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By Steve Wells

There has been a really interesting debate recently on an EFT Facebook group following
this post which I wrote about positives versus negatives with tapping:

I agree with Gary Craig: Tapping does not work on positives! As he says in his most recent interview
"positives can actually thwart the EFT process." I agree. We do not need to install positives.
Positives emerge naturally as the blocks dissolve as a result of tapping focused on the negative.

Below is an edited compilation of some further posts I wrote within the debate string
prompted by this initial post. I'll be interested in your views on this obviously
controversial topic. This is my take. What is yours?

When you focus the tapping approach on negative emotions and problems the feelings tend
to shift along with the thoughts, and positive thoughts and images arise naturally. There
is no need to "install" them. We don't need to put something into us to make us better,
but to remove the barriers to realising our true nature.

I say tapping works because it shifts stuck feelings in the body which also translates
to stuck thinking. Without a corresponding emotional shift a shift in thinking is useless.

When the energy and emotion is freed up to flow then we are also able to move to seeing
new perspectives. New information can only be accepted when there is an opening (rather
than resistance). Trying to install positives by the way is a good way of finding
resistance (but not the best way of changing it).

Since we use continual tapping and do not do tapping in rounds as in EFT, the person
(client) is tapping the entire time, so they are also tapping when positives emerge.
Rather than simply accept this however we will test and challenge any positives. We do
VERY well using our provocative style and Provocative Energy Techniques (PET) by actually
focusing on the dark side and exaggerating that. We go to the dark side and "play"
devil's advocate whilst staying on the side of the angels… as we were taught to do by
Frank Farrelly who created Provocative Therapy. Instead of opposing the client's energy
we go with it and exaggerate it so they can see it clearly… the humour and warm-hearted
connection and tapping all contribute to the healing.

Let me say here by way of clarification: The light side IS the dark side for many
people. If we focus on the energetic reaction rather than our own beliefs we will see
that. So to try and force a positive when there is a strong connection to the negative is
actually wrenching for many clients. They know they "should" think and feel that way,
trouble is they don't. We find it easiest to go with and amplify what is there so that
clients see the truth for themselves. When truth is seen, in that moment the problem
transforms.

Comment from one person: Feeling like I "should" feel motivated and I don't right now.

You ARE motivated, just not in the way your story says you should be!

If we accept that motivation is the issue then we will go away tapping on that… And
maybe try to get you to repeat "I AM so happy that I am motivated and taking action to
achieve my goals". Then what does that part of you which is trying to speak up do? It has
to lose. Which means part of you has to lose.

Another person comments regarding the importance of tapping and focusing on the truth…

Frank Farrelly used to say the human soul needs truth like the lungs need air. In our
PET we "speak the unspeakable" which is often the person's hidden inner truth.

Have you seen the movie A Few Good Men? I love that line, and use it often: "You want
the truth? You can't handle the truth!" Sometimes our job is to help people see the truth
where everyone else has been conspiring to keep alive the distorted perception…

Frank Farrelly always said jokingly "Don't tell me the truth, leave me with my distorted
perceptions"!

Gary Craig says he finds reframing far more effective than trying to use affirmations or
"tap in positives". I agree with that, and as I said, my experience is that when you tap
whilst focusing on the negatives then the positives emerge naturally. I believe when you
tap "on" positives that when tapping works it does so because it is acting the way it
always does, which is to release the blocks to being able to see and realise your true
nature. That true nature will not be revealed by trying to attach to a false ideal, or
hypnotise yourself in a new way.

When you focus on what you want in your life (positive changes you want to make), then
your unconscious blocks will come up… then you can use tapping to treat those blocks.
David Lake and I often say that one of the key ways to identify your unconscious blocks
is to identify a big goal you'd like to achieve. Then up will come all your blocking
beliefs, the reasons why you "can't" do that, "don't deserve that", and so on. Those
"negatives" are actually stirred up by the process of trying to go to the positive. Then,
success can be achieved most elegantly IMO not by stirring them up further or trying to
push against that resistance, but by treating those blocks with tapping and other energy
techniques (tapping isn't the only one!).

If it is the feeling of success you are seeking, that feeling is inside you, not outside
you. Affirmations are an attempt to access that feeling of success using words. But they
almost always encounter resistance, because they come from a position of no power. No
energy. Just like when you try to stop yourself from engaging in a craving using words
alone to counter your massive internal drive in the opposite direction. Tapping accesses
and helps feelings (energy) to flow. What's the best way of getting anything to flow,
which is unable to flow naturally for some reason? Releasing whatever is stopping it from
flowing. The most reliable way to do that using tapping is to focus your tapping efforts
on those blocks. When they release, the energy returns to flow. And words which bounced
off and triggered only resistance a moment before are suddenly energised and given life
and seen to be real possibilities…

What do you think? We would love to read your comments.

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