I want to introduce you to something that changed how I understand my own life — and my own healing.
It is called the Map of Consciousness. It was developed by Dr. David Hawkins, a psychiatrist and spiritual teacher who spent decades researching one question: why do some people suffer endlessly while others, facing the same circumstances, find their way to peace?
What he discovered is not what most people expect. It isn’t about positive thinking. It isn’t about willpower.
It is about the level of consciousness you are operating from — and the extraordinary fact that you can change it.
I recently sat down with Kevin Scobey, a longtime student of Hawkins’ work and a facilitator of his teachings, to talk through the map and what it means in practical terms. Here is what I want you to take away from that conversation.
The map is not a map of opposites.
This was the first thing that surprised me when I encountered Hawkins’ work. We tend to think of our emotions as opposing forces — love versus hate, fear versus courage. But the Map of Consciousness shows something different. Emotions like hatred and love are not opposites. They exist on the same continuum of consciousness, at different levels of vibration. As Kevin put it, “they are more like oil and water — different, but not opposite. They settle into their own likeness.”
This matters because most of our suffering comes from the egoic mind’s insistence on dividing everything into opposites. Good versus evil. Should versus shouldn’t. Right versus wrong. The map helps us step out of that battleground and see reality as a continuum instead.
Awareness itself is the first move.
The map runs from 0 (death) at the bottom through shame, guilt, apathy, fear, anger, and pride — all below the critical threshold of 200 — up through courage, willingness, acceptance, love, joy, and bliss, to enlightenment at 1000.
Simply knowing where you are on this map creates the possibility of choosing differently.
You don’t have to leap from shame to love in a single bound. You just have to notice where you are — without judgment — and ask: can I move up one level?
Kevin said something I have carried since our conversation:
“We have more agency over our emotional state than we realize. Sometimes the choices are conscious. Sometimes unconscious. The map makes the possibilities visible.” Kevin Scobey
Courage is the dividing line — and here is why.
At 200 on the map sits courage. Everything below it is characterized by what Hawkins calls force — stress, reactivity, craving, fear, shame. Everything above it is characterized by power — the kind that sustains rather than exhausts.
Courage is the dividing line because it is the first act of inward agreement with a positive direction. Below it, we react. At courage, we choose.
Moving through courage into the higher levels requires stepping into the unknown — and that takes genuine inner commitment. You may not know what freedom feels like until you are in it. But once you step through, the energy settles. You move into neutrality, then willingness, then trust. As Kevin described it: Courage destabilizes the lower levels so the higher ones can take hold.
Willingness is not hoping. It is deciding.
Above courage sits willingness — and this distinction matters. Willingness is not wishing things were different. It is not having one foot in and one foot out. It is deciding, fully, both feet in, and then being able to see possibilities that were invisible before.
I experienced this myself when I joined an expensive mastermind program years ago. I was terrified. Cold feet, chattering ego, every reason not to do it. But once I committed completely — once I decided — willingness arrived. And with it, a clarity I hadn’t been able to access from the place of ambivalence.
The decision itself is the thing. Both feet in.
Fighting reality keeps you stuck. Accepting it frees you.
My trauma surgeon in San Diego — Dr. Kill — said something to me I have never forgotten. He told me that everyone who comes to the hospital wants to get out as fast as possible. But I was different. He said it was as if I had accepted where I was.
And I had. I was having back-to-back surgeries — six total. What could I do? I accepted it.
Most patients in hospitals are running, with a desire to leave — combined with fear and anger. That keeps the body flooded with cortisol and adrenaline, which is counterproductive to healing. Moving into acceptance drops those stress hormones and lets the body do what it needs to do.
Acceptance is not approval. It is not giving up. It is simply stopping the war with reality — and that, it turns out, is one of the most healing things a human being can do.
Love is not just an emotion. It is a level of consciousness.
At 500 on the map sits love. Not romantic love, not conditional love — the kind of love that has no object, that is simply a state of being. Gratitude, joy, and bliss all live in this territory.
Hawkins discovered that for severe addiction and deep healing, the only energy that truly works is 540 and above. In some cases, love is the only thing that heals.
In my near-death experience, I chose love and gratitude. Hawkins describes the NDE state as potentially reaching 600 — the level of bliss. In my experience, you don’t stay there. You come back down to your own level of consciousness. The ego gets going again. But now you know that place exists. You know it is real. And you can use the map to find your way back.
The map is logarithmic, which means small shifts matter enormously.
This is perhaps the most important technical detail. The Map of Consciousness is not a linear scale. Each number is to the base of 10 — logarithmic. A move from 200 to 300 is not the same magnitude as a move from 500 to 600. The higher you go, the more exponential the difference.
What this means practically: small movements at the higher levels represent enormous shifts in actual consciousness and quality of life.
And Hawkins found that most of humanity — roughly 85% — operates below 200. The people who live consistently above that threshold are, quite literally, lifting the collective.
We are all here to be self-realized.
That is how Kevin closed our conversation. Whether we know it or not, he said, that is what we are all moving toward. The map is simply a tool for understanding where we are on that journey — and what is possible from here.
If you are in a hard season right now, I want you to hear this: where you are is not where you are stuck. Every level on this map is part of the human experience. There is no shame in being where you are. There is only the question — can I move up one level?
The answer, more often than you think, is yes.
Resources: David R. Hawkins — Power Versus Force and Letting Go: The Path of Surrender. Byron Katie — thework.com.
P.S. Zoom Gathering on Wednesday, April 22 for paid subscribers
It’s not too late to subscribe and attend all Zoom Gatherings for free. All you have to do is subscribe to High Road to Healing for $50 for the year and save.
Mark your calendar:
✦ Wednesday, April 22
✦ 12:00pm PDT · 1:00pm MDT · 2:00pm CDT · 3:00pm EDT
✦ 7:00pm GMT · 8:00am Thursday NZDT
The 100 Day Visualization Project
Here’s what I want you to know before we meet: Subscribers: your Zoom link will be sent to your email.
Visualization is not wishful thinking. It is not a vision board on a wall that you walk past without feeling anything. And it is not the same as hoping something will happen and waiting for the universe to deliver it.
It is neuroscience.
Researchers have shown that when you vividly imagine doing something — truly see it, feel it, experience it in your body — your brain activates the same neural pathways as if you were actually doing it. In one landmark study, basketball players who practiced free throws only in their minds improved nearly as much as players who practiced physically. Same neural pathways. Same results.
This is what 100 days of consistent visualization can do to a brain.
It can rewire it.
At our April 22 Gathering, we’ll explore:
✦ What the science actually says about how visualization works
✦ Why most people do it wrong — and the one shift that changes everything
✦ How to begin your own 100 Day Visualization Project
✦ What you want to do, be, or have — and how to make your brain your greatest ally in getting there
I’ll share the research, tell you a story, and give you three prompts to begin your own practice. Then we’ll share.
This Gathering will be recorded and sent to all paid subscribers.
Not yet a paid subscriber? This is a beautiful moment to join us.
$50 for a full year — Gatherings several times a quarter, teachings, and a community of women doing the real work of healing and becoming.
👉 JOIN HERE: https://www.sheroldbarr.com/subscribe
I can’t wait to be in the room with you.
With love,
Sherold
P.S. Come with something in mind — something you want to do, be, or have. We’ll work with it
