In 2004, the two of us – Ann Betz and Ursula Pottinga, professional coaches, leadership trainers, and dear friends – stumbled across a basic theory of human effectiveness and existence: the idea that we are always operating out of two different energy states. Some call these Love and Fear, High Vibration and Low Vibration, Positive and Negative — we quickly learned the name didn’t really matter. But what did matter, and was key to the whole discovery, was that our results in life are directly correlated with the state of effectiveness from which they were created. Eureka! The end does not justify the means, according to universal law. The end IS the means.

We found some curious and courageous friends and started working with this theory, which we eventually named BEabove. In Ann’s words, we soon saw that the idea was “deceptively simple and endlessly complex.” The two energies were accurate, but people wanted more. How did different “below the line” or “above the line” energies compare and relate to each other? We knew they weren’t all the same, but how the heck were we supposed to figure out what the real differences were?

Luckily, in the fall of 2004 we came across the brilliant Dr. David Hawkins and his amazing book Power vs. Force. In it, he describes a model of human consciousness with 17 different vibrational fields ranging from Shame to Peace and exponentially expanding energy. This is what we had been waiting for. For the next six years we explored this model as deeply as we possibly could. We expanded on Dr. Hawkins’ work by creating experiential processes and gathering stories and data from around the world. We worked in organizations, with individuals, on retreats, even with women’s groups in remote areas of Nepal and Costa Rica. We taught this model to coaches and leaders, to parents and educators, to teens and to anyone else who would listen. And we worked and worked on ourselves, using our own lives and experiences as laboratories to understand what it is to be human. Everyone we encountered along the path, including ourselves, was changed. Many were transformed. All said it helped them make sense of a seemingly chaotic world.

In the next few years, major new developments focused our work. First, we were encouraged to make this concept simpler and easier to remember — excellent advice – and thus, our Seven Levels of Effectiveness was born. This development made a complex theory much easier to understand, apply and work within. Second, we began a serious study of applied neuroscience and started to weave in fascinating connections to the brain, which further enriched the theory.

Today, we work throughout the world teaching this model experientially, discovering more layers and nuances as we go. Our work is the gift and the privilege of our lives, and we would love to share it with you.

Warmly,

Ann and Ursula