EcoMeditation and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) produce elevated brain-wave patterns and states of consciousness

Outcome study👥 8 participantsPreliminary✓ Source-checked📍 United States

In plain English. Eight people had their brain waves measured with EEG before and after a weekend workshop combining EFT and a meditation technique called EcoMeditation. Their brain activity showed patterns associated with heightened awareness and integration that are normally only seen after years of meditation practice, and this carried over into their normal waking state. With only eight participants and no control group, this is an intriguing but very small and preliminary physiological finding.

What they found

people took part

A statistically significant eyes-open posttest change was found in the Awakened Mind EEG pattern (p=0.003, d=0.79); increased brain-wave coherence was found in all participants in at least one frequency category, with high-amplitude gamma synchrony observed during EcoMeditation.

How the study worked

Who took parteight participants attending a weekend workshop combining EFT and EcoMeditation (n=8)

What they didParticipants received tapping and were measured before and after, without a separate comparison group.

Measured withMind Mirror 6 electroencephalogram (EEG) brain-state measures

⭐ Why this study matters

An EEG records electrical activity straight off the scalp — it isn't a self-report, and no participant can consciously will their own gamma-wave synchrony to resemble an experienced meditator's. Finding brain-wave patterns normally associated with years of meditation practice appearing after a single weekend, and carrying over into ordinary waking states, is a striking, hard-to-fake physiological finding, even in this very small group.

💡 Where this could help

If this pattern is confirmed in more people, it raises an intriguing possibility: that combining tapping with a structured practice like EcoMeditation could give ordinary people a shortcut to brain states usually reserved for long-term meditators, learned over a weekend rather than years, with no special equipment or teacher required afterward.

🔬 What to study next

With only eight participants, the priority is a larger sample with continuous EEG monitoring across multiple sessions, to see how quickly these brain-wave shifts appear and how long they last without repeated practice. It would also be worth combining EEG with heart-rate variability and salivary cortisol collected at the same sessions, to see whether the Awakened Mind pattern coincides with parallel calming in the autonomic nervous system and stress hormones, building a fuller map from brain to body.

The full record

Design	Outcome study
Participants	8 people
Population	eight participants attending a weekend workshop combining EFT and EcoMeditation
Outcome measures	Mind Mirror 6 electroencephalogram (EEG) brain-state measures
Journal	Energy Psychology Journal
Year	2019
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Pennington, J., Sabot, D., & Church, D. (2019). EcoMeditation and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) produce elevated brain-wave patterns and states of consciousness. Energy Psychology Journal. https://doi.org/10.9769/EPJ.2019.11.1.JP

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on How It Works (Biology)