Understanding and Measuring Levels of Consciousness

The concept of Level of Consciousness, LOC, and its measurement was introduced by renowned psychiatrist David Hawkins, M.D. in his book on the subject, Power versus Force (1995). In it he discusses the natural power of truth and shows that kinesiology can be reliably used to distinguish truth from falsehood. Briefly, when a person makes a clearly true statement their body produces a strong response as indicated by a muscle test. Stating a falsehood has the opposite, weakening, effect. This basic finding has been substantiated in the published research of Daniel A. Monti, MD, in a prestigious peer reviewed journal, such publication being the gold standard for science. So that there would not be any element of subjectivity in the demonstration of the effect, a computer driven pressure gage was used in place of the typical procedure of a person checking the strength or weakness of the muscle.

Hawkins applied this same widely used and accepted testing procedure to evaluate the basic underlying motivational level of thousands of people to see how positive, loving, truthful and enlightened they were. Or not. After some time he summarized his findings in the form of a scale with which to rate consciousness, (LOC). To be reliable, all measurement requires a standard for reference. Hence, there is a national standard for the inch, foot, minute, etceteras. Hawkins’ scale for LOC gives that standard for something that was not measured before. It was a very important contribution to science and our culture because it made the quality of a person’s consciousness available for study. Better yet, it did not require any expensive machinery or devices. Almost any fundamentally honest person, can learn how to check the strength of a person’s muscle responses, (kinesiology). Used with his procedure, people can readily scale the LOC of anyone.

Hawkins Scale

The Scale of Consciousness, SOC, is from 1 to 1000. At the low end it describes the worst of the human states, the most miserable and unhappy. At the high end he places the most saintly and Christ like. The best of the best. All the rest is in between and he has described what the key points are on the SOC. For example, from 100 on down can be found fear, guilt, shame and apathy. At 200 is the beginning of courage to face the truth. This is a crucial point on the SOC, as before reaching that point people are not yet capable of using kinesiology accurately. The LOC 400 begins the range of reason and science, the realm of the great thinkers. At 500 starts the level of love and the critical right of passage to higher consciousness states such as unconditional love, 540, and more “saintly” states above that. At 600 begins the levels Hawkins refers to as enlightened. Such people may have more than ordinary abilities, perceptions, creativity and experience great happiness independent of their circumstances.

Hawkins says that people are born at a level they are likely to stay on their entire life. On the other hand he says that sudden, very dramatic shifts upwards may occur as a result of peak experiences, near death experiences or other spiritual, mystic or revelatory ones. Behavioral scientist Farrell Brenner, MA, developed a method to quickly and easily raise the LOC of most people by as much as 100 points or more in a single session.

The Work of Farrell Brenner

Since scaling consciousness uses kinesiology, the question of its reliability arises. The procedure of muscle testing or checking has been used by thousands of health professionals over the past fifty years or so since it became popular. Nutritionists, herbalists, acupuncturists, naturopaths, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists and others were using it extensively during this period to measure or obtain information about the body/mind or what it needed for healthy functioning. However, there was a fly in the ointment.

Early users of kinesiology discovered a bothersome phenomenon that was interfering with their testing procedure. It was called switching because sometimes people were giving strong responses when they should be giving weak ones and the reverse, giving weak ones when they should be giving strong ones. A variety of physical procedures were employed to fix switching before testing could resume.

In 1984, a psychologist specializing in phobias, Roger Callahan, Ph.D., discovered a quick phobia cure that required kinesiology. He got very good results with everyone except people suffering from a form of switching he named “psychological reversal”. This type of reversal was found to be linked to low self-esteem and self-defeating tendencies. It seemed that those people didn’t like themselves well enough to allow the healing to take place. This was usually on an unconscious level as they had come in for help in the first place but blocked their own success. Eventually, he found a temporary fix for the reversal that worked long enough to cure the phobia.

Brenner became more interested in a long term correction for the reversal, as it seemed to be the basis for many of the physical and behavioral ills that plague people. He found that permanently raising self-esteem sufficiently, resulted in remission from severe autoimmune disorders. His methodology for doing so was based on correcting underlying programs that run on the human bio-computer: subconscious beliefs, motivations and other learned mechanisms. In fact his earliest research in the 1960’s was based on altering subconscious beliefs about personal identity to liberate suppressed talents. Most recently, Brenner discovered that raising self-esteem can result in surprisingly large increases of LOC. His research in beliefs dovetailed with his nutritional research regarding the consciousness mediating effects of highly charged, structured minerals of ultra fine particle size. These discoveries and a bolt of inspiration resulted in creation of The Gift.

The David Hawkins Map of Consciousness is described in his book Power vs Force.