Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

“The test results thus fulfill the scientific requirement of replication and, therefore, reliable verification by other investigators.”

Establishing the credibility of his research method is critical to Hawkins because, as he is well aware, many critics considered kinesiologic testing a pseudoscience at the time (as many still do). Here he points out that the responses to numerous tests on individuals across cultures could be replicated consistently, aligning his method with the best practices of scientific research. He does not, however, address the issues medical experts have taken with his methodology in the first place (See: Background).

“The individual human mind is like a computer terminal connected to a giant database. The database is human consciousness itself.”

In his Original Preface, Hawkins calls this the essential message of his work. Although he uses concepts from physics and nonlinear dynamics to support his ideas, his central thesis is quite simple: Human consciousness is universal and can be tapped by anyone, introducing his theme of The Divinity of Consciousness.

“By giving confirmation of spiritual Reality as the essence of human life, and Divinity as the source of consciousness, the work reveals every aspect of human experience to be an expression of, and a pathway to, the Ultimate.”

The New Foreword by religious studies professor Fran Grace states one of Hawkins’s major themes: The source of all consciousness is divine, reflecting The Divinity of Consciousness. Her allusion to “every aspect of human experience” ties into Hawkins’s “Map of Consciousness,” which accounts for every human state and emotion from the basest feelings to enlightenment.