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What's That Rash?

Can tapping calm your nervous system?

16 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is tapping and how is it used for calming the nervous system?

0.031 - 29.781

ABC Listen. Podcasts, radio, news, music and more. When the Science Show began over 50 years ago, Australia was seen as a strange leftover place. But local science transformed everything. Australia is full of treasures, from birdsong to perhaps the world's first engineers. That's why the Science Show is always full of surprises. In the sky, in the lab and even in your own backyard.

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30.261 - 33.865

The Science Show, anytime on ABC Listen.

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33.885 - 35.547 Norman Swan

So Tegan, you look pretty chilled, always.

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36.987 - 41.914 Tegan Taylor

I'm like a swan. I'm serene on the top and paddling furiously underneath.

41.934 - 59.921 Norman Swan

Right, the animal version of the swan rather than the human version of the swan. The Norman swan. Yeah. Yeah, I think we're both the same. We're just outwardly cool, but inwardly, you know, we're just going that way. And, you know, sometimes you drum your fingers, sometimes you jiggle your legs, and some people tap.

59.941 - 61.083 Tegan Taylor

Tap like tap dancing.

61.443 - 62.725 Norman Swan

No, tap like...

64.291 - 67.539 Tegan Taylor

If you can't see Norman right now, he's thrumming his forehead with his finger.

Chapter 2: What evidence supports the effectiveness of Emotional Freedom Techniques?

241.961 - 243.523 Tegan Taylor

What have you heard about it?

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243.622 - 251.334 Norman Swan

So I've heard that this is a technique that's very controversial among psychologists. I don't want to give away too much, but I'm skeptical.

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251.855 - 269.562 Tegan Taylor

Okay. Well, let me tell you a little bit about its origins. According to, and the main source I found of the origins of the emotional freedom technique is unsurprisingly from the emotional freedom technique website. So like proceed with a nice hefty grain of low sodium salt. Okay.

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269.542 - 292.528 Tegan Taylor

Basically, it was pioneered by this guy called Gary Craig, who actually died earlier this year, according to the website. But basically, he's building on something from the 80s called thought field therapy, which there was an earlier guy, a psychologist, Dr. Roger Callaghan, and he develops this thought field therapy. And the idea was that if you tapped on meridian points...

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292.508 - 313.981 Tegan Taylor

while you were in psychological distress. So acupuncture points, basically. Yes, exactly. So there's very specific points on your body, but it was quite a complicated thing. So there were different sequences for different problems. There were algorithms for anxiety, for phobias, for trauma. And then a practitioner had to sort of diagnose what the issue was and then prescribe the correct sequence.

314.282 - 317.807 Norman Swan

And you're kind of tapping on the points where you would normally put in the needles, right?

317.922 - 334.29 Tegan Taylor

Yes, so it's building on the idea of acupuncture. Anyway, Gary Craig, who claims to have founded the emotional freedom technique, was like, what if we did this differently? So he was actually an engineer who went to Stanford. I don't really know what that has to do with psychology, but like he's a smart guy, right?

334.351 - 338.057 Norman Swan

There are all these tech bros out there doing biology, so why can't Gary do it?

338.037 - 357.717 Tegan Taylor

Anyway, so Gary ran some experiments and was like, okay, I don't think we need to make this this complicated. I think we just tap and breathe and I think I'll just let it be free for everyone. And he created a website called The Palace of Possibilities. Oh, lovely. Which, and it looks exactly as you imagine it would. It looks like...

Chapter 3: How did the concept of tapping develop over time?

976.226 - 998.244 Tegan Taylor

If these gases can make air shifts... See where he's going. I'm like, those are light gases. No. Alan says, if these gases can make airships to fire gravity, then surely they must be adding buoyancy to our bodies in a tiny way we float. That's an interesting concept, isn't it? Why not? Shelley says, I was... Shelley is being so nice to us, Norman.

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998.986 - 1002.431 Tegan Taylor

We're pretty impressed with our own humour a lot of the time and I'm not sure if other people are.

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1002.451 - 1003.112 Norman Swan

Yeah, we laugh at our own jokes.

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1003.132 - 1014.39 Tegan Taylor

But Shelley says, I was fully convinced I was listening to a comedy act during the farting episode. It was so funny. I wasn't even offended that WA, where I'm from, was named as the farting capital of Australia.

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1014.792 - 1015.813 Norman Swan

Oh, thank you, Shelley.

1015.833 - 1020.199 Tegan Taylor

I can't remember if it was the most volume of farts or if it was the smelliest farts. I'll have to go back in.

1020.219 - 1021.18 Norman Swan

I think it was the length.

1021.2 - 1025.085 Tegan Taylor

No, wait. No, wait. I just remembered. It was stench and linger was the terminology.

1025.305 - 1027.508 Norman Swan

Just means she wanted to catch a plane to Perth, doesn't it?

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