For some of you, high school was the happiest time of your life. For some of us, perhaps many of us, it was the unhappiest. I want to talk to you briefly about my journey from darkness into the light.

During the first week of fourth grade at Blackhawk School, I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever and was home-schooled by Mrs. Oblander.

In fifth grade, I was sent to Empire School's special education class. We were the most severely ill and injured from all grades in the Freeport school district. There were seven of us in this class; only two of us survived past age 20, and one died during the school year.

Rheumatic Fever is a heart disease. I developed a heart murmur, and was held out of gym class throughout junior and senior high schools.

I developed what I now believe is Tourette's Syndrome, though it went undiagnosed and mostly untreated at the time.

By seventh grade I was severely depressed and suicidal.

My parents sent me to a series of doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists. One of the psychiatrists put me on anti-depressant medication, also known as downers. I went through all of my junior and senior high school years drugged out.

A month into my second semester at Freeport Community College, I dropped out. I gave up on the system of education, doctors and prescription medicine, and began a decades-long journey towards health.

Each decade since then has brought its health challenges.

When I was 45, I had a revelation that I was to "follow the healing path". My wife and I both quit good jobs and moved from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Eugene, Oregon, where we still reside.

I went to massage school to learn about the human body.

In 1995, I became a Licensed Massage Therapist. I am certified in Jin Shin Do acupressure, and I am a Reiki Master. I was looking for the pieces of the healing puzzle, and each technique completed a part of the puzzle.

I spent two years and a half years researching and writing Biblical Aromatherapy, a book about the healing qualities of aromatic plants mentioned in the Bible.

There are about 230 plants mentioned by name in the Bible, and 24 of them are aromatic plants used in aromatherapy for healing. When aromatic plants are distilled, they leave an essential oil.

I wrote about those 24 aromatic plants, how they were used in Biblical days for healing and how to use them now for healing.

Aromatherapy is an important part of the healing puzzle.

I continued to take classes throughout the years, trying to find the "magic bullet" that will cure everything. Last year I found it. It's called Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT.

In 1985, a California psychologist, Dr. Roger Callahan, had a client named Mary who had a phobia about water. She could not even put her face over a basin of water without getting panic attacks.

She mentioned to him that she would get a feeling in the pit of her stomach when she was around water.

Dr. Callahan had been studying acupuncture and remembered that the stomach meridian starts in one of the toes, works its way up the body, goes through the stomach, and ends just under the eye.

Not knowing what he was doing, he asked for permission to touch her. Mary agreed, and he began tapping the end point of the stomach meridian. After about 10 seconds, she jumped up, exclaimed, "It's gone!", went outside, knelt by his swimming pool, and splashed water in her face. Now, 21 years later, Mary still has no symptoms of water phobia.

Dr. Callahan knew he was onto something. He experimented with all of his clients.

Different symptoms were relieved by different tapping points. He began teaching his method.

One of his students was Gary Craig, a life coach in California. Gary looked at Dr. Callahan's system, simplified it, made it easy for anyone to use, and called it Emotional Freedom Techiques. I learned the technique from Gary Craig, and have adapted it to my skills.

"The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system." Our illnesses, injuries and ailments are caused by emotional disruptions.

When our body's energy is blocked, the physical body suffers and our emotions are no longer healthy.

EFT is simply tapping on acupressure points to provide relief for a wide range of emotional and physical symptoms.

EFT can help you to overcome the mental challenges of your daily activities.

EFT is gentle. Substantial relief is often achieved with little or no pain. 80% of my clients achieve noticeable improvement or complete relief from their problems in one session.

Whether you have insomnia or panic attacks, depression or phobias, addictions or anger, anorexia or bulimia, fibromyalgia
or headaches, jet lag or love pain, EFT can work for you.

It is simple and effective. You think about a stressful or traumatic event from your past, or a physical symptom you have right now, while tapping on the end points of the major meridians. The tapping jars the meridian when the mind is aware of the event or symptom, and the blockage or disturbance of the energy system dissolves.

Thoughts and memories of past traumas melt away and no longer seem as important. There are no drugs. There is no hypnosis. It is usually pain-free. And I can teach you how to do it in just a few minutes!

I want to offer this to all of my classmates and their spouses, everyone here.

For anyone who would like to try it for any condition, I will teach you.

Thank you.