I learned muscle testing twenty-eight years ago and consider it a life skill that everyone should have. It’s easiest taught face-to-face, but I’m going to do my best to share some basics here.

Muscle testing is a means of gaining insight into unconscious information that might otherwise elude me.  Once I know what’s there, I can figure out what to do about it (or not). Muscle testing helped me discover that my six-year-old’s determination to “get it right” was at the root of my stressed-out responses during doctor visits last fall.

What’s behind muscle testing?

Muscle testing is based on principles of energy medicine. You’ve experienced energy medicine if you’ve ever had acupuncture, learned about chakras in a yoga class, or gone to a chiropractor who pressed down on your outstretched arm to check if the adjustment was complete.

The first thing to know about muscle testing is that it isn’t about how strong you are. You have a physical body and an invisible energy field. What is being measured is the strength or disruption of the energy field. The muscle you are testing is simply the physical measuring device that makes the invisible visible.

In the following demonstration, a practitioner muscle tests a woman to determine what foods are best for her. The theory is that foods which are good for a person will strengthen the energy field, and foods that are not health-promoting will cause the field to weaken. Muscle testing is helpful when you’re making choices about what to eat, and can also be used for supplements.

In the video, the demonstrator also shows self-testing, which is really useful because you can do it almost anywhere. For example, suppose you’re in a store to buy some omega-3 oil. There are several brands lined up. How do you know which to choose?

You could read the list of ingredients, note the name of brands you think might be of interest, and go home to do some research. You could calculate the price per capsule or mg and choose the least expensive. Or you could ask your body what it needs and use muscle response testing to find out.

In the video, the test subject holds each item at her solar plexus. This isn’t practical when self-testing in a store, and really isn’t necessary. We know from quantum physics that everything is energy and we are immersed in a sea of it. You can connect through that sea to anything you want to test by getting centred and putting your attention on it.

When testing supplements, look at them one at a time and think: This is optimum for me at this time. Go down the row and test each brand. If more than one tests strong, do a final sort by focusing on each of those: Of these possibilities, this is the best choice today. Move along until you find the one that tests strong. Muscle testing is an efficient way to make the decision because it tells you which one is best for you.

Getting Clear Responses

How do you know you’re getting clear responses? In the video, the tester reversed the energy by running her hand down the subject’s energy field. This weakened the energy, which was shown by the weak response of her arm. Drawing her hand up the field strengthened it, resulting in the strong response we observed.

Sometimes we get unclear answers because there’s an imbalance in our system. A drink of water often helps. You can also try breathing and centring. Sometimes the imbalance corrects when you tap firmly on the thymus gland or K27 energy meridian as shown in the video.

In the next video, the demonstrator tests for clear answers by saying her name (which is a true statement and should test strong) and a different name (which is a false statement and will give a weak response). Test statements help you establish the difference between weak and strong responses before you start testing unknowns. Here are some more self-testing methods to play with.

The hand position I use is slightly different from any of those shown so far. I form a ring with two fingers of one hand, and use two straight fingers from the other to put pressure on the ring. These photos show how it looks when the ring stays strong and when it goes weak.

Testing with names is one way to check if you are getting clear responses. Muscle-testing expert Dr. Anne Jensen recommends using two additional statements.

• My name is_______________
• I live in __________________
• Today is _________________

In each case, fill in the blank with what you know to be correct information, then compare it to the response when you insert incorrect information. The idea is to use something unambiguous. You can go back to these test statements at any time during muscle testing if you seem to be getting muddled answers. They provide a baseline for you.

Dr. Jensen is a chiropractor who did PhD research at Oxford to determine if muscle response testing is effective. She found that it is, and now teaches people how to use muscle response testing in several ways, including to explore symptoms, emotions, and behaviours. The protocol uses a straight-forward flow chart that everyone can learn to use.

Her 3-hour workshop is now offered online at Course Rebel. Click the preview button for a free half-hour preview.

Test without moving a muscle

My favourite testing method is inner checking. I learned it from necessity. After three years of muscle testing, I suddenly could not get a clear answer no matter what I did. So I had to figure out another way.

What I use is best described as a felt sense. I put my attention on what I want to test, whether it’s an object or an idea. If it feels as if something drops through my crown and lands on the apex of my heart, that is true/strong. If the response is false/weak, it feels as if a ball of energy lands on the top of my heart and rolls off to the left.

It’s an individual thing, and I don’t know anyone else who tests exactly like that. But this kind of checking is an individual means of self-exploration, and the point is to find what helps you make an inner connection.

I know people who sit quietly, turn their attention inward, and connect with what they are exploring. This seems to work well for people who are accustomed to meditating. Already having a sense of their inner world, they find it more reliable and less distracting to make an inner connection rather than trying to read a physical response. There’s no reason you can’t experiment to see if this would work for you.

Another method, used in Access Consciousness, involves feeling an inner sense of light or heavy. What is true for you feels light; what is not true is heavy. It’s an adventure in self-awareness to find what works for you. Enjoy it!

Muscle response testing is about connecting with ourselves. It’s an art as well as a technique. More next week. And please, let me know if today’s post brought up any questions.