If The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™ really work... why doesn't the science support its claims? Part 2
- 4 days ago
- 11 min read
By Marci Julin
“If I have experienced help through The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™, doesn’t that prove they’re legitimate?”
That’s an understandable question. People who turn to Bradley Nelson’s methods are usually looking for relief. When you’re hurting, the most important question seems to be, Does it work? If you have used these practices, you may have your own story that seems to show they do. It is only natural to be drawn to something that offers hope and promises answers.
But personal experience, by itself, cannot tell us whether something is true. Today’s health world is filled with practices that use carefully disguised forms of divination and witchcraft—practices the Bible calls abominations (Deuteronomy 18:9–14). Christians need discernment as they navigate this growing minefield of deception. Scripture reminds us that not everything that appears helpful comes from God. Results alone are not enough.
So how can we tell whether Nelson’s methods are simply another health practice or something spiritually dangerous?
In Part 1 of this series, I examined Nelson’s claims about emotions in light of Scripture and considered what the Bible teaches about dealing with them. In Part 2, we will look at another tool that can help us exercise discernment: science.
Many people today are skeptical of science, and for good reason. Yet science can still serve as a valuable tool for Christians. Before we examine Nelson’s scientific claims, it is important to understand why science has a place in this discussion.
God’s Created Order Is Fixed
When God speaks of the “fixed order of heaven and earth” in Jeremiah 33:25, He reminds us that He created an orderly universe. The natural laws He established are consistent—fixed. Because of that, they are dependable, observable, and repeatable. That consistency is what makes scientific investigation possible.
If someone claims that a physical mechanism exists—whether gravity, electricity, DNA, or a newly discovered form of energy—we should expect it to produce results that can be observed, tested, and repeated. Even when science does not yet fully understand how something works, a process that operates entirely in the physical world will still show consistent, measurable effects because God created the physical world to operate in an orderly way.
The Bible presents the spiritual realm differently. Satan is a master deceiver who works behind the scenes to accomplish his purposes. It may help to think of him as a general directing a military campaign. His goal is always "to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10a), but his methods vary depending on what best serves that goal. Sometimes immediate harm advances his plans. Other times, an apparent benefit is far more effective. As the saying goes, "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Scripture warns that counterfeit signs and wonders can become powerful tools of deception (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10).
This does not mean every unexplained experience is demonic. There are many reasons a treatment may seem to help, including the placebo effect, the natural course of an illness, emotional support, expectation, or simple coincidence. Nor does the fact that science cannot yet explain something automatically mean it is spiritual. However, when a practice makes specific claims about how it works in the physical world, yet those claims cannot be confirmed by objective scientific testing, that should cause Christians to pause. It is one more factor to consider as we seek biblical discernment.
With that in mind, let us examine the scientific claims behind The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™.
Claim #1: Trapped Emotions Literally Inhabit the Body as "Emotional Energies"
Nelson teaches that emotionally painful events from our past can remain with us as "trapped emotions"—"emotional energies that literally inhabit your body." He further claims that these trapped emotions can "create pain, malfunction, and eventual disease."[1]
This is the foundation of The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™. It is also a claim about the physical world. If trapped emotions are a real form of physical energy, science should be able to detect and study them. Certainly, science recognizes that emotions affect the body. Fear, grief, anger, and long-term stress can change hormone levels, heart rate, immune function, digestion, sleep, and even brain chemistry. Trauma can leave lasting emotional and physical effects. There is no dispute about that.
But that is NOT what Nelson is claiming.
He is not simply saying our emotions affect our health. He is saying emotions become independent forms of energy that remain trapped inside the body until they are deliberately released.
Scientists can measure many kinds of electrical activity in the body. Doctors routinely measure the brain (EEG), the heart (ECG), and muscles (EMG). Our emotions can certainly influence those measurements. But these instruments measure the electrical activity of our cells—not emotions themselves.
People explain the "energy" of emotions in different ways. Many use words like quantum physics, frequencies, vibrations, or hertz (Hz) to make their ideas sound scientific. But these claims are not accepted by mainstream science and have not been supported by reproducible, peer-reviewed research. Instead, they come largely from New Age teachings, especially those of David R. Hawkins.
Hawkins (1927–2012) was a psychiatrist whose writings greatly influenced the New Age movement. In books such as Power vs. Force, he claimed that emotions—and even levels of human consciousness—could be assigned numerical values and "calibrated" through muscle testing. His ideas were not developed through accepted scientific methods, and they have never been confirmed by reproducible research. Instead, they are based on a New Age worldview that includes ideas such as universal consciousness, the divinity of the self, and muscle testing as a way to gain hidden knowledge. Although these teachings have become popular in many energy-healing circles, they should not be confused with established science.
If trapped emotions were truly a measurable form of physical energy operating within God's created order, scientists should be able to detect them and produce the same results over and over again, just as they do with every other known form of physical energy. So far, that evidence simply does not exist.
Claim #2: Muscle Testing Can Identify Hidden Information
Having claimed that trapped emotions exist, Nelson then builds The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™ on another remarkable claim—that muscle testing can identify exactly which emotion is trapped, when it became trapped, what part of the body it affects, whether it was inherited, and how it should be released. Without muscle testing (Applied Kinesiology), Nelson's emotion charts cannot be used to determine what should be treated with magnets. So the obvious question is this:
Does science prove muscle testing?
Over the past several decades, Applied Kinesiology (AK) has been carefully studied. Before publishing my book, Ouija Medicine—The Dark Side of Energy Medicine, I read every double-blind clinical study and every systematic review I could find. Although I discuss many of them in that book, one study stands out because of the people who conducted it.
These researchers were not skeptics trying to discredit muscle testing. In fact, several were well-known parapsychologists, and one founded the Energy Medicine Research Institute, an organization that helps companies obtain research to support marketing claims for integrative health and natural products. They had EVERY reason to expect positive results.
They also went beyond a single experiment by including a systematic review of the scientific literature on Applied Kinesiology. That makes their conclusion especially significant.
They wrote:
"The research published by the Applied Kinesiology field itself is not to be relied upon, and in the experimental studies that do meet accepted standards of science, Applied Kinesiology has not demonstrated that it is a useful or reliable diagnostic tool upon which health decisions can be based."
That conclusion strikes at the heart of The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™. If muscle testing performs no better than chance, then the entire system falls apart. Using muscle testing to identify your "trapped emotions" is little different than playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe with your emotional well-being and health.
But the biggest concern is not simply that muscle testing fails scientific testing.
It is that many signs point to something else entirely.
I practiced muscle testing for two years, so I understand how convincing it can be. The answers often seem remarkably accurate. But if careful scientific research shows muscle testing performs no better than random guessing, those experiences need another explanation.
As I explain in Ouija Medicine and elsewhere, Applied Kinesiology appears to function as a form of divination. It uses the body like a Ouija board to obtain hidden knowledge through yes-or-no answers. Because the Bible clearly forbids divination, any practice that depends on muscle testing is off-limits for Christians—not because it is necessarily ineffective, but because it leads us to seek hidden knowledge from a source other than God. God forbids this not to keep us from something good, but to protect us from spiritual harm.
Claim #3: Meridians Carry the Body's Energy
The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™ also depend on the idea of meridians, a concept borrowed from Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to this model, an invisible life energy flows through channels in the body, and trapped emotions disrupt that flow.
If Nelson's methods depend on meridians, then we should ask a simple question:
Do these invisible pathways actually exist as measurable structures in the human body?
One of the most respected voices in energy medicine is David Feinstein, Ph.D. Although he believes meridians exist, he openly acknowledges several important problems with the evidence.
First, he admits there is no agreement about what meridians actually are. He suggests they may be extremely weak electromagnetic fields, which he believes would explain why they cannot be directly measured. While he points to studies he believes indirectly support their existence, he acknowledges that none of them directly detect or measure meridians.
Second, he acknowledges that meridians do not correspond to any known part of the body's circulatory, lymphatic, or nervous systems. He also notes that acupuncture points are not fixed in one location but can vary in their size, shape, and position.
Having acknowledged these problems, Feinstein offers this explanation:
"This, however, is exactly what would be expected if the meridian system operates as a field that is somewhat independent of the physical body it acts upon."[2]
In other words, because meridians cannot be directly measured or identified as physical structures, Feinstein suggests they may exist as an invisible energy field that operates independently of the body itself. If that is true, then we are no longer discussing physics but the spiritual realm—a realm Scripture tells us is under the influence of "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2).
Because Nelson's methods depend on the reality of meridians, the lack of convincing evidence for their physical existence raises serious questions about the scientific foundation of The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™. More importantly, it raises serious spiritual concerns that Christians should not ignore.
Claim #4: A Magnet Releases Trapped Emotional Energy
One of the most distinctive teachings of The Emotion Code® is Nelson's explanation of how trapped emotions are released. He writes,
Remember that a magnet actually magnifies your thought, which is energy. While holding the intention in your mind to release the trapped emotion that you have found, you simply pass a magnet over the Governing Meridian. Your magnified intention to release the trapped emotion enters into the Governing Meridian, and from there this thought-energy flows quickly into all the other meridians and areas of the body. This sudden influx of intention-energy has the effect of releasing the trapped emotion permanently.[3]
That is a remarkable claim!
Think about everything it assumes is happening. It assumes that thoughts are a form of energy, that magnets can amplify those thoughts, that intention travels through meridians as energy, and that trapped emotional energies can be permanently released through this process. Every one of these is presented as something that happens in the physical world.
Magnets certainly have legitimate uses in medicine. They are used in MRI machines and many other scientific instruments. Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy has also shown limited benefits for certain medical conditions. But that is a completely different claim from the one Nelson is making.
Nelson is not simply saying that magnets affect human tissue. He is claiming that a simple hand-held magnet can amplify human thought, carry intention through invisible meridians, and permanently release trapped emotional energy.
That proposed mechanism has never been demonstrated.
In fact, static magnets—the kind used in The Emotion Code®—have been extensively studied. Systematic reviews have generally found no convincing evidence that they provide benefits beyond placebo for conditions such as pain, much less that they release emotional energies or interact with meridians.²
Claim #5: Discover Healing Claims Research Validates The Emotion Code®
On DiscoverHealing.com, Nelson's organization presents an in-house study as evidence supporting The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™. Interestingly, the study was not conducted on humans but on mice. It describes itself this way:
This controlled study evaluated the effects of distance energy healing sessions performed by Certified Practitioners of The Emotion Code® and The Body Code™ on 48 Swiss mice, comparing outcomes with untreated controls and standard drug treatment.[4]
At first glance, that may sound impressive. But a closer look raises several important questions.
First, this was not a peer-reviewed study published in a scientific journal. It was conducted and published by Discover Healing itself. That does not automatically invalidate the findings, but it does mean the study lacks the independent review and accountability that help establish scientific credibility.
Second, the report does not clearly explain how the study was carried out. Without that information, other researchers cannot evaluate the results or repeat the study to see if they get the same outcome. This also opens possibilities for manipulating the data.
Third, even if the reported results were accepted at face value, they would not demonstrate the central claims of The Emotion Code®. Mice cannot describe their emotions or identify "trapped emotional energies." The study offers no objective way to determine whether the mice possessed the same emotional "energy blockages" that practitioners claim to identify and release in humans.
Finally, the study describes the treatment as distance energy healing. In other words, practitioners claimed to affect the mice without any physical contact. That is an extraordinary claim, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Yet no independently verified scientific evidence is presented to show that one can muscle test or treat another from across the world.
Rather than scientifically validating The Emotion Code® or The Body Code™, this study primarily creates the appearance of scientific credibility without providing the kind of evidence needed to establish that the methods actually work as claimed.
Why This Matters
Many people who turn to these methods are genuinely hurting. After years of disappointment, they long for relief. I get it, having personally dealt with decades of severe depression and illness. I have also been interacting with people involved in these practices long enough to know that many, if not all, of Nelson's practitioners sincerely believe they are helping others.
But sincerity and personal testimony do not determine what is true.
As we have seen, the scientific evidence does not support Bradley Nelson's claims about trapped emotions, muscle testing, meridians, or magnets. If people experience improvement through The Emotion Code® or The Body Code™, the explanation must lie somewhere other than the mechanisms Nelson claims.
More importantly, God has not left His people without guidance. He has given us His Word and the Holy Spirit to help us discern truth from error. As we saw in Part 1, The Emotion Code® not only depends on practices that resemble divination, but it also offers a very different approach to dealing with our emotions than the one God has given us in Scripture. That should lead every Christian to exercise great caution—and, if we have participated in these practices, to turn away from them in repentance.
Our desire for healing should never become greater than our commitment to truth. For the Christian, the question is not simply, Does it seem to work? The deeper question is, Is it true? And ultimately, Does it honor the God of truth?
Paul's words in 2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 provide a sobering reminder of what is at stake:
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (ESV)
[1] Nelson, Bradley. The Emotion Code: How to Release Your Trapped Emotions for Abundant Health, Love, and Happiness. Updated and expanded ed., St. Martin's Essentials, 2019.
[2] David Feinstein and Donna Eden, "Six Pillars of Energy Medicine: Clinical Strengths of a Complementary Paradigm," Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 14, no. 1 (January/February 2008): 47.
[3] Nelson, Bradley. The Emotion Code: How to Release Your Trapped Emotions for Abundant Health, Love, and Happiness. Updated and expanded ed., St. Martin's Essentials, 2019.
Here are links for further information on these topics:
Ouija Medicine: The Dark Side of Energy Medicine by Marci Julin https://a.co/d/06v6xDHw
11 Reasons Muscle Testing is Divination https://youtu.be/Bs4tg8sJUXg
Why I No Longer Muscle Test https://youtu.be/zA0iHRfrZdM
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