Hawkins, David R. David R Hawkins is said to have a following in New Zealand and Australia. He is described by Wikipedia as being "an American psychiatrist, mystic, author and spiritual teacher in Sedona, Arizona." Robert Todd Carroll, PhD points out "Hawkins, by the way, is not only an MD but a PhD. The latter was earned from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited diploma mill that was shut down by court order." To get an idea of what Mr Hawkins is on about, consider a quote promoting one of his books:

The scientific minded reader will be pleased in that for the first time a cogent and verifiable means of verification of spiritual reality is provided by means of an 'objective' reduplicable method of measurement based on physiologically derived clinical evidence.

Which is really nothing but babble (remember GWP healing instruments?), but some people just lap it up. The "'objective' reduplicable [sic] method" mentioned may relate to the God consciousness rating system referred to by this researcher:

Hawkins uses applied kinesiology, a New Age pseudoscience, to calibrate everyone and everything's level of consciousness in the universe. Jesus is at 1000 in his system, and Hawkins himself calibrates one of his books at 999.8. He believes he is God.

He also rates Buddha and Krishna at 1000, indicating they, along with Jesus, have total God consciousness. Anyone who thinks applied kinesiology doesn't work, or in double blind trials is only as good as random chance automatically rates below 200. To stay above 200 contact with unclean "under-200-ers" (my term), which supposedly make up about 80% of the population, must be avoided. Anyone who questions the scale also automatically rates below 200 (and probably only about 140) and is therefore not worth listening to – "I don't like to talk to dumb people" – whereas someone above 700 has reached enlightenment. How George W Bush rated a 460 only Mr Hawkins knows. In fits of self-contradiction "Hawkins repeatedly makes statements such as, 'All opinions are vanities,' and, 'The mind has no capacity to tell truth from falsehood.'" See self refuting statements for other examples of statements that contradict themselves.

Danger: The group/person or belief/practice is considered dangerous due to mind control or particularly bad doctrine. These groups (or people) have a strong tendency to damage their members/followers.

Printed on 20 January 2021 at www.cults.co.nz.
Close window