Michelle: A single session. That’s what it took to eliminate PTSD symptoms in 47 out of 50 Rwandan genocide orphans. Not months of therapy, but one session of a strange-looking technique. It sounds impossible, but it’s at the heart of the book we’re talking about today. Mark: Whoa, hold on. That sounds like a miracle, not therapy. Forty-seven out of fifty? What book is possibly making a claim that bold? Michelle: It's called Tapping: Self-Healing with the Transformative Power of Energy Psychology by David Feinstein and Donna Eden. And what makes this so fascinating is the authors themselves. You have Feinstein, a clinical psychologist with a background from Johns Hopkins, and Eden, a world-renowned energy healer who has been a pioneer in this field for decades. Mark: Okay, so a scientist and a healer. That's an unusual team. It feels like they're trying to bridge two worlds that usually don't even make eye contact. Michelle: Exactly. And they've been collaborating since 1977, trying to build that very bridge. Their whole premise is that you can use a simple physical technique to directly intervene in your brain's emotional wiring. Mark: You mean like a brain hack? Michelle: Precisely. It all comes down to this core idea of hacking your own brain's alarm system.

Mark: I'm intrigued and very skeptical. 'Hacking your brain' sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. What is 'tapping,' and how does it supposedly work? Michelle: It’s surprisingly simple. The technique, often called EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques, involves physically tapping with your fingertips on specific points on your body—mostly on the face and upper body—while you focus mentally on a problem or a distressing feeling. Mark: So you’re thinking about something stressful while… poking yourself in the face? Michelle: That’s the witty summary, yes. But here’s the key: those points are acupressure points, the same ones used in acupuncture for thousands of years. The theory is that when you’re stressed or thinking of a traumatic memory, your amygdala—the brain's little alarm system—goes into overdrive. It's screaming "DANGER!" Mark: Right, the fight-or-flight response. I know that feeling. Michelle: Exactly. But by tapping on these specific points, you send a calming signal directly to the amygdala. It’s like you’re manually telling the alarm system, "Hey, it's okay. We're not actually being chased by a tiger right now." It interrupts the panic signal and allows your brain to re-file the memory or the feeling without the intense emotional charge. It’s like rebooting a computer that’s frozen in panic mode. Mark: Okay, but come on. How is that different from a placebo? Or just a simple distraction? If I’m tapping on my forehead, of course I’m distracted from my anxiety. Michelle: That is the million-dollar question, and it's what makes Feinstein's involvement so critical. He brings the science to back it up. They cite over 175 peer-reviewed studies in the book. For example, studies using fMRI scans show that tapping actually changes the brain's activity. It quiets the amygdala and activates the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for logic and problem-solving. Mark: So you can actually see it working on a brain scan? Michelle: Yes. And it's not just in the brain. Other studies have shown that after just one hour of tapping, subjects' cortisol levels—that’s the main stress hormone—dropped by an average of 24%, and in some cases over 40%. That's a measurable, physiological change. It’s not just a feeling; it's a biological event. Mark: Huh. So the 'energy psychology' part isn't just about vibes and auras, then. It's about the body's actual electrical and chemical systems. Michelle: That's the argument. The book explains that our bodies are fundamentally electrical. Every cell is like a tiny battery. Tapping generates a small electrical charge—a piezoelectric effect—that travels through our connective tissue, sending that "all clear" signal to the brain. It’s where ancient wisdom about meridians meets modern neuroscience. Mark: That’s a much more solid explanation than I was expecting. But the claims are still huge. That story you opened with, about the Rwandan orphans… that’s not just about managing daily stress. That's about healing one of the worst traumas imaginable. Michelle: It is. And that’s where you see the true power of this technique. It’s not just for calming down before a big meeting. It’s for rewriting the deepest emotional wounds.

Mark: Okay, I have to hear this story. Walk me through it, because it still sounds unbelievable. How did they use this technique with children who had been through a genocide? Michelle: It’s a story from Chapter 4, and it’s incredibly powerful. In 2006, a team of psychologists, including one of the investigators, went to an orphanage in Rwanda. The children there, now adolescents, had survived the 1994 genocide. Many had witnessed their parents being murdered. Twelve years later, they were still suffering from severe PTSD—flashbacks, nightmares, deep depression. Mark: I can't even imagine. Michelle: The book focuses on one 15-year-old girl. For twelve years, she was haunted by the memory of seeing her father killed with a machete. She couldn't sleep, she had constant flashbacks. The therapists, through a translator, asked her to bring that memory to mind. As you can imagine, she started sobbing uncontrollably. Mark: Of course. That sounds re-traumatizing. Michelle: But then they had her start tapping. And within just a few minutes, the sobbing stopped. She looked up, and for the first time, she started talking about a happy memory of her father. She remembered him sneaking her sweet fruits when her mother wasn't looking. And she laughed. A real, wholehearted laugh. Mark: Wait. From sobbing about his murder to laughing about a happy memory, in minutes? Michelle: Yes. The tapping had disconnected the terror from the memory of her father. It allowed her to access the love without the horror. A year later, they did a follow-up. With no other treatment, her PTSD symptoms were gone. And this was the case for 47 of the 50 children they treated. Mark: That's... I don't even have words for that. It’s one of the most hopeful things I’ve ever heard. To go from that level of trauma to peace in one session is just staggering. But this is what I don't get. The book also talks about using this for... sports? That feels like a completely different universe. How does healing genocide trauma connect to a baseball player hitting a home run? Michelle: Because it's the exact same mechanism, just applied to a different problem. It's about turning off the body's stress response. For the orphan, the trigger was a horrific, traumatic memory. For an athlete, the trigger is performance anxiety—the fear of failure, the inner critic screaming, "Don't mess this up!" Mark: The 'what if I fail' voice. Michelle: Exactly. That voice triggers the same amygdala alarm. The book tells the story of the Oregon State University baseball team. They were good, but they kept choking in the big moments. A sports performance trainer introduced them to tapping. Soon, players were seen tapping in the dugout between innings to calm their nerves and shut down the pressure. Mark: And did it work? Michelle: They won the College World Series that year. And then they won it again the next year. The coach said tapping was "another piece to the championship puzzle." It helped them get out of their own heads and just play. Mark: Wow. So from trauma to championships. It’s all about quieting that internal alarm, no matter what set it off. Michelle: That's the core idea. Whether the threat is a memory of a machete or the fear of striking out in front of 20,000 people, the body's panic response is the same. And tapping is presented as the manual override.

Mark: So whether it's a huge trauma or a high-stakes moment, the root is the same: an overactive fear response. And tapping is the tool to calm it down. Michelle: Exactly. I think the book's most profound insight is that many of our limitations—our anxieties, our bad habits, our creative blocks—aren't failures of logic or willpower. They're glitches in our body's ancient survival wiring. We can't think our way out of a panic response because the logical part of our brain has gone offline. Mark: Right, the alarm is too loud. Michelle: But we might be able to tap our way out. The book suggests that by using our own hands, we can physically intervene in that neurological process. It puts the power to regulate our own nervous system, quite literally, at our fingertips. Mark: That’s incredibly empowering. So for someone listening right now who feels overwhelmed or stuck in a pattern of worry, what's one simple thing they could try from this book? Michelle: There's a very simple and effective point they mention often. It's the collarbone point. You can find it by going to the U-shaped notch at the base of your throat, then move down an inch and over an inch to either side. Tapping there with the fingertips of one hand while taking a few deep breaths can be incredibly grounding. Mark: Just tapping on that spot? Michelle: Yes. While you're tapping, you can say a simple phrase like, "Even though I feel this anxiety, I accept myself." The book shows that this combination of physical stimulation and self-acceptance is a powerful first step. Michelle: It really makes you wonder, what 'glitches' are running in your own background, and what could you achieve if you could just hit reset? Mark: A powerful question to end on. Michelle: This is Aibrary, signing off.