Brandon’s Story brought tears to my eyes. It is about a seven-year-old with behavior problems who learned to use EFT. I’m impressed that Shari Snow, the practitioner who trained Brandon, was volunteering at the school. What a great place to go to get experience in helping children with EFT.

You are welcome to join the Energy Therapy group at Gather, where you can read about Reiki, Qigong, Quantum Touch, EFT, and other energy healing therapies. The group members post articles about energy therapy modalities of all types, and comment on one another’s writing.

If you’re going to join Gather, please do me a favor and use this link so I’ll get credit for you and so you’ll automatically be connected to me in the system. There’s no cost to join Gather.

“Tapping? How can that help?” I asked my boyfriend. This was about eight months ago right after he found an advertisement for EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques, on his favorite website.

“Well, hold on,” he said, “I’m reading about it now.” There was a website full of information and a free e-book for anyone wanting to learn how to do EFT. We dove right in and tried to get as much information about it as we could.

The e-book, written by EFT promoter Gary Craig, explained that we can be set free from emotional traumas by tapping on our energy meridians – the same ones used during acupuncture. With EFT we don’t use needles – just our fingers, tapping on the right places. This is supposed to eliminate energy blockages that occur along the meridians, and free us from emotional or physical pain. The e-book explains exactly where those places are – at the inner corner of our eyebrows, on the side of our eyes, under our eyes, under our noses, under our mouths, on our collarbone, at our sides, and various places on our fingers and the side of our hands. (You should read the free e-book before trying this as it explains exactly where to tap.)

To do EFT we start by using a ’setup phrase’ based on whatever we’ve experienced that’s causing us problems. It is better to focus on specific events than on generalities. For example if a childhood incident of abandonment is causing an adult to fear being alone, the setup phrase might go something like this: “Even though my father left me alone in the house when I was little, I deeply and completely accept myself.” In basic EFT, the setup phrases always start with “Even though…” and end with “…I deeply and completely accept myself.”

After saying the setup phrase three times while tapping on one of two places (these are explained in the e-book) the person needing help goes on to tap on the various energy meridians while repeating a phrase such as “abandoned” or “left alone”, or whatever the problem is.

Of course there’s many other reasons to seek relief using EFT — it isn’t just about feelings of abandonment. EFT can be used on almost anything including physical pains and ailments. Gary Craig encourages people to try it on everything. There may be things it doesn’t work for, but there’s no harm in trying, and many people have found relief for the following types of things: phobias, traumas, panic/anxiety attacks, chronic pain, headaches, backaches, toothaches, snoring, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, weight loss, addictions, allergies, sports performance, hypertension, diabetes, and depression.

If you’re interested and want to try it, please look into getting the free e-book and reading some of Gary Craig’s articles.

My boyfriend has been reading consciousness-raising message boards lately and found a few references to a DVD we hadn’t seen, The Illuminated Chakras: A Visionary Voyage Into Your Inner World, produced and directed by Anodea Judith. We rented it and watched it twice this week. My boyfriend, Bob, is so taken with the beauty of this DVD, he wants to own his own copy. I am entranced, but not sure I want to see it fifty times even though it runs only about 30 minutes.

The art by Alex Wayne is the big attraction. It is so good it won an award for best animation at the 2004 New York Independent Film Festival. This film is worth at least one viewing if only to see that part of it. But I noticed during my second viewing that there were plenty of details about the chakras that I was learning – and it could take many times through to get all the information firmly implanted into my brain.

Anodea Judith narrates throughout, explaining what each chakra does. Kundalini-Shakti, the mystical serpent, is seen in each segment as she makes her way from the root chakra to the crown chakra where she’s reunited with Shiva, the supreme being.

This DVD is a great introduction to the chakra system for anyone who knows nothing about them, and for those who know a lot about the chakras, it is great entertainment. I can see myself having this DVD for my clients to view after I start my energy therapy practice. If I have an actual office with a waiting room, I will make this available for people to watch there.

I found Anodea Judith’s website, Sacred Centers, and noted that she’s offering a full course on self-diagnosis and healing in a six-CD set. I very much want to get this as I doubt I’ll be able to attend her workshops any time soon. According to the website, Anodea Judith holds “Masters and Doctoral degrees in Psychology and Human Health, with lifelong studies of alternative medicine, yoga, mythology, history, sociology, systems theory, and mystic spirituality.”

…

While we were watching the DVD, Bob asked me a couple of questions I would now like to ask you.

1. Have you ever seen a chakra?

2. What chakras do you most identify with?

My answers to the questions were (1) I have seen my own chakras while meditating, but haven’t seen anyone else’s. And (2) I most identify with the heart chakra and the crown chakra. For me it is easier to stay in awareness of these two, and feel like some interconnection with spirit is really happening. I think maybe my other chakras aren’t as developed, which concerns me. I’m working on getting them all to work equally well.