At first glance, the field of kinesiology seems unnecessarily fragmented.  At the moment, there are almost 150 systems of kinesiology listed in the TheDOK.  Why should this be?  Why not one unified field?

Kinesiology was once  a unified field of study.  The history of diagnostic muscle testing began in 1964 when the late great Dr. George Goodheart  Jr., a Detroit Chiropractor, discovered that muscle testing could be used to get information directly from the body of a patient.  He called his discovery Applied Kinesiology and used it to amass a vast body of information about how the body worked.  In those early years, all kinesiology was Applied Kinesiology, or AK.  The organization of doctors that assembled around Dr. Goodheart was called the International College of Applied Kinesiology, or ICAK.

The ICAK sets the guidelines for what can rightfully be called Applied Kinesiology, and what can not.  AK is not really a "system" of kinesiology.  It is more like a collection of individual neurological tests that can be used in combination with other medical tests to form a diagnosis, and it is therefore only taught to doctors.  As long as all the members of the ICAK agreed on what should be included in AK, the field of kinesiology remained unified.

As the ICAK grew, so did dissent within its ranks.  Some of the members, like Dr. Alan Beardall, wanted to add techniques that were not accepted by the group as a whole.  Some others, like Dr. John Thie, wanted to teach certain AK techniques to people who were not doctors.  These doctors, and many others, eventually broke away from the ICAK and founded their own "systems" of kinesiology.  Dr. Beardall introduced hand modes and biocomputer concepts into the field of kinesiology and called his new system Clinical Kinesiology, or CK.  Dr. Thie focused on teaching lay people how to balance their bodies by stimulating the points of the meridian system through touch, and introduced the world to Touch For Health.

Many of the systems of kinesiology we have today can trace their roots back to Dr. Beardall or Dr. Thie, and all kinesiologists everywhere can thank Dr. Goodheart for what they are able to do.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the field of kinesiology has remained so fragmented is that there is no "University" of kinesiology, no central place where all ideas about kinesiology can be shared, questioned, and synthesized into a coherent whole. This is one of the reasons why Kinesiologists United was created.  Everyone is welcome here.  Please use this place as a forum to share what you know with the rest of the world.