"Spiritual work, like other intensive pursuits, such as sports can be arduous and frequently requires the development of of specific tools for the task, including extremely focused intent and unfailing concentration. The difficulty of inner work results from the great effort required to escape from the familiar gravity of lower attractor fields and move to the influence of the higher field." -David R. Hawkins
I think the vast majority struggle to stay in higher energy patterns of thought and emotion. I know I do. To maintain a consistently grateful, loving, abundant energy is something I have just started down the road on.
I have been reading Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins. He so gracefully calibrates the stages of human consciousness. I will encapsulate them for you here. Keep in mind that we need to reach a and energy field of 200 to be "healable". Prior to that there is not sufficient energy to put into healing. Lingering below 200 entails a danger of becoming so deeply entrained in negative energies that one can't escape.
Also keep in mind that levels of consciousness are always mixed; a person may operate on one level in a given area of life and on quite another level in another area.
Energy Level 20: Shame
Early life experiences that lead to shame - such as sexual abuse - warp the personality for a lifetime unless these issues are resolved in therapy. Shame is used as a tool of cruelty, and it's victims often become cruel themselves. Shamed children are brutal to animals and to each other. Since it pulls down the the whole level of the personality, shame results in a vulnerability to the other negative emotions such as false pride, anger and guilt.
Energy Level 30: Guilt
Guilt, so commonly used in our society to manipulate and punish, manifests itself in a variety of expressions, such as remorse, self-recrimination, masochism, and the whole gamut of symptoms of victimhood. Many people struggle with guilt all their lives, while others desperately attempt to escape it by amorally denying it altogether.
Energy Level 50: Apathy
This level is characterized by poverty, despair, and hopelessness. The world and the future look bleak. Apathy is a state of helplessness and its victims, needy in every way, lack not only the resources, but the energy to avail themselves of what may be available. Unless external energy is supplied by caregivers, death through passive suicide can result. This is the level of the homeless, the aged and others who become isolated by chronic or progressive diseases. People in Apathy are "heavy" and are felt to be a burden to those around them. This is the level where people like Mother Theresa dare to tread. Apathy is the abandonment of hope.
Energy Level 75: Grief
This is the loss of sadness, loss, and dependency. Most of us experience this for periods of time but those who remain at this level live a life of constant regret and depression. This is the level of habitual losers and chronic gamblers who accept failure as part of their lifestyle. In Grief one sees sadness everywhere. Although grief is the cemetery of life, it still has more energy than Apathy. Thus when a traumatized, apathetic patient begins to cry, we know they are getting better. Once they start to cry, they will eat again.
Energy Level 100: Fear
At level 100, a lot more life energy is available. Fear runs the world. Fear of enemies, of old age, or death, of rejection, and a multitude of social fears are the basic motivators in most people's lives. From the viewpoint of fear, the world looks hazardous, full of traps and threats. Fear limits growth and leads to inhibition. Because it takes energy to rise above Fear, the oppressed are unable to reach a higher level unaided. Thus the fearful seek a strong leader who appears to have conquered their own fears to lead them out of its slavery.
Energy Level 125: Desire
Desire moves us to expend great effort to achieve goals and or obtain rewards. Desire is a higher state out of apathy or grief because in order to get you have to first have the energy to want. The desire for money, prestige, or power runs the lives of many who have risen above fear as their predominant life motif. Desire is also the level of addiction. Desire is insatiable because it's an ongoing energy field, so that the satisfaction of one itch, is merely replaced by unsatisfied craving for something else.
Energy Level 150: Anger
Anger can lead to either constructive or destructive action. As people move out of Apathy and Grief to overcome Fear as a way of life, they begin to want; Desire leads to frustration, which in turn leads to anger. Thus Anger can be a fulcrum by which the oppressed and repressed are catapulted to freedom.
But anger expresses itself most often as resentment and revenge and is therefore, volatile and dangerous. Anger as a lifestyle is exemplified by irritable and explosive people who are oversensitive to slights and become injustice collectors, quarrelsome, belligerent, or litigious. Since anger stems from frustrated want, it is based on the energy field below it. Frustration results form the exaggerated frustration of desires. The angry person may go into a rage, like a frustrated infant. Anger leads easily to hatred, which has an erosive effect on all areas of a person's life.
Energy Level 175: Pride
Pride is the level aspired to by the majority of our kind today. In contrast to lower energy fields, people feel positive as they reach this level. This rise in self-esteem is balm to all the pain experienced at lower levels of consciousness. Pride looks good and knows it; it struts itself in the parade of life. Pride is defensive and vulnerable because it is dependent on external conditions, without which, it can suddenly revert to a lower level. The downside of pride is arrogance and denial. The whole problem of denial is one of pride.
Energy Level 200: Courage
At the 200 level, true power first appears. At the lower levels the world is seen as hopeless, sad, frightening or frustrating, but at the level of courage, life is seen to be exciting, stimulating and challenging. Courage implies the willingness to try new things. At this level of empowerment one is able to handle the opportunities of life. Growth and education become attainable goals. There is a capacity to face fears and character defects and to grow despite them; anxiety does not cripple endeavor as it would at lower levels of evolution. People at his level put back into the world as much energy as they take out; at lower levels, individuals drain energy from society without reciprocating.
Energy Level 250: Neutrality
Energy gets very positive as we get to this level because its epitomized by the release of positionality that typifies lower levels. Below 250, consciousness sees dichotomies and takes on rigid positions. This creates opposition and division. Rising above the oppositions that dissipate one's energies allows for flexibility and non-judgmental, realistic appraisal of problems. To be neutral means to be relatively unattached to outcomes. This is the beginning of inner confidence, sensing one's power, one is not easily intimidated or driven to prove anything. This is the level of safety - people at this level are easy to get a long with and safe to be around and associate with because they are not interested in conflict, competition or guilt. They are comfortable and basically undisturbed emotionally.
Energy Level 350: Acceptance
At this level of awareness, a major transformation takes place, with the understanding of that one is oneself the source and creator of the experience of one's life. Taking such responsibility is characterized by the the capacity to live harmoniously with the forces of life. All people at levels below 200 tend to see themselves as victims, at the mercy of life. This stems from a belief that the source of one's happiness is "out there". An enormous jump is completed at this level, with the realization that happiness is within oneself. At his stage, nothing "out there" has the capacity to make one happy, and love isn't something that is given or taken away by another, but is created from within. The expectation that love with it's ups and downs, will be basically okay if one can roll with the punches. This level is free from discrimination and intolerance.
Energy Level 400: Reason
Intelligence and rationality rise to the forefront when the emotionalism of the lower levels is transcended. Reason is capable of handling large amounts of complex information and make rapid, correct decisions. This is the level of Nobel Prize winners, Einstein, Freud and other great thinkers. Reason itself, paradoxically, is the major block to reaching higher levels of consciousness. Transcending this level is relatively uncommon in our society.
Energy Level 500: Love
Love as depicted in the mass media is not what this level is about. What the world generally refers to as love is an intense emotional condition, combining physical attraction, possessiveness, control, addiction, eroticism, and novelty. It's usually very waxing and waning and with varying conditions. When frustrated, this emotion reveals an underlying anger and dependency that has been masked. Loving is a state of being. It is a forgiving, nurturing, and supportive way of relating to the world. Love emanates from the heart. It has the capacity to lift others and accomplish great feats because of its purity of motive. Reason deals only with particularities, whereas Love deals with entireties. This ability is often ascribed to intuition. Love takes no position, rising above separation. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all of life and augments that which is positive. - it dissolves negativity by recontextualizing it, rather than by attacking it. Only .4% of the world's population reaches this level.
Energy Level 540: Joy
As Love becomes more and more unconditional, it begins to be experienced as inner Joy. This is not the the sudden joy of a of a pleasurable turn of events; it's a constant accompaniment to all activities. Joy arises from within each moment of existence, rather than from any other source. From level 540 up is the domain of advanced spiritual students and saints. A capacity for enormous patience, and the persistence of a positive attitude in the face of prolonged adversity is characteristic of this energy field; the hallmark state of this is compassion. People who have attained this state have a notable effect on others. They are capable of a prolonged, open visual gaze, which induces a state of love and peace. At the high 500's, the world one sees is illuminated by the exquisite beauty and perfection of creation. Everything happens effortlessly, by synchronicity and everything is seen as an expression of love and divinity.
Energy Level 600: Peace
This energy field is associated with the experience of transcendence, self-realization and God-consciousness. It is extremely rare and is attained by only 1 in 10 million people. When this state is reached, the distinction between subject and object disappears.
Energy Levels 700-1,000: Enlightenment
This is the level of the Great Ones of history who originated the spiritual that countless people have followed through the ages. This is the level of powerful inspiration; these beings set in place attractor energy fields that influence all of mankind. At his level there is no longer the experience of and individual personal self from others; rather, there is an identification of self with Consciousness and Divinity. This transcendence of the ego also serves by example to teach others how it can eventually be accomplished. To have such vision is called grace, and the gift it brings is infinite peace.
