INFO
AT A GLANCE
Names.
Applied
Kinesiology (AK), Touch For Health (TH), Behavioral Kinesiology (BK)
Description. Muscle
testing is often a combination of chiropractic and Chinese
acupuncture theory plus "muscle-testing" practices. It
involves physical diagnosis, e.g., testing the supposed
"strength" or "weakness" of muscles which are
believed to be related to organ systems. And it may employ treatment
or healing by acupressure, meridian tracing, "cosmic
energies," or other dubious methods.
Founder. George
Goodheart (AK), John Thie (TH), John Diamond (BK).
How does it claim to work?
Muscle testing claims that disease can be evaluated, at least in
part, through specific patterns of muscle weakness. It also claims
to manipulate alleged body energies to produce and maintain healing.
By supposedly "unblocking" congested energy along meridian
pathways, or by infusing energy into deficient organs or bodily
areas, practitioners believe that physical health can be maintained.
Scientific evaluation.
Discredited.
Examples of occult potential. Manipulating
invisible energies can easily become an occult practice, e.g., a
form of psychic healing. In addition, many muscle testers employ
pendulums, dowsing instruments, and other radionics devices.
Major problems. Muscle
testing rejects the known facts of human anatomy by accepting
undemonstrated connections between muscles and specific organs and
diseases; it also claims to regulate bodily energies whose existence
has never been proven.
Biblical/Christian evaluation.
Muscle testing is often based, in part, upon Taoist philosophy or
other Eastern metaphysics, is scientifically discredited and
potentially occult. It should be avoided on this basis.
Potential dangers. The
attendant hazards of misdiagnosis and occult influences.
Note: This material
is general and introductory. Modern "New Age" muscle
testing methods must be distinguished from the scientific discipline
of kinesiology proper. Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary and the Encyclopaedia Britannica both define
formal kinesiology as "[the] study of the principles of
mechanics and anatomy in relation to human movement." Webster’s
New Twentieth Century Dictionary defines it as "the science
or study of human muscular movements, especially as applied in
physical education." While New Age muscle testing may or may
not employ some of the methods of formal kinesiology, scientific
kinesiology never employs the methods of New Age muscle testing. The
two disciplines are based on an entirely different approach to
physiology and health.
