Abstract

The fundamental conceptual differences between the usual specific balancing procedures and the recently introduced basic balancing procedures, including the Five Finger Quick Fix, the Reactive Muscle Basic Balance, etc., are discussed. The usefulness of basic balancing procedures in shortening therapeutic balancing sessions and in developing self-help balancing techniques is described.

Most balancing procedures used in Touch for Health, Applied Kinesiology, and related disciplines are what we may call a "Specific Balance". By this we mean that the procedure balances a specific imbalance condition. For example, when we use neurolymphatic or neurovascular reflexes to balance a muscle or meridian, we muscle test first to determine which muscle or meridian we wish to balance and then use the specific reflex for that muscle or meridian to induce the balance. Similarly when we correct reactive muscles by the standard technique, we muscle test to find the specific muscle pairs that require balancing, and balance those specific reactive muscle combinations. When we balance electromagnetics, we have separate specific balancing procedures for switching, ionization, gaits, cloacals, etc.; again this requires muscle testing to determine the appropriate balancing procedures.

As the knowledge and technology of Touch for Health and related disciplines expands, the number of observable imbalance conditions and balancing procedures for them expands rapidly. For example, the introductory ICAK (International College of Applied Kinesiology) course is 100 hours long. Without some way to organize this vast pool of knowledge, thorough balancing sessions become quite lengthy.

Perhaps the first breakthrough to simplify this morass of knowledge is the concept of muscle testing for priority, described in "Dr. Sheldon Deal's AK Workshop Manual" (ref. 6). The basic idea in priority testing is that an imbalance must be a priority before the balancing procedure will "hold". If an imbalance is not a priority, then some other imbalance must be corrected first. The bonus in priority testing is that we often find that after correcting a priority imbalance several other imbalances that were not priority also self-corrected. Thus by using the priority concept we have already reduced the number of balancing procedures required to achieve a balancing goal. Often we gain even more than we realize since there may have been other non-priority imbalances that we didn't even detect with our muscle testing that also self-corrected.

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The second major breakthrough in muscle testing came with the introduction of finger mode testing by Dr. Alan Beardall. The implementation of finger mode testing into the Touch for Health curriculum is described by Dr. Bruce and Joan Dewe in their new "Professional Health Provider Workshop" (ref. 5). Finger mode testing allows you to determine the priority balancing procedures very rapidly, further reducing the time provided for an effective in-depth balancing session.

Note: The original priority test (described by Dr. Deal in ref. 6) has since been replaced by a finger mode test that is described in ref. 5. These two techniques, priority testing and finger mode testing, give the skilled professional and lay health provider two very powerful tools for in-depth balancing sessions. But there is also a need for simple tools for people who do not have the time and interest to acquire the necessary knowledge and to develop the necessary skills to do in-depth balancing and for people who do not have another person available to help with the muscle testing.

As we have traveled continuously around the wonderful USA in our motorhome for the past 7 years, visiting 45 of the lower 48 states, we were constantly finding people with chronic stress and pain that can be helped immeasurably with energy balancing, but do not have access to people who can help them in this way and are not able or motivated to take Touch for Health or other courses in energy balancing. Most of these people want to be fixed and fixed now. "Don't bother me with a lot of details". We found many people interested in a 1-hour "fix me" balancing session. We often did not stay in a single locale long enough for follow-up sessions over a period of time. Since we viewed ourselves more as educators than as therapists, we were concerned with teaching the people that we worked with simple techniques for maintaining the balances that were established in the balancing sessions. We developed the practice of handing out exercise sheets that described many of the balancing procedures used in the session. This worked well up to a point, particularly for electromagnetic balancing including right-left brain integration, that responds well to repeated exercises. However when we first started this practice there were some imbalances, most notably reactive muscles, that could not be balanced without a lot of muscle testing to determine the specific balancing procedures. Since balancing reactive muscles was one of our most effective tools for clearing up long standing aches and pains, we were strongly motivated to find a better solution. The ultimately led to the concept of a "Basic Balance". A basic balance is a balancing exercise that will correct all currently active imbalances in a particular category of imbalance (i.e, electro-magnetics, reactive muscles, over/under energy muscles, structure) without the need to muscle test to determine specific balancing procedures.

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The first basic balance that we discovered we called the "Five Finger Quick Fix" (ref. 1 and 2), since this single, simple balancing procedure corrected so many imbalances, the entire electromagnetics group (ref. 6), including brain integration and switching in all 3 directions, so quickly and easily. We found that this name was somewhat misleading, since it implied that this balancing procedure was a "short-cut" and thus not as effective as doing the balance the long way, i.e., correcting each individual balance in priority order. However our experience with the Five Finger Quick Fix is that, by simultaneously correcting all the electromagnetic imbalances activated at the time the balance procedure is performed, the balance is generally quite stable and long lasting.

Note that in stressful situations, it is helpful to repeat the exercise regularly over a period of time to enable the person to build up their resistance to stress.

We are very much indebted to Rick Utt for the ideas that led to the discovery of the Five Finger Quick Fix, both his idea of using Pause Lock to put a particular "file" on-line (using the computer analogy) and his idea of using a Pitch-Roll-and-Yaw Balance (ref. 8) for the brain control functions (that is, a three directional balance analogous to balancing an aircraft auto pilot). In doing the Five Finger Quick Fix we open the "electromagnetics file" by using Dr. Sheldon Deal's screening test for electromagnetics, that is, placing five fingers on the body (ref. 6). Then we balance the overall electromagnetics file by activating the kidney meridian (for right-left), the central meridian (for up-down), and the governing meridian (for front-back). This is accomplished by placing the five fingers of one hand around the navel to open the "electromagnetics file" and to provide a neutral reference point for balancing the three meridians and using the other hand to stimulate the upper ends of the three directional meridians. In this way we are balancing the entire "electromagnetics file", that is, all currently activated imbalances in the electromagnetics category, with a single simple but sophisticated procedure. Thus we can see that how by its very nature the Five Finger Quick Fix is a basic balance.

Note: if you do this balance with the palm of the hand, rather than the five finger tips, over the navel, you are correcting right-left, up-down , and front-back switching only. Since you have not opened the entire electromagnetics file, the balancing exercise will not balance the other imbalances in the electromagnetic category.

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After our initial success with the Five Finger Quick Fix, we wondered if the basic balance concept could be extended to other areas. We were particularly concerned about reactive muscles since we found that reactive muscles were the root cause of so many different problems including jaw problems, vision problems, ear problems, and balance problems, as well as a large proportion of arm, shoulder, back, and leg problems. Yet few people were doing reactive muscle balancing, because is was considered "too difficult" and time consuming. In our experience, we were doing more reactive muscle balancing than anything else and having great success in clearing up stubborn problems. We wanted to find a technique that would simplify and shorten the reactive muscle balancing and would enable people to balance themselves without muscle testing.

We discovered the Reactive Muscle Basic Balance in April, 1988 (ref. 3). As described in ref. 3, this balancing exercise involves deeply massaging the five element points around the navel while lightly touching the neurovascular stress release points on the forehead (often called the ESR points). Apparently massaging the five element points in this way activates all the electromagnetics files as well as all the meridians and thus all the muscles in the body, while holding the stress release points induces the stress between the activated muscle groups to be released. Time has shown that this exercise works very consistently and effectively as long as you understand that it only corrects reactive muscle pairs that are currently activated. This means that often a bit of cleverness and body awareness is required to assure that the reactive muscle pairs causing the problem are appropriately activated.

Note: We now do the Reactive Muscle Basic Balance by placing five fingers of one hand around the ear and massage deeply instead of around the navel. The rest of the procedure is the same. (This was discovered in March 1995). This balancing exercise illustrates one important feature of basic balances as we know them. The imbalances that you are seeking to correct must be activated first. If you don't activate them by muscle testing, then you must activate them by some other means, body movement, or thought, or environmental exposure, etc. Of course much of the time the imbalances for which correction is sought are already activated without doing anything special. Once activated the normal body-mind intuition will properly direct the energy from the basic balance exercise to correct the activated imbalances.

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Another important feature of basic balances is that they always drive the body-mind toward equilibrium (or balance) so a person cannot harm themselves by doing these balancing exercises. Thus it is not necessary to muscle test to see if a basic balance exercise is indicated. Just do the exercise if you feel it may be helpful; it generally takes just a few seconds in any case. This makes basic balancing exercises appropriate for self-help and for people who are not confident about muscle testing. We have described two other basic balances, the Frozen Muscle Basic Balance and the Structural Basic Balance, in the 1989 TFH International Journal, (ref. 3). These two basic balances are based on a common principle, lightly touching the stress release points on the forehead while holding the finger mode for the desired type of balance. It is appropriate to note that the neurovascular reflexes for stress release on the forehead, noted in the "TFH Handbook" (ref. 7) primarily for emotional stress release, are useful for many different types of stress.

Using the same principle, it is possible to evoke basic balances for other classes of imbalance, such as chakra imbalances, for example, by using the finger mode for that type of imbalance.

A more extended description on how to combine basic balance concepts with other effective self-help balancing techniques is found in our book, "Self-Help for Stress and Pain plus Learning Blocks " (ref. 4).

Note: The "Self-Help for Stress and Pain plus Learning Blocks" book is available through Loving Life or at the Touch for Health book store.

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References:

1.  Barhydt, Elizabeth and Barhydt, Hamilton, "Some New Ideas in Muscle Testing and Energy Balancing", page 56, Touch for Health International Journal, July 1986.

2.  Barhydt, Elizabeth and Barhydt, Hamilton, "Update on Electromagnetic Balancing, Food Testing, and Reactive Muscle Procedures", page 13, Touch for Health International Journal, July 1988.

3.  Barhydt, Elizabeth and Barhydt, Hamilton, "New Techniques for Balancing Reactive and Frozen Muscles", page 19, Touch for Health International Journal, July 1989.

4.  Barhydt, Elizabeth and Barhydt, Hamilton, "Self-Help for Stress and Pain", Loving Life, 6th edition, 1997.

5.  Dewe, Bruce and Dewe, Joan, "Professional Health Provider's Workshop Level Two", International College of Specialist Kinesiology and Natural Therapies, 1989.

6.  Stokes, Gordon and Marks, Mary, "Dr. Sheldon Deal's Chiropractic Assistants' and Doctors' Basic AK Workshop Manual", Touch for Health Foundation, 4th edition, 1983.

7.  Thie, John F., "Touch for Health Handbook", DeVorss & Company edition, 1996.

8.  Utt, Richard D., "Pitch, Roll, and Yaw", International Institute of Applied Physiology, 1985.

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These unique exercises, developed by us from the principles of Touch for Health, are described and taught in our books, and also in our classes and lectures.