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

By Gary Craig, Founder of EFT

Summary: bringing it all together

When I first brought EFT to the public, my original statements about it were that:

1. EFT was built largely upon things I learned from my experience with TFT. This is still the case, although I have discarded some parts of TFT that I consider poor science.

2. EFT is an improvement over TFT in that it covers a far wider variety of problems with one elegant routine.

3. EFT is the next step up from TFT. This seemingly bold statement is becoming more obvious every day.

Not everyone believed me, of course. Why would they? I am but a "student of the master" and, to make matters worse, I am a non-therapist, a mere engineer. Nonetheless, EFT has blossomed impressively with most of its growth coming from word of mouth referral. There are a few detractors (as might be expected) but the ratio of supporters to detractors is at least 50 to 1.

One's beliefs, even if they are wrong, are often difficult to move aside. It was hard enough for therapists to accept the bizarre looking TFT even though the results were obvious. Now EFT comes along, pokes holes in the TFT theories and suggests you restructure your thinking to accommodate an improved version that is confidently labeled "the next step up."

In this series, we hammered on the erroneous requirement for "order" in the tapping Sequence and showed that it has no practical significance. If it did, EFT would sputter most of the time. Instead, EFT handily outperforms TFT by more elegantly addressing a far wider variety of problems with but one simple routine. I am open to the fact that "order" may have theoretical significance but that avenue, in my opinion, should be left to the theoreticians. Why should the practicing therapist be burdened with numerous algorithms when one will do the job routinely?

Further, the whole concept of individually designed algorithms aimed at specific emotional problems collapses under the realization that the labels for these problems (grief, guilt, fear, etc.) are imprecise and overlap each other. Under TFT, one can never be sure which arrow to aim at which target. With EFT, this problem vanishes as the same algorithm is applied to everything.

Also, the bit about diagnostic muscle testing allowing even the beginner to discern the proper tapping Sequence out of 87 billion possibilities is absurd on its face. Since "order" has no practical significance, the 87 billion possibilities reduce down to a manageable 14 meridians. Since these meridians are intertwined, tapping on a few of them is likely to send balancing energy down many, if not all, of them. The individual TFT algorithms tap on 3 or 4 meridians and that is why they work. In many instances this is enough to do the job. EFT, on the other hand, is much more thorough and taps on 7 of them (the shortcut Sequence) and thus is much more likely to get the job done. This bears out in practice, as one would expect.

EFT is, indeed, the next step up. This is not because I have made some grand discovery. Rather, it is because previous research has gone down the wrong avenue and made things far more complex than they need to be. This often happens in scientific endeavors, especially when the research is on something as new and far reaching as these energy tapping therapies. EFT is obvious. It is the next step up. It had to come along as a common sense alternative to efforts that were proceeding down what seems to me like Busywork Boulevard.

If anyone still questions this, consider the following contrast. It has been quite easy for TFT'ers to shift from the multi-algorithms of TFT to the one algorithmic approach of EFT. They no longer have several algorithms to memorize (and teach clients) and they don't have to muscle test for things the individual algorithms aren't designed to address. This gravitation from the overly complicated to the elegantly simple is a natural one. By contrast, however, how easy do you think it would be for a therapist to switch from EFT back to TFT? Would someone who started off learning EFT find it easy to abandon their highly effective algorithm in favor of 10 or 15 individual algorithms that only address a fraction of the problems? Wouldn't they be taking a backward step if they did so? By further contrast, EFT is freely discussable/teachable and does not require the signing of restrictive agreements.

Again, I am not the last word on this and I am wide open to your questions and challenges. I search for the truth and am quite convinced that EFT is the next step up from TFT. But that doesn't make me right and, if I'm wrong, I would love to have it proven to me.

In time I expect others to improve upon EFT. But, until then, EFT is providing a streamlined, easy to use technique that is providing relief to people every day. I'm pleased to have had a part in it. It's what makes my motor run nowadays.

God bless you all, Gary