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In my post What is Tapping and How Can It Help You?, I explained that tapping is a tool derived from Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT. Essentially, the theory of EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s energy field. By identifying the negative emotions that are causing you distress and tapping on certain points on your body, you can gain nearly instant relief from symptoms of anxiety, depression, or just plain negative thinking.

As I said in the post, I had immediate positive results with tapping as soon as I tried it. Over the past few months I have watched more of the videos at Tapping.com and lurked in the forums on its companion site, TappingForum.com. I learned that there are more ways to apply tapping than to just relieve a high level of stress or anxiety. In fact, it seemed like others have had great results using tapping to eliminate all types of negative beliefs - even some that they weren’t even conscious of until they started to explore them in more detail.

I decided to go a little deeper in my exploration of tapping, and the Tap Yourself Free E-book available at Tapping.com seemed like a great place to start.

What is It and What do you Get?
Tap Yourself Free is actually a package of three E-books that are designed to introduce you to the tapping process and give you concrete ways to apply this set of tools in your daily life. It also includes access to a private forum for ongoing support. Currently the package sells for $39 U.S. and is available as an instant download. The author of the books goes by the name Magnus and he is the same person that appears in the instructional videos on Tapping.com and is also active at TappingForum.com. Let’s dive in a little closer and look at each of the three books.

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If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, get better grades in school, or train for an athletic competition, someone has probably told you, “Get a partner!” The idea is that being accountable to another person and having a support system is great reinforcement as you journey toward your goal. I’ve had great success with this in the past and have been seeking support systems recently to help me achieve new goals.

I am excited that there’s now an entire community on the Web devoted to supporting people working on their personal development.

As you can see, it’s called Personal Development Partners, and it’s a new community site dedicated solely to personal development. It just so happens that today is the last day of a huge membership drive and is a great time to join. The community has grown enormously over the past few weeks so the discussion boards are starting to see a good amount of activity.

One unique aspect to this site is a group called the Senior Thought Leaders. These include some well known personal development bloggers like Priscilla Palmer, Aaron Potts, and Dave Olson. From what I’ve seen, all of the Senior Thought Leaders are quite active in the discussion boards and more than willing to give advice and feedback.

Another great feature is the Forum dedicated to forming partnerships and Mastermind groups where members support each other in achieving goals. It’s one of the most popular forums on the site and one where I plan to participate the most.

I joined a couple of weeks ago at the free level which gives you access to most of the discussion boards and a MySpace-esque user profile page with lots of customization and social media options. A couple of days ago, I decided to upgrade to the Premium level (for the bargain price of $10 for 6 months!) to gain access to the electronic resources contributed by the Senior Thought Leaders. To see what’s available have a look a this list. I’ve downloaded a couple of the ebooks and audio selections and am enjoying those as well. You’ll have to hurry is you want to get in at the $10 price, because it’s going up to $20 for 6 months tomorrow!

If you have any interest in working with others to achieve your personal development goals, I encourage you to check out Personal Development Partners. When you sign up, be sure to introduce yourself!

In my post on Brainwave Entrainment, I explained that this technology uses sound to evoke certain brainwave states in the mind, which helps the listener feel more relaxed, creative, or optimistic. I’ve tried several entrainment products, most of which are freely available with a quick Google search. However, I kept seeing comprehensive systems for sale and decided that I wanted to try one out. After a lot of searching, requesting free samples, and reading a lot of those long, annoying sales letters, I selected Quantum Mind Power for this experiment.

What Is It?
In brief, Quantum Mind Power is a package of recordings that incorporates brainwave entrainment as well as other audio neural technologies. Its goal is to help the listener increase his or her concentration and enthusiasm while reducing stress and anxiety. This is accomplished by listening to the package of recordings according to a prescribed schedule that is designed for maximum benefit.

What do you Get?
At the present time, Quantum Mind Power is an entirely digital product (despite the snazzy picture that depicts actual CDs and a printed manual).

The package consists of six .mp3 files (as well two free sample files, Digital Coffee and Alpha Flight), a .pdf User’s Manual, access to a support forum, an audio interview describing the product and its benefits, and several follow up emails. The six .mp3s are:

• Neural Synergy. This is the backbone of the program. The User’s Manual recommends listening to Neural Synergy every day.
• Eden Energy Wave Dynamics. This recording is designed to overcome negative emotions that keep people from working toward their goals. The User’s Manual recommends using it when you are feeling run-down or unmotivated. It can replace Neural Synergy in the daily listening schedule.
• Whole Brain Gratitude Meditation. This is the first of 2 recordings with audible voice tracks taking the listener through a guided meditation. The meditation itself asks the listener to focus on family, friends, coworkers, and the like and experience deep feelings of gratitude. The User’s Manual says that, “Gratitude is considered to be the key to unlocking the ability of people to be happy and content.”
• Emotive Brainwave Hypnosis. This recording also features a guided meditation. The focus of this recording seems to be to entrain the mind to believe that success and happiness can be easy to achieve. The User’s Manual says, “The hypnosis will help you ‘rewire’ some of your old thinking patterns that aren’t serving you well.”
• Subliminal Wealth and Prosperity Support. This recording actually features subliminal messages (is anyone else thinking of Judas Priest right now?). The messages are designed to help the listener overcome unconscious negative feelings about wealth, such as “Rich people are all jerks.” It is also designed to help the listener notice wealth generating opportunities in everyday life.
• Subliminal Health Support. This recording also features subliminal messages which are designed to help the listener think positively about health.

How Do I Use It?
I downloaded Quantum Mind Power on August 28 and immediately started to follow an (almost) daily listening schedule, very close to what the User’s Manual recommends. One nice feature of the program is that both Neural Synergy and Eden Energy Wave Dynamics are each available in 12 different combinations of pattern and tone. The program suggests that you listen to the provided samples of each and choose the one you find most pleasing. (I ended up selecting the deepest tone of the monaural pattern for both recordings.)

I’ve had a fairly regular meditation practice for well over a year now, which I typically do in the morning when I first wake up. It was an easy adaptation for me to put Neural Synergy and Eden Energy Wave Dynamics on my .mp3 player and listen to one of those instead of doing breath meditation. In fact, it is quite a nice change because all I have to do is turn my alarm off, put on my headphones, and lay in bed for another 30 minutes while the track plays! As recommended, I have listened to Neural Synergy most often - probably 5 out of 7 days - but on those days when I’m feeling unfocused or low on energy, I listen to Eden Energy.

At night before I go to sleep, I alternate listening to Whole Brain Gratitude Meditation and Emotive Brainwave Hypnosis. These are both very relaxing recordings, and I haven’t had any problem going to sleep immediately after them. In fact, some nights I didn’t quite make it through the program before nodding off!

I logged into the forum a couple of times and read through some of the posts. It isn’t the most active forum, but I was very impressed that Morry Zelcovitch, the program’s creator, answered nearly every question that users asked. Some of the users have developed different ways of using the program and shared their experiences. Others asked for help with problems and forum members or Morry himself were generally able to help.

The one part of the program that I find difficult to use are the subliminal recordings. The User’s Manual specifically says to NOT use headphones when listening to these two recordings, but to listen to them as you go about your daily activities. This is problematic to me for a couple of reasons:

1. I share an office nearly all the time I’m at work, and I don’t want to bug my office mates with recordings of raindrops and wind.
2. I don’t have a CD player that can play .mp3 tracks. My reading of the manual suggests that it’s not a good idea to convert the tracks to .cda format.

I actually tried to listen to them with headphones, but they sounded like muddy noise - completely different from the nature sounds that you hear when playing them through speakers. What I ended up doing was listening to each recording once or twice a week in my car. This goes against all of the warnings in the manual, but I’ve managed to get myself home safe every day so far. I would like to put in a request to Morry that these subliminal recordings be redesigned so that they can be listened to with headphones effectively.

The manual and the forum indicate that some people feel strange physical effects when listening to the recordings. Some people reported feeling dizzy or nauseous. Others just felt disconnected, like they were floating. I haven’t had any of those sensations when listening to Neural Synergy, Eden Energy, or the guided meditations. I listen to them with headphones as recommended at the highest volume that is comfortable for me. However, I have had some physical reactions when listening to the subliminal recordings. Subliminal Wealth in particular seems to cause me to feel a lot of sinus pressure. It’s not anything I would describe as painful, I’m just very aware of pressure right behind the bridge of my nose. I haven’t yet asked about this in the forums, but I may investigate this further.

Does It Work?
I give Quantum Mind Power a 6 out of 10 for effectiveness so far. The User’s Manual says that it can take as long as 30 days of listening for some people to notice effects, so I wanted to give this product at a least a month in my test. Now, to be truthful, I’ve missed a few listening sessions, especially on weekends, so I probably haven’t done 30 actual days of listening, but I have noticed some effects.

Neural Synergy does seem to help me focus more effectively, which is really important to me right now because I have many, many things going on at my day job. I’ve listened to both Neural Synergy and Eden Energy more than once at work and they do help me calm down and focus on the task at hand more effectively.

Because of the previously mentioned logistical problems, I haven’t listened to the subliminal recordings very much - maybe 5 or six times each, so I haven’t noticed my health or wealth improving in a logarithmic manner so far! However, I did notice something kind of odd when driving while listening to Subliminal Wealth - I drive better. Normally I’m a pretty laid back driver, content to pull over when faster moving cars want to pass me. This often results in me getting stuck behind a slow-moving semi, which is a little annoying. When listening to Subliminal Wealth, I’m much more defensive and precise in my driving. I’ll look ahead, see opportunities for passing and being passed and act more decisively. If Morry can explain that one, I’m happy to listen!

The follow-up emails that I mentioned above are somewhat typical back-end sales types of emails. They come from Morry Zelcovitch’s partner, Song Chengxiang, and contain part information/part sales pitch. However, I haven’t unsubscribed from the list because I find the informational content quite interesting. Song is an expert in intentions, manifestations,and positive thinking and his emails often have exercises to help improve skills in those areas. I certainly need to improve my positive thinking skills, so I’ve done a few exercises and found them useful.

The one recording I’ve had the most immediate positive results from is the Whole Brain Gratitude Meditation. For one thing, it’s a very relaxing recording and helps me get to sleep very easily, but that’s just a bonus. The real benefit of this recording is that it the guided imagery floods my body with positive emotions. It makes me feel happy to be alive, and it inspires me to show my appreciation to people much more often than I typically would. This has a very powerful impact on my daily life, and I want to express my gratitude to Morry for this great recording

Who Should Buy This?
This product isn’t a miracle cure for all that ails you, but I do think certain people will find it helpful:

• People who have a hard time meditating. If you can’t make yourself sit still and focus on your breath for 10 or 15 minutes, Quantum Mind Power is a good substitute. I find that Neural Synergy brings about the same level of focus as 10 minutes of breath concentration.
• People who are mildly depressed. I certainly wouldn’t advise anyone to forgo medical treatment for serious depression, but I think that this product and especially the Whole Brain Gratitude Meditation can elevate the mood of a mildly depressed person. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and have been using this product at just the time of year that I generally start to feel those effects. I can definitely say that I’ve felt better this Fall than I have in several years.
• People that already enjoy Brainwave Entrainment products. If you are currently a user of any brainwave entrainment products, whether they are free or not, you will definitely like Quantum Mind Power. It does sound a little different from the entrainment recordings I’ve listened to, and I’ve found it even more effective in increasing focus and evoking positive feelings.

If you fit any of these criteria, I encourage you to try one of the free recordings or sign up for a no risk trial of Quantum Mind Power.