BASIC BSFF STRATEGIES Part 2 By Larry P. Nims, Ph.D.

Here are some of my responses to various email queries from several people. They are each about ways I work with clients, but they apply equally well to self-treatment. Some of the topics may seem redundant, but I believe they will give you some additional understandings about the most effective use of BSFF. I encourage you to join Don Elium and me in BSFF training seminars for more information about how to use BSFF effectively. Also, if you don’t have a copy of the BSFF DVD Training SET, get it. It will help you enormously.

1. We can do muscle testing for any point in time in the person’s life. We can simply test for “this happened before age ___” or any time we wish.

After a treatment, we can also test retroactively to confirm a change in the symptom or problem. I use statements such as, “We are testing for five minutes ago,” or, “We are testing for just before we treated this problem.” I then construct the test statement and test for before, and then for “present time.”

I can use a statement for any time that preceded the treatment, even years ago. Consistently, the test will show that the problem was operating before treatment. Then i test for “present time” and, of course, the problem tests that it no longer exists. That’s fun.

When a client perceives the significance of the pre and post testing, s/he recognizes that something quite profound really did happen with the treatment. I do this testing from time to time with my clients, whenever I think they might need reassurance that treatments are really effectual. For some of their life issues it really stretches their ability to trust what they are accomplishing so easily, rapidly and gently. This is especially helpful for people who may not consciously experience a felt shift in their mind, emotions, or body.

Testing for how the person was responding previously can be useful for identifying subconscious problems and to help clients realize that their motivations weren’t so bad after all. They feel better when they understand that they were programmed this way without their conscious awareness or permission--long before they could do anything about it. Now, after treatment, they have a choice about how to freely to respond, instead of just automatically reacting I frequently remind them of this fact.

This information is especially therapeutic when the client is feeling guilty, ashamed or defeated about something. We still need to treat the guilt, shame, or helplessness, or whatever else may be causing them distress or limitations.

 

2. The pre and post testing procedure has many other uses as well, such as for “uncovering” work, i.e., testing to uncover past events and experiences. I use it only when I feel it will be helpful and safe for the client and after I have carefully confirmed that the client is ready to deal with such information. If they ask, “Was I molested?” I am going to quiz them verbally and muscle test until I am sure that they are really ready and willing to know the answer to such a question and to do the necessary treatment that may be needed.

This type of caution about entering into uncovering work is especially important when dealing with highly sensitive issues that could leave the person feeling overwhelmed or excessively uncomfortable. Also, I would not start dong such testing near the end of a session. It is important to have plenty of time thoroughly to treat such issues before the session time is up.

I call the process of uncovering subconscious information “precision diagnosis” and it leads naturally to “precision therapy.” I used to do exploratory work using the binary “Twenty Questions” approach. That is, I would start with broad test statements that can only get a positive or negative response.

For example, a test statement might be “I was molested before age 15.” Or, “This happened between my age of five and ten.” Then, step-by-step, I gradually narrow down the range of time, or the type of experience, based on the test result, until I get to the precise result that tells me exactly what is going on or when it occurred in that specific situation. I recommend it to you as an aid with clients and with your self-treatment. This has really sharpened my confidence and accuracy in my intuition. It will for you, too.

Such precision diagnosis testing can be done with each of the possible symptoms in the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association). This is a useful way to help confirm possible diagnoses, which, for non-licensed laypersons, is a good way to help determine when a client should be referred out to a licensed clinician.

 

3. I routinely use surrogate muscle testing to screen possible problems to treat. With the client’s permission, I do this before I muscle test the client. I screen out irrelevant possibilities for what to treat. I frequently know exactly what needs to be treated and I confirm it by testing on the client.

 

4. Sometimes I will pointedly muscle test someone for something that I have already gotten a negative surrogate test on to show that they are not having a particular negative attitude or problem. This can be very reassuring to a person if they think they might have had wrong motives, or done something awful in the past. They sure like that assurance and encouragement.

For example, I might find that they are not (or no longer) being spiteful, hostile or holding bad attitudes or emotions toward someone. Then, I will have fun by telling them “Boy, you sure did miss that great opportunity, didn’t you?” This helps lighten some pretty heavy sessions sometimes.

Surrogate testing allows more efficiency in completing treatment for each individual issue, rather than just treating anything and everything we can think of that might be contributing to the “presenting problem” at hand.

It is now unusual for me to get a weak muscle test when testing whether or not the person has some specific problem. I believe I have been blessed to develop this intuitive gift and I do not take all the credit for myself. I recognize and know the source is my Creator. I enjoy having fun with it because I love practical skill, and efficiency, and I love helping people to BE SET FREE FAST so easily.

NOTE: There is much advocacy by some other energy psychology practitioners to do surrogate treatment. I want to make it clear that I think there are some very important ethical issues about doing such practices. This is especially true when the person being treated surrogately has not given “informed consent” to such surrogate treatment.

Informed consent means the person is first told what I will be doing, what specific problems/issues I will be treating and what positive and negative effects such treatment may have. The only exception to this is when a parent or legal guardian of a minor child is doing surrogate treatment for that child.

A common rationale given for doing surrogate treatment is that it is no different from praying for someone. I strongly disagree. Prayer refers to calling on an outside “higher power” to bring about a change. It involves yielding my will to the will of that higher power, rather than relying on my own energy and intention to create a change in the other person. Surrogate treatment involves invading another person’s subconscious mind to bring about a change in that person’s experience and/or behavior.

I believe, and my testing and my extensive experience confirm that it is the subconscious mind that is the agent of change within the person. I am convinced that the subconscious controls all of the energy systems of the person, including the meridians.

Years ago, at an energy psychology conference (ACEP annual conference), I was hooked up to a computer that measured the balance of my meridians. I had two meridians out of balance on the first measurement (which was printed out from the computer). I then used my BSFF cue once. My meridians were nearer to balance, but not completely. I then used my cue once more and my meridians were fully balance. I did nothing but use my cue twice to correct my meridian imbalance (no other words or actions were involved).This change was witnessed by others.

Therefore, I believe that we need to be very cautious and ethical in how, when, and with whom we use surrogate treatment.

 

5. Again, it is very important to recognize that the subconscious mind is very precise and very literal. It will respond to exactly what the words in the test statement mean to it, no matter what the counselor’s or the client’s conscious mind might think those words mean. Therefore, whether you get a strong or a weak test, you could change the wording only slightly and get a quite different test result. Watch out for this possibility.

Our mind is an awesome mechanism, isn’t it? Remember, the subconscious mind is not our friend or our foe. At each specific moment, it is merely doing--very dependably, precisely and thoroughly--exactly what it has been programmed to do.

 

6. Something else of interest: I have found that when a person is distressed about a relationship in which they perceive they have been violated or mistreated in some way, they will test as both angry and afraid of the person they believe has hurt them.

Formally, I treated these anger and fear reactions as separate problems. That was fine, and it worked effectively. But, years ago learned that, whenever these two emotions are going on simultaneously, there is probably a “hurt” or a “deep hurt” behind them.

I test and treat for the “deep hurt” or “hurt” so that both the anger and fear are simultaneously eliminated along with the hurt, without ever directly needing to address or treat the related anger and fear. This procedure eliminates the need for doing two more treatments and a few seconds of treatment time. No big deal, but kind of fun.

Do keep in mind that there can be additional angers or fears without hurt, too. And, there can be hurt and not deep hurt. Just test for and treat other angers and fears as needed. In addition, be sure to have the client treat to forgive each offender for all perceived hurts and for causing other angers and fears.

NOTE: That many times there are also feelings of betrayal, rage, sadness, sorrow, doubt, despair, disappointment, discouragement, desolation, devastation, abandonment, dread, dismay, dejection, depression, anguish, resentment, loneliness, bitterness, rejection, outrage, loss, feeling alone, helplessness, hopelessness, frustration, persecution, and other emotional content in varied combinations.

Each of these emotional reactions and other relationship problems or issues must also be treated. However, often, many of them can be treated in one treatment for the whole bunch. Each will typically be eliminated with a single BSFF treatment. Occasionally two or three treatments are necessary for some seemingly straightforward problem, which means it is really and issue and not a single problem.

 

7. It is virtually universal for people to be angry with themselves for each problem they have treated, for allowing it to happen, or for not handling their problem better. They are often angry with other people about causing themselves to have some problems, too.

The person may also be angry with God or others for allowing their problem to happen, for not protecting them, not being there, betraying and/or abandoning them, or not clearing up the problem sooner, etc. They may well have some of these same feelings about one or both parents, as well.

Typically, these problems are outside of their conscious awareness. Each of these foci of their anger and unforgiveness must be treated separately.

Anger usually produces judgment and criticism, which is very frequently accompanied by vengeful, and/or punitive, and/or other negative attitudes. These attitudes produce unforgiveness. So, it is essential to treat all anger problems toward everyone, and then treat the unforgiveness problem. Otherwise, the judgment and criticism (which come from twisting the anger into hostility) are still intact.

And, these negative attitudes will automatically set up the person subconsciously to recreate the anger-unforgiveness sequence—thereby recreating the original problem, often, almost immediately. If the client does not forgive everyone they believe to be responsible for the problem, s/he is essentially set up for the treated problem to rebuild.

It makes no difference whether that person did actually violate the client in some way. If the client perceives and believes that they were injured, they will have the same reactions as though the violation really did occur.

The frequency of returning problems dropped dramatically when I discovered, and started addressing this anger---judgment/criticism-unforgiveness causal sequence phenomenon about 17 years ago.

Due to the causal sequence of these issues, they must be treated in a specific order, i.e., first the hurt, (if present), then the anger, and then unforgiveness. And, or course, check for other angers toward each person where there was not also hurt. Fortunately, all of the judgment and criticism are usually eliminated with the treatment for anger, since these attitudes are a direct outgrowth of anger and are quite intertwined with each other. Then the unforgiveness needs to be treated.

 

8. It is rarely the case that unforgiveness disappears while the anger is being treated. It almost always remains to be treated after eliminating the related anger. Unforgiveness must be treated as a separate issue. I do that with a specific statement. That is why treating anger and unforgiveness toward self are the last two steps in the “Closing Sequence” at the end of each treatment session.

I often have to assure the clients that they do not have to believe the forgiveness statement at all for it to work. It always works. But, it will not last if the anger, judgment, criticism and related punitive or hurtful attitudes are not eliminated first. Also, unforgiveness is for the benefit of the person doing the forgiveness. See my article “The Terrible Cost of Unforgiveness” at www.besetfreefast.com for the “dirty dozen” awful consequences of holding our unforgiveness.

In addition, a person may have any combination of these angers and unforgiveness toward self or others, God, the world, or life. Every anger and every unforgiveness must be treated if the person is to BE SET FREE and expect to stay free. That is, treat each anger and then treat for the unforgiveness related to each anger.

However, a convenient therapeutic strategy is to treat all anger towards oneself collectively, as part of the “Closing Sequence” at the end of a session, rather then stopping to treat them individually as they appear during a treatment session. The same is true for all of the unforgiveness issues that a client may experience toward him or herself.

During a session, all of the angers and unforgiveness toward another individual person, toward God, toward life or toward the world can be treated collectively for each of these possibilities. Treating the collective anger issues toward others usually must be done for each individual separately. I typically have people treat these problems during the session, as they show up, rather than waiting until the end of the session.

This strategy of lumping together all of the angers is a simple way to improve efficiency of treatment. Nevertheless, I do sometimes treat an individual’s anger and unforgiveness toward self as it arises during a session (rather than waiting for the Closing Sequence) when I think it will be therapeutic for the client to address and recognize that particular problem right then. Doing so is often helpful for them to be clear of these negative feelings in order for them to access other related distresses surrounding the issue under treatment.

NOTE: Always finish with the treatment for al remaining untreated anger and unforgiveness towards self for the very last treatments in the Closing Sequence for any given session of BSFF treatments. It would not make sense to treat self-anger before all other angers and unforgiveness issues are treated.

Our therapeutic goal is to resolve all anger issues toward others and anger towards oneself for having the problem of “being angry at others.” If I treat another problem after eliminating all of the angers at myself up to that point, I will still have untreated anger and unforgiveness toward myself for the subsequent problem(s) that I just treated.

9. Later, when I evaluate that clients are receptive, I help them recognize that they, just like every other human being, are truly doing the very best that they can at any given moment—precisely because that is what has been programmed into their subconscious mind for that particular situation.

They are thinking, feeling, behaving (reacting) exactly that way, very reliably and consistently, to the very best of their ability. And, they will do so every time, under those exact triggering conditions, until the emotional roots and the belief systems that are in control have been eliminated. This is also true for everyone else. This often helps them to have a little more grace and compassion for their own “failings” and for those of others.

I sometimes tease my clients with a little humor about this. In an exaggerated manner I say, “Congratulations! You’re a good kid. You learned your lessons well, and you can be counted on to do what you were taught to do extremely well and reliably. You are almost as good at that as I was.”

That tends to lighten things a bit and take some of the edge off their self-rejection, guilt, shame or despair about having such problems. But, always be sure that such negative feelings are treated, too.

 

10. I also always caution my clients that accountability in relationships is still essential, as is our personal responsibility to clean up our acts, get ourselves healed, and be set free so we can live more lovingly and constructively with others and ourselves.

Nothing in what I’m saying here about anyone’s prior subconscious programming excuses them or their continued ill treatment or misbehavior of themselves or toward another person. We all need to “clean up our acts,” don’t we?

We all do ourselves more damage than we realize because of our personal programming. I strongly believe that we must all be accountable to get our own healing and to be the kind of person who makes only positive contributions to others and to life. Here are some other strategies to use with yourself or with others.

Finally, I trust that these ideas will be helpful to you. It is my joy to help you learn how, skillfully and completely, to set yourself and others free.

Warmly,

Larry

Copyright 2008, Larry P. Nims, Ph.D., Goodyear. Arizona, USA. All rights reserved.

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