By Don Elium, MA MFT
Producer of The BSFF-DVD

At the end of the filming I told Larry that I finally “got” what he had been teaching. He said, “but you were at my very first presentation of BSFF, you have taken my seminars, you have studied my book, so what is different about today?”

•The First Thing: Watching Larry use BSFF in full sessions over and over again.

I told Larry, “Watching you work step-by-step with eight different people made the difference. You basically applied the same principle---that the subconscious is the both the primary cause of the problem and the solution. With each different person and each different problem, the problem ended up being connected to so many other problems.

It was just so clear how it really WAS the subconscious controlling all of the thousands of problems that were uncovered…especially with the Fail-Safe System, watching the resistance melt away, often when the person wasn’t even aware that there was any subconscious resistance. I treated myself with BSFF quietly while you were working. I, too, felt shifts and changes that I had not experienced as deeply when I previously used BSFF.

• The Second Thing: Treating My Subconscious Beliefs About Be Set Free Fast [BSFF]

After filming the first episode with Brave Soul, Mary, I started muscle testing my subconscious during the next episode and I discovered, even though I had previously achieved great benefit using BSFF, my subconscious mind tested “weak” when I muscle-tested the statement, “I can use BSFF effectively on all of my problems.” I was stunned.

I know some people just don’t like muscle testing and sometimes I don’t use it either. BSFF works with or without muscle testing. However, if I had not tested my subconscious on this, I would have never realized the degree to which my subconscious was working against my conscious efforts to change. I had no emotional, intellectual, or physical reactions when I said the phrase, “My subconscious mind supports my use of BSFF on all of my problems.” I felt nothing. Nada. Deep problem beliefs don’t always show themselves through emotional intensity. If I had just used “SUD” levels, I would have never known that I was a “house divided” when it came to treating myself.

I felt like the dumbest kid in the class.

Dullest knife in the drawer.

Only one oar in the water.

Here I am, producing the first BSFF-DVD, and teaching Be Set Free Fast [BSFF] Techniques for the past eight years, yet I had never tested my own subconscious mind to see if its programming supported me in using BSFF effectively on all my problems.

How could this be?

Well, I had problems that Be Set Free Fast [BSFF] and other energy psychology methods did not significantly change. I had worked with some of the best on these problems, and where other problems moved and often resolved very quickly, these were dead weight. There was no significant or sustained, noticeable, change. Thanks to the clear and simple BSFF theory and being forced to sit in the Be Set Free Fast Classroom for two years, now I know why.

My subconscious was very faithfully limiting the kinds of problems I could treat successfully with BSFF as well as all of the other methods I had tried. It just never occurred to me to treat my ability to treat my problems effectively with BSFF.

Larry covers this very well in Part II of Freedom To Perform Under Pressure and Everyday Freedom. When I edited this episode of the BSFF-DVD, I became very strict in my personal work with “meta-testing”---testing and treating my subconscious about being able to test and treat problems. People new to BSFF or other techniques can sometimes just stop using the new technique at this point and/or bounce from one technique to another seeking relief. Their subconscious is just not allowing them to treat certain problems. Based on my experience I have found that some people’s subconscious does not permit the treatment and resolution of many of their problems. However, that can quickly change with a few BSFF steps that open up a whole new world of progress.

When I first treated the test statement, “I can use BSFF effectively on all of my problems,” I felt no change. Nada. Nothing. Well, I hadn’t felt anything before I treated the statement either. So, instead of assuming everything was now fine, or that BSFF didn’t work, I again tested my subconscious using self-muscle testing. (NOTE: We will teach self-muscle testing of the subconscious in the Level One Training and it will be included in the BSFF-DVD Sequel that is now in production.)

I still tested weak when I repeated the statement, “I can use BSFF effectively on all of my problems.”

So, I began testing and treating the BSFF Basic Steps as Larry had with the Eight Brave Souls.

• I found eight of the eleven fail-safes were active in the subconscious of my self.

• I found ten out of eleven fail-safes were active in the subconscious of my body.

I started laughing hysterically. With all the work I had done with BSFF and all the benefit I had truly received, I WAS ONLY SCRATCHING THE SURFACE! I was impressed with the amazing benefits from BSFF up to this point in spite of dragging my subconscious behind me like a heavy log.

I carefully treated both sets of the Fail Safe Systems---self and body---as Larry does in the BSFF-DVD. I organized the DVD Special Training Feature, QUICKSTART, on Disk One with the exact sequences that I used and that Larry teaches. More treatments may be necessary and there is much more to BSFF than just these steps. But, the BSFF Basic Sequences form the foundation of Be Set Free Fast Techniques and are important to master…says the dumbest kid in the class…before moving on to more advanced experimentation and applications.)

I then treated About and Toward, As a Result Of, Self Esteem, Self Confidence, and, finally, the Closing Sequence.

This was one of the more memorable moments of my energy psychology and personal growth life. I had such stillness. I felt such a relief. I didn’t even know that I had needed relief. NOW I noticed a difference. Just treating my ability to treat felt like I had loosened every muscle in my body. I felt so calm. And, at the same time, I had such excitement and anticipation.

A whole new door to freedom flew open . . . and I became even more determined to edit the BSFF-DVD so everyone would be able see, hear, experience and, if you watch the BSFF-DVD enough times, be able to get it on both a conscious and deep, subconscious, system-wide level.

People are reporting that just watching the BSFF-DVD starts giving permission for BSFF to work for them . . . and that was the intended design . . . as if you are also there witnessing, up close and personal, the Brave Souls working with Larry and getting more freedom of choice by being responsible and leaders of their own subconscious.

I immediately started testing some of my most stubborn problems. You know--the ones only your spouse or your “ex” know about. The ones you try to keep secret…especially from yourself. Those are the problems you try to convince your spouse they are crazy to think about you. After all, nobody else does, you know—think about you in those ways. More about this later. Many of those stubborn problems tested strong on “I am free from ________ in myself.” I had treated these issues until I was blue in the face but my progress had just stopped. ALL of those same problems had active fail-safes in my body’s subconscious. They were stopping my treatment progress. Now it all made sense.

Sometimes a muscle test of the subconscious for the self will show that everything is ready for effective treatment, yet the felt-sense of the problem remains strong in the subconscious of the body. This is dramatically demonstrated in Brave Soul, Maryam’s, Freedom from Overwhelm. Larry thinks that this episode really shows the power of BSFF when you don’t even have to mention the presenting problem in the treatment. The fail-safe in the self can be inactive. However, there can be active fail-safes somewhere else, such as the subconscious of the body, that impede treatment progress.

Under closer inspection, sometimes I found the cue word would treat both the subconscious of self and the body. But, sometimes it didn’t. By the time we were filming Joan’s episode, Freedom From Unknown Causes, I began treating for both my self and my body’s subconscious in order to support me to consciously understand and use BSFF fully and efficiently. And, my body began to respond with deep relaxation and calmness. In BSFF Level One Training, we will teach more ways to find more fail-safes in other areas for broader and more effective BSFF treatments.

The dumbest kid in class just got a little smarter.

However, I wasn’t really dumb, at least not in this matter. My subconscious was actually doing its job quite well. Even so, it is my “conscious” responsibility to direct my subconscious to make the changes that support the life I want to live. But, to do that, I sometimes need to use my subconscious detective tool---muscle testing--as a subconscious indicator so that I know what, where, and how to direct this faithful servant to be most helpful. I have to consciously sharpen that dull knife in the drawer.

So, in summary--Don’s Be Set Free Fast for Dummies

Lesson Number One: Treat the Ability To Treat

Make sure my subconscious mind supports the full understanding and use of Be Set Free Fast (BSFF) on all of my problems and those problems that I help others treat---in the subconscious of both the self and the body.

Step One: Stick the other oar in the water.

Oh, but there was more . . .

“I Was The Dumbest Kid In The BSFF Class” (Copyright 2006, Don Elium)  

About Don Elium, MA MFT

Don Elium, MA MFT is director of the Be Set Free Fast Organization and Producer of the BSFF-DVD. He grew up in the deep south in the town of Salisbury, NC --45 miles from Charlotte, and graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Walnut Creek area, since 1982. His Master's Degree is in Counseling Psychology from J.F.K. University, in Pleasant Hill, CA. and has practiced psychotherapy in the Bay Area since 1985.

Along with traditional psychological and psychotherapy training, he has extensive study in the areas of traumatic stress and rapid-emotional relief, individual & couple counseling, sexuality, & facing difficult situations. He, and his wife Jeanne, are co-authors of four books,

Raising a Son, Raising a Daughter, Raising a Teenager, and Raising A Family.

Don is married for over 20 years to his wife Jeanne, with two children and one grandchild. He lives and works in Walnut Creek, CA (San Francisco Bay Area).