spiritually based self help groups. Characteristics of this level are: capacity for enormous patience and positive attitude, compassion, seeing is illuminated by the exquisite beauty and perfection of creation, seeing that everything is Divine and in the right place. Sense of responsibility to others at this level is a desire to use one’s state of consciousness for the benefit all. Level 540 people have a notable effect on others; their prolonged gaze gives a sense of love and peace. The level of saints, healers, spiritual healers and advanced spiritual students.
600 Peace. Rare. Transcendence, self-realization and God-consciousness. Distinction between subject and object disappears, and there is no special focal point of perception. Many at this level remove themselves from the world or become great in their respective fields and make major contributions to society.
700-1000. This level of consciousness includes the great ones of history who originated the spiritual patterns which the multitudes have followed. It is a level of powerful inspiration. There is no longer the experience of an individual personal self separate from others; rather, there is an identification of Self with Consciousness and Divinity. The transcendence of the ego also serves by example to teach others how this can eventually be accomplished. Great teachings uplift the masses and raise the level of awareness of all of humanity.
To have such vision is called grace. The self merges back into the Self. This is the level of non-duality, or complete Oneness. There is no localization of consciousness; awareness is everywhere equally present. Depicted in art, these individuals are shown with a specific hand position called mundra; the act of transmission of this energy field to the consciousness of all humanity.
Applying the Concepts of Power vs. Force to Training in Power
Reward and Punishment
If one uses logic and deduction it is reasonable to conclude that if one is using, motivated by, focusing on or continuing to encourage emotions less than 200, one is identified with those emotions and is less likely to be able to clear them, or rise above them. It becomes evident that it is impossible to raise ‘vibration’ if one is kept immersed in & subjected to emotions less than 200.
What we do & focus on manifests more of the same. If the use of guilt is often used in an organization to get people to volunteer, it will only work if people are not encouraged to identify and rise above guilt. So those people who can be manipulated by guilt have guilt tolerate this methodology. When anger, shame, humiliation, and approval/disapproval are used and accepted as a method to train people, those who are convinced this behavior is coming from an ‘authority’, a trusted teacher, will usually respond with compliance. If leadership is authoritarian, students adopt the ego of the authoritarian, will become like them. The use of these low vibrational methods with the high emotional exaltations used in the course material of Training in Power ensures that only controllable people will participate and comply.
When those who submit to these methods are rewarded and those who don’t are shamed, ignored, pressured and or “watched” (as per my instructions as a minister to ‘monitor’ people who did other work), eventually only compliant people will stay. Those who reach a level of awareness Hawkins calls “neutrality” are difficult to ‘control’ and when their efforts to address this energy are deflected some may go back into denial and submit or just withdraw, but some will have enough self trust to leave altogether.
Vulnerability to Emotional Control
Again, the student’s mind has no cognitive way to discern, outside of it’s programming, the true from the false when it comes to awareness of that which is beyond it. So most of us are vulnerable when it comes to mystical teachings, a system, a cause, a belief, a promise, a hope pinned on an authority to lead us where we think we want to go, many times out of our misery. When we are emotionally vulnerable we can be misled, perhaps wasting time but most often falling into very painful learning experience. It is repeatedly recommended in all of David Hawkins’ books to test the teachings and the teacher, for this prevents wasted efforts on the path to true self empowerment. Testing can uncover and bring to our awareness the doubts about the training. It can bring to our awareness that the uncomfortable feelings we’ve had can be trusted to be telling us something important. If we can be honest with ourselves, no matter how much we don’t want it to be so, we’ll begin to see how our legitimate quest for knowledge and our yearning for spirit has been emotionally manipulated.
Facing the Dilemma for Some is Impossible
A teacher’s level of skill and responsibility can be seen by their response to any problem brought to them. If problems brought to a teacher are consistently denied, deflected, justified or rationalized, if there is no willingness to discuss conflict or the student is manipulated to be wrong or blamed, as I have witnessed for so many years in Training in Power, then truth seekers are placed in an intolerable position. They must deny their teacher is abusing them in order to stay connected to their salvation. If their vibration is high, they won’t want to participate in this lower vibration dilemma and will have to leave. In higher levels of the training, it became very clear that only input that fit into the founder’s story was acceptable, thus independent thought is controlled.
To seek to address problems has been called “attack” in the training. This is a severe block to healthy communication. But seeking solutions for the good of all requires levels of courage, neutrality, willingness, and reason to participate in the co-creative process; it requires overcoming pride, anger and fear in order to support the other’s growth process as well as your own. Such growth, attempted by any good teacher, will increasingly lead students and the teacher OUT of the training’s either/or, right/ wrong (judgment) and into an increasing awareness of cooperation. It a spiritual group, it should lead one to an increasing feeling of God/love and unity, not divisive ‘my way or the highway’ tactics. Students immersed in emotional states produced by the training cannot honestly see where they have been led.
True Power is Subjective
The goal of the teacher must be to encourage the growth of “inclusive vibration” as a subjective awareness in the student, revealed from within the student for the student, and therefore the truth of the student. One cannot get to subjective self realization by being expected to adopt the teacher’s personality as a way of being or for ‘power’. Power can be modeled and inspired and students can be led toward it, but ultimately it is their own journey to their own knowing a teacher is inspiring.
This is the feeling I have worked to support in the training for many years. Subjective power is sabotaged when students must learn the rules of the “construct” (the teacher’s own energetic term for her system) of this training without question, and have as their guide the guardrails of anger, guilt, shame, approval/disapproval, right/wrong, and pride.
These methods keep students on the correct power ‘story’ road but disconnected from developing their own sense of power. This demand to adhere to one person’s story reveals a grave spiritual error; for truth cannot be discovered for oneself under the right/wrong dictates of a hierarchical structure. To always have to reach the next level to be well, to say this is the ‘right way’ to power, to say one must stick to this training or lose vibration, their soul, or get sick (or I’ve heard fat), creates fear and is an obvious emotional manipulation that underlies both ‘the ends justify the means’ and ‘for your own good ‘ philosophy of the training, which calibrates at 20 on the scale of consciousness (pretty primal).
The fact that this training boasts the best/only path to power drops its calibration immediately into pride at 175, a basic drive that creates divisiveness and war, in a nation or in a body. Military training can be expected to build strength and character by its hierarchy and strict structure. But it does not demand you stay forever or risk losing your soul.
A question was asked of Hawkins in “Eye of the I”:
“What is the core essence of the spiritual search?”. The response: “Consciousness advances itself when it is provided with essential information which then becomes activated by intention. This prompts inspiration, humility, and surrender, and these tendencies become progressively more operative. In addition, progress is greatly aided by expert guidance, calibrated by testing the level of consciousness of the teacher and the teachings.
Spiritual endeavor in the past was quite unreliable and seekers were prone to falling into misleading error with no way of realizing what had happened or why. Sometimes high levels of truth are mixed in with serious spiritual error, and what could have led to real progress led instead to spiritual disaster. Often the error is outside the context of the reality of the seeker and thus escapes detection. The impact of the devotee who has been misled is severe when the spiritual rape is uncovered.
The disillusionment is more severe than that which follows deception or financial disaster in personal life. Some never recover and go on to severe depression and total collapse. Some become like walking shells. Spiritual error and disillusionment can be grave and damaging.
Monetary loss is trivial compared to the major spiritual loss because the teacher is often held in such high esteem and almost god-like adoration. This tendency on the part of the seeker is taken advantage of by the spiritual teacher, who is seductive, glib and adept at the tricks of the trade which occur in areas least expected and unexamined. Often the spiritual error is so disguised and rationalized that it is all but undetectable. Even the teacher may be unaware.
In looking at the price of a mistake, there is also the loss of time to be considered. Often years, or even lifetimes, are spent in spiritual error. Once tested, the underlying faults of the teachings become obvious. Before that however, the error cannot be detected because it is hidden by desire, love, one’s cultural heritage, family, country, etc. It is through misplaced loyalty and blind faith that error propagates and survives.”
The Necessary “Vibration”, or State of Mind Needed for Health, Growth and Healing to Occur
The training teaches that we are an onion of pathology, and we must keep digging at what is wrong to fix ourselves. This attitude counters current information on vibrational healing. The body needs the vibrations of the 500’s or higher to heal, and cannot attain that vibration while focused on wrongness and battle.
The training “construct” focuses and models sickness and fixing what is broken rather than expanding wellness from within by re-visioning and honoring the wholeness and inner truth of each person. In Level 1 it is said students must learn to trust themselves. They are then led into a very structured system and their knowing is dismissed if their knowledge is deemed beyond their level. So if they talk about a concept (an energy) that is subjectively considered by an upper level to be upper level material, they are made to feel they’ve importantly tapped into ‘future’ training they can”t know about now.
It is said that only the founder can hold certain positions (which she has created) and access certain information (some of which is common knowledge and some she created). She repeatedly tells students she is the only one, and must grant others the right to go there, thus the level construct.
The teachings do not embrace actions that inspire the spiritual aspirant from within to deepen trust and truth of their OWN story. Their focus is so directed they have little time or inclination to question. For instance, the battle stance in the training is intricate and takes years to learn. In brief, it is considered naive to not do battle, you must protect yourself with your shielding at all times, “strike” evil with light, be confrontive and focused on exposing all evils in yourself and others, and be aligned with your colleagues to “hold the line” and “close ranks”. To be compassionate has been linked to Pollyanna and is assumed to be naive.
There is a huge difference here in the kind of battle that is us/them victimhood which reinforces low vibration, and the more correct placement of battle called Courage; courage to stand up for oneself, courage to address oneself, the courage to address another when necessary. To address hurtfulness creates a learning situation, and is not blame, not battle and certainly not victimhood. The fact that battle is necessary in the training feeds the addiction to all emotions below 200!
Students are progressed through the privileged hierarchal story, given greater battles to fight and rewarded for attack year after year. It is said the more important you are, the more powerful you are, the more attack you will experience. It is a badge of honor to have bad things happen to you. In reality to “battle” produces excitement and continued addiction to the drama that keeps all people of the world prisoners of the mind and lower emotions, as well as physically compromised. To battle is not “bad” in itself; it is a condition of survival and a necessary step in the early evolution of awareness. However, at slightly higher levels of consciousness the battle is no longer necessary because the Self is secure, no longer a victim of outer circumstances.
Two of the Most Major Contradictions
When closely examined, I found this training’s methods in all levels incongruent with its promise of empowerment. From Level 1 the ”Trust yourself” is usurped by upper level student’s “sight” that focuses the student on what is wrong with them according to whatever the upper level ‘sees’. The course material says in Level 1 that “fear and guilt produce aggression” and are to be avoided, which amazingly causes students to ignore the fact that fear and guilt are used against them and incredibly embedded in the story throughout the levels. Students arrive in upper levels after many years still not empowered from within. These two major contradictions negate and ignore the spiritual truth principles of all highly calibrated teachings. It is my hope that other ex-students will take it upon themselves to document more of these contradictions.
Emotional Manipulation
Low vibrational methods combine with ecstatic emotions when students finally ‘arrive’ into privileged upper level secrets and see how much their authority figures have battled for them to get them there. It is emotionally revealed to them that their teachers have “held”, suffered and “endured” for them. This emotional time reinforces bonding and loyalty. By this time students become emotionally beholding and become willing to adopt the same attitudes and tactics as their teachers. They will defend the glory of the path at all costs. The reward for getting this far is that you will now have a leadership position, which is in turn is dependent upon upholding the ’rules of power’, the rulebook that others have so difficultly fought for.
Students are told that those who leave are “fallen” which further bonds the group emotionally into us/them divisiveness; it is said that those who leave can’t hold the vibration, cannot take the pressure of this new consciousness. To label dissenters “evil, fallen, or attacking” upholds the drama story and those who remain must dismiss and forget ones they have ‘loved’ because they are now fallen.
This dismissal creates incredible trauma bonding in grief and pride for those remain and who have “held the line”. This also creates an emotional double bind; dismissing those they loved as fallen. Most students cannot bring these double binds into focus, into full consciousness. The concept of “falling” is one of many incongruent traps of awareness built into the founder’s story.
David Hawkins writes: “With discernment and spiritual maturity, the characteristics of cults become obvious. Primarily, they are exploitive. The leader is typically controlling; money is important; allegiance to the group is emphasized; and the cult insists on proselytizing and is (divisive) to spouses, family or friends. There are secrets, a hierarchy, and the use of psychological pressure and persuasion that border on brainwashing. Leaving the group brings negative pressures to bear, along with psychological consequences. The leader is charismatic, persuasive, and surrounded by a personality cult. The leader is exempt from the rules. “
“The leader, rather than the teachings, becomes the focus of energy; gifts, money, favors, and adulation rather than simple respect. The leader often claims a special relationship with some invisible entity on the ‘other side’ that has a special name. This impresses vulnerable and nave potential followers who get caught up by (group) members and enthusiasts. To ascend in a group’s heierarchy costs sizable sums of money for each step. With each step goes a title, ie adepts, teacher, master and so on. Some of these organizations are structured like multilevel marketing with profits going to the topmost leaders. The teachings and the activities of the group violate basic spiritual precepts by claiming exclusivity and justifying actions based on obscure teachings, or reliance on negative scriptures such as the Book of Revelations. It is not a person who is the teacher but the Self of the teacher. It is not the lighthouse that guides the ships but the light from the lighthouse.”