Psychology | Health Articles | Psychological Reversal

Do you ever find yourself saying right when you mean left? Or constantly typing two letters in a word the wrong way round? Do you even suffer from a chronically grumpy mood, keep putting things off and generally indulge in self-sabotaging behaviour?

If so then you are probably suffering from a condition called Psychological Reversal (PR) which can be treated very simply.

What is Psychological Reversal?

In 1980 top American psychologist Dr Roger Callahan invented a new treatment for psychological problems called Thought Field Therapy (TFT). TFT works rather like acupuncture by stimulating the body's energy meridians. However no needles are used. Instead the patient finger taps on various parts of the body. The results are amazing as emotional problems frequently disappear in minutes.

The year before Dr Callahan invented TFT he had made a curious discovery. He knew that about 40% of his patients were very hard to treat. Eventually he realised that they were suffering from a condition which he termed psychological reversal (PR) in which the electrical polarity of the body's energy meridian system is reversed.

While in this reversed state many treatments (not just TFT) are ineffective. A good analogy is a battery -powered torch. Put the batteries in the wrong way and what happens - nothing! Callahan had discovered a fascinating aspect of nature that had never been recorded before.

However to begin with he had no idea how to treat it. Then, after months of research and experimentation he discovered that psychological reversal could be corrected by tapping on the side of the hand a few times. More persistent cases of psychological reversal (what is known as recurrent reversal) can be treated by rubbing an area he termed the "sore spot", below the left collarbone, in a circular motion.

Features of the PR State.

Every person in the world goes into the PR state from time to time - it is a universal experience. The key signs of the PR state are quite interesting namely a reversal of concepts - people will say "left" when they mean "right" and vice versa or they will type two letters in a word the wrong way round.

Interestingly this "reversal of concepts" is always a 180-degree shift. So people will say "North" when they mean "South" (but not "East" when they mean "North").

Another curious feature of these PR - induced mistakes is that people usually have no conscious awareness of their error.

Types of PR.

PR can be very specific. For example a person can be reversed while thinking about computers "I have a mental block about computers" but not reversed about other areas of their life. Some people have what is known as "massive reversal" in which they are reversed while thinking about most areas of their life. Such individuals are characterised by a negative, grumpy, self-sabotaging mood and are prone to procrastination and self-destructive behaviour. Alcoholics, drug addicts and heavy smokers undoubtedly suffer from massive psychological reversal.

Implications of PR.

Psychological Reversal can have serious implications. For example there have been a number of air crashes in which a pilot, faced with an engine failure in a twin-engined aircraft, shut down the "good" engine by mistake. One can also imagine the horrendous implications if an air traffic controller was reversed and told a pilot to go "up" when he meant to say "down".

There is also evidence that PR can prevent healing. For some decades orthopaedic surgeons have known that some bone fractures refuse to heal and that, in some cases, the healing can be stimulated by applying an electric current across the site of the fracture,. Undoubtedly this works by correcting the reversal of electrical polarity caused by PR.

In another case reported in the USA, a woman successfully treated a dental abcess which would not heal by thinking about the abcess while she tapped the side of her hand. Within hours the abcess started to heal.

Causes of PR.

As indicated earlier everyone in the world goes into the PR state from time to time and the effects are usually harmless. In cases of massive and recurrent PR (PR which keeps coming back despite treatment) inhaled and ingested toxins are usually responsible. Inhaled toxins can be things like perfume, aftershave and laundry liquid. Ingested toxins can be certain food substances like wheat, corn, milk and eggs which in some individuals have adverse effects including psychological reversal.

Such individuals are not usually helped by the simple PR treatments described earlier and require treatment from a trained TFT practitioner, who can identify the toxins that are causing the problem.