EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE (EFT)  AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Applying EFT to Remove Inner Blockages, Enhance Meditation, Prayer, Huna, and Other Paths of Spiritual Growth

 Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is establishing itself as the self-help method of choice to eliminate all negative emotions, including stress, anxiety, fear, phobias, guilt, addictions, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depressions, etc. For a short illustrated introduction on EFT please read the book "It is in Your Hands: Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)." Second Edition (Salomon, 2011).

One of the remarkable aspects of EFT that has not received the deserved attention is its effectiveness in spiritual development. EFT constitutes a productive means for the clearing of the personal communication pathway to the Higher Self (Universal Intelligence, Master Within, your experience of God) and improving the effectiveness of creative visualization, meditation, concentration, contemplation, and prayer. Negative emotions are the primary cause of unanswered prayers and failed visualizations. If you pray to a Higher Power to intercede in the solution of a problem or to help you achieve a desired objective, the communication to such power might be blocked due to your inner feelings of unworthiness, or your personal resistance to achieve the desired result.

Similarly, many books on creative visualization do not explain the true reason for the failure of a desire to materialize in reality. Our own unconscious fears of success, or opposing feelings about the consequences of achieving an objective, may manifest as failed visualization. A long history of distrust and disbelief in our own abilities to succeed may also be programmed in our subconscious. Many people incorrectly conclude that it is because of improper application of a picture-thought form, or because creative visualization does not work. In fact, the very reason for the failure of a goal lies within the deepest recesses of our consciousness.

EFT has long been demonstrated as an effective tool to discover and neutralize energy blockages in our subconscious. The case I relate below is that of my friend Sam in my Huna group, which is a simple tradition that appeals to those who are not too inclined to follow a specific religious dogma: It conceives the human psyche as composed of three levels, the middle self, the lower self, and the Higher Self. The middle self is endowed with inductive and deductive reasoning powers, with the gift of speech, and with the power of will. The lower self in its turn is the lesser evolved of the three levels (i.e., the unconscious), it has excellent memory abilities, it is the seat of all of the emotions, but has very little reasoning abilities. The Higher Self is the third and most evolved human spirit. Throughout the history of religions and cultures, this entity has received many names, such as the Guardian Angel, the Superconscious, the Master Within. Many identify the purpose of life with meeting our Higher Self and expressing its kindness, compassion, and tolerance in our everyday affairs. However, we will only achieve this after eliminating most of our negative emotions and here is where the power of EFT lies. Huna also uses simple breathing techniques to amplify and re-direct subtle body energy (mana, chi, prana, etc.) for emotional and physical healing, and as a forceful source to power prayers, meditation, and visualization. For more information about Huna, Please consult the book "The Three Spirits: Applications of Huna to Health, Prosperity, and Personal Growth" (Serrano, 2011).

Sam commented one Sunday that his meditation practices usually failed and that most of his prayers were unanswered. Apparently, all of the procedures and motions have been correctly applied, but for some reason he felt he was not making any progress. It occurred to me that there was nothing wrong with the way Sam applied Huna techniques, but instead his lower self (his unconscious) failed to deliver the message to the Higher Self because of some psychological blockage. At that time I was new to EFT and I suggested him to try it. We sat down in one room, and I asked him about his feelings about God, prayer, and the practice of meditation. Sam is a chemist working for a pharmaceutical company.  He appeared sincere in his desire to “return to God” after many years ignoring, even avoiding, any spiritually-oriented activity. He described himself as a scientist who for the most part in his life refused to accept anything that was not experimentally verifiable, and yet his life seemed empty.

Naturally, I asked Sam when was the first time he felt “spiritual.”  He described a childhood with a fascination with prayer and religious practices at his Catholic school. One day he told his parents that he wanted to pursue a religious career. This was received very negatively by Sam’s family, who consider religion as part of life, but not a serious career. Sam’s desire to please his parents, and his aspirations to live up to his brother’s professional success, led him to abandon religion and spirituality altogether. In his mind there were many early speeches that viewed spirituality in very negative terms. It appeared that this negative programming prevented Sam from successfully communicating prayers. Since this was not an identifiable distress, phobia, or negative emotion, but rather outdated programming, we did not measure any level of distress prior to treatment.

I explained to Sam the location of the meridian-end points and the tapping sequence and he proceeded with several rounds of EFT treatment. The first setup phrase was “Even though I reject spirituality, I completely love and accept myself,” followed by a reminder “I reject spirituality.” Subsequent setup phrases included “Even though I was ridiculed for aspiring a religious life, I love and accept myself.” This drew some feelings of guilt for having abandoned his inner yearning, which motivated a new setup phrase “Even though I abandoned God, I completely forgive myself,” followed by the next treatment. Releasing guilt and forgiving himself generated some emotional discharge and some resistance from Sam. I offered him a setup phrase “Even though I do not believe in God, I completely forgive myself.” The setup phrase for the last rounds was “Even though I have lived a life without God, I sincerely deserve to know and be helped by God.”

The treatments lasted for about 45 minutes. I must say that a key part was listening to Sam’s reactions while working with a particular affirmation and using it to modify or orient the next treatment in a new direction. Underneath his conscious rejection of spirituality, there were several layers of guilt, remorse, unworthiness, and even some anger at his parents. After the treatment, we sat down for a short meditation, but Sam did not comment on any changes. It was a few weeks later that Sam confided to me that his meditations were gradually becoming more meaningful with profound feelings of peace and hope. Achieving peace and experiencing hope are some of the positive outcomes of meditation. I can only attribute this success to EFT.

The news of this experience propagated in my group and made me a sort of spiritual coach, even though I am not a minister. In the following months, friends approached me for help with prayers and meditation problems. I have used EFT to discover and uproot many unconscious blocks that prevent successful meditation. The importance of EFT in spiritual development grew so much, that it became a full chapter in my newest book "The Three Spirits. Applications of Huna to Health, Prosperity and Personal Growth,"  where I explain the applications of EFT for the specific purpose of clearing blockages that prevent us from communicating with our Higher Self and thus from achieving our inner desires. Besides opposing beliefs, as in Sam’s case, it is common to find feelings of unworthiness for bad deeds or “sins” committed in the past, even though the client no longer consciously believes in the dogma. Another common problem preventing spiritual growth is the fear of God. Again the client consciously no longer believes or feels any fear of God, but in his or her unconscious there are deeply entrenched fears learned at school or in the family very early in life.

One practice I recommend is to sit for a few minutes prior to meditation and apply EFT treatments to whatever is on top of our conscious mind, anything that bothers us. This tends to help in the subsequent meditation/prayer. Meditation has many forms, but in any case it can be broadly divided into an active concentration phase where an objective, a request or visualization is projected, followed by a passive phase or the so-called “silence.”  The silence phase usually requires to dismiss any thoughts and to passively listen to an inspiration or inner “answer.” Many people find this part difficult, precisely because of the interference of distracting thoughts. Rather than feeling upset for the appearance of these unwanted thoughts, which cause meditation to fail, I recommend taking note of these thoughts or feelings, which constitute valuable unconscious messages that point the direction where we need to use EFT to work on negative emotions. One friend found that her preoccupation, and more specifically her anger, with some colleagues at the office, surfaced regularly during the silent meditation phase. After clearing these negative feelings, she found herself in a more peaceful silent phase. By regularly combining EFT treatments with our reactions or feelings during meditation, some people have reported a gradual disappearance of distracting thoughts and thus deeper meditations. It appears that the combination EFT-meditation is ideal to improve our lives.

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 Translator of

AN ART OF LIVING
by Andre Maurois