Table of Contents
JEREMY P. TARCHER / PENGUIN
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. New York
JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN
Published by the Penguin Group
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Copyright 2005 by David Feinstein, Donna Eden, and Gary Craig
Illustrations Michael J. Bowen, Bowen Imagery, www.bowenimagery.com
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Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feinstein, David.
The promise of energy psychology : revolutionary tools for dramatic personal change/
David Feinstein, Donna Eden, Gary Craig; illustrations by Mike Bowen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN : 978-1-4406-2824-5
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Dedicated to Jean Houston,
a giant in our midst
The cell is a machine driven by energy. It can thus be approached by studying matter, or by studying energy. In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.
Albert Szent-Gyrgyi Nobel Laureate in Medicine
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A book presenting a method that traces back to a 5,000-year-old healing tradition has a long list of indebtednesses. After a respectful bow to the ancestors, we turn to four contemporaries who paved the way for this presentation: George Goodheart, by bringing the energy perspective of ancient Eastern healing arts into the Western, thoroughly modern form called Applied Kinesiology, provided the foundation upon which this program rests. John Thie, by bringing the principles of Applied Kinesiology to the general public and introducing them as Touch for Health to hundreds of thousands of people in at least forty countries, demonstrated that powerful healing methods can be used by laypeople responsibly and effectively. Psychiatrist John Diamond and psychologist Roger Callahan, by independently applying the principles of Applied Kinesiology to emotional issues, fashioned prototypes of the approach presented here.
The immediate predecessor of this book is a training program for psychotherapists and other health-care professionals called Energy Psychology Interactive: Rapid Interventions for Lasting Change. The book you are holding synthesizes some of the most immediate and practical concepts and procedures from that program, which David Feinstein developed over a four-year period in conjunction with two primary advisors, Donna Eden and Fred Gallo, Ph.D., and an advisory board composed of twenty-four of the fields pioneers and leaders. These included Joaqun Andrade, M.D., Dan Benor, M.D., Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., Asha Nahoma Clinton, MSW, Ph.D., John Diepold, Ph.D., Jim Durlacher, D.C., Charles R. Figley, Ph.D., Tapas Fleming, L.Ac., Rebecca Grace, Psy.D., David Gruder, Ph.D., Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed.D., R.N., Warren Jacobs, M.D., Martin Jerry, M.D., Ph.D., Peter Lambrou, Ph.D., Greg Nicosia, Ph.D., Larry Nims, Ph.D., Gary Peterson, M.D., George Pratt, Ph.D., Lee Pulos, Ph.D., Mary Sise, MSW, Larry Stoler, Ph.D., Judith Swack, Ph.D., Sharon Cass Toole, Ph.D., and Helen Tuggy, Ph.D.
Meanwhile, several hundred lay and professional practitioners have been meticulously describing clinical outcomes and sending them for posting on Gary Craigs Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) website. Although too large a number to acknowledge individually, that level of documentation is a tremendous contribution to a fledgling field, and some of those cases are presented in this book.
The influence of each of the individuals mentioned above is gratefully acknowledged, along with the courage and inventiveness of growing numbers of practitioners who are successfully applying energy interventions to all manner of settings, problems, and goals. Special thanks also go to Peg Elliott Mayo, MSW, Ron Ruden, M.D., and Joaqun Andrade, M.D., for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. As usual, however, responsibility for this books content rests solely with its authors.
FOREWORD
Our ability to help people overcome self-defeating emotional patterns, achieve higher levels of psychological well-being, and open their spiritual sensibilities is accelerating at an extraordinary pace. This book introduces you to a powerful development within that unfolding story.
The biochemical underpinnings of awarenessof sensations such as pleasure and pain, drives such as hunger and thirst, emotions such as anger and joy, and higher states such as awe and spiritual inspirationhave been identified. Informational substances such as hormones, peptides, and neurotransmitters find their wayin one of natures most stunning designsto receptor molecules that are on the surface of every cell in the body.
These molecules of emotion shape mood and thought. Significantly, it is a two-way process. Emotions and thoughts initiate a series of cascading chemical and cellular eventsincluding the formation of new neuronsthat are the basis of other emotions and thoughts. Some studies suggest, in fact, that meditation may cause neurological shifts that are as potent as our most effective medications for alleviating anxiety and depression.
The Promise of Energy Psychology is a synthesis of practices designed to deliberately shift the molecules of emotion. These practices have three distinct advantages over psychiatric medications. They are noninvasive, highly specific, and have no side effects. Energy interventions impact the bodys intricate electrochemical system as well as more subtle energies.