The Spiritual Quest of David R. Hawkins
Book Overview: Doctor of Truth: The Life of David R. Hawkins by Scott Jeffrey
Until recently the only famous people from Wisconsin that I could recall off the top of my head were Harry Houdini, Joseph McCarthy and Golda Meir. Now I can add the name of David R. Hawkins to my list. David R. Hawkins has authored over a dozen books on various aspects of the Spiritual Quest. His most famous book is Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior. I have had this book for quite a while, however, when I finally decided that I would like to read it, I couldn’t find it. So I searched Amazon and found the next best thing, which was a biography about him: Doctor of Truth: The Life of David R Hawkins. As one reviewer said, “this book provides a great insight into a great man. He gave so much to humanity and I feel forever grateful to Dr. Hawkins for his contributions.”
Since I had somehow missed the great contributions Dr. Hawkins has made to humanity, I decided that it was time to discover who the man was behind this best-selling book and movement and how he became enlightened. The first thing that attracted me was the fact that he was born and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, close to my own home town. I was impressed because I hadn’t met any enlightened beings who came from Wisconsin. What I discovered was a man who had devoted his entire life to seeking higher wisdom and Spiritual Truths. The second thing that attracted me was that he was born in the same year as my parents…1927.
I won’t go into too many details of his childhood except to say that he was raised in a strict Episcopalian religiously oriented home. He was an altar boy, a voracious reader, and a very hard worker. In his teens years he had a large paper route which would have killed most people, especially in the chilly Wisconsin Winters. I can relate because I too delivered newspapers in that cold climate. One cold day while delivering newspapers he fell off his bike into a snowbank where he had what we would today call a Spiritual Awakening or OBE. However, his spiritual awakening was mirrored on the physical plane as well; in his teen years he developed a serious taste for ‘spirits;’ alcohol and when he came of age he joined the Navy and was deployed on a Minesweeper during World War II. This sailor experience only served to reinforce his drinking addiction.
Following his discharge from the war he obtained a medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin. Following that he departed for New York City where he eventually became a psychoanalyst in the Freudian tradition. Following his indoctrination into Freud and psychoanalysis he became interested in a nutritional basis for helping to heal the scourge of alcoholism. Along the way he met the founder of AA, Bill Wilson, and they became good friends. “Wilson’s influence on David was profound. We can find the kernel of many of the core precepts of David’s later teachings in Wilson’s talks and writings, where Wilson recorded timeless spiritual principles from his own understanding.” Unfortunately David had trouble with the AA concept of God, no matter how the unreligious Bill Wilson had described it, because by then David had become a confirmed atheist. However, after hitting bottom numerous times, he discovered Zen Buddhism as a valid path, which for him, made it possible to finally give up drinking as well as other prescription drugs.
In the late sixties and early seventies he founded the North Nassau Clinic expressly for people who couldn’t afford proper mental healthcare and who didn’t qualify for government programs through welfare: the lower middle class, who weren’t poverty-stricken, didn’t qualify for government support, and couldn’t afford private fees. It quickly became a very popular clinic that treated tens of thousands of alcoholic and drug addicted individuals primarily through the use of niacin and other vitamin related Therapies. This concept was termed Orthomolecular Psychiatry by Linus Pauling, the father of Vitamin C Therapy.
This new style of treatment set him apart from the traditional psychotherapeutic approach to mental problems and drug addiction as had been practiced by mainstream doctors up to that point. Of course this sort of revolutionary treatment created a huge backlash for David, however, it also made him wealthy. This idea set him apart from traditional thinking about drug addiction. The traditional view was that addiction was a moral failure; and David was saying that in many cases addiction may be a nutritional or physical failure. His philosophy was to be open-minded and experimental and try whatever worked.
This was during the time of the tremendous human potential movement explosion when things like A Course In Miracles, EST, the Sedona Method, etc. came along, and David dove fully into the exploration of many of these movements. He wanted to experience everything the counterculture offered, from Woodstock and the new rock music, to experimentation with pot and LSD, to trying on various Eastern Religious philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism, etc.
In the late seventies he decided to give up his practice and move to Sedona, Arizona, where he continued to explore numerous facets of the various spiritual movements that seem to be attracted there, and he became an ardent meditator as well. He began to more fully explore Eastern Philosophies and anything new that appealed to him.
In the mid-nineties he began to develop what he called his Map of Consciousness. This was partly due to his the influence of Behavioral Kinesiology which was pioneered by psychiatrist John Diamond. By now most of us have heard of muscle testing, which is what David Hawkins learned to test for the various levels of consciousness. Some examples would be that Jesus calibrates at 1000, Mahayana Buddhism at 960, the Koran at 720, love at 500, reason at 400, fear at 100 and shame at 20. 85% of the world’s population, calibrates at under 200 — the threshold of integrity. If you are interested you can find a version of his chart here: Power vs. Force Consciousness Chart.
David Hawkins’s life was a very long journey with many extreme experiences. At some point, he experienced all of this: successful psychiatrist, skeptic, atheist, alcoholic, mystic, beleaguered by over 25 illnesses or health conditions of varying degrees, some very serious, withdrawn from society on his spiritual search, father and husband. Obviously David went through some very tough times in his life, but also experienced several states of elevated consciousness, the first at the age of 6 years. Over time his life gradually became a search for peace, happiness, and later, for God. His contribution to the spiritual world is indeed important, because after becoming spiritually aware – some would call him “enlightened” – he began to try to explain enlightenment in a scientific, rational and understandable way. Always, he used his growth, knowledge and insights as a basis to help others to support them in their personal and spiritual growth, and for healing. David R. Hawkins transcended his Earthly body on September 19, 2012 in Sedona, Arizona.
