HE INDIVIDUAL HUMAN MIND is like a computer terminal connected to a giant database. The database is human consciousness itself, of which our own consciousness is merely an individual expression, but with its roots in the common consciousness of all mankind. This database is the realm of genius; because to be human is to participate in the database, everyone by virtue of his birth has access to genius. The unlimited information contained in the database has now been shown to be readily available to anyone in a few seconds, at any time and in any place. This is indeed an astonishing discovery, bearing the power to change lives, both individually and collectively, to a degree never yet anticipated. THE DATABASE TRANSCENDS time and space and all limitations of individual consciousness. This distinguishes it as a unique tool for future research and opens as yet undreamed-of areas for possible investigation. It holds forth the prospect of the establishment of an objective basis for human values, behaviors and belief systems. The information obtained by this method reveals a new context for understanding human behavior and a new paradigm for validating objective truth. Because the technique itself can be used by anyone, anywhere, at any time, it has the capacity to initiate a new era of human experience based on observable and verifiable truth. WE HAVE AT OUR FINGERTIPS a means of accurately distinguishing truth from falsehood, workable from unworkable, benevolent from malign. We can illuminate the hidden forces, hitherto overlooked, that determine human behavior. We have at our disposal a means of finding answers to previously unresolved personal and social problems. Falsehood need no longer hold sway over our lives. ---- David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., in POWER VS FORCE (1995, Veritas Publishing)

MUSCLE TESTING is the practice of applying a consistent force to a muscle in the body, in the presence of a defined stimulus, and observing the response of the muscle to the stimulus. Muscle testing has become well known as a tool of Applied Kinesiology, where it was pioneered by Dr. John Goodheart in the 1960s. Goodheart discovered that muscles instantly became weak when the body was exposed to a harmful stimulus, and strong in the presence of a therapeutic substance. In the 1970s, Dr. John Diamond further discovered that these weakening or strengthening effects were likewise achieved by emotional and intellectual stimuli, as well as physical.

My first attempts to use muscle testing were in the realm of gardening, as a way of receiving advice from Nature Spirits. I had read Machaelle Small Wright's book Behaving as if the God in all Life Mattered, and then her Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences, in which she described a method of muscle testing.

It was done by bringing together the tips of the left thumb and little finger; then, holding the index and middle fingers of the right hand together (side by side), these were inserted into the circle formed by the 2 fingers of the left hand. Then, while pressing the tips of left thumb and little finger together, the middle finger of the right hand was drawn against them, at the point of connection. If the circle held, it indicated a positive response from the Nature Spirits; if the fingers of the right hand were able to break the connection of left thumb and little finger, a negative response was indicated. Using this tool, one could ask a question of the Nature Spirits and receive the answer through the muscles.

The crucial element in all this was learning to exert a consistent pressure with the fingertips, on asking each question -- and applying consistent force each time against them. Also, it was necessary to calibrate the muscles at the start of each questioning session, because the amount of pressure required to get accurate answers would change from time to time.

The calibration could be done by making a statement that was known to be true ("Colorado is a state in the United States of America," for example), and making sure it produced a positive muscle response; and then by stating something known to be false, and identifying the amount of pressure that would allow a negative response (obviously, with enough pressure exerted between fingertips, even the most absurd statement could be made to appear true). At some point (I don't remember when) I began calibrating simply by saying "This means Yes," and then testing, and "This means No," and testing again.


I WAS ALWAYS A BIT DOUBTFUL, really, whether I was actually contacting the Nature Spirits or just my own imagination. Eventually my style of gardening evolved on its own and I pretty much forgot about muscle testing. Then, a few years later, I was looking for a way to know exactly what would be best for me to eat, and when to eat, and how much, and so on. Muscle testing came to mind again.

I started using it in that way. It took some time to feel that I was calibrating it accurately, but eventually I did seem to be getting reliable advice through it. It was telling me to eat in ways that my brain was not, and the results felt good.

I began to use it for other things also: what to wear, whether to read a certain book or see a particular movie; whether to take a certain action or not, and if so when to do it. Before long I was muscle testing anything about myself in which I felt uncertainty. I was even testing many things I felt sure of, just for confirmation -- and sometimes getting surprising answers!

From there it was only a step to muscle testing things involving other people: Is So-and-so going out of town tomorrow? Is So-and-so angry at me? When did So-and-so mail the package? What is the best thing for So-and-so to eat now? I was discovering that muscle testing could provide reliable information seemingly about anything -- as long as I was smart enough to ask the right questions; they had to be worded very precisely.

Y USE OF THE kinesiological testing procedure...unlimited information about any subject, past or present, is universally available. But the realization that everything is knowable about anything or anyone, anywhere, at any point in time, creates at first a paradigm shock. This reaction arises, generally, from realization of the nonlocality, impersonality and universality of consciousness itself; and, specifically, from the realization of the observability of one's own thoughts and motivations, their transparency across time. That one's every thought and action leave an indelible trace forever in the universe can be an unsettling thought. ---- David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., in POWER VS FORCE (1995, Veritas Publishing)

MUSCLE TESTING became a second brain to me, a brain I sometimes trusted more than the one in my head. Eventually, I modified slightly my way of doing the test itself, after learning that the 7 major chakras¹ in the body were each connected to a point in each hand.

I learned that the fingertips of each hand corresponded with the chakras as follows: Thumb with 2nd chakra; index finger with 5th chakra; middle finger with 3rd chakra; ring finger with 6th chakra; and little finger with 4th chakra. I'd been using the tips of thumb and little finger -- 2nd chakra and 4th chakra -- for the muscle test. Obviously the thumb -- 2nd chakra -- had to be involved; but what about the other finger? It seemed any of the four would be quite workable physically. It also seemed the little finger -- heart chakra -- was a good choice: I was testing the heart and the hara², in effect.

But I had learned (through Johrei) that the 2nd chakra is the home of the Secondary Spirit in the body.....and the 6th chakra is the home of the Primary Spirit (or Higher Consciousness). It seemed to me, then, the best combination for decision-making would be the Primary and Secondary Spirits together, instead of the Secondary Spirit and heart. So I began using the tips of thumb and ring finger.

Through my use of Reiki, I was realizing more and more that each of us truly embodies the entire, macrocosmic Universe. Therefore, it made sense that we embody all the information and wisdom of the Universe, and that we can access it through our bodies! It was self-evident.


I NEVER THOUGHT of asking the kinds of questions that David R. Hawkins did, though. Hawkins, a World War II veteran who became a prominent psychiatrist, began asking (in the 1970s) things like, On a scale of 1 to 1000, what was the "level of truth originally expounded by Jesus Christ?" Hawkins and his colleagues muscle-tested this and countless other things, over a period of 20 years, on thousands of people in different cultures around the world³, and always got the same answers. It didn't matter whether the person being tested had ever even heard of Jesus Christ before; the answer was always 1000: total, Universal truth and enlightenment. Gautama Buddha calibrated exactly the same. So did Lord Krishna.

Hawkins and his cohorts also calibrated other enlightened, historical beings. They also mapped the devolution of truth in the teachings of religions that arose around these figures. For Christianity overall, they found the following:

• Original teachings of Jesus: 1000
• Teachings of his followers in the 2nd century A.D.: 930
• Teachings of his followers in the 6th century A.D.: 540
• Teachings of his followers in the 11th century A.D.: 498
• Current level of truth (as of 1995): still 498

As we might expect, he also found significant variations in the level of truth presented in different translations of Christian scriptures. The highest calibration for the New Testament was from the Lamsa translation, from the Aramaic, which scored 750 (the King James version, from the Greek, was 500). Wide variation was also found among different Christian practices; several in the high 500s and a couple at 600. (Obviously, some groups were much lower, bringing the overall rating down to 498.)


For Buddhism:

• Original teachings: 1000
• Teachings in the 6th century A.D.: 900
• Current Hinayana Buddhism: 850
• Current Mahayana Buddhism: 950
• Current Zen Buddhism: in the 600s

For Hinduism:

• Original teachings: 1000
• Current teachings: 850

For Judaism:

• Original teachings of Abraham: 985
• At the time of Moses: 770
• Level of truth of the Talmud: 770
• Current practice: 499

For Islam:

• Level of consciousness of Mohammed: 540
• Level of truth of the Koran: 570
• Current level of truth in teachings of militant Islamic Fundamentalism: 130

HAWKINS MADE WHAT HE CALLS a "map of consciousness," by muscle testing the whole range of human emotions and principles, calibrating them on his scale of 1 to 1000. He found that Love registered at 500. This led him to conclude, "Religions which fall below the level of 500 may preach love but they will not be able to practice it."

The point here is not to pit one religion against another. The point is, we now have a simple, universal technology with which to evaluate for ourselves the level of truth in any teaching, any individual statement, religious or otherwise. We literally have the wisdom of the Universe at our fingertips!

We can discern in a moment the level of truth or empowerment to be had from a particular statement, philosophy, individual, organization, or substance, for example. The remarkable thing is the degree to which Hawkins has confirmed this. After testing huge numbers of people around the globe, over a period of 20 years, he says there was absolute unanimity in the muscle responses of test subjects everywhere. Give someone a "mystery" envelope with artificial sweetener inside, for instance -- or with a picture of Adolf Hitler inside -- and the muscles would go weak. It didn't matter whether a person was happy or sad, having a good day or a bad one, feeling well or ill -- or whether the testing was done in a laboratory or at the beach or on a busy street: the muscles always told the truth!

In my singular experience, that has not always been the case. There have been times when my accuracy was definitely affected by my expectation or desire or my emotional condition (which, I suppose, are all just different examples of a failure to focus my attention neutrally and sufficiently). I feel this is a potential hazard of the fingertip, self-testing method (though still my results with it seem to be almost always accurate) -- and this is not the method used by Dr. Hawkins.

For absolute accuracy, he says, it's essential to use the classical, 2-person method of testing: both people standing upright, the subject holding one arm horizontally to the side, the tester placing 2 fingers on the subject's wrist and quickly pressing down. (A very detailed description of the procedure, for both subject and tester, is given in Appendix B of POWER VS FORCE.) He also says the information must be accessed by formulating statements, not questions. In other words, don't say, "Is it best that I eat something now?" -- say, "It is best that I eat something now." (And the muscles will tell you whether it's true or not!)


IN LOOKING AT RELIGIONS, Hawkins included Satanism, which he calls the "anti-religion." His discoveries are as fascinating as they are chilling.