Note: None of the opinions expressed herein should be confused with medical advice. Consult your physician, get appropriate treatment, and use EFT as a health aid. No part of this website is intended as a substitute for medical advice, or to diagnose or treat any particular individual.

In any discussion of the application of EFT to serious disease, it is necessary to clear up a possible misconception regarding the EFT phenomenon known as "the one-minute wonder." EFT sometimes produces miraculous results, with problems resolving so quickly that they are indeed one-minute wonders. Everyone using EFT needs to understand that not all issues respond in mere minutes, and also that if an issue does not respond that quickly, it does not mean that EFT is not working.

Although using EFT with serious diseases sometimes produces one-minute wonders in one or more symptoms, this does not mean that EFT will clear the underlying causes of the disease that rapidly. Actually, serious diseases normally need persistent and creative use of EFT to achieve resolution.

Due to EFT's clinical results, it should be a first line of defense in healing. EFT does not use drugs, surgery, radiation, or any other invasive methods. Given these facts, it makes sense to use EFT before turning to the medical approaches that are more drastic and often have serious side effects. The following is a discussion of primary healing modalities in relation to EFT:

1. The Medical Profession. Conventional medicine has been viewed as primary medicine, with all other modalities deemed "alternative," but it has become so costly in the United States that many people cannot afford it and the system is also now threatening U.S. economic solvency.

Conventional medicine excels at treating emergency conditions such as infections, wounds, and mechanical injuries. One of its failings is its division into so many specialties that medical professionals no longer treat the whole person and the fact that body and mind function as a system seems to get lost. This is a glaring fault, given research showing that unresolved emotional trauma can cause a range of physical ailments.

The medical profession largely dismisses other approaches to heath and healing, including those covered here.

2. Nutrition. Providing the building blocks of healing through good nutrition may seem obvious, but it is often overlooked. Diets full of sugar, additives, preservatives, processed foods, and produce grown with pesticides and the overconsumption of alcohol prime the body for disease.

3. The Body's Subtle Energies. Traditional Chinese medicine addresses imbalances and disturbances in the body's subtle energies, or vital life force, called Qi (pronounced chi). This form of medicine has been an effective treatment for thousands of years. The conventional medical profession, for the most part, dismisses this time-proven model of medicine, persisting in regarding the body as a "bag of chemicals and body parts" instead of acknowledging the proven existence of pulsating energy in the human body.

4. Unresolved Emotions as a Cause of Disease. This is the centerpiece of the EFT model of healing. This model has been validated by countless cases of physical conditions disappearing after anger, fear, or guilt is tapped away.

5. Prayer, Meditation, and Spiritual Methods. Research and anecdotal evidence tells us that healing can occur through the use of group prayer as well as surrogate EFT (a form of prayer). EFT may not seem to be a spiritual method because of the mechanical nature of tapping. The broader goal of EFT, however, is to clear the obstacles to an individual's spiritual awareness. As EFT taps away anger and fear, it opens the door to inner peace and true forgiveness.

1. Despite the healings that have been achieved with EFT, the method is still in the early stages of its development and there is much we do not know. Instead of assuming that the current techniques are the final word, approach EFT with an inquiring mind.

2. Persistence is vital. As noted earlier, if you don't experience a "one-minute wonder," that doesn't mean EFT won't work for you. And if you do experience a quick healing, that doesn't mean you are done. Other aspects of the problem and related issues may emerge. Serious diseases are often multicausal and multifaceted. Applying EFT to them can be like navigating a maze, encountering what seem to be dead ends. To find your way through the maze requires backing up when you hit a dead end and trying another path.

3. A serious disease can involve causes aside from emotional, energetic, or spiritual factors. Heart disease, for example, may be improved by EFT, but if it resulted from decades of poor diet, lack of exercise, and other lifestyle habits, those causes need also to be addressed.