SH writes: “Do you know anything about Body Talk? I was at a Cursillo and ladies were espousing this therapy. I countered that it sounds New Age to me and we should not be participating in it. I did not see anything on the Blog.  Would love to hear your views.”

Of all the wacky alternatives I review on this site, I must admit, Body Talk is up there alongside Chi Machines and I-Renew bracelets as one of the worst offenders of the dignity of the human mind.

This completely ludicrous concept is based upon the premise that all physical ailments are due to weakened energy circuits in the body. Specially trained practitioners (they take weekend courses costing up to $7500 for full certification) locate these broken energy circuits and resynchronize them by “tapping” the patient on the top of the head, which supposedly stimulates the brain and causes it to “re-evaluate the state of the body’s health.” It then initiates a “fix” for these problems and stores the details of this solution in the heart.

The therapy is founded on a New Age belief in subtle energy (which does not exist according to science) and the idea that the body is possessed of an “innate wisdom” with which it is able to heal itself.

“Every single cell, atom, and system is in constant communication with every other cell, atom and system within the body-mind complex at all times,” describes the website of the International BodyTalk Association. “This includes communication through the nervous system, as well as the other subtle energy circuits of the body – such as the meridians and the electromagnetic frequencies that are produced by the body through its functioning.”

This description – which mixes scientifically unsubstantiated putative energy forms (meridians) with substantiated veritable energy forms (electromagnetic) is what causes so much confusion among the public. (Read What You Should Know About Energy Medicine) Either the practitioners of BodyTalk don’t know the difference, or they’re including a scientifically valid energy form in the mix in order to make their ideas appear to be proven science.

At a typical BodyTalk session, a patient will sit in a chair or lay down while a practitioner uses a form of muscle testing/applied kinesiology (based on the scientifically unsupported notion that every organ dysfunction corresponds with a specific muscle weakness) to determine what’s wrong.

“By understanding that your body has an inherent knowledge of itself, the BodyTalk Practitioner is able to quickly and easily ask your body what communication circuits have become compromised and in which order these lines of communication need to be re-established for the fastest possible healing process to occur,” the site claims.

They also recommend that during this diagnostic phase, the patient breathe deeply because “this helps your brain scan the body to locate the imbalances.”

Once the problems are located, the practitioner uses a BodyTalk Protocol Chart to determine which energy circuits are weakened or broken. Treatment consists of tapping on the head which supposedly tells the brain to “fix” the faulty communication circuit.

“This activates the brain and helps to facilitate the body’s own ability to restore and maintain its optimum health,” the site claims.

But the session isn’t finished yet. The practitioner then lightly taps on the sternum to “save the corrected energy circuit in the heart center and to share this information with every single cell in the body.”

They go on to claim that the heart “is responsible for communicating the state of the body’s health to the rest of the body through the heart beat. This means that your body will remember these changes after the session, just like hitting the save button on a document will save changes to the computer hard drive so you can access them again later.” (LOL)

This utter nonsense seems to have come from a man named John Veltheim, an Australian born chiropractor and traditional acupuncturist and his wife Esther who is described as “having a background in linguistics, structural integration and metaphysics.” The couple founded the International BodyTalk Association and also co-authored Reiki: The Science, Metaphysics and Philosophy.

Needless to say, there is no scientific evidence to support any of this –  including the muscle testing/applied kinesiology which have also been thoroughly discredited.

SH, I would recommend that you advise these ladies, with all charity and gentleness, that they’re being snookered.

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