George Goodheart, Jr., discoverer of Applied Kinesiology and the link between the muscle test and the energetic meridian system, passed at 7:30 PM, March 5, 2008.  He was 89 years old.  Dr. Walter Schmitt, a long-time friend and associate of Goodheart's said, "He was at home and had finished dinner shortly before with Joanne (his wife), when he took a deep sigh and passed away. So he went peacefully."

Goodheart made his first discoveries in 1964 in the Michigan Building in Detroit. He then guided a group of about a dozen other innovators as they continued the paths of discovery that would become known as Applied Kinesiology (AK) which is now used around the world by Chiropractors, Physicians and other healthcare professionals. AK spurred many other energy kinesiology models with Touch for Health becoming one of the most popular and wide-spread among laypeople.

Goodheart first fought the battles of being an innovator as a Chiropractor during the years of un-acceptance of the profession. He later became the first chiropractor to work on the U.S. Olympic Team. In 2001, Goodheart was placed onto Time's List of the 100 Top Innovators of the 21st Century. From the Time profile, “But for Goodheart, muscle testing is the diagnostic gold standard. He prods and palpates patients head to toe, searching for tiny tears where muscles attach to bone. These tears feel, he says, like "a bb under a strip of raw bacon." When "directional pressure" is applied, the bb's flatten, and slack muscles snap back, their strength restored.  And that, says Goodheart, may help strengthen a weakened organ. Goodheart believes that muscles and organs are linked by the same invisible neuropathways and meridian lines tweaked by acupuncturists. It took Goodheart years to ferret out the connections: the shoulders' deltoids map to the lungs; glutei maximi in the butt to the prostate; and the psoas that run through the groin to kidneys.

Even taste sensations can travel through the brain and loop back to muscles. Tasting a nutrient, he says, stimulates an area of the brain responsible for muscle reflexes, so that a patient with a liver condition can swirl bile salts on his tongue and feel his pectorals strengthen”. Source: http://www.time.com/time/innovators_v2/alt_medicine/profile_goodheart2.html

Goodheart recently collaborated with Dr. Scott Cuthbert, DC in the creation of two research studies. The first, a Literature Review of the Manual Muscle Test is included in our list of research abstracts. Direct link to the Cuthbert/Goodheart study: click here.

Another study by Cuthbert and Goodheart will soon be released posthumously.

Goodheart was an inspiration to millions through his knowledge, his keen sense of humor and his always positive outlook on life and caring for others. He will be missed by many now and in the future.

Dr. John Thie and Goodheart at the
TFHKA Conference 2005, Chapel Hill, NC.

Sheldon Deal, Goodheart and Walter Schmitt,
TFHKA Conference 2005