Sponsors of the awards ceremony and workshop presenters at the event included leaders in the energy psychology and energy medicine fields. Epigenetics and energy medicine both recognize the primary role of environment and belief in health and wellbeing.
In their book, The Promise of Energy Psychology, David Feinstein, Ph.D., Donna Eden, and Gary Craig explain how energy psychology methods such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) work. When our emotions are triggered by a harmless sight, sound, smell, feeling or thought, that trigger connects us to a memory of a previous experience relating to physical danger or emotional threat. The trigger is recognized by the primitive area of the brain called the amygdala, which sends impulses to the autonomic nervous system that elicits a “fight, flight, or freeze” response in the body, resulting in both physical sensations and anger, fear, or the inability to take action. However, in between the memory and the emotional response to it, there is a disturbance in the body’s energy. In EFT, a series of acupuncture points are physically stimulated by tapping with the fingers to send impulses to the amygdala. These impulses cause a reduction in the number of neural connections between the image and the alarm response, and often, after one or more repetitions of this procedure, the situation can be remembered with no emotional charge.
Gary Craig
Gary Craig, creator of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques),[5] one of the most well known methods of energy psychology, also presented at the two-day event. He said that over one million copies of his free manual have been downloaded from his website, and over 400,000 subscribers receive his email newsletters. Craig said, “In my opinion, every health practitioner on the planet should consider skillfully using a form of energy medicine, such as EFT, before prescribing drugs, surgery, radiation or other invasive procedures. In my estimation and based on my observations, if this was done, it would reduce the cost of health care in the U.S. by 80 percent.”
Donna Eden
Another presenter, the exuberant Donna Eden, author of Energy Medicine, said that “Energy is the very best medicine for your body. It is the oldest, safest, organic, most effective medicine on earth …. Energy medicine is both a complement to other approaches to medical care, and a complete system for self-care and self-help. It can address physical illness and mental disorders, and it can also promote high-level wellness and peak performance.”
Eden notes that Mehmet Oz, M.D., of Columbia University, recently stated on Oprah, “Energy medicine is the next big frontier in medicine.”
And through the groundbreaking work of Dr. Jirtle, Dr. Lipton, and other gifted professionals, the science of epigenetics is opening the doors to new understandings of health and wellness.
The event raised funds for the following research projects:
The Iraq Vets Stress Project. This project studies the biochemistry of stress in Iraq veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and brief treatments that have been scientifically demonstrated to dramatically improve their physical and psychological health. More information is available at www.StressProject.org
The Clinical Case History Database. This database, compliant with National Institutes of Health (NIH) standards for case history reporting, aggregates cases of remission and healing using Energy Psychology methods. www.CaseHistoryDatabase.org
The Effects of Healing Emotional Trauma on Physical Function. This study examines shifts in pain and physical function that accompany the resolution of major emotional traumas in an individual's life.
Seed Grant Funding for Research through ACEP, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology. This innovative program provides seed grants of $3,000 to $5,000 for studies that advance the field of Energy Psychology. Proposals are reviewed annually, and the ACEP research committee works actively with grant recipients to ensure a high quality of research. www.energypsych.org
ACEP accepts donations to be used to support research. ACEP, 303 Park Avenue South, Suite 1051, New York, NY, 10010, USA.
The author thanks Norma Eckroate for invaluable contributions to this article.
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