An article written by Mike September 2007 (Who would like to remain anonymous)

Why am I writing this article?

For 2 reasons:

1) To share my experience of the Lightning Process
2) To respond to an article written by Greg Crowhurst on the 25megroup.org site.

I feel very strongly about the Lightning process and want to tell as many people about it as I can (and in case you are wondering I am not on any commission and I haven’t spoken to Phil Parker about any of this)

To start, I had ME for about 16 months and because of my illness, I was unable to work and became personally bankrupt, which involved losing my house and any worthwhile possessions. It was a little after a year of my illness that I heard about the process. At that time there was about a 3 month waiting list to see Phil Parker. I had not tried as many things as other ME sufferers, and so perhaps was a little more optimistic in finding something that would help me.

After hearing about the Lightning Process, I decided to read up as much as I could about it. The point at which I decided to do it was when I looked at Phil’s website and saw how quickly people had been cured. I went to see Phil at the end of October 2006. I wasn’t cured in 3 days – I was cured the first day. The next 2 days were a re-inforcement of teachings from the first day. Since then I have never even been ill with as much as a cold.

It may be interesting to note here that in the last 20 years I have been sick every year between 2-5 times, with at least 2 weeks off work each time. I seemed to get illnesses quite often that would drain my energy levels completely.

I am 49 years old at the time of writing, and live in the Midlands. I have a wife and 3 grown-up daughters. I consider myself an average man who has worked most of his life. I have no qualifications in the medical profession, and my only interest in medicine has been purely from the point of view of my own illness. As I said before, since my illness I have gone personally bankrupt and have lost my house. I am not revealing this so that you will feel sorry for me, but only for you to understand my point of view as you read.

A Critic of the Lightning Process

Generally speaking, I believe it is good to have critics on any subject, because it gets us to see another point of view. However, the word critic has one of two main definitions:

1) anyone who expresses a reasoned judgement of something
or
2) someone who frequently finds fault or makes harsh and unfair judgements

Unfortunately, Greg Crowhurst appears to fall in the 2nd category.
He states, first of all that “According to its founder Phil Parker, The Lightning Process is based upon the assumption that “ME can be turned around rapidly, through addressing thought patterns". This is mainly true. However, his next statement insinuates that you have to be desperate to accept it to be true by saying – “Sadly many ME sufferers are so desperate they will try anything”

If he wanted to give a balanced view of whether the Lightning Process was worth looking into, why has he started off with a put-down?

Greg talks about The Lightning Process as “using a mix of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnotherapy Gutierrez (2006) to help people get well.” However, he omitted to mention that it also involves Life Coaching and Osteopathy, which are important elements in the process.

NLP's insights can be helpful

At least Greg mentions something more positive here by stating “It must be emphasised that some of NLP's insights can be helpful: "We are how we communicate. Say you can't do something and you're right. However say you can and you open up the possibilities." (Crowhurst 1991); the author has found this maxim to be extremely empowering in his own life.
NLP like Hypnosis can be very much misunderstood.

Greg says “A criticism of NLP, for example, and the psychiatric lobby, is the lack of scientific validity of their claims, however the NLP community are making some progress in statistical research, especially around NLP meta programs – this refers to the series of mental filters which determine how one behaves based on how one thinks – even so it is probably more accurate to regard this as a variation on a theme of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).Several reviewers have characterized NLP as :
• pseudoscientific• psychobabble• charlatanry• fraudulent • a dubious therapy • a cult • a religion, similar though not so overt as Scientology• a New Age therapy – considered responsible even for the New Age movement.

To say that NLP is psychobabble etc. is not giving a helpful balanced view on those practitioners that use it in a professional and ethical manner. Similarly, talking about stage hypnosis and seeing others being under “the control of the hypnotist” is not helpful to the professional hypnotherapist groups, where they do not “control” the client and only use it in a beneficial way to the client. It should be said here that in any case hypnosis does not control the client, it can only reinforce suggestions with which he is comfortable to agree.

Raising Hope

The next comment I want to pick up on is “The fact that neurological terms are used and that ME is a neurological illness could raise sufferer's hopes by association”.

It is the hope that in using these neurological terms (also with Life Coaching, Osteopathy and Hypnotherapy) that the enquirer will raise their hopes. This is what the website is for – to give people hope and then get them to take action. This is the exact effect it had on me.

The next Greg comment is: Individual NLP trainers often introduce or idiosyncratically develop their own methods, concepts and labels, branding under the "NLP" names such as :
• New Code of NLP • NAC Neuro Associative ConditioningTM• Neuro – Semantics TM• Advanced Neuro DynamicsTM & Time Line TherapyTM• DHE- Design Human Engineering TM
• SkyDancing TantraTM And of course the Lightning ProcessTM .

It goes without saying that the Lightning Process is different from any other line of NLP, mainly because it is not just NLP. It is also Hypnotherapy, Life Coaching and Osteopathy.

Much of NLP is charismatically or evangelistically taught . It is possible to gain a qualification in NLP in just a few sessions, but it may not even be worth the paper it is printed on. Concern has been expressed that NLP can be manipulative, that practitioners show a weak grasp of ethics, and that there is no regulatory body. In addition the field has been criticised for a “lunatic” fringe that goes around claiming to be able to do virtually anything.

I agree with Greg that much of NLP is charismatically or evangelistically taught . Chris Howard for example, is a new-age NLP evangelist (as of writing). However, his methods are very powerful and you cannot help but to feel good when you leave one of his seminars.

However, the way the Lightning Process works, is not charismatically or evangelistically taught. and it is not just NLP. Much like a Hypnotherapist does not put you on a “stage” and get you to do things for entertainment, Phil does not use any charismatic or evangelical methods. (This is not to say that he does not have personal charisma!) It is professionally done, and it is on a much more personal basis.

I personally, am not convinced that it is possible to gain an ethical and professional qualification in NLP in just a few sessions, (unless it is from a non-ethical/non-professional organisation). Greg says that concern has been expressed that NLP can be manipulative – this I can believe, as it is so powerful. To say that practitioners show a weak grasp of ethics, and that there is no regulatory body - this can be said of many alternative therapies like Hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy and others. But this doesn’t mean that all Hypnotherapists and Aromatherapists all show a weak grasp of ethics. Greg then states that “In addition the field has been criticised for a “lunatic” fringe that goes around claiming to be able to do virtually anything”. Politics and Religion also have lunatic fringes – but this doesn’t take away from the central mass of a completely different image and message.

I disagree with Greg on his next point that “As on the Lightning Process website, anecdotes and user testimonials are mostly used by NLP practitioners in support of their treatment , rather than rigorous pre and post-treatment comparisons”. On the Lightning Process website, the video testimonials are there to show the pre-treatment and post-treatment comparisons. (Perhaps these videos were not there when Greg wrote his article?) It is because of the videos and the obvious change in the clients that I came to believe it could work for me.

Relevance to ME

Greg then goes on to state “An argument often used in ME is that sufferers become so preoccupied with negative thoughts and the illness itself, that it reinforces its grip on their lives. The mind and the body are linked and it is possible by changing their thoughts for the sufferer to raise their energy levels, enhance their coping skills and even get well. While there is no proven link between thinking yourself well and the body making itself well, there is no doubt that the body-mind connection is mysterious and sufferer's can at least tap into a beneficial higher spiritual, if not physical energy (Crowhurst 2006), and can certainly learn how to cope better within the illness”

It is believed by many, even today, that someone with ME can just “snap out of it” or can “pull themselves together” and with a little dose of harshness can bring about a change in the sufferer. This is not what the Lightning Process believes. It’s not just a case of preoccupation with negative thoughts and the illness itself, that reinforces its grip on their lives. It is much more than that.

Greg goes on to say that “Phil Parker describes his Lightning Process as an “ interactive journey of discovery, that takes 3 hours to unfold “ Although this may seem impossible for the ME sufferer they do not need to worry for “as soon as the journey begins symptoms start to lift “. Would Parker say the same to a Cerebal Palsy sufferer or a Parkinson's sufferer, I wonder? For ME is just as serious and physical an illness” Why would Phil Parker think of saying that to a cerebral palsy or Parkinson's sufferer? How can an ME sufferer be compared to a Parkinson’s sufferer? The Lightning Process is not a panacea for all illnesses, nor is it a cure. It is a training program which, among other things, teaches the client how to control their body's production of adrenalin and cortisol and then how to continue living a life that they want. As far as I know, Cerebral Palsy and Parkinson’s disease are not suitable at all for this treatment, nor as far as I know does Phil Parker claim that they are.

Greg Continues ”The key to successfully recovering from your M.E, says Parker on his website, is to :“1. Identify the thought patterns that my research has found to be always present in someone with M.E.`…..What an extraordinary claim to make !”

Extraordinary? Why does Greg say extraordinary?

2. Discover a way to automatically, easily and effectively stop those thought patterns

3. Then decide what to do with the rest of your life.

...If only it were that simple !! –

It is that simple!

Well, as I have been through the process, in my opinion, it is that simple. After the first day I felt completely different, and have ever since. It is simple, but it isn’t easy. When using the process for the first few times, it didn’t come naturally to me. However, using it again and again it becomes more natural the more that you use it.

Greg then makes this comment “His approach is strikingly similar , if not identical, to the behavioural programme currently being peddled by the psychiatric lobby, which survey after survey reveals to be unhelpful or even dangerous, for the ME sufferer.” I am not sure how the approach is similar to “that being peddled by the psychiatric lobby”. There have been hundreds of people that have seen Phil Parker who now do not have ME. He first wrote about what their pre-course condition was and then what their post condition was after the course. But then people were criticizing saying that it was him writing it, not the people themselves. So then he got the clients to write their own testimonials and then he was criticized because people were saying that he could have made the clients up, so now he has taken videos before and after the course to show the dramatic change in people. However, critics that look to find fault will also find fault with this.

Any claim, like Parker's that the complex, neurological illness ME can be cured by changing your thoughts, flies in the face of all the evidence.

I disagree. The evidence suggests otherwise. The evidence is in those who have been cured by using the Lightning Process training programme.

If you are thinking negatively and feeling bad about yourself as a result of your thoughts, then there is no harm in changing your thoughts, however if your thoughts are accurately acknowledging your awful physical reality, then changing them is not going to bring about a physical cure. You may feel more optimistic, more hopeful. There is no direct link between feeling good and being well unfortunately. You can hope to be well, but it does not mean you are going to be.

Missing the Point

In my opinion, Greg has completely missed the point of this Lightning Process training programme. When a client is given 3 hours of instruction and training on the first day, they become aware of why they are feeling the way they do. From this, Phil uses a very simple method of bringing the adrenalin under control and then helping the client think a different way so that they never get M.E. again

When are we going to have real treatment for ME sufferers that actually honours the severity of the symptoms and the severity of the illness people actually have - rather this New Age thought - theory currently being peddled both as mainstream psychiatric treatment and others that are more of a fringe treatment ?

I have now been free of M.E. for almost a year now at the time of writing, and have never been more healthy than I am now. I used to get colds and flu type symptoms 3 or 4 times a year before I was diagnosed with M.E. and now since seeing Phil I haven’t yet been ill with even a slight cold.

There is a whole level of denial that allows people to downgrade the severity and integrity of this severe neurological illness into something that can easily be changed with the right thought and the right exercise. Feeling very ill is not necessarily the same as being very ill. However being very ill will make you feel very ill - and that is an entirely different ballgame.

I agree with Greg here, that feeling ill is not the same as being ill and that being ill will make you feel ill. I was definitely ill with M.E. and I also felt ill. I had a good doctor that could not help me but he acknowledged that I was actually ill. Not every doctor will acknowledge M.E. but more doctors are accepting it. My doctor was interested to find that I was cured and I have been telling many people about it since.

I can understand people finding the Lightning Process difficult to use in the beginning, because even though the steps are simple, they need to be used over and over again for them to feel “natural”. It does take effort, but then I have found that much in life worth having takes effort.

Phil Parker's official website is:-

www.lightningprocess.com