Dear Reb Daniel,
I've been told that various "authorities", including Reb David Feinstein have ruled that "Brain Gym" is a form of Kishuf.
I don't know enough about the subject to form a definitive opinion. Are you aware of any resources that you can point me to?
Thanking you in advance,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Gym_International
The wikipedia page indicates that the creators of the system refer
ReplyDeleteto it as "educational kinesthesiology". It appears to be a derivation
of "applied kinesiology" (AK). AK has been dealt with by several
contemporary poskim- it appears that most to consider it problematic. AK
was founded by chiropractor George Goodheart Jr., and it's quite clear
he himself believed in the original pantheist עבודה זרה that was the
basis of chiropractic in its infancy. Many AK variants have spiritualist
undertones.
To be clear: I haven't heard about Brain Gym specifically- but then again there are probably dozens of AK variants. There is no physical connection between the movements & the ability to learn. Any imagined connection would have to be spiritual,
hence the halachic problems. That's my take on the issue- feel free to
disagree- you have both the scientific & Torah knowledge that I
don't have.
I have
collected material on this stuff for years- let me know if you're
interested. Much of what I found was also confirmed by Elchanan Green of
Modiin Illit in his sefer שאלת המטוטלת published in 2018. The sefer is
big & he's assembled a lot of sources. The practices he deals with
include AK variants that are used to diagnose illness. That's a different issue than using similar ideas/methodologies for treating conditions. (דרכי האמורי vs. קוסם etc..)
I found a google cached version of one of Brain Gyms documents here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iDAD7bMhJT8J:www.braingym.org/static/brochures/Edu-K%2520Style%2520Guide%25202011.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=il . The documents makes reference to AK variant "Touch for Health"- see here: http://www.touch4health.com/history.html. Note the reference to a certain Eastern religion...