David Hawkins: The Man, His Suffering, and the Levels of Consciousness
The Life of David R. Hawkins
WHO WAS DAVID HAWKINS?
Having read many of David Hawkins books over the years and watched various lectures, I recently immersed myself in his biography “Doctor of Truth The Life of David Hawkins” written by Scott Jeffrey. His many words of wisdom offer so many support through their own challenging times, I wanted to know more about his own personal life, his experiences, and more importantly how life brought him to teach about spirituality and the levels of consciousness.
There are so many spiritual teachers it’s hard to know who is coming from a place of genuine love, and who is simply looking for profit selling you another course, seminar, or book. Some teachers are full of authenticity and honesty, while others preach from a position of superiority claiming the status of enlightenment. Hawkins radiates truth by speaking from his own personal experiences and the suffering he endured in his own life, as well as the transformations, and moments of extraordinary expansive love.
His life was full of different trials, from growing up on the east coast, becoming a renowned psychiatrist, developing a successful clinic to heal addicts and the mentally disturbed, suffering from is own alcohol and drug addiction, and eventually leaving it all behind to seek the deeper spiritual truths in himself by moving across the country to Sedona, Arizona where the Human Potential and New Age movement was just beginning. It was here in Sedona that Hawkins dove into the depths of himself and discovered a rich spiritual connection to the greater conscious awareness.
ORTHOMOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
After many years of classical psychiatric practice, Hawkins was drawn to Orthomolecular Psychiatry and became a pioneer in this field. Often snubbed by the scientific community for lack of studies in scientific journals, Hawkins successfully treated thousands of schizophrenics and addicts using alternative treatments. His main objective was always to heal his patients, and this methodology worked over and over again.
During the 1950’s and 60’s, most psychiatrists subscribed to talk therapy, medication, and shock therapy treatments without looking at the possibility of biochemical causes. People could spend years using conventional treatments without any lasting results. Hawkins found alternative methods to be far more effective. He looked at the biochemical effects on the body first to see if people were suffering from a chemical sensitivity, nutritional imbalance, environmental toxin, or an allergy that could be contributing to their state of mind.
Hawkins believed that this should be the first approach because a person could spend an entire year talking about their mental issues, taking pharmaceutical drugs and tranquilizers, with zero improvement. This seemed like a waste of time to Hawkins, so he elected to use large doses of vitamin therapy first, special diets, exercise, and small doses of medication when necessary. More often than not, his patients noticed immediate change, an elimination of mental symptoms, and were considered able to live normal lives. Schizophrenics who had lost hope found healing from Hawkins Orthomolecular Psychiatry.
With recovering addicts, specifically alcoholics, he noticed they tended to be hypoglycemic. When eliminating all refined sugars from their diets, and supplementing with vitamin therapy, most of them were able to stay completely sober. Time and time again Hawkins witnessed miraculous transformation and true healing in his patients. Even though the scientific community gawked at his methods, his only concern was seeing his patients get well. He could not have achieved this level of success through traditional psychiatric treatments.
ADDICTION AND SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
As a young man, David Hawkins loved to drink, which eventually developed into a serious addiction problem along with various drugs that lasted many years. He repeatedly sought out treatments, all which failed. He began to think he’d never get over this huge problem in his life. Nothing seemed to work for him. Each period of sobriety would eventually end in using again.
Hawkins entered a period of severe darkness and depression believing his life would certainly end in addiction. The torment came to a pivotal moment that would transform his life forever. Experiencing a literal hell, agony, and a spiritual darkness of overwhelming proportions, Hawkins experienced the following, “At death’s door there was nothing left to cling to, with unbounded abandonment and unending despair, a silent voice arose from within him, ‘If there is a God, I ask him for help. . . Then, reality ceased and disappeared. Everything blanked out” (Jeffreys, 91).
After this moment, Hawkins, a known agnostic, described that everything went into oblivion and as he awoke and consciousness returned his state of complete and total darkness was replaced by the Infinite or All That Is. “The exquisite splendor, beauty, and peace of Divinity shone forth. It was autonomous, final, timeless, perfect, the Self of the manifest and unmanifest, the Supreme Godhead” (Jeffreys, 94). This experience altered Hawkins life forever. What he once experienced using only drugs and altering mind medications was now a normal everyday experience. From this moment on, Hawkins never had a sip of alcohol or drugs again.
Hawkins experienced profound spiritual experiences of the infinite beginning at the age of three. He had a repeated inner battle with the concept of existence versus non-existence and this often presented itself through physical experiences feeling as if he was being pulled into a great VOID. These experiences were very private to him, scaring him greatly at times, but never sharing with anyone.
Hawkins recalls doing a paper route as a young boy and during a horrific blizzard, he was blown off of his bike, sought shelter inside a snow bank and practically froze to death. It was in this moment he was overcome by a “delicious warmth of incredible beauty, with a feeling akin to sitting near a roaring fire, accompanied by a profound peace—and he was over come with exquisite joy. Time stopped, and the awareness of oneness with eternity replaced all thought or sense of a personal self” (Jeffrey, p.31). Hawkins never shared this moment with anyone at the time. But it would prove to be a very big part of his life in the future.
OUT WEST & A COURSE IN MIRACLES
Another pivotal shift in Hawkins’ life was coming across A Course in Miracles. Through his connections in New York, Hawkins was given a copy of the manuscript before it was published. He began reading it and immediately felt the Truth in its words. Shortly after finding the Course, Hawkins felt a new life was in order. Leaving his practice and everything he had built behind, he ventured to Sedona, Arizona where the Human Potential Movement was making a big impact. Hawkins found himself immersed in spiritual practices and living a very simple life amongst many like minded people.
He spent many years withdrawn, going within and seeking the spiritual side of himself. He led many Course in Miracles groups and practiced the workbook. Throughout his life he suffered from many physical conditions, many that remained chronic. Practicing the workbook of A Course in Miracles and applying the teachings, he noticed many of his body afflictions disappeared. This led Hawkins to believe that consciousness itself had more bearing on healing than anything else he had previously used with his patients. He became very involved in Applied Kinesiology, which uses muscle testing to verify if something is true or false. This technique became a huge part of Hawkins teachings and the calibration method for his levels of consciousness.
It is here in Sedona that Hawkins shifted from renowned psychiatrist into a spiritual teacher. With so many personal experiences with the Infinite Oneness, his liberation from suffering and addiction, leading groups on A Course in Miracles, and presenting the levels of consciousness to transcend the ego, he became well known in the community and later in the world at large.
HIS BOOKS AND LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
After using and applying kinesiology, Hawkins began calibrating anything and everything. From emotions to feelings, people, and movements in the world, everything had a level of conscious awareness to Hawkins. His levels were labelled from 0-1000, 0 being the hellish state of existence or misery all the way up to enlightenment and then pure consciousness. He deemed anything under 200 as unaware and everything above it as a major shift in consciousness and the opening into conscious awareness.
Testing the levels was done by the often questionable method of Applied Kinesiology. Having a person stand and hold out his or her right arm, another person asks a question, holds an item, an image, or a thought and presses down on the arm. If the arm is strong it is considered truthful, if the arm goes weak, it is considered false. Hawkins used this technique to discover the levels of consciousness of absolutely anything. He also used it routinely during lectures and workshops speaking to many people about different spiritual topics. If everything in the world has a level of energy or a level of vibration or consciousness, and this is communicated within the field around and through us, then Hawkins use of the body for testing truth or falsehoods was sound enough for him.
Hawkins wrote many spiritual books throughout the remainder of his life, all providing insights into the ego and letting go from the grip of the mind to experience your true nature as a spiritual being. Having spent so many years in his own suffering and addiction, as well as helping others in his clinics relieve their’s, he felt drawn to share methods to help alleviate the suffering humanity has created.
Here is a list of his many books that you might find helpful in your own spiritual path. His many teachings offer guidance to removing the blocks of the ego to discovering truth, as well as healing your deepest afflictions and attachments.
Power Vs. Force
The Eye of the I
I
Truth Vs. Falsehood
Discovery of the Presence of God
Transcending the Levels of Consciousness
Reality, Spirituality, and Modern Man
Healing and Recovery
Letting Go
Whether you subscribe to the levels of consciousness he brought to the forefront and Applied Kinesiology or not, it is clear that Hawkins was a man full of interesting experiences, both spiritual and otherwise, that pulled him to the wise man and teacher he devoted the rest of his life to. His teachings and lectures are still available today to aid in the evolution of human consciousness, awakening, and understanding. Although he may be considered controversial to some, especially those in the scientific realm, his devotion to Divinity and peace in God was obvious to anyone who has read his work or listened to him speak.
Reference:
Jeffrey, Scott. Doctor of Truth The Life of David Hawkins. Kingston, NY, Creative Crayon Publishers, 2012.
References for You:
Map of the Levels of Consciousness'
Book: Doctor of Truth The Life of David Hawkins