[wheelie]

I finished Power vs. Force about a month ago. This book is bound to be a challenge to whoever sits down to read it, and well worth the time.

Personally, I was very excited about the first few chapters; the integration of nonlinear mathematics into the study of consciousness and macro social systems touched on my own desire to make fractal art useful, the effort to separate and qualify levels of consciousness is fascinating and his eventual distinction of Power vs. Force is an elegant way to describe the outcomes of several cited historical conflicts as well as realtions between individuals.

Dr. Hawkins is a compassionate, brilliant, driven man who has put forth writings that are packed with value, insight and inspiration. Dr. Hawkins is also a crazy person.

There is plenty of information out there about Dr. Hawkins that supports this assertion. Applied kinesiology is, in fact, a pseudoscience. Dr. Hawkins's Ph.D. was issued by a college that has since been shut down as a diploma mill. Most of the 'calibrating' data was collected from experiments with his wife and/or the loose estimations of a lecture hall hand count. The numbers that are arrived at from the 'calibrations and calculations' he asserts lay upon a logarithmic scale which is actually an exponential scale based on his own description. Nonetheless, he gives no evidence of the methodology of arriving at this scale or even the numbers themselves.

I am not a skeptical person by nature and my intention going into this book was to be open-minded and to extract as much truth as could be had. I have no doubt that I honored that intention and I am satisfied. But I arrived at some unexpected conclusions also. Dr. Hawkins is not a scientist. He is a visionary and mystic, shooting from the hip, who is undoubtedly going to be tragically ignored by many smart people who would benefit from his insights. The flip side of that coin is that he will enrapture many who lack the sense of self to not attach to his philosophical identity. It is certainly debatable whether either of these groups would be better or worse off as a result.