The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
-- a brief introduction

Introduction - Virtually all of us have emotional traumas

Most of what we need to heal in order to bring about positive change in our lives and move towards enlightenment is stored emotional traumas. Most people, at least in the West, do not understand how much emotional trauma they are carrying. The usual healers' interpretation, as happened in my case, is that a great deal of the buried trauma that we are carrying is from past lives of ours. However, there are alternative interpretations, such as our getting 'parasitic' connections from 'lost souls', thought forms or memories or indeed archetypes in the Earth consciousness or the human collective consciousness when we start our current lives - these attachments then masquerading as parts of our own minds so that we have experiences and emotions and memories actually from long-past lifetimes which were not ours.

In fact we do not need to know anything about the origin of particular traumas or difficult feelings or patterns in order to be able to release them. Neither do we need to have any belief in past lives. However, on that point I would say that acceptance of at least the possibility of past lives or other sources outside one's own current lifetime from which traumas derive is helpful for a particular reason, even though there is normally no need to know about specific sources outside your current lifetime. The point is that if you do accept that extraneous sources of trauma emotions are a possibility, then you are much more open to accepting that there may be more to release than might be accounted for in what may appear to be a relatively untroubled lifetime that you're living. People love going into denial about emotional issues that they are carrying, and having a healthily open outlook on what issues you may be carrying, and how much, makes it much easier to access those issues for healing purposes.

Another advantage in accepting past lives or other extraneous source of traumas / inner experiences as a possibility is that you would be more willing to accept certain images which may arise in your mind during the healing process, which are stylized representations (or indeed occasionally actual memories) of  particular past life situations (whether yours or, say, of one or more parasitic 'lost' souls attached to you) which you can use very effectively in a healing context. In such cases you do not need to believe that they are definitely past life situations or even happened to you at all - only to use them in a healing context as if they had been your own situations, in order to elicit the requisite emotional release and pattern breaking. It's best then to let go of the 'story' and keep a fully open mind as to what it represented. 

For example, on one occasion in 2003 I was given guidance and stylized images to take me through emotional release and pattern breaking for an alleged past life situation in which I, as a baby, had supposedly been strangled by one of my parents and rescued in the nick of time by somebody whose present incarnation is a friend of mine. Something very positive was undoubtedly happening through all that work, regardless of whether the situation depicted was a true one for me or not. This example, however, was hard work for me because at that time I was not using elegant fast-track methods for emotional clearance such as the EFT, which could address them with a small fraction of the time and energy expenditure of using only direct, 'physical' emotional release.

Buried traumas reveal themselves, at least to aware people who are 'in the know', through the rigid and limiting patterns of outlook and behaviour which they cause. Without such patterns each of us would naturally be joyfully peaceful, totally positive, alert, tremendously loving, non-judgemental, creative, full of energy... and the list of positive attributes goes on. Anything less than that and there is something in the way which needs healing attention.

For much of my life I had been using the basics of Re-evaluation Counselling to enable me to release my old traumas and go against rigid patterns. RC facilitates the allowing of our natural emotional healing processes of:

• crying (for grief),
• trembling (for fear and related emotions),
• laughter (for anxiety and the lighter level of fear-based emotions),
• bright indignant storming (frustration),
• yawning and stretching (the physical element of traumas)
• interested, non-repetitive talking (not analyzing) about the trauma situation.

For me this proved to be a lengthy, rough and rocky ride. I did hundreds - probably by now even thousands - of hours of crying since I started with RC in 1972. Indeed, it's almost certain that my load of supposed past life traumas was altogether too large* to be released in this lifetime just through the natural emotional release processes listed above. In fact most people who are into self healing do not readily spend a lot of time on natural emotional release at all, so a fast-track method must be very welcome for us all.

* Later note (May 2007) - Actually I now know that my own situation had been a rare one, complicated by my having energy 'cord' connections to particular people and even to an archetype in the human collective consciousness, which were drawing into my system emotional trauma energy from those particular people and indeed (through the latter cord) from all of Humanity, for healing purposes, so that my 'self' healing task during this lifetime has appeared monstrously large and my primary issues had appeared to be virtually unresolvable bottomless pits of emotional trauma - most of which was actually not mine. I'm now in the process of clearing all entities, inappropriate cords and other interferences from my system, and understad that the cords have already been dissolved, so that I'm no longer inadvertently healing other people's issues.

However, that isn't the end of the matter for me, because I futher understand now that almost certainly most if not all emotional issues of 'mine' which I'm still carrying are not sourced from past lives of mine but from certain attached entities which are 'lost' human souls or memories / thoughtforms derived from them, so that what appear to be my own emotional issues and past life experiences are actually those of these parasitic energy attachments, from actual long-past lifetimes which were not mine. This is an extremely common phenomenon and may account for most or even all supposed past life traumas or memories that people are carrying. More about this scenario in Interference and Attacks From Astral ('Dark') Entities.

What the EFT does

The EFT is based on the insight that unhealed emotional traumas are stored in particular parts of the body and cause blockages to energy flow in particular subtle energy channels (meridians). The principle, then, is to get in touch with the feelings of a particular trauma while simultaneously tapping on a sequence of specific points on various meridians, so releasing the energy blocks in those meridians and the organs with which they connect. The effect of this is to speedily release the particular trauma emotion.

Many people seek to justify their holding onto their issues (and not releasing or healing them) by imagining that if they released the traumas they would then be devoid of emotions. That misunderstanding is also fuelled by statements about 'releasing emotions', where what we really mean by 'releasing emotions' is releasing particular trauma states involving the particular emotions - or releasing oneself from the compulsive grip of a particular emotion. I have been healing a trauma complex of mine from previous lifetimes, relating to feelings of separation and isolation, with masses of grief and loneliness. Now that I've released nearly all of this I still will feel grief, sadness, loneliness or isolation when it's appropriate to do so (and that would be only briefly), but those emotions are no longer colouring my everyday life, and would arise only rarely in response to specific circumstances. After all, they simply don't belong with me now as an everyday experience because they are feelings relating to past events which are not happening for me in this lifetime. So, why hang onto them - except through fear of positive change?

The EFT procedure

A certain clarity and skill is required to make best use of the EFT, in order to create just the right setup statement to use, for it needs to be one that really gets in touch with the feelings. If you lack the will or the awareness to home in on the particular feelings, then you could for evermore be creating setup statements which may sound as though you're an EFT expert but do not take you very far - and thus you could fool yourself into thinking that you don't have much to release, or that the EFT "doesn't work" much for you.

The procedure goes as follows. Let's take a session that I gave myself just before starting to write this page.

This sequence can be repeated any number of times, usually with amendments to the setup statement, and the tapping sequence can be modified or abbreviated. It's fine and good to modify and sharpen up the setup statement during your tapping sequence. As you get in touch with the feel of the statement more during your tapping, it makes perfect sense to try out variations as you go, to see which version gets you most in touch with the underlying feelings so that you are releasing more through the tapping.

Please be aware that the EFT is not a ritual nor indeed a religion, and there is actually no one right way to practise it. Your own results are what count - not whether you are exactly repeating what Uncle Phil taught you. 

When substantial emotional issues are involved, such a session does not clear the whole issue, but it will have cleared or significantly reduced one part and it would be necessary to formulate another setup statement, probably relating to a particular feeling or a particular past experience, to clear another part of the issue. You carry on like this over a period, whittling down the issue till there is nothing left. With RC you have to work in a similar way, but with the EFT it is all so much quicker, with much less effort, and while it is important to allow some of the natural emotional release rather than use EFT to avoid it altogether, the amount of work needed in crying, trembling, etc., is greatly reduced.

Tapping without a setup statement - especially for enlightened people

Here goes Phil the merry heretic again! I'm not joking when I mention enlightened people, because an increasing, albeit still very small, number of us have crossed the enlightenment threshold and thus experience things and especially our feelings in a different way from the vast majority of people. Enlightened people include not only the revered 'great' yogis and adepts of various Eastern traditions who've largely frittered their lives away by spending much of them in meditation, but also non-meditating people like you and me when we have travelled far enough in our process of emotional clearance - as indeed you can do with diligent use of the EFT.

One thing I've come to understand is that some people can get a great amount of release by tapping without a setup statement. That is, primarily people who have crossed the threshold of enlightenment (or are at the first stage of enlightenment, to use certain other people's terminology). If you are one of them, you are able to experience the feelings of emotions without actually being in the particular emotional states. In other words you can be peaceful (and indeed happy) observer of the unpleasant feelings. You can feel fear without being frightened; you can feel panic or anxiety feelings without being in a state of panic or anxiety.

For such people (of whom I'm one, so I know about this from experience), it's possible to maintain what you could call the 'essence' of a setup statement in one's peaceful mindspace, without any words or concepts - just a sense of complete self acceptance and indeed positive acceptance of all experiences, while you feel those nasty feelings and go through the tapping procedure to dissipate them.

Actually some people who are not yet enlightened can to some extent be peaceful observer of painful emotional feelings, so I don't mean to imply that it isn't worth their trying tapping anyway if there isn't an obvious setup statement that comes to them at the particular time. The real key is not whether you bear the label of 'enlightened' but simply whether you can feel the nasty emotional feelings while being in a peaceful and wholly positive emotional state.

I'm not suggesting that using formal setup statements is redundant in all situations for an enlightened person, but using the tapping sequence without them can work and can be particularly helpful if nasty feelings come up without a specific situation or 'trigger' that suggests a particular setup statement. This can happen particularly if you have 'dark' entities attacking you. Many people do get the latter, and usually it gets medically diagnosed as 'attacks' of anxiety, panic, depression, etc without any understanding that it really is attacks in the most literal sense!

I myself have had this situation. When I was getting sustained and really massive attacks from such entities in 2005 I actually gave up using the EFT because at that time it seemed ineffective against such huge attacks, but subsequently, with more modest attacks, my simply using the tapping sequence while peacefully observing the nasty - even hellish - feelings of the attack has quickly brought the nasty feelings to near zero, albeit less so for the nauseous feelings of attacks from the demonic entities.

I have considered the question as to whether tapping away a nasty feeling without using a setup statement would actually deny one the learning that was needed from the particular clearance process (that is, the learning that was needed from whatever situation(s) had given rise to the trauma in the first place). If it did, that would be a serious contra-indication because that learning is what clearing of karma is about, and it is very important.

I have thought about this carefully, also checking it out with the team of higher-dimensional Light beings who have been working with me onwards from late December 2006. The clear answer that returns is that there is no problem at all. The point is, the most fundamental learning that is needed is not at the conscious level anyway. When the emotional trauma (or stress) energy 'payload' of an issue is fully released, a simple process called re-evaluation occurs below the conscious level, in which the beliefs or distorted thinking which underlay the issue and caused its stress component are seen as untrue, and the reality of the old situation, and indeed of all old situations which relate to that one, is directly perceived and understood. That is all the learning that needs to occur. So, in terms of the need for learning through resolving your issues, it doesn't matter one toss whether or not you use setup statements, as long as you're clearing the issues (through achieving re-evaluation) and not hiding them or simply annihilating them.

Postscript - More uses for the setup statement

In fact the setup statement, including the 'and I choose...' section, is a powerful tool that can be used in any healing systems, for no healing is complete without attention to positive life change and breaking patterns. I strongly recommend that it be taken up and used widely by all healers in any system, also in Re-evaluation Counselling and indeed by professional counsellors - though of course the practitioners would need to have the means to give the requisite emotional support, and then the use of EFT would greatly reduce the amount of any of the natural emotional release that might be necessary.

In my own experience certain setup statements are very useful to repeat in my mind in situations where tapping is inappropriate. In that usage I do not concentrate on getting strong emotional feelings but instead focus on the positive change aspect. For example, on one of my hikes when I was taking a 'pit stop' and was just waiting for my pee to start (this has been quite a problem area for me), I was repeating something like "Even though people are about to pass by and see what I'm doing, and might wonder why I'm just standing here with nothing coming out, I deeply and completely love and accept myself, and I choose to honour myself and enjoy letting it flow anyway for all to see."

If I cannot accept the statement "I deeply and completely love and accept myself" can I still find any benefit from EFT by substituting another positive saying in it's place?

Yes, definitely, though it's important to keep in mind that "I deeply and completely love and accept myself" is a crucial part of anyone's self healing and self realization process, and so it is necessary to come to terms with and fully embrace that statement as soon as you can possibly manage it. A good interim alternative to use would be something like "I'm coming towards deeply and completely loving and accepting myself". Indeed, that would also be assisting you in focusing your intent on becoming able to deeply and completely love yourself, so it would be very beneficial while you have that particular block.

Also, you can directly address the issue with EFT, using a setup statement something like:

"Even though at the moment I feel I can't (deeply and completely) love and accept myself, I actually love myself enough that I'm working right now to make it possible, and I choose to stand my full height and joyfully to accept the most fundamental positive change in my life".

...But it's important for each person to use wording which is most appropriate for them and doesn't turn them off, so my suggestion here is simply a suggestion which you can use as a basis for a setup statement of your own.

However, there is more that you can do to enable you to move very quickly to deeply and completely loving yourself - in particular, unsing The Work on the issue. The way I would expect to go about it for myself would be to see what thoughts arise in my mind to justify my apparent inability to deeply and completely love and accept myself. Such thoughts might be ones like "I'm bad because I'm unloving to others / to xxxx", "I'm bad because I feel resentful / jealous / angry at people", "I'm ugly / fat / disabled [you name it!]", or maybe "I'm bad because I did xyz".

Having written down those particular thoughts that arise, then I would examine them further with the aim of making them and any related thoughts into the most effective format for putting to inquiry using The Work - and then I'd work through the list I'd created, putting each of those thoughts to inquiry.

Best to use at least two methods - try The Work as well!

In fact, although theoretically a person could clear all their emotional issues with just one method, the practical reality is that few people indeed would manage to do so. This applies not only to the EFT but indeed to any emotional clearance method, never mind how good. All such methods are limited by the user's own 'blind spots' and limitations on their thoroughness of using a particular method. For this reason I recommend that, even if you really love the EFT and get on with it just great, you take on one or more at least equally powerful method(s) to use in addition. Belt and braces is King!

One such method is The Work, developed by Byron Katie. It is a process of methodical inner inquiry based on four fundamental questions and a turnaround which are applied to each of one's beliefs, judgements and stressful thoughts. This simple but powerful method rapidly sorts out one's life and brings about self realization, putting enlightenment and enlightened living within reach of many.

I've been falling into what seems to be an excellent approach to using both these methods. If a clear judgement or belief comes into my mind and is the predominant experience rather than a stressful feeling at that time, then I write it down and put it to inquiry using The Work. However, if a particular stressful feeling is more prominent, then I use the EFT. Then quite often, as the setup statement clarifies during the tapping stages, I arrive at a specific belief or judgement which is strongly amenable to putting to inquiry, and so I write that down and finish off the clearance of that issue (or that part of an issue) by doing The Work on it.

Indeed, I recommend finishing off ANY issue by using The Work on it - for a very important reason. When you use the EFT or other method which primarily releases the emotional charge or payload of an issue, what can readily happen is that you release the emotional charge to such a level that you no longer very much notice it and so you are no longer motivated to continue clearing it - indeed you may well believe that you've already cleared it. Yet you may not have released enough for full inner re-evaluation of the underlying believed or misunderstood thought(s), so that you would still to some extent be carrying limiting patterns and beliefs caused by the particular underlying beliefs / misunderstandings.

Therefore it makes sense to finish off each issue with The Work, because that method focuses precisely on achieving inner re-evaluation. Indeed, I know of no other method which is so direct and precise in achieving re-evaluation. Inner re-evaluation marks the final clearance of any issue.

An example of using the EFT with The Work and an additional method

This relates a bit of work I did a matter of minutes before writing this (in March 2007). A couple of days before, I'd had a session over the telephone with the lightworker Dalibor Zaviska to assist me in my ongoing clearance of entities and other external energetic interferences from myself, and in that session he'd spent some time clearing a lot of problematical emotion energies relating to my sacral and base chakras, which included a strong issue from past lives regarding a lot of anger and resentment at religions (relating to their power / control agendas). However, he had to leave some of the material in place so that I could gain particular learning (i.e. re-evaluations) through my clearing it myself.

So, the following is how I worked. I started with the EFT, formulating the setup statement while I was tapping on the 'Karate chop' position on the little-finger side of my left hand. Almost once I started crying and feeling a slight ache at the solar plexus caused by some of the associated anger which was now beginning to surface. I came up with the following setup statement:

Even though the religions are tools of Darkness and have harmed me and countless other people,
I deeply and completely love and accept myself
and I choose to stand my full height and joyfully get on with life with no further attention to religions.

Please note that the setup statement is not about making a factually correct statement but about making one which puts you most in touch with the painful emotions that you're seeking to release.

Now add in a rose...

As I went through the tapping sequence I was also carrying out a visualization technique which Dalibor had given me as an alternative fast-track emotional release method. This method involved my asking my Divine Support Team* for 'a rose' - they already knew what I required, so it was not necessary to explicitly describe to them what I wanted. Immediately in my mind's eye I had in front of me a beautiful rose flower made of translucent shimmery whitish Divine energies and Divine consciousness, and I then allowed the painful emotion energies to flow from me (seen as blackish streamers) into the rose, where it was all transformed into positive, Light energy, which would at a suitable point be returned to me as part of my soul retrieval process.

* For more about Divine Support Teams, please see Healing and Self Realization - The Safest and Quickest Way.

So, I was tapping at each point, repeating the first reminder phrase in the first round, and the second, positive, reminder phrase in the second round, all the time also maintaining my visualization of the painful emotion - and particularly the anger - all flowing from me into the rose. So, powerful release was occurring simultaneously through two methods.

This is a great way to speed the clearance of issues which may have accumulated over many lifetimes and thus have become quite major ones. As I've already noted, there is very likely another explanation for such apparently past-life-sourced traumas.

During the first tapping round I was crying but in the second round I was feeling bright and buoyant, though still with a slight solar plexus ache and the blackish streamers flowing into the rose, though these were becoming progressively less distinct towards the end.

Time for The Work...

The task now was to frame a thought from this issue about religions, in a form which was really amenable to the inquiry process. I came up with:

"Religions should be condemned, because they are tools of Darkness".

I could really feel the solar plexus ache of more anger as I tuned into that thought. However, I was not now doing the rose visualization, for it was inquiry time and I wanted to apply my full attention to that. So, I applied the standard four questions of The Work to that thought, and then the turnarounds. The turnarounds especially give you a very direct and precise set of angles on the relevance of a belief in your life, which you don't really get with the EFT or any other method I know, and this greatly facilitates the inner re-evaluation which finally clears an issue. Therefore The Work really is a great way to finish off an issue which has already been worked on by any of the other methods.

These were my turnarounds:

• Religions shouldn't be condemned, because they are tools of Darkness
• Religions shouldn't be condemned
• Religions should be commended, because they are tools of Darkness
• Religions shouldn't be condemned, because they are tools of Light
• Religions should be commended, because they are tools of Light
• I should be condemned, because I am a tool of Darkness
• I should be condemned, because I am a tool of the Light
• I should be condemned, because I am me
• I should be me, because I am me

I pondered the relevance of each of these to my life and indeed incarnational history - not as a lengthy analysis but just in considering whether it is more or less true than the original thought and what relevance it might have had for me - e.g. whether it was a belief that I may have carried. Indeed, I'm sure I could have had something of every one of those turnarounds instilled into me at some time or other as a belief which has then gone on to adversely affect me in the particular lifetime and subsequent ones (which, as I've already remarked, may not have actually been lifetimes of my own).

And that's it! ...No, I can't know for sure that every bit of that issue is now cleared, for there may be related aspects which are still awaiting similar work in order for me to gain the necessary re-evaluation (i.e. learning).