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EFT is a psychotherapeutic
tool that intends to relieve many psychological conditions,
including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder,
general stress, addictions and phobias. The basic EFT technique
involves holding a disturbing memory or emotion in mental
focus and simultaneously using the fingers to tap on a series
of 12 specific points on the body that correspond to meridians
used in Chinese medicine.
The theory behind
EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances
in the body's "energy field," and that tapping
on the meridians while thinking of a negative emotion alters
the body's energy field, restoring it to "balance."
EFT has been described as pseudoscientific by some critics,
while others have suggested that its utility stems from
its more traditional components, rather than from manipulation
of energy meridians.
Benefits/Contraindications
The EFT technique
has been very successful in helping riders with many diverse
issues. See professional for information.
Training/Licensing
See EFT
website.
An Engineer Looks at the Science of Psychology
This course is written by a Stanford engineer. I'm not a
psychologist with a long list of initials behind my name.
People call me Gary and not Dr. so and so. If you are a
conventional thinker, that might bother you. After all,
what business does an engineer have intruding into the field
of psychology? The physical sciences and the mind sciences
appear to have nothing in common. True. But 40 years ago
I realized that the quality of one's life was directly related
to their emotional health. Emotional health is the foundation
beneath self-confidence and self confidence is the springboard
to achievement in every walk of life. This is not a new
idea, of course. Virtually everyone agrees with it and the
self-help section in every major bookstore is burgeoning
with books on the subject.
Most people take
this idea for granted and read a book or attend a seminar
on it now and then. But I took it seriously...very seriously.
As long as I'm going to spend a few decades on this planet
I might as well make it a joyous experience for myself and
others. So I went on a 40-year search to find tools that
would help people in this regard. I read all those books
(by the hundreds) and spent thousands of dollars on seminars
and tapes. I chased down every lead I could find with the
enthusiasm of a newspaper reporter on the hunt for that
"big story." I talked to psychiatrists and psychologists
and psychotherapists of every kind to find what worked.
And EFT, by far, is the most fascinating, most rewarding,
most effective tool I have ever found for personal improvement.
It lives up to its name and does, indeed, provide freedom
from negative emotions. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I want to trace through some of the milestones of my search
because they form an important base on which to build your
introduction to this ingenious discovery.
First, please understand that I have never formally used
my training as an engineer. I have always chosen people
oriented professions and have, at the same time, always
pursued my true passion as a Personal Performance Coach.
But that doesn't mean I wasn't influenced by my scientific
training. Indeed, that training led me to many useful personal
performance tools. You see, engineering is an exact science.
It is very practical. Two plus two must equal four. There
is a reason for everything. Logic tends to rule in the thinking
of an engineer. So, when I set out to find personal improvement
tools I took that mindset with me. To me a tool had to make
sense...it had to be practical...it had to be scientific.
In short...if it didn't work in the real world I wasn't
interested. So I began reading those books and attending
seminars on psychology. It was the "logical" thing
to do. But psychology was a puzzle to me. I was looking
for the same logic and precision that I was used to as an
engineer but it didn't seem to be there.
After many years of probing the institution known as psychology
I can assure you that the science of engineering and the
science of psychology bear little relationship to each other.
On the surface, psychology seems to be very scientific.
There are laboratories in nearly every major university
in America dedicated to research on psychological issues.
Theories are put forward and rigorously tested. "Controlled"
studies are done to assure the findings are valid. These
studies then form the basis of carloads of professional
papers written by the most highly esteemed practitioners
in the field. It all seems very impressive and, in many
ways, it is. All this research does uncover many valuable
aspects to our thinking process and our behaviors. They
are used effectively in sales and advertising and many other
fields. But the vast majority of them do very little to
give people rapid, long lasting relief from their emotional
problems. I know that sounds a little irreverent and I mean
no one disrespect. But by an engineer's standards...that
is a very true statement. There are some exceptions, of
course, but the vast majority of the conventional techniques
have poor track records.
Please understand, this is not a criticism of psychotherapists.
I find the members of that profession to be among the most
dedicated people on earth and I count many of them as my
personal friends. They are very caring individuals who have
great concerns for their patients. They work long hours
and are constantly seeking new ways to improve on the tools
they have been given to work with. EFT is a new tool for
their "people helping toolbox" that contains a
distinctly scientific component. That scientific component
would satisfy even the most demanding engineer. It has to
improve any therapist's performance. Some people undergo
therapy for months or years for relief from their fears,
anger, guilt, grief, depression, traumatic memories, etc.
and make little or no headway. So they switch therapists
in hopes someone else has "the answer." The results
are often the same. They switch again...and again...and
again. They spend money. They spend time. They go through
emotionally painful sessions. But if anything positive happens
for most of these people, it doesn't appear to be much.
I found this rather curious. To me there was something obviously
wrong with the methods used because (1) they weren't working
(at least by my standards) and (2) they were painfully slow.
So I asked therapists and patients, "Why does it take
so long to do so little?" The answers varied, of course,
but generally speaking they went something like this....
**"Well, the problem is deeply ingrained" or **"It
is a deep scar" or **"We don't know for sure...we
are dealing with the mysteries of the mind, you know."
My engineering mind tossed these answers out immediately
as convenient ways to explain away, or rationalize, methods
that just didn't do much. But to most people they sounded
good. They sounded reasonable. So they were accepted and
pursued. Besides, what else could be done? Real answers
weren't available.
Also, I don't mean to imply here that no one gets any help
or relief from therapy. That just isn't so. Some do. But
in general it is among the slowest, most ineffective sciences
on earth. To this engineer the only scientific laboratory
that counts is the real world and there is only one criteria
for whether or not a given psychological theory is valid.
Namely....does it work for the client? If an engineer designs
a computer, for example, it had better work in the real
world and work perfectly. Otherwise, consumers will return
it promptly for a refund and may send a nasty letter to
boot. In emotional health, however, if a new method seems
to work once in a while (and as long as it is not too radical)
it is often heralded as a breakthrough and the discoverer
of the method gets rich by writing books and giving lectures.
Interesting...but that's the way it is.
In the early years of my search for personal improvement
tools I considered getting degrees in psychology. But the
more I was exposed to that field the more I concluded that
to do so would work to my disadvantage. Why? Because I would
have to learn about methods that didn't work...at least
by my standards. I just couldn't see the merits in going
through all that schooling to learn something that, to me,
was of questionable value. It would, paradoxically, distract
me from my true goal of finding personal improvement tools
that work. As the years went by I discovered a list of helpful
tools that I used for myself and taught to others. None
of them, incidentally, came from psychology text books.
They were all well received and effective when properly
applied. One of the tools that I thought was quite helpful
was euro Linguistic Programming (also known as NLP). I dove
into that head first and became quite proficient at it.
I became certified as a Master Practitioner and helped a
lot of people with it. I recommend anyone study it who is
interested in personal improvement.
Then my search for reliable personal improvement tools took
a mega jump to a new level. I was told about a psychologist
in Southern California, Dr. Roger Callahan, who was giving
people relief from intense fears (phobias) in minutes. So,
ever the eager beaver, I called him immediately to inquire
of his methods. He told me that his methods weren't limited
to just phobias. They applied to all negative emotions.
That included depression, guilt, anger, grief, post traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and any other negative emotion I
could name. Furthermore, the method usually only took minutes
to perform and the result was usually permanent.
On the one hand I was enthusiastic about his claims. But
I must also admit to a fair amount of skepticism as well.
The statement sounded a bit grandiose...even to me. But
I was still listening. Then he told me the method consisted
of tapping with the fingertips at the end points of the
body's energy meridians. "You mean meridians like in
acupuncture?", I said. "Exactly," he replied.
"Hmmm”, I thought, “That’s a little
far out.” Here was a PhD making some startling claims
and trying to explain them in terms of the subtle amounts
of electricity that circulate throughout the body. Psychology
and electricity seemed rather far apart to me but I bought
some of his videos anyway so I could see a demonstration.
I was stunned by what I saw. Clearly and obviously people
were getting beyond the most intense of emotions and they
were doing so in moments and...the results were long lasting.
I had never seen anything close to this, anywhere.
I still didn't see the connection between emotions and the
body's energy system but it did have a scientific ring to
me. Perhaps I was about to find a truly scientific approach
to psychology. Indeed, that is what I found. The true cause
of negative emotions, it turns out, is not where everyone
thinks it is. It is not where psychologists have been looking.
That's why they haven't found it. They have been looking
in the wrong place. The cause of all negative emotions is
involved with the body's energy system. This is an important,
paradigm-shifting concept...even though it sounds a bit
strange. But the proof is in the results. For me, the only
laboratory that counts is the real world and that is where
these techniques excel.
You will see that repeatedly throughout the live tapes included
with this course. The speed, efficiency and long lasting
nature of these techniques is far beyond anything I have
come across in 40 years of intensive searching. This discovery
is the engine that runs EFT. Without it, this course wouldn't
exist. So to better build your understanding we need to
focus a bit on that vital energy system.
The Body's Energy System
Our bodies have a profound electrical nature. Any beginning
course in anatomy covers this. Shuffle your feet across
a carpet and then touch an item made of metal. Sometimes
you can see the static electricity that is discharged from
your fingertip. This wouldn't be possible unless your body
had an electrical nature to it. If you touch a hot stove
you will feel the pain instantly because it is electrically
transmitted along the nerves to your brain. The pain travels
at the speed of electricity and that is why you feel pain
so quickly. Electrical messages are constantly sent throughout
your body to keep it informed of what is going on. Without
this energy flow you would not be able to see, hear, feel,
taste or smell. Another obvious bit of evidence regarding
the existence of electricity (energy) in the body are the
electroencephalograph (EEG) and electrocardiograph (EKG).
The EEG records the electrical activity of the brain and
the EKG records the electrical activity of the heart. These
devices have been used by medical science for decades and
are the ones you see in TV hospital dramas hooked up to
dying patients. When the screen stops "blipping"
the patient is dead. Our electrical systems are vital to
our physical health. What could be more obvious? When the
energy stops flowing, we die. Ask your doctor about this.
No one disputes it. In fact, civilization has known about
this for millenniums.
About 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered a complex
system of energy circuits that run throughout the body.
These energy circuits...or meridians as they are called...are
the centerpiece of Eastern health practices and form the
basis for modern day acupuncture, acupressure and a wide
variety of other healing techniques. This energy courses
through the body and is invisible to the eye. It cannot
be seen without high tech equipment. By analogy, you do
not see the energy flowing through a TV set either. You
know it is there, however, by its effects. The sounds and
pictures are your ever present evidence that the energy
flow exists. In the same way, EFT gives you striking evidence
that energy flows within your body because it provides the
effects that let you know it is there. By simply tapping
near the end points of your energy meridians you can experience
some profound changes in your emotional and physical health.
These changes would not occur if there was no energy system.
Western medical science tends to focus on the chemical nature
of the body and has not paid much attention to these subtle,
but powerful, energy flows until recent years. However,
they do exist and are attracting an expanding group of researchers.
Read the following for more details:
**Becker, Robert O. and Selden, Gary. The Body Electric.
Morrow, NY, 1985
**Becker, Robert O. Crosscurrents. Tarcher, NY, 1992
**Burr, H.S. Blueprint for immortality: the electric patterns
of life. Neville Spearman, London, 1972
**Nordenstrom, B. Biologically closed electric circuits:
clinical, experimental and theoretical evidence for an additional
circulatory system. Nordic, Stockholm, 1983.
A growing number of health practitioners are finding ways
to use this vital energy system to help physical healing.
Acupuncture, massage therapy and chiropractic are but a
few of them. Bookstore shelves are loaded with books on
energy meridian techniques to promote good physical health.
Dr. Callahan's First Experience
The science behind EFT was not developed like many other
discoveries. That is, it was not created in a laboratory
and then tested in the real world. Instead, a stunning turn
of events in the real world pointed the way first. Here's
the story. In 1980 Dr. Roger Callahan was working with a
patient, Mary, for an intense water phobia. She suffered
from frequent headaches and terrifying nightmares, both
of which were related to her fear of water. To seek help,
she had been going from therapist to therapist for years
with no material improvement. Dr. Callahan tried to help
her by conventional means for a year and a half. He didn't
make much headway either. Then one day he stepped outside
the normal "boundaries" of psychotherapy. Out
of curiosity, he had been studying the body's energy system
and decided to tap with his fingertips under her eyes (an
end point of the stomach meridian). This was prompted by
her complaint of some stomach discomfort. To his astonishment,
she announced immediately that her phobia was gone and she
raced down to a nearby swimming pool and began throwing
water in her face. No fear. No headaches. It all went away....including
the nightmares. And it has never returned. She is totally
free of her water phobia. Results like that are rare in
the field of psychotherapy...but commonplace with EFT.
The Discovery Statement Now, with this in mind, here's the
essence behind EFT. We will refer to it henceforth as the
"Discovery Statement." Let's put this in terms
of Mary's water phobia. When she was experiencing her fear,
the energy flowing through her stomach meridian was disrupted.
That energy imbalance is what was causing her emotional
intensity. Tapping under her eyes sent pulses through the
meridian and fixed the disruption. It balanced it out. Once
the energy meridian was balanced the emotional intensity....the
fear....went away. Therein lays the most powerful thing
you are ever going to learn about your unwanted emotions.
They are caused by energy disruptions.
Now, let's examine
the discovery statement in more detail. First, notice what
it does not say. It does not say that a negative emotion
is caused by the memory of a past traumatic experience.
This is important to recognize because that presumed connection
of traumatic memories to negative emotions is a mainstay
in conventional psychotherapy. In some circles, it is the
accepted practice to “treat the memory” and,
in the process, ask the client to repeatedly relive some
emotionally painful event. EFT, by contrast, respects the
memory but addresses the true cause....a disruption in the
body's energy system. People call me from all over the country
for help over the telephone. Without my asking, they invariably
start telling me in detail about their past traumas. That's
because they mistakenly believe I need all these details
to help them. To them, these memories are the cause of their
problems.
I care deeply
about helping people who needlessly carry around all these
emotionally charged memories. That's why I created this
course. But it always seems strange to people when I tell
them they don't need to painfully relive all those horrid
details for EFT to help them. These memories may contribute
to an unwanted emotion (you'll see how later), but they
are not the direct cause. Accordingly, we don't need to
spend time painfully dwelling on them. It is superfluous
to do so. Thus there is relatively little emotional suffering
involved with EFT. It is relatively painless. You will be
asked to briefly recall your problem (there may be some
discomfort in that), but that is all. There is no need to
relive the pain.
In fact, with
EFT, generating prolonged emotional discomfort is frowned
upon. This is but one example of where EFT is a radical
departure from conventional methods. As a further aid to
your learning, it might help if you compare the energy flow
in your body to that of a TV set. As long as the electricity
flows through your TV normally, the sound and picture are
both clear. But what would happen if you took off the back
of the TV set and poked a screwdriver amongst all that "electronic
spaghetti?" You would, quite obviously, disrupt or
reroute the flow of electricity and an electric "zzzzzt"
would occur inside. The picture and sound would become erratic
The Discovery Statement “The cause of all negative
emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.
1 8 How a negative emotion is caused Distressing Memory
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 The Intermediate Step “zzzzzt”
A disruption in the body’s energy system Negative
Emotion and the TV would exhibit its version of a "negative
emotion." In the same manner, when our energy systems
become imbalanced, we have an electrical "zzzzzt"
effect going on inside. Straighten out this "zzzzzt"
(by tapping—sometimes skillful artistry is necessary—see
the tapes) and the negative emotion goes away. It's that
simple. I'm well aware of how strange this may sound and
how difficult it can be to believe....at least at first.
I wouldn't believe
it myself if I hadn't seen so many marvelous changes in
people after applying these techniques. The intermediate
step...the missing piece. Once you accept it, though....once
you "let it in"....its logic becomes undeniable.
It becomes obvious and you begin to see all the weaknesses
in other methods. For example, the "treat the memory"
method mentioned above becomes glaringly erroneous in the
light of these discoveries. It is assumed, in that method,
that the past traumatic memory is the direct cause of the
emotional upset in someone. It is not. There is an intermediate
step...a missing piece...between the memory and the emotional
upset. And that intermediate step, of course, is the disruption
in the body's energy system. It is that disruption, the
"zzzzzt", that is the direct cause of the emotional
upset. This is portrayed graphically below.
Please note that
if step 2, the intermediate step, does not occur then step
3 is impossible . In other words...if the memory does not
cause a disruption in the body's energy system then the
negative emotion cannot occur. That is why some people are
bothered by their memories and others are not. The difference
is that some people have a tendency for their energy systems
to become imbalanced under such a memory, while others do
not. With this in mind, it is easy to see how the "treat
the memory" method misses the mark. It addresses step
1 and ignores step 2. This is why some people tend to get
worse when conventional psychology aims for the memory and
not its cause (the energy disruption).
Addressing step
1 by requiring someone to vividly relive a distressing memory
serves to induce more disruption in the energy system. And
that means more pain, not less. It can, and often does,
aggravate the problem. If step 2 was addressed instead of
step 1, then there would be relatively little pain. The
energy system would be balanced (by appropriate tapping)
and internal calm would replace the negative emotion. The
result would be rapid relief because the true cause was
being addressed. This happens repeatedly with EFT. Now back
again to the "Discovery Statement." Please notice
that it is all inclusive. It says, "The cause of ALL
negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system."
This includes fears, phobias, anger, grief, anxiety, depression,
traumatic memories, PTSD, worry, guilt and all limiting
emotions in sports, business and the performing arts.
That's a comprehensive
list and covers just about every restrictive emotion we
can experience. Differently stated, this means that all
these negative emotions have the same cause....an electrical
"zzzzzt" in the body. It also means...they can
all be relieved in a similar manner. Thus, grief has the
same basic cause as trauma, guilt, fear and a baseball player's
hitting slump. So the same general method can be used for
all these problems. This "one cause" idea is also
a blessing for mental health professionals. They are accustomed
to an endless, ever changing number of explanations for
the seemingly countless emotional concerns of their clients.
To learn that there is only one cause greatly simplifies
their efforts.
Can you diagnose
for energy imbalances? Yes, the existence of any energy
imbalance can be detected using some unique muscle testing
diagnostic techniques. Anyone skilled in these techniques
could discern which energy meridian(s) were out of balance
and would then know precisely where to tap—at least
that’s the theory. You need to know, though, that
muscle testing requires a great deal of practice and very
few become skillful at it. An end run around diagnosis.
However, you don't have to know anything about diagnosis
to have success with EFT. This is my contribution to these
discoveries.
EFT creates an
effective end run around diagnosis. This is not to say that
the ability to diagnose is unimportant. In fact, I teach
an elegant version of diagnosis in our tape set, “Steps
toward becoming The Ultimate Therapist.” Professional
therapists, especially those dealing with clinically disturbed
patients, will want to go this extra step. However, the
"100% overhaul concept" (described next) works
admirably as a substitute. Diagnosis is not necessary for
the majority of issues with the majority of people.
The 100%
Overhaul Concept
To understand
how this end run works, let's go back to our TV set analogy.
Suppose your TV picture is fuzzy....there is a "zzzzzt"
somewhere inside....and you want it repaired. Now suppose
further that your TV repairman has no tools with which to
diagnose the problem. He has no way of telling whether you
need something major like a new picture tube or something
minor like a new capacitor. How then, does he repair your
TV? Here's the answer: In order to fix your TV...he overhauls
the whole thing--just as an auto mechanic might overhaul
an entire engine. He replaces every electronic gizmo in
sight....the picture tube, the resistors, all the wires,
every capacitor, etc. Is he overdoing it a bit? Oh sure!.
But the important question is, "Is he likely to fix
the problem?" Oh sure again! In fact, since he is replacing
everything, his odds approach 100%. Of course the overhaul
will be of limited help if the TV is located in a poor reception
area where interference is present. But that's usually not
the case.
By the same token,
a few people (less than 5%) have energy systems that are
subject to substantial interference by allergic type reactions.
We will discuss more on this topic later. The Basic Recipe
. The 100% overhaul concept is EFT's end run around diagnosis.
We overdo it. We use a memorized process called The Basic
Recipe with which we apply enough tapping procedures to
overhaul the whole energy system. This way, our odds of
fixing the specific energy imbalance, or "zzzzzt,"
are greatly enhanced....even though we have no ability to
diagnose. The only difference between the TV repairman and
EFT is that our overhaul takes only a few minutes.....not
days. Therefore it is very practical to do.
The 100% overhaul
concept requires that you tap near the end points of numerous
energy meridians without knowing which of them may be disrupted.
In this way you "overtap" and will, in the process,
tap on some energy meridians that are flowing normally.
You might wonder if this does any harm. The answer is no.
Thus "overtapping", as EFT requires, has the same
effect as overhauling a TV set. No harm done....and you'll
probably fix what's wrong. Summary so far.
To this point
we have covered some basic background and discussed what
to expect. We have also developed the science behind the
techniques and have learned that, "The cause of all
negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system."
This is a radically new discovery and requires thinking
outside the normal boundaries to be truly appreciated. We
also learned that diagnosing for energy imbalances can be
important but is impractical, and unnecessary, to teach
in this course.
Fortunately,
diagnosis can be avoided in a great majority of cases by
using the 100% overhaul concept. The 100% overhaul concept
requires a memorized tapping procedure. This procedure is
the centerpiece of EFT and is referred to as The Basic Recipe.
It is your primary tool and "best friend" for
emotional freedom. You now have the necessary background
to appreciate its power. As a reminder, please recall from
our opening comments that the emotional and energetic releases
brought about by EFT frequently result in profound physical
healings.
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