The Historical Lessons of
Galileo & Christian EFT
Here we go again! Will
we ever learn?
The year was 1633 and Galileo, the famed Italian astronomer,
began his Church-imposed house arrest because he refused to step down from his
heliocentric viewpoint that the earth revolved around the sun (heliocentrism).
For centuries, astronomers had proposed such a theory but no
one could prove heliocentrism because of the ineffectiveness of the observation
equipment of those early years – after all, observatories and telescopes hadn’t
yet been invented.
Few understood the vast distances that comprised the space
between the celestial bodies within the galaxies. This disbelief impeded the
entire underpinning of the theory. To
make the sun the center of what we now know as the Milky Way Galaxy, stars had
to be much greater distances apart than anyone could possibly fathom in those
times to make this heliocentric theory viable. In that era, most people never traveled
more than 5 miles from the center of their own village.
Earlier still, Aristotle had believed in geocentrism,
meaning the sun, moon, and planets all revolved around the earth. Others added related
ideas and, overall, not much had changed regarding celestial observations
continued until the 13th century when Thomas Aquinas helped the
Church adopt these geocentric theories. Aquinas
called the universe “God-ordained and man-centered” and the Church expounded the
glory of God based on how the sky looked with our earth the center of the known
universe. Geocentrism was now an officially sanctioned Church theory.
However, in the 15th century, Nicholas Copernicus
made a study of the nighttime sky, discussing ways to understand and update all
the old theories of just how the universe really did work with the aid of his
university professor. While many of Copernicus’s theories in the end proved incorrect,
he did finally understand that God’s universe was indeed heliocentric, meaning
the planets revolved around the much- larger sun, pushing our now-little earth
out of the center of it all. It was still just a theory though.
Once the telescope was invented in the early 17th
century, science began to really kick into gear. Things never before seen
literally came into focus!
In the end however it all led to Galileo finding himself
under Church house arrest for advancing the theory of heliocentrism. Some say the Church hierarchy was upset
because Galileo expounded the theory as truth vs. theory since astronomy still
had a long way to go to prove what exactly was going on in that vast night sky.
Other authorities claim the Church was angered because Galileo couldn’t prove
his theory Biblically.
And of course we know that in due course Galileo’s
pioneering theories were fully validated, and he’s now known as the “father of
science” and, alternately, the “father of astronomy” (as well as physics).
Today, we are faced with a scientific revolution with more
practical applications embodying the similarly “un-seeable” Emotional Freedom
Techniques (EFT) -- and once again, the Church risks being on the wrong side of
groundbreaking science. John Polkinghorne, a British physicist turned Anglican
priest whose discoveries have sparked a revolution in quantum physics, says
that religion -- referring to Christianity -- and science are not at
odds with each other, but simply hold views resulting from the different prism
they each view the world through, and he expounds these viewpoints in over a
dozen or so books he’s written on science and religion.
As a devout follower of Jesus who’s spent more than four
decades in the medical trenches (and I also admittedly read quantum physics
“for fun”), it is refreshing to hear someone who has lived in both camps
explain how neither viewpoint is mutually exclusive and that an amalgam of both
disciplines needs be incorporated into our life if we are to experience the
most comprehensive degree of truth during our sojourn on this planet.
In my experience during the past 5 years, I have heard
little from Christianity but argument and rebuttal against EFT -- the arguments
varying from “that is simply New Age stuff” to “EFT is from satan” (lower case
intentional!), to “that looks too weird and surely you cannot expect something
so simple to actually work.”
EFT has deep seated,
in-depth scientific underpinnings, with now hundreds of scientific studies
under its belt completed by major universities around the world, and yet few
Christians are taking the time to learn about this new healing resource and how
it works.
So the question looms….are we, the Church, once again “pulling
a Galileo?” Are we dismissing a scientific discovery because it requires too
much effort to understand, or we’re too busy to be bothered, or we think it is earthly
science once again trying to pull the wool over our heavenly Christian eyes?
I don’t know the answer just yet to this question, but it
would surely be a tragedy if the Church again, a second time, stuck its head in
the sand and ignored what has the potential to change history as we know it –
both scientifically and theologically.
Jesus told us that greater things would we do than He did
saying , “Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever believes in me will
also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 15:20).
EFT has a huge
capacity for healing, both emotionally and physically. Its other hallmark is almost always that healing
forgiveness flows in like a river during and after a session, resulting in a
restoration to one’s very soul!
Jesus’ main
teaching, as outlined in the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34)
was love. Forgiveness must come before love can enter in any damaged
relationship. We are all called into communion with each other. We are
relational beings. God comes first; neighbor comes second; we are last. EFT
repairs the vertical relationship with our God through a thorough clearing of
old condemnations our subconscious is stuck on that are causing us to feel
separated from Him, allowing us to then more fully confess and repent of our
sins, releasing blessed restoration. Many of our negative emotions are rooted
in sin and these emerge and are readily dealt
with while tapping. Once we are right with God, God repairs the relationship
with our family and friends through the tapping process and its unique and
gentle-but-effective power to root out and deliver us from these subconscious
blocks of ours.
EFT fits Christianity
like a glove! Everything it proposes and claims to do are in direct line with
Scripture and all of Jesus’ teaching to us to do good and to love one another.
There is nothing within EFT that is anathema to Christianity -- and here I mean
Christian EFT teaches that God heals and He receives all the glory and honor
and praise for that healing. In fact, Christian EFT supports a right to healing
delivered straight from our Lord Jesus!
Speaking as a
fellow American, the Church in this country has no need for purchasing worn, second-
hand shoes or day-old bread most of the time (obviously Jesus told us the poor
would always be with us, and there are some who do truly need these resources –
Mark 14:7), but all American Christians DO need stress relief. Our exhausting,
uber- connected digital age has resulted in us being overburdened by our goods as well as altogether
too many activities and perceived obligations.
And EFT is the
answer to this overburdening. It is a tool that will keep us healthy and
working for the Kingdom until the moment Jesus takes us home to heaven with
Him.
The New Age world
has claimed EFT as its own, but beyond the science involved, they give the
credit for the resulting healing to themselves or “the universe.” As Christians,
we know there is instead only one Healer -- He is the Almighty God, King of the
Universe, our Creator, our Savior, and our Advocate. Jesus made restoring the
sick one of His prime attention- getting activities during His earthly ministry
– after all, people snapped to attention
when He performed His miraculous healings!
In these latter
days, God has delivered to us a tool to wake up this world to the realities of
an amazing God who really wants to be intimately involved in a relationship
with us. It is time we Christians take EFT back from the enemy’s camp, adopting
it into the Church where it originated from the beginning of time with our
Savior God, the One who made our bodies, including the unique aspects of our physiology
that respond to EFT’s gentle techniques (“…for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalm
139:14).
In 1992, Pope
John Paul II formally acknowledged in a speech that the Church had erred in
condemning Galileo for his assertion that heliocentrism was how God created the
universe. Gosh, it “only” took Rome 359 years to catch up to by-then
long-established science!
Please join me in
praying that the Church in some fashion or manner awakens to what God has now handed
us. EFT is an amazing 21st century tool for the healing of God’s
people. It will change how we minister as it will also change how we evangelize.
Fellow Believers, let’s not make another decades (or centuries!) too-late
mistake!
Remember, to take full responsibilty for your emotional health.
Contact me at EFTforChristians@gmail.com to make an appointment to tap!
by Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)
Certified EFT Practitioner
Author of EFT for Christians (2015)
EFTforChristians.com
