Imagine a grown man who, strangely enough, has no knowledge of medication. He has never heard of the stuff ever in his life. He's gotten sick before, and he would always find ways to cope until it passed - lots of juice, and bedrest, and so forth.
One day, he tells you he's sick - stuffed nose, headache, hacking cough.
You tell him, "Here's a bottle of penicillin pills. Take 1 pill every 8 hours for the next 10 days, and see how you feel."
He looks confused. "What are you talking about? I'm sick. I'll just wait and tough it out like I always do."
"Yeah, but what if you could get relief right now?"
"But that's ridiculous! That can't be done."
"Yes it can. Just take these pills like I said."
"How are these going to help?"
"You just swallow one every 8 hours, with a glass of water. You'll get relief fast."
"But that doesn't even make sense! Look, if you told me to massage my head to get rid of my headaches, I could believe that. If you gave me a nasal spray to clear my stuffed nose, that sounds reasonable. But this? It's going to go straight into my stomach, not the areas where I need help. That's just science!"
"It will break open in your stomach and the medicine gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Then it gets transmitted to every part of you that needs healing."
"How does it know which parts need healing?"
"The body knows where to send the medicine."
"Ha! You don't even know how it works yourself. You just explain with some vague story about the body's systems."
"I know it works."
"Really? How?"
"I've used it on myself in the past. I felt better quickly."
"Yeah, I get the same way. I drink some OJ, sleep a few hours, and I'm feeling a bit better. And I don't need any silly 'pill' to make me feel better."
"I don't mean a 'bit' better. I mean real, deep, powerful relief. Your nose clears. Your cough stops. Your headache is gone."
"Oh, you probably just tricked yourself into believing you're better. I distract myself with football on TV and I completely forget about being sick."
"I'm not talking about forgetting or distractions. Penicillin doesn't care whether you don't believe in it - it will still cure your diseases."
"Sounds like mumbo-jumbo to me."
"Look, just try it and tell me how you feel tomorrow."
"Ok, I'll humour you."
And the next day, "So how do you feel?"
"Great! I can breathe again, my head feels normal, and my cough is gone. I got a lot of sleep last night, and that did the trick."
"Sleep? What about the penicillin?"
"Oh yeah I took a few of those. You can them back." And he returns the bottle with 3 pills gone.
And you quietly put the bottle away, in case he's feeling sick again tomorrow.
****
This story came to me out of nowhere as I was trying to explain EFT to a friend. It really resonated with me, and I hope you like it.