Muscle Testing
Basics

Muscle testing is simple to learn. It involves testing the arm, or another body part, for strength or weakness. This testing technique comes from the field of Kinesiology.

Kinesiology studies muscles and their movements, mostly in relation to sports. However, chiropractors have evolved Kinesiology into other branches: Applied, Clinical, and Behavioral Kinesiology. Click here for a brief history of Kinesiology. 

I use muscle testing primarily for testing energetic reactions to substances; to test for polarity reversal, which is important in doing EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques); to help clients find subconscious feelings and beliefs associated with past traumas; and in a big way, to help "keep me out of the way" when doing EFT and muscle testing with clients. Others use it differently.

While muscle response testing is not needed for doing EFT, Gary Craig used it in his EFT Training DVD's. With it he confirmed information he intuitively picked up. He also used it to determine which points needed tapping, making the short-cut EFT version even shorter. In addition, he uses it to check for polarity reversal.

To learn how to do muscle testing on someone, get a partner. Stand facing one another. Your partner raises their arm, straight out, directly in front of them or to the side at shoulder height. The arm should be straight. Don't use arms/shoulders that are or has been injured in any way. The arm and shoulder used to test needs to be able to to resist a downward force.

The person doing the testing places one hand, or two fingers, above the wrist of the outstretched arm. The other hand of the tester can rest on the shoulder of the subject, or not. Before you push down on the arm make sure your partner is ready to resist. You need to give them time to tighten their arm to resist before you push down.

Say "resist" and push down on their arm with your hand or two fingers.Try this a couple of times before testing anything. This will help you get a feel for their relative arm strength.

Muscle testing it is not a competition. Do not overpower the person you are testing or push down when they are not ready. Since different people vary in arm strength, you will need to gauge the relative amount of force to use when pushing down each time you test someone new. You want to calibrate or judge the individual's relative arm strength so you can easily tell the difference between a strong or weak response.

Arm Muscle Testing

If your partner's arm is extremely strong, have them hold it down at an angle, so it is not horizontal. This will give you more leverage.

To do muscle testing on a child or someone with a very weak arm, use only one finger and lower yourself to their level.

I prefer to use self muscle testing on myself as a surrogate in these cases or when there is a lot of testing to do, so their arm doesn't get tired.

Also remember when pushing down, to only exert enough force to overcome the arm's resistance. Stop pushing when you feel the arm buckle. Very little force will be needed when your partner tests "weak" on something.

Now you are ready to test different items. Select something you want to test and have your partner hold it one hand and raise the other for testing. Have them hold the item near their chest, if possible. If the item is too big or not available, they can focus on, seeing it in their their mind.

Once your partner is holding or focusing on the item, say "resist", and push down on their arm. If the arm stays strong they have a "positive" response. If the arm goes "weak", then it is a "negative" response.

Anyone can do muscle testing this way. Try testing a picture, an emotion, a place, a food, a color, a movie, a song or even a thought. A weak response to something means that the body is reacting negatively to the stimulus being tested. Rejection or non-acceptance of the stimulus is present.

Muscle response testing can also find areas of energy weakness in the body. By you touching points on their body that are associated with different organs or energy meridians, and simultaneously muscle testing them with their other arm, you can find areas of energy weakness in their body or acupuncture meridians,

These are the beginner basics of muscle testing. Play with the technique. For more fun, use muscle testing as an indicator to get "yes" and "no" answers to specific questions. However, using muscle testing this way gets more difficult because the accuracy of the response depends on how specific the question is.

You need to eliminate ambiguity and be clear of the meaning intended when the question is asked. For "yes" or "no" questions, the strong and weak response is a binary form of communication, similar to how computers run with binary, 01001 code.

The information being accessed through muscle testing is what is stored in the programs or belief systems of our subconscious mind. It is accessing our thinking and what each individual sees as true for them, and the rules we live. We can consciously switch the meaning of a weak or strong signal by being clear in our mind and with the person we are working with what the meaning is for the weak and the strong body signal.

I do not assign significance to which arm is used, right or left. I have heard that some techniques do that. Using just one arm, or one muscle can get tiring after repetitive muscle testing, so feel free to switch sides. Don't over use the same muscle.

Accuracy

To understand the issues around accuracy, lets look at how our body responds to things energetically first.

Einstein and Quantum Physics confirm that everything is energy. Each item and each one of us has a unique energy vibration signature. Maybe you think your body recognizes things only through your senses? Well, try testing a few items small enough to be put in a glass jar.

Muscle test them on someone with their eyes closed. Then test them with their eyes open. Or test your partner on pictures before and after you put them in envelopes after they have been mix them up so it is not know which picture is where. Just make sure the items are held close to the chest.

The personal responses will be the same for each item tested whether the eyes are open or closed. This is because our body's energy is responding energetically to the energy signature, or vibration, of each item tested.

The "weak" or "strong" muscle testing response reflects energetic information we hold about, or that is associated to, the item tested. For some items, our responses will be very unique. For example, we would expect that since the nutritional value of organic peanuts is recognized widely, everyone tested for them would test strong. While the nutritional value is logically recognized, testing the peanuts may still produce a "weak" response from someone with a peanut allergy.

This is because each item's energy signature gets run through our database of past learning, or "writing on our walls", as Gary Craig calls it. It is similar to running fingerprints found on a crime scene through a criminal database for matching. If incriminating information is found associated to the item we are testing, perhaps an unpleasant experience or emotion that is unresolved, our energy system will be disrupted and the body gives us a weak indicator muscle response.

On the other hand, some items may actually strengthen our energy system and help correct present energy imbalances. In this case, the vibration or energy signature of the item will emphasize and strengthen an existing weak energy vibration and help restore energy balance in our body. You can think of the item as vibrating like a tuning fork correcting the frequency of the internal organ, emotion, or thought that went off balance. Bach Flower Remedies work under this principle of energy vibration.

To feel the subtle energy that I am describing, try this. Rub the palm of your hands together vigorously for about 10 seconds. Stop and separate your palms, moving them away from each other about 1/2 meter (2 feet).

Now very slowly bring the palms of your hands back together. Keep your fingers relaxed. Pay attention to what you are sensing in the area between the closing palms.

There is a distance a few inches before the palms touch, where you can feel a resistance to moving them closer. You are feeling your energy field. You may need to move away from electrical equipment to get better results (at least 2 m/yrds).

Now try this. Stand near something you can hold on to just in case you lose your balance, and close your eyes. Get a sense of how steady and balanced your body is.

Now open your eyes and find something that you can hold in your hand. Close your eyes again while you hold the item next to your chest and see what happens to the steadiness and balance of your body.

Try it with different items, or just imagine your favorite food, the last time your were angry, or the last time you were enjoying yourself.

What happened to your balance? Try doing this exercise away from your computer and then next to your computer. Any difference?

Retest yourself with the same items to double check your response. Most people will experience some type of pull or push that moves the body off balance. The push or pull is the equivalent of a "weak" or "strong" arm response. Here you can really feel the attraction or repulsion to the item you are holding or thinking of.

At the smallest level we are energy, reacting and responding energetically. Information comes in to us for processing and is then released. Very similar to our breathing.

Everything has an energetic effect on us and we have an energetic effect on everything. When we do muscle testing with a partner, it can be like connecting two electrical circuits to each other. You are now one electrical circuit together. This is important to recognize to ensure accuracy in the results.

When your partner's arm gives a weak response, you must be sure it is NOT your response. Another way to say it is: once you touch someone, the sense of physical separation between bodies may not be clear to the mind. The mind often incorporates other objects into it's physical sense of self, like a hat or baseball bat, for example. If you or the subject's mind perceive the two bodies as one, it will not be clear who has the energy block.

You can have the person being tested hold their head straight and look down or you can test the arm out to the side, to help with this. But ultimately, the only way to ensure accuracy is to make sure the person doing the testing is "strong" first on whatever they are testing before performing the test on the subject.

If you know how to self muscle test, test the item on yourself first to make sure you are "strong". This way, if your partner gets a "weak" response, you will know it's accurate. If you are "weak" on the item, you will need to clear yourself of this response before you can test this item with accuracy on others. This can be done with EFT tapping or the Ramos Clearing Technique.

Note: The more EFT tapping a person has done to clear themselves of their own issues/energetic reactions, the better they can serve as a "clear channel" for testing others and the more reliable the muscle testing results.

Go to History of Kinesiology

Go to Acupuncture Meridians

Go to Surrogate EFT

Go to EFT Learning