Views from David Hawkins, drawn from his 2015 book, Transcending the Levels of Consciousness
Many will be familiar with Hawkins’ Levels of Consciousness work, and he has been one of the foremost proponents of the use of energetic testing to obtain information, mainly using muscle response, but also acknowledging the other signalling mechinasms available via the body.
In the Appendix to one of his most recent works, some twenty years after writing Power vs Force, he summarises some important aspects of using the method, and what the limitations are. Some of it is phrased in terms of the numerical scale of consciousness that is his signature idea, from 0 to 1000, but there is much applicable to the use of energetic testing in health and wellness practice using devices or manual methods.
The most important principle put forward is that testing is only accurate if the tester, the subject and the purpose of the test ‘calibrate at over 200’, by which Hawkins means a level at which the basic ego-survival feelings have been balanced out by an awareness of the intrinsic value in others, the emergence of some spiritual searching and an emphasis on love and benevolence.
It’s interesting to note the idea that the ‘purpose of the test’ is included in the above stipulation. This explains (conveniently, sceptics would say) why repeating tests to dispel doubt or checking for ‘accuracy’ by testing a poisonous object is likely to yield strange results.
The idea that the test response was related to the acupuncture meridians of the body, or the immune system was superseded by the recognition that it was a general response of consciousness (innate intelligence) to the energy in a statement, hence explaining why some of the electronic devices in clinical use changed from contact on specific acu-points to more general application. Muscles going strong, pupil dilation, galvanic skin response and some brain behaviours are all part of the same response.
It is essential to have ‘permsission’ to ask about something. This may be implicit in a clinical consultation, but it may pay to be explicit about certain investigations.
Testing cannot foretell the future, but information can be gained about any aspect of past or present. Testing should be in the form of a statement, the response is either ‘on’ or ‘not on’. This subtle point is reminding us that cosnciousness does not work in terms of negatives. It either affirms something or does not. (This doesn’t mean that we don’t recoil from things that are noxious, but that is more of a bodily mechanism.)
Familiarity with the information being tested, and with the test subject does increase the level of accuracy and potential. In a clinical setting this means that test data that you have curated and developed yourself, or worked with extensively, and clients that you have explored in-depth with, will generate the most impressive results.
Recent experiences may result in a test subjects results being unreliable, including contact with negative people or media. Various common forms of ‘resetting’ can be used to deal with this. In many cases the clinical setting will be enough to effect the reset.
Test responses are independent of the subject’s beliefs or opinions, and hence the question being audible/visible or silent/invisible has the same outcome. This is why testing with the very rapid methods of modern energetic testing systems and even remote testing are possible.
According to Hawkins, skepticim, cynicism and atheism will invalidate testing, as they are all forms of negative pre-judgement. One aspect of the 200 and beyond levels is that of an open mind. Non-linear, right-brain processes of arriving at the ‘truth’ of a situation, Hawkins is saying, are more powerful than linear, logic-based thinking.
Test results may change over time or with different investigators. Accuracy increases with the level of consciousness and strength of intention to discover the truth of a situation. Hence the most effective thing a practitioner can do to improve their clinical outcomes may well be their own trancendence work.