I just LOVE frameworks, models, and processes for change!

One of my favorites is the Scale of Human Conscious by renowned psychiatrist Dr. David R. Hawkins, in his book Power vs. Force. Hawkins wondered if maybe, emotions aren’t just “good” or “bad” as we think, but they are connected together, literally.

He came up with the scale you see an example of here. He postulated that emotions were actually levels of energy, one greater than the other. The lower half can be thought of as “Force” emotions (struggle) and the upper half as emotions of true “Power” (ability to act creatively).

How can you actually USE this scale in your daily life.

1. Notice what emotion you are feeling or you notice in a friend. (Better: ask your friend what emotion they’re feeling.)
2. Find that emotion on the scale.
3. Recognize the emotions just below that emotion. The current emotion may just be a way of staying out of the lower emotion beneath what they think is happening.
4. Recognize the next highest emotion and connect with that energy.

Here’s an example:

You notice a friend is “angry”. Telling them “you shouldn’t be angry” is a judgment, it’s shaming, and is actually telling them, “go down to the lower level of consciousness & energy”. In the case of anger, they may actually be “fighting off” thwarted desire, fear, grief of loss, or even apathy. Recognizing that, and allowing them the space to relieve that emotion, can release the stuck energy. Now, you can also ask them about the next higher level.

In the case of anger, “pride” & “courage” are the next levels up in energy. You could ask them, “What would you LIKE to do about the situation, if you could?” or “What have you done about this in the past that worked for you?” These kinds of questions can have them remember what they are proud of doing, times they had courage to face this kind of obstacle.

Remember, a key here is we can’t PUSH people into our desired level. We can only ask them questions that have them consider their levels and move themselves in levels of energy to face life valiantly.

If you’ve seen the movie The Secret, you’ve also seen another suggestion for this scale from Esther Hicks. Different level names but what I find useful is the revolutionary suggestion that “emotions are all connected”, not just random storms of the brain from stimulus.

Please try this framework for change out and post a comment about what you discover!

I’ve talked before about the human scale of emotions. When we realize we live on a scale rather than on-off like a computer, life becomes a process, not a factor of luck. We see we move through emotions, not just have them.

In the movie The Secret, they share a scale. The simple teaching is that the higher up in emotional tone we are, the more we attract joy. Like attracts like. It’s obvious really. Wouldn’t you rather do business with a happy person than a sad or angry one? Don’t you think your spouse might do more nice things for you if you we happy first?

The other great use of the scale is that we can see that if someone is in anger, that is a higher tone than them being depressed or in fear. That’s a good thing! We don’t want to suppress their anger or shame them. We want to help them reach up the scale to just being annoyed or bored and wanting to change something. Parents can learn from this by not trying to suppress their children’s natural anger and teach them to be depressed adults. Ask them instead what they are angry about and what action they can do to change it.

Notice at the top is LOVE. That is, the unconditional desire to share, the connection as-one toward upliftment. Practice all the feelings at the top of the scale and notice what you attract.

Click here to download a full-page PDF you can print out. You can also go to The Secret site to get this and other pictures from the movie for computer wall paper or print out.