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Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
Emotional Freedom Techniques® Where emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
EFT Resources
A Frequently Asked Question & Answer about EFT
Can I be effective with "just the basics?"
This question is best answered by a message I sent to the EFT email support list.
Cheers, Gary
Hi Everyone,
Let's talk about Hand-Me-Down EFT. I made that name up, of course. It stands for the bare bones version of EFT that some people learn...
...over coffee from a friend,...from a quick EFT introductory presentation,...by seeing only one or two of the EFT videotapes,...from a therapist who gives a client "homework" to do,...and so on.
I have some reservations about this which I will discuss shortly. Irrespective of my reservations, however, I'm certainly not going to do anything to thwart this less-than-ideal use of EFT. EFT has been given out at low cost and with my personal blessings for people to apply as they choose. I ask only that they take personal responsibility for its use and apply it in ethical manners. As a result of this, EFT has become a major player in the "healing hope chest" of just about every practitioner and client that has used it--and there are thousands now.
What is truly fascinating about this is the degree of success these "under-informed" users of Hand-Me-Down EFT have had with this procedure. I repeatedly hear about headaches, trauma, anger, fears, phobias and the like that have disappeared with nothing more than the mechanical application of the EFT procedure. When I say disappeared, I mean gone....vanished....poof! There is no trace of the problem left and it doesn't return.
I also hear wails and laments from these same people when "it doesn't work." Therein lies my reservations.
It is natural, I suppose, to assume that what one has already learned is "enough," especially when the process appears to work so well so often. But with EFT there is a never ending list of new things to learn. It could easily be renamed UGEBS (University of Getting Even Better Still). That is why we have conferences, an email support list, our web site, study groups and so forth. We are just beginning here. As I have often said, we are on the ground floor of a Healing High Rise.
Blessings to those who are satisfied with Hand-Me-Down EFT. You are doing great work. You have been given a first class paint brush with which you are able to create healing art work that often transcends the abilities of conventionally trained practitioners with decades of experience. Go forth and help people with it.
On the other hand, please recognize your responsibilities and know that you are operating at a level somewhat short of mastery. Obviously, you are out of your league if you attempt to use EFT (or any other procedure) in areas where you are simply not qualified. Working with the truly psychotic is an obvious example.
As you can plainly see, Hand-Me-Down EFT has its limits. The paint brush is no better than the artist using it. If you want to reach higher success levels you will need to learn more. Then you can create masterful murals that make even more dramatic shifts in the directions of people's lives (including yours). Otherwise, you will reach some dead ends that will stump you.
Here's an example.
Recently I was called by "Elsie" who had applied Hand-Me-Down EFT to herself for a newly acquired weight issue and ended up "feeling worse." Previously she had used EFT successfully on other issues with impressive success. But this one was a bummer. "Why?" she asked. "What did I do wrong?"
Experienced EFT'ers know that tapping for "Even though I'm overweight....." is usually too global and often brings up underlying aspects of the problem. Such was the case with Elsie as tapping caused her to shift into her lifelong "repulsive" reaction to overweight people. Now she was one and was repulsed at herself. No wonder she felt worse.
If all you have is Hand-Me-Down EFT then you can expect to be puzzled by such things and interpret this result as EFT "not working." In reality, EFT worked just fine. It handled some surface issue which then allowed a "big one" (repulsive reaction) to surface. This happens with some frequency with EFT and is an absolute delight for those elegant artists who recognize when a core issue has surfaced. A beginner would likely quit here with the perception that something was wrong whereas the artist would keep going with enthusiasm knowing this is the ideal time to tap. A core issue has just surfaced. How wonderful. It might have taken weeks or months to find such an issue with conventional techniques but, in this case, it popped up right away.
Again, my blessings to those who choose to stay with Hand-Me-Down EFT. It's easy to apply and many people will benefit by your efforts. If you wish, however, you can dig in further and learn about Aspects, PR, Core Issues, Being Specific and the wide variety of uses for EFT that may have escaped your attention. If you don't wish to take the EFT Course then go to our web site and lose yourself among those voluminous articles and case histories. They are loaded with useful information. While on our web site you can view the many live workshops being given or go to the referrals section and view the listings of those who use EFT professionally. They all have phone numbers and most of them have email addresses and web sites.
There's help available. Lots of it. Our web site is a candy store for dedicated EFT'ers. Same goes for our inexpensive videotape courses. You don't have stay in Hand-Me-Down EFT Land.
Hugs, Gary
