Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior

In Chapter 1, Hawkins describes the three developments in scientific fields that fostered the evolution of his book, beginning in 1965. First is the research on the physiology of the nervous system that gave rise to the science of kinesiology. Second was the rapid advancement of computers. Third was the development of nonlinear dynamics study that arose from theoretical physics. Computer analysis of data previously considered chaotic or “incoherent” revealed hidden energy patterns, called “attractors,” which drive seemingly random natural phenomena.

Hawkins asserts that all schools of thought have a common meeting point: The quest for “an organized understanding of the nature of pure consciousness” (49). This insight bypasses the limited view that the subjective and objective are separate; Hawkins argues that they are actually the same. Thus, both mind and body can understand whether something supports life or does not.

The methodology used to develop a map of the fields of human consciousness uses critical point analysis, a technique that assumes that in any system, there is a critical point where the smallest input will create the greatest change. As an example, the touch of a finger on a switch can stop a locomotive.

The concept of the “attractor”—an identifiable pattern that emerges from a seemingly random mass of data—comes from

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