The EFT Centre
E-mail: theeftcentre@googlemail.com
Web: www.theeftcentre.com
The History and Background of EFT
Introduction
Emotional Freedom Technique is an exciting new Energy Psychology which has developed over the last two decades, based on the ancient Chinese Meridian Energy system. Here we look at the historical origins of these therapies in order to see their roots and to see them in the true perspective of the thousands of years of development that lies behind them.
Acupuncture & Shiatsu
All energy therapies can trace their earliest origins to acupressure and shiatsu, therapies which developed independently but alongside each other in China and Japan respectively. However, similar therapeutic concepts can be traced in many parts of the world, which are equally as old or older than the Chinese / Japanese therapies.
There is evidence of acupuncture like treatment carried out by groups as far apart as the Bantu in Africa and the Eskimo in the Arctic, but these are difficult to date. The earliest well-dated instance seem to be a mummified body found in the Alps in 1991. The body was discovered preserved in a glacier in the Alpine Oetz valley between Austria and Italy. The corpse has been reliably dated to about 3200 BC, and it carries 15 groups of tattoos on areas which can be identified with acupoints corresponding to arthritic pain, which this man had certainly suffered in life.
Early Development in China
Acupuncture is usually considered as a Chinese therapy and the Chinese have a continuous history of acupuncture from at least 1000BC to today.
Between 475 and 221 BC the therapy was consolidated and written into a book known as “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine” (“Huangdi Nei Jing”), which describes the meridians in a way still recognisable today. It described the use of metal needles, but it is clear that sharp stones and splinters of bamboo had been used much earlier. Development continues in an orderly way and about 400 AD a further book appeared called “A Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion” (” Zhen JiuJia Yi Jing”), which described the acupoints and meridians in detail and in such a way that it could still be effective as a text book in one of today’s Schools of Acupuncture. A detailed study of over 600 acupoints was made during the Sung, Kin and Yuan dynasties (960 – 1368 AD) and resulted in a further descriptive book known as “The Illustrated Manual on the Points for Acupuncture and Moxibustion” (” Tong Jen Shu Xue Zhen Jiu Tu Jing”). The term ‘moxibustion’ used in the title of these works refers to the stimulation of the acupoints with burning mox (Artemisia japonica). Also two life sized bronze figure were commissioned, which were engraved with meridians and acupoints.
With the book and the figures the therapy spread widely across China and still thrives there, and is now well known and practised in the West.
In the West acupuncture took two roads. It survived (and still does) in its pure form and it was also taken into Western Medicine. It is from the fruitful fusion of the Eastern and Western ideas that ‘modern’ Energy therapies, including Meridian Therapies, sprang. In the mid 1960’s Chiropractor, Dr George Goodheart began to investigate the links between apparent muscle strength, the body’s organs and meridians, developing a diagnostic therapy based on muscle testing. This work continued drawing on studies by Kendall & Kendall on muscle testing. Chapman & Owen’s work on neuro-vascular reflexes and research by Mann on acupuncture meridians. This work grew into the science of Applied Kinesiology. John Thie, a colleague of Goodheart published a book, “Touch for Health” in 1974 which first brought this combination of ideas to the general public.
Also in the mid 1970’s a psychiatrist, John Diamond, applied his studies of Applied Kinesiology to his work in psychotherapy, naming this new field Behavioural Kinesiology.
At this time a psychologist, Dr Roger Callahan, was becoming dissatisfied with the therapeutic models available to him to help patients solve their psychological problems. He had studied Kinesiology with Diamond and was also investigating Eastern health practices, specifically, those that involved tapping on meridian points. In 1980, Dr Callahan was working with a patient, Mary, who had a severe water phobia. She had frequent headaches and terrifying nightmares, both of which were related to her fear of water. She had gone from therapist to therapist for years with no real improvement Callahan had been working with her for a year and a half with only a slight change, using conventional psychological techniques.