Is Muscle Testing Effective?

Does it really work?

Does muscle testing 'Applied Kinesiology' work?

The question of if whether applied kinesiology or muscle testing is effective or not is a great question. You might be surprised to see our view point on this.

There is evidence indicating it is nothing more than the ideomotor effect. As well there is suggestive evidence that it can obviously be purposefully used as a fraudulent method of analysis.

Update: Recently a good friend of mine and I decided to do some double-blind testing on this form of muscle testing with all the parameters correct as decided upon the protocol of QRA testing. After years of use and what seemed like an effective means of testing it could not pass a double blind test. It passed all the single blind testing. However not double-blind. Which indicates the importance of the gold standard that is double-blind testing.

We do not know of any testing showing the bi-digital o-ring testing is in the same ranks as other muscle testing. In fact as you will see below it is the only form of muscle testing we are aware of that has over 30 scientific abstracts indicating more validity in this form of muscle testing. However it does not make it exempt from the ideomotor effect. Personally we think that there is likely a combination of things going on here.

First off we may have found a form of testing that is indeed more accurate in assessing weakness in the organ & gland function throughout the body. At the same time we do not know the validity in the entire meridian system either? Personally we think there is a lot to Traditional Chinese Medicine and generally accept that there is something to the meridian maps. Which may be one reason why this form of testing is more accurate as it maps out specific acu-points throughout the meridian system. We have tested people with no previous knowledge of their medical history and could ascertain specific areas of trouble within their organs and glands.

Update: The ideomotor effect explains why my lack of knowledge gets validated with their knowledge of their own condition, they can subconsciously trigger themselves to be weaker in areas of known illness and therefore doing the testing it will show much like a lie-detector to some degree. Hence my lack of knowledge is irrelevant so long as they know. The rest seems left to chance.

At the same time how do we know we aren't fooling ourselves? Just because we are finding better results since implementing this form of testing does that mean that it is solely because the testing it self is more accurate or could it be a placebo effect?

We know, we know . . . you are likely looking for Certainty from a health practitioner. Of which we have in spades regarding our manual therapies and nutritional therapies. Yet the truth of the matter is though that we could sit here and act like we didn't recently come across the ideomotor phenomena and leave it be and continue testing without bringing to awareness the other possibilities. We rather provide you information so you can make the decision that is right for you. We recognize we could be fooling ourselves and be generating an effective placebo effect, which is fine, so long as we are honest about our own ignorance on the matter.

We have had some great case studies of clients getting better because of supplementation and the testing seemed to make a difference. Perhaps we are tapping into the bio-electric field to some degree? There is evidence to support both sides. We currently recommend laboratory testing from this website as well. This way you can get your blood tests without alerting your insurance or needing a doctors prescription. We are gearing towards tracking and measuring your blood tests to see if not just our nutritional supplements help but our simple dietary recommendations don't keep your blood tests within a healthier range.

We recognize the limitation of blood and chemistry tests as well. Yet we feel they are very important and no muscle testing or any form of current analysis or diagnosis should be a substitute for proper blood panels.

Our current understanding is simple. This thing we call chi or energy, it follows intention and possibly a map similar to what the ancients mapped out. Short of some skin-galvanic testing machines (electrodermal screening) we do not know of other systems that measure this phenomena? It would seem the future of medicine will enter quantum fields, involving electrical and magnetic measurements. Yet we do not know enough. And the placebo effect is an extremely powerful phenomena.

For the skeptics below are names of people and foundations worthy of your time. We do not necessarily agree with all their view points, however we have found them to bring about excellent information demonstrating how trickery can be used and the nature of how things can work.

James Randi
Derren Brown
Skeptic.com

Derren Brown below has a lot of great videos on YouTube.

The following are abstracts with significant findings about the functions, limitations and effectiveness of Dr. Omura's Bi-Digital O-Ring Testing (Applied Kinesiology).

Scientific Abstracts

"After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth."
Helene Deutsch

boise muscle testing research

Does it really work?