A Brief History Of Natural Bioenergetics™
By Jimmy Scott, Ph.D.
The Natural Bioenergetics™ System
After earning my Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology at the University of North Carolina in 1966, and spending four years doing research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, I found myself on the faculty of the University of California Medical School, first at the Davis campus, later at the San Francisco campus. During this time, I published over 30 research papers in scientific and medical journals and developed an international reputation in both sleep research and biofeedback research. Of course, my scientific training included maintaining a skeptical attitude, careful clear thinking, evaluation of available facts, and disbelief of anything not “scientifically proven.”
When I first saw a demonstration of muscle-testing in the early 1970’s I was both fascinated and highly skeptical. Over the next few years, I observed several more demonstrations, some at professional meetings. I found them interesting, but on the basis of those demonstrations, I did not see how muscle-testing could be useful for me. In the meantime, I made considerable changes in my professional life. While still at the University, I became licensed as a Psychologist and started a professional practice doing biofeedback and relaxation training with clients. I became increasingly frustrated with academic / medical school politics, so I left the University about 1975 to pursue independent efforts.
As a result of working with my clients, I became more interested in what “health” really is. Clients told me stories about how they were getting healthier in ways not obviously related to what we were doing, and I began to analyze what factors contribute to health. This led me into nutrition work, among other things, and the formation of a new non-profit health education foundation. One of the evening lecture programs sponsored by this new foundation was presented by Chris Harrison, a chiropractor and a diplomat of the ICAK (International College of Applied Kinesiology). His excellent presentation made it clear how I might utilize these unusual techniques – if they really worked! Chris suggested I begin learning muscle-testing by reading some related material and taking the Touch for Health (TFH) course (at the time there was only one, two day, TFH course).
Even before I attended the basic TFH course and the TFH Instructors courses in 1978 I was creating new procedures, the foundation of Natural Bioenergetics™. I had soon discovered that existing muscle-testing techniques, although powerful, did not fill my needs. For example, I not only wanted to identify which nutritional supplements a client needed, but also exactly which product would be the very best for them. I wanted another way to assess the progress a client was making, independent of their own subjective report. I wanted to know the most important therapeutic program for my client. I wanted to know the best time to do a procedure. I wanted to know the source of their BioEnergy disturbances. And on and on and on.
I soon found ways to use muscle-testing to obtain information directly from the “body.” At first, I used it for nutritional testing. I stopped doing chemical hair analysis, because muscle-testing gave me equally valid information, on the spot. Nutritional supplement schedules became truly individualized, something we could only “guess” about otherwise. As a result, my work became far more effective and popular.
My goals were to develop the most effective, robust, permanent methods for change that I could, using my scientific analytic training. With my new version of muscle-testing I had a method to compare procedures. I could determine which of two or more approaches was best, not just whether a procedure “worked.” I soon discovered that many commonly used techniques, although temporarily affecting BioEnergy, do not seem to have much lasting effect.
Because the methods I devised were so simple, I did not at first believe how incredibly powerful and effective they were. However, as I continued to work with my procedures, they demonstrated continued effectiveness. Within a couple of years, I had fully developed the Natural Bioenergetics™ Paradigm – an approach which allowed me to discover any information I needed from the client’s own body to help them achieve greater wellness and functioning. Next was to systematize this material so that anyone could follow the same procedures and achieve comparable results. The basic structure of the Natural Bioenergetics™ System was in place by 1981. Since then many refinements and additions have been made, but the systematic, comprehensive, holistic approach is still exactly the same.
Although careful readers will notice the philosophy underlying Natural Bioenergetics™ is similar to other, more recently published, material, Natural Bioenergetics™ did not “borrow” its attitude. Except for some concepts from Traditional Chinese Medicine, muscle-testing itself, and some uses of various energy reflexes, almost everything else about Natural Bioenergetics™ is original, created by imagination, clear, careful thought, research, and thorough empirical and theoretical analysis and evaluation. Natural Bioenergetics™ is unlike all previous bioenergetic procedures.
Natural Bioenergetics™ has produced numerous innovations, many of which have now been incorporated into other schools of bioenergetics. Despite this incorporation of Natural Bioenergetics™ techniques, Natural Bioenergetics™ remains original and unique, and I think it is the most comprehensive, powerful, effective system of bioenergetics ever devised. Natural Bioenergetics™ offers an approach, a method of discovery, a way of thinking clearly and logically, a philosophy: The Natural Bioenergetics™ Paradigm, The Natural Bioenergetics™ System. It is an extremely extensive system, even though each component itself is simple and easy to do. Some of the major keys to how Natural Bioenergetics™ works include:
- Empirical Structure. Things are included only when they work better than something else.
- Theoretical Development. Concepts about where, why, and how BioEnergy is.
- Extensive use of carefully crafted and proper verbal questions.
- Carefully Systematized and Structured. Menu system.
- Open Ended. Natural Bioenergetics™ grows as knowledge grows.
- Unlimited Scope. Truly holistic.
- Capability of comparing procedures and methods. Only robust methods are used.
- Iterative process. Everything is checked; more added if necessary.
I have provided here only a brief introduction to Natural Bioenergetics™. Our courses comprise over 90 days of basic instruction. This does not include other work such as chemistry, physics, and anatomy & physiology. We do not have courses focusing on specific topics such as relationships, learning disorders, or BioEnergetic allergies, because once students understand the Natural Bioenergetics™ System they easily learn how to apply our procedures to any topic. We work on BioEnergy as applied anywhere.