Psychological Reversals (PR)
When PR is present, no amount of good intentions or will power can turn things around. Deep seated or deep level negativity can sabotage literally any positive intent. PR creates a polarity block and prevents any treatment from working.
From where does PR originate? The understanding is PR comes from the following areas:
•Traumatic or disturbing personal experience that imprints our energy system with negativity
•Other peoples’ influence on us, especially during childhood. There are certain ingrained family codes that often create generations of negative or hurtful behaviours
•Mass media and it’s generally negative regurgitation of horrific events
•Advertising which tells us to be something other that what we are
•Any agency or institution that teaches fear
•Our genetics and race consciousness which has never known peace but only war and conflict
The point is this: Unless we address active PR, we will only continue to sabotage our efforts.
The problem with using will power when there is psychological reversal is this: will power was never meant for long term use. It was designed originally to allow the mind to override the body, briefly, in moments of emergency and necessity, such as being able to run into a burning house to save a child, or to override fear in order to face fighting a lion. Using will power, therefore, to try and overcome problems and force oneself to be doing certain things on a long-term basis has two possible outcomes, both of which are problematic to say the least. One outcome would be to succeed, and to continuously override the parts that are reversed. This continuous exertion of will power drains the system and the body of energy, creates rigidity in mind and body, and can have serious repercussions for long term health - the conflict doesn't go away, it may just go underground and express in all kinds of dis-ease instead. The other outcome is that the one who is trying to override a psychological reversal with will power simply can't keep it up.
"Running on will power" drains enormous amounts of energy from the system, and if there are other demands on this energy, or low energy states such as feeling down or depressed one day, feeling a little ill, picking up a bug, that's all that's needed for the will power to collapse and the reversed parts to take over once more. That's the "recovering alcoholic" in a moment of crisis who turns to the bottle, or the overweight lady who's had some bad news and makes straight for the fridge. The long-term effects of this are a terrible toll on the person's self esteem. Every time this happens, they berate themselves for being weak, useless, and hopeless, and for "having no will power". Many therapists too, spoken or unspoken, tend to share society's view that people who can't control themselves are somehow weak, less worthy, that they're not trying hard enough, or that they want to suffer.
Dr. Callahan discovered Psychological Reversal when he was treating an overweight person whose statements about wanting to loose weight belied her unconscious intent of staying overweight. Callahan had seen these kinds of patients before. They claimed to want to change, but no treatment worked for them. This particular lady couldn’t cut her eating habits and this had been going on for years. Although she said she wanted to loose weight, she couldn’t. Callahan muscle tested her using Applied Kinesiology. When she imagined herself thinner after losing weight, her arm tested weak. That meant that she was not able to see herself losing weight. Then Callahan asked her to imagine herself even heavier than what she was, and she tested strong. Her deep level belief was that she should be overweight…even more so than what she was. That was what set Callahan off on his discovery of PR. The conscious mind says one thing but on a deeper level, the subconscious is programming behaviour in a contrary manner.
All of us have a certain degree of PR. We may have difficulty flying in an aeroplane, or taking a maths exam, or playing golf consistently. Or we may be massively reversed with depression or addictions. All our love relationships may hit the rocks after a few months or a couple of years. We may have dyslexia or chronic physical ailments. We may have difficulty holding down a job or succeeding at anything….and more.
PR is Treatable!
We do the ‘Set-up’ in EFT to treat PR at the beginning of the Sequence. Occasionally one may need to repeat the Set-up during a session. That’s OK because the few seconds it takes to tap on the KC can save you endless hours of wasted effort.
Even long standing psychological reversals can be re-reversed and habitual patterns undone; and best of all, as Gary Craig (founder of EFT) says: "It's not a character fault, it's just something that happened", finally taking the burden of guilt and shame from those afflicted by nothing more, or nothing less, than a simple psychological reversal.
Basic Reversals:
•Deservedness – “Even though I don’t deserve to get over this problem”
•Safety – “Even though It’s not safe for me to get over this problem”
•Ecology – “Even though It’s not safe for other people for me to get over this problem”
•Motivation – “Even though I don’t have the motivation to get over this problem”
•Permission – “Even though I won’t allow myself to get over this problem”
•Possibility – “Even though It’s not possible for me to get over this problem”
•Benefit – “Even though It’s not good for me to get over this problem”
•Resource – “Even though I don’t have what it takes to make life work without this problem”
•Deprivation – “Even though I will feel deprived if I get over this problem”
•Identity – “Even though I will lose my identity if I get over this problem”
•Recurrent – “Even if this problem keeps coming back”
•Belief – “Even though I don’t believe I can get over this problem”
If you suspect PR but are not sure, you could use e.g.: “Even though a PART OF ME doesn’t deserve to get over this problem”
Make sure you use the negative. Putting things in the negative acknowledges them.