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.

I’ve been studying EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques - for over six months. I originally bought Gary Craig’s DVDs so I could overcome some of my own emotional difficulties and my fear of heights. I love the program so much, I’m now studying to become an EFT practitioner. EFT consists of a method of tapping on energy meridians (the same ones used during acupuncture) to eliminate emotional reactions. EFT has been used for a multitude of problems including trauma, abuse, fears, depression, headaches, and other physical or emotional ailments. Most recently I used EFT to get through a difficult day at the local dental office.

It started right after Christmas. My right upper gum swelled up and the pain was intense. I tried everything I could to make the pain go away. Because of the holiday, the local dental office was closed. Because I live in a remote area of the Klamath National Forest, it is the only dental office within seventy miles.

My home treatments included bathing the area in golden seal extract, and gargling with hydrogen peroxide. I don’t know what worked best, but eventually the swelling went down and the pain went away, for the most part. I knew that side of my mouth was still swollen - but not enough to cause pain. Every now and then over the next few weeks the swelling and pain would increase, but I managed to keep it under control.

Finally I convinced myself that it was time for a trip to the dentist. I filled out the paperwork last Thursday and saw the local dentist on Monday. This was my first visit to the Karuk Dental Clinic, which is owned and run by the Karuk Tribe here in Northern California. All the employees there were friendly and helpful. The dentist is a black woman, not a Karuk Indian, as the other employees there are. I was deeply impressed with her kindness and her ability to do her job efficiently.

She told me I had a large cavity in one of my molars and a huge abscess. I could have either a root canal or an extraction. “I’d prefer to have it pulled out,” I told her. “I’ll never have trouble with that tooth again.” I recall the tooth in question had been filled, and re-filled. I was tired of having such a trouble-making tooth in my mouth. This pain was the last straw.

On Wednesday I went back for the extraction. She went through the normal procedures to numb my gums, and I felt myself tense up with negative expectations and fear. Every muscle in my body was tense by the time she’d given me two shots. Then she left me alone for a while so the medication could take effect.

While she was busy with another patient, I remembered my EFT training, and started tapping on my energy meridians. I used the setup phrase, “Even though I am tense, I deeply and completely accept myself.” Then I tapped on all the usual EFT points (eyebrow point, face, fingers, etc.) and before long, I was feeling much better. I had to do two rounds of EFT, and then I felt totally relaxed.

When the dentist came back a few minutes later she pulled the tooth as I relaxed and enjoyed the moment. There was no more pain. It occurred to me that every dental office could use the help of an EFT practitioner specializing in dental patient concerns. If I’d done the EFT first, I would have been much more relaxed from the beginning, rather than panicking when I got the injections.
EFT, according to Gary Craig, “often works where nothing else will.” It has been used for pain management, addictions, weight loss, allergies, children’s issues, vision, headaches, panic, anxiety, asthma, trauma, stress, abuse, depression, dyslexia, carpal tunnel, anger, ADD/AHDH, fears, phobias, eating disorders, ODC, blood pressure, diabetes, neuropathy, and sports performance. EFT practitioners are taught to try it on everything.

For more information about EFT, see Gary Craig’s Website: Emotional Freedom Techniques

I will keep track of the books I’m reading here. I usually have more than one book going at a time.

Currently reading:
I checked The New Diary out of the library a week ago and am enjoying reading it during nearly every spare moment. I’m a long-time journal writer and am having fun putting some of Tristine Rainer’s suggestions into practice. This book was originally published in 1978.


Currently reading:
I just finished reading the first chapter of Jung’s biography/autobiography this morning. I loved the way he introduced his childhood by discussing the visions, dreams, and snapshot memories he had from that time in his life. As to why this is both a biography and an autobiography, one must read the foreword by his editor, Aniela Jaffe. This was mainly her project at first, but he was inspired to contribute quite a bit. I’m enjoying the wonderful, conversational writing style and am impressed by Jung’s allegories.


Just finished:
Until recently I didn’t think much about entities or possession. I never believed in it though I remembered a book I read years ago, Always, Karen by Jeanne Walker, which described how some people new to the afterlife will try to reincarnate by inhabiting the body of another living person. Walker’s book stated that this was an injury to the soul of the person whose body was taken over.

[Note: After looking up Always, Karen by Jeanne Walker at Amazon, I was inspired to write a review there tonight.]

When I first started using a computer bulletin board system back in 1992, I chatted a few times with a young man who claimed that this was the case for him. He said he had another spirit using his body and that at times he had to move aside and let the other spirit take over. I didn’t know what to think about that but this is a fact: one night he said he had a sudden vision of what I looked like, and said I was wearing a red dress and had a streak of gold in my hair. I was startled because I was wearing a skirt and blouse that could have looked like a dress. They were a dark hot pink sort of color. Very close to red! But I denied that I had any streak of gold in my hair. “Yes you do have a streak of gold in your hair,” he said. He was insistent that his vision of me was accurate. I reached up and felt my head and suddenly realized that I was wearing a barrette. I took it out. It was a long, narrow, gold barrette. Definitely a streak of gold!

Yet for years I took this entity possession thing lightly. I read accounts of people who beat their children claiming they were possessed. In one such account a girl was killed. I had a child with behavior problems and the idea that she could have an entity was definitely not something I could believe. I was shocked and distressed that any parent could think such a weird thing.

This year, however, I changed my mind. My new boyfriend studies this and had a collection of books on the topic. This is the second book of his on entity possession that I’ve read. And something else - I’ve learned to put myself into a trance state where I can detect the presence of entities or fragments in myself and others.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic. Sagan writes mainly of fragments - bits of the astral body that break off after death and seek a new host. I would love to be able to attend his Clairvision School.


Just finished:
I considered Trust Your Vibes by Sonia Choquette to be a coffee-break book. I enjoyed reading the chapters occasionally while on breaks. It took me a long time to get through this book because I savored the chapters - usually one at a time.

The book is a very easy read - the writing style is friendly and conversational. Choquette has lots of great ideas for enhancing one’s ability to pick up vibes or psychic impressions.