Quoting David Hawkins in Your Book: What MBS Authors Need to Know About Copyright

Michael Ireland
Aug 2
4 min read

Why Veritas Publishing's Permission Rules Are Stricter Than You Think

This blog is subject to our Notice to Readers.

If you’re writing in the Mind Body Spirit space, chances are you’ve read Dr. David Hawkins’ books. Power vs. Force, the Map of Consciousness, the calibration scale—his work is everywhere in this genre, and it’s tempting to quote him, reference his scale, or reproduce his charts. This issue comes up so often in manuscripts I work on for authors that it needs its own blog. Before you do use any of Hawkins’ work, there’s some important publishing housekeeping you need to know about.

Veritas Publishing holds all the rights—and they mean it

Hawkins’ work is published through Veritas Publishing, and they are the sole rights holder for everything he produced: books, audio, video, and the Map of Consciousness itself. Their copyright policy page at veritaspub.com/copyright is worth reading in full, but here are the key points.

Permission will not be granted to copy, insert, or post quotes or text from Hawkins’ books. That’s a harder line than most publishers take—many will allow limited quotation under fair use without requiring you to ask first. Veritas doesn’t work that way. They will submit a copyright takedown notice if they find infringement.

There is one exception: direct quotes of up to 500 words are permitted with written permission from Susan Hawkins. To request permission, email info@veritaspub.com and include the name of the book you’re quoting from, the publishing date, the chapter title, and the page number of the quote. Get that approval in writing before your manuscript goes to print.

The Map of Consciousness and the calibration scale are the same thing

A lot of authors aren’t sure whether these are two separate elements or one. They’re one. The calibration scale—that logarithmic 0 to 1,000 framework mapping emotional states from shame at the bottom to enlightenment at the top—is the Map of Consciousness. The Map is just what it’s called when it’s presented as a visual chart or diagram. Hawkins developed it by running over 250,000 calibrations using muscle testing over 20 years of research, and first published it in Power vs. Force.

Both the diagram and the underlying scale are trademarked and copyrighted. That means you cannot reproduce the numbered list of levels in a table or chart format, even if you’re not copying it word for word. If your book includes a chart that mirrors his layout, that’s an infringement issue.

What you can do is discuss the concept in prose. Copyright protects the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Writing about consciousness calibration as a framework, or describing what Hawkins meant by a level of 200 being the threshold between life-suppressing and life-supporting states—that’s fine. Recreating his chart with the numbers and emotional states laid out in columns is not.

What a copyright takedown notice actually means

When authors hear “takedown notice,” they sometimes imagine Veritas calling bookstores worldwide and pulling their book off shelves. That’s not how it works.

A DMCA takedown notice is a formal request to a specific platform—Amazon KDP, Ingram, a website host, a podcast platform—to remove a specific piece of infringing content. It targets the material in question, on that platform, and nothing else. Physical books already printed and distributed can’t be touched by a takedown notice. That mechanism simply doesn’t reach into brick-and-mortar retail.

In practical terms, a takedown notice most directly threatens your eBook. Amazon has a well-known habit of pulling digital titles quickly when they receive a copyright complaint—sometimes before any legal proceedings begin. They would rather act fast than risk being named in a lawsuit. Other distributors tend to be less reactive, but they’ll move if they receive formal legal notice. Bookstores on the ground typically won’t do anything until a court tells them to.

What happens if it goes to litigation

Filing a lawsuit doesn’t automatically require anyone to pull your book. There’s no removal triggered by the act of filing—a court would have to issue an injunction specifically ordering it, and that takes time, hearings, and legal argument. Litigation alone doesn’t equal disappearance from shelves.

The more realistic pressure point is your publisher or distributor. Once they’re served with legal notice, they may push you to resolve the issue and pull the book themselves, even if you technically have grounds to fight it. Legal disputes are expensive and disruptive for everyone in the supply chain, and most publishers would rather avoid the headache.

The straightforward takeaway is this: sort out permissions before your book goes to print. Email Veritas, get written approval for any quotes you plan to use, and if permission isn’t granted, paraphrase the concept instead. A lawsuit over a handful of quotes is the last thing you or your publisher want to deal with after your book is already in the world.

And this doesn’t just go for Veritas. Getting written permission for any use over what would be considered “fair use” is just part of the publishing process. For example, using anything created by Esther and Jerry Hicks and Abraham, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Rhonda Byrne, and other bestselling authors should be automatically part of your To-Do list. Skip it at your peril.

What’s “fair use”? See my blogs “Borrowed Words?” and “It’s Not Just Your Story” for more information.

Happy writing!

Michael Ireland

michaelirelandeditor@gmail.com