Tag: Lightning Process

  • Do the “Vast Majority” of Lightning Process Participants Achieve “Lasting Change”?

    Coda Story is an excellent news organization focused on international stories related to the misuse of science and technology, among other topics. Today, it published a piece of mine about the training program called the Lightning Process. Sites devoted to the Lightning Process are full of tales of recovery from prolonged illness. I included one…

  • Biopsychosocial Brigades Seek Traction with Long Covid

    Last week, two major articles on long Covid appeared in well-known US publications—one in the Atlantic, the other in Vox. Like the New York Times Magazine article that ran in January, these stories addressed with nuance the complex and unclear relationship between the varieties of long Covid and the group of entities collectively known these…

  • Professors Chalder and Crawley Join Forces to Push CBT for Kids

    On November 10th, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence published a draft of new clinical guidelines for ME/CFS. The draft represented a blunt rejection of the argument that the combination of “unhelpful cognitions” and deconditioning drives the illness. Under this once-hegemonic framework, indicated therapies include cognitive behavior therapy to overcome the unhelpful cognitions…

  • Some Stuff about Long-Covid, BMJ and ME

    It is clear that there will be much grappling going forward over the similarities and differences between long-Covid and ME (or CFS, or ME/CFS, or whatever this illness or cluster of illnesses is being called). The two entities overlap in some ways, but no one should conflate them. We are past the pandemic’s half-year mark.…

  • What Is the Dynamic Neural Retraining System?

    The Lightning Process, which I have covered extensively, isn’t the only program out there making big assertions about its impact on how the brain functions. These assertions piggyback on the emerging science of neuroplasticity and related concepts and involve the brain’s capacity to generate new neural pathways when it adapts to changes in stimuli. The…

  • The Lightning Process Strikes Again

    The Lightning Process was founded more than two decades ago by Phil Parker, a British Tarot reader and specialist in auras and spiritual guides. The LP, as it is often called, could be described as “a neuro-physiological training programme based on self-coaching, concepts from Positive Psychology, Osteopathy and Neuro Linguistic Programming,” as Parker and colleagues…

  • A Response from Dagbladet

    The Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet, taking a page from prestigious UK news organizations, has recently published a series of articles portraying ME patients as anti-scientific and belligerent. As I noted in a letter to Dagbladet two weeks ago, the journalist also misrepresented my academic and professional credentials. Since I didn’t hear back, I recently posted both…

  • Two Letters to Dagbladet About Its ME Coverage

    In recent weeks, the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet has published a series of articles about ME, which it also calls CFS/ME. These articles have promoted the use of the Lightning Process as an intervention, criticized patients and the Norwegian ME Association for expressing opinions about the Lightning Process and cognitive behavior therapy, and engaged in multiple…