The Historical Lessons of Galileo & Christian EFT

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 13^th 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 15^th 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 17^th 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 21^st 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