What If Your Body Knows?
How to start muscle testing for clear yes/no
Editor’s note: Adapted from my Substack (My Life is a Spell) post, revised and expanded for Threshold Witch.
The night my signal went down
It was night and my signal was down; rain was needling the windshield and the towering cedars and firs were just dark walls to either side of the road. We were somewhere in the North Cascades—no cell service, no reservations, our lives boiled down to a car stuffed with gear and the question we always ask: left, right, or straight?
We hadn’t planned on nomad life. A wildfire had taken our friend’s cabin—a bright orange jaw that ate 133,000 acres and the place we were meant to stay. We’d just moved out of our rental and put everything into storage. The plan was a month of camping on her land. The fire said otherwise.
So we aimed at the wet green on the map and started driving.
Normally, this is where muscle testing holds my hand through the dark. It’s how I navigate—restaurant menus, timing for hard conversations, which trailhead to choose, when to wait and when to leap. A quiet yes/no in the body, like a door that either gives under your palm or doesn’t.
But that trip my signal went dead.
No familiar twitch, no strength change, no whisper of yes. Even “My name is Annika” came up as static. It felt like losing a sense I didn’t know I was leaning on until it was gone. I’d taken a breath and looked at Ted. “You’re up,” I said. “You’re doing all the testing.”
I’d taught Ted how to muscle test months before. He’d picked it up fast—his answers were clean, unmistakable—yet he didn’t fully trust it. Skeptic at heart.
He wasn’t happy about the situation, but what choice did we have? He nodded, and away we went, into the unknown, guided by his body’s wisdom.
So now here we were. Rain hammered. The road narrowed. Every few minutes a dark notch opened in the trees—a possible side track, a maybe-campsite. Ted tested each one.
No.
No.
No.
Hours of no. The kind that makes you question if you’re ridiculous for trusting something you can’t prove.
Then, finally: “Yes.”
We turned. The spur road was decommissioned—a berm thrown across the entrance like a shrug. We climbed over in our rain jackets, headlamps catching the glint of water on alder leaves. Just beyond the berm was a small flat spot with an old fire ring, ringed by salal and sword fern. Enough room for a tent. Not grand in that moment—just possible. We threw the tent up in the downpour and crawled inside, damp and grateful.
Morning was a different world. The storm had wrung itself out. Sun threaded through the canopy; drops hung on needles like a thousand tiny bells. We packed up and drove back the way we’d come, curious now, peering into each of the night’s maybes.
Every no from the night before revealed itself in daylight: too steep, too narrow, blocked by windfall, cul-de-sacs of mud. Unusable, every one. And the one yes? The first viable possibility on the entire stretch.
I watched something unwind in Ted. A small private awe. “That’s…wild,” he said. “How did it know?”
I laughed, because of course. And I relaxed a tension I didn’t know I’d been holding. Because if he could trust his own body’s wisdom, then he could trust mine too. This sense in the body—it’s not random. Our bodies are instruments—subtle, yes, but trustworthy with practice. And something else—now I knew, we both knew, that it wouldn’t always have to be on me. Because now Ted believed his own yes.
It is one of my greatest joys to awaken a person to the wisdom of their own body. Not as a party trick or a mystic badge, but as a simple human skill: a way to drop under the noise and feel for truth.
What muscle testing is (and isn’t)
Plain words: It’s a way of feeling a yes/no response in your body. Like a pendulum, but you don’t need anything except you.
Not a substitute: It’s not medical diagnosis or a guarantee about the future. It’s a tool for guidance and timing, most useful when paired with common sense and discernment.
Hands forming the finger-loop muscle testing method—simple yes/no signal from the body.
Try it now: three simple methods
Muscle testing is an amplification of a signal your body is always giving you. If you’ve used a pendulum, that’s one way. Here are three you can try using only your body (there are others if these don’t click yet).
1. Finger-Loop Test Make a loop with the thumb/index of one hand. Hook the opposite index finger through it and try to pull apart. Choose one loop to stay firmly closed; the other indicates yes/no.
- Yes: loop holds together / feels stronger
- No: loop slips apart / feels weaker
2. Sway Test (standing) Feet hip-width, knees soft.
- Yes: subtle sway forward
- No: subtle sway back
3. Arm Press (self-check, gentle) Arm raised parallel to the floor. With the other hand, apply a light press at the wrist.
- Yes: arm is strong and holds easily
- No: arm is weak and is easily pressed down
Calibration:
As with any new instrument, begin with calibration.
Ground: notice your breathing; take three easy breaths; feel your feet.
Ask your body to show you a yes. Pause, then test.
Ask for no. Pause, then test.
Repeat until responses are consistent.
Early on, spend a few days doing only calibration—little and often—until the signal feels clear.
Do this till you get clear, consistent responses. When I was first learning I did only this many times a day for 2 full weeks.
First practice statements:
Your first questions should simply be neutral statements:
“My name is [your name].” → Yes
“My name is [random name].” → No
“My birthday is [date].” / “I live in [place].” / “Today is [weekday].”
Do these until you get clear, consistent responses.
Five common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)
Complicated or murky questions → The questions must have answers that are yes/no. If they are complicated, break them down. Make them boringly specific, e.g.
Outcome attachment → This is tricky and still gets me. If you are attached to the answer, it’s very hard to be neutral. When I can’t get neutral I ask someone else to test for me or if that’s not possible, my emergency backup is to write the possible answers on slips of paper, fold them, mix them up, and choose one.
Dehydrated/energy reversed → Hydration is necessary for good testing - if testing feels off, try drinking water. Sometimes your energy/electrical system can get locked up or reversed (yes for no, yes for both, no for both). Do a quick energy reset (EFT, cross-crawl), then re-calibrate.
Mushy answers → If you aren’t getting a clear yes or no, it’s possible that the question you are answering can’t be answered with a yes or no. If you’ve ever played 20 questions, you know what I mean. Sometimes someone asks a question and you want them to just ask another question, because the one they are asking doesn’t make sense, or giving them a yes or no will only confuse the issue. Rephrase, or ask the question differently.
Permission → If you’re not getting good answers, it’s also possible that you don’t have permission to ask that question or that the answer is “cloaked.” This often happens with future questions.
When to trust the signal
You calibrated first and got clear yes/no.
The answer repeats across methods (e.g., sway and finger-loop).
Your body feels calm and at ease after testing.
Reality corroborates—like a rain-soaked forest road delivering one perfect campsite.
When in doubt, leave it be. Come back later or sleep on it and notice any fresh insight. If you still aren’t sure, you can request a muscle testing session with me.
Practice
Before you start testing the questions you really want to test, start with low-stakes practices. Start with calibration (show me a yes, no), then muscle test the question, then act on the answer. When you act on something you get to find out in a visceral way the result. If you sit on a chair, you find out if it will support your weight or break under you. Then the next time you encounter a chair, you have more experience with solidity vs weakenss. It’s the same for muscle testing: when you act on the answers, you can reflect on what the answer felt like and how it panned out. Notice: body sensation after action (tracking builds trust). Here are some that I’ve used to strengthen and deepen my muscle testing.
Walk choice game: On a path network or neighborhood grid, test at each junction (left/right/straight/back) and follow the yes. Notice if anything interesting happens: maybe you have an interaction with wildlife, or meet someone interesting, or find a new favorite place.
Everyday choices: What to wear, what to order on a menu—then notice how you felt about the outfit or meal choice.
Spiritual inquiry (low attachment): Ask curiosity questions you don’t have to verify; practice sensing clean yes/no without stakes. This is the most fun for me: ask questions about history or aliens or past lives. Follow your curiosity!
Muscle Testing FAQ
Is this the same as applied kinesiology?
Related lineage; this is a self-testing approach used for personal discernment, not clinical diagnosis.
What if my answers keep changing?
If you’re new, you may be skipping steps, jumping to asking questions too soon. Return to calibration and true/false statements. If you’re experienced and normally clear, there could be something more complex going on. You could try consulting a psychic, divination cards, or request a session with me to go deeper.
It’s just not working, am I broken?
You’re not broken. But you may have layers of cultural programming, ancestral or past-life trauma around trusting the wisdom of your body and spirit, or you may have buried or fragmented off parts of yourself that you need for this practice. It’s not your fault. And you can heal and restore your natural ability to be guided by your body’s wisdom.
Is this “woo” or is there science?
Our bodies show measurable electrical shifts with truth/falsehood (think polygraph). Muscle testing uses the same signal. At a practical level, that can present as muscle strength/weakness. But we are complicated beings and muscle testing is a nuanced art that takes time to learn.
If your body is already buzzing “yes…”
Free guide (PDF): The Art of Muscle Testing — my beginner’s walkthrough with methods, phrasing, and troubleshooting. Request the Free Guide.
Go deeper: Join the Muscle Testing Course waitlist for Spring 2026 Cohort (live detailed training, small group, practice labs, accountability).
Untangle the deeper patterns: If your signal is murky because self-protection/programming are in the way, we can tackle that together, request a Threshold Session