Questioning the Subconscious Mind

In October of 1993 my son was ten years old and struggling in school. Being concerned as to the cause of his problems we asked several other parents for advice. One friend recommended a new family counselor who had just become a certified stress management consultant. I had no idea what stress management was or if it could help with the problem.

The visit started out normally enough with some simple conversation between the counselor and our son. Being a typical ten year old, Mike did not have much to say but answered the questions cheerfully enough, usually with just a yes or no but mostly, "I don't know". Then the counselor turned to us and suggested that we try a new technique to find out what was really going on in Mike's subconscious mind.

Questioning the subconscious

"Mike, stand up here for a minute, will you please?" He did. "Now hold out your arm straight out in front of you like this," and demonstrated with the arm. Mike thought this was fun and had no problem following directions. "Now I want you to hold your arm straight and strong as I ask you some questions and try to pull down on your arm. I want you to keep your arm straight."

"Say, 'my name is Mike'." As Mike complied the counselor tried to push down on Mike's arm with a small amount of downward pressure. Mike held his arm strong and it did not go down. "Now say, 'I am wearing shoes'." Mike gave us a quizzical look but repeated the statement. Once again the counselor tried to push the arm down but it remained strong and did not move.

Muscle Response Testing

"Now say, 'I am doing well in school'." A big smile came across Mike's face and he shook his head from side to side as he repeated the statement. This time his arm was easily pushed down by the family counselor even though Mike tried to hold it strong. "Hey, wait a minute!" Mike exclaimed, "Try that again." He felt that his strength was being challenged.

So they went through the process again with a similar question. "I turn in my homework on time." Same results only this time Mike was paying close attention. So was I. The counselor explained, "You see, the body has an electrical energy field that momentarily loses a little bit of strength when an untruth is repeated. It's kind of like a built-in lie detector."

The family counselor then began to ask a series of questions that Mike would repeat while his arm strength was checked. Once I got over the initial shock of seeing Muscle Response Testing in action I began to focus on the questioning technique that was being employed. I thought it most unusual that the counselor was asking Mike about dates and places.

The root of the problem

Soon we got down to the root of the problem. When Mike was in Montessori school at a very young age (four or five) he had a teacher who was very set in her ways as to the way things were and the way she wanted her pupils to do things. Through Muscle Response Testing the family counselor determined that Mike took offense at her 'dogmatic' ways.

Now Mike had never heard that word before but that's the word on which he tested positive. This was after the time frame of the initial occurrence had been established through Muscle Response Testing. We now knew what the cause of the problem was within less than five minutes of testing and were able to deal with it appropriately (more on that later).

Can this really work?

I confess I was blown away. I had never seen anything like this before and could not believe what I was witnessing. Is it really possible to question the subconscious mind through Muscle Response Testing and get accurate answers? The counselor explained that everything we have ever experienced is stored in there somewhere. MRT just helps us access it and bring it out.

What do you think? Have you ever heard of the idea of questioning the subconscious mind? If you have experienced it, tell me about the first time you saw MRT in action.

A tribute to Donna McDermott

If you have visited a certified stress management consultant you may have read a little booklet with a blue cover and two white doves. The booklet describes the unique stress management technique that is the main subject of this blog. It was written by Donna L McDermott back in 1992 when she was running the Family Stress Management clinic in Phoenix Arizona.

I never met Donna but it was her booklet that got me over the initial skepticism that I felt the first time I was exposed to this technique. I don't know what your reaction was the first time you saw it practiced but I probably dropped my jaw in disbelief. I sat through the first session and then promptly asked for some documented evidence that what I had witnessed was for real. I was handed Donna's booklet.

A legacy left behind

Sadly, Donna passed away of cancer three years ago (in 2004) but she left an online legacy in an extensive interview posted on the IPTQ.com website. You can also read more of her story on the Chi-Lel website. Scroll down past the top two stories. I am amazed at her energy that she describes in another Chi-Lel story here. I don't know what Chi-Lel or gongs are but they appear to be some sort of demanding physical exercise that increases energy. Donna also contributed a wonderful story, "From the Heart of a Joyous Child" to the Choose Life website.

Donna was one of the first to be trained and become a Certified Stress Management Consultant. I am confident that she helped hundreds if not thousands of individuals find relief from the stress of life over the years that she practiced. If you knew Donna or were helped by her, please feel free to add some comments to this post so that others may honor her memory as well.

A lesson in what Stress Management is not

Bob Forston runs the Forston Institute for Success through Stress Management. He is the past president of the National Association of Certified Stress Management Consultants. You can read all about his other credentials on his 'About us' page. Although he has a PhD in Psychology, he makes it clear that "He is not a licensed physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist, or social worker." I guess that's because Stress Management is not recognized by the medical community as a valid profession.

It becomes even clearer upon reading this wording from his disclaimer, "The services in this website and any other media are not intended to replace the services of licensed physicians, neurologists, psychoanalysts, clinical psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychometrics, social workers, psychotherapists, chiropractors or other similar professionals. The Forston Institute does not provide medical or mental illness evaluations, diagnoses or prescriptions.

Continuing to quote from the disclaimer, "The coordination of verbal and nonverbal energy responses along with a protocol of stress and congruency questions are not the practice of medicine, psychiatry, psychology or chiropractic. Memory events are considered ‘Emotional Reality’ because these events may or may not correspond with actual or historic reality. Therefore no claim is made as to what may have happened in the past and what one must or should do in the future.”

False memories are an issue

Wow! One can learn a lot from this well-written disclaimer. To me it is evidence that Western Medicine (read the AMA) does not like what people like Bob do when practicing stress management. I wonder why that is? I especially like the wording about 'memory events'. I imagine this has to do with false memories that may come up when questioning the subconscious mind about past events. It would be awful if someone thought they had a repressed memory of sexual abuse that didn't really happen to them at all.

Is it possible that the memories discovered and revealed may not belong to the person that currently possesses or expresses them? I'm not suggesting past lives as I don't believe in reincarnation but I am suggesting that those memories could belong to someone else who put them in the subconscious of the person in whom they are discovered. Food for thought.

Energy Healing and Balancing through Kinesiology

Russ Stewart is a CSMC or Certified Stress Management Consultant practicing in Grants Pass Oregon. To quote from his page: "Since 1993 I have been practicing a combination of Energy Healing and Balancing, Kinesiology Techniques, Time-line Healing and Relationship Building." I know about Energy Healing and Balancing as well as Kinesiology Techniques but am a little unclear on what is Time-line Healing.

Time-Line Healing

Update: Russ emailed me this description of Time-line Healing: "About time line healing. I thought of using the term so that people would say what is that? In your blog you went on in other ways and described it very well. In questioning one's intelligence through muscle response testing we find stress, unresolved matters negatively affecting a persons life. The stress is having a present affect but from my experience the emotionally charged stress is usually connected to past events.

Russ continues, "In questioning the intelligence we often times notice a pattern of poor choices made by a client while under the inability to deal with the stress in their lives. The client's intelligence prioritizes their stress and clients recall events with time periods. We meet these mile markers as opportunities and teach forgiveness to relieve and manage the stress. The object is to help our clients take responsibility for their own happiness and wellness, and make forgiveness a way of life."

How it works

On the 'How it works' page he describes the stress evaluation process. He says, "In performing the stress evaluation, a series of yes/no questions are asked. The process is much like detective work. After a careful review of your situation and concerns, we will assist you in determining which kind of stresses you are experiencing, when the stresses occurred, who else is involved in the stress and what you need to do to relieve each stress."

Continuing to quote from his website, "If you haven't experienced the reaction of the muscle response testing to a correct answer and then to an incorrect answer, it would be hard for you to understand what I'm talking about. What it looks like is; you are lying in a comfortable reclined position with one of your arms raised above your head, elbow locked and fingers loose. I ask you a question requiring a yes or no response from you after which I push on your arm while you give a little resistance.

The subconscious knows

When a person answers a question contrary to what their intelligence or subconscious knows to be true, it affects the energy field which in turn reduces muscle strength causing the arm to weaken. The response is very obvious to the client and me. This appears to be the same principle upon which the polygraph machine registers physiological responses. The intelligence knows truth and it recognizes untruth, even when we do not consciously know the answer!

Clients are often surprised to discover the nature of the stress affecting them. What we think and what we feel can be exactly opposite. What we THINK and what our intelligence THINKS can be very different. What we THINK we feel and what we ACTUALLY feel are often very different." Russ has accurately described the same technique I have used for years to discover and eliminate hidden stress, including muscle response testing.

More on the questioning technique used to discover hidden stress in a future post.