David R. Hawkins: Encyclopedia II - David R. Hawkins - Spiritual teaching

David R. Hawkins - Spiritual teaching

Hawkins has worked closely with the New Thought Movement and shares many similar beliefs. He is formally affiliated with the largest New Thought church, Unity Church, and its ministerial education arm, Unity School of Christianity, which offers continuing education credits for attending his lectures. In Truth vs. Falsehood he describes New Thought churches as follows: "The liberal "New Thought" religions emphasize tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion towards self and others as well as toward other religions."

Conversely, his research has led him to be dismissive of New Age concepts, which are sometimes confused by its critics and associated media with New Thought. In Truth vs. Falsehood, "New Ageism" is listed in a table titled "Marginal Spiritual/Religious Belief Systems (Ideology)" as calibrating at "185," which is below the minimum level of integrity (200). Also listed is "Full-moon Gatherings (New Age)," calibrating at "180."

Other quotes from pages 356, 359-361:

• "Low calibrations prevail in variants of New Ageism, which push credibility to the limits with glamorized claims of extraterrestrials, spirit guides, guardian angels, and prophesies of earth disasters. Other sources are claims of secret codes of God hidden in various disguises such as the stones in the pyramids, the Hebrew alphabet, DNA, famous paintings, and other imaginative obscurities. New Ageism (despite its own erroneous beliefs) is not, technically speaking, "spiritual," but instead is actually "astral" in its practices and interests."

• "...The world of pseudospiritual fantasy also produces the imaginings of "Indigo children, star children, star families, star people, fifth-dimension incoming messengers of the future," etc. Common to all of these is a sense of uniqueness; magic; romanticized, naïve, imaginative fantasy; and the attraction of "specialness" itself."

• "...The ego is attracted to the limitation of form, whereas the essence of Divinity is beyond all form, yet innate within it."

• "From the viewpoint of the evolution of consciousness, atheism results from the refusal or inability to let go of the illusion that the narcissistic care of the ego is sovereign and is the source of one's life and existence..."

Hawkins principally describes his spiritual teaching as "Devotional Nonduality", a form of Monism, which has its origins in his research for Power vs. Force and was further developed afterwards. Hawkins believes the concept of "Devotional Nonduality" resonates with many religions (such as Hinduism) that hold the belief that "all is One". Other concepts believed by Hawkins to be analagous to his description of nonduality are Logos (in the religious sense) and Tao.

This belief is also argued to be congruent with modern quantum physics' concepts of nonlocality, such as that expressed by Bell's Theorem. Hawkins sees nonduality as forming a bridge between science, philosophy and cognition, similar to the concepts embraced by quantum physicist Dr. David Bohm, particularly in his metaphysical concepts regarding holomovement, and the merging of physics and metaphysics described by Fritjof Capra in "The_Tao_of_Physics". Hawkins' concepts of nonduality is also similar to that described by a number of modern writers and philosophers, including Alan Watts, Ken Wilber, and G. Spencer Brown (as related in his book Laws of Form).

Nonduality is a highly expansive and inclusive concept of God, and includes all which is of form and not. Kindness, prayer and meditation are highly encouraged by Hawkins. Alignment and erudite familiarity with the existing religious teachings calibrated by Hawkins methods to be especially true (that is, "high calibrating"—e.g., the Bible, the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Krishna, etc.) are seen as a means of achieving some of the highest known truths and raising one's consciousness in the process.

He also teaches about reincarnation, karma, astrals and the collective unconscious, among other ideas. He clarifies the difference between out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences. He believes the next step in human evolution is from Homo sapiens to the "awakened man" who marks "the beginning of the emergence of a new, evolutionary branch of mankind called HOMO SPIRITUS." [20]

He recounts that in past lives he was a Christian knight during the Crusades who killed, and was killed himself simultaneously by, a Muslim; then they both were laughing as they went out of their bodies. In another lifetime he says he was a pirate, and that he still knows where the gold is buried today (and this tested as "true" with applied kinesiology).

Hawkins makes the point that all are One in God. He also supports the Christian concept that "the Kingdom of God is within you." He discourages cult-like followings of any sort. He further cautions students to question all sources of knowledge, and to "judge them by their fruits."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Spiritual teaching", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki