The History and Background of EFT
Introduction
Emotional Freedom Technique is an exciting new Energy Psychology which has developed over the last two decades, based on the ancient Chinese Meridian Energy system. Here we look at the historical origins of these therapies in order to see their roots and to see them in the true perspective of the thousands of years of development that lies behind them.
Acupuncture & Shiatsu
All energy therapies can trace their earliest origins to acupressure and shiatsu, therapies which developed independently but alongside each other in China and Japan respectively. However, similar therapeutic concepts can be traced in many parts of the world, which are equally as old or older than the Chinese / Japanese therapies.
There is evidence of acupuncture like treatment carried out by groups as far apart as the Bantu in Africa and the Eskimo in the Arctic, but these are difficult to date. The earliest well-dated instance seem to be a mummified body found in the Alps in 1991. The body was discovered preserved in a glacier in the Alpine Oetz valley between Austria and Italy. The corpse has been reliably dated to about 3200 BC, and it carries 15 groups of tattoos on areas which can be identified with acupoints corresponding to arthritic pain, which this man had certainly suffered in life.
Early Development in China
Acupuncture is usually considered as a Chinese therapy and the Chinese have a continuous history of acupuncture from at least 1000BC to today.
Between 475 and 221 BC the therapy was consolidated and written into a book known as "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine" ("Huangdi Nei Jing"), which describes the meridians in a way still recognisable today. It described the use of metal needles, but it is clear that sharp stones and splinters of bamboo had been used much earlier. Development continues in an orderly way and about 400 AD a further book appeared called "A Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion" (" Zhen JiuJia Yi Jing"), which described the acupoints and meridians in detail and in such a way that it could still be       

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