There are quite a variety of “energy psychology” approaches being promoted as effective ways to change behavior. They include Roger Callahan’s “Thought Field Therapy” (TFT), directed at the “energy fields” that thoughts allegedly produce, and Gary Craig’s “Emotional Freedom Technique” (EFT), both of which use tapping with the fingers on “meridians” (or massaging them) to change the “energy balance.”

Here is how Gary describes EFT: “EFT is a new discovery that has provided thousands with relief from pain, diseases, and emotional issues. Simply stated, it is a unique version of acupuncture except you don’t use needles. Instead, you stimulate well-established (sic) energy meridian points on your body by tapping on them with your fingertips. The process is easy to memorize and is portable so you can do it anywhere.” It launches off the EFT Discovery Statement, which says that “the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.”

Donna Eden claims that her “Energy medicine shows you how to understand and work with your body’s reservoir of electromagnetic and more subtle energies to increase your vitality, identify and correct energy imbalances that keep you from being at your best, and enhance your health and state of mind. Your body is comprised of centers of energy and energy pathways that are in constant motion, a dynamic interplay not only with other energies, but also with your cells, your organs, your immune system, and your mood. You will learn how to influence the flow of these energies by tapping or massaging or tracing specific energy points or pathways.”

Eden and Callahan both use “muscle testing” to determine the strength of the “energy field,” by asking someone to hold out their arm and then pulling down on it to test the person’s muscle strength before and after intervention. I assume that most readers of this newsletter have at least heard of these methods, and that some have also experienced them, or even taught them.

In this article I will be questioning whether “energy fields” exist or not. Even if they don’t exist, the idea of an energy field may be used to elicit changes. If anyone reading this has made useful changes in response to some kind of “energy work,” I think that is wonderful, and I certainly hope that you keep them. Now take a look at a Derren Brown video:

How did Derren do it?

Before reading further, notice your response to this demonstration. How do you think it works? Is this a convincing demonstration of an energy field, or do you have some other explanation? . . .

Derren’s demonstration is far more intense and impressive than any I have seen by Callahan, Craig, or Eden. Is he doing “energy psychology” or “energy medicine”? Derren himself is very clear in his introduction to all his TV shows that he is not. “I achieve all the results you see through a mixture of magic, misdirection, and showmanship. It’s not psychic.” Brown is a master of suggestion, both verbal and nonverbal/contextual, and his results are very striking (There are several others on youtube).

Let’s take a close look at the sequence of what he does in the video: First, notice the context. Derren is in a kung-fu dojo, where everyone has undoubtedly heard LOTS about “sensing energy.” Second, Derren asks the kung-fu master to demonstrate his “one-inch” punch that knocks the student down. If you watch closely, his punch is a lot more than its “one-inch” name. It is at least 5 or 6 inches—though still pretty impressive. Then Derren says, “I want to demonstrate something— something I do, that is similar, but non-physical. It’s easier on the knuckles. It just uses the mind,” setting up the expectation that what he will do is similar to what everyone just saw. He asks the kung-fu master to choose a different student. He thanks the student, says “Come stand here,” puts his hands on the student’s shoulders, and moves him and positions him carefully, a series of nonverbal commands to follow his instructions, followed by patting him twice on the shoulders, as if to say, “Well done; excellent,” validating his compliance. Then he rubs the student’s lower chest gently, and asks, “Can you feel that?” a conversational postulate containing the embedded command “Feel that.” Of course he can feel that; he has sensory nerves in his chest! What is he going to say? “No, I have no nerves in my chest; they were shot off in the war.” Then he makes the exact same movements in the air about a foot in front of the student’s chest. (These movements are now anchors for the feeling that he felt when they were made in contact with his chest.) Again Derren asks, “Can you feel that?” The student accepts the suggestion, and says, “Yes.” In fact, he CAN’T actually feel that, because his sensory nerves don’t extend beyond his skin, but he certainly can IMAGINE it in response to the embedded command, “feel that.” Now the student is set up for the final punch in the air, and he “feels” that and doubles over. Then Derren gives the student a series of three direct commands. “Stand,” “Stand,” “Stand,” and he helps him stand up. Then he says two more direct commands, “Breathe in,” “Out,” and the student continues to follow all these commands, followed by Derren’s saying, “It’s just in your mind.” Then Derren asks, “Can we do this one more time?” a conversational postulate indicating that he will repeat the entire sequence. He does this while holding the students’ shoulders in the same way that he did when he positioned him at the beginning, an anchor that elicits compliance again.(At first the student is not very eager to repeat this, but then he does agree, though not congruently.) Then Derren says, “This time I’ll stand behind you, so you won’t be able to see me or see what I’m doing,” implying that he WILL be able to HEAR him. Verbal implication is one of the subtlest kinds of suggestion; if you want to know more about this, check out my article on my website. Next Derren takes off his jacket and asks someone else to hold it for him. Is this irrelevant? I don’t think so. Taking off your jacket is typical when a man is about to fight or undertake an extra physical effort, a contextual implication that he will punch even harder from behind. If you want to know more about contextual implication, read my article here. Then Derren repeats the exact same motions and timing of the first two steps of touching the student’s lower chest, but with a slightly different word sequence. “You can feel that?” is an interesting combination of command and question (as is the tonal pattern), still containing the embedded command “Feel that.” Then he gestures in space in front of him, and again says, “You can feel that?” These are now visual and auditory anchors for what happened just before, when he punched the air in front of the student. Then he repeats, “This time I’ll be behind you where you can’t see me,” repeating the implication that he will be able to hear him. Then he goes behind him and punches in exactly the same way, and the guy reels away from that. Suggestion again, cued by the subtle sounds of his movements when punching the air.

Of course, I might be wrong, and it’s ridiculously easy to test this. Ask Derren (or anyone else) to secretly come up behind someone, in a very different context, and try punching the air behind him without any warning or set-up. I’d be willing to bet serious money that under double-blind conditions nothing would happen, and you can try this yourself, as I have. Last march I attended a two-hour presentation by Donna Eden and David Feinstein at the Psychotherapy Networker Conference, in which Eden demonstrated hand motions that supposedly weakened someone else’s “energy field.” Later at the evening presenter’s party, I came up behind Donna and made those exact same motions, repeatedly, but she showed not the slightest hint of feeling weakened, despite her supposed sensitivity to “subtle energies.”

James Randi (an ex-magician, who knows most of the tricks that magicians and scam artists use) has a standing offer of a million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate ANY paranormal phenomenon under controlled conditions (no suggestion allowed): No one has even been able to even qualify for the preliminary test under moderately controlled conditions. Randi’s site has a fascinating list of the applicants, AND a record of the negotiations with applicants about arranging the testing protocol. So the next time someone talks about “feeling energy,” “seeing auras,” doing “remote viewing,” or any other paranormal phenomenon, suggest to them that they try to collect Randi’s million-dollar prize. AFTER they succeed at that would be the time to listen to what they say, and learn what they do—not before. Even though I have no evidence that these kinds of “energy fields” exist, with appropriate suggestions, someone can be induced to make changes—hopefully useful ones. And there is still the question of whether tapping on someone’s body can be useful in bringing about change, something that I’ll discuss in a future article.