The intravoxel spin phases in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) usually vary due to susceptibility differences of materials to be imaged. The phase variation in the voxel results in a reduction of the signal intensity. This signal intensity reduction is known as the susceptibility effect in MRI and has been studied extensively. In this paper, a new spectral decomposition technique Is proposed and the signal change due to the susceptibility effect can be analyzed. A pulse sequence for the spectral decomposition of the susceptibility was developed and applied to susceptibility imaging of venous blood possessing paramagnetic properties. The computer simulations and their corresponding experimental results obtained using both a phantom and human volunteers are reported. Key words : susceptibility effect in MRI : spectral decomposition of susceptibility effect.