So, what exactly is muscle testing? How do you do it? And how does it work?

If you’ve ever had a foot zone, or been to a chiropractor, or had energy work done, chances are someone has done muscle testing on you or by proxy for you. If so, then you might have questions about it.

How Does It Work?

As Einstein explained, everything is energy.  Everything, including our body, is composed of molecules vibrating at varying rates or frequencies.  Energy also flows through our bodies in specific patterns – Main Central, Left and Right Supervisor, Left and Right Mediator, Organ Flows, Chinese Meridians, the pathways of energy used in foot zoning, the chakra system, etc.  When energy is exposed to other energy – words, thoughts, music, colors, people, food, plants, stones, essential oils, etc. – it responds. This response creates reactions in our body. These reactions are the premise behind lie detector tests. There are actual physical responses to truth and untruth that occur within our body.

If you place an apple (or something good for the body) in your hand and hold your arm out, your arm will stay strong if someone gently applies pressure. If you place chocolate (or something harmful for the body) in your hand and hold our arm out, your arm will go weak if someone gently applies pressure. That’s the molecules in your body (or more specifically the molecules that comprise the muscles in your body) responding.  (Note – Elder Carlos Asay of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints demonstrated this at a 1986 Missionary Zone Conference in Austria.  He placed different items in brown paper bags so the missionaries were unable to tell what was in the bag and then had the missionary hold the bags, one-at-a-time, as he applied pressure to their arm.  Elder Darin Watts, a missionary serving in the area, was in attendance at this Zone Conference and later shared the experience with his wife.)

Emotionally, you may have noticed that there are times that you are drawn to something – maybe a thought or a food or a person – and times that you are repulsed by something.  That’s the molecules in your body responding.

Spiritually, you can have the same reaction.  Your spirit will be drawn to truth and repulsed by untruth.

So whether you consider muscle testing physically, emotionally, or spiritually it all works the same.  Your body responds on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels to truth and untruth.

How Do I Do It?

While there are many methods of muscle testing, the easiest way for beginners is probably by using the “sway” method. Using the sway method, if your body is balanced, then your body will pull forward if the statement is true and push backward if the statement is untrue.

To begin using the sway test, I recommend balancing and grounding yourself first. Once you’ve gotten the hang of muscles testing you don’t always need to balance and ground yourself first, but I find that it makes it easier for my clients to get accurate answers when they’re balanced and grounded first.

To do this, you stand relaxed with your hands by your side and your feet slightly apart. While standing there, ask yourself out loud, “How does it feel to be balanced?” Then you allow your body to do whatever it needs to do, typically it will begin to sway front to back or side to side or around in circles, sometimes you’ll feel like you need to take a step forward or backward – that’s ok. Once you’ve stopped swaying, your body should be balanced and then you can ground yourself.

To ground yourself you stand in the same position, and ask yourself the question, “How does it feel to be grounded?” While doing this, visualize roots growing from your feet into the ground and from the tips of your fingers into the ground. Your body will typically begin to sway again, which is fine. Again if you need to take a step, you can. Once you stop swaying, now you can begin to muscle test.

To start, stay in the same position and tell yourself (out loud), “Show me a yes.” Allow your body to do whatever it needs. Pay attention to how your body is responding to the question.  Are you swaying forward?  Are you swaying backward?  Are you swaying front-to-back?  Are you feeling some other type of reaction in your body?  If you don’t feel anything, then tell yourself (out loud), “I need to feel it stronger, show me a yes.” Continue this process until you feel your body’s response to the question.

Once you’ve felt your “yes” answer (or if you haven’t after a couple of tries) then say to yourself, “Show me a no.” Again wait for your body’s response. If you don’t feel anything, tell yourself, “I need to feel it stronger, show me a no.” Recognize how your body responds to the question.

For many people the answer will be either a sway forward or backward, but for some it may be some other response.  A student shared in class that when she asked, “Show me a yes,” she felt a warmth in her face; and when she asked “Show me a no,” she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.  The idea is to begin to recognize your body’s response.

Once you become comfortable knowing what a “yes” answer or a “no” answer feels like, then you can begin to use muscle testing for yourself. The very first time I used muscle testing was when I was sick and I wanted to test to see how many Vitamin C capsules my body needed. From there I began to use muscle testing to see which vitamins I needed or which amino acid my body needed and then which essential oils I needed.

To do this, hold the item (or the bottle of the item) in your hand and place your hand in the middle of your chest. Say to yourself, “My body needs this….(fill in the blank with the name of the item, for instance, Vitamin C).” Once you have your answer, if the answer is yes, you can continue to see if your body needs one tablet (or capsule), two, three, etc, simply by saying, “My body needs one tablet,” and wait for the answer. Then go on to, “My body needs two tablets.” Continue in this manner until you have your final “yes” answer.

There may be times when you’ll want to be careful about the way you word your statement. For example, you may say, “My body needs this piece of chocolate,” and receive a “yes” answer. But if you say, “This piece of chocolate will be good for my body” you may get a totally different answer.

My Personal Experience

I’ll be honest, when I first learned how to muscle test, I was uncomfortable. I knew it was working, but I didn’t understand how it was working. And because I’m a very faith-based person, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing something that offended the Spirit or my Heavenly Father. So every time I would muscle test, I would get an answer and then say a quiet prayer asking if what I was doing was ok.

Finally, after about a year, I was standing in my bedroom muscle testing for which essential oil I needed that day. I received my answer and immediately became frustrated and asked Heavenly Father to explain to me what was happening and if it was ok. The thought came to my mind, “It’s your spirit telling you what your body needs.” Up to that point, that idea had never occurred to me, but I immediately felt peace and comfort in the knowledge.  (Because Heavenly Father understood my character and nature, he explained muscle testing to me on a spiritual level to begin with rather than a physical or emotional level.  He knew that I would need spiritual answers rather than physical or emotional answers.)

Muscle Testing Guidelines

With that said, there are a few things you should be aware of. First, muscle testing should not be used in place of personal revelation. Muscle testing is a way for you to receive instruction about the needs of your physical body. It is not a substitute for divine inspiration.

Second, muscle testing should never remove agency. Regardless of the answer, you have the right to follow the muscle test or not.

Third, muscle testing is not a “party trick”, all energy work (including muscle testing) is spiritual and as such should be considered sacred.

Ezra Taft Benson said, “The condition of the physical body can affect the spirit.” I’m grateful that we’ve been given a tool to help us know how to maintain the condition of the physical body that houses my spirit.

If you have questions about muscle testing, please let me know. If you’ve had experiences that you want to share, I’d love to hear about them.