EFT Myth Number 4: The Black Squirrels of Toronto

When EFT was looking for a place to come into being,

It looked in many places.

 

Some were too hot and sunny

Others were too dry and deserty,

While yet others were too wet or hurricaney.

 

It had nothing against snow,

But give me a break!

Polar ice caps, Siberia, Saskatchewan:

Too much snow! Too cold!

 

And then there were the people:

In some places the people were too rude,

Fancied themselves as too important,

Or were just too samey or worried about

What other people thought of them,

To be the birthplace of a weird little

Emotion-empathy science-magic therapy.

 

So EFT just had to keep looking for a place

Where it could be invented or discovered --

Or whatever.

 

No, it needed a place where the people were nice,

Polite, helpful and didn’t think

They were the centre of the universe.

(Well maybe just a little bit, but not too much.)

 

And it needed a place where there were

Lots of different kinds of people,

And where that was not just OK but was celebrated,

Not a melting pot, but a mixed salad

Full of lots of lovely bits,

Because EFT wanted to be the kind of therapy

That’s full of lots of lovely bits

That all fit together into a big beautiful whole

Around emotion-empathy science-magic.

 

 

Oh, yes! And it turned out that EFT was looking

For a place that had cute little black squirrels

(Scientific name melanistic sciurus carolinensis).

 

So, you see, there really was only one place

In the world where EFT could come into being,

Where Laura, Les, Robert, Jeanne, Rhonda,

And a bunch of other people could all come together

At just the right moment in the late 1980’s,

And that place was Toronto, Canada.

 

But please don’t feed the little buggers,

Because there are plenty of pickings

In a big city and they multiply like crazy!

 

                       -Robert Elliott, Toronto, October 2025  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: This poem is a love-letter to Toronto, Canada, where my family and I spent a lovely year in the early 1990's, while Facilitating Emotional Change, the first book about EFT, was being written.  Diane and I recently returned for Les Greenberg's birthday celebration and fell in love with the place all over again.