#this is a britt lower love post but ALSO a self-love post

[oh-god-a-four]

I love you women with expressive eyebrows

[lambourngb]

Day 2: AU get me out of here - places to go when canon is complicated

It’s Day 2 for @roswellnewmexicocreate, time to celebrate those stories that I turn to when I can’t deal with canon, or when I don’t have the emotional energy to untangle all the emotions I have for what’s going on in canon. Alternative universes, the safe harbor for us. Below are a mix of rewrites of canon, remixes of canon, or out right not even set in Roswell- to fill every type distance you want from canon- from near to far.

and the howl of the desert carries me home by @christchex​/ @michaels-blackhat​ (4,334) Alex runs into the desert to escape from his father with his guitar clutched to his chest. He plans to spend one last night playing before his father destroys it. Instead, he meets a cute boy with flowers in his curly hair and a lizard on his shoulder. He exchanges a song for a smile.

why i like it: I love everything about this story. Michael is totally a disney princess, and what a lovely way to save him from foster homes, but have him run away to the desert and use his alien powers to build his own little protective world. Looping in Nora’s plant powers like that, giving Michael a little animal friend, I love it all, but the show stealer is Alex Manes, playing music to coax the mystery boy out. It’s just incredibly soft.

***

Heartbeat series by @adiwriting ​ (133,000 - in progress) During the lost decade, Alex gets Michael pregnant and Michael doesn't see or hear from him again for the next four and a half years. When Alex comes back to town, he discovers he has a daughter with Michael and they all have to figure out how to be a family.

why i like it: it has it all, installments with angst, installments with fluff, I can find whatever mood I am in by just pouring over this incredible series. I really don’t even like mpreg, but in RNM, with aliens it seems a little more probable to me and bless Britt, she goes light on the details but heavy on the kid aspect of it. I absolutely love Alex in this story, he’s richly characterized as a man who is trying hard while wandering unfamiliar territory like aliens, like being a dad, like being Michael’s boyfriend, and he doesn’t always get it right, but he’s loved regardless.

***

tonight we are young @skinsharpenedteeth (8,137) Alex and Michael ditch the Evans' New Years Eve party to find their own fun and Alex gets his New Years kiss...(the underage tag is because they're both 17 in this.)

why i like it: I’m a sucker for teen!Malex, especially stories that take place before the shed. I love this little AU where Alex is thinking about making a move, but hasn’t yet. They are both adorable nervous babies, this feels very much how a softer teen!Malex first time would go. Perfectly characterized here, you can just feel the hopeful vibes they have at 17. I like to believe nothing bad ever happens to them again.

***

you shift on a gear (it’s been a long year) by @backinmybodymp3 (28, 362) “Good morning,” Michael says. “What the hell did you do?” Alex asks, exasperated. (or: There were times, in some of the lower moments of the past however-many-days it’s been, where Michael had thought about what it might’ve been like to share this time loop with someone. He never imagined— well, he never imagined it’d be Alex.)

why i like it: I love time-loop stories! And this is just superb. The friendship dynamics of everyone involved, the Liz/Max wedding, Michael being a good brother, Michael trying so hard to keep this bullshit from dragging Alex in and then Alex being his usual reckless self when it comes to Michael, I absolutely dig this canon-divergent au. you can feel how much the author cares about everyone on the show in this story, and they really nail the Malex dynamic. This story came along just as season 3 did and it’s a true antidote to the malex drought on screen.

***

the library by @arielana (9,657)  Alex had stopped too far away to hear exactly what they were saying, but their voices did carry over to where he was standing. The guy’s drawl had a melody to it that was vaguely familiar, but much deeper than the voice it reminded Alex of. God, that and the hair really brought some memories back.  Just as Alex told himself to stop secretly staring like a creep and walk over there, he turned slightly so that Alex got a glimpse of the side of his face.  Fuck!  Fuck, fuck, fuck! Twelve years ago Alex left Roswell to join the Air Force, nursing a broken heart and promising to never return. When work brings him back to New Mexico he runs into someone he’d been sure he’d never see again.

why i like it: the first kiss in the UFO emporium was groundbreaking, but I have to admit, I love stories that explore the almost-happened, where Malex reconnect as adults without the shadow of Jesse’s attack. I love how sharp Alex is in this story, he has all these walls as an adult built from that first rejection, but then he’s so completely unprepared to reconnect with Michael again. The clownery in this story by both of them is perfect! I also totally love Forrest as a gay best friend for Alex, trying to wingman Alex, that cracked me up.

***

stellar light based life by @jocarthage (30,651) It’s not a memory if it’s something you see every day. It’s a trigger and it’s not one Alex wants to ever let go of.Alex saw Michael disappear into a blinding blue light, soft 17-year-old body pulled back into some kind of impossible vortex -- one hand, outstretched.

why i like it: another submission from 2020 RNM Big Bang, this story just wrecked me. I can’t even really put into words about how it hooked me and basically lives in my head now to the point I often mumble the first line to myself. Anyway, this AU takes a right turn at the shed attack, and goes full force scifi and tragic separation, I love it. In so many ways it reshapes Alex’s life but the core of who he is never changes, there’s so many great science geekery details about Michael’s planet and the astronaut journey that Alex takes, plus SANDERS... anyway, this is a fandom classic for me.

***

Crossed Wires by @beautifulcheat, @ladynox (15,351) Michael's been kicked off more than one Starfleet posting. So when he learned he was reassigned to the USS Roswell, he decided that he would keep his head down and behave. This decision is immediately thwarted when he meets her hot Vulcan captain.This might be the first time Michael got kicked off a posting for flirting with a captain.

why i like it: Star Trek AU? I’m pretty easy. Seeing elements of Kirk and Spock’s tragic backstory blended into genius mechanic Michael Guerin and ice prince Alex Manes was amazing. I love how it’s serving with his family that brings Michael to the Enterprise, his bond with Max and Isobel was chef’s kiss good. The blend of Michael’s powers and Alex’s biology - I loved the balance even if it came with its own misunderstandings, but hey, this time it was cultural! lol

***

I’m still here by @vague-shadows @pippsmcgee  (35,928) Treasure Planet AU in which Michael is the gifted young delinquent who found a treasure map, and Alex is a space pirate pawn in his Father's obsession with riches and legacy.

why i like it: I’ve never seen Treasure Planet, but I didn’t need to thoroughly enjoy this AU. This was the perfect mix of angst and sci-fi adventure, where the authors managed to make the shed even more horrifying. Jesse Manes is the absolute worst in this story, the levels of obsession he goes to find a treasure, and then Michael on his own collision course - the ability to write tense action is a gift, and it’s on display in this story. Cyborg!Alex took up a place in my heart and still lives there, where he only gets the nicest things.

If you like any of these recs, please leave a comment on the story or a kudo- a  ‘this was awesome’ is enough to propel an author into the stratosphere with happiness, so don’t worry about coming up with a unique, never before shared insight- sometimes a keyboard smash and emoji makes all  the difference!

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Ranking the Stories Set in the Present Day

https://ift.tt/3Eu4Xd0

So the new Star Trek: Picard trailer has dropped and among the big plot twists it revealed are the fact that Picard & Co are going to be travelling back to Earth, circa 2022 AD. We’re looking forward to exciting scenes of people from the 24th century being unable to drive cars (despite the pretty lengthy car chase we saw in the last episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks), Q and Picard sparring again, and wondering how Guinan fits into all this. My personal theory is that after her adventures with Picard and Mark Twain in the 19th century, Guinan decided to stick around on Earth, eventually posing as an actor called Whoopi Goldberg.

This is far from the first time Star Trek has travelled back to the present day – even if “present day” is pretty broad for the 55-year-old franchise. We have no way of knowing why the series keeps returning to this setting that doesn’t need the manufacture of any new props, sets or costumes, but it seems like a good time to look at when Star Trek has done this before and ask “Who wore it better?”

6. Assignment: Earth

This episode would prove to be a particularly tricky one for nearly every single time travel episode that has come since, in that it shows time travel for the Federation is so easy and routine that the Enterprise can just nip back to the Cold War to see why we never Great Filtered ourselves out of existence. Unfortunately, in this episode Kirk and Spock don’t get to see much of 20th century Earth, or indeed do much of anything.

‘Assignment: Earth’ was conceived as a backdoor pilot for a new series about Gary Seven, a human bred and raised by aliens to act as a secret agent on Earth and protect us from our own capacity for self-destruction. This means Kirk and Spock’s role is little more than to sit around and say “Wow, this looks like a great idea for a television show!”

Still, I can’t help but wonder about a Star Trek franchise in the parallel universe where its first spin-off was a spy show set in 1968.

5. Carpenter Street

This episode of Star Trek: Enterprise stands out because it is perhaps the only episode on this list where they decided the present day should be filmed any differently from the space future. The lighting, the camera work, the whole episode feels much more like Angel, or a cop show from the period than the Star Trek style that had been uniformly adopted since The Next Generation.

Usually when Star Trek comes back to our time it is to take us on ‘a romp’, where people point out Starfleet uniforms look like pyjamas and the crew go around misunderstanding pop culture references. This, however, feels like Star Trek invading a much grittier show.

Unfortunately, you can tell that this is a network science fiction show trying to show how adult and gritty it is, because within the first ten minutes of the episode we see a sex worker abducted. Maybe one day science fiction shows will find a way to show that they are proper grown-ups without a drive-by or disposable sex worker character appearing in the first ten minutes, but ‘Carpenter Street’ is not that show.

The other thing Star Trek’s forays into our century do is emphasise how far humanity has come, or still has to travel. This is where ‘Carpenter Street’ really falls down. Because this was Enterprise’s dark, post-9/11 Xindi storyline, we see Archer literally beat information out of someone – not for the first time in this season. It’s a scene that highlights everything that’s wrong with this version of Star Trek.

It’s also the bringer of bad news, as at one point T’Pol asks about fossil fuels to be told that “It’s not until 2061 that…”

The sentence is left incomplete, but that sounds like bad news for our 2050 emissions targets.

4. Tomorrow is Yesterday

This is Star Trek’s first trip back to the 20th century, and it sets the rules for so much that comes later. Agonising about changing the future, having modern day characters remark on how silly everything is, Star Trek characters being taken prisoner and taking the piss out of their interrogators. The formula is refined in many ways from here on, but the ingredients are established here.

It also establishes, as ‘Assignment: Earth’ later confirms, that any ordinary warp-capable ship can perform a manoeuvre to travel forward or backward in time at will, a plot device most of the Star Trek canon has heroically stuck its fingers in its ears and shut its eyes to avoid.

The main reason this entry doesn’t rank higher is that the action is almost entirely confined to US military bases, denying us the fun of seeing our favourite Starfleet officers wandering around our day-to-day world as if it’s the Planet of the Week.

Read more

TV

Star Trek: Enterprise – An Oral History of Starfleet’s First Adventure

By Ed Gross

TV

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is an “Encounter at Farpoint” Sequel

By Ryan Britt

3. Future’s End

This Star Trek: Voyager two-parter, on the other hand, gives us that in spades. It knows what the fans want and it is here to give you a big steaming bowl of it. Neelix and Kes watching daytime soaps? Check. Tuvok having to ensure he wears a beanie at all times? Check. Paris getting his 20th century history and slang hilariously wrong? Check. An oddly jarring turn by a young, pre-comedy stardom Sarah Silverman? Okay, maybe you weren’t asking for that, but check!

It even throws us some subtle continuity porn to argue over. In Sarah Silverman’s office we see a model of the launch configuration of a DY-100 class ship- the ship used by Khan Noonien Singh to escape justice following the Eugenics Wars that were supposed to happen in the mid-nineties.

This is more than just an Easter egg (unlike, we’re assuming, the Talosian action figure on Sarah Silverman’s desk). Over the course of the episode we learn that the entire microprocess revolution that created the world we know and love was the result of stolen 29th century tech.

Does this mean history was changed? That all Star Trek following this episode takes place in a divergent timeline where the Eugenics Wars never happened? This has some fascinating connotations that we will touch upon later in the article, and which I will explain to you at length after precisely one and a half pints.

The episode does have its weak points however – Voyager being seen on national television never seems to go anywhere, and neither does the whole subplot where Chakotay and Torres end up prisoner in a survivalist compound for a bit.

As we’ve already mentioned, there’s also a lot of agonising about how Voyager will get to the present, when we already know that they just need to whip around the sun at warp speed and boom, the series is over.

Oh, and this is an extremely minor gripe, but Janeway tells us she has no idea what her ancestors were doing in this time period – despite subjecting us to the tedium of her story in ‘Millennium Gate’ which was set only four years after this.

2. Past Tense

This episode might be considered a cheat, since at time of broadcast it was technically set in the future. However, since it (along with Irish Reunification) is supposed to take place three years on from now, I think we can say it counts.

This Deep Space Nine story is decidedly not ‘a romp’. Yes people make fun of the characters’ clothes, and Kira and O’Brien’s jaunts through history raise a smile, but more than all but a select number of Star Trek stories, this is about just how far our reality is from the hoped-for future of Star Trek.

Bashir lands some lines that hit quite a bit heavier now than they did in the nineties, from “The 21st century is not one of my strong points – too depressing” to the plaintive “How could they have let things get so bad?” at the story’s conclusion.

And while it is set over twenty years in the future from the perspective of the broadcast date, it wasn’t far off. Stories evocative of the sanctuary districts are easy to find, and as writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe says, “We weren’t being predictive. We were just looking out our windows in the ’90s.”

Only two things really mark this episode out as an anachronism. One, the technology looks painfully 90s – our technology looks far closer to the 24th century than the bulky monitors seen everywhere in this. But then again, this episode was broadcast prior to ‘Future’s End’, so maybe Henry Starling hadn’t kickstarted the microprocessor revolution in this timeline yet.

The other, far grimmer element to have dated is the idea that one innocent black person being shot by police could be enough to cause the sea change this episode says it does.

1. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

There wasn’t ever really going to be any debate over this, was there? Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is hands down the one to beat if you’re writing Star Trek characters travelling to the present day. The film itself was something of a departure for the franchise. Rather than Robert Wise’s epic, sombre, proper science fiction in The Motion Picture, or the bombastic action of Nicholas Meyer’s Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home was helmed by a director who would be best known for the cult comedy, Three Men & a Baby.

This 20th century feels far more inhabited than other portrayals, with screen time being given over to casual conversations between bin men, and workplace arguments independent of the former Enterprise crew.

Of course, by now the crew of 1701-no-bloody-A-B-C-or-D should be old hands at Earth in the 20th century. This is their fourth trip here, not counting planets-that-mysteriously-resemble-Earth-in-the-20th-century.

But these fish are never more out of water than they are in this film, and the results are charming. Kirk explaining swearing to Spock, Kirk observing people “still use money”, Chekov standing in the middle of the street asking for directions to the “Nuclear Wessels”, Scotty’s “Hello Computer!” and Kirk Thatcher getting nerve-pinched for listening to his own music on a ghetto blaster. Plus countless more zingers, sight gags and throwaway lines that I’m still finding new ones of after many, many re-watches.

And the cast are clearly having the time of their lives. Shatner’s comic talent was always on display, but in this movie he is really allowed to cut it fully loose giving reaction shots that make you feel bad about every time you mocked his acting.

But no matter how silly it gets, this film knows, more than any other, the point of sending Star Trek characters into the modern day. It is to show us the difference between our ideal selves and where we are – and it does it no less starkly than ‘Past Tense’. With a light comic touch, Kirk and co. encounter capitalism, the spectre of nuclear war, and most of all, the devastating environmental impact we’re having. Even if we reach the ideal Star Trek future, this film says, we could still lose things we can’t replace along the way.

Star Trek: Picard is going to have to work hard if it wants to walk in its footsteps.

Honourable Mentions

While not taking place in the present day, it’d be remiss of this article not to mention ‘City on the Edge of Forever’, which refined ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’s formula and is just one of the all-out best Star Trek series ever, and ‘Little Green Men’, which twists the usual Starfleet-in-the-20th-century formula by having the Ferengi arrive in the 20th century and find humans far more brutal, greedy and stupid than even they suspected.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Also, I don’t want to alarm you, but by the end of this decade we’ll be closer to the events of Star Trek: First Contact than we are to the release of Star Trek: First Contact.

The post Star Trek: Ranking the Stories Set in the Present Day appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3hzk0s5

[hartrathaway]

i found some a softer world quotes that fulfill the earth 14 cycle and i will try and describe each of them as best as i can under the cut bc earth 14 is on the brain today folks!  some of these i have more ideas for than others pls note like some are completed comics in my head, and others are just ‘yeah this fits this character’

i got myself a time machine,/only to learn a disappointing truth/that no matter where i go, there i am -- ok so time travel isn’t MUCH of a thing in earth 14, but u can’t have booster gold without time travel, so!  this one is a bootsle comic.  bc ted’s death up until our blackest night arc is relatively permanent.  so the first two panels are like.  happy boostle things and the last one is michael at the grave bc i like pain and suffering for my own emotions

such trivialities do not even register to me.  i am a being of pure reason/love would only slow me down. -- this is either baby thad or baby damian.  first two panels are Bad Things they did on their course of before they were a hero, and the last panel is them being hugged by their family.  im torn on who it should be so if i ever get gud at drawing, i’ll do both!

before we met i was so scared of dying./but if the end comes today/this will have been enough. -- ok this is kind of bart but mostly it’s more bart’s relationships with his best friend squad: himself, thad, damian, conner, and maya (she’s from robin: son of batman and she made me and britt cry so obviously she stays in earth 14)  the first panel is bart a his parent’s funerals, and the second and third panels are a group shot of them together.

i used to think being intelligent/was enough. -- this is thad!  his backstory in this is even sadder and i hate myself every day for it.  but long story short--thad used to think that he could live th eway he was living up until he meets bart for the first time, and then realises he’d never really had that kind of relationship with anybody and it is Not Enough to just be the speedster eobard thawne and hunter zoloman want you to be.

suicidal is an ugly word./i am just homesick/for a better time. -- this is a dick grayson one!  mostly bc he’s passively suicidal and actively very self destructive through alcohol and sex after jason dies.  lots of bad things happen to dick during that time.  a lot of bad things actually but im not getting into those deets here.  but the first panel is him laying on a rooftop from the torso up with a blank expression and the second and  third panels is dick hugging a robins who was then shorter than himself, but the face is obscured and so is part of the costume--so whether it’s dick himself, jason, or damian is up to the viewer

it turns out that sometimes/the future actually/belongs to someone else. --  first shot of the league that is formed in ‘99, then the lineup with wally, and then the 2014 teen titans bc i like pain.  lian is dead center in the last panel (belongs to someone else) bc this is foreshadowing

i am a pacifist/and i will be a pacifist until i die/or someone threatens my mother. -- this is milagro!  she becomes a green lantern during the blackest night events and is originally the GL by necessity, since it’s originally kyle rayner, but he becomes the white lantern.  but anyways--she doesn’t want to be the kind of hero that has to always take down the villain, but somebody who makes the world a better place by helping people.  unless u fuck with her mom, we’re looking at you hal jordan.  but anyways, milagro is in the first two panels, hugging somebody, and in the third panel punching hal in the face (hal’s a conduit for parallax so)

live and learn/or die and teach by example. --  barry allen here.  first panel is actually don and barry fighting.  next panel is the lower half of a tv screen news channel with ‘the flash is dead’ being the headline.  then the last panel is wally and don fighting :’)

i wish there was a better word/than ‘sorry’./but i’d probably need a better word than that. -- so we get damian wayne shot.  dick and jason do not handle this well.  jason ends up going to prison (see the microchip below) and dick uh.  drinks himself into a literal stupor for a bit.  damian handcuffs dick to the hospital bed and then they end up hugging it out.  so the panels is just a long shot of  the room while dick is handcuffed to the bed and hugging damian :’)

life is never so bleak/that you can’t turn things around/with a crime spree. -- lmao i swear i was gonna make this serious abt jason todd but im lying it’s a hartley one.  hartley, being a villain first and foremost, ends up being kicked out by his parents before barry allen is murdered.  so this is rly just a three-panel of him robbing a bank i’m sorry i needed a laugh while writing this post

i never wanted anything to happen to my parents,/but a hero needs an origin story. -- this is either dick or bart i ccan’t make up my FUCKING MIND but obvs it’s either dick’s parents dying and dick in the robin costume after, or bart’s parents dying and bart in the impulse costume after.  obviously

there, that wasn’t so bad, was it?/flush goes the microchip!/who lives off the grid?  is it you?  is it you?  yes it is! -- ok so this one is kind of funny but recently we decided jason goes to belle reve for his crimes as red hood.  so artemis--the amazon, not artemis crock--ends up destroying the chip in jason that woudl blow his head off and jason ends up falling Madly In Love With Her:tm: so it’s the scene where they first meet and artemis zaps jason enough so his head no longer can explodey wodey

every time i almost die i feel so alive./why would i ever want to be more careful? -- this is a six panel one.  first three panels is dick jumping off a building bc he does that in canon comics for the rush.  and then the second three panels is dick looking at a computer monitor with shock and you can just bbbbaaaaarely make jason’s face out on it, but jason is Dead lmao.  dick watched that autopsy.

i love sorrow and suffering :’)  earth 14 is a happy au where nothing bad happens to my faves.  also there were more but i started discussing hal jordan’s saggy balls and couldn’t write anymore

[magravlab-blog]

EFT tapping Dr Maharaj.

https://www.serenityocala.com/resource-content/Differential-Gene-Expression-After-EFT-Treatment.pdf

EFT tapping Dr Maharaj.

Mindful Energy PsychologyEnergy Psychology 8:1 • May 201645Energy Psychology (EP)Energy  psychology  (EP)  is  a  theoretical  and  practice  approach  based  on  facilitating  energy flow through the body-mind. Originally and pre-dominantly, energy psychology techniques involve percussing  or  tapping  on  specific  acupuncture points (acupoints) to treat psychological disorders (Callahan, 1985; Feinstein, 2010, 2012a, 2012b; Gallo, 2004). When applied therapeutically, EP is also often referred to as energy therapy or energy psychotherapy, although approaches of this genre often involve other diagnostic and therapeutic tech-niques, such as muscle testing, bodily positions, eye  movements  and  positions,  holding  specific areas of the body such as chakras and neurovascu-lar reflexes, as well as cognitive components such as  affirmations  and  visualization  (Gallo,  2002; Hover-Kramer,  2002;  Feinstein,  2012b). Though there has been a proliferation of EP approaches, the initial one addressing psychological problems by  tapping  was  developed  by  Roger  Callahan, PhD, in the late 1970s (Callahan, 2001).Although the case can be made that EP has ancient roots in acupuncture and meridian theory, the more recent history dates back to the 1960s, when George Goodheart, DC, developed applied kinesiology  (Goodheart,  1987;  Walther,  1988), an  approach  that  employs  manual  muscle  testing  and holistic concepts to treat physical problems. Goodheart pioneered therapy localization, which involves  the  practitioner  or  patient  touching  spe-cific bodily locations while applying manual mus-cle  testing  for  diagnostic  and  treatment  purposes  (Kendall, Kendall, & Wadsworth, 1971).While Goodheart reported a connection among specific  muscles,  reflexes,  and  meridians,  others explored  aspects  of  applied  kinesiology  to  treat psychological problems. Diamond (1985) explored the  meridian-emotion  connection  and  the  use  of  affirmations,  music,  and  other  media  in  treating psychological issues. Along similar lines, Callahan developed a treatment method, Thought Field Ther-apy (TFT), which involves attuning to or access-ing  psychological  disorders  such  as  phobias  and traumas and then tapping on prescribed acupoints (Callahan, 1985; Callahan & Turbo, 2002; Gallo, 2004). Callahan’s is a three-tiered approach, includ-ing  specific  treatment  algorithms,  diagnosis,  and treatment  via  muscle  testing,  and  treatment  over the telephone through a protocol called voice tech-nology. Eventually, other related approaches were developed by Craig (Craig & Fowlie, 1995; Craig, 2010), Gallo (2000, 2003, 2004, 2007), and oth-ers (Gallo, 2002; Diepold, Britt, & Bender, 2004; Mollon, 2008; Benor, Ledger, Toussaint, Hett, & Zaccaro, 2009). Some of the approaches discarded muscle testing and several other elements of TFT (Craig, 2010; Benor et al., 2009), while others con-tinued to apply muscle testing and other elements to varying degrees (Gallo, 2000; Diepold et al., 2004; Mollon,  2008).  For  example,  energy  diagnostic and treatment methods (EDxTM) is an integrative approach  that  involves  a  wider  array  of  treatment  acupoints, algorithms, and diagnostic approaches; various  ways  of  addressing  self-sabotaging  inter-ferences  (i.e.,  psychological  reversal);  a  focus on thought recognition; protocols for core beliefs and  peak  performance;  and  several  other  aspects (Gallo, 2000, 2002).Energy Psychology ResearchIn  addition  to  studies  suggesting  that  EP  is  effective  in  treating  a  variety  of  conditions,  the efficiency of EP in treating trauma and posttrau-matic stress disorder (PTSD) has been increasingly established over nearly two decades (Carbonell & Figley, 1996, 1999; Figley, Carbonell, Boscarino, & Chang, 1999; Diepold & Goldstein, 2000, 2008; Johnson,  Shala,  Sejdijaj,  Odell,  &  Dabishevci, 2001;  Sakai  et  al.,  2001;  Church,  Geronilla,  & Dinter, 2009; Sakai, Connolly, & Oas, 2010; Burk, 2010; Church, 2010, 2013; Feinstein, 2010, 2012a, 2012b; Church, Piña, Reategui, & Brooks, 2012; Church, Yount, & Brooks, 2012; Church, Hawk, et  al.,  2013;  Church  &  Brooks,  2014).  Studies using EP in treating PTSD are especially notewor-thy, since PTSD has generally been considered a treatment-resistant and refractory condition. Some have argued that it may be incurable and should be regarded as a condition that can only be managed (Johnson et al., 2001; Phelps, 2009).Though it is traditionally proposed in EP that trauma  and  other  psychological  problems  entail blocked energy flow through meridians and other aspects of the bioenergy system, a position that the author finds intriguing, EP also likely eliminates the trauma by activating the implicit memory associated with  amygdala  neurons  and  permanently  altering  their connections or wiring (Hebb, 1949), reducing cortisol levels (Church, Yount, & Brooks, 2012), and also promoting memory reconsolidation by   intro-ducing  significant  novelty  (Moscovitch  &  Nadel, Energy Psychology 8:1 • May 2016Mindful Energy Psychology461997;  Hupbach,  Gomez,  Hardt,  &  Nadel,  2007; Ecker, Ticic, & Hulley, 2012).Diepold and Goldstein (2000, 2008) reported on  evaluation  of  an  EP  trauma  case  study  with  quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG). Statis-tically abnormal brain-wave patterns were evident when  the  client  thought  about  his  trauma  com-pared  to  a  neutral  baseline  event.  Quantitative EEG (QEEG) with the traumatic memory imme-diately after treatment and at 18-month follow-up revealed no abnormalities. This study supports the hypothesis that negative emotion has a measurable effect, and also objectively identified an immedi-ate and lasting neuroenergetic change in the direc-tion of normalcy and health after EP treatment.Church, Yount, and Brooks (2012) examined cortisol levels in 83 subjects randomly assigned to a single session of Emotional Freedom Tech-niques  (EFT;  Craig  &  Fowlie,  1995;  Church, 2013), talk therapy, or rest. Cortisol is the “master hormone” regulating many aspects of the body’s stress  response  mechanisms,  especially  those associated  with  the  autonomic  nervous  system.  Therefore the researchers proposed that successful therapy would result in lower stress as reflected in  reduced  salivary  cortisol.  Their  investigation found  that  cortisol  levels  in  the  rest  and  therapy  groups decreased at approximately the same rate, but that cortisol in the EFT group decreased sig-nificantly more. The decrease in this physiological marker of stress was also significantly correlated with a decrease in anxiety, depression, and other psychological conditions.As  cortisol  levels  of  PTSD  patients  are  ele-vated as well, effective treatment with EFT would likely  lower  cortisol  levels  in  such  patients. The investigators then examined gene expression in 18 veterans with PTSD and found regulation of inflam-mation genes associated with stress after 10 EFT sessions (Church, Yount, Rachlin, Fox, & Nelms, 2016). A pilot study with four participants examin-ing the entire genome before and after an hour of EFT versus a placebo of similar duration found 72 genes to be significantly regulated, including those implicated in immunity, inflammation, and tumor suppression  (Maharaj,  2016).  Effective  psycho-therapy with EP has been proposed as an epigenetic intervention (Feinstein & Church, 2010).Johnson  et  al.,  (2001)  reported  on  uncon-trolled  treatment  of  trauma  victims  in  Kosovo with Thought Field Therapy during five 2-week trips in the year 2000. Treatments were given to 105 Albanian patients with 249 separate violent traumatic  incidents.  The  traumas  included  rape, torture,  and  witnessing  the  massacre  of  loved ones. Total relief of the traumas was reported by 103 of the patients and for 247 of the 249 sepa-rate  traumas  treated.  Follow-up  data  averaging 5 months revealed no relapses. While these data are based on uncontrolled treatments, the absence of relapse ought to pique our attention, since a 98% spontaneous remission from PTSD is unlikely.Sakai  et  al.,  (2001)  reported  on  an  uncon-trolled  study  of  594 applications  of TFT  in  the treatment  of  714  clients  with  PTSD  and  many other  disorders.  Paired  t  tests  of  pre-  and  post-treatment SUD were statistically significant at the 0.01 level in 31 categories.In a 2006 through 2007 study, 50 orphaned adolescents  with  PTSD  symptoms  from  the Rwandan genocide 12 years earlier were treated with a single TFT session, evidencing significant improvement  on  PTSD  checklists  at  a  <0.001 level.  Improvements  were  maintained  at  1-year  follow-up (Sakai, Connolly, & Oas, 2010).Several EP approaches have been subjected to experimental tests. Efficacy in reducing or eliminating symptoms of PTSD, as well as anxiety, depression, and phobias, has been demonstrated in several stud-ies of EFT (Church, 2013, Feinstein, 2012b, Rowe, 2005;  Wells,  Polglase,  Andrews,  Carrington,  & Baker, 2003; Church & Brooks, 2010, 2014).An early EFT study focused on subjects who had been involved in motor vehicle accidents and who experienced PTSD associated with the acci-dent (Swingle & Pulos, 2004). All subjects received two treatment sessions; all reported improvement immediately  following  treatment.  Brain-wave assessments before and after treatment indicated that subjects who sustained the benefit of the treat-ments  had  increased  13–15  Hz  amplitude  over the sensory motor cortex, decreased right frontal cortex arousal, and an increased 3–7 Hz:16–25 Hz ratio in the occipital region.Stone,  Leyden,  and  Fellows  (2009)  found reductions in PTSD symptoms in genocide survi-vors in a different Rwandan orphanage, using two group  sessions  plus  a  single  individual  session  with the most traumatized individuals.Church, Piña, Reategui, and Brooks (2012) performed  a  randomized  controlled  trial  with 16 abused male children aged 12 to 17 in a group home. The experimental group of eight received EFT, while the control group of eight received Mindful Energy PsychologyEnergy Psychology 8:1 • May 201647no  treatment.  A  1-month  follow-up  was  per-formed, which found that the PTSD levels of all eight of the EFT group had normalized, while no member of the control group had improved (p < 0.001).EFT/EP reduced PTSD symptoms in two pilot studies with war veterans (Church, 2010; Church, Geronilla, & Dinter, 2009). In the first study, 11 veterans  and  their  family  members  received  a weeklong  intensive  consisting  of  10  to  15  ses-sions. Their average PTSD scores dropped from clinical  to  subclinical  levels,  as  did  their  other psychological symptoms such as hostility, psycho-sis, phobic anxiety, and depression. Three follow-ups, including at 1 year, found them stable, having maintained  the  gains  they  experienced  in  the weeklong intensive. In the second study, veterans received six sessions of EFT with similar results.These studies led to a full randomized con-trolled trial with a much larger group of subjects (Church, Hawk, Brooks, et al., 2013). The results from  this  study  again  showed  that  symptoms  in  a  wait-list  control  group  did  not  diminish  over  time, while six sessions of EFT produced drops to  subclinical  levels  of  PTSD,  with  the  average subject remaining subclinical at 3- and 6-month follow-up. The veterans were randomized to EFT (n =  30) or standard of care wait list (n =  29). Inter-vention consisted of six hour-long EFT sessions concurrent with standard care. The EFT subjects evidenced  significantly  reduced  psychological distress  (p < 0.0012) and PTSD symptom levels (p < 0.0001) after the intervention. Additionally, 90% of the EFT group no longer met criteria for PTSD, compared with 4% in the control group. After the wait period, the controls received EFT. In  a  within-subjects  longitudinal  analysis,  60% no longer met PTSD criteria after three sessions, which increased to 86% after six sessions for the 49 subjects who received EFT. Benefits remained at  86%  at  3  months  and  at  80%  at  6  months. A  replication  of  this  study  found  similar  results (Geronilla, McWilliams, & Clond, 2014). By com-parison, a similar PTSD study of cognitive behav-ioral therapy showed that only 40% of veterans improved after treatment (Monson et al., 2006).A meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials including 921 subjects revealed a moderate effect size for EP (Gilomen & Lee, 2015). This study  utilized  conservative  statistical  methods, eliminating  studies  with  large  treatment  effects; had  those  been  included,  the  overall  effect  size would  have  been  large.  Later  meta-analyses  of EFT for specific conditions did indeed find large effect sizes: for anxiety (Clond, 2016), depression (Nelms & Castel, 2016), and PTSD (Sebastian & Nelms, 2016). These results point to the effective-ness and efficiency of EP treatments.Reciprocal Synergy: Mindful Energy Psychology (MEP)Mindful  energy  psychology  is  a  theoretical and practice approach that integrates mindfulness and  energy  psychology.  Since  research  supports  the therapeutic effectiveness of both mindfulness practices and EP, an integration of the two is pro-posed to offer significant synergy. It is the author’s observation that when EP techniques are applied most effectively, mindfulness stands as an essen-tial therapeutic active ingredient. A reciprocal syn-ergy also likely occurs, such that the benefits of mindfulness are accelerated and the benefits of EP are deepened when the two are combined.An essential focus of EP has been the treat-ment  and  elimination  of  psychological  problems as efficiently as possible. In many respects, this is consistent with a medical model. The issue being treated, such as depression or PTSD, is understand-ably considered to be problematic both to the cli-ent  and  therapist.  So  the  somatic  stimulation  and  related techniques of EP are ways of “attacking” the problem, “magic bullets” aimed at eliminating the unwanted malady. This does not, however, appear to be in line with mindfulness, which emphasizes nonjudgmental observation and acceptance without intention to eliminate anything. Mindfulness does not involve attempting to change anything; rather it involves a deep level of presence and acceptance.So  how  can  EP  and  mindfulness  be  recon-ciled? By their very nature, they appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, with it appearing paradoxical to hold an emphasis on acceptance or simply  nonjudgmental  observation  of  a  state  or condition  within  the  same  space  of  intending  to  eliminate it.Resolving the ParadoxParadoxes  do  not  have  to  be  eliminated  or resolved. It is conceivable to allow for both change and  acceptance.  Recall  the Serenity  Prayer,  a staple  of  12-step  programs  such  as  Alcoholics Anonymous,  which  begins  with  the  statement, Energy Psychology 8:1 • May 2016Mindful Energy Psychology48“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and  wisdom  to  know  the  difference”  (Niebuhr, 1927).  The  paradox  seems  to  arise  when  both acceptance  and  change  are  positioned  simultane-ously, when one tries to change and accept some-thing at the same time. However, it is feasible to integrate acceptance and change.While  EP  and  many  other  approaches  have been focused on eliminating symptoms, acceptance is  another  way  to  transcend  a  state  or  condition.  In this regard, acceptance involves decentering or stepping back from the situation and observing it from a distinct perspective or distance, so to speak. Rather than acceptance, in some respects observa-tion might more accurately describe the position, although  acceptance  is  along  these  lines.  Also note that trying to eliminate a problem can result in  stress  and  struggle  that  serve  to  perpetuate  the  problem, to a large extent because the situation is being perceived as a problem. On the other hand, by relaxing into and observing the emotional state and its physical aspects (rather than bracing against it  and  wanting  to  change  it)  the  issue  is  more  directly  attuned.  This  position  can  more  deeply facilitate healing. Additionally, this helps the thera-pist and client to be less ego-involved, allowing for healing to occur on its own terms. This assumes that  ego-clinging  is  an  integral  aspect  of  the  con-dition and the suffering, even the perpetrator of it (Jigme, 2004).Psychological ReversalIn line with the foregoing and common to any therapeutic approach, resistance or other kinds of interference  can  occur.  Each  therapy  has  its  con-ceptualization of this phenomenon. Resistance can be viewed as a sign of getting into ripe therapeutic territory. Secondary gains can be factors interfer-ing  with  progress,  indicating  that  the  issue  has certain benefits that need to be addressed. Benefits may include counter beliefs such as loyalty to the family, believing that the problem affords some level of safety, the client believing that he or she deserves to have the problem, or any number of other criteria (Gallo, 2004). Also a problem in the therapeutic  relationship  is  a  systemic  interpreta-tion of resistance, perhaps indicating that the ther-apist has provoked resistance. Any of these factors will block direct access to the presenting issue and interfere with disengaging the interference.From  an  EP  perspective,  the  resistance  or interference is often referred to as “psychological reversal” (Callahan & Turbo, 2002; Gallo, 2004). The assumption here is that there exists an energy blockage or reversal of polarity or energetic flow that  prevents  effective  treatment  of  the  present-ing issue (Pasahow, Callahan, Callahan, & Rapp, 2015). This concept entails a number of permu-tations, and each of these can be seen as a non-acceptance  or  rejection  of  oneself  and  one’s circumstance.These phenomena are referred to as reversal partly because of a response to indicator muscle testing,  which  is  akin  to  ideomotor  signaling. For instance, the client attunes to an issue such as  a  phobia. Then  an  indicator  muscle,  such  as the  anterior  deltoid  or  middle  deltoid,  is  physi-cally  challenged.  Generally,  the  muscle  weak-ens (releases) in response to the stress. Then the client states, “I want to resolve this phobia” versus “I want to keep this phobia.” Without a reversal, the muscle will test strong to “wanting” to resolve the  phobia  and  weak  to  “wanting”  to  keep  it. Given a reversal, the muscle response will be in the  opposite  direction,  namely  strong  to  “want-ing” to keep the phobia. Specific EP procedures are  generally  effective  in  correcting  the  reversal  (Gallo, 2000, 2004). For example, the client taps on  the  ulnar  side  of  either  hand  (i.e.,  the  small intestine–3  acupoint)  while  verbalizing  several times, “Even though I have this problem, I deeply and completely accept myself.”Although  standard  corrections  for  psycho-logical  reversal  contain  mindfulness  elements, reversals are more congruently treated from a mind-ful  energy  psychology  perspective. The  therapist maintains an attitude of acceptance congruent with the client engaging in specific tactile stimulation while being mindful and making a self-acceptance statement and possibly also a statement of accept-ance of the issue being addressed in treatment. For example:“I  accept  myself  with  this  [name  condi-tion].”Or “I accept myself with this [name condi-tion] and I accept this [name condition].”In  some  respects,  the  transmuting  of  psy-chological  reversal  is  similar  to  the  theoretical  position  of  Carl  Rogers  (1961)  regarding  self-acceptance leading to change: “The curious para-dox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then

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Q’s Return on Star Trek: Picard Season 2 will Follow “Significant Trauma”

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Star Trek: Picard is poised to bring back the disingenuously deferential greeting of “Bonjour, mon capitaine!” soon enough, with John de Lancie’s mischievous omnipotent entity, Q, now confirmed for a return on the show’s upcoming second season. It’s an intriguingly exciting development for the Star Trek: The Next Generation spinoff series, which has notably taken the titular former captain down a most curious existential path. Yet, according to star Patrick Stewart, Picard will be in the midst of devastating circumstances by the time Q materializes back into his life.

Paramount+’s teaser trailer for Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is chockfull of evocative Easter eggs, but it closes strong with the tightening shot of a playing card, a Queen of Hearts, that disintegrates until it is left with only a single red “Q,” followed by a familiar voice that ominously states, “The trial never ends.” The line comes from The Next Generation‘s final episode, “All Good Things,” in which Q—as he’d done seven years earlier in the pilot—put humanity (represented by Picard,) on trial for its barbaric ways. Yet, Q’s “trials” tend not to be centered on jurisprudence, and are instead metaphysical tests for Picard to gauge if he (and, by proxy, humanity,) is capable of thinking about the universe in ways that exceeds said barbaric history. Pertinently, in an official Paramount interview (seen far below) with Wesley Crusher actor Wil Wheaton, Stewart (joined virtually by de Lancie,) risks the studio’s wrath by teasing the context of Q’s return on Picard.

“Q’s arrival is, as it often was, utterly unexpected,” explains Stewart. “But [it] also comes at a shattering moment in the episode. And I do mean a shattering moment. Whether it’s directly connected to Q or not, I am still actually not quite sure. But there is significant trauma. And, in fact, at the moment, I am working on how the trauma of this moment hangs around Picard for quite a substantial part of the episode and then [claps his hands] there he is.”

Stewart’s emphasis on the “shattering” nature of what occurs in Picard’s life before Q’s arrival invites speculation about whether he’s being literal, figurative or even both. Picard’s first season certainly wrought impactful changes to the retired captain’s life, involving him in an uprising of synthetic life forms, the exploits of collective-disconnected Borg, the politics of post-planetary-destruction Romulans and even saw the apparent death of Data’s residual essence. Most notably, it actually saw Picard himself die from his neurological condition, only to have his consciousness transferred into a “Golem” android body (designed to emulate all his elderly human frailties). Indeed, WandaVision viewers still playing with the Ship of Theseus thought exercise can also have a philosophical field day with this one. Therefore, with such a consequential array of events having played out in the first season, it leaves fans to wonder what could possibly happen in Picard’s life to warrant potent concepts like “shattering moment” and “significant trauma.”

Read more

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Interestingly, Picard’s status as an android expediently plays into a theme frequently explored on The Next Generation regarding his artificial heart, which was the result of an Academy-era incident during which he was impaled through the heart by a trouble-making Nausicaan ne’er-do-well. The stabbing and subsequent installation of the robotic heart was seen as Picard’s transition from freewheeling playboy cadet to the austere officer we know; a dilution of his humanity exacerbated by his brief assimilation by the Borg as “Locutus.” It’s an aspect that wasn’t lost on Q, who famously put Picard through a flashback ordeal centered on that very moment in the iconic Season 6 episode, “Tapestry.” When Q allowed the stodgy Picard to undo the array of risks he dismissed as youthful mistakes, it took Picard to a version of the present in which he was an aged, unexceptional junior science officer with no command prospects. Once Q allowed him to undo that bleak result, Picard realized that the ordeal was designed to teach a lesson that the man he became is the culmination of his so-called mistakes more than his accomplishments—that our true selves are a gestalt creation (the metaphorical tapestry) of events that we often chose not to face.

“I have changed my visage,” de Lancie mirthfully muses of Q’s current state. “I’ve aged a little bit so as to be more in keeping of where we are right now.” Of course, de Lancie debuted his series-hopping character in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s 1987 two-part pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” and was last seen onscreen in 2001 Star Trek: Voyager episode “Q2.” However, he notably voiced the role of Q in a 2020 episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, titled “Veritas.”

While we’re obviously not privy to the profound events in Picard’s life that precede the long-awaited return of Q on Picard Season 2, Stewart’s teased story elements seem to evoke a version of the judgmental jester as depicted in “Tapestry,” in which he forgoes his antagonistic role to become a dealer of tough love to Picard’s occasional moments of haughty hubris. Additionally, in returning to the theme of Picard’s incrementally diminished humanity, Q’s apparently-timely return could also facilitate a reckoning of sorts with his current artificial state, especially since the former captain’s growing backlog of regrets—his self-perceived complicity in the supernova destruction of Romulus, the android ban and corruption in some of Starfleet’s big brass—might mean that a “Tapestry” type lesson (one possibly rife with Mandalorian/Luke-like digitally-de-aged flashbacks,) is long overdue. Moreover, Trekkies who didn’t quite like the android Picard angle, might have their best hope for his human restoration via some Deus-ex-Q hand-waving.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 doesn’t have a specific release date set, but it is expected to premiere on Paramount+ sometime in 2022.

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