Using Intuition Methods to Help Treatment
From time to time I have used various Intuition Methods to help identify which supplements or treatments might be good for me, or to find new treatment directions entirely. I now use this as a helpful way to provide insights, and sometimes to guide, but not to replace my rational and logical approach to problems. The primary method I will describe here is a form of muscle-testing or kinesiology. This intuition method has been helpful in learning to manage my illness, although there are some limitations.
My Discovery of Intuition Methods
Learning the best role of intuition methods was an interesting experience. When I first started using this and other related methods, I got quite excited about the ease of getting 'answers' to difficult questions. And I did find help in some new directions, particularly working through the emotional side of this disease, resolving some past problems and developing better coping strategies for dealing with the stress of the illness. I started feeling that I might be able to use intuition alone to get better. But then I had a negative experience where I followed advice from an intuition method without thinking things through enough rationally, and stopped several treatments all at one time. Basically, rather than evaluating carefully what 'made sense' I followed the intuition blindly. The result was a complete reversal of my progress and an immediate decline, I became bedridden again in one week! I learned a powerful lesson from this. Although I had benefitted significantly from intuitive methods, in this case I should have spent more time reasoning through what I learned and thought carefully about whether it was a good idea to stop so many useful treatments all at once, and start an untested treatment without carefully thinking things through. After some introspection I made a major shift in my use of intuitive methods, and put the rational mind back in control. I adjusted my perspective about the role of these intuitive methods and now I am more comfortable with their value. I realize now that I should have tested the new ideas more carefuly. My final conclusion from this experience was that intuitive methods are like advisors or consultants from an unknown source. Sort of like getting free advice over the Internet :). Intuitive methods help us better perceive our own deepest feelings, impressions, or intuitions, and maybe are indeed reflective of a higher wisdom connected with our inner being. But I think we should be cautious about taking literally the suggestions from these methods. Intuitive inputs can be helpful in pointing out things we might not have considered, and sometimes they can help us get through tough times. But we may not want to put these methods 'in charge' of key decisions.
I realize now that I came to over-rely on intuition out of frustration with this disease. After using a rational approach for many years with little success I tried to switch my emphasis on finding solutions to intuitive methods, and probably expected too much from intuitive methods. Now I realize that we should only use intuition as an input to our reasoning process in decision-making. I like to think that the mix of reason to intuition should be about 10:1. We need intuition, but it should not control our destiny alone. Therefore, I now restrict intuition to a 10% role, meaning it contributes 10% to the decision-making process. I still need to base 90% of my decision on logic, reason, and then use hard work to make things work, to get well. Nature gave us both reason and intuition, and I believe we need both. Ignoring either intuition or reason altogether is foolish, because human reason often needs the guidance of intuition (or conscience), and human intuition needs the logic of reason in order to accomplish good things. Ok, enough philosophy, on to the methods!
The Preliminary Stuff
There are many books and websites devoted to muscle testing. What I present here is a synthesis, based on a year-long search and learning experience. These methods work well for me and for others. I will describe them in simplistic terms because I think they are simple. Someday when I have some time I may add some pictures to this, but really, the instructions should be easy to follow, anyway I hope so.
One warning. While I do believe in the value of systematic intuition methods, I must warn that the results can be somewhat subjective. In research conducted with muscle testing, the general conclusion is that a large number of tests by a broad group of people can produce completely consistent information on simple questions of value (see Power Vs. Force). However, on an individual basis, it is not completely reliable. Some people may be better suited than others to succeed with Intuition Methods, one must be able to be completely objective and let the intuition speak without hinderance. And there are some unknowns about the source of the answers. However, with those caveats, I can say that it has been helpful to me.
Definition of Muscle-testing
Here are a few of my own thoughts, from my experience with the intuition method of muscle testing. I view muscle testing as a method of enhancing your intuition about the truth of statements related to your health. Muscle testing is based on the idea that our human energy patterns know the truth of all things related to our life, particularly regarding health. I like to think of it as a similar phenomenon to that measured by a polygraph, or lie detector test. A polygraph measures physiological changes such as blood pressure, EEG, or heart rates after a truth statement or a question is posed. Research has shown that these semi-autonomic responses often change when a person makes a false statement. I believe that the negative response of a person's energy polarity may be one of the causes of the changes measured by a polygraph. Like a polygraph, muscle testing involves the use of a physical response to determine the truth of a question. And like a polygraph, some sort of invisible energy is likely involved. So really, this is not as much of a fringe science as might seem, at least in this interpretation. Muscle testing may simply be a form of polygraph-like measure of truth that relies on kinesthetic response...
Operators of polygraph equipment learn how to read each person's responses, asking simple questions at first and learning how their body will react. With muscle testing a similar principle is involved. You must first ask a few questions, and then determine whether the testing will work for you. Generally you should first ask questions that reflect simple truths, such as "will muscle testing work for this question?" Or, "Is the sky blue today?" Then progress to questions like "Is this supplement good for me to take right now?" Or, "how much of this should I take, one tablet?" Or even "do I have a Candida problem today?" You can muscle test a wide range of questions, people have even studied history, learned about the relative importance of various human attributes, and even studied the level of maturity of religions through muscle testing. Most people who have studied muscle testing agree that you can not get accurate results if you ask about the future (sorry, no accurate data will be given on tomorrow's stock market prices, this has been tried already...).
Muscle testing is believed by many to be a result of communication from a higher intelligence present within the body energy. Thus, muscle testing can be viewed through the lens of belief in a higher intelligence in the universe that communicates with us through our own bodies. But even if you do not believe that, muscle testing still appears to work! Even skeptics can use muscle testing. Research shows that the level of belief in the test is not a factor in obtaining accurate results. I usually meditate silently for a few seconds before muscle testing and try to feel at peace, just to be sure that the proper feelings are involved and I will learn the truth. You should try to develop an unbiased feeling toward the question before muscle testing, as strong feelings towards the question could interfere with the body's response. If you doubt the answer, test again, or try again at a later time when you are in a different mood. Or ask someone you trust to test the question for you.
My 5 Favorite Forms of Muscle Testing
There are many forms of muscle testing. Some people succeed with one form and not another form, and some people can not succeed at all. The common forms I have tried are arm, finger rings, foot swinging, and leaning. I have also invented one form of my own, which I call the heart test. There are other forms as well. Here is a brief description of five forms I have tried. A few of these work better for me than others, but each person is unique, so you may want to try them all and determine what will work best for you:
Arm testing takes two people usually, although some people can succeed alone. For an arm test, you hold the arm out to the side, steady, and another person makes the 'truth statement' and tries to lower the arm by pressing a few fingers lightly on it. The person being tested should be the person with the health problem if possible, although you can ask any question about anything. For example, in the book 'Power vs. Force' this type of testing was used determine the level of maturity of various world religions, and the relative importance of a list of human characteristics. This method works for me sometimes, but I find it difficult because I have a hard time discerning how much force I am using. Maybe some people are more coordinated in this area. This is the original form of muscle testing and much is written on this (books).
Finger rings are probably the simplest and quickest. You make a ring with thumb and forefinger of one hand, and then make the truth statement and try to separate the thumb and forefinger with the other hand. Separating the thumb and forefinger can be done either by placing the thumb and forefinger of the other hand inside the finger ring and trying to spread them apart, or simply by placing one finger from the other hand inside the ring and trying to push or pull that finger out of the finger ring. The ring will be quite solid with truth, and hard to open. The ring will be easier to separate after making a false statement. One variation on this is to make two interlocking finger rings and try to pull them apart, again hard to separate is true, easy to separate is false. This works sometimes for me, but I am often not certain, maybe I am just not coordinated enough for this method, hard to say.
Foot swinging works well for young children, it also takes two people. You have them set with feet dangling about 10 inches apart, and then you hold their feet in your hands. You extend both thumbs and make the truth statement then swing the feet together gently. If true, your thumbs will touch easily, if false, you will have difficulty touching thumbs on the first swing. This is a complex form and I have heard a good explanation of how it works based on energy polarity. This method does not work well for me because I can not hold my thumbs out very long, but some people use it almost exclusively.
Leaning works by holding a supplement, or a paper with a word or question over your heart, then relaxing and making the truth statement about the object (for example: 'this supplement is good for me now'). The relaxing part is very important, that allows your body to talk to you. I take a few seconds and make sure the shoulders drop and are relaxed. Before making the truth statement, think clearly about the possible responses, and then identify where you will lean if the answer is true or false. For example, imagine that you will lean forward for a true answer, and lean to the left for a false answer. Then make the statement and relax. If you find yourself leaning forward, your body is saying yes and if it leans to the left, your body is saying no. No movement means no preference, and movement to any other area means that you have not asked the right question, or the answer is neither yes nor no. You may ask additional questions to know more. Also, you may define more possible responses any way you like. For example, when testing how much of a supplement to take, you might in your mind view the lean as if you were standing on a clock, and each hour of the clock could be the number of tablets, or servings to take. Leaning is a versatile test; you can use this in a store, office, etc., to see if something is right. This is also a very useful test because of the larger number of possible answers and flexibility.
Heart testing is my favorite form and it is powerful. I discovered this quite by accident and it is very useful. I always use this form for the hardest and most important questions. I like to use the knuckles of one hand to keep track of my options while using heart testing. This allows you to focus more easily on the different options or choices that face you, by using each knuckle to represent a different choice. You then touch each knuckle with the forefinger of the other hand, reviewing in your mind a different option or choice for each knuckle. For some reason, this closing of the circuit of the right and left hands often enhances the power of this test, and placing different options on the knuckles makes it more concrete to the mind/body, and enhances the separation of the sensations of the answer in the heart chakra area (just to the left of the physical heart, in the chest). The answer takes the form of positive (warm, comfortable) or negative (cold, uncomfortable) feelings in the chakra region. I usually take a few seconds and take stock of my feelings and sensations in the heart charka after each knuckle is touched, there is often something to learn even from the wrong answers. This method has helped me a lot.
Final Thought
With ANY of these tests, remember that muscle testing is only a method to help you access and better understand your own intuition. And as with all intuition, it is important to run the results through the filter of reason, and make sure the results makes sense before acting on them. As I discussed above, one good way to look at the muscle testing, or any intuitive method, is as an advisor or consultant. We are still the main character in our life story and I believe we are intended by nature to make our own decisions. I don't believe nature provided intuition as a replacement for logic and reason, but rather as a natural 'force' that should work together with reason and contribute to our personal and social progress.
Good luck!
My Discovery of Intuition Methods
Learning the best role of intuition methods was an interesting experience. When I first started using this and other related methods, I got quite excited about the ease of getting 'answers' to difficult questions. And I did find help in some new directions, particularly working through the emotional side of this disease, resolving some past problems and developing better coping strategies for dealing with the stress of the illness. I started feeling that I might be able to use intuition alone to get better. But then I had a negative experience where I followed advice from an intuition method without thinking things through enough rationally, and stopped several treatments all at one time. Basically, rather than evaluating carefully what 'made sense' I followed the intuition blindly. The result was a complete reversal of my progress and an immediate decline, I became bedridden again in one week! I learned a powerful lesson from this. Although I had benefitted significantly from intuitive methods, in this case I should have spent more time reasoning through what I learned and thought carefully about whether it was a good idea to stop so many useful treatments all at once, and start an untested treatment without carefully thinking things through. After some introspection I made a major shift in my use of intuitive methods, and put the rational mind back in control. I adjusted my perspective about the role of these intuitive methods and now I am more comfortable with their value. I realize now that I should have tested the new ideas more carefuly. My final conclusion from this experience was that intuitive methods are like advisors or consultants from an unknown source. Sort of like getting free advice over the Internet :). Intuitive methods help us better perceive our own deepest feelings, impressions, or intuitions, and maybe are indeed reflective of a higher wisdom connected with our inner being. But I think we should be cautious about taking literally the suggestions from these methods. Intuitive inputs can be helpful in pointing out things we might not have considered, and sometimes they can help us get through tough times. But we may not want to put these methods 'in charge' of key decisions.
I realize now that I came to over-rely on intuition out of frustration with this disease. After using a rational approach for many years with little success I tried to switch my emphasis on finding solutions to intuitive methods, and probably expected too much from intuitive methods. Now I realize that we should only use intuition as an input to our reasoning process in decision-making. I like to think that the mix of reason to intuition should be about 10:1. We need intuition, but it should not control our destiny alone. Therefore, I now restrict intuition to a 10% role, meaning it contributes 10% to the decision-making process. I still need to base 90% of my decision on logic, reason, and then use hard work to make things work, to get well. Nature gave us both reason and intuition, and I believe we need both. Ignoring either intuition or reason altogether is foolish, because human reason often needs the guidance of intuition (or conscience), and human intuition needs the logic of reason in order to accomplish good things. Ok, enough philosophy, on to the methods!
The Preliminary Stuff
There are many books and websites devoted to muscle testing. What I present here is a synthesis, based on a year-long search and learning experience. These methods work well for me and for others. I will describe them in simplistic terms because I think they are simple. Someday when I have some time I may add some pictures to this, but really, the instructions should be easy to follow, anyway I hope so.
One warning. While I do believe in the value of systematic intuition methods, I must warn that the results can be somewhat subjective. In research conducted with muscle testing, the general conclusion is that a large number of tests by a broad group of people can produce completely consistent information on simple questions of value (see Power Vs. Force). However, on an individual basis, it is not completely reliable. Some people may be better suited than others to succeed with Intuition Methods, one must be able to be completely objective and let the intuition speak without hinderance. And there are some unknowns about the source of the answers. However, with those caveats, I can say that it has been helpful to me.
Definition of Muscle-testing
Here are a few of my own thoughts, from my experience with the intuition method of muscle testing. I view muscle testing as a method of enhancing your intuition about the truth of statements related to your health. Muscle testing is based on the idea that our human energy patterns know the truth of all things related to our life, particularly regarding health. I like to think of it as a similar phenomenon to that measured by a polygraph, or lie detector test. A polygraph measures physiological changes such as blood pressure, EEG, or heart rates after a truth statement or a question is posed. Research has shown that these semi-autonomic responses often change when a person makes a false statement. I believe that the negative response of a person's energy polarity may be one of the causes of the changes measured by a polygraph. Like a polygraph, muscle testing involves the use of a physical response to determine the truth of a question. And like a polygraph, some sort of invisible energy is likely involved. So really, this is not as much of a fringe science as might seem, at least in this interpretation. Muscle testing may simply be a form of polygraph-like measure of truth that relies on kinesthetic response...
Operators of polygraph equipment learn how to read each person's responses, asking simple questions at first and learning how their body will react. With muscle testing a similar principle is involved. You must first ask a few questions, and then determine whether the testing will work for you. Generally you should first ask questions that reflect simple truths, such as "will muscle testing work for this question?" Or, "Is the sky blue today?" Then progress to questions like "Is this supplement good for me to take right now?" Or, "how much of this should I take, one tablet?" Or even "do I have a Candida problem today?" You can muscle test a wide range of questions, people have even studied history, learned about the relative importance of various human attributes, and even studied the level of maturity of religions through muscle testing. Most people who have studied muscle testing agree that you can not get accurate results if you ask about the future (sorry, no accurate data will be given on tomorrow's stock market prices, this has been tried already...).
Muscle testing is believed by many to be a result of communication from a higher intelligence present within the body energy. Thus, muscle testing can be viewed through the lens of belief in a higher intelligence in the universe that communicates with us through our own bodies. But even if you do not believe that, muscle testing still appears to work! Even skeptics can use muscle testing. Research shows that the level of belief in the test is not a factor in obtaining accurate results. I usually meditate silently for a few seconds before muscle testing and try to feel at peace, just to be sure that the proper feelings are involved and I will learn the truth. You should try to develop an unbiased feeling toward the question before muscle testing, as strong feelings towards the question could interfere with the body's response. If you doubt the answer, test again, or try again at a later time when you are in a different mood. Or ask someone you trust to test the question for you.
My 5 Favorite Forms of Muscle Testing
There are many forms of muscle testing. Some people succeed with one form and not another form, and some people can not succeed at all. The common forms I have tried are arm, finger rings, foot swinging, and leaning. I have also invented one form of my own, which I call the heart test. There are other forms as well. Here is a brief description of five forms I have tried. A few of these work better for me than others, but each person is unique, so you may want to try them all and determine what will work best for you:
Arm testing takes two people usually, although some people can succeed alone. For an arm test, you hold the arm out to the side, steady, and another person makes the 'truth statement' and tries to lower the arm by pressing a few fingers lightly on it. The person being tested should be the person with the health problem if possible, although you can ask any question about anything. For example, in the book 'Power vs. Force' this type of testing was used determine the level of maturity of various world religions, and the relative importance of a list of human characteristics. This method works for me sometimes, but I find it difficult because I have a hard time discerning how much force I am using. Maybe some people are more coordinated in this area. This is the original form of muscle testing and much is written on this (books).
Finger rings are probably the simplest and quickest. You make a ring with thumb and forefinger of one hand, and then make the truth statement and try to separate the thumb and forefinger with the other hand. Separating the thumb and forefinger can be done either by placing the thumb and forefinger of the other hand inside the finger ring and trying to spread them apart, or simply by placing one finger from the other hand inside the ring and trying to push or pull that finger out of the finger ring. The ring will be quite solid with truth, and hard to open. The ring will be easier to separate after making a false statement. One variation on this is to make two interlocking finger rings and try to pull them apart, again hard to separate is true, easy to separate is false. This works sometimes for me, but I am often not certain, maybe I am just not coordinated enough for this method, hard to say.
Foot swinging works well for young children, it also takes two people. You have them set with feet dangling about 10 inches apart, and then you hold their feet in your hands. You extend both thumbs and make the truth statement then swing the feet together gently. If true, your thumbs will touch easily, if false, you will have difficulty touching thumbs on the first swing. This is a complex form and I have heard a good explanation of how it works based on energy polarity. This method does not work well for me because I can not hold my thumbs out very long, but some people use it almost exclusively.
Leaning works by holding a supplement, or a paper with a word or question over your heart, then relaxing and making the truth statement about the object (for example: 'this supplement is good for me now'). The relaxing part is very important, that allows your body to talk to you. I take a few seconds and make sure the shoulders drop and are relaxed. Before making the truth statement, think clearly about the possible responses, and then identify where you will lean if the answer is true or false. For example, imagine that you will lean forward for a true answer, and lean to the left for a false answer. Then make the statement and relax. If you find yourself leaning forward, your body is saying yes and if it leans to the left, your body is saying no. No movement means no preference, and movement to any other area means that you have not asked the right question, or the answer is neither yes nor no. You may ask additional questions to know more. Also, you may define more possible responses any way you like. For example, when testing how much of a supplement to take, you might in your mind view the lean as if you were standing on a clock, and each hour of the clock could be the number of tablets, or servings to take. Leaning is a versatile test; you can use this in a store, office, etc., to see if something is right. This is also a very useful test because of the larger number of possible answers and flexibility.
Heart testing is my favorite form and it is powerful. I discovered this quite by accident and it is very useful. I always use this form for the hardest and most important questions. I like to use the knuckles of one hand to keep track of my options while using heart testing. This allows you to focus more easily on the different options or choices that face you, by using each knuckle to represent a different choice. You then touch each knuckle with the forefinger of the other hand, reviewing in your mind a different option or choice for each knuckle. For some reason, this closing of the circuit of the right and left hands often enhances the power of this test, and placing different options on the knuckles makes it more concrete to the mind/body, and enhances the separation of the sensations of the answer in the heart chakra area (just to the left of the physical heart, in the chest). The answer takes the form of positive (warm, comfortable) or negative (cold, uncomfortable) feelings in the chakra region. I usually take a few seconds and take stock of my feelings and sensations in the heart charka after each knuckle is touched, there is often something to learn even from the wrong answers. This method has helped me a lot.
Final Thought
With ANY of these tests, remember that muscle testing is only a method to help you access and better understand your own intuition. And as with all intuition, it is important to run the results through the filter of reason, and make sure the results makes sense before acting on them. As I discussed above, one good way to look at the muscle testing, or any intuitive method, is as an advisor or consultant. We are still the main character in our life story and I believe we are intended by nature to make our own decisions. I don't believe nature provided intuition as a replacement for logic and reason, but rather as a natural 'force' that should work together with reason and contribute to our personal and social progress.
Good luck!
posted by Kurt at 10:56 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Kurt,
I just wanted to say how much I have valued your website. It is wise, and rational: considered and kind: intelligent and compassionate. All at the same time.
Whilst the internet is an ocean that one can trawl for rare gems, the combination of qualities your blog displays, is a rare one.
I am very grateful for it. I also wanted to offer heart-felt thanks for the generosity you have shown is sharing all this informtion.
Your open-heartedness and wise inputs add to the sum total of goodness in our heaven and earth.
Thank you once again.
Nuala
Thanks for those kind remarks Nuala.
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