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EFT and emotional damage: tapping the body’s natural healing system

26 February 2018

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It was developed by American engineer Gary Craig in 1995 and is a version of acupuncture, but instead of needles it uses finger-tapping on key points of the body to untie the knots in our emotional channels. As Craig himself recounts in his Handbook of EFT, this technique has been tested at the Veterans Association in Los Angeles to help Vietnam veterans overcome the terrible memories of war. The former soldiers were suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), one of the most severe forms of emotional disorder. They were affected by various phobias and insomnia due to their memories of battle, which triggered an emotional pain that prevented them from sleeping. After using EFT, every trace of these problems disappeared. Later, Craig goes on to say, “we used EFT with some of their most intense war memories and neutralized them all within an hour. They still remember them, of course, but they no longer have any emotional charge. (...) As a result the insomnia disappeared, as did the sleeping pills (under the doctor’s supervision)".

According to Craig, the role played by the emotions in physical disorders is much greater than has been highlighted up until now. Emotions such as anger, remorse, guilt and trauma can cause physical changes to the body. If someone is very angry, for example, their stomach closes up and their blood pressure rises, swellling the veins in their neck. Emotions can cause physical symptoms and, in the long run, these symptoms can cause permanent disorders to manifest themselves. The LA veterans’ sleeping pills, for example, only treated their symptoms and not the underlying problem. EFT, however, works directly on the cause of the problem.

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