"In the 1970s, I attended a few of Dr. Branden’s intensives on “Self-Esteem and the Art of Being.” In one exercise, he often asked participants to sit with someone they did not know and to say nothing, just look at the other person’s eyes for several minutes. Following this, participants were asked to share their thoughts with their partner.
" The person with whom I was paired was astonished when I told him he had been separated from his family for an extended period at a young age, and that this had been exceedingly painful for him. He was dumbfounded that someone could know something so important about his past without being told. He shared the information with the rest of the group. Similar stories were recounted with equal amazement by other participants.
"It was clear from the exercise that we are constantly receiving all kinds of information from those around us, if we choose to tune in and attend to it. Messages do not always have to be put into words. Obviously this does not amount to ‘proof’’ in any measurable scientific sense, but for me to pretend that the information was not there, in his eyes, would constitute an act of evasion.
"Dr. Branden strongly believes in the powers of awareness to enrich and transform our lives. It is a sad commentary on many so-called ‘Objectivists’ that they would prefer to shrink their capacity to know than risk being labeled a “mystic.”
"The fact that we cannot establish something in a scientific laboratory today (and I agree that as yet we cannot) does not mean that we must wait until that day comes before opening our eyes and ears to the evidence that is all around us."
When you partake in an experience of this kind, it opens your eyes to possibilities you might have been inclined to dismiss previously. Of course, the typical accusations of mysticism and charlatanism will now follow. If I cared about that, I would be the sort of person who puts something else ahead of my own perception of reality. Needless to say, I don't.
Energy Psychology is a radical new field of study, and--as with anything at such an early stage of development--the adherents run the gamut from serious investigators to snake oil salesmen. I happen to know that Dr. Branden, like a great number of therapists, is impressed with the remarkable therapeutic results of these fairly simple techniques. They are extremely simple to teach and help to resolve painful symptoms in patients where nothing else has worked. If a therapist is in business to help his patients, he would be foolish not to use techniques that are effective only because he does not understand the underlying psychological mechanisms.
Dr. Branden does not endorse the heavily mystical theorizing in which many energy psychologists like to indulge. You can access his brief article on this topic here.
Incidentally, it might interest Objectivists to know that one of the pioneers in the field of energy psychology is Dr. Roger Callahan, another psychologist who was heavily influenced by Ayn Rand. Some even credit Callahan with the founding of energy psychology (also called TFT or thought field therapy). He was an associate of Dr. Branden's for many years prior to his break with Ayn Rand.
