By CJ Puotinen

A woman who was terrified of snakes stood outside a pet store and tapped on her face and torso. In less than an hour, she calmly held a snake in her hands and later that day decided to get one as a pet.

No, she wasn't hypnotized or on drugs. She was practicing a do-it-yourself procedure called Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT. The basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and the procedure takes just a few minutes to perform. 

According to EFT founder Gary Craig, EFT's high rate of effectiveness results from its adoption of prominent acupuncture principles. "In essence," he says, "EFT is an emotional version of acupuncture except that needles aren't necessary. Instead, key meridian points are stimulated by tapping on them with the fingertips while gently bringing the phobia into one's thoughts."

This combination of tapping and thinking causes an energy shift that can permanently change a person's reactions, even to life-long fears of heights, elevators, public speaking, enclosed spaces, spiders, dogs, cats, bridges, tunnels, airplanes, crowds, social events, dentist appointments, and doctor's offices.

"That sounds bizarre, doesn't it?" says Craig. "Yet again and again, phobias have been shown to be among the fastest-responding problems people can solve with EFT."

Here's an actual case from the EFT Web site :

Using EFT Successfully for a Snake Phobia

Because Jane (name changed to protect privacy) had tried to overcome her snake phobia with conventional techniques that were both painful and unsuccessful, she was reluctant to even think about snakes, much less look at them. But her therapist reassured her that EFT is painless and often works very fast, so she gave it a try.

First, Jane and her therapist stood outside a pet store and tapped until she felt calm enough to walk through the door. This served to temporarily calm the "subtle energy short-circuit" that caused Jane's phobic response. Once inside, they repeated the process as necessary. After Jane's anxiety fell to nothing, they went searching for snakes. Then, whenever her anxiety rose, they tapped again until the anxiety vanished.

Jane and her therapist slowly tapped their way toward the snake section of the pet store until, eventually, they could see snakes in glass cages. They moved closer and closer and finally, with the help of pet store staff, watched as a snake was lifted out.

With each step of this rapid desensitization process, Jane felt increasingly relaxed and comfortable. She stopped panicking and started observing, appreciating things she had never noticed about snakes.

As her therapist reported, "At the end of about 45 minutes of tapping, she held a snake, and she was euphoric. She called my machine that night and left an amazing testimonial. She wants to go back to the pet store and get herself a pet snake!"

Gary Craig reports that he's used EFT to help more people overcome their phobias than he can remember. In many cases, just a round or two of EFT (which takes about a minute) is all that's needed -- the phobia literally disappears and never comes back.

Please note that, in addition to eliminating phobias, EFT has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments. For more information, you can explore the EFT Web site and read through some of the thousands of success stories collected from people who have effectively used EFT to eliminate their fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments. 

While a complete description of EFT is beyond the scope of this article, you can learn all the basics from the free EFT Get Started Package, including a free download of the 79-page EFT Manual. Those wishing to save time and dive right in can get the affordable five-star training DVDs.

Please consult qualified health professionals before putting EFT into practice for yourself or others.