The emotional healing journey can feel maddeningly vague. You do the work. You show up. You meditate, journal, process, cry, forgive. And then someone asks, “So… is it working?” And you don’t really know.
You might feel a bit lighter. Or you might not. You might have a good week and assume everything’s shifted – only to crash back down the following Tuesday. The lack of anything concrete to hold on to is one of the biggest reasons people give up on inner work altogether.
What if you could actually measure it? Not with vibes or journaling prompts, but with a number?
That’s what the map of consciousness offers. And it changed the way I approach healing – both for myself and for the people I work with.
In this post:
- What is the map of consciousness?
- What the map of consciousness reveals (and what it doesn’t)
- How I started using the map of consciousness in my healing work
- What happened when I measured client results
- Why wound healing creates the biggest shifts on the map of consciousness
- Testing the approach: programmes built around consciousness elevation
- The 14-day experiment
- From measurement to method: three steps
- Why measurement matters for healing
What is the map of consciousness?
The map of consciousness is a framework developed by Dr David R. Hawkins. It uses a 0-1,000 scale to calibrate human consciousness – essentially mapping where someone sits emotionally, energetically, and psychologically at any given time.
At the lower end of the scale, you find states like shame, guilt, apathy and fear. At the higher end, states like acceptance, love, joy and peace. The number 200 marks a significant threshold – below it, consciousness is contractive and survival-oriented. Above it, it becomes expansive and life-affirming.
Hawkins used kinesiology – a form of muscle testing – to calibrate these levels. The body responds differently in the presence of truth versus falsehood, strength versus weakness. It’s a biological response, not a cognitive one. And while that might sound unusual if you haven’t encountered it before, it’s been used in clinical and therapeutic settings for decades.
Frederick Dodson’s Levels of Energy works with the same scale and adds another layer of practical description to each level. Between the two frameworks, you get a remarkably useful picture of what each level of consciousness actually feels like to live in.
What excites me about this is the numerical element. My background in business means I’m a bit of a numbers geek. I like being able to measure the impact of what I do. We all know where we stand with numbers.
What the map of consciousness reveals (and what it doesn’t)
The map gives you something powerful: calibration. It tells you where you are. But knowing where you are is not the same as understanding why you are there.
A thermometer can tell you that you have a fever. It cannot tell you what infection is driving it.
In the same way, the map can show you that you are sitting in fear, or courage, or acceptance – but it doesn’t automatically reveal the emotional architecture beneath it. It doesn’t tell you which wounds are pulling you down, which patterns are running on autopilot, or which areas of your life are heavier than others.
That’s where deeper healing work begins. And that’s why I built the Ladder of Growth – to take the measurement principle from the map of consciousness and apply it across multiple life lenses: money, relationships, business, health, visibility, intimacy. A single number is useful. A detailed map across the areas that actually matter is transformational.
How I started using the map of consciousness in my healing work
When I first discovered Hawkins’ work, I did what any self-respecting numbers person would do: I started taking readings. Lots of them.
I wanted to know how my level of consciousness had changed over time. Could I see a correlation between specific healing work and shifts on the scale? Was there a link between life events and drops in consciousness? And if certain things consistently moved the needle, could I double down on those?
The first exploration was revisiting a pivotal chapter in my life – the moment I discovered I was pregnant and realised I had a phobia of pregnancy and birth. That period forced me to the healing table. I had to heal, because where I was felt untenable.
Mapping that chapter through the lens of the map of consciousness was illuminating. I could see clearly how my readings shifted as I moved through fear, into active healing, and out the other side. Not a vague “I felt better” – an actual, trackable trajectory.
That fuelled my curiosity. If I could see my own shifts this clearly, what about my clients?
What happened when I measured client results
I started taking before-and-after readings with clients using Head Trash Clearance. The results were striking.
Every client experienced significant jumps – at least 100 points on the scale. Dr Hawkins himself noted that most people shift no more than 5 points in a lifetime. So 100+ points through structured healing work was remarkable.
The variations made sense. Clients on longer programmes saw bigger shifts. Those who did more self-healing between sessions moved further. People starting from a lower baseline – often dealing with layered trauma, anxiety, or depression – sometimes made the biggest leaps because there was more dense material to clear.
But the real insight was this: it wasn’t the surface-level pattern work that created the biggest shifts. It was wound healing. Core wounds. Pre-verbal material. Childhood imprints. Ancestral narratives. When those cleared, the entire internal system reorganised – and consciousness rose naturally.
Wondering where your emotional weight is concentrated?
The free Head Trash Quiz maps where your heaviest material sits – so you know what to clear first, not just that something needs clearing.
Take the free Head Trash Quiz →
Why wound healing creates the biggest shifts on the map of consciousness
Surface pattern work – changing a habit, reframing a belief, adjusting behaviour – creates small movement. Useful, but incremental.
Structural wound healing creates exponential movement. When someone clears a core wound, especially one that’s pre-verbal, trauma-based, or inherited, the weight that’s been suppressing their consciousness is removed. Not managed. Not reframed. Removed.
And when the system reorganises, consciousness rises naturally. Not because we chased a higher number, but because we cleared what was holding it down.
I saw this most dramatically during my own intensive healing period. Over three to four months of focused wound healing – developing and testing my trauma and wound healing process on myself – I jumped around 200 points. Some of that was recovering ground I’d lost during a difficult time. But the majority – 150 points or more – was genuinely new territory. I felt transformed.
That’s a lot. And it made me wonder: what would happen if someone approached their healing with the sole objective of raising consciousness?
Testing the approach: programmes built around consciousness elevation
I developed a three-month programme specifically for people who wanted to raise their consciousness deliberately. Not as a side effect of coaching or therapy, but as the primary objective.
Every single client on that programme increased by more than 200 points.
What was fascinating was the ripple effect. Even though we weren’t directly working on business strategy or relationship dynamics or health, those areas shifted too. One client gained total clarity on her business positioning and messaging – and we both agreed that if we’d tackled it through a business lens, we probably wouldn’t have done as good a job. Our heads and egos would have been leading the way. By healing, her intuition led instead.
It was like the healing removed the things that were preventing people from living aligned lives. Once the hidden weight was out of the way, they bounced into their groove with all the momentum they needed.
This confirmed something I’d suspected for a long time: if you want tactical results in your life, sometimes the most effective route is not tactical at all. It’s structural. It’s clearing the dense material underneath.
The 14-day experiment
Curious how quickly shifts could happen in a group setting, I created a 14-day healing experience. Participants had access to my full range of wound healing activations and The Clearance Club. People were free to heal whatever they wanted, but I encouraged them to prioritise wound healing.
Given it was a group experience with mostly self-led healing, and many participants were new to the method, my expectations were modest. Fourteen days is not a long time.
The results surprised me. A third of the group increased by over 90 points, with some achieving 150+ point increases. The minimum increase across the whole group was 40+ points. In fourteen days.
And the people who made the biggest jumps? They were the ones who went all-in on the wound healing activations. Not the ones who dabbled. Not the ones who stuck to surface-level clearances. The ones who went deep.
From measurement to method: three steps
If this is landing for you, here’s how to start using the map of consciousness framework practically.
Step one: find out where you are. The map of consciousness aligns closely with the Ladder of Growth, which I developed as a more granular, multi-lens version of the same principle. The free Head Trash Quiz gives you a starting point – where your emotional weight is concentrated and what’s most likely holding your baseline in place.
Step two: decide to start clearing. Not managing. Not reframing. Clearing. The Clear Your Head Trash book teaches you the method. The Clearance Club gives you ongoing guided clearances, tracking, and community. Or we can work together directly.
Step three: take consistent healing action. Even healing one thing a week creates momentum. Healing one thing a day is the kind of action that transforms a life. The key is consistency – not intensity. Small, regular clearances compound over time in ways that surprise people.
Why measurement matters for healing
Without measurement, healing stays subjective. You rely on how you feel on a given day, which is unreliable. You compare yourself to where you were last month, which is vague. You wonder whether the work is working, which is exhausting.
With measurement, you have something concrete. You can see shifts. You can identify which lenses are heavier than others. You can track progress over time and know – not hope, know – that the baseline is moving.
That’s why the Ladder of Growth exists. It takes the principle behind the map of consciousness – that human experience can be calibrated – and makes it practical, multi-dimensional, and actionable. Not a single number that tells part of the story. A full map that tells the whole one.
Where to take this next
- Free Head Trash Quiz – identifies where your emotional weight is concentrated, so you know what to clear first.
- Clear Your Head Trash (book) – the method in full. Teaches you the clearance process and how to use it on yourself.
- The Clearance Club (£49/mo) – ongoing clearance support with guided audio clearances, tracking, and community.
- The Ascent (£5,777) – three months of structured deep clearing with measurement at every stage. For people ready to make the shift deliberately.
The structured path: The Ascent
The Ascent is the programme built specifically for consciousness elevation. Three months. Structured clearing. Measured at every stage using the Ladder of Growth. This isn’t another workshop that gives you a temporary lift. It’s designed to raise your baseline permanently by clearing the dense material that’s been holding it down.
For people who’ve done enough reading and are ready to do the work.
Find out more about The Ascent →
By Alexia Leachman · Method developed and refined since 2010 across 1,000+ clearance sessions
About the author: Alexia Leachman is the creator of the Head Trash Clearance Method and founder of Ladder of Growth – the consciousness measurement framework that maps where you are on the path of becoming. She’s worked with clients to raise their consciousness 200+ points on the Hawkins scale, and built The Ascent, a three-month deep clearing programme for people moving from 3D to 4D with measurement at every stage. More about Alexia
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