We recently received a question about a new coaching tool known as the Wingwave method. What is it and is it associated with the New Age?Wingwave is described as “an emotional coaching tool” that allegedly leads to a quick reduction in performance stress while increasing creativity, mental fitness and emotional stability. Developed in Germany, it combines bilateral stimulation (similar to EMDR), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), and the "myostatic test" (aka muscle testing) to reduce stress and boost performance. It is primarily marketed for non-clinical settings, including business, sports, and education, to help with emotional blockades
A typical session is conducted by having the patient follow the rapid finger movements of the coach with his or her eyes, from left to right, and right to left, to simulate the eye movements associated with the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep. During this awake version of REM, the patient is instructed to think about a stressful, irritating or important event.
As this site explains: "We will use the myostatic muscle test to detect and define areas of stress in your timeline, with reference to the past, present and the future. Once we have identified a source of stress, you will then be lead through a set of eye movements, to support processing. As an alternative to 'waving', we may work with bilateral tones or light tapping techniques called 'tapping.' Once we have successfully reduced the stress associated with target memories, beliefs and/or worries about the future, we then develop and install resourceful states, to ensure optimal functioning, creativity and resilience." These resources are designed to help emotions to begin to flow again so patients no longer feel "stuck" in their fear or anxiety associated with stressful events.
The whole process takes one to two hours to complete.
The above description reveals several typical New Age methods such as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is supposedly a “user’s manual” for the brain that can help change people’s habits and behaviors by reprogramming their brains. This therapy relies upon the same premise as the large group awareness programs associated with the New Age’s Human Potential Movement in that it posits a person’s ability to effect their destiny through the power of the mind.
Another component, and one that is even more problematic, is what the site refers to as the “Myostatic or O-ring test from kinesiology” which they falsely claim is “well researched” and “highly reliable.” It is nothing of the kind. Otherwise known as muscle testing (aka applied kinesiology), this is a pseudoscientific diagnostic method that relies on muscle weakness to determine organ dysfunction.
Developed in 1964 by George Goodheart, a Michigan chiropractor who combined elements of psychic philosophy, Chinese Taoism, and a belief in an Innate Intelligence. Proponents claim diseases can be evaluated through specific patterns of muscle weakness which they can heal by manipulating or unblocking alleged body energies along meridian pathways, or by infusing energy to produce healing in certain organs. (The energy they are referring to is a putative energy force known as qi, or chi, or universal life force, and which has no scientific credibility.)
The “O-ring” method refers to one of the diagnostic procedures in the muscle testing toolbox which has the patient form an “O” with the thumb and a finger on the same hand. The diagnostician then evaluates the patient’s health according to how difficult it is to pry open their fingers. Needless to say, the method has no scientific credibility.
Last, they can incorporate tapping, also called "emotional acupuncture," which involves tapping on acupressure points along alleged meridians to remove energy blockages.
Although Wingwave enthusiasts like to use a lot of very scientific talk on their sites about “bilateral hemispheric stimulation” and various brain functions, it's reliance on pseudoscientific methods such as those described above and a lack of in-depth research, this therapy reains outside mainstream, evidence-based psychological practice.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
Send your New Age questions to newage@womenofgrace.com
