levels-of-consciousness/David R. Hawkins

著名心理學家David R. Hawkins分析了各類情感的能量等級，從最負面、傷身的情感，到最正面、滋潤的情感，所有情感裡面，排最低的不是憤怒、悲傷、恐懼，你認為應是什麼？排最高的不是驕傲、勇氣、真愛，你覺得會是什麼？


【說明】能量等級從0到1000，200以下為負面，200以上為正面。

Shame 羞愧：20
沒想到，最傷身的，竟然是羞愧！怪不得古今中外經常有人羞愧而死……
羞愧的能量級幾近死亡，它猶如意識的自殺行為。在羞愧的狀況下，我們恨不得找個地縫鑽進去，或者是希望自己能夠隱身。


Guilt 內疚：30
內疚感以多種方式呈現，比如懊悔，自責，受虐狂，以及所有的受害情節都是。
無意識的內疚感會導致身心的疾病，以及帶來意外事故的自殺行為。它也經常表現為頻繁的憤怒和疲乏。

Apathy 冷淡：50
這個能量級表現為貧窮、失望和無助感。世界與未來都看起來沒有希望。
冷漠意味著無助，讓人成為生活中各方面的受害者。缺乏的不止是資源，他們還缺乏運氣。除非有外在的幫護者提攜，否則很可能會潦倒致死。

Grief 悲傷： 75
這是悲傷、失落和依賴性的能量級。
在這個能量級的人，過的是八輩子都懊喪和消沉的生活。這種生活充滿了對過去的懊悔、自責和悲慟。在悲傷中的人，看這個世界都是灰黑色的。


Fear 恐懼： 100
從這個能量級來看世界，到處充滿了危險、陷害和威脅。
一旦人們開始關注恐懼，就真的會有數不盡的讓人不安的事來臨。之後會形成強迫性的恐懼，這會妨害個性的成長，最後導致壓抑。
因為它是讓能量流向恐懼，這種壓抑性的行為不能提升到更高的層次。


Desire 慾望： 125
慾望讓我們耗費大量的努力去達成我們的目標，去取得我們的回報。
這也是一個易上癮的能級，不知道什麼時候，一個慾望會強大到比生命本身還重要。慾望意味著累積和貪婪。願望可以幫助我們走上有成就的道路。但是慾望卻能成為到達比知曉更高層次的跳板。


Anger: 憤怒 150
如果有人能跳出冷漠和內疚的怪圈，並擺脫恐懼的控制，他就開始有慾望了，而慾望則帶來挫折感，接著引發憤怒。憤怒常常表現為怨恨和復仇心裡，它是易變且危險的。
憤怒來自未能滿足的慾望，來自比之更低的能量級。挫敗感來自於放大了慾望的重要性。憤怒很容易就導致憎恨，這會逐漸侵蝕一個人的心靈。

Pride: 驕傲 175
比起其他的較低能量級，人們會覺得這個能量級是積極的。而事實上，驕傲只是相比其他更低的能量級讓人感覺稍好一些而已。
驕傲是具有防禦性和易受攻擊性的，因為它是建立在外界條件下的感受。一旦條件不具備，就很容易跌入更低的能量級。
自我的膨脹是驕傲自大的助推劑，而自我常常是易受攻擊的。因此驕傲的演化趨勢是傲慢和否認。而這些都是抵製成長的。


Courage: 勇氣 200
到來200這個能量級，動力才顯端倪。這是一個重要的關節點，值得九型秀微信多說幾句。
勇氣是拓展自我、獲得成就，堅忍不拔，和果斷決策的根基。
在比之更低的能量級，世界看起來是無助的，失望的，挫折的，恐怖的。但是來到勇氣的能級，生活看起來就是激動人心的，充滿挑戰的，新鮮有趣的。
在這個能動性的能級，人們有能力去把握生活中的機會。因此個人成長和接受教育是可行的途徑。那些能夠打擊能量級低於200的人的障礙，對進化到200能級的人來說，不過是小菜一碟。
這個能級的人們，總是能盡數回饋足夠多的能量給這個世界。而低於這個能級的人們則是不斷地從社會中汲取能量，絲毫沒有回饋。


Neutrality: 淡定 250
到達這個能級的能量都變得很活躍了。
低於250的能級，意識是趨向於分裂和剛硬性的。淡定的能級則是靈活和無分別性的看待現實中的問題。
到這個能級，意味著對結果的超然，一個人不會再恐懼挫敗和恐懼。這是一個有安全感的能級。
來到這個能級的人們，都是很容易與之相處的，而且讓人感到溫馨可靠。因為他們無意於爭端、競爭和犯罪。這樣的人總是鎮定從容。他們不會去強迫別人做什麼。


Willingness: 主動 310
這個意識層次可以看做是進入更高層次的一道門。
在淡定層次的人，會如實的完成工作任務。但是在主動層次的人，通常會出色的完成任務，並極力獲得成功。這個能級的人的成長是迅速的，他們是為人類進步而預備的人選。
低於200能級的人，他們的思想是封閉的，但是能級為310的人們則是全然敞開的。
這個能級的人，通常是真誠而友善的，也易於取得社交和經濟上的成功。他們總能有助於人，並且對社會的進步做出貢獻來。
他們也樂意麵對內在的狀況，也不存在較大的學習障礙。鑑於他們具有從逆境中崛起並學到經驗的能力，他們都能夠自我調整。由於已經釋放了驕傲，他們能夠看到自己的不足，並學習別人的優點。


Acceptance: 寬容 350
在這個能級，一個巨大的轉變會發生，那就是了解到自己才是自己命運的主宰，自己才是自己生活的創造者。
低於200能級的人是沒有力量的，通常視自己為受害者，完全受生活所左右。這個看法的根源是，認為一個人的幸福和苦難來自某個“外在”的東西。
在寬容的能級，沒有什麼“外在”能讓一個人快樂或悲傷，愛也不是誰能給或奪走的，這些都來自內在。
寬容意味著讓生活如它本來的樣子，並不刻意去塑造成一個特定的模式。
在這個能級的人不會對判斷對錯感興趣，相反的，對如果解決困難他們則樂於參與。他們更在意長期目標，良好的自律和自控是他們顯著的特點。


Reason: 明智 400
超越了感情化的較低能量級，就進入有理智和智能的階段。
這是科學、醫學以及概念化和理解能力形成的能級。知識和教育在這裡成為資歷。這是諾貝爾獎金獲得者、大政治家和高級法庭審判長的能級。愛因斯坦，弗洛伊德，以及很多其他歷史上的思想家都是這個能級。
這個能級的人的缺點是，過於關注對符號和符號所代表的意義的區分。明智並不能讓人走向真理。它只是能製造出大量的信息和文檔，但是缺乏解決數據和結果差異性的能力。
明智本身是通往更高能級的一個最大障礙。在我們的社會中能超越這個能級的人鳳毛麟角。


Love: 愛 500
這裡的愛並非通常意義上各種媒體所描述的愛。通常意義上的愛，很容易就帶上憤怒和依賴的面具。這種愛一旦受到挫折，立馬就能轉變成憤恨。引發憤恨的愛是來源於驕傲而不是真的愛。
這個500能級的愛是無條件的愛，是不變的愛，是永久性的愛。這種愛不會動搖，它不是來自外界因素。愛是存在的基本狀態。愛是寬容，滋養和維持這個世界的。
它不是知性的愛，不是來自頭腦的愛，它是發自心靈的愛。愛是總是聚焦在生活美好的那一面上，並且增大積極的經驗。這是一個真正幸福的能級。
世界上只有0.4%的人曾經達到這個意識進化的層次。


Joy: 喜悅 540
當愛變得越來越無限的時候，它開始發展成為內在的喜悅。這是在每一個當下，從內在而非外在升起的喜悅。
540能級也是擁有治療和精神獨立的能級。由此往上，就是很多聖人和高級修行者以及治療師的能級。
這個能級的人的特點是，他們具有巨大的耐性，以及對一再顯現的困境具有持久的樂觀態度，以及慈悲。到達這個能級的人對其他人有顯著的影響。他們持久性的關注，會帶來愛和平靜。
在能級超過500的人看來，這個世界充滿了閃亮的美麗和完美的創造。一切都毫不費力的同時發生著。在他們看來是稀鬆平常的作為，卻會被平常人當成是奇蹟來看待。


Peace: 平和 600
這個能量層級和所謂的卓越、自我實現有關。它非常稀有，一千萬人當中才有一個人能夠達到。
一旦達到這個能級，內與外的區分就消失了，感官被關閉了。能級在600及其以上的人的感知如同慢鏡頭一樣，時空懸停了——沒有什麼是固定的了，所有的一切都生機勃勃並光芒四射。
雖然在其他人眼裡這個世界還是老樣子，但是在這人眼裡世界卻是一個，和宇宙源頭進化一起協同舞蹈的，不斷浮動進化的流轉。
這是一種非同尋常、無法言語的現象，所以頭腦保持長久的沉默，不再分析判斷。觀察者和被觀察者成為同一個人，觀照者消融在觀照中，成為觀照本身。
能級為600到700之間的藝術作品、音樂和建築能臨時性地把我們帶到通靈的和永恆的狀態中。


Enlightenment 開悟 700-1000
這是歷史上所有創立了精神模範，讓無數人歷代跟隨的偉人的能級。這是強大靈感的能級，這些人的誕生，形成了影響全人類的引力場。
在這個能級，不再有個體與個體之間的分離感，取而代之的是意識與神性的合一。這是人類意識進化的頂峰。
到這個能級，不再對身體有“我”的執著，不再對其有關注。身體成了意識降臨頭腦的一個工具，它的首要價值就是連接這兩者。
這是非二元性的，是完全合一的能級。在歷史上達到這麼高智慧能級的人，這些偉大的“阿凡達”（Avatar,道成肉身的神），用“主”來稱呼最為合適，他們是：主克里希納，主佛陀，和主耶穌基督。

Levels of Consciousness

April 7th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina

In the book Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, there’s a hierarchy of levels of human consciousness. It’s an interesting paradigm. If you read the book, it’s also fairly easy to figure out where you fall on this hierarchy based on your current life situation.
From low to high, the levels of consciousness are: shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, enlightenment.
While we can pop in and out of different levels at various times, usually there’s a predominant “normal” state for us. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re at least at the level of courage because if you were at a lower level, you’d likely have no conscious interest in personal growth.
I’ll go over these levels in order, mostly focusing on the ones between courage and reason, since that’s the range where you’re most likely to land. The labels are Hawkins’. The descriptions of each level are based on Hawkins’ descriptions but blended with my own thoughts. Hawkins defines this as a logarithmic scale, so there are far fewer people at the higher levels than at the lower ones. An increase from one level to another will result in enormous change in your life.
Shame – Just a step above death. You’re probably contemplating suicide at this level. Either that or you’re a serial killer. Think of this as self-directed hatred.
Guilt – A step above shame, but you still may be having thoughts of suicide. You think of yourself as a sinner, unable to forgive yourself for past transgressions.
Apathy – Feeling hopeless or victimized. The state of learned helplessness. Many homeless people are stuck here.
Grief – A state of perpetual sadness and loss. You might drop down here after losing a loved one. Depression. Still higher than apathy, since you’re beginning to escape the numbness.
Fear – Seeing the world as dangerous and unsafe. Paranoia. Usually you’ll need help to rise above this level, or you’ll remain trapped for a long time, such as in an abusive relationship.
Desire – Not to be confused with setting and achieving goals, this is the level of addiction, craving, and lust — for money, approval, power, fame, etc. Consumerism. Materialism. This is the level of smoking and drinking and doing drugs.
Anger – the level of frustration, often from not having your desires met at the lower level. This level can spur you to action at higher levels, or it can keep you stuck in hatred. In an abusive relationship, you’ll often see an anger person coupled with a fear person.
Pride – The first level where you start to feel good, but it’s a false feeling. It’s dependent on external circumstances (money, prestige, etc), so it’s vulnerable. Pride can lead to nationalism, racism, and religious wars. Think Nazis. A state of irrational denial and defensiveness. Religious fundamentalism is also stuck at this level. You become so closely enmeshed in your beliefs that you see an attack on your beliefs as an attack on you.
Courage – The first level of true strength. I’ve made a previous post about this level: Courage is the Gateway. This is where you start to see life as challenging and exciting instead of overwhelming. You begin to have an inkling of interest in personal growth, although at this level you’ll probably call it something else like skill-building, career advancement, education, etc. You start to see your future as an improvement upon your past, rather than a continuation of the same.
Neutrality – This level is epitomized by the phrase, “live and let live.” It’s flexible, relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens, you roll with the punches. You don’t have anything to prove. You feel safe and get along well with other people. A lot of self-employed people are at this level. A very comfortable place. The level of complacency and laziness. You’re taking care of your needs, but you don’t push yourself too hard.
Willingness – Now that you’re basically safe and comfortable, you start using your energy more effectively. Just getting by isn’t good enough anymore. You begin caring about doing a good job — perhaps even your best. You think about time management and productivity and getting organized, things that weren’t so important to you at the level of neutrality. Think of this level as the development of willpower and self-discipline. These people are the “troopers” of society; they get things done well and don’t complain much. If you’re in school, then you’re a really good student; you take your studies seriously and put in the time to do a good job. This is the point where your consciousness becomes more organized and disciplined.
Acceptance – Now a powerful shift happens, and you awaken to the possibilities of living proactively. At the level of willingness you’ve become competent, and now you want to put your abilities to good use. This is the level of setting and achieving goals. I don’t like the label “acceptance” that Hawkins uses here, but it basically means that you begin accepting responsibility for your role in the world. If something isn’t right about your life (your career, your health, your relationship), you define your desired outcome and change it. You start to see the big picture of your life more clearly. This level drives many people to switch careers, start a new business, or change their diets.
Reason – At this level you transcend the emotional aspects of the lower levels and begin to think clearly and rationally. Hawkins defines this as the level of medicine and science. The way I see it, when you reach this level, you become capable of using your reasoning abilities to their fullest extent. You now have the discipline and the proactivity to fully exploit your natural abilities. You’ve reached the point where you say, “Wow. I can do all this stuff, and I know I must put it to good use. So what’s the best use of my talents?” You take a look around the world and start making meaningful contributions. At the very high end, this is the level of Einstein and Freud. It’s probably obvious that most people never reach this level in their entire lives.
Love – I don’t like Hawkins’ label “love” here because this isn’t the emotion of love. It’s unconditional love, a permanent understanding of your connectedness with all that exists. Think compassion. At the level of reason, you live in service to your head. But that eventually becomes a dead end where you fall into the trap of over-intellectualizing. You see that you need a bigger context than just thinking for its own sake. At the level of love, you now place your head and all your other talents and abilities in service to your heart (not your emotions, but your greater sense of right and wrong — your conscience). I see this as the level of awakening to your true purpose. Your motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted by the desires of the ego. This is the level of lifetime service to humanity. Think Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At this level you also begin to be guided by a force greater than yourself. It’s a feeling of letting go. Your intuition becomes extremely strong. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by 1 in 250 people during their entire lifetimes.
Joy – A state of pervasive, unshakable happiness. Eckhart Tolle describes this state in The Power of Now. The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. Just being around people at this level makes you feel incredible. At this level life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make detailed plans — the expansion of your consciousness allows you to operate at a much higher level. A near-death experience can temporarily bump you to this level.
Peace – Total transcendence. Hawkins claims this level is reached only by one person in 10 million.
Enlightenment – The highest level of human consciousness, where humanity blends with divinity. Extremely rare. The level of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. Even just thinking about people at this level can raise your consciousness.
I think you’ll find this model worthy of reflection. Not only people but also objects, events, and whole societies can be ranked at these levels. Within your own life, you’ll see that some parts of your life are at different levels than others, but you should be able to identify your current overall level. You might be at the level of neutrality overall but still be addicted to smoking (level of desire). The lower levels you find within yourself will serve as a drag that holds the rest of you back. But you’ll also find higher levels in your life. You may be at the level of acceptance and read a book at the level of reason and feel really inspired. Think about the strongest influences in your life right now. Which ones raise your consciousness? Which ones lower it?
One thing I like about these levels of consciousness is that I can trace back over my own life and see how I’ve been moving through them. I remember being stuck at the level of guilt for a long time – as a child I was indoctrinated into a belief system where I was a helpless sinner, being judged according to the standards of someone at the level of love or higher. From there I graduated to the state of apathy, feeling numb to the whole thing. By high school I had reached the level of pride — I was a straight-A student, captain of the Academic Decathlon team, showered with accolades and awards, but I became dependent on them. I hit the level of Courage in my late teens, but the courage was very unfocused, and I overdid it and got myself into all sorts of trouble. I then spent about a year in neutrality and moved through willingness and acceptance during my 20s with a lot of conscious effort. At present I’m at the level of reason and getting closer and closer to completing the leap to love. I experience the state of love more and more often, and it’s guiding many of my decisions already, but it hasn’t yet stuck as my natural state. I’ve also experienced the state of joy for days at a time, but never with any permanence yet. That state is a pervasive feeling of natural euphoria, as if I’m exploding on the inside with positive energy. It literally forces me to smile. I’ve been in that state for most of this morning, probably because I haven’t eaten anything yet today (I find it easier to hit that state of consciousness when I eat lightly or not at all).
We’ll naturally fluctuate between multiple states throughout the course of any given week, so you’ll probably see a range of 3-4 levels where you spend most of your time. One way to figure out your “natural” state is to think about how you perform under pressure. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice because that’s what’s inside. What comes out of you when you get squeezed by external events? Do you become paranoid and shut down (fear)? Do you start yelling at people (anger)? Do you become defensive (pride)? What happens to me under pressure is that I become hyper-analytical, but recently I just had a pressure situation where I handled it mostly by intuition, which was a big change for me. This tells me I’m getting close to the unconditional love state because in that state, intuition can be effectively accessed even under pressure.
Everything in your environment will have an effect on your level of consciousness. TV. Movies. Books. Web sites. People. Places. Objects. Food. If you’re at the level of reason, watching TV news (which is predominantly at the levels of fear and desire) will temporarily lower your consciousness. If you’re at the level of guilt, TV news will actually raise it up.
Progressing from one level to the next requires an enormous amount of energy. I wrote about this previously when discussing quantum leaps. Without conscious effort or the help of others, you’ll likely just stay at your current level until some outside force comes into your life.
Notice the natural progression of levels, and consider what happens when you try to short-cut the process. If you try to reach the level of reason before mastering self-discipline (willingness) and goal-setting (acceptance), you’ll be too disorganized and unfocused to use your mind to its full extent. If you try to push yourself to the level of love before you’ve mastered reason, you’ll suffer from gullibility and may end up in a cult.
Going up even one level can be extremely hard; most people don’t do so in their entire lives. A change in just one level can radically alter everything in your life. This is why people below the level of courage aren’t likely to progress without external help. Courage is required to work on this consciously; it comes down to repeatedly betting your whole reality for the chance to become more conscious and aware. But whenever you reach that next level, you realize clearly that it was a good bet. For example, when you hit the level of courage, all your past fears and false pride seem silly to you now. When you reach the level of acceptance (setting and achieving goals), you look back on the level of willingness and see you were like a mouse running on a treadmill — you were a good runner, but you didn’t pick a direction.
I think the most important work we can do as human beings is to raise our individual level of consciousness. When we do this, we spread higher levels of consciousness to everyone around us. Imagine what an incredible world this would be if we could at least get everyone to the level of acceptance. According to Hawkins 85% of the people on earth live below the level of courage.
When you temporarily experience the higher levels, you can see where you must go next. You have one of those moments of clarity where you understand that things have to change. But when you sink into the lower levels, that memory becomes clouded.
We have to keep consciously taking ourselves back to the sources that can help us complete the next leap. Each step requires different solutions. I recall when making the shift from neutrality to willingness, I listened to time management tapes almost every day. I immersed myself in sources created by people at the level of willingness until I eventually shifted. But a book on time management will be of little use to someone who’s at the level of pride; they’ll reject the very notion with a lot of defensiveness. And time management is meaningless to someone at the level of peace. But you can’t hit the higher levels if you haven’t mastered the basics first. Jesus was a carpenter. Gandhi was a lawyer. Buddha was a prince. We all have to start somewhere.
Look at this hierarchy with an open mind and see if it leads you to new insights that may help you take the next leap in your own life. No levels are any more right or wrong than others. Try not to get your ego wrapped up in the idea of being at any particular level, unless you’re currently at the level of pride of course.