Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
—Albert Einstein
This book has been the biggest single project of my life, and I appreciate all who made it possible. I would first like to express my deep appreciation to several brilliant authors, researchers, and doctors who provided the insights that fueled the development of the ideas in the following chapters.
First, to Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, I am indebted for an education in the critical role that electricity and magnetism play in all healing. This is the first of several insights that led to the writing of this book. Norm is an expert in the subject; I coauthored a book with him called Soul Medicine, which stimulated my curiosity about the links between faith healing and electromagnetic conduction. Norm also chaired my dissertation committee, and has contributed mightily to the professional development of alternative medicine in many ways: through his insistence on rigorous documentation of “miraculous” cures, through his establishment of Holos University, through his founding of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) and cofounding of the American Board for Scientific Medical Intuition (ABSMI), through the development of the SheliTENS treatment machine, and through his many books. He has also mentored me, encouraged me, listened patiently (well, at least stoically) to me during my explication of ideas in process, and even—surely the supreme test of human courage—suffered through being a passenger in my car on the freeways of Los Angeles, California.
I would also like to thank Ernest Rossi, PhD, for his amazing book The Psychobiology of Gene Expression. Until I read his book, I did not realize just how quickly genes may be activated by memories, feelings, thoughts, and other aspects of the internal environment—some genes in under two seconds. This was the second great insight that motivated me to complete this book. Rossi applies these findings to psychotherapy in general and clinical hypnosis in particular, in ways that explain many mysteries of the therapeutic process. In his book, Rossi laid a foundation for a whole generation of researchers to investigate the effects on genes of mental and emotional shifts in the individual. Rossi’s book gave me many research pointers and great inspiration.
Another book that contains stunning implications for medicine and research is Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance. Written by James Oschman, PhD, this book synthesizes much other research in the field in a way that presents a compelling picture of some of the mechanisms by which energy creates healing. To Jim, I am especially indebted for the third insight: that the body’s connective tissue system is a giant liquid crystal semiconductor. Oschman’s comprehensive survey of research in the field makes further research much easier. He has also done duty as a friend, cheerleader, and critical thinker in the development of this book, reviewing and correcting the chapters on connective tissue and its role in the transmission of information in the human body.
I would also like to thank those who have instructed me in Energy Psychology (EP). To these wise instructors, I owe the discovery that emotional trauma—even deep, ingrained, long-standing trauma—can be alleviated very quickly, often in just a few minutes. I had great trouble believing this when I first heard about it, and my logical belief system still has trouble wrapping itself around the idea that a neurosis or psychopathology for which a patient might have spent an unsuccessful decade in psychotherapy can be permanently resolved in just a few sessions with EP. Yet there are thousands of case histories, and a growing number of clinical studies, that show that this is often possible.
Therefore, I believe that EP has a potential for the alleviation of human suffering that rivals any advance in psychology or medicine in the last five centuries. That’s a huge claim, but it is not hyperbole. Try it for yourself by downloading the free mini-manual at www.DawsonGift.com. You’ll be a convert within an hour—and it will change your life thereafter!
I deeply appreciate David Feinstein, PhD, who coauthored a clear and compelling guide to these exciting new techniques called The Promise of Energy Psychology. Thanks, too, to David for suggesting the title of this book at a time when I was having trouble seeing the forest for the trees. I also appreciate the inspiration I derived from his seminal papers defining the field (see www.HandoutBank.org), and for his valuable feedback and friendship. David has also done a great deal to encourage professional standards of competence in the field, and to collect the science behind these methods into a coherent whole. The book Energy Medicine, which David wrote with Donna Eden, is a best-seller, and one of the foundational texts for this field.
Fred Gallo, PhD, who coined the term “Energy Psychology” and whose book of the same name is a sound introduction for professionals, has developed tools and techniques that have benefited many. Fred’s books are also foundational texts for the field, and by systematizing these treatments, then organizing them into a simple treatment system, he has given the field a solid underpinning.
I also gratefully acknowledge Tapas Fleming, LAc, developer of the Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT), among the easiest EP techniques to learn, yet one which harnesses similar power for shifting traumas. Her quiet wisdom, gentle compassion, and grounded teaching techniques have demystified EP and healed many lives.
I acknowledge an immense debt of gratitude to Roger Callahan, PhD, the originator of Thought Field Therapy (TFT), and the author of Tapping the Healer Within and other books. He articulated and popularized his methods in the 1970s and 1980s, and development of these methods led to most other subsequent EP techniques, including the publication of The EFT Manual by Gary Craig and Adrienne Fowlie.
I am immensely grateful to the late Dorothea Hover-Kramer, EdD, RN, and to David Gruder, PhD, cofounders of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). Dorothea’s marvelous book Second Chance at Your Dream applies the insights of EP to redefine aging as a period of blossoming creativity. I am also grateful to David for organizing the many steps in spiritual, psychological, and emotional healing into a unified developmental scheme in his seminal book The New IQ.
This field owes a great debt to Francine Shapiro, PhD, who popularized Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and furthered this technique by insistence on rigorous clinical studies. These paved the way for adoption of EMDR in primary care settings, which let to gradual acceptance of other EP techniques.
My great appreciation also goes to my wonderful friends Bruce Lipton, PhD, and his partner, Margaret Horton. Bruce’s book The Biology of Belief hit various best-seller lists in 2005 when it came out, has sold over 100,000 copies, and catalyzed the idea in popular awareness that genes are merely blueprints, and that it’s the environment outside our cells that determines genetic expression. Bruce has also advanced the idea that the cell’s “brain” is its membrane, for it is the membrane, influenced again by the environment, that admits the signals that trigger the processes of life. Bruce’s book created a fertile public awareness for these radical new ideas, in which books like this one, and Soul Medicine, can bear fruit.
I deeply appreciate the editing of John Travis, MD, coauthor of The Wellness Workbook, who gave me the benefit of his brilliant and perceptive mind. He went through this manuscript with his eagle eye prior to it being sent out for peer review, corrected some of the key concepts, and fine-tuned the language of the text. He challenged my hidden assumptions, as well as picked apart any imprecise science and reassembled it correctly. The final draft has benefited from his decades of experience and compendious knowledge of both conventional and alternative medicine.
I have also received encouragement from some of my heroes: Larry Dossey, MD, very kindly granted me interviews, or permission to publish his work, in several of my anthologies. Caroline Myss, PhD, did the same, and also encouraged and furthered the publication of Soul Medicine. Barbara Marx Hubbard, one of the shining lights of our generation, first traced for me the implications of some of these ideas for human and planetary evolution. Bob Nunley, PhD, and Ann Nunley, PhD, besides being instrumental, along with Norm Shealy, in founding Holos University, also developed a technique called Inner Counselor, which incorporates the most powerful transformative techniques of transpersonal psychology.
I am also extremely grateful to the salespeople who believed in this book and represented it effectively to bookstores; with over 100,000 new titles published each year, it’s hard to stand above the crowd unless you have passionate advocates in the sales cycle. I particularly appreciate Eric Kampmann, president of Midpoint Trade Distribution; also Gail Kump, the deft and articulate cheerleader who persuaded Barnes and Noble to put the first edition on the front table of all their stores the week it was released. As a result of their efforts, the first (hardcover) edition went through three printings and sold some 15,000 copies. The second (paperback) edition was even more successful, being adopted as a text by several universities. Reid Tracy and Hay House, distributors of this third edition, have been dedicated backers of EP.
Books and articles dealing with health and healing go through the process of “peer review,” in which colleagues and experts read the draft and comment on the material from the perspective of their expertise. I deeply appreciate those who read all or part of this manuscript and offered their suggestions and advice. I’ve received dozens of suggestions over the past many years that have strengthened the book and been incorporated into this third edition.
It is impossible for me to find the quiet creative space to write books or articles in the pressured and deadline-driven publishing office where I work nine to five (or more usually five to nine—five a.m. to nine p.m.); getting away on a cruise, on a “vacation,” or to a spa has been the only thing that made it possible. So besides writing part of this book while looking out the window of the library on the cruise ship Dawn Princess, I wrote parts at Gley Ivy Hot Springs, Harbin Hot Springs, Tahoe State Park, and the Prince Kuhio Resort in Kauai, Hawaii. The paperback revision would never have been completed without a week in Palm Springs, California, where Deb Elkington, RN, kindly made her vacation home available to me.
I’m very grateful to the capable team at Energy Psychology Group who handle enormous amounts of detail every day so that I don’t have to! This includes my dedicated assistant Deb Tribbey, editor Stephanie Marohn, training coordinator Lisa Bacon, certification coordinator Marion Allen, webmaster Will Bouschor, content manager Mitch Koester, social media editor Catherine Hughes, video editor Kaiya Kramer, and our twenty-plus certified trainers.
I appreciate the hundreds of selfless volunteers of the Veterans Stress Project (www.StressProject.org). Through their efforts, thousands of veterans and their family members have received free or low-cost energy medicine sessions. Our volunteers have been the bedrock of research conducted by the nonprofit I chair, the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare (NIIH.0rg), of which the Veterans Stress Project is a part. On the Stress Project website, they post a stream of videos and stories written by veterans, talking about the life-changing transformations they’ve experienced. I also appreciate Olli and Tim Toukolehto, who created the truly awesome online tapping coaching program called Battle Tap. This allows veterans to receive help whenever and wherever they need it, rather than relying only on office visits with a therapist or coach. I’m convinced we’ll see many other online EP apps and sites in the coming years.