what we have come to the planet to express. This distortion of power is still a form of power, but it is a power that, over time, will lead to poor relationships, lack of health, and even lack of abundance in life.
In his ground-breaking book, Power vs. Force, David Hawkins calibrates the energy of each of the levels of human consciousness, on a scale ranging from one to a thousand, where one is mere existence, and one thousand is enlightenment. The calibration is based on a clinical science that emerged in the 1970s called kinesiology, which uses the body’s muscles to indicate truth or falsehood (the body is strong with truth and weak with falsehood). Shame, guilt, apathy, grief, and fear all calibrate at one hundred or less because they are part of the falsehood or illusion that humans exist in. Love, joy, and peace calibrate between five and six hundred, as they represent the eternal Truth of who we are as Divine Beings in a human body. We begin to see the level of enlightened beings like Jesus and Buddha in the range of seven hundred. All levels of consciousness below two hundred are destructive, and all levels above two hundred are constructive. This gives us great insight into our relationship with power, because as we begin the journey to stay in our love-power, we are more and more attuned to the way in which our actions and thoughts impact our energy and the energy of those around us.
When we are in pure love-power, those around us are influenced merely by being in our presence. On the other hand, distorted power can bring many people down with us, or we can feel down when someone begins to turn from love-power to fear-based power. Have you ever experienced a meeting with several fearful people and felt exhausted later? Have you ever spent an afternoon with a complaining friend and ended up going straight to bed or decided against doing that productive task you intended to do when you got home? If so, you’ve experienced the energetic consequences of distorted power.
When distorted power meets love-power, it is outmatched. Hawkins says that one person living in the highest vibrations of consciousness is enough to counteract seventy million individuals living in the lowest vibrations. That is, the power of one person living in pure, unconditional love (calibrating at approximately five hundred) can counteract 750,000 individuals living below level two hundred, the borderline of destructive consciousness. The greatest form of influence—the most impactful, positive effect—comes from living in heightened states of consciousness, where your being tangibly impacts the consciousness of the world.
Distorted power can be so ingrained in our everyday way of being that we don’t recognize it in our words and actions. Acting as a victim or martyr is an expression of distorted power; engaging in passive-aggressive behavior is a use of distorted power; insisting that your way is the only way is distorted power at work. Distorted power can also take the form of careless behavior, risking everything to feel special and noticed, and demanding the universe and its inhabitants take notice. Not following through on your word, showing up late for events, sharing unkind words about another being—all of these are expressions of distorted power. All of it can bring you down in an instant.
The Laws of Nature
But how do we shift from culturally condoned patterns of expressing distorted power to expressing our true love-power? To overcome our habit of being stuck in an energetically low level of power and free ourselves to activate the radiant love-power within, we can look to Mother Nature for simple teachings that can be helpful to this kind of personal evolution.
True power is ruled by the laws of nature, so understanding them lays the groundwork for us to experience a pure relationship with power. The laws of nature are impersonal; they exist whether any person or life form wants them to or not. They are also universal—they apply to one and all—the natural world as well as humanity.
When we are aware of the laws of nature but still violate them, we distort our power, reduce our vital energy, and lose track of happiness. After all, disagreeing with the laws of nature—irrefutable as they are—cannot produce fulfillment, joy, peace, or sustainable relationships. Yet, most of us fall into the trap of expressing distorted power every day. Except maybe the Dalai Lama. (There’s always an exception!)
The three laws of nature that have the greatest impact on our relationship with power and our growth as an influencer are the Law of Change, the Law of Letting Go, and the Law of the Impersonal.
The three laws of nature
• Law of Change
• Law of Letting Go
• Law of the Impersonal
The Law of Change
Accept difficulty as opportunity.
—Tao Te Ching, Verse 63
Nothing in life stays the same. Nature flows with cycles of change. Plants and animals live in a constant state of growth, decay, and rebirth. Humans are the only species that resist change—especially whatever they interpret as difficult change. We believe this or that “should not” happen. With the onset of the 2020 pandemic, we can see that those who accept and adjust to their circumstances are more influential, peaceful, and fulfilled.
Our love-power is freed up when we accept and work with the Law of Change. Influential people with a high degree of love-power know that lasting influence is not maintained without attention to this law. Jesus, Buddha, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Gandhi each served at the highest level for the good of all by adhering to the Law of Change. These people had comforts of home and family and, in some cases, considerable wealth, but listened to a deeper calling to set out on a path that would change the future of humanity in profound ways.
Undoubtedly, change was not easy for these leaders; there were times when they, too, resisted change. Yet their perseverance altered the course of humanity. The irony is that when we resist a fundamental law such as the Law of Change, the short-term resistance might feel like a relief, but we suffer in the long run. We can feel sadness, anger, or a host of other emotions. We often turn outward, blaming, complaining, and repeating the same story or circumstances to others. When we point fingers of blame at the outer world, it’s generally because we’re not accepting the Law of Change in our inner world.
Recognizing the Law of Change in our physical reality is also helpful. When I tell people I recently turned fifty, I find it humorous to see how people react. “You don’t look fifty!” is one of the typical consolation prizes offered up. Others are speechless, exuding a quiet sympathy. Still others offer products to help me look younger and reduce the increasing number of wrinkles appearing on my face. While I have come to love and accept my body at this time in my life, most people don’t share this sentiment. For most reaching their second half of life, fear of aging suddenly takes hold. But what has your body been doing for the last few decades, if not changing? The body must, within the laws of nature, go through cycles of change, constantly and dependably.
When people resist the Law of Change on the physical plane, they join the ever-growing number of people who chase after external sources of satisfaction to avoid having to change. They have compulsive urges to buy things, reinvent their looks, renovate their homes, and more. They become obsessed with making money to manipulate their external environment so they can maintain an illusion of a safe world they can control—what they can change according to their time frame and preferences. In other words, they are creating the illusion of change as they try to avoid and resist the change that is being asked of them internally.
Here’s the rub: when people don’t change, they are more easily controlled and manipulated. The powers that be are well aware of this, too, make no mistake. For example, it only takes a stroll through the average North American shopping mall or an online shopping hub to realize how deeply entrenched we are in the culture and habits of buying. But if you can unplug from the thousands of daily offerings supporting an addictive fix—temptations that temporarily help you feel okay about yourself so that you don’t have to undertake real change—you’ll experience a massive leap in consciousness.
When physical changes like new clothes, new hair, a facelift, a house renovation, a new car, or a new phone quickly prove to be a fleeting satisfaction, people may enter a dark period where they feel empty, lost, directionless, or without purpose. Many feel the pain of the bandage of buying. They spend their lives living out the dreams of others because they haven’t developed