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APPLIED KINESIOLOGY
What is it?
Applied kinesiology is a practice often taught in
chiropractic schools. It is a system of diagnosis and treatment claimed as
being more concerned with health than illness. The alleged goal is to
prevent serious disease and the practitioner of applied kinesiology
embraces the ‘holistic’ approach. According to an applied kinesiology
handbook, the applied kinesiology practitioner claims to evaluate five
bodily systems - nervous; lymphatic; vascular; cerebrospinal and
‘meridian’. It claims ‘that all five
systems are so intricately interwoven, each with the other, that it is
impossible to separate them.’ (1)
The primary diagnostic procedure for the applied
kinesiology practitioner is the muscle test. Please note that modern New
Age muscle testing must be distinguished from the scientific discipline of
kinesiology proper. (2) Applied kinesiology claims it can diagnose the
condition of the body by testing various muscles and assessing their
relative strength or weakness. The most popular muscles tested in applied
kinesiology are the deltoids (on the outside of the shoulders) and the
finger muscles. Whilst the practitioner pushes or pulls, the patient
resists. The practitioner then feels the ‘resistance’, and is then able to
diagnose the condition of the ‘chi’ energy flow. Supposedly, the ‘chi’
energy flow can then be connected or readjusted by passing the hand along
so-called meridian lines, or touching acupuncture pressure points, or
other methods. Thus the muscles are strengthened and so is the related
organ, and subsequently the organ is automatically and magically healed.
(3)
The medical claims for applied kinesiology are
all-embracing - ‘a competent applied
kinesiology practitioner may, indeed, perform vital health services
unmatched in the healing arts’ (4);
‘it can help the physician determine the
major cause of a patient’s health problem’ (5);
and it claims that it can evaluate the structural, chemical/nutritional
and left/right brain organization of the body. (6)
Origin
Applied kinesiology was developed by a chiropractor
George Goodheart in the 1960s. It seems that he took standard muscle
testing techniques and combined them with Chinese concepts of energy flow.
(7) He combines the concept of ‘innate intelligence’ with the Eastern
religious concept of energy, and describes the innate intelligence as a
spiritual intelligence that runs through the body and is connected to the
universal intelligence through the nervous system. (8)
It has been suggested that the elaborate charts which
George Goodheart produced were the result of his psychic powers. (9)
Touch for Health
Goodheart developed applied kinesiology for health
practitioners, but he and a Californian chiropractor, John Thie, developed
a less technical and more popular approach for laymen, and called it:
Touch for Health. Thie’s book consists primarily of diagrams of muscle
tests and treatments and claims that certain muscles have special
relationships with various internal organs. The same claim is made for
‘the innate intelligence that runs
through the body is connected to universal intelligence that runs the
world’, so each person is plugged into the
universal intelligence through the system.(10)
Practitioners of applied kinesiology require no real
training.
Scientific Evaluation
Donald O’Mathuna and Walt Larimore, in their excellent
USA Christian Medical Association resource book, Alternative Medicine -
The Christian Handbook (Zondervan, 2001) state:
‘In our opinion, there is no compelling scientific
evidence that applied kinesiology works for diagnosing or treating health
problems…this is not true science…While applied kinesiology may cause
little harm, it could lead someone to postpone pursuing more conventional
and effective diagnosis and treatment.’ (p.151)
John Ankerberg and John Weldon in their book Can You
Trust Your Doctor? question the basis of applied kinesiology on two
basic errors:
1. that body language is infallible; and
2. that the body is so sensitive that at extremely fine
energy levels it can actually detect and respond to the toxicity and
efficacy of various substances.(11)
The latter relates to the practice of ‘therapy
localization’, when a particular food object is ‘placed on the hand or sometimes the mouth’, and the muscles are used to determine whether the substance is
good or bad for you. This method is also used to allegedly test allergies.
Ankerberg and Weldon (Can You Trust Your Doctor?) believe that the
‘positive response’ which is found by this method is explained largely by
people’s suggestibility. The defense of some applied kinesiology
practitioners when challenged by traditional medical doctors is that even
eminent medical doctors are ‘pretty much guessing’.(12)
Universal Energy
Applied kinesiology is quite blatant in its use of the
concept of the universal energy. In this sense it is
‘a clear example of New Age philosophy in
the form of alternative health care’(14), and it
has much in common with other New Age health alternatives. In applied
kinesiology, the universal life energy is the Chinese chi - the energy
‘which pervades everything in the
universe, unites each individual to the cosmos, and is the doorway to
untapped human potential’.(15) Doctors David and
Sharon Sneed state quite emphatically that a ‘belief in a powerful universal energy in and through all
things is at the heart of many Eastern religions as well as in all the
practices which seek to manipulate this energy.’
(16)
Occultic Potential
It is suggested that the incorporation of mystical and
Eastern concepts can also open the door to the occult. This stems from the
point of view that once the concept of manipulating invisible energies is
accepted, then the outcome of this can be to employ other psychic methods
such as occult pendulums and that muscle testing can be used for occultic
purposes.(17)
Conclusion
The belief in the flow of ‘universal energy’ through
each individual, each plant and each animal, through the earth and the
cosmos, ultimately connecting each living person with the entire universe
is critical to many New Age healing practices and to applied kinesiology
in particular. Since it is thought that this energy can attain God-like
proportions, God is reduced to an impersonal force. Reducing God
‘from Almighty Creator to a mere part of
the great universe is a radical departure from the Christian concept of a
personal God, the loving, caring Creator of all things’. (18) The Doctors Sneed warn that ‘manipulation of universal energy is nothing but esoteric
occultism no matter how nice the practitioner is.’ (19)
John Ankerberg and John Weldon state -
‘applied kinesiology is not a practice that
should be trusted or utilized. Those who claim it is a valuable adjunct to
health concerns are simply wrong.’ (20)
Applied kinesiology has a spiritual dimension which is
not Christian and, as suggested, it could involve a patient in far more
than a path to good health.
‘See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow
and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic
principles of this world rather than on Christ.’ (Colossians 2:8).
Notes
(1) Valentine, Tony and Carole, Applied Kinesiology
Muscle Response in Diagnostic Therapy and Preventative Medicine, p.16
(2) Ankerberg, John and Weldon, John, Can You Trust
Your Doctor?, p.155
(3) Diamond, John, BK - Behavioral Kinesiology: The
New Science for Positive Health Through Muscle Testing - How to Actuate
Your Thymus and Increase Your Life Energy, p.6
(4) Ankerberg and Weldon, p.29
(5) Ibid., p.135
(6) Ibid., p.103
(7) Sneed, Drs. David and Sharon, The Hidden Agenda
- A Critical View of Alternative Medical Therapies, p.151
(8) Ibid., p.152
(9) Ankerberg and Weldon, p.157
(10) Sneed and Sneed, p.152
(11) Ankerberg and Weldon, p.160
(12) Ibid., p.165
(13) Ibid., p.65
(14) Sneed and Sneed, p.153
(15) Reisser, Paul and Reisser Teri; Weldon, John,
New Age Medicine - A Christian Perspective on Holistic Health, p.34
(16) Sneed and Sneed, p.7
(17) Ankerberg and Weldon, p.167
(18) Sneed and Sneed, p.48
(19) Ibid., p.154
(20) Ankerberg and Weldon, p.167
Some References
Ankerberg, John and Weldon, John, Can You Trust Your
Doctor? The Complete Guide to New Age Medicine and Its Threat To Your
Family (Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Brentwood, Tennessee).
Sneed, Dr. David and Sneed, Dr. Sharon, The Hidden
Agenda: A Critical View of Alternative Therapies (Thomas Nelson
Publishers)
Reisser, Paul C., and Reisser, Teri K., Weldon, John,
New Age Medicine - A Christian Perspective on Holistic Health
(Intervarsity Press)
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