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To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Many men stumble upon truth during their lifetime, but most just dust themselves off and continue on their way.” Many of man’s greatest discoveries have been due to serendipity, accident, or as Churchill would say, stumbled upon. Fortunately, a California psychologist, Roger Callahan, did not ignore what he had stumbled upon.
Dr. Callahan had been working with a female patient, Mary, for about two years. They had been working on a particularly persistent phobia, or fear, of water. Unfortunately, they had experienced little success using traditional therapy.
One day Dr. Callahan was using a behavioral technique that involved the gradual exposure to Mary’s fear, water. They were sitting near a swimming pool, trying to inch closer and closer as Mary’s discomfort would allow.
Mary complained of discomfort in her stomach. Callahan had an interest in acupuncture and wanted to help Mary. Although he had no formal training, through reading and self-study he was familiar with the body’s energy system. He knew about the flow of energy along specific routes, or meridians, in the body. He also knew that an acupuncture point for the stomach meridian was located just below the eye. Dr. Callahan asked Mary to tap with her index and middle finger on her face just under her eye, hoping to give her relief from stomach discomfort.
When Mary tapped as Dr. Callahan instructed a look of surprise came across her face. She began shouting “It’s gone! It’s gone!” She jumped from her chair and ran toward the pool.
At this point, Dr. Callahan had no idea of what Mary meant. He did know that Mary couldn’t swim. He quickly expressed his concern for her safety. Mary laughed as she splashed the pool water with her hands. She reassured Dr. Callahan that she was safe and that she knew she couldn’t swim.
As the shock passed, Dr. Callahan began to realize the weight of what he had just observed. He carefully noted what happened and he continued to explore this unusual phenomenon.
Dr. Callahan tried the same technique with his other clients, but had minimal success. He began adding other treatment points, which increased his success rate. He also used a chiropractic technique, muscle testing, which helped him to quickly determine the order of treatment points for an individual.
Patterns began to emerge. For example, Dr. Callahan found that most people needed the combination of eye, under arm, and collarbone to treat anxiety. Likewise, treatment patterns were found for other problems.
Over time, Callahan refined these patterns, or algorithms, into a fairly comprehensive arsenal of treatment options. These algorithms were found to be effective about 80% of the time. He later developed additional techniques that boosted his success rate to 95%, which is quite remarkable. Dr. Callahan named this approach Thought Field Therapy [TFT].
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
So, what was happening here? As is often the case, discoveries are made, and then we attempt to explain what we observe. While the behavior or phenomena may be repeatable, predictable and reliable, it may be hard to know if the explanation or theory is accurate.
For example, we know that people suffer colds more often during the winter months than they do during the summer months. For a long time the accepted theory was that the cold weather caused the increase in colds. This was a helpful explanation, or model, because it fit the observations and could be used to predict the frequency of colds.
However, we now know that the increase in colds during the winter months is due to people’s tendency to remain indoors, causing closer contact with others. The closer contact promotes the spread of viruses, or colds.
The point is that we should keep an open mind. Current theory is quite helpful and may be accurate. On the other hand, new information may come in the future that will replace current explanations.
PERTURBATIONS
Dr. Callahan has developed a fairly elaborate theory to explain this remarkable treatment. I refer the reader to his books listed in the suggested reading page at the end of this book for a very detailed explanation of his theory. I will now attempt to give a brief summary, which will probably be an over-simplification.
Callahan points out that any brain activity involves the flow of electricity through neurons. When we have a thought, this flow of biochemical-generated electricity creates a type of electromagnetic “field,” thus the name Thought Field Therapy.
When a person experiences a trauma, an aberration is created within the thought field. Callahan refers to this aberration as a perturbation. During therapy, the client “tunes in” or thinks about the trauma, which will create the thought field along with the perturbation. Tapping the treatment points causes the perturbation to collapse, thus giving relief to the client.
Again, this is not meant to be a complete explanation of Dr. Callahan’s theory. I defer to his books listed under suggested reading for a detailed explanation.
ACCUPUNCTURE / ACCUPRESSURE
Another theory to explain these phenomena is based on traditional acupuncture theory. Acupuncture theory relates physical ailments to blockages in the body’s energy system. In the same way, emotional discomfort is related to blocks in the body’s energy system, specifically, the meridian system.
Normally, energy flows uninterrupted from one meridian into another throughout the body. However, when one thinks about a trauma, anxiety, or whatever is being worked on, and experiences discomfort, the blockage in energy flow appears. Tapping on the beginning and ending points of meridians [treatment points] puts a small amount of energy into the meridian, causing the energy to flow freely at that point. When the energy is flowing freely throughout the meridian system, even when thinking about the issue being treated, the discomfort has been removed.
Regardless of theory, the important thing is that the treatment works. When it works on the first try [about 70% to 80% of the time] the rapid relief is hard to believe. We simply have had no similar experiences. We have nothing to relate to having emotional pain removed so quickly. In fact, we have been taught that we must work hard and long to gain any relief. It’s no wonder that we often have difficulty accepting our improvement. Callahan called this the “Apex” problem.
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