Applied kinesiology: Encyclopedia II - Applied kinesiology - Basic applied kinesiology

Applied kinesiology - Basic applied kinesiology

AK tests muscles as a diagnostic method. Commonly, AK patients lie down and raise their dominant arm. Next, the AK practitioner instructs the patient to resist as the tester exerts downward force on the subject's arm. The tester subjectively evaluates the force exerted by the subject to determine the strength of the muscle. This is supposed to give a baseline for further testing.

For example, the tester might repeat the test with a particular substance under the subject's tongue; if the muscle tests weaker than the first test, that substance is determined to be harmful. The tester may also have the subject touch a particular body part with the opposite hand. For example, to "localize" testing to the heart, the subject would place a hand over the heart. A strong arm muscle test suggests a healthy heart, while a weak test suggests a problem.

Instead of sublingual testing, some practitioners have the subject simply hold a substance or place the substance near a particular organ. Some AK practitioners go as far as to hold a sealed container of the substance to be tested on the forehead, chest, etc. and then perform the strength test. Another commonly used technique in AK is to have the subject wear colored glasses (blue, green, red, etc.) and perform the strength testing while wearing each color of glasses. The color that causes the greatest (or least) perceived strength gains are believed to reveal information about the subject's condition.

Because nearly all AK tests are subjective, many regard the practice with skepticism. The AK practitioner performing the test applies pressure opposite the patient, but this practitioner is also the one who decides whether one push is stronger than another. Without an objective method of measuring strength, applied kinesiology will likely remain in the realm of pseudoscience.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Basic applied kinesiology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki