Power vs Force

There is a book that I learned about from YouTuber Aaron Doughty when I was first learning about spirituality called Power Vs. Force by David R Hawkins.

It was extremely helpful for me to understand energy patterns and the relationship between vibrational states and emotions which is crucial for doing energy work.

It also provided validation and a framework for some of the images I was seeing, and for all those reasons I recommend taking a look at it if you are interested in energy work and the transition of ideas from non-tangible to tangible states.

I do need to provide a disclaimer for anyone who is super scientifically minded, however.

The book is written as if it is supposed to be a scientific finding but the studies are based on subjective experience which makes it impossible to replicate or validate using the scientific method.

For that reason, if you understand and rely on science as the primary framework for making sense of reality, you might be tempted to consider everything in the book as invalid. Even though I would not take every finding as exact in accuracy, the framework it provides can be extremely useful in its reflection of processes that tie the physical to the energetic.

If you are interested in energy work and spirituality, I would implore you to read this book with a healthy amount of skepticism but not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

That said, the reason I bring the book up at all is because of the title. Power Vs Force- illustrates an important difference in how a person relates to themselves and the environment.

We don’t often spend time thinking about this distinction but moving through the world driven by your own sense of power is a very different experience than moving through the world using force to get what you want.

The two words have frequently been used interchangeably which can create a negative association with power in general. However, power is not the same thing as force. Power is our ability to determine outcomes and bring about what we want in life. Force is the use of might or pressure to control someone or thing outside of ourselves. People can use force as a tool to assert their power, but this tends to be detrimental because it undermines the freedom and well-being of who ever it is being used against.

Power in its most exalted spiritual form, however, does not require force. It is a magnetic kind of energy that you can build up within yourself to draw your desires towards you.

When you are drawing this type of power through you the energy runs up through you and expands outward to influence the environment like a fountain. You can feel the influence of it within you and it can be built up through vibration and energy work.

Force on the other hand is pressure exerted on others to make them comply with someone’s desire. In image form it looks like something coming down and crushing another.

Force is often used when a person or being lacks the exalted form of power, because it is a way of controlling others instead of influencing outcomes. Force tends to be detrimental in nature because it is not primarily concerned with the wellbeing or freedom of all individuals and grows from a place of powerlessness. It has a top-down image associated with it that is based on suppression rather than expansion.

Creating a life built upon a foundation of true personal power requires you to use less force. However, overt use of force tends to undermine the essence of power by destroying trust.

This is especially noticeable in relationships. When you have relationship which is held together through the use of force or outward pressure it will be more likely to implode because both people are not valued as equals and the dynamic becomes one of self-interest.

If you are interested in exploring this more you could go through the different areas of your life and notice the places where power and force are at play.

However, I think the most important place to investigate is in your relationship with yourself, especially around things that seem difficult, scary, or unwanted. When you are working on something that you don’t really want to work on, what motivates you? How do you talk to yourself in these moments?

If you are relying on force you will notice that you talk down to yourself and are more likely to say that you “have to” do something. You will also start to list more consequences for not doing whatever it is that you are trying to get yourself to accomplish.

If you are tapping into and growing your sense of personal power you will not need or want to degrade yourself. You will talk about the benefits of the action and why you are choosing to undergo a temporary amount of discomfort because you are choosing to work towards something greater. You will also be able to sense your own authority in the decision-making process.

It can be helpful to understand this process, especially when you are trying to create change in your life because even though using force can get results in the short run it will undermine your efforts long term. You will destroy self-trust by using force in this way and also create an association between whatever new habit or change you are working to create and a feeling of powerlessness. This will make it much harder to maintain that change and create vibrational discrepancies between your current position and what you would like to see come about.

On the other hand, using personal power as a motivator and energy source towards change builds you up while aligning you closer energetically to being able to create what you want. You will find your own sense of strength through this process and learn to associate the change you are incorporating with confidence and development.

Looking at this underlying dynamic and using it to build motivation for trust is a great way to build up your momentum for a change you would like to incorporate while developing higher levels confidence and self-trust.