Hi Jesse,

Many thanks for your update.

To a large extent, no belief can ever be an objective truth. A belief we hold is, however, OUR truth. We live based on that.

So, if someone genuinely believes "I'm a great mother", she will have certain evidence for that and certain feelings generated by the belief.

So, if someone believes "spiders are scary"...this will produce certain feelings and behaviours. The thing is, spiders are not inherently scary, so you can absolutely blast that belief away (as you seem to have done).

You could then use Quantum Turbo (if you have it) to layer in "I'm now completely at ease when I see spiders" and/or "Perhaps it is totally safe to feel spiders are OK now"

With regard to a belief like "I am/was phobic of spiders", i suspect that this would have some impact. However, to a large degree, you would be arguing with your emotional experience. You felt fear and then are effectively trying to tell yourself you didn't. In my experience, there are more effective strategies that cut right to the core.

It might be best to look at the "why." So, you have "spiders are scary", you might also consider "I will always be afraid of spiders" ("I would always have been afraid of spiders"). I personally feel this may factor in "fear of the fear coming back", whilst not denying your previous emotional experience. It also enables you to factor in counterexamples like "maybe I would have found a way to feel OK", "I couldn't predict the future with 100% certainty" etc.

Then you might look at other possible beliefs:

"There was something wrong with me" (for feeling afraid of spiders)

"Having that phobia made me vulnerable"

"Spiders were dangerous" (counterexamples: maybe some are, but not all,.maybe I'm more dangerous to spiders than they are to me,  spiders only felt dangerous when I had the phobia)

"Spiders would have annihilated me" (you can delete the emotionally descriptive part of the sentence)

I hope that helps, Jesse.

Please keep us updated.

Best Regards,

Paul 

You might want to CT the feelings of fear that the fear could come back - the fear of fear.

Hi Paul and Brian,

I am at 0 for Hollywood movie spiders. Quick summary: I went through film and found the scariest Hollywood horror killer giant spiders from old films to today. I just CT’d my way through all of them in 10 days to 0. It was fun. Each time afterward I felt great.

Detail Summary:

Found a list of the scariest spider movies.  On youtube found King Kong, LOTR, Hobbit, Harry Potter, Arachnophobia, Several montages of top movie spider from all of film, random scenes, etc. (Some of this is redundant from earlier posts.) I watched them over and over. Giant spiders killing people, crushing them, spiders crawling on people to kill them, crawling out of peoples mouths, etc. Every scary scenario.  Each time in advance I did a wrapper flashing all the scenes in my mind from every movie. I just CT'd 2015 Long 1 & 2 my way through it all. It was very easy. I felt the fear, and just stayed with it. It felt good.

Day 35-38 Start 3, During 5, End 1-2 (average previously posted)
Day 39 Start 0, during 5 end 2.
Day 40 Start 0, during 4 end 1-2
Day 41 Start 0, during 3, end 2
Day 42 Start 0. During 1-2 End .5
Day 43 A Start 0, during 1, End 0. 
Day 43 B  Watched later no clicking, 0. Regular video of tarantulas no clicking, 0.
Day 44 Revulsion pass. CT’d disgust. Start 0, During 2-3, End 0.
Day 45 Revulsion pass CT’d the feeding video. Start 0, during 2-3, end 0.

For anyone else still reading this post-- if you or anyone you know has a phobia just get started and keep going to 0. This absolutely works.

Amazing! Thank you both again! 

Jesse

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your continued advice and encouragement.

As I was doing all this work last week I became curious how dangerous tarantulas really are. Did you know that they are fatally poisonous is actually just a myth? It is a common misconception. Their bite is the equivalent of a b-sting. Talk about a distorted belief! 

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99263&page=1

“The other myth that needs to be laid to rest is they can kill you with a poisonous bite. ‘No tarantulas have ever been known to kill anybody,’ he says. Some of them will bite if provoked, even the native species of the Southwest, but the wound generally feels like a bee sting and causes no lasting injury.’ ”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula

“Though all tarantulas are venomous and some bites cause serious discomfort that might persist for several days, so far no bite has been reported to cause a human fatality. In general, the effects of the bites of all kinds of tarantula are not well known. While the bites of many species are known to be no worse than a wasp sting, accounts of bites by some species are reported to be very painful and to produce intense spasms that may recur over a period of several days.”

##

Isn’t that funny? Tarantulas were my phobia because my dad had some fearful reaction when I was between the ages of 2-4. In this case, challenging the accuracy of this belief is quite obvious. My phobia was just a contagious cognitive distortion. This may be occur with many phobias being based on an illusion. It is one thing to have an awareness or insight of the need to face the fear. I had tried to just face it before. It was not as simple as telling yourself not to be afraid, because of the habitual opposing resistance.

What was astounding was the way the PSTEC CT’s put me in a mindset where I felt very comfortable staying with the feeling of fear. It felt like it was rewiring my neural pathways. I could see and feel the change happening before my eyes in my thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The way I physically think and feel has been transformed. Truly incredible!

Thank you and Brian again for all your instruction and support. The forum has been invaluable! 

Jesse