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The Evolution of EFT from TFT--Part II of V

By Gary Craig, Founder of EFT

Before this series continues, I think it appropriate to make a distinction. Most of the people doing research on these energy tapping therapies are psychotherapists. To my knowledge, I am the only non-therapist researcher who is putting his results/theories in the public domain. While other researchers are dedicated therapists choosing to become scientists, I am a scientist (Stanford engineer) whose passion is psychology. Clearly, we come at this subject from different backgrounds/angles and our conclusions are bound to collide somewhere along the line. What makes perfect sense to a psychologist can be scientific nonsense to me and vice versa. This is how it should be. This is how science marches forward and this is the spirit in which this series is presented.

In Part I of this series I suggested that the "order" of tapping in the Sequence was of no practical significance. There is a bit more to say on this before going on to the related subject of diagnostic muscle testing.

The only practical evidence I have ever heard regarding the validity of the "order" concept involves people tapping in what seems to be an "out of order" Sequence. For example, Dr. Callahan and other TFT'ers report asking a client to tap the Sequence in a given order (e.g. UA, UE, CB). The client then taps and reports no apparent relief for the problem. It is then discovered that the client mistakenly tapped in the "wrong" order (e.g. UE, UA, CB). The client is then asked to tap in the "right" order and, upon doing so, relief for the problem is attained. From this it is concluded that order is important.

To me, this is a logical conclusion only if there are no other feasible explanations. However, there are at least 3 other perfectly logical possibilities which have somehow (to this scientist's amazement) been disregarded. For example:

1. In the first round the client may not have tapped enough times, or solidly enough, to do the job. Thus no result. In the second round the tapping was completed more proficiently and the result was thus achieved.

2. With some clients, Psychological Reversal comes and goes with great rapidity within the same session. It can and does change in seconds. It is entirely possible (I think likely) that PR was present on the first round thereby blocking an otherwise effective tapping procedure. Then, on the second round, the PR vanished and thus allowed relief for the problem.

3. The first round may have been effective (good probability here) but the effect was not noticed by the client because s/he switched to another aspect of the problem. The second round then addressed, and relieved, the remaining aspect thus prompting the client to report relief.

Any or all of these could have taken place in any session where "order" appeared to be important. Tapping out of "order" is only one out of 4 possibilities and, in my experience, the least likely of the bunch. It is scientifically inaccurate, to conclude that 1 out of 4 explanations is the answer without thoroughly examining the alternatives. Yet no such examination has been done in this regard and the notion of "order" has been accepted as the "truth" here. No trained scientist I know would buy this.

In addition, I brought out the fact in Part I of this series that ignoring the presumed necessity for order appears to have no practical effect whatsoever on results. EFT, for example, would not work if order was really important. Further, some TFT practitioners report occasions where relief was attained despite the Sequence being tapped in the "wrong" order. This leaves me rather stumped as to why order is deemed necessary at all. It seems to have no real effect in practice and is the least likely out of four possible explanations.

In Part III, I will address diagnostic muscle testing.

Cheers, Gary