What is a level-750 enlightenment?

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Dr. David Hawkins was the first guru whose teachings I could really sink my teeth into. I dabbled with all the others, Hawkins I actually followed, reading some six of his 9 directly-authored books. He sought to bring science and reason back to the New Age through a research practice he termed consciousness calibration.

To calibrate something, you use an age-old technique called the muscle test. The principle that the test works on is simple enough to state, the will is stronger than the mind, and the mind is stronger than the body. A person’s will is generally subconscious, so when the mind directs the muscles to ‘hold strong’, the will can override that mental directive and cause the muscles to go weak instead.

Well, the above is my description of how the test works, Hawkins invokes a “field of universal consciousness” that the will taps into that allows for correct answers, should the test be performed correctly.

I don’t quite wholeheartedly agree with the purported universality of the answers given by consciousness calibration research, but it works well enough that you can use it as a rough guide and rabbit hole down which you can plumb the idea of consciousness as it relates to enlightenment.

The idea that enlightenment might have levels is something Westerners tend to bristle against, but historically it’s a common belief among Buddhists. Theravada outlines four. Hawkins’ system holds that out of a scale from 1 to 1000, anything over 600 is enlightened. Many maps you look at place the boundary of enlightenment at 700, and to be fair it’s really a matter of perspective. So 750 is three quarters of the way up the scale, and in any case is past the level of initial enlightenment.

The level of 600 has existence in a floating sea of calm, outside the realm of linear achievement or even conception. Perceptive boundaries between the self and that which is perceived, the “other,” dissolve. Advancement here consists of slow surrender of even this bliss to even greater conceptions of existence.

At 700, existence is assigned directly to divinity. The person sees the expression of their life as the direct manifestation of divine will. One has to continue to transcend humanity until they reach level 850, the point of the Void. While previous states of consciousness are associated with various aspects of peace and divinity, the Void strips all of that away and leaves you with a pervasive, profound, intense nothingness. All meaning goes away, it’s difficult to even speak.

If the descriptions of higher states seem weird and off-putting, then you’re absolutely right. This sort of thing is so utterly rare that it’s only happened a few times in the entire timeline of the human race. If it happened more frequently then it wouldn’t be so rare. I’m stopping at the Void because it only gets weirder from there. I can call up a mental state that to me feels like the Void, but I cannot actually place my identification there, nor am I in all that much of a hurry to.

If I had to place my own level of consciousness on this scale, at the moment it feels like high-600s inching close to 700. Though perhaps I’m already past 700 looking at 750. But there’s a reason I don’t work directly with the scale anymore.

Awareness ‘flutters’. If I work really hard I can attune to a higher consciousness level, and there are points in time I feel more connected than others. I’ve read and understood this stuff, and Hawkins’ published works don’t say everything there is to know about consciousness. I’m certain I can obtain a calibration and supporting rationale from my subconscious if I really wanted to right now, but I’ve done that so many times all those years ago that it doesn’t feel as worthwhile as pursuing my own ideas.