By Deirdre Brocklebank

I have been asking myself could there be more to the vibrational impact of EFT on the body than we realise? For instance, how does the tapping impact on the body outside the energy system? As an adult body is about 70% water it seemed to be appropriate to begin my research on this. This focus led me to the fascinating work with water by internationally renowned Japanese scientist Dr Masaru Emoto and the correlation between his principles and those of EFT.

Of particular relevance to EFT is that after many years of research Dr Emoto has demonstrated that molecules of water are affected by our thoughts, words and feelings. Since the earth and humans are composed mainly of water his message can be seen as one for personal health, global environmental renewal, and a practical plan for the creation of peace that starts with each of us. Dr Emoto regards his work as a exploration of how the cosmos works. Water has taught him about the 'delicacy of the human soul and the impact that "love and gratitude" can have on the world.'

Dr Emoto has visually recorded the impact of different vibrations on water by freezing it and by photographing the resulting crystal formations. Some of his photographs are shown in his books "The Hidden Messages in Water" and The True Power of Water."

The following principles are basic to Dr Emoto's work and of relevance for EFT.

1. Water is the life force and it is sensitive to all vibration.
2. The entire universe is vibrating and everything has a unique frequency (sound).
3. The Universe is naturally in balance and harmony, and discord has a destructive vibration.
4. The words "love" and "gratitude" form the fundamental principles of the laws of nature and also of the phenomenon of life.

Every living cell requires water and we are dependant on the fluid flow in all the different systems in our bodies including the body's electrical system. Dehydration, will cause the energy system to be sluggish or severely repressed and this is one of the recognised causes of Psychological Reversal (PR) in EFT. For this reason, and also because people can become very thirsty while doing EFT, it is necessary to drink water during the session. Correct hydration is also essential for accuracy with muscle testing.

Dr Emoto discovered a close correlation between peoples' emotions and affected body parts. Of particular interest to EFT is that he found that excess fear resonated with the kidneys. The kidneys maintain the constancy of fluids to our internal environment. They filter fluid from the bloodstream and are the major excretory organs. His findings concur with the Five Elements Cycle in Chinese medicine in which the kidneys are affected by the negative emotion of fear. In EFT the collarbone point is also the Kidney 27 point in acupuncture. I have found this to be a very powerful point in EFT which is not surprising given its connection to the kidneys, water and the emotion of fear.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity explains that physical matter including the human body is made of energy at the sub-atomic level. The principle is universally accepted in the scientific world and the Science of Quantum Mechanics generally recognises that substance is nothing more than vibration. EFT practitioners have been successfully applying this principle for years and the clinical results prove it.

Dr Emoto calls this universal vibration hado which means "all the subtle energy that exists in the Universe." Water is sensitive to hado and according to Dr Emoto, water acts as a mirror of the vibrations created in the world. This energy can be positive or negative.

Humans are each vibrating with their own unique frequency and have the sensory skills necessary to feel the vibrations of others. My EFT experiences have enabled me to develop my skills in this regard. As a result, I now often intuitively tune into the subtle as well as the stronger more obvious emotions that my clients experience during EFT sessions with them.

I also feel a range of physical sensations that they too experience during the sessions. As our frequencies change, we literally resonate with one another. I believe this is because I tap together with the client and often speak the same or relevant words for the problems on which we are focussed. Gary has discussed this effect in his Borrowing Benefits concept.

Another phenomenon that I have experienced with EFT is that many of my clients tell me that after doing the technique they have unexpectedly been able to relate better to people with whom they previously had conflict. These were not necessarily people that they consciously addressed using EFT. So even though the person themselves has not necessarily made a conscious effort to "make peace" with another, their vibration had so changed after the EFT that they experienced greater resonance with the other's energy. I believe that it is highly likely that this change has occurred as a result of tapping into the meridian system plus changes in the vibration of water in the body.

Dr Emoto has developed a device that measures various vibrations of the body at cellular level. He has expanded its use to measuring hado in his development of hado medicine for which the fundamental principles are vibration and resonance. According to Dr Emoto, "When the cellular vibrations in different parts of the body are disturbed due to various reasons, our body can make a wrong turn. When this situation occurs, a new external vibration can be given to the disturbed cell so as to resonate with it, thus, its intrinsic vibration is restored."

The description of how these principles work aligns very closely to the Psychological Reversal phenomenon in EFT. This is caused by self-sabotaging, negative thinking which often occurs subconsciously and is therefore outside our awareness. It is a polarity reversal in the body's energy system -the energy is there but it doesn't flow correctly. It is generally present when a person confuses words, numbers and/or concepts and when they are thinking negatively, and acting irrationally and irritably when they are doing EFT.

In EFT, the correction for Psychological Reversal is made by tapping (ie introducing new external vibration) and making a Setup statement which acknowledges the problem (negative words) and creates self acceptance despite the problem being present (positive words). This changes the vibration in the meridian system, and most likely in the water in the body as well.

Of great significance to EFT is Dr Emoto's contention that water carries information both negative and positive to all the cells in the body, coupled with his visual recording of water's ability to understand the meaning of words.

He discovered that the vibration from negative words has the power to destroy, whereas, the vibration of the "good" words has a positive effect. The words may either be written or spoken. He considers that all the vibrations both good and bad impact on water in the body. This has a profound impact on our health and general attitude and demeanour.

Tapping into the meridian system with EFT while stating negative and positive words also has a profound effect. This is because when a disruption of the energy system is calmed and relieved, the person no longer experiences pain and/or or negative emotions from the original memory or thought, as the associated feeling has been "disconnected" according to Sylvia Hartmann, the founder of EmoTrance.

Dr Emoto also discovered that water exposed to the written words "love and gratitude" produced the most beautiful and perfect of all the crystals that he recorded. He contends that these words form the fundamental principles of the laws of nature and the phenomenon of life. He found that while "love" has healing powers on its own, the words "love and gratitude" together form immunity in healing. EFT incorporates the words "love" and "accept" into the Setup statement. Even though acceptance of oneself is a type of gratitude it could be even more beneficial, given Dr Emoto's research, to incorporate the word "gratitude" and other similar words expressing thanks when doing EFT.

Dr Emoto states that words spoken with determination have strong powers. He was able to observe this in 1999 when 350 people assembled to pray for the cleansing of Lake Biwa in Japan. The algae that normally formed in the lake did not appear that year. He used Einstein's equation of E=MC2 to explain the phenomenon of the healing of the lake. He considers that the "C" can equate to "consciousness" as well as to the speed of light which is the normal interpretation. In this case "M" could equal the number of people consciously focussed. This concept is not new to EFT practitioners who have experienced Gary's Borrowing Benefits phenomenon, as referred to earlier.

Everyone knows that negative emotions and feelings are a part of us. It is also quite obvious that with an attitude of positive thinking our health often improves.

Dr Emoto believes that we can correct our hado by using the opposite word. So for example, "hate" has a opposing frequency to "gratitude", "anger" to "kindness", "fear" to "courage", "anxiety" to "peace of mind", "pressure" to "presence of mind" and so forth. The EFT work by Patricia Carrington on choices beautifully exemplifies the efficacy of this.

Dr Emoto's research has also demonstrated that while words have their own unique vibrational frequencies these can be effected by the vibrations of the person speaking or writing the words. The implications for EFT centre on the importance of using the individual's own words rather than only those of the therapist when tapping, unless of course there is agreement on the words.

The following is another of Dr Emoto's findings that is worth developing for EFT. He found that water responds to intent so we can say positive prayers to water which gains the power to potentially answer our prayers. He believes that we can send stronger hado to water by praying in the past tense rather than the future tense, as though the prayer has already been answered. According to Dr Emoto we can make our thoughts and intentions stronger by doing this. He also believes that it is important to have a strong image of the desired result. Loudly vocalising the words gives off a stronger hado than writing them on paper. He suggests that a practical way to create your own hado water is by writing words on a piece of paper and sticking it to your water bottle with the words facing inwards. Dr Emoto recommends drinking five glasses of this water per day. If you don't have a specific wish then he suggests using the words love and gratitude.

I decided to do a small practical experiment with four people and seven glasses of water to test some of Dr Emoto's principles. The purpose of the experiment was to revise muscle testing in a workshop while testing whether written words could affect the taste of water. One person was muscle tested by three different people for glasses of water which were each exposed to one of seven words. These words were unseen by the person being tested and the testers, until after all the testing had been completed.

Results confirmed that water exposed to different words changed taste. When the person was muscle tested, "nice" tasting water tested strong and "not nice" tasting water tested weak. Three glasses tasted neutral. For these, the muscle response was very weak for water exposed to "ungrateful", strong for "live" and very weak for "bad".

The results were useful for finding issues to pursue with EFT. For example the person in this experiment liked the taste of, and muscle tested very strong to water exposed to the word "die". However, on two occasions she didn't like the taste of the water exposed to the word "live" and she muscle tested weak on this. When asked later how she felt about dying she answered that she was quite happy about the thought of it. By contrast, living was a challenge at the time because she was about to retire and was not sure about her financial future.

Conclusion

There is a strong correlation between Dr Emoto's findings and EFT principles.

Dr Emoto's pioneering research has provided sound evidence of the impact of thoughts, words and feelings on the body through the medium of water.

Whereas Dr Emoto's work measures the impact at a personal and global level, EFT provides a therapeutic approach to influence and manage negative emotion at the individual level. Thanks to Dr Emoto's work, it is now possible to understand more about the wider therapeutic implications of tapping into the meridian system through EFT.

Deirdre Brocklebank