One of George Goodheart’s most brilliant protégés, Dr. Alan Beardall, made several crucial discoveries that added additional tools to the developing field of kinesiology. While treating a famous marathon runner, Beardall discovered that individual muscles did not all function as one unit, but rather, that many muscles had functionally unique divisions. He found that although a muscle may test “strong”, when one or a combination of its divisions were monitored, individual divisions of this “strong” muscle might test “weak” or unlock.
From 1975, through extensive anatomical study, clinical observation and testing
procedures, Beardall not only identified these functional divisions within muscles, he went on to develop specific muscle tests for each division and isolated reflex points which differentiated these muscle divisions as unique functional units. He discovered over 250 specific muscle tests isolating divisions of the major muscles of the body and published his exciting findings in 1980. He was eventually to publish five volumes of muscle testing instruction books and from this body of knowledge Beardall developed a new kinesiological method he called Clinical Kinesiology.
Beardall was also the originator of the concept of the body as a “biocomputer”, which has proved to be such a powerful model for many aspects of the subconscious functions that can be tapped into by muscle monitoring. The subconscious appears to process data in a binary way, indeed neurons running the muscles can only fire or not fire – lock or unlock.
A lock in a muscle test thus indicates “yes, I am in balance” – there is not enough stress to impede my function, while an unlock response indicates “no, I am unbalanced” – there is too much stress for me to work properly.
More importantly, this simple “yes” or “no” response of the muscle is the summation of all the factors influencing the brain and central nervous system, from the level of your structural alignment to your nutritional and emotional status. As well, the subconscious
readout of muscle function is the interface with the other energy systems of the body, including the meridian systems. As such, these “yes” or “no” responses can also indicate states of energetic balance.
Inception of the hand mode – Beardall also developed several other innovative concepts that have become fundamental in the application of all the kinesiology systems developed to this day.
In 1983, while working with a patient, he noticed a unique phenomenon. When the patient touched a painful area with an open hand, the muscle he was monitoring suddenly weakened, a normal response indicating a “stress” condition in the painful area. In a second test on the same area, however, the patient happened to touch his thumb and little finger together.
Something very odd occurred. The muscle immediately strengthened and locked. In a flash of insight, Beardall recognized that the thumb and fingers had energy flows similar to the energy flows of the meridian system itself, and that muscle monitoring provided a means of assessing these flows. He discovered that the thumb acted like an earth or neutral, grounding the energy flows of the other fingers. Through extensive research, he found that these “hand modes” represented another form of readout on the essential functions within the body.
Beardall established that the thumb and each finger represented a specific type of energy flow:
- thumb to index finger responded to structural stresses;
- thumb to middle finger responded to nutritional stresses;
- thumb to ring finger responded to emotional stresses; and
- thumb to little finger responded to energetic stresses such as meridian Ch’i imbalances.
Father of the pause lock – Beardall also developed another technique central to current kinesiology, a means of retaining “energetic” information over time based upon the sensory output of sensors in the hip joints. While he originally called this procedure “pause lock”, it is now called “retaining mode”, “circuit mode” or simply, putting an imbalance “in circuit” in other kinesiology systems. A description of this mechanism is beyond the scope of this book, but is more fully described elsewhere.
So now, whenever he discovered an imbalance through testing a muscle, he could quickly ascertain the nature of the problem causing that imbalance by using his new hand mode system. Was it emotional, nutritional, structural or energetic?
Beardall’s hand modes now generally called “finger modes” in other kinesiologies, along with the complementary technique of retaining this energetic information over time by “putting it into circuit”, are some of the most important tools used in modern kinesiology systems.
Once the muscle tests, reflex points and concepts developed in Applied Kinesiology and Clinical Kinesiology, both chiropractic fields, reached the public through Touch for Health, there was a great flurry of creative activity as new kinesiology systems were developed by innovative individuals from a diversity of backgrounds.