Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Raising Your Level of Energy
To identify which ‘level of energy’ (emotional state) you are currently in on Dodson’s spectral scale, then deliberately move up it one realistic step at a time — using release, appreciation, and redirected focus — so that your dominant state rises over time.
Up the scale in 5 lines: Know the rough ladder — low (depression, fear, craving, anger, blame), neutral (contentment, boredom, routine), high (courage, interest, kindness, reason, love, joy, peace). Honestly name the level you’re in now. Reach for the next available rung, not the top — e.g. anger is a real step up out of fear. Use release, appreciation, and redirected focus to climb. Re-check often, and aim to raise your baseline over time, not just spike a high.
What it is
Frederick Dodson’s working practice from Levels of Energy: treat your emotional states as a graded scale of “levels” — from low states (depression, fear, craving, anger, blame) up through neutral functioning (contentment, boredom, routine) to higher states (courage, interest, kindness, reason, love, joy, peace) — then locate where you are now and deliberately step up it.
Dodson openly builds on David Hawkins’ “Map of Consciousness,” but his emphasis is different and practical: where Hawkins offers a map of calibrated levels, Dodson focuses on how to jump from one level to the next, writing “from the perspective of energy rather than just emotions.” His central claim is that “emotional states influence available energy; lower states limit perception and action, while higher states enhance inner resources and overall experience” — so raising your level raises everything downstream of it.
It sits in embodiment state because the work is on the lived felt-state itself.
The Method
Faithfully synthesised from Levels of Energy:
- Learn the scale. Familiarise yourself with the ordered levels — roughly: depression / self-pity / fear / craving / anger / blame / discontent (low), through contentment / boredom / routine / functionality (neutral ~200), up to courage / eagerness, kindness / optimism, interest / attention, reason, and the high band of love, joy, peace.
- Locate your current level. Honestly check which state is dominant right now. Dodson uses self-observation cues (e.g. burnout signals a drop toward the low-neutral band; peak creativity sits in the higher mid-band). Naming the level is the first lever.
- Aim for the next realistic step, not the top. Don’t try to leap from fear to joy. Reach for the adjacent, more available state. Dodson’s “strategic emotional stepping” example: from fear, deliberately moving into anger is a step up — anger has more energy and agency than fear, and so liberates you from it (a way-station, not a destination).
- Use release to climb. Let go of the holding-on (resistance, the want, the grievance) that pins you to the lower level. Relaxing alone, he notes, can move you from discontent toward boredom and then relaxation — loosening the grip raises the level.
- Use appreciation and redirected focus. Point attention at what you can genuinely appreciate and toward what you want rather than what you resist; this lifts the state and, sustained, raises the dominant level.
- Re-check and re-step. Treat it as a repeatable loop — notice the level, take one step up, stabilise, and over time let your baseline rise rather than chasing a one-off high. (Sourcing note: the scale, “strategic emotional stepping,” the fear→anger step-up example, and the acknowledged debt to Hawkins are Dodson’s, attributed. The numbered protocol is a faithful synthesis of his teaching, not a reproduction of his text. The exact ordering and numbers vary between presentations of his scale.)
Source & Lineage
Frederick Dodson, Levels of Energy: An Introduction to Spectral Consciousness (2010). Dodson explicitly extends David R.
Hawkins’ “Map of Consciousness”, reframing it from emotions toward “energy/frequency” and, crucially, toward the mechanics of moving up. It also resonates with the Abraham-Hicks “emotional guidance scale” (reach for the next better-feeling thought) and feeds his own state-first reality-creation method.
Common refinements
Jumping too far. Trying to vault from despair to joy fails; take the next available step.
- Camping in anger. Anger is a step up from fear, not a home. Use it to mobilise, then keep climbing toward courage, interest, appreciation.
- Suppressing the real feeling. “Raising your level” is not denial; you acknowledge the low state, then choose a step — pretending you’re fine keeps you stuck.
- Chasing a one-off high. The goal is to raise the dominant baseline over time, not to score a peak then crash.
- Literalising the frequencies. Hold “energy levels” as a useful map of states, not as measured physics.