Our ministry was recently contacted by a reader who encountered a practitioner of QEST (Quantum Energetic Structured Therapy) who claimed the energy involved in this practice was electro-magnetic and it was therefore okay to use.
I did some research on this therapy and found that it is definitely not based on electro-magnetic energy but is just another version of classic New Age “energy medicine.”
This is how QEST web sites explain what this practice is all about:
“There is an energy body that infuses and informs the physical body. Quantum Energetics Structured Therapy™ (QE*) derives its Target Alarm Points from the acupuncture meridian system, which maps energy flows through the body. Energy disruptions can be caused by birth trauma, physical injuries, stress, diet, illness and other imbalances, resulting in a reduced flow of energy through the body. If the disruption is great, it shows up as disease or impaired function. In Quantum Energetics Structured Therapy (QEST or QE), applied kinesiology (muscle testing) is a method used to obtain information about what needs to be done. The QEST practitioner directs energy through the body in order to re-establish the energetic pattern of wellness.”
As I said, this is classic New Age energy medicine in which practitioners claim to be manipulating a “universal life force energy” that is referred to by science as a “putative” form of energy. There is no evidence that this energy exists.
On the other hand, electro-magnetism is considered to be a veritable form of energy which means it is well-known to science. Veritable energy forms also include monochromatic radiation, mechanical vibrations (such as sound) and other electromagnetic forces such as visible light.
What this particular energy medicine practitioner is doing is actually quite common in New Age therapies – mixing veritable with putative forms of energy. This might be done either deliberately or because the practitioners don’t know the difference between putative and veritable energy forms.
Another source of concern about QEST is it’s origins – which are said to come from Applied Kinesiology aka muscle testing.
Muscle testing is an alternative therapy based on the notion that every organ dysfunction is accompanied by a specific muscle weakness, which enables diseases to be diagnosed through muscle-testing procedures. 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.
For instance, a weak muscle in the chest might indicate a liver problem, and a weak muscle near the groin might indicate “adrenal insufficiency.”
George Goodheart, a Michigan chiropractor who “discovered” applied kinesiology in 1964, combined elements of psychic philosophy, Chinese Taoism, and a belief in what early chiropractors called “Innate Intelligence” a kind of universal energy or “life force.”
But none of this is any secret. Goodheart’s own published materials, along with those of other early proponents of applied kinesiology, openly describe the occult-based theories that have been incorporated into this practice.
“He combined the concept of ‘innate intelligence’ with the Eastern religious concept of energy ( chi) and the idea that muscles reflex (reflect back) the condition of each of the various body organs via the chi’s meridians. `Innate intelligence’ is described as spiritual intelligence which runs the body and is connected to the universal intelligence though the nervous system. . . .” (Kinesiology, Muscle Response Testing, p. 1])
Neither QEST nor muscle testing has proven itself to be scientifically valid. (And it HAS been tested and failed significantly. This site will give you more information and a large library of source material.)
As Catholics, we are obligated to use ordinary means to treat any serious or communicable disease. Those who persist in putting their faith in untested means to treat something serious, especially if they refuse the best science of the day, fall into the trap of deception and error that is known as “superstitious medicine.”
Practitioners of these untested means need to be particularly careful that they don’t encourage people to put too much faith in these therapies. Patients should be fully informed that the therapy being performed upon them has been tested and found lacking by modern science.
