The following case example demonstrates how, in my experience, unresolved past life trauma can influence current emotional functioning. Once my client set her goal, we used what I call a Soul Detective protocol, from my book Invisible Roots, to trace its origin to a past life trauma and then cleared the emotional disturbance from the previous incarnation by treating a reversal and then tapping on points for the organs involved with fear: stomach (under the eye), spleen (under the arm), and kidney (under the collarbone). When we release the negative life beliefs imprinted from our former incarnations, we are free to let the light of love shine through our hearts!

Love Phobia

Virginia wanted to work on her fear of totally loving and receiving unconditional love. She had difficulty really opening to loving herself and felt embarrassment around her emotions. She noticed a pattern of “checking out” in interpersonal relationships because she got afraid of being consumed.

Muscle Testing

I use clinical kinesiology, also called muscle testing, to gather information from the client’s energy system about the exact nature of the disturbance. Muscle testing is based on a very simple principle, that if one makes a true statement and tests the strength of a muscle, usually the deltoid muscle of an extended arm, the muscle will hold strong. When testing the same muscle after saying a statement that is not true, the muscle will weaken. This true-false guide gives us a way to trace the origin of the problem at hand. Muscle testing is an art, and one needs training in muscle testing to avoid the pitfalls which can cut down on the accuracy of this method. The two major factors that can interfere with accuracy are not being centered and/or trying to influence the outcome.

To check for the origin of an issue, one can muscle test the statement, “This problem has an origin in a past life trauma.” If this muscle test is strong, then double-checked by muscle testing the statement, “This problem does not have an origin in a past life trauma.” If both the client and the practitioner are centered and this muscle test is weaker, the client’s energy system indicates that past life trauma is involved.

Further muscle testing with Virginia indicated the spirit of someone who had past life trauma with her was presently influencing her because of unfinished business between their souls. In Soul Detective work we call this feature an “obsessive spirit.” The following past life emerged:

Deep Love

John, the obsessive spirit, was born in 113 B.C. on the west coast of North American in the area now called the Yukon Province in Canada. Sue, going by Virginia in this past incarnation, was three years younger than John. They loved each other very, very deeply. They married and had one child together. Their happiest times were sitting by the fire together at the end of the day.

When Sue was 23 years old, she went into labor with their second child. Foreboding arose, and she felt very uneasy. She knew that she would die during this labor in an extremely painful way, losing the new baby in the process. The little baby girl crossed into the Light right away when she died. But Sue was in such emotional turmoil about leaving John, knowing how much pain her death would cause him, that her spirit remained earthbound. She was so blinded by her agony that she was unaware that her spirit had left her body. Virginia’s soul felt the imprint of this trauma that Sue was still locked into. Deep soul love for an intimate partner had resulted in a pregnancy which caused Sue’s death. In her current life, intimacy brought Virginia fear that she would be consumed again.

2,000 Years of Patience

Because of his immense love for her, John stayed earthbound for over two thousand years and found her again in her lifetime as Virginia. He wanted this wound healed! Sue’s trauma was configured in two layers. She did not even realize that her spirit had left her body and that time had gone on without her. First, we needed to clear a reversal, and we muscle tested that the very best treatment point to clear it was at the third eye, also called the brow chakra. Virginia tapped on her forehead asking Sue to say,

“Even though I did not realize my spirit left my body and I have been locked into this agony for thousands of years, I love and accept myself.

Even though I died in the service of bringing new life to the planet, I totally and completely love and accept myself.

Even though John has been waiting for me all this time because he loves me so deeply, I love and accept myself and forgive myself for not knowing what happened.”

I used a customized procedure to muscle test for which point to tap first, then whether or not another one is needed and if so, where, etc. This customized procedure for Sue yielded just three points: under the eye (UE), under the arm (UA), and the Collarbone Point (CB). This sequence is the exact three-point sequence Roger Callahan taught in his book Five Minute Phobia Cure: Dr. Callahan’s Treatment for Fears, Phobias and Self-Sabotage (1985, Enterprise Publishing). Once Sue cleared her fear, she was ready to cross. With John and Sue walking hand in hand, their little girl came running to meet her parents in a very joyful reunion! Virginia reveled in the experience of John and Sue giving and receiving the full depth of their love for each other.

To do a spiritual cleansing of the trauma of this lifetime and all the negative imprints Virginia had been holding about loving being unsafe, I used Matrix Energetics Universal Healing Frequency number 9, “The Spiritual cleanser.” Richard Bartlett, the originator of Matrix Energetics, was given 21 universal frequencies that govern healing in the human species. Whenever I call upon one of these healing frequencies, I feel as if a band of angels specializing in that area jumps into action! One simply asks the client to call the number of the frequency that is needed at the moment. For example, number one is Vitality, number five is the essence of Universal Mother Love, and number 12 is for Energy Center Repair of chakras. The 21 frequencies feel like healing shortcuts to help clients reach their goals.

Soul Lesson

Love! Love is eternal and cannot be destroyed. Fear of experiencing this love blocks it. Nothing exists but the present moment. Although we have no way of understanding the events in our lives at the time, the outcome is love. When something bad happens, we connect it to love, but the pain and suffering is really separate. In reality, the event is just something we went through. Love is forever.

I call my 91 year old mother every day (she lives alone 600 miles away). Recently I called her twice in the evening and wasn’t able to get through. The next morning, I called as soon as I got up. She told me that she had become quite ill and had been vomiting since the day before. I asked her if she had been drinking fluids, and she immediately put the phone down to get a drink of water. She forgot that I was on the phone. I couldn’t talk to her because she left the phone off the hook.

I called some of her neighbors and asked if they would check on her. Finding her confused, they ended up taking her to the hospital. After finding her a bit dehydrated but basically OK, she was released into the care of a friend who spent the night with her to make sure she was OK. Her friend called me that afternoon, saying I needed to come down immediately. I dropped everything and flew down the next day.

Soon after I arrived, I sat down with my mother and listened deeply to her. When she had become ill, she really thought she was dying. What shook her friends up was that when she went to the hospital she wasn’t wearing her false teeth, her hair was messed up, she was only wearing one sock and she was very disoriented. My mother always looks as nice as she can and it was shocking for her extended family to see her so unkempt. The next day I took her to a follow-up doctor appointment where she was given a memory test. She failed. The doctor was required to tell DMV, and my mom lost her driver’s license.

My mother’s extended family met with me twice, expressing their concern about her condition. They felt that I was in denial about her situation. They said they thought she needed to be moved to an assisted living facility, and gave me the name of one to see. (My mom has been living independently ever since her second husband passed away about 10 years ago. She still vacuums, washes the windows and walks every day.) When I visited the facility, and told them that my mom had mild memory issues, the representative said my mom would have to be locked down in the memory unit. She gave me a tour of the facility, and it broke my heart to see and smell where my mom would be. I made up my mind to make sure my mom would not have to go there.

During the meeting with my extended family, I told them that I wanted to find an angel to live with my mother – someone who had a big heart and would look out for my mom. They told me that they didn’t think I could find someone like that. They had been trying to find someone for an elder friend of theirs and had been unsuccessful.

So, I created a spiritual alignment (also known as a prayer treatment or affirmative prayer) for my mother:

I know there is an angel who lives in a room in my mother’s home in trade for being with my mom and helping her. I know she’s sensitive with a big heart, and loves to interact with my mother. This angel enjoys helping with meals and eating with my mother. She loves to play Scrabble with my mom. She loves walking together daily in the quiet neighborhood where my mom lives, and listening to the birds on the patio.

I know this is so as I release it into the Universe.

And so it is.

Coming Into Alignment

I let my spiritual center know my spiritual alignment, and they also prayed for my mother, too. I didn’t know how this scenario was going to work out, but I knew that it was in process. When I started having doubts about being able to find someone to help out, I used EFT to clear my resistance.

Some of the Setup phrases I used were:

Even though…

People are telling me it is impossible to find someone trustworthy to help my mother out, and part of me believes them, I love and accept that part of me…

I feel overwhelmed by all the things that I have to do, I love and accept myself…

I get scared when I start thinking about all the negative possibilities that could happen with my mom…

I live 600 miles from my mom, and she can’t live with us. I feel guilty that I am not doing more…

Tapping on Doubts and Fears

Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night with my doubts and fears, and I would tap them away. I tapped until I didn’t feel any energy around these issues.

I looked online for available senior services. I found Elderhelp.com has a program called Home Share in which seniors share a room in their home in trade for services. I scheduled an appointment immediately, and a representative found my mother suitable for the program. At the end of the consultation, the agent reported that she thought she knew of someone who would be a perfect match for my mother.

We met with the first prospect from the Home Share program, and it wasn’t a good fit. The second woman, “Maria,” was very sensitive. We all got along very well. Before she left, my mother asked her if she was an angel. To make a long story short, that woman is now living with my mother. We have become friends. She has been there for over two weeks as I write this. It is a good fit even though she isn’t a Scrabble player.

Maria has a big heart. I’ve been teaching her how to do EFT, and she has found it very helpful for her own life. Maria feels grateful to be with my mother, and I am grateful that she is there, too. It is a win-win.

JoAnn SkyWatcher is a Spiritual Coach who does EFT via phone from her 40 acres off-the-grid in Northern California. She is author of Touched by a Miracle: EFT Healing Stories. You can visit her website at www.JoAnnSkyWatcher.com.

A middle aged woman that I will call Lisa had an intense fear when people yelled at her; She felt like she was going to die. She had been feeling this way her entire life – a life filled with experiences of people yelling at her and forcing her to do things their way. She never really felt empowered. As a child she was extremely fearful and compliant and yet as an adult she had learned to show anger to protect herself. She thought she only had two options in responding, either fear or anger.

She explained that her overwhelming fear related to an upcoming event where she would encounter a person again, I will call her Nancy, with whom she had already had a few experiences where she was yelled at previously. She was terrified to go to this event in the future.

We decided to go to the most intense, recent past experience Lisa had with Nancy using “Faster EFT.” The Faster EFT technique (www.fastereft.com), a variation of EFT developed by Robert Smith, is focused on releasing and letting go of the emotions and body sensations that a client is feeling. It aims directly at the details of what the client is doing in their mind, what they are feeling, seeing, hearing, and sensing, while always telling the subconscious mind to release and let them go. Faster EFT does not use the Setup phrase, “Even though I have this _______.” Instead, you tap on each point and say what you are feeling or seeing and add “release and let it go” at every point. Faster EFT uses only five meridian points for tapping which are eyebrow, side of eye, under the eye, collar bone and a gentle squeeze of the wrist and then you take in a breath and blow it out and you say “peace” after every tapping round. It talks directly to the subconscious mind to let go. After all the negative emotions are released, our experience of the memory often changes.

I first asked Lisa to feel her feelings and then imagine herself seeing a tree in front of her and asked her what happens to a tree when it is pulled out from the roots? “It naturally falls over and dies,” she said. This metaphor sets up the subconscious mind to let go.

We tapped on the eyebrow,“release and let go of all of this anger”, tapped on the side of the eye, “release and let go of all of this fear”, tapped under the eye, “release and let go of the looks on her face and that yelling voice”, tapped on the collar bone, “release and let go of all the emotions and feelings associated with this.” Then I had her gently squeeze her wrist, take in a deep breath, blow it all out and say “peace.”

I asked Lisa to go back after each round and we tapped directly on the details of what she was feeling, seeing and experiencing. We would tap and say release and let go of every one of the details that she mentioned while tapping through the points and then she would take a big breath and say, “peace.” After each round she would see and feel different emotions and feelings and pictures and we would tap on them.

During one of the rounds Lisa was very resistant to letting go of her anger, as she felt like she would have to let go of her machine gun and then she would only have the option to run away as she went into deep fear. She felt like she would die. We tapped on these details, but it wasn’t releasing. We tapped back and forth on letting it go and not letting it go and it wasn’t shifting. She said she remembered getting beaten with a strap by her father as a child many times, so we immediately went to one of those memories.

We tapped to release the fear of being beaten and the looks on her father’s face and it released the emotions and the looks and the feelings. After the first round she said she could deeply feel herself in a concentration camp and was watching everyone around her being shot and killed at the edge of a deep pit. She said she could feel the bullet going into her own head, feeling the pain and feel herself slowly dying after being shot by a gun.

We immediately tapped on every detail of what she was feeling, seeing, experiencing and remembering. We tapped to release and let go of all the physical pain in your head, that bullet in your head, let go of that feeling of dying, let go of all the fears, let go of the sound of the guns, let go of seeing the other men dying, let go of the sounds of the men yelling, and ultimately we reframed and tapped into the peace she could feel when it was all over and when she was on the “other side.” After tapping a few rounds her fear of dying and her fear of being yelled at by others was completely gone. Then we sent love back to herself in all of the old memories that we worked on. She said she felt like a new woman. I tested her to see if she could make herself feel any fear when she thought of anyone yelling at her, and she said no – she felt internal power and confidence and she knew she had new choices in responding.

Was this really a memory of a past life, since this didn’t happen to her in this lifetime? I feel that it doesn’t matter one way or the other. It is all just energy and she was feeling it intensely right then in this lifetime, so all we had to do was tap and release and let it go now. I do not think this will bother her again in this lifetime. We can release energy from memories in this lifetime or past lifetimes – all the same.

This article is about using EFT creatively to assist spiritual shifts in a series of five phone sessions I facilitated with fellow a EFT practitioner, we will call her “Lisa.” Lisa and I met in 2007 and have traded EFT sessions fairly consistently since that time. The idea for this series of five sessions came from Lisa who wanted to use EFT to help her remove the blocks to “Love’s Presence” inside her as part of her spiritual work, specifically related to a spiritual book and path she has been on for 3 years.

Here are some of the elements present that I believe made this series of sessions successful:

Firstly, Lisa and I have developed a strong trust and rapport, largely within the EFT process, over a significant amount of time. We also both deeply know and trust EFT. Secondly, Lisa and I share the belief that every human being ultimately has connection to the truth of their being – to who they really are (not to be confused with intellectual or factual truth). EFT is simply a tool to assist the natural intelligence of a person’s system to remove the blocks, patterns and false mind structures layer by layer that hinder their connection to that truth. Thirdly, while Lisa explained to me some of the focus and principles of her spiritual path, I am not a follower of it – and didn’t need to be. As long as the practitioner is willing to “meet the person where they are,” not imposing their personal beliefs on the client, much is possible. As Gary Craig says, “through you rather than by you.”

Below are the essential details of the 5th phone session which lasted about 80 minutes.

At the beginning of the session Lisa presented two main issues:


Issue 1: A family situation, ongoing for a long time, which will impact her life in a big way. She has tapped on this issue on her own as it has unfolded since ’06. The day before the session she met with some family members on a conference call and many feelings, thoughts and judgments were stirred up in her and she quickly became “lost in them.” Lisa’s two main beliefs/judgments of herself that came out of the family situation were that she was both a “guilty perpetrator and sinner” and an “innocent victim of blame contaminated by family circumstances.” Her SUDS levels on these feelings were 5-8.

Issue 2: Lisa saw her reactiveness to the family issue as, “a way that my ego mind caught me
up in an old familiar web of anguish and anxiety. I became upset because my ego mind wanted to play with the event in order to drag me back into the seductive drama of my life story and keep me distracted from my spiritual connection to Love’s Presence within myself.”

For my part I kept myself present and non-judgmental as she told me her issues and feelings. I knew that once the emotional charge was lowered using EFT and once we tapped into the conflicting aspects a resolution was very possible that would transcend her current feelings and beliefs in a way we could not sift through logically. In addition I knew it would not help for me to insert my ideas about how she “should” feel or what she “should” do about the situation, nor did I try to decide if I believed her ego was reacting to the family issue in order to “keep her from the Love of God” or not. My philosophical beliefs were not needed here.

As we tap, Lisa’s system seems to naturally integrate itself as the emotional stress leaves her system, in a way that goes beyond theory, dogma or belief. This is because EFT brings out the natural intelligence of her system, as long as there is no forcing or unneeded manipulation of the process on my part. I do admit there is some alchemy here around when to give my perspective and see if its helpful, or to just keep my mouth shut and let the process bring out of her what is needed. Trust the process. If you have good intentions and respect for the client you’ll be fine.

Although the setup phrases we used may sound extreme, Lisa chose these to enhance the depth of emotion making the clearing process deeper and more complete. In this session we used the entire basic EFT recipe, including the 9-gamut sequence. 


Set up phrases for round 1 of tapping:

Even though I am a guilty, complicit, perpetrator sinner and a victim contaminated by the circumstances of my family, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
Even though I am afraid that if I don’t stay on top of my ego, I am going to become a wreck and
succumb to this seductive story it is telling me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

After round one of tapping, Lisa’s SUDS (intensity) went down several points. She then reported two fearful beliefs that had come to her while we were tapping:

Belief 1: “I need to keep my guilt about the family situation to hide how bad I am from others and to keep me from doing monstrous things. Guilt will make me appear good even though I’m bad.”

Belief 2: “It is so hard to go against the tide of collective egoic human consciousness that has been going on for thousands of years. I feel the weight of the consciousness of the people around me and of history that keeps reinforcing that I Am this story in my egoic mind thoughts.”

As we discussed these two beliefs, Lisa began to connect with a deep sadness (an 8 SUDS level) about how, “my ego has tricked me into keeping out the Love from Divine Source.”

Setup phrases for rounds 2 and 3 of tapping:

Even though I still have some of this story that I am a guilty complicit perpetrating sinner and a victim contaminated by circumstances, and it’s sad, I deeply…
Even though I feel the need to keep my guilt in order to hide how bad I am and to keep myself from doing monstrous things, I deeply…
Even though it is so hard to go against the tide of collective egoic human consciousness and I feel sad, I deeply…

Lisa’s SUDS (intensity) levels went down further and then she expressed a newly arising feeling of, “deep compassion for all people who are living in suffering, especially mental suffering, because of their blocks to Love.” I saw this as a good sign because she was moving from being overwhelmed by her personal situation, to a larger perspective. I think it also shows a softening towards herself, knowing her emotional suffering is part of the human condition and not so much something wrong with her.

As we further discussed her sadness and compassion for all those who are suffering a big shift started happening. Lisa reported a, “flood of feelings of Love and gratitude inside”. All her SUDS were now down to 2′s and 3′s, and some were down to 0.

Setup phrases for round 4 of tapping:

Even though I still have some of this sadness that I was seduced by the story and that kept me from the Love from Source, I deeply and completely love and forgive myself.
Even though it still feels a little hard to go against the tide of collective egoic human consciousness, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
Even though I still have a little need to hang on to this guilt, in order to appear good, I deeply and completely love and forgive myself.

At this point, Lisa shifted more and reported that, “I am feeling the Love pouring in from inside myself.” She then created affirmations that connected to her feelings and to concepts she has learned from her spiritual teachings. For round 5 we tapped on these affirmations, which Lisa created herself.

Round 5 alternating points, we tapped on these affirmations:

I can stay on top of this with the help from Holy Spirit.
I let go of this struggle with the transformative power of the Holy Spirit beside me.
I let go of guilt and remember the innocence of all my brothers. We are invulnerable.
Nothing can keep the power of the Love from Source away, not even my egoic self.

During this tapping round Lisa began to weep out of, “overwhelming gratitude, awe and humility.” She then said she felt guided to keep the tapping words sparse for the next round with one short phrase which she again created.


Final round of the session:

This awe, this Love, this gratitude…

Lisa and I then sat together (although 500 miles apart) in silence for a little while, being present with the moment. We then checked her SUDS levels, which had ranged from 5 to 8, all were now at a 0. The original judgments and beliefs about her family now felt, “totally irrelevant and absurd to me now. Simply silly egoic thoughts, signifying nothing, next to the powerful feeling of connection to Source.”

After this session Lisa wrote the following testimonial about her experience:

“I felt a profound and dramatic shift into feeling/being that divine Love that I was longing for. I shifted over into deep and global mind states of surrender, peace and communion with Loving Presence, in the eternal ‘Now’ moment. This shift was deeper and felt truer than my past experiences with Divine Presence. Fear dissolved. Worry vanished. I came to recognize the old familiar, habitual and negative egoic mind chatter as just flimsily that–nothing more than mind chatter, instead of identifying with or getting lost in it. I now have confidence that I can return to those places, with the focus of EFT. There is less fear, less resistance and more ease in clearing the seeming egoic obstacles that arise in my mind as I move forward in life day to day. I firmly believe that all disease begins in the mind, and that is where the true healing lies–in the mind.”

I would like to emphasize these sessions were not done on a whim, nor did we merely tap a few light rounds and get to this “end result.” At times in these five sessions Lisa felt some very intense, frightening or dark feelings and in many prior EFT sessions with me. Lisa was willing to look at these difficult places and acknowledge them, to herself and to me, sometimes with overwhelming shame and fear, in order to clear and heal them.

For myself as a result of the use of EFT and other Energy Psychology techniques I often feel happy for “no reason.” I often feel surrounded and pervaded by a subtle feeling of love and connection. This did not happen all at once but it did happen relatively quickly once I really set my mind to using these techniques combined with other teachings and learning. EFT is an invaluable and very practical, “where the rubber meets the road,” kind of tool on my personal spiritual path as well, which I am still on.

EFT founder Gary Craig, in a recent retirement interview, said that EFT is pointing to something much larger and more spiritual in nature than what it is often used for. I agree and believe we can use EFT to entertain and explore the frontiers of who we really are. For serious students of EFT, I recommend exploring the reaches of human consciousness, using EFT to release emotional as well as spiritual blocks, and to open to who and what you are in the deepest sense of being using the terminology, inspiration and teachings that resonate with you. Inner peace and liberation is really where it’s at in my opinion and EFT is a profound tool for that journey.

Fraeda Scholz
www.emowell-being.com

As an EFT practitioner, I am always on the lookout for exciting ideas that support the work I do – and wisdom can come from some pretty unlikely sources, indeed. Lately I have been learning the value of exploring thoughts and beliefs in new ways, and I’ve become more interested in revisiting the Seth Books – the authoritative, if seemingly esoteric, handbooks published by Jane Roberts and Robert Butts from roughly 1968-2004.

In case many of you are unfamiliar, these creative, thoughtful and provocative teachings, now archived at Yale University (and available in print almost everywhere), were on the leading-edge of thought during the 70s and greatly influenced the work of many modern authors, including Richard Bach, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson. The Seth books also provided the impetus for the work of Abraham-Hicks. In contrast to the highly visible work of Esther and Jerry Hicks, Jane Roberts and her husband Robert Butts lived relatively quiet lives in Upstate New York, teaching classes to visiting students and writing books together up until Jane’s death in 1984.

In many respects, the creative relationship between Seth, Jane and Rob as well the ideas throughout the books were considered way ahead of their time. To say the least, many of Seth’s concepts and ideas still challenge conventional beliefs: His firm “You create your own reality,” doesn’t always go down easy when measured against the complexities of life experience, for example, and the unconventional method of delivery – Jane’s faithful and exhaustively documented “Seth” channeling sessions, recorded in shorthand and archived by her husband Rob, will always be a point of focus for many readers.

As an avid “explorer of consciousness,” I often run across a passage in the Seth books that helps validate something I’m doing in my EFT practice or reflects the positive changes I see with my clients. I trust the selected passages will at the very least bring a unique, powerful perspective to the core EFT principles and may very well strengthen your confidence in sharing EFT.

Ideas Related to Changing How the Past Affects Us and Inner Child Healing

Seth-Jane on the colors of our experience:

“Now: In certain terms, the past, present, future [of your present life] are all compressed in any given moment of your experience.

Any such moment is therefore a gateway into all of your existence… As I have mentioned before [in other books], you can indeed change the present to some extent by purposefully altering a memory event. That kind of synthesis can be used in many instances with many people.

Such an exercise is not some theoretical, esoteric, impractical method, but a very precise, volatile and dynamic way of helping the present self by calming the fears of a past self. The past self is not hypothetical, either, but still exists, capable of being reached and of changing it’s reactions. You do not need a time machine to alter the past or the future.

Such a technique is highly valuable. Not only are memories not “dead,” they are themselves ever-changing. Many alter themselves almost completely without your notice.”

- excerpted from The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Prentice-Hall Press, New York, 1981

Ideas Related to Self-Empowerment and Body/Mind Healing

Seth-Jane on cultivating beliefs in the the body’s reliability, resourcefulness, and powerful healing abilities:

“Each individual is a good person, an individualized portion of universal energy itself. Each person is meant to express his or her own characteristics and abilities. Life means energy, power and expression.

Those beliefs, if taught early enough, would form the most effective system of preventative medicine ever known.”

- excerpted from The Way Towards Health, Amber-Allen Publishing, San Rafael, 1997

Ideas Related to Understanding The Power of Our Personal Beliefs

Seth-Jane on living in the body of your beliefs:

Quite literally you live in the body of your beliefs. You perceive through the body of your beliefs. Your beliefs can increase your vision or diminish it. They can increase or diminish your hearing or any sense function.

If, for example, you believe that after a certain time of life hearing will fade, then so it will. You will begin to use the faculty less and less, unconsciously transfer your attention to the other senses to compensate, and rely less and less on your ears until the functions themselves do atrophy.

Functions in this particular regard are habits. You simply forget how to hear properly, following your belief. All of the minute manipulations necessary to hearing are unconsciously repressed. The actual physical deterioration then does indeed follow. The deterioration however does not occur first, but after.

The same kind of development can occur in almost any physical category. Usually more than one belief is involved. Parallel with the belief that vision will fail, you may have the before-mentioned belief that hearing will dim, and these two ideas may be reinforced by a belief that age automatically makes you less a person, turning you into an individual who can no longer relate in the daily pattern of environment. The belief, you see, would work to ensure the materialization of that state. (Pause.) On the other hand you may believe that wisdom grows with age, that self-understanding brings peace of mind not earlier known, that the keen mind is far better able to assess the environment, and that the physical senses are much more appreciative of all stimuli. And so those conditions will be physically met in your experience. The physical apparatus itself, following your beliefs, will continue in health.

You must understand, again, that your ideas and thoughts… are electromagnetic realities. They affect your physical being and are automatically translated by your nervous system into the stuff of your flesh and of your experience.”

- excerpted from The Nature of Personal Reality, Prentice-Hall Press, New York, 1974

There are literally hundreds of passages in the Seth Books that lend support to the empowering and life-changing strategies inherent in EFT. Jane, Rob and Seth’s authoritative work continues to be a huge influence in my personal EFT practice and always boosts confidence in my abilities – and beliefs – whenever I read it. The exquisite languaging – and the gentleness and humor – offered around “hard to grasp” concepts has been quite beneficial to my practice, as well.

I love helping people develop more nourishing beliefs about themselves and the world – beliefs that nurture and sustain – and feel good when we inhabit them. Nothing beats watching people awaken to themselves, their own thinking and the possibilities of exercising greater conscious control over their own lives. In Part 2, I’ll share how EFT can help us actively identify and transform self-limiting beliefs and how we can use our emotional guidance to step more confidently and naturally into change.

Diane (not her real name) felt stage-fright singing in front of a huge audience. She knew she was a talented singer because she had received many accolades for her work. Yet, when it came to singing in front of a big audience, she would fumble, forget her lyrics or just feel ill with anxiety.

When we talked, she was a few days away from performing in front of an audience of 200. She felt nervous just thinking about it, with an intensity of about 3 or a 4. She said that perhaps if she was sick before the performance then she would have an excuse for not performing perfectly. I asked her what would happen if she “failed.” And she replied that it would be the end of the world for her.

With such a strong statement, I suspected that her intensity was in fact higher than what she reported.

I inquired into why she needed to be perfect, and she recounted the story of hearing her brother being hit by her father because he wasn’t “perfect.”

We tapped:

Even though I feel nervous, I don’t know the words for the whole song yet, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though if I failed, that would be the end of the world for me, and that won’t do, I want to trust that I will be OK anyway.
Even though I need to be perfect, if I am not, I will be hit just like my brother was, I deeply and completely accept how I feel.

The tapping about her brother brought up a lot of sadness (intensity level 9) and tightness in her throat. She felt fearful and hurt for him. Diane was surprised at how intensely she felt her feelings. So we tapped on the event where she remembered her brother being punished.

Even though I can still hear his scream, I deeply and completely forgive myself for not coming to his aid, what can a little girl do?
Even though I can still hear his cries, I felt so sad and hurt for him, I honor how hard it was for us both.
Even though I have this “bedroom” scene in my head, I choose to let it go. I was sad, scared and confused, and I accept how I felt.

Then we tapped on the meridian points:

His screams…
Still echo in my ears…
I couldn’t help him…
What could a little girl do…
I need to be perfect…
It’s not fair…
I forgive myself for not helping him out…
I would get hit too if I try to help my brother…
I forgive myself for feeling afraid of being hit and hurt…
I was confused, scared and sad for both of us…

After several rounds, she reported that she felt lighter and her throat was less tight. The intensity had fallen to 0.

Then Diane suddenly remembered a specific event from long ago: she forgot her lyrics as she sang in front of her entire graduating class in her high school graduation ceremony. There were 400 people watching her.

Even though I forgot my lyrics in front of my whole school, I forgive myself.
Even though I saw their eyes looking at me, and something in me got spooked that I forgot the lyrics I had practiced over and over again, I forgive myself.
Even though it was unforgivable what I did, how could I let myself down in front of the whole school, it was so humiliating! I want to forgive and accept myself anyway.
I mixed up the words…
Hit three wrong notes…
In front of the entire crowd…
What an embarrassment…
I was a failure…
I had to compete to win this opportunity, and how could I let myself down this time…
Their eyes…
The look on their faces, I can’t bear it…
I was imperfect and I felt so humiliated…

We did several rounds of tapping on this scene. Then I asked her to run the scene in her mind again using the movie technique, and asked if there was any remaining intensity. She said that it was all 0.

Again, a new movie came into her mind. This one was a more recent incident where she sang in front of a crowd and again, forgot her lyrics. She felt that she had let herself and her singing teacher down. We tapped on this incident, which had an intensity of 6, and got it down to a 0.

I asked her what she would like to experience instead of the nervous feelings. She quickly answered that she would like to uplift her audience. She would like to be able to allow God’s gift to come through her so people can be in joy as they listen to her. She knew she has a gift from God, yet she was getting in her own way. As she spoke, her intensity soared again to a 10, and her throat became tight.

She burst out saying that she didn’t want to live up to her audience’s expectations. She wanted them to hear the sound of God without associating it with her. She would like the audience to just enjoy God. She would like everyone to be touched, to feel the message and experience the sound. She would like her audience to leave with the feeling of joy and light.

We tapped:

Even though I feel nervous singing in front of a huge group, what if I forgot my lyrics again and embarrassed myself again, I choose to remember I am singing because I want to let God’s voice pass through me and uplift my audience.
Even though I feel afraid of letting myself down again, I choose to be the vehicle of God’s voice and allow this voice to bless my audience.
Even though I am afraid to forget my lyrics again, it’s easier to believe that I will just fail again, I am willing to be the channel of God’s grace.
I might forget my lyrics again…
Or I might not…
I invite the part of me that forgets the lyrics to relax…
To be a vehicle of God…
To be a vehicle for peace…
I am wishing to be the channel of God…
I would like to let God’s voice to pass through me…
Letting me be the vehicle of grace…
Starting with me, being at peace with myself…
Allowing myself to feel light and joyful…

We did a few more rounds of tapping on her intention to uplift the audience and allowing herself to be a vehicle for God’s voice. Her throat was open and relaxed by the end of our session.

A few weeks later, I emailed her to find out how her performance went. This was what she said: “The performance went well. I had little or no problems with nerves. I even had issues with phlegm in my throat and had to stop a couple times – which would have freaked me out before – but I was fine.”

She sent me an mp3 of her performance, and what I heard uplifted my spirit indeed!