By Dr. Patricia Carrington

In terms of acceptance, surrogate tapping, which is in effect tapping for someone other than one's self, still has a long road ahead. However, its cousin, “distant prayer,” is quite readily accepted in many places the world over. People will often resort to prayer to heal a loved one even if they do not have deep spiritual convictions. It just seems a natural thing to do. Surrogate tapping is equally natural but as yet, because it does not invoke a spiritual being (although it can certainly do so if one wants), it somehow does not seem to fit neatly into the paradigm of healing.

Today, I’m going to tell you about the interesting experience of a nurse, "Chris",  whom I mentioned in part one of this series,  Introducing EFT to Hospital Personnel  to explore what usefulness there may be for medical personnel who elect to use surrogate tapping for their patients.

Chris heard that the husband of one of the nurses who worked for the hospital had developed chest pain and experienced cardiac arrest. His condition was obviously critical and in order to save his life, the medical team had to "code" him (take extreme emergency measures for him) for one and half hours before he could be moved to the Intensive Care Unit.

When he arrived there his life was still in danger. He was on a ventilator and after several days, he developed severe respiratory distress and his chances of survival through the night were estimated at 50-50.

Chris had known this patient, "John", as a very likeable man of 58 years who had diligently been trying to improve his health after an earlier heart attack. He was on her mind during that evening when, at home, she happened to be watching Gary Craig's Ultimate Therapist videos, the very portion, in fact, where William Tiller was discussing surrogate tapping and "non-local" experiences.

As she heard him talk, Chris decided that there was nothing to lose by tapping for John who was still in critical condition in the hospital. She did this by tapping on herself as though she were John and used such sentences as:

"Even though my lungs are white, I choose to have the oxygen readily get to my tissues."

Or,

"Even though my alveoli are filled with fluid, I choose to have oxygen flow through them easily to my tissues."

"Even though I’m fighting the tube in my throat, I deeply and completely accept myself, and I choose to let it be OK."

You will notice that the wording she used was very specific and the concepts very clear. She wanted to address specific medical issues and being a nurse was able to do so in a very precise manner.

The next morning when she arrived at the hospital she immediately inquired about John and was told by a staff member that he had taken a surprising turn for the better the evening before, although they were now concerned because his urine output was very poor and this was endangering him.

Chris now surrogate-tapped for the flow of urine to open up, and then went up to his bedside. She spoke with his wife and told her about the tapping she had done the night before, and that she had just tapped for the urine output. (The wife had used EFT with Chris in the past for a traumatic event.) The wife stated that he had just started to put out urine. When Chris returned to her department, she got a call from John’s wife saying that now he was pouring out urine and his blood pressure was dropping. "Tap for his blood pressure" she said.

Chris then tapped for his blood pressure to rise again, specifically directing the body to accomplish this. Within a matter of 15 minutes, his blood pressure had gone up 10 points and Chris returned to the wife in ICU and taught her how to surrogate tap for John. Both Chris and the wife then tapped together for him.

The first thing they tapped on was "Even though I'm not getting circulation in my fingers, I choose to have my blood flow naturally and easily into my hands and fingers." As they tapped for this, John’s hands became so hot that another nurse thought that he had a fever. He did not; it was simply the return of the circulation. The rest of his arms were normal temperature.

Following this incident the word spread throughout the hospital floor and more nurses became interested in learning how to use EFT.

John recovered, returned home, and is doing well. Chris has since taught other nurses how to surrogate tap for their patients who are too ill to do this for themselves.

What does this indicate about the potential of surrogate tapping within the hospital setting?

First, it provides an additional avenue by which a nurse or other medical attendant can actively assist in the healing process for the patient under their care, and do so simply and with minimal training. It also provides an avenue by which the very seriously ill or comatose patient can be helped even though they are unable to tap or even to conceive of tapping because they are in such a critical condition. This would be an important plus for emergency health-care.

It is not inconceivable that surrogate tapping could become an approved team procedure for critical or seriously ill patients, giving the medical personnel medical and nursing personnel a sense of empowerment. A sense of futility with regard to what one can do to help a patient is one of the most frequent causes of burnout in medical personnel.

Another advantage, evident in the example given above, is that knowledgeable medical personnel can target the desired outcome in the very precise manner that even the patient themselves, were they conscious, might not be able to do. This is consistent with Gary Craig's admonition to be as specific as possible in pinpointing the difficulties involved in any medical condition –– here we simply extend the specificity to the outcome portion of the set-up phrase as well as the initial statement of the problem. Both need to be stated in very precise terms for greatest effect.

Chris agrees with me that surrogate tapping might be far more acceptable to many nurses than one might suspect. Although she has been pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of EFT by the staff, it is possible that surrogate tapping might be less readily accepted. Often the way we introduce something is crucial in terms of its acceptance. For some, introducing surrogate tapping as a simple form of nondenominational distant prayer might be the bridge that Gary Craig talks about to gaining acceptance. I believe that distant prayer and the study of this, as written about by such investigators as Dr. Larry Dossey, may have helped pave the way for surrogate tapping within medical settings.

However, some staff may want to get consent from the patient or their family before using surrogate tapping. There has been some controversy concerning healing prayer as to whether or not one must obtain a person’s consent before praying for that person’s recovery. Gary Craig has, however, persuasively argued that a recipient of surrogate tapping is not open to healing unless he/she "wants it", whether this be on a conscious or subconscious level. In other words, one cannot force healing upon a person. I would concur with this. However, some permission procedure may have to be instituted in certain hospital settings for legal reasons.

EFT Master, Dr. Patricia Carrington