David Hawkins

M.D. (born June 3, 1927) is an American psychiatrist, mystic, author and controversial spiritual teacher in Sedona, Arizona. He is best known for his book Power vs. Force, in which he writes that applied kinesiology can distinguish the truth or falsity of any statement. He directs the non-profit Institute for Advanced Spiritual Research Inc. and operates Veritas Publishing to publish his books and seminars.

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

Power vs. Force" comes with book jacket recommendations from high places: no less illuminaries than Wayne Dyer, Lee Iacocca, and even Mother Teresa endorse Hawkins' book. Thus I approached it with a good deal of open-minded interest. However, I was not able to finish the book, and certain of its claims disturbed me.
Hawkins' main thesis is that you can use kinesiological testing to test the objective truth of a statement. In the form of testing he uses, the subject stretches out his arm. The querent makes a statement such as "artificial sweeteners are good for you." If the subject can maintain his arm outstretched under a firm push from the querent, the statement is accepted as true. If the subject's arm can be pushed down, the statement is false.


In his works Hawkins approaches the study and practice of spirituality by means of his personal experience and his clinical and academic background. The stated objectives of Hawkins' research and teaching are to facilitate metaphysical understanding and to confirm the reality of spiritual truth focusing on various aspects of consciousness and on the road to enlightenment.Hawkins states that his teachings alone are sufficient to take one all the way to Self-realization, and that AK confirms this. He writes about the idea of a new branch in human evolution called “Homo spiritus“; the limited scope of causality; the illusion of time; general teachings on varied topics including spiritual intention, surrender, and miracles; the concepts of nonlinearity; void vs. allness; subjectivity vs. objectivity; content vs. context; out-of-body experiences vs. near-death experiences; astral vs. etheric levels; reincarnation, karma, and attractor fields.Hawkins asserts that God is both immanent and transcendent. Theologically, he is aligned with nondualism and Advaita philosophy. Nondualism, a highly expansive and inclusive concept of God including all which is of form and not, may be viewed as the belief that dualism or dichotomy (e.g. self/other, mind/body, male/female, good/evil, active/passive) are illusory phenomena; it may also be viewed as a practice, namely self-inquiry as set forth by Ramana Maharshi.His spiritual teaching focuses on "Devotional Nonduality," a form of transcendental monism, which has its origins in his research for Power vs. Force and was further developed afterwards. He says that the concept of “Devotional Nonduality“ resonates with many religions (such as Hinduism) that hold the concept that “all is One.“ Other concepts stated by Hawkins to be analogous to his description of nonduality are Logos (in the religious sense) and Tao, which are also argued to be congruent with modern quantum physics and the concept of nonlocality as expressed by Bell's Theorem.

Manifesting Your Potential - Discovering and Manifesting Your Potential What prevents us from expressing this power or potential is individual to each of us

Imagine Yourself As - Imagine yourself as a deep sea diver, a ballroom dancer, a professional athlete, a famous artist, or whatever you can’t imagine. No, that is not me, your timid little voice inside your head escapes into your conscious thoughts..

He sees nonduality as a potential bridge between natural science, philosophy and cognition, similar to the merging of physics and metaphysics envisioned by Fritjof Capra in The Tao of Physics, the concepts embraced by quantum physicist David Bohm, particularly the one of holomovement, as well as the new paradigm science of nuclear physicist Amit Goswami. Hawkins' description of nonduality is also related to that of a number of modern writers and philosophers, including Ken Wilber and G. Spencer Brown as presented in his book Laws of Form.Hawkins strongly encourages kindness to all forms of life, humor, forgiveness, humility, compassion, prayer and contemplation. He deems alignment and erudite familiarity with the existing religious scriptures measured by him to be especially true (that is, “high calibrating“—e.g., the New Testament except the Book of Revelation, the original teachings of Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna, and others) as a means of raising one's spiritual consciousness in the process and incorporating some of the most evolved known levels of truth. Both seeking and encouraging personal alignment with the Highest good, Hawkins repeatedly points out that “all are One in God,“ thereby supporting the Christian concept of “the Kingdom of God is within you.“