Misperceptions Of Our Ego

Dr. David Hawkins, M.D., is my favorite author.

Sometimes I think I could throw away all the books in my library except for anything ever written by Dr. Hawkins. I have all his books and take turns re-reading them.

Books by Dr. Hawkins are all meat and zero fluff. In case you have not heard of him, Dr. Hawkins is an enlightened person. He endorsed my book, Healing Depression: A Holistic Guide. To date, I consider his endorsement my greatest professional accomplishment, even though it is something that few people know about. I know of only one other book that Dr. Hawkins has endorsed, and that was written by Dr. Carolyn Mein, Different Bodies, Different Diets. It’s about the concept of biochemical individuality and helps people to understand how each of us needs to eat and exercise according to our individual constitution. Needless to say, I use that book in my practice with all my clients and have had Dr. Mein as a guest on my radio show.

I can read a line or a paragraph written by Dr. Hawkins and then spend the next day, week or month just thinking about it.

I am currently rereading I: Reality and Subjectivity. I came across this list (on page 45, if you want to read the context for yourself) and found it extremely helpful. I have been pondering this for about two weeks now and have found his insights very helpful for recontextualizing several personal issues I have been struggling with.

Some Basic Axiomatic Positionalities Of The Ego

1. Phenomenon are either good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust, fair or unfair.
2. The “bad” deserve to be punished and the “good” rewarded.
3. Things happen by accident or else they are the fault of somebody else.
4. The mind is capable of comprehending and recognizing truth from falsehood.
5. The world causes and determines one’s experiences.
6. Life is unfair because the innocent suffer while the wicked go unpunished.
7. People can be different than they are.
8. It is critical and necessary to be right.
9. It is critical and necessary to win.
10. Wrongs must be righted.
11. Righteousness must prevail.
12. Perceptions represent reality.

On reading this list, I thought Dr. Hawkins had summarized some of the main lessons in A Course In Miracles better than the course itself.

In other parts of the I, he says that when we view any event, whether it is something that happens to us personally or an event in the world outside of us, we have no way of truly comprehending or perceiving all the events and all the karma that led up to that actually happening.

I do not think Dr. Hawkins can be improved upon.

However, I wanted to offer my commentary on his points. I’ll take them one by one.

1. It is better for our peace of mind if we give up the habit of judging. Since blaming or complaining is almost a national pastime, a good place to start is to begin to ask ourselves how and why everything that is happening is all good since it is all God. Failing that, a simple technique is to keep a gratitude list.
2. Dr. Hawkins says that only the spiritually naive think that once they embark on a spiritual path that everything will suddenly become easier. If we set our intention for unconditional love, for example, then everything that is contrary to that will come flying in our faces. A good way to look at challenges is that they are an opportunity for us to confront our karma.
3. I like to explain that our level of consciousness is like a dial on an old radio set. Some of us listen to country music. Other people listen to opera. Some other people listen to rap. What we are each experiencing is the direct result of our level of consciousness.
4. We have to ask for guidance about everything. It is great to study and inform ourselves, but the truly wise do not go by any book. From this perspective, muscle testing is a form of prayer. When I use kinesiology or doing a medical intuitive reading, I am really saying, “Dear God, please show me what is in the highest best interests of this person.” I may have tremendous amount of knowledge, experience and book learning, but I am smart enough to ask what will work in each individual case because we all have a unique spiritual path, our body is biochemically unique and our emotions have come through many years of living. One of my teachers of healing said it best. “Our job is to show up and get out of the way.” I personally ask for guidance about just about everything. Even when I get up in the morning, just to turn on this inner muscle, I ask for guidance about what clothes to wear and what jewelry to select for the day. It’s not so much about the clothes or the jewelry, it’s about setting the dial in my mind to a higher notch to begin with.
5. Our inner experience is everything. Therefore, inner work is what we need to do if we want to be successful in the conventional sense of the word.
6. Whatever a person experiences is the direct result of their own personal karma. I always say the most selfish thing I could ever do is to be kind, thoughtful and loving to everybody to the best of my personal ability at any given moment. My colleague in healing, Sue Maes, says that whenever she witnesses a person being truly selfish, cruel or unkind, she thinks, “Whoa – I wonder how that is going to come back to that person.”
7. I remember having a session with a client who lamented that her family members were the way that they were. I pointed out to her how many years she had done her own inner work, and how much money she had spent visiting various professionals to climb her own inner terrain. And that wasn’t even the hard part. It takes tremendous effort for people to confront themselves. The payoff, of course, is huge, not only in terms of personal happiness and outward success but also in terms of our health, because every physical illness has an underlying emotional and spiritual basis that must be confronted in order to truly heal. And that’s not easy, and it’s not for the faint of heart. I love to work with clients who are serious about getting better. I treasure these rare people very dearly. They make my heart sing.
8. We truly have no clue about what is best if we rely on our intellect alone. This is probably why so few people surmount the 400 level of consciousness, which is ruled by reason. It’s a totally different paradigm to ask for guidance rather than looking for black and white, wrong or right, following somebody else’s program rather than what is best for you or your body at any given moment. For me, discovering kinesiology was a major turning point in my health. I suddenly discovered the tool to get better.
9. Only in retrospect do we admit sometimes that the worst of times were either necessary or the greatest thing that ever happened in our lives.
10. Everything is unfolding in perfect order. Our challenge is to have faith in the unseen.
11. Our definition of righteousness is usually translated as “me having my way.” The most profound healings happen when we let go and allow God to guide our lives. And this can take us out of our comfort zone. In fact, if you ask for profound, deep growth on virtually any level, whether it is business, your health or your personal life, you are more than likely going to be out of your comfort zone, which will probably entail you not having your way.
12. We do not see things as they really are, only as we project out onto the world. Another definition of a miracle is a readjustment to our way of thinking, i.e., seeing things differently. Instead of seeing everything as broken, we could pray to be able to see with the eyes of God, hear with the ears of God and love with the heart of God.