What Christians Should Know About Applied Kinesiology, Articulated by Dr. Scott Monk

Through the years, I have struggled with trying to explain muscle testing to other faith-based individuals like myself.

The word “energy” has become a trigger for many who self-identify as “Christian.” The main issue that’s expressed is their concern that ‘muscle testing’ is a form of ‘divination’ which the bible clearly states is forbidden for Christians.

Because I’ve shared this same concern, I am posting one of my favorite articles by Dr. Scott Monk, who is a Christian Applied Kinesiology chiropractor who practices in Centennial, Colorado. I believe he does an excellent job articulating what I’ve been trying to explain for years. In this article, Dr. Monk also addresses his concern about all the mistakes and damages done yearly by the American Medical Association. He lists several shocking facts and statistics from JAMA, a medical, peer review journal.

My hope is that this article will provoke thought and provide much-needed answers for those who are wrestling with moral and spiritual questions concerning the use of Specialized Kinesiology.

You can read the article below. I welcome your comments or questions regarding this article!

What Christians Should Know About Applied Kinesiology by Dr. Scott Monk

Read the article below or view on Dr. Monk’s website →

All Christians who are considering visiting an Applied Kinesiologist (AK) should read the following information. If you are unfamiliar with Applied Kinesiology, please first refer to the article archives under the topic, Applied Kinesiology, which defines AK and outlines necessary details.

As a Christian you have a duty to guard your mind and your soul to any and all influences that may lead you astray from the simple truth of the Gospel (see Scripture list below #1) and the practice of holy living. You have been equipped with spiritual armor, both offensive (see Scripture list below #2) and defensive. (see Scripture list below #3 & 4)

I say this because the thrust of this article will be the examination of the entire medical system, both alternative and allopathic (traditional), through the filter of the Christian worldview. Having done so, we will discover that there are many unsound and sometimes life-threatening practices that Christians regularly accept and participate in, while at the same time fearing other less-understood practices without cause.

I am sometimes asked whether Christians should use Applied Kinesiology (AK) as a viable form of healthcare. Sincere questioners are concerned for the following reasons:

• A Christian did not develop AK.
• New-age practitioners primarily use AK.
• There are forms of AK that tap into the supernatural realm in the search for diagnostic information.

These are valid concerns. Knowing this, the question remains, is AK an occultic practice in and of itself that must be avoided by all Christians? The answer is Yes and No.
Yes, because it can be used in many different ways. Some of which are clearly attempting gain information from the spirit world. No, because when it is used as a neurological/physiological diagnostic test it is measuring information from the body itself (much like hitting your knee with a reflex hammer – information goes in to the nervous system and a response comes back, in the form of a knee jerk).

Speaking from a Christian perspective, a technique may be labeled occultic if:

A) The practitioner imposes their occult beliefs into the treatment and the unsuspecting patient accepts their beliefs or,

B) In order for the treatment to work there must be the invocation of a supernatural force (i.e. demon).

As for A), we are called to use knowledge so that we will not participate in doctrines of demons (see Scripture list below #5), which is the primary thrust of this letter. As for B), I believe as a Christian you will be able to judge that for yourself. Even if you cannot, nothing can harm you in Christ (see Scripture list below #6) when you walk in the light. You are divinely protected. Surely we come in to daily contact with individuals under the influence of, or possessed by evil spirits and yet our conversations and interactions with them do no damage to our souls. It is only when a false belief system tampers with our faith that we are then incapacitated to some degree. This is what happened in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, if we test the spirits, no matter how familiar we are with a procedure or how widely it is accepted, we should be able to discern what is true and what is false.

Christians might say that because AK was started by a new-age doctor and is practiced primarily by new-age doctors it should be avoided. This logic is faulty because it fails to address the validity of the practice itself. It also fails to recognize that a practice may have both acceptable and unacceptable aspects. Also, if this reasoning were taken to its logical conclusion then Christians would have a difficult time adapting to our society – which exists in its current state mainly as a result of the efforts of secular scientists, laborers, professionals, government officials, etc. In fact, today, Christian scientists, although growing in number, are still the minority. Are we willing to give up other endeavors in our life simply because the founders, designers, or inventors related to it are new-age minded?

The official teachings of the International College of Applied Kinesiology are sound neurologically. In other words, good explanations using recognized and understood reactions in the body are available. I need to make a distinction between the official and the unofficial teachings. Confusion often arises when practitioners say that they are doing Applied Kinesiology when in fact they are doing some other form of muscle testing outside the official teachings of the International College.

Magnetic Testing
In my office I use a procedure that falls outside of the official teachings of the college, namely magnetic testing. I have chosen to use this procedure because I find the results to be as reliable as testing done in more understood ways. I believe that magnetic testing is a misunderstood phenomenon, but not an occultic one.

Here is how it is done: A substance such as a piece of food is placed under the south pole of a strong magnet and then both the magnet and the food are held a close to the body. If the patient is sensitive or allergic to that food item, a strong test muscle will usually become temporarily weak. The medical community says that this phenomenon is impossible. However, what they are really saying is that they already understand how the body responds, and what the body responds to in every circumstance. Therefore, since they don’t understand this phenomenon, it must either be false or impossible. I will have much more to say about medicine and its philosophies later.

Here is what I believe is taking place. All substances have an electromagnetic field, which is different from the electromagnetic fields of other substances – it is a fingerprint if you will. The nervous system is sophisticated enough to identify any substance by its electromagnetic field if the field is strong enough. For those who think this sounds far-fetched please consider electromagnetic sources all around you such as radio waves. Radio waves are an invisible form of light energy with the potential for carrying information. Right now there are billions of radio waves dancing all around you. If you had the right receiver you could tap into these waves and “hear” whatever information is being broadcast. Even with the right receiver you would lose the ability to detect radio waves if the signal were not powerful enough. If you boost the power then you would be able to hear. This is the role of the magnet. A magnet has both a “push” and a “pull” characteristic. Two magnets together will either attract or repel one another depending upon the sides that are exposed. Doctors who do this kind of work have learned that the south pole side of the magnet is the “push” side and that it is also the side that boosts the electromagnetic field. Therefore, when a substance is placed under the south pole side of a magnet its signal is boosted to a level that is then detectable by the nervous system. For some, the magnet is not necessary, for others, even the magnet is not sufficient. Based on what we know to be true regarding information transmission through invisible sources like light and radio waves, you must admit that it is at least possible that this part of the scenario exists. What happens next is beyond the realm of medical thought.

You see medicine has to do primarily with chemical reactions. Energetic reactions are poorly understood in the medical mind. Therefore the skeptic’s doubt is created, not in the ability to transmit information via electromagnetic fields, but in whether the nervous system has the ability to decipher and react to this transmitted information. My mind is set at ease when I look at what we know to be true about the processing speed of the nervous system.

The unconscious mind is able to process 1013 bits of information per second. Messages sent throughout the nervous system travel electro-chemically. The speed of electrical impulses would appear instantaneous within the body given the short distances they would need to travel. Knowing this, if the body were able to decipher information from electromagnetic fields it could process it at a speed that is perceivably instantaneous. We would therefore not be dealing with some sort of demonic influence on our physical bodies, but with a neurological and physiological influence.

James Walker, the author of Testing Muscle Testing on the website www.watchman.org, wrote an article asking Christians practitioners to abandon the use of AK. His conclusion is, “Being well-intentioned, however, is not sufficient. Christian practitioners should seriously reconsider Applied Kinesiology until at least three important criteria are addressed.

A) Government or university sponsored scientific studies should be available that demonstrate that the practice is safe, effective, and accurate.

B) An explanation (or at least a theory) must be proposed that provides a legitimate physical model showing how Applied Kinesiology works based on the known and accepted laws of physical anatomy.

C) Both the studies and explanation should be consistent with the principles of Christian Monotheism.

Until then, Applied Kinesiology should not be seen as a valid medical procedure. Its only possible value is its use as a religious practice — that is the New Age religion, not Christianity.”

I appreciate Mr. Walker’s concerns because of what I have already admitted about Applied Kinesiology in general, and in theory, agree with his remedy as outlined above. I do however disagree with his final statement.

There are great many things within the medical community that are used on a daily basis that have very little research whatsoever to back them up. Just consider the number of drugs removed each year from circulation because of their dangerous effects. The most recent are the estrogen replacements that millions of women have been taking. Never was estrogen shown to reduce osteoporosis. And yet, it was touted as the miracle bone builder. How many Christian women do you know taking hormones? The difficulty with studies is that research institutions are funded primarily by the pharmaceutical industry. This industry has no interest in discovering the validity of alternative medicine. With respect to AK, studies have been done and sound explanations are available that work completely within the realm of what we know regarding the body. There are other aspects however, that cannot be fully explained except for a change in philosophy. This was true in the past. Consider the theories for disease prior to the discovery of the microscope. It was quite possible to have many of the aliments in your lifetime attributed to evil spirits, curses, or other supernatural phenomena when the true cause was a microorganism.

Mr. Walker’s criteria for the inclusion of AK, reveals his great faith in medicine. For instance, in letter B) he implies that healthcare practices are only valid if they are “based on the known and accepted laws of physical anatomy.” This type of thinking excludes the possibilities of certain new discoveries because these new discoveries would not fit into what is already accepted. Also, it is intellectually arrogant. Is modern medicine the repository of truth for all things related to the body? If not, what exactly does medicine do with phenomena that it does not fully understand?

An acupuncturist will tell you that you have twelve main “energy” meridians circulating throughout your body. These meridians are related to the five elements of nature…Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth. These ideas are based upon cultural, religious (non-Christian), and personal beliefs. Western scientists however, will talk about these same phenomena using medical terms related to our nervous system and the measurable chemical and electromagnetic currents it produces. The medical world has seen the potential benefits of acupuncture and is now packaging their own meridian stimulating equipment under western names. For instance, on the television recently I noticed an advertisement for a devise, being sold through your local MD, which was designed to stop nausea. It was an electronic devise worn on the wrist that sent rhythmic electronic pulses into the skin. Acupuncturists have known for a long time that stimulation of certain areas on the wrist dramatically reduces the sensation of nausea. However, you will not find a medical doctor giving credit to acupuncture for this discovery. So I ask the question: If acupuncture is bad for Christians because of its Eastern influences, does the practice of the principles of acupuncture then become acceptable once defined in Western terms? This would seem to be what Mr. Walker is stating in B) of his conclusion. Or, is there perhaps another explanation that would make sense of it all?

If we are sincerely seeking the truth, there are a few things you need to know about our present medical system. In my opinion, with regards to the medical mainstream, Christians are nothing more than lemmings jumping off any cliff their doctor tells them too. How does this scenario sound: In your final years you will end up taking seven to ten medications per day. Eventually, you will get sick and need to go to the hospital. There you receive an additional two or three medications. Complications soon arise and your overnight stay becomes a three-week visit, during which time you contract an infection and pneumonia. You eventually die. The whole experience costs your insurance company around $150,000. Does this sound extreme? It happens everyday in any hospital in America. Is this how God would have us care for our temples?

According to the July 26th, 2000 issue of JAMA (Vol. 284, No. 4) in the United States there are approximately:

• 12,000 deaths annually from unnecessary surgery.
• 7,000 deaths annually from medication errors.
• 20,000 deaths annually from other errors in hospitals.
• 80,000 deaths annually from nosocomial infections (infections acquired in a hospital).
• 106,000 deaths annually from non-error, adverse effects of medications.

“These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes [resulting from the doctor].” These estimates are for deaths only and do not include adverse effects associated with disability or discomfort.

225,000 deaths constitute the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. Even when death was not an issue, the article went on to estimate that between 4 and 18 percent of hospital patients experienced adverse effects resulting in:

• 116 million extra patient visits.
• 77 million extra prescriptions.
• 17 million emergency department visits.
• 8 million hospitalizations.
• 3 million long-term admissions.
• And $77 billion in extra costs.

Wow! You might be thinking that it is the price we have to pay in our industrialized society, perhaps not. Japan ranks second only to the United States in the number of advanced diagnostic equipment, like MRI and CT. However, Japan ranks highest on health, whereas the United States ranks among the lowest. The author explains this by noting that the results of the diagnostic imaging often result in the American patient being hospitalized. While in Japan the common practice is to have the family members provide the amenities of hospital care. It is clear that the health care system in the United States is not a health care system at all. Instead it is a disease care system. If ever there was an example of people dying for a lack of knowledge, it is in medicine.

My point in mentioning all this is not because I feel we should do away with the medical system, but just to remind you that simply because a system is accepted, does not make it right and it certainly does not make it appropriate for Christians. Christians are held to a higher standard when deciding on the acceptability of any subject.

So how does one justify the electromagnetic phenomenon from a Biblical perspective? Remember that we are not as God intended. We started off as Adam and Eve, two perfect people. Consider this: Adam named all of the animals (see Scripture list below #7). Both he and Eve spoke to animals with no indication that what they were doing was out of the ordinary. (see Scripture list below #8) This is remarkable. In fact, we have virtually no idea what a perfect human being was capable of doing or how his body reacted under adverse stimuli. This is because God’s curse on both the land (see Scripture list below #9) and us has had a cumulative effect on our bodies. After the fall, a great deal changed. We now have much shorter life spans, we do not walk with God as Adam did and we do not talk to animals. We as a people were eventually scattered and vast amounts of information was lost. (see Scripture list below #10) We were told to begin eating meat after the flood, whereas before we (and the animals) were all vegetarians. In short, we spend our lives trying to rediscover what once was ours. It is reasonable to assume that with the dispersion and loss of information in general, we also lost information relating to the care of our bodies. Science tells us that we only use a small percentage of our brain. Is this a result of the curse over time? I say all this to point out that the human body is still fearfully and wonderfully made both on a macro and micro level. But it is not what it once was.

I believe it is quite possible that the human body has many yet undiscovered capacities. One of which is the ability to respond to small amounts of various stimuli such as a touch, a smell or even the presence of an electromagnetic field.

In conclusion, I believe that there is still much to discover. I believe also that the demonic world is alive and well and we far too often are influenced by its presence. And so we must guard against not only blatantly false information, but also subtle skin-of-the-truth information that sets us up for deception. However, clothed in the armor of God we need not fear. The mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit who resides in us will lead us into all truth. (see Scripture list below #11) Since what I do involves no testing that requires the influence or presence of a supernatural being, and since, as I have tried to show above, it fits within the scientific possibilities and a proper monotheistic construct, it should be viewed as an acceptable practice for the Christian. If I have been unable to convince you, please let me know if there is something further I may address. If after that point, you are still unconvinced, then you should no longer pursue this form of care – for you it would not be from faith. (see Scripture list below #12)

1.  I Corinthians 15
2.  Ephesians 6:11
3.  Ephesians 6:11
4.  I Peter 1:3
5.  I Timothy 4:1
6.  I John 5:18; II Peter 1:3
7.  Genesis 2:19
8.  Genesis 3:1-4
9.  Genesis 3:17-20
10. Genesis 11:9
11. John 16:13
12. Romans 14:23