This book is phenomenal and deserves to be a classic in spirituality and psychology. I would encourage anyone who is interested to read it. However, I feel compelled to make the point that he misunderstands music to the point that it's upsetting. He demonizes several genres of music for having negative lyrical content while praising others. He writes that some music puts people into a hypnotic trance that then makes them act out in unconscious ways. That's garbage. If you're acting out in unconscious ways, it's because there's a lot stored up in you that is trying to get worked out. One of the important things that this "demonic" music does is it gives people a medium through which they can feel heard and express their emotions. It isn't caused by the music. Of course, we could just as well start blaming classical music for the world wars, but I don't think anyone is so misguided to genuinely believe that. People are drawn to music because it resonates, so he should be asking why it resonates and what purpose it serves their spiritual and psychological evolution. Some of the kindest people I have ever met listen to aggressive and angry music. It can be a wonderful source of therapy in a world that has repressed and suppressed all people in myriad ways. Would Jesus or Buddha listen to it? I'd be willing to bet yes because such spiritual teachers would see the value that it has for helping people evolve. That being said, the rest of the book is great.

The following are my opinions, and thus not subject to lawsuit from Hawkins or his publisher*. My first surprise in Power vs. Force was to find L. Ron Hubbard's 1950's emotional tone scale (the main Scientology "scale" in use for judging people) slightly re-hashed as a scale of "levels of consciousness". To trust and be hugely taken in by a faulty belief system is devastatingly painful, and the recovery is slow. Now I know how all those ex-Scientologists felt, their lives ruined when their unworkable belief system finally failed them completely. Then there was the glaring error in Hawkins' explanation of his version of the scale being "logarithmic" where he shows "three-hundred to the tenth power" in figures as ten to the three hundredth power. In the spirit of seeking truth, I rationalised these and other things and forged ahead. But the fact is Applied Kinesiology is phenomenal as a diagnostic tool, but Hawkins' version is not really AK and does not work for finding universal truths. This is (in case you also wondered) why, in the sixteen years since Power vs. Force first appeared, the world has not adopted his method for use in science, law enforcement, justice, business, preventing wars, &c. His anecdotal examples of his method solving crimes, finding missing people, and ferreting out information that could prevent a war can all be better attributed to the latent psychic powers of his testing teams. Unfortunately, these are not available to everyone, although investigating muscle testing as a way to access them might be a worthwhile research project. If you find yourself thinking you're a little dense because you don't understand his science, it may be because his use of cutting-edge scientific terms is hardly more than dodgy analogy. Nevertheless, I opened myself trustingly, reasoning that my concept of truth might be entirely faulty. Just be wary that you don't open yourself to be programmed with a bogus belief system of which you will eventually have to labouriously divest yourself. If you must read a Hawkins book, go straight to

The new science of kinesiology ushered in a powerful diagnostic tool called "muscle testing". (Muscle testing is a simple procedure for testing strong/weak responses, such as that of an outstretched arm, in response to questioning). Despite the revolutionary nature of these discoveries, most people are willing to rationalize that something other than the "conscious mind" is at play, something whose function it is to oversee the well-being of the individual and manage the body's myriad complex subsystems. It could then be extrapolated that this benign functionality - "subconscious mind", "field" or whatever - would be willing to communicate with the "outside world" when matters regarding the well-being of its charge were concerned. Dr. Hawkins, however, has taken a quantum leap with the idea of muscle testing. Rather than simply regarding the field or subconscious mind as the governing mechanism of the individual's body, he applied muscle testing in the context of traditional metaphysical paradigms stating that all things are connected, that all events, actions, thoughts and emotions are written into the unlimited Database of Consciousness, and that as participants in this universe, we all have access to that Database. Thus through muscle testing we have the ability to get the answer to any question we can formulate (except pertaining to the future, which has not yet been written into the record). The implications of this are staggering. Did O.J. do it? Is the government telling the truth about thus-and-such? We now have the means for direct knowledge. Most authors would be content to base an entire book solely on these revelations, but surprisingly this is merely the groundwork laid out by Dr. Hawkins for the rest of the book! Based on thousands of studies using these methods, striving for 100% repeatability on the tests, he explains many aspects of human experience including a Spectrum of Consciousness. Based on a logarithmic scale of 1 to 1000, all ideas, emotions, concepts, thoughts, works of art, literature and science, resonate at some level. Above the level of 200 these energies are considered nurturing, positive and "good" (Power). Below 200 are energies that are destructive, negative and "evil" (Force). Dr. Hawkins explores how "attractor" energies (mathematics from chaos theory) influence art, science, medicine and sports and examines the specific mechanisms leading to health and disease. He examines the quality of our institutions and discusses the nature of Consciousness and the path to enlightenment. All concepts are presented with exceptional clarity and lucidity, without any sign of pedantry. Finally, as the title of the book suggests, one may attain a quantitative understanding of the difference between Power and Force. (Examine the handling of the Elian Gonzales case based on these criteria). This book is an absolute must for anyone searching for a better understanding of "how reality works". And so we thank those who calibrate high on the Scale Of Consciousness, who lead the rest of us forward, kicking and screaming, on the path of enlightenment...