Eye movement magic:  Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing a decade later

While strolling through a park one day, Francine Shapiro notices that certain of her troubling thoughts suddenly lost their distressing qualities. Curious about what had happened; Shapiro regenerated the mental images and again found them no longer upsetting. Attending closely to her behavior, she realized that her eyes had been spontaneously and rapidly shifting back and forth. Suspecting that rapid eye movements might possess hitherto untapped therapeutic powers, Shapiro began informal tests on her friends. She asked them to concentrate on a traumatic or disturbing memory and to track her finger visually as she moved it back and forth in front of their eyes. Her friends reported feeling better and their memories were no longer disturbing.

Magazine

English

Gerald M. Rosen
Richard J. McNally
Scott O. Lilienfeld

Rosen, G. M., McNally, R. J., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (1999, September 22). Eye movement magic: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing a decade later. The Skeptic, 7(4), 66-69