Ideomotor questioning is a subset of autoquestioning, which is a set of methods and techniques for getting information directly from the subconscious mind. Information thus gained is essential to know how to formulate suggestions for change, and to confirm subconscious acceptance of suggestions once they have been formulated.

Getting at Subconscious Secrets

One of the greatest, most mysterious entities in the known universe is aware that you are reading this. This entity is simultaneously dangerous and protective, stupid and brilliant, evil and saintly, guilty and innocent, worldly and naïve. It is your subconscious mind.

Sorry to be so melodramatic, but this really is a Big Deal.

Anything as important to you as your subconscious mind deserves knowing. This is a perversely reflexive statement because it says that one part of your mind deserves to be known about by another part. The "another part" is of course your conscious mind, that part of the mind you think you think with. But unfortunately direct communication between the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind is generally not possible.

There are, however, indirect or mediated methods of communication. One of the easiest—though not easy in any absolute sense—is ideomotor questioning. Ideomotor questioning is a smaller set of techniques that can be used to question the subconscious mind. These techniques belong to the broader category of autoquestioning, which refers to all methods of getting information from the subconscious. Some of the methods of ideomotor questioning are the Chevreul pendulum, which will be covered here, and automatic writing, the Ouija Board, and the finger response method.

Ideomotor questioning can be fun, exciting, even exhilarating at times. It is not always easy, but it almost always yields valuable information about oneself.

Probing around in the mind, sometimes uncovering long-buried stuff, seems at first like it might be dangerous. And it very well could be if the questioning were being done by someone else, someone who was not qualified. Even those who are supposedly qualified, like therapists and counselors, often do damage. But ideomotor questioning is a form of autoquestioning. Please take note of the "auto," which means acting or directed from within. It is something you do yourself. It should be done in solitude, with no other input. Just like an autobiography is written by a person about himself, so too is ideomotor questioning done by oneself, for oneself, and about oneself. As long as you stick to this you will be in no danger from ideomotor questioning. You will not subconsciously divulge anything that would create a problem for you. In fact, the subconscious mind generally tends to be over protective and errs on the side of being too conservative.

This is not to say that you cannot make yourself uncomfortable with ideomotor questioning. That does sometimes happen, but you will not be in any danger of serious damage and you will probably be better off for it in the long run.

Chevreul Pendulum

Anton Chevreul first discovered in the eighteenth century how to use a pendulum to magnify ideomotor movements. The pendulum as used here has no power of its own. It simply enlarges the magnitude of natural body movements, which are in turn the result or one's thought processes. This "ideomotion" is brought about through subconscious thoughts.

To make a pendulum, tie an 8 or 10 inch piece of thread to a ring or hardware washer. Hold the other end of the thread in your finger and, with your elbow resting on a table at which you are seated, suspend the pendulum over a piece of paper.

You are going to draw some symbols on this piece of paper, and it will become your answer sheet. Or you could just use the Pendulum Direction Diagram and save yourself some trouble.

On the paper should be drawn a cross, an x, and a circle. Think of an "x" and a plus sign typed in the same space within a large "o" and you've got it. But make them larger than typed figures.

This will give the pendulum 6 discrete, easily distinguishable directions in which to swing: left-right, up-down, left-diagonal, right-diagonal, and the two circular directions, clock- and counter-clockwise. You are going to let your subconscious mind assign answers to five of these directions.

Hold the pendulum suspended over the paper, look at it (keep your eyes open), and ask yourself which direction which will indicate "yes." Don't try to make the pendulum move, and don't try to keep it from moving. Just keep thinking "yes" and looking at the pendulum. Pretty soon it will begin to move. Sometimes it starts one way and changes to another, but within a short time you will have a distinguishable direction of swing which will indicate a subconscious "yes."

Now do the same thing to identify the directions of swing for "no," "maybe," "don't want to answer," and "rephrase the question." Each one of these requires its own, distinct direction. If you get a duplicated swing, such as the same direction of swing for both "yes" and "maybe," have a little talk with yourself. Questioning with the pendulum will only work if you get distinct assignments for each answer.

The sixth direction, whatever it may be in your case, is left blank as an escape hatch. If you ever get that direction in response to a question, it usually means none of the other directions will appropriately answer the question. This should not happen very often.

Interrogation Strategies

Use of the Chevreul pendulum requires questions that can be answered with "yes" or "no." This eliminates questions like, "What's my problem, and what will fix it?" That would be nice, but nothing really works that way. (Does, "There's no free lunch" ring a bell?)

"The ability to come up with the right questions is a skill that can only be developed through practice. There may be times when you want to just walk away from it and forget the whole business. Don't! Stick with it, and you will find that it was not all that difficult when you look back on it later. And it will certainly have been easier and more rewarding than years (or a lifetime) of failure." (Henderson, YOU CAN DO IT..., p. 98).

On the other hand there are times when you should walk away from the pendulum. The subconscious mind always seems to get fatigued, or maybe it just gets balky, after a certain amount of time. When this happens the pendulum will not move and the whole process stops. At this point give it a rest. Later, with more practice, you will have built up your endurance and you will be able to go at it for hours without getting fatigued, but give yourself a chance to build up to that.

It is sometimes said that the primary aim of a good education is to prepare a person to ask the right questions. Whether or not that is true, one thing is certain: Having to figure out the right questions to ask is itself an education. If you engage in any lengthy ideomotor questioning you will know exactly what I mean.