Muscle testing—also known as kinesthetic testing, or simply kinesiology—is a form of biofeedback that requires no high-tech equipment.

Although some people have never heard of it, muscle testing is not new. Doctors have been using it since the 1940s for various purposes, including evaluating muscle strength and assessing the extent of an injury. 

Today, physicians and others who specialize in the mechanics of body movement know that muscle testing has many more applications than doctors first understood. Specifically, muscle testing can help in a variety of ways:

• Tell us about the overall health and balance of our bodies.
• Help identify vulnerable areas before sickness and disease take hold.
• Find out what’s at the root of our various emotional and mental struggles.
• Gives us a direct way to ask the body what’s bothering it, and, once we’ve treated the problem, it can tell us whether we’ve made a change.
• Alert us to any imbalances in the body and let us know the moment they’ve been released.

Self-Testing

The various methods of self–muscle testing presented here can be used to work on yourself and get answers from your own body. The easiest self-testing method is called the sway test. Your body will respond by swaying forward when you are holding thoughts of truth, positivity, or congruency. Your body will sway backward when holding thoughts of negativity, falsehood, or incongruency. This works because the human body is an organism like any other. 

All organisms, no matter how primitive, will respond to positive or negative stimuli. For example, plants grow toward sunlight and away from darkness. A fish will move toward clean water and away from a source of pollution.

The Sway Test

To perform the sway test, simply stand in a very relaxed way. It’s a good idea to turn off any music or media, just in case they may interfere with the testing. Drop your arms to your sides and completely relax. The first thing you’ll notice while you’re standing is that there is a little bit of movement going on all the time. Your body may lean forward or backward just a little, or it may lean a little to the side, left or right. These slight movements are simply the oscillation that takes place as your postural muscles continuously work to keep your body standing upright.

Let’s see if you notice yourself swaying backward or forward when you hold some specific thoughts. Let’s start with something that is very negative. Think about the word “war” for a moment. Hold that thought in your mind while you’re standing, relaxed. Think about the families that have been torn apart, all the tragedy, and the destruction of property and lives lost. If you continue to hold these thoughts in your mind, within ten seconds or less, you should notice that your body begins to sway backward, trying to move you away from the sheer negativity of the idea of war.

Now let’s try another thought. Think about the feeling of unconditional love. Imagine that you are a being of unconditional love, that the feeling of love in your heart is so big that your heart cannot contain it, and that feeling of love for all people and all of creation expands out from your core and fills the universe. 

Think about what it would be like to be loved and accepted unconditionally by others in return. As you hold that thought of unconditional love in your mind, within ten seconds or less, you will find your body swaying forward, moving you toward the positivity and the beauty of that potential future.

The sway test can be used for any of the questions that you want to ask the body. It’s a useful method of testing and works for just about anyone. It’s simple and doesn’t usually require much practice. And like most things, the more you do it, the better it works.

There are some other methods of self-testing that are faster than the sway test. These other methods are convenient to use, but they do take some practice.

Hole-in-One Method

To perform the Hole-in-One method, you simply make a ring with your thumb and first finger, as pictured.

Then insert the thumb and the first two fingers of your other hand into the ring. 

When performing a muscle test, you try to open the ring by pulling apart your other thumb and two fingers. For “yes,” or a congruent statement, the ring should stay closed. For “no,” or an incongruent statement, the ring should open because the muscle will weaken a bit temporarily. You can also use other fingers to perform this test if that’s preferable.

Ring-in-Ring Method

For the Ring-in-Ring method, use one hand to make a ring with your thumb and index finger.

Then make another ring with your other hand, making two links in a chain. 

To test, make your statement or ask a question, then try to pull the rings apart. For “yes” answers or in response to statements of truth, congruency, or positivity, the ring (or both rings) should stay closed. For “no” answers, or if you make a statement that is untrue, the rings will weaken and you will be able to pull your hands apart easily.

Elbow Test

To perform the elbow test, bring either elbow to your side, with your forearm parallel to the floor. 

Use two fingers from the other hand and place them on the top of the arm right above the wrist bone. Then simply press down. 

On “yes” answers, the forearm will stay parallel to the floor, and on “no” answers, your arm will weaken and drop.

There are a few details that you should note about this method:

Another variation of the elbow test is to bend your arm at a sharper angle, about 45 degrees.

The amount of resistance force used in this test is simply the amount of muscle strength it takes to keep the forearm parallel to the floor, no more. The amount of resistance used in all of the methods should be minimal. You are simply trying to discern a slight change, not prove your strength.

Pendulum 

Pendulums can be incredibly useful tools, especially for those who doubt their muscle-testing abilities. Pendulums and other dowsing devices simply amplify the muscular and nervous-system changes taking place in the most sensitive detecting instrument in existence—the human body.

Hold the string or chain with your fingers pointing down. Any small weight or pendant on a chain could be used as a pendulum, but I suggest you purchase an actual pendulum if you want to learn this skill. Intention is key when one is using a pendulum. It’s important to note that the pendulum itself is not the source of information but rather a tool that shows the response in the body when you ask a question.

Step 1: Make sure you’re comfortable and relaxed.

Step 2: Hold the chain so that both chain and pendant are free of interference. Grasp the chain or string between your thumb and forefinger. The ideal length of the chain hanging between your fingertips and the pendulum is usually about the width of your palm.

Step 3: Brace your forearm on something solid like a chair, table, or your thigh, but do not brace your hand. It will be impossible to stay perfectly still, and this is fine.

Step 4: Swing the pendulum back and forth gently on a diagonal in front of your body to create a bit of momentum. This is your neutral, neither yes nor no.

Step 5: For most people, “yes” is usually either a circular clockwise motion or a forward-to-back motion of the pendulum, synonymous with a head nod. “No” is usually either a counterclockwise or side-to-side motion, synonymous with a head-shaking no. 

Step 6: While holding the diagonally moving pendulum, which is neutral, focus and say “yes.” Observe the change of movement of the pendulum, which should take place within a few seconds. This is your yes answer. Return to neutral and try this several times until your yes answer is clear. 

Step 7: Come back to neutral, returning to a gentle diagonal swinging motion.

Step 8: A no answer should be the opposite of what your yes answer looks like. So, if your yes was a clockwise motion, your no will be counterclockwise. Say “no” and see what the movement looks like, expecting it to be the opposite of your yes answer. Return to neutral after you get your answer and repeat several times until the answer is clear each time. 

Step 9: Now try using different true statements and false statements to test your “yes” and “no” responses. Once you have clear and consistent answers, you can begin to use your pendulum to get answers from the subconscious mind.

Resistance Versus Pressure

Your brain controls how strong or weak a muscle is or how hard it resists. Experiment with any of the testing methods by using more or less resistance. One of the common mistakes that most people make, especially in self-testing, is to use too much force and resistance.

Keep the pressure light and resist only as much as you absolutely need to. Remember that the harder you resist, the harder you’re going to have to press down to overcome that resistance, so you’re really working against yourself. You’ll also probably experience discomfort sooner or later if you are using too much strength. 

I find that using about 1 percent or less of the strength available is all that is needed to pick up the subtle changes that happen in muscle strength when you are asking questions. The more you practice using very light resistance, the more you will find that muscle testing is not a strength contest. 

Directing Focus

A common mistake that people make when learning self–muscle testing is focusing on their fingers. Anyone who can type forty words per minute or more knows very well that they shouldn’t think too much about what their fingers are doing, or it will slow them down and they’ll make more mistakes.

Self–muscle testing also works best if you don’t focus on your fingers when you are attempting to get an answer. Instead, focus on the question or on the person you are testing, and allow the muscle test to take place slightly disconnected from your focus, just like a typist looking at a manuscript and allowing his or her fingers to do what they already know how to do.

Regular Practice

Not all methods are for everyone. Find one or two methods you like and practice them until you are proficient. I recommend that most people practice using their favorite method about one hundred times per day for about two weeks or so to get the hang of self-testing. That’s simply saying “yes” and “no” one hundred times and testing the muscle response every day for two weeks. That should only be a few minutes of practice per day and is well worth the effort.

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Veteran holistic physician, Bradley Nelson, DC, is one of the world’s foremost experts on natural methods of achieving wellness. He is also the CEO of Discover Healing, author of The Emotion Code, and creator of The Body Code system. For more information and a free Emotion Code Starter Kit, visit EmotionCodeGift.com.

Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from The Body Code: Unlocking Your Body’s Ability to Heal Itself by Bradley Nelson, DC. Copyright ©2023 by the author and reprinted with permission of St. Martin’s Essentials. Learn more at www.DiscoverHealing.com