http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/index.htmlApplied Kinesiology NewsenSam@Endmybackpain.comCopyright 2008 Integrated Health Solutions LLC, and Dr. Robert Frost2008-12-07T20:32:35-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:35:38 -0800Sam@Endmybackpain.comSpirituality2008-12-07T20:32:35-08:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/ak_re_mothering.html#unique-entry-id-29http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/ak_re_mothering.html#unique-entry-id-29
A 68-year-old female client told me a bit of her life story. She was a baby in Germany during WW2. She was the fourth child and was not wanted. Throughout her life, her mother blamed her for all her mother’s health (and other) problems. She recalls starving and watching her father eat without sharing anything with the children.

Her presenting problem, according to her, was a lack of trust that things would be all right; that she would have enough to eat and a warm place to sleep. As these were missing in her childhood, it was no surprise that she was insecure.

Though her story, I came to know of some of her belief system. She was quite spiritual, but not religious. She believed in divine parents, had some access to her life before birth, and believed in life after death. She knew that God loves her, but often didn’t feel it. Many times when difficulties arose, she went into a dark mental-emotional hole and just didn’t care. At such times, she became very pessimistic and stopped trying to make things better. Then she would sink into depression and remain there for days, weeks or even months.

We spent a lot of time getting her to define her desired state very precisely. This is most important. Without a well-defined goal, one makes no measurable progress. A well-defined goal needs to:

1) be stated in the present as if it is true now,
2) be stated in the positive (no symptoms or problems mentioned whatsoever),
3) harmonize with her life situation so as to not produce avoidable problems with herself or with others (the ecology check),
4) be verifiable (she should know without a doubt if she has achieved it).

What she wanted was to know with certainty that she would always have enough food to eat and a warm place to sleep. She wanted an unshakable belief that the divine mother would always be there for her and take care of her.

In the session, we cleared her energy in present time and used age recession to identify other times in her life that needed clearing. The second age recession landed us in the time when her mother was three months pregnant with her. This is about the time when the mother becomes aware that she is pregnant. As she was not a wanted child, this was when her mother began cursing her and even tried unsuccessfully to have an abortion.

The process of age recession is postulated to awaken many of the brain neurons that were active at the recessed time; to evoke the energy patterns that were active back then. As she was only a tiny fetus, I had to work with imagery that could conceivably be present at that early developmental stage. To do so, I built upon her beliefs.

To assist the process, I could have had her drink some placenta extract. As I had none available, I used a good alternative: pure rose oil. I placed a drop under her nose so she would smell it during the treatment and had her put a drop on her tongue as well. Then we both closed our eyes and I guided her to “recall” how before conception she was with her divine parents, the ones who are always there for her. My words were something like: “Recall how you were as a spirit – fully free and ever loved. Remember how your divine mother and father instructed you for your journey into this lifetime. You knew then, more or less, the severity of the conditions you were to have with your parents. And you chose this for the lessons it would bring. Suffering engenders compassion. There is no way you can develop compassion without having gone through similar suffering. And you are a very compassionate person now, thanks to the hardships of your childhood. Though they were terrible, the served a worthy purpose. They made you the deeply caring person that you now are.

“At this recessed time, three months into your mother’s pregnancy with you, your physical mother is very angry and is directing that anger towards you. Of course, that is very upsetting. At this time, you are not yet fully associated with your baby body so let’s back up away from the body and recall where you came from. Remember how your divine mother is – absolutely loving and always there for you. Bathe in this love. Absorb this love and become absolutely secure that her love is always there for you.”

I talked for quite some time and was surprised at the fluidity and beauty of the words that formulated in my mind to say to her. I gave her some time and asked her to be sure that she was clearly established in this always and endless love – that she would never forget or doubt it. Then I told her, “Your mother this lifetime was not a very good representative of this type of love. But know that your mother’s foibles in no way diminish the divine love of your “real” mother. Keep that connection to your divine mother as we go back into the developing fetus.”

Having her hold that image and feeling of constant love and care, I brought her back through the years of her life and into present time. I spoke of some of the life issues she had mentioned and that we had processed in prior age recessions and made sure that she had the divine mother love connection while thinking (“revisiting”) stressful events of her life.

During this process, as we went back to her divine parents, I felt the “doors of Heaven open”. There was a profound peace, great intensity, and boundless love. She felt it too. After this session, her posture, facial gestures, vocal tone and speech patterns were clearly different. Feedback then, later, and from her other therapists confirmed that she was profoundly changed and more at peace with her world. It worked.

Dr. Robert Frost--]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK and The Mind2008-11-05T11:29:00-08:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/aee21207a8ddf78fdfeab444d723df64-28.html#unique-entry-id-28http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/aee21207a8ddf78fdfeab444d723df64-28.html#unique-entry-id-28
Let me give an example from my clinical work with a patient in the medical office in Basel, Switzerland, where I worked for 8 years: From time to time, a patient had bleeding, infected, stinking sores all along the side of his tongue. All the medicines he received including antibiotics were ineffective in curing these wounds. After a few weeks they went away by themselves, only to return a few months later. I asked my patient, “When you have these sores, what can you not do; what are you prevented from doing?” He answered, “I can’t be around people. The wounds are not only ugly but my breath is so foul that people find it repulsive.” I asked him, “Do you take time for yourself and do things all alone?” He answered with irritation, “I have to work hard to support my family. And when I come home, the kids want my attention. When they go to bed, my wife wants my attention and then I have to sleep before going to work in the morning. So I have no chance for time for myself.”

I asked my patient if he took time for himself before he was married, and if so, what did he do? He answered that he played squash (alone) and read books. So I gave this prescription, “Play squash alone and read books.” He said, “Do you think it could be that easy?” I answered, “It’s worth a try. Nothing else has worked and this seems to be what your body is saying. You symptom forces you to be alone. So take time alone and perhaps you won’t need this symptom.” The patient never returned. I chanced to see him on a tram many months later. He smiled, pulled a folded-open paperback book from the back pocket of his trousers and said, “I take time for myself now and the sores have never returned”. Note that colloidal silver, echinacea or perhaps cat’s claw-una de gato (potent anti-infectants and immune system stimulators), which were not known or used in the clinic at that time, could have very likely been successful in preventing the outbreak of his sores. However, he would likely have had to continue taking them indefinitely and thereby would have lost the chance for learning a very much needed lesson. And, if I am right in my assumption that his symptom was a communication from his subconscious to his conscious mind, taking an effective remedy would be ignoring his own subconscious communication—a common medical and psychological error today. When we are closed to receiving communication from (or via) our subconscious mind, we are out of touch with our own feelings. We don’t even know what we really want. As a psychologist, I’m so often amazed that my patients simply do not know what they want out of life. When I ask them what they want, the answer is most always, “I want that my symptoms go away!” I ask them if their symptoms are what they do not want. When they agree, I ask them, “Well then, what do you want?” In response, most stare at me blankly. They have no idea what they do want. Worse, through social conditioning and negative experiences, they have lost the ability to dream and hope/expect that the quality of their lives could significantly improve. It is not only in the field of AK that basic psychological knowledge is lacking. Most people seem unaware of basic psychological facts that could improve the lives of us all. One of these basic facts is that our conscious awareness is only one part of our total self. By definition, the subconscious mind encompasses all parts of ourselves of which we are not consciously aware. This includes all the information encoded in our DNA which defines the structure and functions of our bodies including all healing processes. If the chemical processes involved in healing a small cut were typed on paper, they would fill a large library! Luckily we do not have to consciously direct these processes. This would be too big a job for our conscious minds. Even activities that we must consciously learn such as walking are swiftly turned over to our subconscious mind as habits, allowing us to attend to other pursuits. Imagine what it would be like if you had to consciously take each step like when you were a baby. You would not be able to do anything else at the same time. Thank goodness we all have a subconscious mind! Within the subconscious mind are psychological patterns of behavior that have provided for our survival for countless generations. These archetypal modes of behaving include the nurturing and protecting mother, the successful hunter, the fighter, etc. When a particular archetype is active, hormones are released into the blood and we become biochemically prepared and motivated for specific types of activity. In the ideal case, the appropriate archetype becomes active and motivates our behavior as needed. An important part of psychotherapy may be assisting clients to disassociate with inappropriate archetypes and identify with ones more appropriate to their life situation. In specific cultures at particular times in history, certain archetypes are more predominant than others. The archetypes may be observed in personal dreams and in the mythology of world cultures. Their psychic activity forms a much larger part of our personal behavior than most of us suspect. We think that we are individuals following our own personal course of action. In reality, most of what we do is determined by the archetypes that are currently active in our society and in each of us. Our subconscious mind, in which the archetypes reside, is just as much a part of the totality of our selfhood as our conscious mind. In fact, it is much larger; more vast in scope. The conscious mind is like a small island upon the vast ocean of the subconscious. Any yet most of us define our self, that which we call “I”, as being only our conscious mind. In doing so, we ignore and thereby repress a great part of ourselves. Our conscious mind has been compared to the masculine, Yang nature. It is projective, outward oriented, goal oriented, aware of one thing at a time (digital), quick to be aroused, active and then passive. The conscious mind thinks with words and numbers which have discrete meanings. By comparison, our subconscious mind is feminine or Yin in nature. It is attractive, inwardly oriented, timeless, aware of many related things simultaneously (analog), slow to be aroused and continuously active. The subconscious mind “thinks” with symbols that imply many different meanings simultaneously. Note that every individual person, male or female has both a conscious and a subconscious mind. Indeed many females today have a more highly developed conscious mind (which we have defined as a masculine attribute) than most men. So these definitions are not to be construed as sexist—defining women as only having feminine or Yin attributes. These principles can be seen in the form and function of the reproductive organs—which physically define the difference between men and women. The male reproductive organ projects outward away from his body. When stimulated, it (he) is quick to be aroused, very goal oriented and interested in only one thing. If he obtains it, he is very active for a short time, and then passive for a long time. These are qualities of the masculine nature. In contrast, the main female reproductive organ is within her body. When stimulated it is generally slower than the male to become aroused, more dependent upon and interested in many aspects of the whole situation (mood, ambience, tenderness, feelings of being cared for and valued. etc.). Her arousal can last for a much longer time. And if the reproductive act is successful, she goes through continuous inner and outer activities to create and sustain a child. The main tool of the conscious mind is language, constructed of letters, words and numbers. The centers for speaking and for understanding language are located only on the left side of the brain. Indeed many of the qualities we have defined as conscious-male-Yang have a connection with the functions of the left side of the brain. Similarly the functions of the right side of the brain are related to what we have defined as subconscious-female-Yin. Recent research into the function of the two sides of the brain has revealed a tendency toward the following separation of activities and qualities:

Left Brain:

controls the right side of the body
symbolically relates to the father
career
willful activity, control
science
logical thought
drive to succeed
separating
focus upon details
ability to deduce details from a great quantity of information
words
rationality


Right Brain:

controls the left side of the body
symbolically relates to the mother
home
spontaneous activity, play
art
intuition, fantasy, dreams
desire to enjoy
uniting
focus upon interconnections and meaning
ability to re-conceive the whole from limited information
melody
creativity

The cultural preference for the right side can be heard in the language in phrases such as “he has the right”, “That’s the right thing to do” and “Right!” meaning correct. The suppression of the left side can be heard in phrases such as “left out”, “linkish” (German literal meaning - “Lefty”) meaning uncoordinated and stupid. Left means “communist” or even worse!

In Western culture, the educational process emphasizes almost exclusively the right side (left side of the brain). Most all of what we call learning occurs through the use of letters, words and numbers—which are processed exclusively on the left side of the brain. Thus what we call education is training of only the left side of the brain. Seen in this light, it is no wonder that so many people display symptoms of being imbalanced. And as a result, most psychological imbalances require more attention to and development of the qualities of the left side of the body—the right side of the brain.

A man who is out of touch with his subconscious mind and ignores or more actively suppresses its communication (symptoms, feelings, intuitions, hunches, day dreams, night dreams) will not be able to lead a fulfilling life. He may obtain monetary success and status symbols (car, home, holiday, etc.), but deep and lasting joy will elude him. The story most of us had to read in high school of suicide of Richard Cory (that Paul Simon made into a song) is a example of the misery of many rich people. Worldly success is no promise of happiness.

A man who ignores or suppresses the communication of his subconscious mind will also tend to ignore or repress communication received from the women in his life. He just won’t be able to understand them, even if he wishes to. In my opinion, this is the psychological underpinning of the social problem of repression of females. Most women are still more in touch with their feelings than most men. However, this problem is not limited to men. In our culture, women are also trained to ignore the messages from their bodies, from their subconscious minds. The following is an extreme example of such a case:

During a session in my first year as a teacher of Alexander Technique, a female patient in Basel, Switzerland, came to me with peculiar symptoms. She awoke daily between 4 and 5 AM and vomited. After medical diagnosis found nothing organically wrong with her, she was sent to me. She had a colorless character with no specific desires or wishes other than getting rid of her symptom. One day she could find no baby sitter and brought her 5 year old daughter to the session. Her daughter sat motionless and said nothing for the during the whole session. Healthy five-year-olds do not normally sit still and quiet that long. This alerted me to a big control issue in the family and made me suspect that my client’s symptom might be caused by a neurosis. During another session, the client said, “Nüüt, nüüt”. I asked her what these words meant. She translated them into high German for me as “Nicht, nicht” (not, not). I asked her why she said these words. She answered that I had tickled her. Now, a normal response to being tickled is not utter without emotion, “Nüüt, nüüt” but rather to laugh.

She had her vomiting late in her sleeping hours, the time when her over-controlling conscious mind was at its weakest. The body language of her symptom was a forceful throwing back out of the body what had been pushed into it. From her behavior, she had obviously “swallowed” repressive social conditioning for her whole life. She had provided no conscious resistance to this life-constricting and life-denying training. By vomiting, her subconscious mind, which was active and without the normal restraints of conscious repression during sleep, seemed to be symbolically throwing it all back out. I would interpret her body language as saying, “I won’t take it anymore!” I mentioned that for her problem she should consider psychotherapy. She replied, “It is too late to change now”. I asked her way it was too late. She said, “Because I’m already thirty years old. I’m too old to change now!”

Many women simply accept the biblical (or some similar) injunction that they are naturally subordinate to men. This is the typical “wife syndrome”. In Switzerland where I have lived for many years, many of my married female patients report that their man earns the money and that he doesn’t ever even tell her how much. She gets a certain amount each month to run the household, buy herself and the children clothing, etc. Beyond that, he buys what he wants with no discussion with her.

Rebelling against this type of injustice, many modern women have learned to be successful in a “man’s world.” They have usurped the usurpers. A woman has to be far better than a man at the same work to be considered an equal, and many women are doing exactly that. It is very unsettling to men that women are able to be even more successful at traditional male activities than they are. Slowly, the efforts of these woman warriors is changing the landscape of male-female relations and obtaining the rights of women.

However, these females who can be better males than the males are not an example of archetypical or ideal femininity. Indeed, as a feminist university professor revealed to me, “I would much rather sit at home and enjoy the good life of pleasure and leisure. But I must do battle, in very unfeminine ways, to obtain and defend the rights of women.” Similarly, men who train for war (and thereby learn to ignore their feelings of compassion, etc.) are not an example of ideal masculinity.

As with women in the “battle of the sexes”, our subconscious will produce symptoms and syndromes as a kind of protest and corrective measure to our unhealthy lifestyle. Perhaps diseases such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, rheumatism that plague us today are in part the communication or even the revenge of the long-suppressed subconscious mind. The language of our subconscious may be saying, “If you won’t listen to me and correct your ways (structural, chemical and mental), then I will make you suffer until you do. If you still won’t listen to me and make the needed changes, you will die.”

If this is true, how can we learn to understand our bodies when they speak to us in the language of our symptoms?

Muscle testing can be used to reveal the emotion behind the symptom, and who expresses/expressed the emotion to whom. Muscle testing can be used to determine when, with whom, and under what circumstances the problem started. When the nature of the problem has been located, muscle testing may be used to determine the corrective procedures to apply and in which order (priority) to apply them. But, as Goodheart stated, we can only test what we know.

There are many books that list the possible psychological causes of various symptoms. For such information, one may read the works of Louise Haye, Thornwald Detlefsen and others. Some of the apparent underlying factors that I have seen in my clinical experience are listed below. It is not to be implied that all problems have a psychological cause. But any problem that exists for an extended period of time will have an emotional and a mental aspect, whether these were original causes or not. In either case, determining and clearing the emotional/mental aspect of the problem can assist the healing process.

--Dr. Robert Frost
Applied Kinesiologist
]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK and The Mind2008-11-03T10:22:15-08:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/9b84d52e8275c00b5c6565ba15a7227b-27.html#unique-entry-id-27http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/9b84d52e8275c00b5c6565ba15a7227b-27.html#unique-entry-id-27
Applied Kinesiology has focused upon only two sides of the Triad of Health—the structural and chemical sides. As a result, many who practice AK are at a loss when the causes of a patient’s presenting symptom is mental.

Although Goodheart recognized that health problems can have a mental cause, his background and that of most of the therapists who have developed AK was in the areas of structure and chemistry. He hoped that his early colleague, the psychiatrist Dr. John Diamond, would integrate psychological techniques with AK, but this did not occur as hoped. It is still true today that most of the therapists who practice AK have little or no training in psychology and are thus are not able to make adequate diagnosis and treatments on the mental side of the triad of health .

As the triad of health reveals, health problems can have structural, chemical and mental causes. And correction of one side of the triad of health can have profound affects upon the other two sides. If the cause of mental problems is a lack of a particular nutrient, supplying this nutrient can correct the mental problem. If the cause of a mental problem is poor posture or other faulty structural alignment, correcting these can correct the mental problem.

However, if the causes of a mental or any other kind of health problem lie primarily on the mental side of the triad of health, (including mental, emotional and possibly spiritual causes), having a structural treatment or taking a medicine (or supplement) that eliminates the symptoms will suppress the cause of the problem. Such inadequate corrective measures will 1) need to be repeated indefinitely and/or 2) be equivalent to turning off a smoke alarm while a fire still burns.

Symptoms can assist us to be aware that some aspect of our beliefs, our behavior, our expectations or some other aspect of our lives is inaccurate, incorrect, and in need of adjustment. For example, a pain may be caused by incorrect posture or a poor pattern of use such as always carrying heavy luggage with the same hand. Taking a drug may, at least temporarily, reduce the pain. But, suppressing the symptoms through such inappropriate treatment can eliminate the stimulus that could provoke needed change and personal growth.

Since modern medicine and most other therapeutic systems are typically oriented toward correcting problems by eliminating symptoms, suppression rather than cure is very often the result. The inappropriate application of any therapeutic method can result in suppression.


The Subconscious Storehouse of Innate Knowledge

The total information about how our bodies are structured and how they should function is stored in our genetic material, our DNA. Although we are not consciously aware of this “library” of knowledge, some portion our being below the level of conscious awareness uses it constantly to monitor and direct all the processes of our bodies. One could say that our bodies have an inherent wisdom. This portion of our being which directs body processes below the level of conscious awareness includes both the DNA, the autonomic nervous system and the ground system of regulation.

Not only the DNA, but also the information generated by reason of prior experiences is used to direct human function and behavior. For example, in a particular situation we may have suffered fear and/or pain. Subsequently, when similar appearing situations occur, we automatically react so as to avoid fear and pain. This reaction is both nervous and chemical and occurs below the level of conscious awareness. The impressions (memories) left by experiences, whether consciously experienced or not, appear to be stored both in the brain and in particular tissues throughout of the body. The exact neurophysiology is only partially understood. Except in cases of genetic defects, the genes supply accurate information for optimal health and functioning. However, the impressions left by experience (and the beliefs and expectations we created as a result) may be inaccurate and thereby be a cause of malfunctioning and even disease.

For all the functions of the human (structural, chemical and mental) that lie outside of the conscious awareness, I will use the term, the “subconscious.” By this definition, the subconscious includes the functions of the autonomic nervous system and the ground system of regulation and is thus responsible for the healing and the maintenance of health. Clearly this definition is more encompassing that held in many medical circles but will be familiar to those versed in Jungian psychology, Neurolinguistic Programming and many other healing traditions.

The healing process is influenced by mental-emotional states. It is well documented that patients who strongly believe that they will get well have a better chance of getting well than patients with a more negative attitude toward their own healing. The young science of psycho-neuro immunology is providing many examples of chemical changes produced in the body as a result of mental-emotional states. This implies that functions of the autonomic nervous system, including healing, is influenced by mental-emotional states.

Evidence indicates that on a subconscious instinctual level, we know what is wrong with us and what we need to correct the problem. For example, children with rickets like the taste of cod liver oil. Pregnant women with nutritional deficiencies are inexorably drawn to eat substances which contain the elements that their growing foetus requires. But most of us are so out of touch with our own subconscious wisdom that we don’t consciously know what we need to solve the problems of health (happiness, success, etc.). Stated in another way, most of us neither recognize nor respond correctly to behavioral impulses arising from our own autonomic nervous systems.

A German nurse worked as the local doctor in a rural village in Africa. Often women would stand in line for hours with their small naked children held on their hips. The nurse was amazed that the children never urinated on the mothers’ dresses. She asked one mother why her dress was never urinated upon. The mother responded, “When my child has to pee, I put him down on the ground.” The nurse asked, “How do you know when your child has to pee?” The mother looked at the nurse like she was mentally deficit and asked, “How do you know when you have to pee?” The African mother felt pressure in her own bladder, noted that she didn’t have to pee, realized that the sign she felt in her own body was the need of her child, and put the child down. This was the most natural thing in the world for the African mother. For the nurse, it was a miracle, an extrasensory perception.

Perhaps it is the constant focus upon training of the conscious mind and upon conscious endeavors that has caused modern civilized people to lose touch with the natural wisdom of the body. Whatever the reason, we civilized people are mostly lacking in awareness of what our bodies are trying to tell us. This point was delightfully depicted by a client during a diagnostic session using AK. As I muscle tested and gathered information, she asked, “If my body knows all this, why am I so stupid?”

Muscle testing provides a rather coarse tool for inquiring of the subconscious, for obtaining direct responses from the body. When you think of it, why should we have to press on each other’s arms in order to find out what we already know? Answer: Because we are so out of touch with our own subconscious wisdom that we no longer have conscious access to what we essentially know.

In this state, our body tries to communicate to our conscious mind through symptoms such as pain. A pain can be like a smoke alarm, alerting us that there is a “fire burning”; to the existence of a problem requiring our attention. But how can we correctly interpret our symptoms? AK derived techniques, when correctly applied as will be described later, can help us to determine and correct the causes of our symptoms. Before I knew of such techniques, I observed that the nature of our symptoms and the areas of the body where they occur can often help us to decipher the nature of the underlying problem. Knowledge of this kind of body language can be a valuable tool for any therapist.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comApplied Kinesiology Nutrition2008-10-30T07:33:18-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bbc8cfcbef2fa1e180227146d73568dc-26.html#unique-entry-id-26http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bbc8cfcbef2fa1e180227146d73568dc-26.html#unique-entry-id-26
It is said that in performing the Great Work, all your experiences, talents and learned capabilities will be put to good use. If you do seek the Kingdom of Heaven here and now with all your heart, you will have food in your belly and a warm place to sleep - adequate supplies for your worthy works will be given you in measured abundance.

It seems to me that the old alchemist's insistence upon living green veggies as essential nutrients for the Great Work has something. Daily now I'm harvesting veggies and slicing the greens thinly. My salad last night had Slices of beet and turnip. Thinly sliced broccoli leaves, Chinese cabbage, arugula, rucola, tomatoes and bell pepper, all fresh picked just before dinner. Winter salads need to be sliced thinly as they are otherwise very hard to chew. They need to be sturdy to survive the freezing nights. I don't cover those greens, even when it was in the low 20s. I chew my greens and tell my subconscious that I'm giving it these materials for the Great Work. And I am busying myself researching and writing on the symbols of the alchemical process each week. A small group is coloring in the symbol outlines and reading my words so I have a core group to urge me on. This "service" is giving me a study process that is yielding many wonderful insight-filled hours when the beloved symbols I've studied for so many years dance before my eyes in a bewildering display of elegance of line and form, of beauty, of multi-layered realizations of interconnections and relationships, fibonacci spirals in growth patterns on so many levels. Such are the spaces that engage my mind of late.

Dr. Robert Frost
]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comWhat is Applied Kinesiology?2008-10-29T07:41:13-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/062b864238426a5091e81b29f1e8792d-25.html#unique-entry-id-25http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/062b864238426a5091e81b29f1e8792d-25.html#unique-entry-id-25
Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a diagnostic method with great potential. The basic tool of AK is the muscle test. In muscle testing, the examiner has the client hold a body part in a specific position and resist the pressure applied by the examiner.

It is usually a surprise to the new client to experience that some of his muscles test weak and that very simple techniques can turn them on so they test strong. Balancing the response of the body's muscles so that they are all turned on results in better posture, balance and coordination. Surprisingly, it also results in clearer thinking, easier learning, increased rate of healing and increased resistance to disease.

Anyone with some experience of the scientific method can understand muscle testing. If a muscle tests strong, it is assumed that all is well. Then various factors can be applied and the same muscle test repeated. If it now tests weak, the factor applied is considered to have a negative effect upon the body.

If a muscle tests weak from the start, one can apply various stimuli and retest. Stimuli that make the weak muscle test strong are considered to have a beneficial, positive effect upon the body. This "weak or strong" model is the one still used by most practitioners today. For years, Dr. Frost (who teaches in English, German and Spanish) taught this model for many years in cities across Europe such as Madrid, Murcia, Albacete, Valencia, Como, Bassano del Grappa, Munich, Tubingen, Bremen, Stuttgart, Lubeck, Copenhagen, Paris, Villersexel, London, Edinburgh, Basel, Zurich and more.

However, in all medical diagnosis, there are always three ranges – too little, the correct amount, and too much. German medical doctors have recently developed methods to determine from muscle testing all three of these ranges. They have learned to correctly differentiate between a muscle that tests "adequately strong" as compared to a muscle that tests "hypertonic, rigid or too strong". Thus, muscle testing can be used for precise medical diagnosis. Dr. Frost now teaches this new AK development to groups worldwide.

Specific muscles have been found to be associated with specific organs. Thus, if a client has a disease of the liver, the associated muscle (Pectoralis major sternalis – PMS) will test imbalanced. It will either test weak  (too little) or totally blocked and rigid (too much). An effective remedy for the liver disease, when placed upon the tongue, will cause the PMS to come into balance and test strong (correct). A remedy that makes a weak muscle overly strong and rigid will likely have negative side effects and should be prescribed.

Doctors can use these techniques in their medical practice to determine, in advance, which medicine will work best for the healing of a specific patient. Mothers can use the same methods to find out which herb tea, homeopathic remedy, food, medicine or other remedy will help their ill family members. Athletes trained in these techniques can tune up their bodies for optimal performance.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comWoods and Gems2008-10-27T22:31:48-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bd534eeba29592ca1801ffa94c620313-24.html#unique-entry-id-24http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bd534eeba29592ca1801ffa94c620313-24.html#unique-entry-id-24
In 1967, the American chiropractor and father of Applied Kinesiology, Dr. George Goodheart, discovered a connection between specific muscles, organs, glands and the meridians described in the Eastern healing systems. When the meridian energy is balanced, the corresponding organs and glands function well and the associated muscles test strong.
 
When the meridian energy (Ch’I, life-force) flows freely (unimpeded) through the whole circle of meridians, clear thinking, rapid healing, resistance to disease, and strong-testing muscles is the result. The Chinese state that a free and unimpeded flow of the Ch’i or life-force through all of the meridians is the precondition for total health. When the meridian energy flows freely, it can go where it is needed to assist physiological processes such as digestion, provide protection against the elements (too much cold, heat, wind, dryness, moisture, etc.), and for healing of all kinds. When a meridian is partially blocked, the meridian energy backs-up and builds up in this meridian. This may be visualized by considering what happens to a little river when a beaver builds a dam: The water backs up and creates a lake. When a meridian has a block, an excess of energy gathers in the meridian. One result of such meridian energy imbalance is weak-testing muscles. Another result is pain.
 
Pain is always associated with an excess of energy in one or more of the meridians that flow through or near the area of pain. When the excess energy is dissipated (through a variety of means such as acupuncture, muscle balancing, etc) the pain is diminished or disappears completely. Dissipating excess meridian energy reduces pain.
 
If a free flow of meridian energy is a prerequisite for health, than any means of freeing the blockages of meridian energy will promote health and optimal functioning. Kinesiology muscle testing has revealed that touching particular substances can make weak-testing muscles test strong. This indicates that these substances bring the blocked meridian energy into circulation, which restrengthens all weak-testing muscles. Thus finding and carrying such substances can be an important step toward better health and functioning. Common substances that strengthen weak-testing muscles include herbs, medicines, essences, gemstones and woods.
 
However, as is the case with medicines, a substance which removes the symptoms is usually not an adequate treatment for the cause of the problem. By removing symptoms, such a substance may cause the client to ignore a problem that needs direct attention. For this reason, use all of your kinesiology techniques to determine the various steps needed to achieve optimal health and functioning. Some of these steps you will be able to perform with the client during the session. Other necessary steps (such as changing habits of posture, movement and diet, negative emotions, mental expectations, meditation, working conditions and relationships) require that the patient make basic changes in their daily habits.
 
These life-style changes must be performed on an ongoing basis. It takes time to change habits. In my experience, we only change habits when something better is in view. Even then, when we are stressed or otherwise not in energetic balance (when switched for example), we tend to only repeat past behavior. We need to be in balance to clearly conceive of and correctly create new conditions, internal or external.
 
When your client has received detailed instructions as to how to make needed changes in his life in order to create the conditions for optimal health or to achieve other goals, he will only likely follow these instructions when he is in a energy-balanced state. However, an energy balance is only temporary. After a kinesiology session, the client’s meridian system should be in balance and his thinking clear and positive. But the next stress will put him again out of balance and cloud his ability to think and be positive. In this imbalanced state, he will be less motivated and less able to actually make the needed changes that you tested and recommended to him.
 
One of the most important abilities of a therapist is to successfully motivate the client and help him to be capable of making the changes necessary to achieve his goals. Here is the forte of healing substances such as woods and gemstones. Carefully tested woods or gems tend to keep the meridian channels open (keep us in energy balance) and thus lesson the negative effects of stress. This can be an important assistance to the person who is attempting to make changes in his habitual life-style. With the meridian energies free-flowing, we remain clear thinking, positive and optimistic. And we remain capable of making new choices and decisions; the prerequisite for making changes that further our way to health or other chosen goals. Carrying the personally tested wood or gem can make the difference between a pleasant therapy session and one that really helps goals be reached and dreams come true. 

Dr. Robert Frost discovered and researched the effect of woods and gemstones upon human neurological functioning via AK muscle testing. In doing so, he has put some solid science underneath the popular use of gemstones in healing.

]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comWeight Loss2008-10-26T07:54:19-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/b579faea3b59701f2169e829193123cb-23.html#unique-entry-id-23http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/b579faea3b59701f2169e829193123cb-23.html#unique-entry-id-23
To return to a recent topic, there are several more concepts and procedures to make the process of losing weight successful. 

First of all, Frater Mystes recommendation to "reframe" the meaning of the feeling of being hungry into the joyful awareness that you are losing weight - this is pure genius and very correct.

Beyond this, I believe that one can lose weight and maintain a slender figure by following a few basic principles:
1) Burn up more calories than you take in.
2) Drink lots of water
3) Reduce calorie intake, but do not starve yourself!
4) Stop consuming chemicals (artificial sweeteners, MSG, preservatives, medicines)
5) Sweat daily
6) Do some aerobic exercise
7) Build muscle mass

Let's take these one at a time.

1) Burn up more calories than you take in. 
This one is pretty obvious. If your activity level is using up more calories than your intake, you should lose weight. 

2) Drink lots of water
This is so often overlooked. Many people carry around lots of extra water in their tissues. This looks like fat but is not. Because they do not drink enough pure water, their body holds the water it has to prevent all the salt and other chemicals from becoming so concentrated that it damages the tissues. 

Urine can only contain a certain maximal % amount of salts. So, you can't pee out your wastes unless you drink enough water.

Many of my European friends only drink highly sparkling mineral waters. These minerals are not in the best form for the body. These are the kind of minerals that clog your house pipes (and your joints = arthritis or your tissues = rheumatism). Get your minerals from vegetables. The mineral compounds in vegetables are highly soluble and assimilable by the body.

Sparkling water contains lots of carbon dioxide. When you breathe, you take in oxygen and expel the waste product, carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is "exhaust". Drinking sparkling drinks is taking in high levels of exhaust – of what the body is trying to get rid of.

Drink pure water. When you drink only pure water, between meals when your stomach is empty of all food, you body goes into purification mode. It uses the water like an internal shower. How would your hair feel if you washed it in cola! (Unless you have kidney problems or congestive heart failure), drink more pure water!

Many of my friends have started losing weight when they started drinking much more water (without changing anything else in their level of activity or diet). 

3) Reduce calorie intake, but do not starve yourself!
If you do not eat enough good food, you body will reduce its metabolism – the rate at which it burns calories. This can be so frustrating. I know of examples amongst my patients and one lady on this list who, for one week, only drank water and herb tea. The result was only a loss of one pound! And subsequently, when eating normally, the body now was far more economic with calories and stored them as more fat.

Most people do not get enough vitamins and minerals in the food they eat. Reducing the amount of food you eat may lead to malnutrition! Eat highly nutritious, excellent quality, yummy foods. You may consider taking a god vitamin, mineral, trace element supplement, too. 

4) Stop consuming chemicals (artificial sweeteners, MSG, preservatives, medicines)
These chemicals can actually make you hold more water and build more fat. Particularly insidious is aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. People drink diet soda pop, thinking that they are thereby avoiding the calories of sugar. There is some evidence that artificial sweeteners actually cause the body to put on extra fat. Besides, they are not nutrients and may well be quite poisonous to the body. 

Chemicals that the body cannot easily excrete get stored in between the cells and in fatty tissues. One problem with losing fat is that these stored chemicals come out into the blood stream. If you are not drinking enough water and practicing other detoxifying techniques, this high level of rather toxic chemicals in the blood will make you feel awful. And, if not excreted, the presence of these chemicals will force the body to make more fat to store them away again.

5) Sweat daily
If you are really lazy, you can accomplish this by taking a sauna. The skin is the largest eliminative organ of the body. Get those toxins out by sweating them out (and taking a shower to wash them off).

6) Do some aerobic exercise
Better than passive sweating, sweat through moderate, sustained levels of activity. Choose some activity that is fun or you won't likely keep it up regularly. Personally, I do not like running. So many runners get bad knees with time. Yes, good shoes, good posture and a soft track minimize this problem. I just don't like jogging. I prefer dancing, swimming, surfing, floor exercise and the like. Find something you like. Bouncing of a ball or a little trampoline is excellent. Take it easy at first with the trampoline until your body gets used to it. A large rubber gymnastic ball (available from medical supply stores and "healthy back" stores) is very gentle to all the joints and not too strenuous. After returning from India with "post-dysenteric arthritis", I was crippled and extremely weak. I couldn't do one chin up. I couldn't bent my knees and stand back up. Bouncing on the ball was my salvation.

Your cells take in nutrients from blood capilaries. Your cells excrete wastes into the lymph system. The lymph contains all the waste products of all the cells in your body. Bouncing pumps the lymph fluids through the body. Many people look fat because their lymph fluids are not being pumped through and out of their bodies. The have lymphatic congestion. Although there is about twice as much lymph as blood in the body, the lymph system has no heart to pump it around. However, the lymph vessels have one-direction valves. When your muscles contract, the lymph in that area is pumped forward. The one-direction valves prevent it from flowing back. The next contraction pumps it further forward. 

Bouncing is, in effect, an excellent lymphatic pump. Any regular sustained activity helps pump the lymph. A brisk, 20 minute walk – just fast enough to make you breathe more deeply than normal – is quite adequate. 

Many men exercise far too strenuously. They do exercises that make their hearts race too fast. Moderate exercise burns fat. Fat cannot be metabolized fast enough for very strenuous exercise. For such high levels of exertion, the body burns up its blood sugar. The result is often low blood sugar, consequent extreme hunger, excess eating and greater levels of fat. 

A good rule of thumb: To burn fat maximally, do some kind of movement that raises your heart rate near to but not more than 180 minus your age) beats per minute. So, if you are fifty, your maximal aerobic heart rate should be about 180-50=130 beats per minute. Keep your heart rate between 120 and 130 for about 20 minutes and your metabolism will speed up for about 10 hours. This means that if you do some dancing or other fun activity that properly elevates your heart rate, that you will be burning off fat all the rest of the day, even if you are just sitting around doing nothing special.

Get a good heart rate monitor. The one I have allows me to set the target heart beat range. If I go over my chosen maximum, it beeps with a high note. If I go under the target minimum, it makes a low "Blah" sound. This makes it easy to stay in the target range.

7) Build muscle mass
Even if you don't change any other of your habits, this one alone will make you lose weight. Here's the story: Just having muscle dramatically increases your metabolic rate. That means that if you have more muscle, you will burn calories at a greatly increased rate even if you do nothing.

Be aware that muscle is heavier than fat. So, while you are building muscle, you may not lose weight. Be sure to measure yourself. You will be losing inches and getting into shape. Seeing those inches shrink will keep you motivated.

The easiest and safest way to build muscle is also the way that takes the least amount of time. Building muscle mass requires anaerobic, strenuous exercises. This is the opposite of aerobic exercises. Choose some exercises that utilize all the big muscle groups of the body. For example, you might do lunge, squat, push ups (with knees on the floor), chin ups (with feet on a stool). Do a long set of warm ups with the same muscles first to get them ready to exert. Then do each exercise very, very slowly. Take 10 seconds to push up and 10 seconds to go back down. Continue until you cannot do one more repetition. Try anyway with all your might for ten more seconds. After you cannot lift yourself back up, do a few more negative repetitions (just slowly lowering yourself back down).

Doing exercises this way (slowly) puts less stress into the joints and is thus safer. However, the muscles will get really deeply exercised. Done correctly, each muscle fiber will go to exhaustion. After such exercises, wait one week before repeating the program. You can do aerobic movements like brisk walking etc., but do no heavy exercise for one week. 

With one-half a hour of this kind of exercise once per week, you will put on lean muscle mass and lose that fat. It works. It's hard work, but for only 1/2 hour per week. I don't know any other way to lose so much fat with such a short amount of time per week of effort. It does require maximal effort. After this level of exertion, you will have some sore tired muscles for a few days.

To avoid the sore muscle effect, take lots of anti-oxidants like vitamin C and E, selenium, zinc. Grape seed extract (proanthocyanadines) is one of the most powerful antioxidants of all. These antioxidants will neutralize the free radicals generated by your strenuous efforts before they make your muscles hurt. Also, exercise generates lactic acid in the muscles. This acid irritates the tissues and causes the feeling of fatigue and soreness. The day or two after heavy exercise, do some gentle easy movements with the same muscles to pump out the lymph and lactic acid out of the well-exercised muscles. Then they won't hurt so much or for so long.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comVaricose Veins2008-10-25T07:00:38-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/faeeae1671a1a2b6d9735b986aa9ac5b-22.html#unique-entry-id-22http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/faeeae1671a1a2b6d9735b986aa9ac5b-22.html#unique-entry-id-22
I was asked what to do about varicose veins. I thought that this topic might be useful for others, so I am answering it here and forwarding it on to several friends.

Varicose veins occur when the walls of the veins are unable to stretch and return to their original size – when the veins are not elastic enough.

Vein walls are made mostly of collagen. Collagen gives strength and elasticity to all connective tissues. The body makes collagen from one thing: Vitamin C. If your wife is having problems with varicose veins, she needs much more vitamin C.

Getting enough for her needs from food would be practically impossible. However, vitamin C works much better in the presence of bioflavinoids and other plant chemicals found in natural sources of vitamin C. Actually collagen gives strength to connective tissues. Bioflavinoids are the precusors of elastin which gives the elasticity.

Bioflavinoids are found in abundance in citrus skins. However, the thin outermost skin (the colored part) is very bitter and is often sprayed with chemicals. I suggest to you what I do:

Peel the outermost skin off of oranges (lemons, limes, grapefruit), leaving all the white inner skin. Cut the fruit with white skin into chunks. Remove most of the seeds. Put it in a blender with some orange juice, a few ice cubes, and about a teaspoon of Vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid). Grind it up and drink it during the next 5-15 minutes while very fresh.

If there is a problem with over-acidity in the body, mix the vitamin C powder with an equal quantity of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Add a little water, stir and allow to fizz. Now you have sodium ascorbate, a neutral salt of ascorbic acid which delivers vitamin C but is not acidic. Do not mix these powders directly into the pulpy juices or the fizzing will overflow your container!

Buckwheat sprouts (planted in soil, sprouted into little plants, and eaten as salad greens) are the highest source of the bioflavinoid, rutin. If you are up to the sprouting endeavor, I recommend these as well.

Also, since vitamins C and B complex are synergistic, take a good B complex with the C drink. B vitamins are the precursors of the chemicals in the nerve synapses. When these are used up, one nerve firing will not cause the next nerve to fire. When you are low in B vitamins, you may notice that you tend to "lose the thought" (duh, what was I saying?). This nervous exhaustion is a symptom of B vitamin deficiency. If you have this problem, take this drink with vitamin B complex. About 20-30 minutes later, you will be able to think clearly again. Brewer's yeast is rich in several B vitamins and can be added to the drink. However, so many people have problems with excess yeast in their bodies (Candida albicans). In such cases, eating yeast is not a good idea.

Increasing your dosage of vitamin C and bioflavinoids will make your skin more elastic. This will help you to stay looking young. Your tendons and ligaments will strengthen as well. It will take some time to work, but this dietary addition will solve the varicose vein problem (and improve the health in many other ways). In my opinion, drinking more water, taking more vitamin C, and getting adequate exercise are the most important factors needed for improving health.

Since B and C vitamins are water soluble, your body cannot store them well. Thus you need to eat them daily. If you manage to take too much vitamin C, the overdose symptom is diarrhea. This is not a big problem. If you get loose stools, just reduce your vitamin C dosage a bit.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comMuscle Testing and Gait2008-10-24T07:59:59-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/3bacfacc714ba9240a8235559daab11a-21.html#unique-entry-id-21http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/3bacfacc714ba9240a8235559daab11a-21.html#unique-entry-id-21
As an Applied Kinesiologist for many years, I've been noticing and considering the relationship between specific weak-testing muscles/systems and psychological conditions. I've noted generally that those with weak extensors have difficulty separating themselves from others/other things. The can't push people or things away. Those with predominantly weak-testing flexors have difficulty holding onto things. They have difficulty pulling something or someone in near to themselves.

Even more interesting: Those with weak-testing neck flexors have difficulty pushing their personal will through opposition. They are not so able to stand their own ground, defend their own position, and exert their own choice against/through the resistance of others or outer conditions. Neck flexors must be strong to "butt heads" - an important male dominance behavior - not only in the animal kingdom! Weak-testing neck flexors make someone a easy "pushover".

When the gaits are out, especially the front (anterior) gait, one has difficulty "stepping forward", out of current conditions toward desired conditions. A reminder: To test the front gaits, test anterior deltoid first. If weak, strengthen it. Then test the lower abdominals by raising a single straight leg (lying supine) and pushing it down. If weak, strengthen it. Then test one anterior deltoid and the opposite lower ab simultaneously. If the individual muscles test strong, but weak when tested together, the gait mechanism is "out". The AK technique for strengthening the gaits is massage of points around the ball of the foot. I recommend putting this weakness in circuit and doing a complete balance for it. The protocol of doing various cross crawl movements, rubbing the points, and again doing the cross crawl movements can be well given as homework for the client to do themselves.

A child with gait problems runs with discoordination and is often made fun of by the other kids. He or she may then decide that sports are not for him/her and concentrate exclusively upon mental studies. This can disturb their self-image and lower the quality of their whole life experience. Correcting the gaits can make a great improvement in the quality of life.

I had a 45 year old patient in the medical clinic where I worked in Basel, Switzerland. He was an extreme dyslexic with both mental difficulties and physical discoordination. He wore special pants because he often wet his pants uncontrollably. His wife made fun of him and his personal image was "am Arsch" (German for "on his butt" - really down). When he lifted an arm, all leg muscles on both sides tested weak. When he lifted a leg, all arm muscles tested weak on both sides. He always wanted to learn to swim, but the simultaneous coordination of arms and legs needed was beyond his capacity. With concentration, he was able to learn to do various cross crawl movements. He went to the swimming pool, did cross crawl, rubbed his feet and again did cross crawls. He then got in the water and learned to swim in one hour. He returned to me with a look of great pride in his eyes (like a child who says, "Look, Mommy, at what I can do!") and told me of his success. The best part, he said, was that he had control of his prior problem and could now correct it "with my own hands".

When someone has strong neck flexors but the gaits are out, they can defend their position and exert their personal will against resistance well, but may have difficulty making and following through on long-term plans/goals.

Balancing the neck flexors and gaits can have very long-reaching, generalizing effects upon their ability to set, move forward toward, and achieve goals... and thereby upon their image of themselves as a functional, successful human being.

--Dr. Robert Frost
Author of Applied Kinesiology
]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comApplied Kinesiology Neuromuscular Techniques2008-10-23T07:00:43-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/6982ec708bd12e5cf9a5dbf0a3dc73ba-20.html#unique-entry-id-20http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/6982ec708bd12e5cf9a5dbf0a3dc73ba-20.html#unique-entry-id-20
Here is another great technique to apply in your Applied Kinesiology sessions:

The basic principle: Stretch a muscle to its maximum. Fix it there so it can't return toward relaxation. Isometrically contract the very muscle you are stretching against fixed resistance. Use only about 25% of the muscle's strength of contraction. Breathe deeply the whole time. After some time, relax and stretch the muscle further. Repeat the process.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comApplied Kinesiology Treatments2008-10-22T09:00:59-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/670ef1bb34f7cabfd0842e2622e11cf0-19.html#unique-entry-id-19http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/670ef1bb34f7cabfd0842e2622e11cf0-19.html#unique-entry-id-19
When after 36 hours of labor my daughter was born, her little head was shaped like a rocket nose cone. As her mother was being attended, I held my daughter under the warmer, met her gaze, and held the top of her head in my palm. The weight of her head pressed the pointed top of her head into my hand. I felt the bones shift and her head become more round. I told her mother. The doctors laughed and scoffed, saying that the cranium is a fixed structure and never changes. I asked them if they really believed that my daughter would live her life as a conehead. Their learning completely blocked the truth of their experience... and their vision. Amazing and sad but true.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comApplied Kinesiology Treatments2008-10-20T08:12:37-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bcdceb9e6bd6b05c3ffadba5f5ae3b0e-18.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bcdceb9e6bd6b05c3ffadba5f5ae3b0e-18.html#unique-entry-id-18
The neighbors teenage daughter had three girlfriends visiting. One very sturdy girl has had hip problems. She told me that she her right leg was longer and that this has caused her constant pain (with her daily running) for over a year. I tested all the hip and upper leg muscles I could remember. Gluteus medius, Rectus femoris, Psoas, Piriformis, lower Abdominals tested weak. Hamstrings and Gluteus maximus tested very strong. I turned on all the weak-testing muscles with NL points (I haven't memorized the NE points yet!). Her pain was gone. I had her run around the pool, bend and stretch. Her pain in the bumm (middle of Gluteus maximus) returned. I suspected, as always, that the tight painful muscle was a reactor muscle so I spindle cell weakened it by pinching the muscle belly together, parallel to the muscle fibers, directly over the area that hurt. She was lying on her belly, so I had her next pull her leg forwards towards the ground (activating the opponents to Gluteus maximus: lower Abdominals, Rectus femoris, hip flexors). Presto, her pain was gone and couldn't be found through movement or stretching.

Next, her skinny friend asked if I could do something about her "shin splints". I tested the lower leg muscles and found only peroneus longus and brevis, the peroneus muscle that everts the foot (moves the pointed foot toward the little toe side) weak-testing. I strengthened it with NLs. Then I used a fast vibratory massage on the muscular attachments of muscles to the shin bone where she was having her shin-splint pains. This "origin-insertion" technique was the first muscle-strengthening technique discovered by George Goodheart (the founder of applied kinesiology). See: http://www.joyousworld.com/health/ak/oi.html
Her shin-splint pains were gone.

The girls asked me how to increase their stretch. They are all dancers and want to do the splits. I showed them the technique of stretching a muscle to the maximum, fixing it in place, and gently tightening the maximally stretched muscle while breathing. (Hypertone-X, proprioceptive-integrative technique?). This increased their range of motion swiftly.

-Dr. Robert Frost
Applied Kinesiologist]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSpirituality2008-10-19T12:18:37-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/f2e5d717a892393fdbea232ecf41d4f1-17.html#unique-entry-id-17http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/f2e5d717a892393fdbea232ecf41d4f1-17.html#unique-entry-id-17
Bell's theorem is absolutely fascinating. It is derived only from mathematical logic. As long as our rules of logic are correct, Bell's theorem must also be correct. Although thus "proven", what it implies is unclear.

Actually, the validity of Bell’s theorem implies that one of three basic assumptions is wrong:

1. Logic is valid.
2. "Reality" is something that exists separate from observation.
3. Information cannot travel instantaneously from one point to another; cannot travel faster than the speed of light.

Logic is likely valid. If not, we need a whole new mathematics and philosophy.
If number 2 is the invalid culprit, then the world we perceive is only that way because of our perception of it. What we call reality only comes into existence as a result of our perception. This sounds like the Toltec belief: That the world we perceive is a creation of our minds. Their awakened members contend that when they move their assemblage points, they perceive totally different realities.

If number 3 is wrong, then information can travel faster than light as assumed above. Perhaps it can’t. But if it can’t, then number two is incorrect which means that our world is much less "objective" and "real" than most imagine! It would be more accurate to state that the world as you know it comes into existence as a result of your act your observation.

Either answer is very mysterious and wonderful. Could it be that parts of the universe are in constant contact with one another instantaneously, no matter how distant from one another? This sounds like a scientific proof of the unity of all existence. Or perhaps reality as we experience it has no existence in and of itself. It is generated by our personal and social acts of observation. Whichever one of these two (or perhaps both) is the case, we are in a far more amazing universe than most imagine."

This is quoted from the webpage
http://joyousworld.com/qabalah/pages/bigpicture.html
There, about 2/3 the way through the huge page, is the story of Bell's theorem and a photo of the man who derived it.

***

Concerning "spirit" in blood, I made a fascinating discovery. A friend, a medical doctor at the dinner table, had a small cut on her finger. I gathered a bit of her blood on a tissue and placed it in a little plastic bag. Another friend, a man at the table, volunteered for an experiment. First, I did meridian diagnostics on the doctor with the cut. Then I energy balanced the volunteered man so all his meridians were in balance. Then had him place the bag with the blood under his belt near his skin. Next I did meridian diagnostics on him. With the little packet of blood upon his body, he had the precise energy imbalances that the doctor had. The presence of her blood near his body put him into her energy imbalanced state.

The next part sounds a bit like voodoo! I energy balanced him while the little packet of blood was upon his body. He was put into balance. Then I went back to the doctor and found that she too was in complete energy balance. I balanced him to her blood and she was put into balance with no direct contact whatsoever.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK and The Mind2008-10-18T07:52:20-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/ec5f6c01308d3515443ac7acd82a6e77-16.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/ec5f6c01308d3515443ac7acd82a6e77-16.html#unique-entry-id-16
Well-roundness rules for goals during an AK session:

1. Visualized and formulated in the present tense - as if the desired state is present here now: "I am", not "I want".

2. Formulated in the positive (no, "I want to quit smoking", but rather “I want to be healthier)

3. Under your own control (no, "I will be happy when someone else changes in the way I want them to)

4. Described in terms of your five senses (What and how will you see, feel, smell, etc. when your goal is present here now?)-

5. Verifiable: How will you know when you have achieved your goal? What criteria will make you sure that you are "there"?

These fabulous 5 rules can be utilized during Applied Kinesiology sessions to help the patient move more strongly toward their goals!

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comGood Teachings2008-10-17T07:24:22-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a18aa340730e159b4f5f4ea80c1c21a7-15.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a18aa340730e159b4f5f4ea80c1c21a7-15.html#unique-entry-id-15When I was about 7, my father took me with him when he went to his lawyer's house. All along one wall, from floor to ceiling, were identical looking pale blue books. I asked what they were. The lawyer answered that these books contained descriptions of all the things that were against the law in USA.

I was shocked, flabbergasted! I didn't know there were that many things, let along that many forbidden things. After we left, I asked my father, "Are there really so many things that are against the law in our country?" My father thought a minute and then replied, "Yes, there are that many laws, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't do those things."

Surprised, I said, "But I thought that was what laws mean." My father replied, "It's important that people follow these rules in general or society would fall apart. We couldn't live so close together in cities if people freely killed and stole from each other. However, if in your specific case, you feel and think that you do have the right to do something against the law, what it first means is that you should cool off and think it through carefully. If, after careful consideration, you still think that you have the right to do something like that, then it means that you should do it such a way that no one can find out who did it."

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSpirituality2008-10-15T18:56:54-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/048b5931e03982ba998280c7d6b27e36-14.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/048b5931e03982ba998280c7d6b27e36-14.html#unique-entry-id-14
We are incarnating in a human vehicle. Many "animal" behaviors come built into this experience. We tend to think that we "are" these behaviors, but in truth, they are part of the human-animal vehicles built in patterns. It is up to us to objectively observe (key 1), remember (key 2) who we are, and lovingly (key 3) guide ourselves into wisely chosen behaviors.

It has taken ages to develop an animal vehicle that has the capacity for incarnation by human consciousness. It is a wonder, not to be demeaned in any way. But the wise learn to recognize the animal vehicle tendencies for what they are instead of defending them as one's own self.

Driving along the coast South from Los Angeles one early Sunday morning, I was thinking of this animal vehicle. I decided to try to talk with it. I said, "Animal vehicle I am living in, it is rather cold and overcast just now, but I do have a swim suit, fins and a towel in the trunk. Do you want to go swimming and body surfing before going home?"

My body began to hop and bop about like a dog when you ask him if he wants to go for a walk!

I laughed and told my animal, "OK, I get the message. Let's go swimming."

Honor your animal vehicle. Get to know what it wants and needs... and fulfill these regularly. You'll be healthier and happier for it.

Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK used in Psychotherapy2008-10-14T07:57:56-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/b691d2ce113a60b116eada77d66387ac-13.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/b691d2ce113a60b116eada77d66387ac-13.html#unique-entry-id-13As far as psychological therapies go, I highly recommend that you learn Milton Ericson's hypnotic techniques, NeuroLinguistic Programming and Jungian Psychology.

Skinner is a first chakra psychologist - survival, changing behavior...
Freud is a second chakra psychologist - everything is an aspect of sex.
Adler is a third chakra psychologist - dominance, pecking order...
Jung is a fourth chakra psychologist - individuation = great work.

NLP will equip you with skills to recognize, identify and modify human behavior. It is amoral = can be used for good or bad. It represents the most advanced techniques of influencing to date. You can make change work fast, easy, lasting... and don't have to get bogged down in the bummer stories people like to tell psychologists.

I have a PhD in psychology, but decided not to practice as a psychologist. In USA, the psychiatrists followed by the psychologists are the occupational groups that most often commit suicide. After hearing the bad stories from their patients all day long... they don't want to live in that kind of world anymore. NLP allows you to do "contentless therapy" - you can really help without having to hear the bad stories.

My basic therapeutic modality is Applied Kinesiology. I wrote a teaching and reference textbook on the field. With AK, I can determine what happened when - the cause of a patient's psychological (or other type of) problem in minutes. Then I can use AK to determine which kind of therapy will be appropriate for resolving the problem. You'd be surprised how many psychological problems can be resolved with selected nutrients!

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSkin Problems2008-10-13T21:08:24-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/c861382d1a0d30d691e0441410b230e8-12.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/c861382d1a0d30d691e0441410b230e8-12.html#unique-entry-id-12People with debiliting skin diseases usually have a problem with setting personal boundaries. The skin if your body's boundary. For such people, everything that happens goes "to the core". It's like their nerves have no insulation. They need to establish some personal space for themselves and learn to not take other people's actions personally. Your friend's desire to retire from active life and go become a monk seem to agree with this hypothesis. He should take time daily for meditation or other regular "retreats". When people ask him to do something for them, he should learn to say either, "No" or "I'll do that for you if you'll do this for me" - and give them an equally time- and energy-consuming task.

I would advise a strong daily dose of B vitamins - along with or in a multiple vitamin, which can be tested with applied kinesiology muscle testing.

Aloe vera - applied topically and drunk internally will be very soothing and healing.]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK used in Psychotherapy2008-10-12T13:34:51-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/250fbc2fb436843fc03ee1cf499a8415-11.html#unique-entry-id-11http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/250fbc2fb436843fc03ee1cf499a8415-11.html#unique-entry-id-11A colleague of mine had a "new-age" type patient in psychological therapy. She was always speaking of her great desire for "inner growth". Her subconscious heard her words and gave it to her: cancer tumors. That's real inner growth - not what she meant but truly what she said. She died from them.

A teacher of mine related the story of a man who successfully visualized lots of money - giving it out and receiving it. He got a job as a bank teller. A temple woman visualized having a husband. Soon lots of husbands were giving her attention - the husbands of other women!

It appears to me that the subconscious has a seemingly perverse humor - giving us just what we said - even if not exactly what we meant. That being so, it behooves us to choose our words very precisely indeed - with no chance of double meanings with undesired intent.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSpirituality2008-10-12T13:31:12-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/80d9b8fb0d563679caad571b9550ab4c-10.html#unique-entry-id-10http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/80d9b8fb0d563679caad571b9550ab4c-10.html#unique-entry-id-10
The most important spiritual practice is that of freeing the
subconscious from the compulsion to elaborate every suggestion it
receives from self-consciousness. This is the slavery of the woman to
the man. It happens inside of each one of us.

I have elaborated this suggestion a bit. I try to improvise what I say
so it is "fresh" each time. The essence is like this:

"Subconscious mind, henceforth when you receive a suggestion from or
via me (self-consciousness), you will first compare it with
superconscious wisdom to which you have perfect access. If the
suggestion is in harmony with superconsciousness, great! Then elaborate
it to our heart's delight. If not, simply ignore it. Instead of
elaborating such false suggestions, reflect back to me,  your
self-conscious equal partner, the corresponding superconscious wisdom.
I, for my part, will endeavor to be ever more receptive to these
gleenings of superconscious wisdom reflected to me by you, my
subconscious equal-partner. Inspired by them, I will generate more and
more suggestions that are in harmony with superconscious wisdom. Thus
together we will harmoniously dance as each other's perfect equal
partner, completing the Great Work together."

Until she is made free within, a man will be unable to free himself
from the social habit of "ownership" of "his" woman without.

-Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comMigraines2008-10-12T13:27:40-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/886f3e3dea40bbd28b6eec8ffc5ccacf-9.html#unique-entry-id-9http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/886f3e3dea40bbd28b6eec8ffc5ccacf-9.html#unique-entry-id-9A few months ago the time leading up to a marriage ceremony was a major stress producer for me, and I was suffering from occular migraines.

I've had some good results with myself and others with these kind of headaches.
They often arise from stress - specifically stress in the big neck muscles that attach to the back of your head.

This often occurs because we carry our heads way out in front of the line of gravity through our bodies.

When the head is out there, the muscles at the back of the neck have to hold hard all the time to keep the head from falling forward onto the chest.
After days/weeks of this, the skull becomes slightly distorted - pulled down in the back. This distorts the orb of skull surrounding the eyeball, eventually causing pain and visual disturbances.

Long-term Solution: Better posture in general with the head in balance on top of the upright spine. Get out of so much stress.

Remedy for acute pain: Lie on your back comfortably, soft pillow under the head and neck. Put your hands over your eyes, fingers on top of your head, heels of the ˙ands directly upon the eyes. Relax the eyes and imagine them falling back into your head. Imagine your nose, lower forehead and all around your eyes softening, melting, and falling back into your head. When this is working right, it kind of feels like the part of your face all around your eyes if "going down the drain" and sinking in at the root of the nose.

When that far, press a bit upon your eyeballs and feel them sink back into their sockets. Imagine them falling all the way to the spot at the back of your neck where your neck meets your head. If when you press on your eyeballs, they don't sink in, you are still holding your ocular muscles too tightly. Relax them consciously until when you press, you can feel them sinking into your head.

Step 2: Put one hand at the base of your skull and the other one on the top of your head and forehead. Gently pull the base of your skull toward the top of your head. With the other hand, gently pull the top of your head forward and your forehead downward. You are encouraging your skull to return to its normal state.

--Dr. Robert Frost
]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSwitching2008-10-12T08:25:40-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/8d377bb20b1fbc9b97817ba188c034f2-8.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/8d377bb20b1fbc9b97817ba188c034f2-8.html#unique-entry-id-8       A neurologically well-organized person can make coordinated movements with the opposite sides of the body at the same time and does not easily become confused.  Good neurological integration expresses itself as clear awareness and coordinated control of the body, and mental acuity.  Switching (neurologic disorganization) indicates a lack of integration between the dimensions of left-right, up-down, or back-front in the nervous system and body.  Switching can change the results of muscle testing, giving false information.

       In the switched state, a problem on the right side of the body may test as being on the left side.  This is an example of a lack of proper integration of the nervous system and the body.  When such lack of integration exists, it is necessary to correct switching before proceeding with other tests in order to obtain accurate information.  The quick-fix correction given in the last paragraph of this section are effective, allowing for further tests to be performed with accuracy.  However, since they do not address the underlying causes of switching, they are seldom long lasting.

       Touching specific points (therapy localization) may be used to determine which systems are switched.  The points most often used to determine the dimensions of switching are
1. the K27s-the end points of the kidney meridians to test for left-right switching,
2. CV24-the end point of the central meridian to test for up down switching, and
3. GV 27-the end point of the governing meridian to test for back-front switching.  GV-I at the tip of the coccyx may alternatively be used to test back front switching.  Touching the sacrum is adequate for this test.

       In acupuncture, the associated points (located on the bladder meridian between the vertebrae along both sides of the spine) provide an interconnection of the bladder meridian with all other meridians.  These points share the same location with important spinal nerves and with neurolymphatic massage points.  The end points of the kidney meridians (kidney meridian acupuncture point number 27) are known as "the associated points of the associated points" or as "the home of the associated points."  The K27s are the most important points in acupuncture.  Goodheart refers to the K27s as a switchboard between the left and right sides of the body.

       In order to test for switching in the left-right dimension, have the client gently touch the ends of the kidney meridians (the K27s located under the points where the collarbones meet the breastbone).  The client should use the thumb on one side and two adjacent fingers on the other side of the breastbone for neutral testing and to leave his other arm free for muscle testing.  If therapy localization to the K27s causes a test muscle to weaken, switching exists between the left and right sides.

       Switching in the up-down dimension may be similarly tested by therapy localization (with two adjacent fingers) to the end of the central meridian (CV24, located just below the middle of the lower lip).

       To test for back-front integration, therapy localize the end of the governing meridian (GV 27, located just above the upper lip) or the sacrum, and test as before.  The same test may be performed by touching the tailbone.  If touching any of the above mentioned points causes a previously strong testing muscle to weaken, switching is indicated in the dimension associated with the active point(s).

       Switching in the tester may also produce false test results in the client.  If the client is experienced with muscle testing, the client can test the possible switching in the tester directly.  Or, the tester may simply perform the "quick-fix" switching corrections upon himself without prior testing.  

       In order to avoid erroneous results in further kinesiologic testing, switching must at least temporarily be corrected before proceeding with other tests.  For accurate testing, switching must be eliminated in the tester as well.  Switching may be temporarily eliminated by placing one hand upon the navel and actively massaging the points which caused the indicator muscle to test weak.  The hands should then be reversed and the massage repeated.  Breathe deeply while rubbing the points.  Upon retesting, touching the points should no longer weaken the indicator muscle.  Although temporary in effect, such switching correction will improve the reliability of the results of further muscle testing.

**

In my experience, right-left switching is the more common form of neurological disorganization. There can be many possible causes. Physical injuries, even in the distant past, can cause proprioceptors to continue signaling an imbalance, which disturbs posture, balance and mental functions as well. All dimensions of switching can also be caused by chemical imbalances (improper food, allergies, medicines, pollution...).

Mental causes of switching:
Right-Left: Conflict, indecision - usually between what you want and what you think your should. When switched, you can do what you want and it feels like what you should do. You can eat junk food and feel good doing so.

Back-Front: Behind you symbolizes the past. In front, the future. When you have back and front switched, you have a past in front of you. This means you expect today and tomorrow to be as bad as (or worse than) yesterday.  Unresolved stressful experiences of the past return to haunt you. Your negative expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies. The universe tends to give you what you expect.

Up-Down: When these two dimensions are switched, the individual has orientation problems. When I want to find someone with this imbalance for a demonstration, I ask, "Who must rotate a map until the streets are parallel to the actual streets?" The person who says that they must do this is most always a person in a state of up-down switching.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAlexander Technique2008-10-12T08:23:00-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/40ff4acd477bf7cad5bd8292ae946790-7.html#unique-entry-id-7http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/40ff4acd477bf7cad5bd8292ae946790-7.html#unique-entry-id-7When learning Alexander Technique with Patrick Macdonald in London for three years, we learned that to optimize our posture and use of the "self". To do so, I learned to allow my neck to be free, my head to gently nod forward a bit, and to extend the spine upward, the back to lengthen and widen. 

However, in practice, as soon as I thought of my head going upward, I forgot about my neck being free and it again tightened up. 

The habit of tightening the back of the neck prior to any activity (answering the phone, reaching with the hand, standing up - everything!) is nearly ubiquitous in the human race. As evidenced in the startle reflex, humans pull their head back as if in fear... and for some reason do so before every other movement. Watch people carefully. Before beginning to move, they subtly or grossly tighten the back of their neck, pulling the head back upon the spine. Standing up is an excellent example to observe. What do humans do when they decide to stand? They through their torso forward and down toward the floor. They pull their head way back on their spine. Now with the whole upper body hurdling downward, they jam their feet down and push their hips upward. Their poor spine is like an accordion, moving downward from above and upward from below. To stand, people throw themselves downward toward the floor. When you think about it, it's absolutely crazy. 

Backs are strong. They can stand this kind of abuse for 40 or 50 years before major injury and chronic back pain begins. Statistics: One half of people over 50 have recurrent back pain.

Background: A few million years ago, humans stood up on the hind legs. This caused and continues to cause all sorts of problems. The hips of altered, making child-bearing much harder for human females than for animals. The muscles in the back of the neck have weakened, making us more prone to whiplash-type injuries. Another problem is that unlike animals, humans have no inbuilt instinctual patterns of correct use of the vehicle. While on four legs, the head is out front and leads the body into motion. If something happens in the distance to an animal's left, the animal's head extends forward and rotates toward the left to sense what is happening. Then if the animal decides to go in that direction, the natural first step is with the right foreleg, following the direction of the motion of the head.

Humans stand up so their heads are no longer out in front of a horizontal spinal column. So what part of the human anatomy ought to lead the body into motion? Many people lead with their hips, "trucking" and thinking that they look really cool. 

Optimal posture and use in the human vehicle requires that one inhibits the habitual pattern of tightening the neck (stopping before going into action), giving directions for proper use ("let the neck be free, the head to go forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen") and continuing to focus upon this "means whereby" while going into action. This is much like Krishna's admonition to Arjuna to focus upon what he is doing and thereby do it will without thinking about the results of his activities. This is the secret of karma yoga: To avoid "end gaining" and stay in the present time, doing what you have to do well with full attention.

I could go much further into the dynamics of optimal human locomotion (a favorite topic), but for our point here I need only say that a few million  years is not a long enough evolutionary time to develop instinctual patterns of optimal use of the body. 

Since we don't have it built in like the animals do, for humans to develop patterns of optimal use requires intelligent self-direction. So, now armed with the requisite background, back to the issue at hand: the paradox of sequence and simultaneous presence. 

When the Alexander Technique student goes for lessons, s/he is given a homework project of non-doing. S/he is to lie on the back on the floor with an adequately high stack of books under the head so that the palpable portion of the upper vertebrae of the neck are slightly higher off or the floor than the lower cervical vertebrae. The teacher will feel the back of your neck and recommend how much elevation you will need - typically 1/2 to 5 inches (for those with a thick, round torso and back, more elevation is required. The knees are bent, bringing the feet flat upon the floor near the bottom. The elbows are placed wide apart and the palms of the hands upon the front of the hips. This is called "The position of creative rest". The student is to lie like this at least five minutes per day (more is better). The body is totally passive. You are not to "do" anything. Mentally, you are to repeat to yourself, "Let the neck be free, the head to go forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen." Since you are lying horizontally, the direction of the head is actually "forward toward the ceiling and away from the body".

During the lesson, the teacher will have the student assume this position and give him/herself the "directions". The teacher will ask if the student's neck is free. The student will assure the teacher that this is so. The teacher will then gently lift the head and low and behold, the neck comes up in one piece, stiff and fixed to the head by muscular tension. The habit of holding the neck tight is so constant that we do it even while lying down and trying to relax! This awareness is frustrating! Why do we do this?

In short, we do it because when upright (sitting or standing), most every human always has their head out in front of the line of gravity through their body. As a result, we have to hold the muscles in the back of our necks tight or our head will fall down upon our chest. This results in the head being pulled back upon the top of the spine.

Then when we are told to improve our posture "Stand straight!", we pull our head even further back, making the situation even worse (increased pressure upon the intervertebral discs). Principle: When something is wrong and you directly try to change it to make it better, it usually gets worse. Without first stopping that which is wrong, attempting to correct any behavior just adds even more tension to an already tight system. 

Shakespeare said, "The fool who continues with his folly shall become wise." In this context, I interpret this to mean that you must observe yourself without any effort to change what you observe for awhile before any true improvement becomes possible. Trying to change without really knowing what you are doing in the first place, and then stopping it, always fails.

So how can you learn to let your neck be free? Practicing the "apprentice piece" of Alexander Technique by assuming the position of creative rest and giving yourself the directions. With feedback from your teacher, you learn to experience that can let your neck be free when you decide to and give this direction. However, as soon as you think of anything else (such as allowing your head to move forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen), the neck immediately becomes again tight. You can give the directions sequentially, but the first is lost as soon as the second begins. Mastery of the "apprentice piece" involves learning the continue to think "neck free" while thinking "head forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen". This is made less difficult by being in a horizontal state of "non-doing".

Here is the challenge for the student: To continue to think "Neck free" WHILE giving further directions. This is the apprentice piece of the Alexander student. My teacher summed up the correct giving of directions like this: You must give yourself the directions "one after another, all at once". This is our paradox of numbers that are a sequence but also all exist simultaneously. This is the same paradox of the spheres of the Tree of Life that come into existence in a sequence that is also simultaneous. 

The "master piece" of the Alexander Technique student it to continue to allow your neck to be free while directing your head to go forward and up, the back to lengthen and widen WHILE going about the activities of your daily life. This change of posture and use will have wide-ranging positive results on all levels (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual). Subjectively, it feels like a heavy overcoat, that you have been wearing all of your life without knowing it, had been finally taken off. There is lightness and grace in motion. You don't tighten any muscle any more than is minimally required for the activity in which you are involved. It is the ultimate way to be lazy.

By learning to observe your behavior without attempting to change it, your self-awareness increases dramatically. By learning to stop undesired behavior, the chance for positive change opens up to you. By focussing continuously upon the "means whereby", and ignoring the end result, you can eventually initiate truly new behavior. These principles can be effectively applied to all aspects of life.

If you will provide your body with the nutrients it needs plus the detoxification it needs... and direct it as learned in Alexander Technique, most of the typical ailments assailing humanity will not arise at all. And you will be able to guide your ship of destiny to your chosen goals.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK used in Psychotherapy2008-10-12T08:18:02-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a982da2a32a4f333bf16f7658ae2037a-6.html#unique-entry-id-6http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a982da2a32a4f333bf16f7658ae2037a-6.html#unique-entry-id-6If "imperative" implies that you are willing to take a few strange and uncomfortable steps, I can suggest a method that will certainly work:

Every day you do perhaps a thousand things. Several go not as planned. I suspect that you ridicule and put yourself down about the several things wrong. "How could I be so stupid?" or as my daughter prefers, "I can't believe I did that!"
And I suspect that the ~990 other things that went right receive no inner commentary at all.

And this miserable programming is socially reinforced. When we dare to say, "Gee, I did that really well didn't I?", others cringe away and give us bad vibes. When we 'jammer' and moan, "Oh, why do I always get it wrong?", others come to us, put their hand on our shoulder, and give us uplifting comments. Exactly the reverse of what would be healthy.

Sooooo, how does one get out of this mess? The answer I will give will certainly sound childish. It is actually childlike. Think about it. Who has the most energy? Kids! And how do they talk about their accomplishments? "Mommy, look what I did!" full of pride and joy. And that gives them near endless vitality.

Recipe for reprogramming a crummy childhood:
When you get up early like you wanted to the night before, say to yourself: "There. I got up early like I wanted to. Good." Then when you brush your teeth, say, "And now I brushed my teeth, just like I decided to." When your nutritious breakfast is on the table, look at it and say aloud (if alone), "Look at that wonderful breakfast I made for myself. Yum!"

These are the kind of things little kids say to themselves. The secret to making this plan work is to put intense emotion into those childlike words. Your subconscious mind doesn't know what is a big thing and what is a small accomplishment. It only knows how much emotion you put into it. So if you say, "Gee, I tied my own shoes!" overflowing with enthusiasm, your subconscious mind thinks, "Wow, another positive accomplishment today. I'm a regelrecht goal achiever!"

When the amount of positive emotion you exude toward yourself gets to over 50% of the emotion your emote during the day, your whole world will change. It has worked for many of my students over the years, ones will lousy self-depricating childhoods, if they will dare to do this simple practice regularly.

Sure you will feel stupid at first, but do it anyway. Do it like acting. Over-exagurate the positive emotions you so feed yourself. They are the medicine you need.

Let me know if I can be of any support in the process.

Dr. Robert Frost--]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comMuscle Testing2008-10-12T08:15:56-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/f9f109e6b4055820af87944deb1fa3d6-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/f9f109e6b4055820af87944deb1fa3d6-5.html#unique-entry-id-5With difficult men, the problem is that they think that if a muscle tests weak, that they are weak ...and they don't want that! With these kinds of men, I tell them the following story:

When you have a VW bus, you can run it for years with just oil and gas... and it runs about as well as a VW bus does. However, if you have a high-performance race car, it requires much fine tuning quite often to run as well as it can.

Similarly, if you have a VW bus kind of body, you find few weak testing muscles. Such a body doesn't perform at high levels, but it just keeps going. However, if you have a highly trained fit body, you will find more weak-testing muscles. Balancing the weak-testing muscles is one way you help a high-performance body to perform at its optimal level.

Weak-testing muscles have nothing to do with being weak. A strong man can still lift huge weights even when some of his muscles test weak. Balancing or "strengthening" weak-testing muscles doesn't make them stronger. Rather, it improves their fine coordination and timing.

If you tell this story well, the strong man is proud when several muscles test weak - and he allows them to test weak. When a muscle begins to weaken (while you are testing it), don't push further. Instead, ask the man if he felt the softening. Help him to become aware of the fine communication from his own body.

After balancing the patient, I "provoke" the corrections I performed. For structural corrections, I'll have the patient move around and put stress into the posture - then retest the muscles that were weak-testing. I'll similarly provoke emotional corrections and retest. I want the patient to be able to meet daily stresses without going easily back out of balance.

When I correct a specific muscle, I may touch each of the treatment points afterwards as a challenge. If one of these (NL, NV, alarm point etc.) causes the muscle to again weaken, it needs further balancing.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comSwitching2008-10-12T08:00:32-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bb0b3d3a250b409245c7c84a38de65ed-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/bb0b3d3a250b409245c7c84a38de65ed-4.html#unique-entry-id-4
Switching (Neurological Disorganization) can be compared to an electrical problem in the nervous system. The signaling within the nervous system has gotten reversed in one or more of the three dimensions. The most common type of switching is right-left switching. If we compare this to a direct current electrical system (like in a car), right-left switching is like a reversal of electrical polarity. Where you should find a positive polarity, you find negative instead.

Everyone with learning difficulties or coordination difficulties has (at least most of the time) right-left switching. The extreme of the range of learning difficulties is called dyslexia. In my experience, all dyslexics are right-left switched. Right-left switching is characterized by mental confusion and/or physical discoordination. When you hear yourself say "26" when you meant "62", or when you point to the right and say, "turn left here", you can be sure that you have become "switched".

At the end of a long day of sessions with patients, I have often said, "Turn over onto your back". When my patient replies, "I am already lying on my back.", I know that I have become switched (and correct this before proceeding).

Switching can have many different causes (physical-structural, emotional-mental, chemical-nutritional). A typical cause is a prior injury such as a sprained ankle that caused excess or sudden stretching of various proprioceptors in the involved ligaments, tendons and/or muscles. Although the physical damage may be long healed, the damaged proprioceptor may still be signaling that there has been a recent injury. As a result, the central nervous system responds correctly to this now incorrect signal and, as a result, causes inappropriate facilitation and inhibition of various muscles. As a result, the posture and balance of the body is incorrect, causing more compensatory reactions. This is one reason that people may still limp, even years after a leg or hip injury has healed.

Nutritional deficits, exposure to allergens or other toxic chemicals can produce switching.

Emotional or mental stress can cause switching. A conflict between what you should do and what you want to do often causes switching. When switched, you can do what you want to do and it seems or feels to you to be the right thing to do (even when it isn't). A typical example is the fat person who knows that they shouldn't eat ice cream... and then enjoys eating a half-gallon (two liters) and literally can't stop until they are unable swallow another bite.

Under enough stress, everyone will go into a state of right-left switching. When you start bumping into tables and door jams, you have probably become switched.

A child who is switched may find that his mind works well, but he is discoordinated. When the other kids make fun of how he throws a ball, he may decide that he will never be good at sports and become a "book worm" - a good student with a bad relationship to his body. This can inhibit the quality of his whole life.

People who are typically or always switched have real problems that inhibit their optimal functioning. Finding and correcting the underlying causes of switching can be a very important step toward health, optimal functioning, and a happy, well-adjusted life.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comHypertonicity2008-10-12T07:44:55-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/9e013346d0ac634c6eab285b6339e1ab-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/9e013346d0ac634c6eab285b6339e1ab-3.html#unique-entry-id-3Some patients seem to test strong in all muscles, even after you apply muscle-weakening techniques such as spindle cell pinching or sedation point tapping. When I have such a hypertonic patient, the first thing I do is give them a glass of water to drink and help them to relax. It is my intention of assisting them to be aware of the subtle responses of their own body - and I tell them so. Then I put them on their back and stand over them. I gently test both anterior deltoid muscles simultaneously. In this position, I have great mechanical advantage.

Next, I strongly spindle cell pinch their anterior deltoid (on one side only). Then I ask them to be aware of the difference in the response of the two sides. I retest both sides, beginning with a very small amount of pressure and building up the test pressure until the weakened side drops a bit. Usually at this point, they hold their breath, tighten their whole bodies, call all the synergists into play and block any further motion of their arm.

When this occurs, I draw their attention to the fact. I tell them, "The muscle began to test weak and then you tightened up your body to block it from being weak. You are strong enough to add a secondary 'umph' and block the test. However, the first response of your body is the one we are looking for, not your ability to block."

Then I repeat the process. As the weakened side begins to fail in the test and the arm drops (even if only one inch), I ask them if they felt this response. If not, I ask them to watch their arm fall. Each time, I spindle cell pinch the belly of the muscle parallel to the direction of the muscle fibers (on the same one side only). When they see their arm fall, I guide them to feel it too. I request that when the muscle "gives" a bit, that that is the signal we are looking for. When they feel that sinking, they are to not add extra pressure but rather to allow their arm to fall.

Then I test them a few more times, using less and less test pressure. Soon, with this protocol, most everyone becomes easily testable!

These general hypertonic people are used to blocking in many areas of their lives. They are used to ignoring signals from their own bodies. I train them in this way to feel the subtle weakening of the one side, to admit it, and to allow it. This in itself can lead to many breakthroughs in awareness and response.

This protocol is my own and is not a standard method of AK. My book is about standard methods accepted by the top AK chiropractors and medical doctors. If this protocol doesn't work, then I will use nutrients and such as described in my book, which you can get here:

www.

--Dr. Robert Frost]]>Sam@Endmybackpain.comAK used in Psychotherapy2008-10-12T07:43:17-07:00http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a321b9a7e60be93c96a91b4eb0c2aed8-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.Learnappliedkinesiology.com/page2/files/a321b9a7e60be93c96a91b4eb0c2aed8-2.html#unique-entry-id-2
I recently had a female patient, age 26, who in her own words, "In my childhood, I was repeatedly beaten by both parents throughout my life, had an abortion two weeks ago, was raped when I was six years old, don't trust men and am a cutter." I asked her what a cutter is. She replied by showing me her forearms which were covered with perhaps a hundred thin scars.

When the emotional mode came up, I tested through my list and came to "Comforting the Child Self". 

I tested which of her major stressors and came to the childhood rape. This is a highly charged emotional issue and requires sensitive handling to reduce the stress. Most popular psychology techniques involve mentally reliving old stressors. In my opinion, these outdated methods just rip open an old wound, create a new wound, and don't necessarily heal it at all. Sure, when there is an infection under a scar, it may be medically necessary to open it up, treat the infection, and close it again. Some psychological problems may need such "sanitizing". However, it has been my experience that one can clear or at least reduce the residual stress of prior traumas without having to emotionally re-experience them. One time was bad enough.

An extreme but telling example: I had a female patient in Basel, Switzerland who had been raped. Her Freudian analyst sat behind his large desk and asked her to describe the event to him in all possible detail, which she did. Then he replied, "Well, our hour is up for today. We'll discuss this next week." She went out in a very fragile and vulnerable state. Her body language must have revealed her vulnerability as she was raped again (by someone else) on the way home. In my opinion, her "therapist" was little more than a voyeur and a sadist. 

The technique of "Comforting the Child Self" is particularly useful and effective for cases in which your client had experienced great trauma and still suffers from its after-effects.

My client was on her back on my table so I had her imagine a black and white television screen with a poor quality scratchy picture above her on the ceiling. I told her that she was to remain here with me in 2008 while she watched her 6-year-old self on the ceiling. She was not to identify with being the child, but rather with being her adult self observing. I told her that if I caught her getting into the feelings that I would bang her on the shoulder and say, "Hey, pretty bad movie, huh? Want some pop-corn?" She laughed. I told her that she was to watch the old event in fast-forward motion so she didn't have time to get into it emotionally. 

She imagined the old event as I instructed. When a few tear drops ran down her cheek, I wiped them away and reminded her that although it was a sad movie, she was not to "get into it". After she watched it in this dissociated manner, I asked her if she had learned something as a result of that experience. She didn't know what I meant so I asked if she learned not to allow people to do things like that to her anymore. She answered emphatically, "Yes!" I said, "So you see, although it was terrible then, you learned things of great value that still protect you today, didn't you?" She agreed.

Then I instructed her to, in her imagination, go to her six-year-old child self and introduce herself with something like, "Hi. I'm you in the future. I'm the living proof that you survived that awful experience. I'm here now to help you." She did so. I asked if the child believed her. She said, "Yes". I told her to comfort her child self, to stroke her hair, hug her, talk to her and calm her down. When this was accomplished, I instructed her to explain to her child self, "You didn't suffer for nothing. As a result of having gone through that awful event, I (you in the future) have learned important lessons that continue to save me from bad experiences. I know it was horrible for you, but I want you to know that it was not for nothing. And it is over now so you can let go of it. I'm here for you now and I'll always be here for you. In fact, I'm the only one who will always be here for you."

When she told me that her child self believed her and was calmed down, I instructed her to extend her arms, embrace her child self, and draw her into her own chest – to bring her into her heart where she would always be taken care of. 

This produced great emotional relief and even joy. My client went away to her holiday with new enthusiasm and capacity to enjoy herself.

***

Most of us recall events as if they are happening to us now. The psychological term for this is "associated". When you associate with experiences, you feel them strongly. The first step in treating an emotional trauma in the above way is to assist the client to disassociate, to "get some distance", to observe it dispassionately. To do this you imagine that you are looking at yourself from outside of the picture. Imagining that you are watching it on a movie screen is a good way. Making it a black and white movie in fast motion makes it even harder to identify with the characters in the movie and thereby helps to keep you disassociated. Once you have gained in this way some "emotional distance", you can deal with the old event without suffering in the process.

Freud taught that childhood traumas partially block the flow of our "libido", causing us to have only a fraction of our vitality available in the present. 

In a way, some part of my client was still six-years-old, suffering and crying. Some part of her childhood vitality and enthusiasm had been stunted and shut away as a result of her reaction to that experience. Calming the child self, explaining to her that the event is over and that it generated valuable learnings and reintegrating the child self frees the energy that was blocked by that trauma for so long. 

--Dr. Robert Frost
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