Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME) and Similar Conditions
For those of you with CFS /ME, the Lightning Process has become something of a fascinating issue in the press and media in recent years, particularly because of the extraordinary success it’s had in dealing with these appallingly debilitating conditions. As a result, a number of you have probably skipped straight to this chapter to start your journey to join the ranks of the thousands who have found solutions to their CFS/ME by using the Lightning Process. However, I think it’s important to start from the beginning instead or you will miss out some of the essential first steps of the Lightning Process, covered earlier, that will make this chapter easier to understand.
There are a number of other illnesses that are useful to discuss at the same time as CFS/ME. This is not because they are all the same illnesses but because, in my experience, they have similar underlying pathological processes, and all respond equally well to the Lightning Process. These include:
Others of you might feel that you can skip this chapter altogether because you don’t have CFS/ME or other similar health issues. I wouldn’t recommend that either. As I mentioned earlier, these chapters contain some important elements of the Lightning Process that aren’t repeated elsewhere in the book. They also provide personal stories that are a powerful demonstration of how even the most debilitated and apparently hopeless cases can be resolved simply and rapidly using the Lightning Process. The question I would ask you to hold in mind is, ‘If these people with CFS/ME have resolved their difficulties, then what can I do with mine?’
CFS/ME is a disabling neurological illness that has confounded the medical profession for years. Doctors have a difficult time treating CFS/ME because, from their perspective, they’ve found:
There are very vigorous debates about exactly who has the ‘real’ CFS/ME or some subset of CFS/ME but, worst of all, as far as mainstream medicine is concerned, there appears to be no effective cure. Time seems to heal, to one degree or another, but the progress is slow, up and down and impossible to predict.
Based on this history and anecdotal evidence of how difficult it is to recover from CFS/ME, the rapid and lasting success that other sufferers have achieved by using the Lightning Process is often met with scepticism and downright disbelief (chapter 15).
As a well-trained health practitioner who provided some different options to mainstream medicine, I was hopeful that I could use my skills to help clients with CFS/ME recover their health. As time went by, however, and as most other practitioners have experienced, I found that, although I could help these clients a bit, I struggled to help them maintain their improvements. After a while, I began to feel I’d have to join the ranks of resigned practitioners who knew the upset of having to stand by helplessly while people with CFS/ME continued to suffer. It didn’t seem fair, but I’d tried all my best tools and they didn’t seem to be making the difference we all so wanted to see.
In the late 1990s I developed the Lightning Process to help those, as I mentioned in chapter 1, who were stuck in their lives. My initial groups of ‘stuck’ clients didn’t have CFS/ME but after finding the Lightning Process so successful with all sorts of ‘difficult-to-treat’ cases, I began working with CFS/ME sufferers with renewed hope once again. Although I was hopeful, I was unprepared for the astonishing instant and profound changes they achieved. Participants with a variety of CFS/ME symptoms ‘miraculously’ got better overnight. This wasn’t down to anything magical, just an enormous amount of hard work and application on their part. At first, I was cautious of the initial success, and wondered whether it would last. Did it just work for a few people and had I just been lucky with my first clients?
After seeing many CFS/ME clients who all reported the same dramatic improvements and had a complete remission from all their symptoms, I followed them up over the subsequent four-year period and discovered three important things:
You might think from reading this book, with its focus on the importance of how we approach things mentally, that I’d be the kind of person who might say that CFS/ME is in the mind, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s a real, true and genuinely physical condition.
One of the greatest fears of many sufferers of CFS/ME is that people will think or presume that they are just malingering (which they are not); that there isn’t anything wrong with them and they should just stop pretending to be ill. This is heightened by conventional medicine’s inability to find anything consistently wrong with them.
The idea, therefore, of trying a training programme that has a track record of helping other issues – some of which, like depression or anxiety, stem from the workings of the mind – is often the last thing they want to contemplate. Surely, they wonder, this will just confirm what some people have been saying about them not really being ‘properly ill’. But rest assured, this is not a logical argument. First, we need to recall how many tools, like a PC or a smartphone for example, can be used for many completely different purposes (chapter 4).
Next, we need to be clear that, just because the Lightning Process can work with physical issues, it doesn’t prevent it from working with mental issues, too. And just because it works with mental/emotional issues doesn’t mean that all the issues it works with are of a mental nature.
This is an example of logical thought (or more precisely, syllogisms) gone wrong. Syllogisms are a logical way of taking pieces of information and using them to come to an accurate conclusion. In the example below we have two statements of truth:
And the logical conclusion is, ‘No snakes have fur’. Applying that to the Lightning Process, we could say:
But it’s obviously not accurate to say that eczema is a neurological disorder, because it’s a skin disorder.
Or:
Here, it’s equally not reasonable to conclude that ‘CFS/ME is an emotional-based issue’.
We are often lulled into the idea that physiological issues need a physical approach to fix them: physiotherapy or osteopathy for bad backs, and so on. Although a quick reflection will point out that most people take chemicals for physical problems (taking painkillers for a bad back is most people’s first response), or rely on the body’s onboard healing systems, ‘time and rest’.
So, although CFS/ME is a physical condition, physical cures like osteopathy, nutrition, pacing and rest are sometimes helpful to some degree, but they are simply not very effective in producing rapid, effective and lasting recovery. Therefore, if what you are doing is ineffective, it’s time to try something else. As Sherlock Holmes suggested: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’.
Many people consult me with other physical conditions that just won’t resolve using ‘conventional’ methods, including back pain, headaches, paralysis, asthma, eczema, digestive problems and allergies. In these cases, and in the case of CFS/ME, the solution is to work with the way the body and brain interact with the neuromuscular, endocrinal and immunological systems. Recognizing this, and becoming familiar and comfortable with these ideas, are the first steps of the Lightning Process, which is why they are the focus of earlier chapters. During the first day of the Lightning Process seminar the mechanisms and pathophysiology that underlie how CFS/ME begins and is maintained are explored in even more depth.
Now let’s move on to people’s actual experience of the Lightning Process and how they recovered from CFS/ME.
Let’s begin with Ruth. I saw her in 2004, and am still in contact with her, at the time of writing, in 2012. Her story is told in her own words.
I am so glad to have this opportunity to express the immense joy I feel in having been completely cured of CFS/ME in quite literally minutes, using Phil Parker’s Lightning Process. My experience of CFS/ME had been extremely severe. I cannot say when it started, for the build-up of stress and symptoms were insidious throughout my teenage years, but by the age of 20, I was completely bedbound for 24 hours a day.
My parents diagnosed me after weeks of anxious studying. Many remedies were tried, with hugely detrimental results, and there was no real help from the NHS. I declined rapidly into a vegetative-like state and was fed, washed and turned over daily by my parents, who gave up their retirement to care for me. I struggled to retain my consciousness, as I felt in agony, buried alive with excruciating pain. I lost my ability to speak and couldn’t tolerate the brightness of any sunlight. In some ways, I was fortunate in that I was too ill to become depressed, although it was six years before I could begin to speak again and start to ask for help.
Three years ago, when I was almost 26, I started an antioxidant protocol formulated and administered by a South African doctor, and at last I began to improve a little. After three years of this, I felt able to seek help outside of my home and bedroom, although I was still horizontal for most of the day at this point.
I spoke to Phil Parker and he told me about the seemingly amazing results he’d got by using the Lightning Process to help others with similar problems to mine. I started the Process in October and within minutes I knew there was no possibility of staying ill any longer! The effect was immediate. Phil shone a light on the ‘condition’ and upon me, which allowed me to see for the first time what CFS/ME really is. Phil taught me how to clearly see a way out for myself.
It’s now been three days since my first day of training, and I have been cured for two whole days. I am, at long last, experiencing a truly energetic and dynamic existence. What I’ve been able to do physically for the last 48 hours is so exciting, as I’ve been up with the dawn and busy all day; not going to bed till very late in the evening, enjoying every moment, and relishing every new discovery.
I feel the Lightning Process has ‘uncovered’ me, and now I can see myself and my own desires and ambitions – I can find my place in the world. This is so much more than just a cure for ME! It’s the gift of a real human life; how we are designed to live, in the truth and spontaneity of ourselves within the present moment. For me, anyway, the Lightning Process has retaught me how to live a jubilant existence. Therefore, with great joy, I want to exclaim: ‘Thank you Phil!’
Due to an extreme reaction to the damp and spores in her parents’ house, Ruth had been unable to visit her parents, or even see them, unless they were wearing clothes that had never been inside the family home.
She wrote this a month after her first visit:
I have now been able to spend over an hour with my parents in their home – my family and friends are absolutely thrilled. I can’t express how amazing this is, thank you.
A year later, Ruth completed a walk along the Northumbrian Coastal path. Now, eight years on, Ruth is married, has travelled widely and continues to be well.
When I was 43 I was struck down by the debilitating symptoms and restricted lifestyle imposed by CFS/ME. Initially, I had been very severely affected, but even though more recently things had improved a bit, I still spent most days on the sofa or in bed and was only able to leave the house for a few hours, at most once a week, relying on my wheelchair for outside mobility.
Although, like many others, I found this hard to accept and had tried to regain my health, nothing provided the answers for which I yearned, and the cure remained elusive for 12 years. That was until, by chance, at the age of 55, I heard about Phil Parker and his Lightning Process. Having read Ruth’s testimonial and then checked out Phil’s website, I felt inspired to phone for more information. Within the hour I had made the necessary appointment with him.
The first session covered so much ground about how I had got and stayed so unwell – everything I learned in that session made so much sense and was precisely in keeping with the way I was beginning to view the illness. That session also taught me the tools to recover.
That afternoon, I went shopping with my husband for hours. I decided I wouldn’t need my wheelchair – not only on that day, but ever again. When I got home that evening I stayed up for hours, later than I had in years.
Today is day two of the Process, and I have turned my back on CFS/ME forever. I have the tools now to know that I can free myself from its vice-like grip.
I already regard myself as having recovered, and the future glows brilliantly ahead of me. It’s amazing! Now I am in control of my life. I really feel I have come alive!
Evelyn phoned a week later to add:
When we last spoke, I created a list of things to do as a measure of my ability to function normally. Well, I’m pleased to report that I have done all the things on my list, and friends, family and neighbours have all noticed that I’m looking different and am much calmer.
I’ve also noticed that I’ve been able to be so much more spontaneous. I’ve been to places that have been off limits to me for years as they’re not wheelchair accessible.
Thanks Phil.
Evelyn sent us this after a month:
Well, one month on and I’m delighted to say that my progress continues. After all these years I am having difficulty staying indoors and now go out twice most days! The freedom and pleasure of being around other people is overwhelming.
It is also wonderful to be able to spend more time with my husband, who has been a great support to me. We are now returning to a more equal relationship, and I feel that I can begin to take much of the load off his shoulders. We have such plans for the future, and he says he feels like he has a new wife!
I am rapidly regaining my confidence and independence – driving and socializing once more. Oh, the thrill of having a really good long chat with a friend! My legs are getting stronger too, and I now cope easily with supermarket shopping. Housework is also a joy, which of course leaves my husband extra time for those DIY tasks.
Roll on summer – oh, to go on holiday again! The only problem is... where to go first?
Evelyn wrote to us again after three months:
Well, Phil, I’m so sorry that this update on my recovery has taken such a long time to arrive; as you’ve no doubt guessed, I’ve been really busy!
Amazingly, this morning I mowed the lawn! Really, was that me? I’ve also had a walk in the park and completed a supermarket shop. The list goes on; what a wonderful day, and my life continues to improve. For half a day a week now, I do some voluntary work, and it’s so good to feel of use to others once more.
When my father was recently in hospital, I was able to visit him twice a day and at last feel that I can resume my role as a supportive daughter. Needless to say, he is delighted with my progress too. My birthday also arrived and instead of spending it with the TV, I had a meal out in the evening with dear friends and had a wonderful time.
In the early days of CFS/ME, I felt that I was living a nightmare and hoped to wake up for a better life. Now I am living that life.
Interestingly, Evelyn’s son also had CFS/ME. He’d watched his mum’s initial excitement with some scepticism, and her continued improvement with growing interest, but, for his own reasons, decided it wasn’t for him. We hear this quite often. In fact, many of our participants tell us that they wouldn’t have been seen dead trying out something as ‘unorthodox’ as the Lightning Process only months before they decided to take the training, but that someone’s story on the website, or someone they know personally both before, during and after the Process, somehow gave them a change of heart.
Two years later, almost to the day, having found he was once again struggling with his energy at university, Evelyn’s son decided to learn the Process too. Like his mother, within the first day of the training his CFS/ME went, and he now maintains a full and normal undergraduate life.
I’d had CFS/ME for five and a half years when I came across Phil Parker’s Lightning Process in a book I was reading. The book detailed how it had been successful in ‘curing’ two people of CFS/ME. Since being diagnosed with CFS/ME, I’d spent a lot of time, money and effort in searching for a cure. I’d tried everything, from conventional medicine and alternative therapies to the bizarre! Conventional medicine didn’t help, although a supportive GP was invaluable. Reflexology, Acupuncture, Tai Chi and psychotherapy worked for me but, although I made good progress, I couldn’t seem to achieve full recovery, no matter how dedicated I was.
When I booked my training with Phil, I was scared; if this didn’t work, I felt I had nowhere left to go. Before my first session with Phil, I was having nine to ten hours of restless sleep a night and resting a lot in the day due to unrefreshing sleep. I had only enough energy to work a couple of hours a week for a local charity and avoided most social occasions due to a fear of not being well enough. I was also fearful of pushing myself, in case my symptoms worsened, and spent most of my day anxious about being ill.
After the first session, I felt different. I was more self-confident, and for the first time in five years I was confident that my body was going to fully recover; I felt stronger. By the end of the second session, I was no longer feeling tired or dizzy and was able to go for a long walk in the evening after a day spent walking around the city.
I left after my third session, free of CFS/ME and committed to regaining my former physical strength and a life that I loved.
A week on from my first session, and I’m walking for 90 minutes a day. I’m also doing two days a week voluntary work and have attended a yoga class and two Tai Chi classes in the last three days. I’ve also been socializing with astonished friends and family, who have been complimenting me on how well I look. In addition, I’ve been doing the shopping, cooking and housework. I am getting eight hours of refreshing sleep a night, and I’m happy and positive and life is fun and easy again. I could never have imagined how quickly and by how much the Process could change things for me. I was sceptical before booking my training about how effective the Process would be, and I did think that it might not work for me, but I was so wrong.
I know I will go from strength to strength, and my goal now is to be fitter than I was before having CFS/ME. I can’t thank Phil enough for teaching me how to reclaim my life.
Two weeks later, she wrote:
My life continues to improve. I drove home from the train station on Thursday – the longest distance I have driven in four years (and in the dark). I spent all day Friday and Saturday driving around, going out for lunch, shopping, etc.
Today, I’ve been to do my voluntary work, walked two hours and I’ve done a two-hour Tai Chi class! I’m so pleased. Thanks again.
Ten months later, she wrote:
It is ten months to the day since I had my first session with Phil. Looking back, I hardly recognize the life I was living then, and I’m truly thankful to Phil for the profound changes he has helped me make.
Over this time I have started two part-time jobs (working both of them for the last six months), and I started a college course five months ago. I exercise every day, I spend weekends socializing, and I’m in the process of buying a house. Ten months ago, even considering one of these things would have sent me into a panic, and yet now I am able to keep my life in balance for the first time. After curing myself of CFS/ME, I was curious to see what other changes I was able to make.
The changes I experienced as a result of using it on other issues were the most profound of all. I have changed at a fundamental level and have achieved the change that I had always wanted but until I met Phil, had no idea how I was going to achieve. It has affected every area of my life. It has enhanced all the other changes I have made, and it has enriched and continues to enrich my whole experience of life.
The great thing about how the Lightning Process works is that you can take it as far as you need/want to. The tools are there – you can decide what masterpiece you create!
Three years later, Sarah has completed her college training and is working full time. She continues to be well.
Claire’s life, and her career in the city, were stopped dead in their tracks when she developed CFS/ME. She tells the story of her recovery in her own words:
Daydreaming about socializing, exercising, having a career and just generally having fun was what I did most days when I had CFS/ME. Actually being able to do these things seemed like a faraway dream.
I had CFS/ME for two years, and every time I thought I was finally regaining my health, I would relapse, leaving me feeling like I would never again be the lively person I once was. Some days, even getting out of bed and walking around the garden for ten minutes was a struggle.
Also, food for me was a huge issue. Every month I seemed to become intolerant to something. Of course I had been to see all the top consultants in the field, and tried osteopathy and massage therapy, but even though their treatments seemed to work short term, the effects failed to last. Each time, I was left feeling frustrated and miserable. I was 100 per cent committed to recovery, so why wasn’t I getting any results?
I have now realized that the power to heal myself has always been within me, instead of looking to external medication and therapies for a cure.
After doing the Lightning Process for just three days, I have walked for 40 minutes every day, had a friend round for five hours solid and eaten apple pie and spicy food! My muscles feel supple and loose, and, most importantly, I have had no rest periods and I am sleeping soundly during the night!
I’m even planning a trip to Newcastle – something that I would have been far too scared to do just a few days ago! My friends and family are shocked at my sudden health and energy, but for me it feels so natural to be doing so much again, and I can now look forward to my future.
I would urge you to give the Lightning Process a chance, as it has enabled me to regain my health. I am so thankful to Phil, who has taught me how to get my life back.
Claire emailed us two weeks later with this update:
I just thought I’d let you know that last night I went out in Covent Garden for the first time in two years and it was amazing!
I had such a cool time, and I was even drinking (not to excess though, I alternated between vodka, Champagne and gallons of water) and I didn’t collapse and die or anything! I danced all night long, and when the bar closed at two-ish, I wanted to carry on somewhere else; unfortunately no one else did! Wow, I’m just so happy, I had to share it with you!
Many people who use the Lightning Process to completely turn their health or life around feel that, now they’ve got their life back, they want to do something powerful, contributing and fulfilling with it. After experiencing the life-changing effects of this work for themselves, and being amazed with what’s possible, a small percentage of them, unsurprisingly, decide that this is a path they want to follow. Having used the Lightning Process on themselves, they can speak with authority on the power of the body–brain–mind link to cause problems and create solutions, and therefore make excellent practitioners as a result.
I don’t personally know the author of this story, as I found it on an internet forum about the Lightning Process, but I think it has a very interesting perspective (chapter 15).
I was very anti-LP three years ago. I thought (erroneously) that LP blamed me for my physical illness (I had two, six-year blocks of chronic ME); that people who had recovered their health so quickly had obviously not been that unwell to start with, or else they had been misdiagnosed with ME; that while some people may have been genuinely ill, the selection process only picked people who were just about to get well anyway; that many people crashed afterwards, but were too embarrassed/guilt-ridden to say so; and that people were pressured into exaggerating the scale of their transformation. Long story short – an increasing number of testimonies from trusted friends led to us talking to a practitioner. I did the course with my husband, and recovered instantly. He said it was like seeing me come back to life before his eyes. Six months on, and I’m running, biking, swimming, climbing mountains in Wales, and finishing off my (long-stalled) PhD!!
I think I initially reacted badly to LP because (1) I had misunderstood it and (2) it dares to suggest that I have a role to play in influencing my own health (which is flipping obvious when you think about it, but I didn’t want to hear it: take a pill, yes, but work at changing the habits of a lifetime? No!).
So very, very glad that I changed my mind...
These are just a handful of cases out of the many we have collected, but they are typical. Our experience is, if they can do it by following the steps of the Lightning Process, then why shouldn’t you expect to get exactly the same kinds of results yourself?
Ask yourself, ‘What have I learned by reading these case histories?’ Write this down.
One of the commonest patterns of thinking that I have seen in many people attending the Lightning Process is something I call the ‘Same and Different’ pattern.
I was made very aware of it one day after working with a group of CFS/ME sufferers. At the end of their Lightning Process training they had all left their CFS/ME far behind and were discussing what obstacles they had encountered when deciding to come on the course in the first place.
One participant said that she had watched some videos on the internet of other people who had reported that they had recovered from CFS/ME using the Lightning Process. She felt that, because their symptoms didn’t seem as bad as hers, the Lightning Process probably wouldn’t be as helpful for her as it had been for them.
Another participant was amazed by this, however, as she had watched exactly the same videos too. But because the symptoms of the people in the videos seemed to be worse than hers, she suspected that the Lightning Process probably wouldn’t be as helpful for her as it had been for them.
Apparently, they had both managed to use the same Lightning Process success stories to talk themselves out of being likely to get change – but for completely opposing reasons.
It seemed that they were able to use this information to confirm to themselves that they were different, and so couldn’t get the same results.
Interestingly, in my years of experience of CFS/ME, I have never, ever seen any two sufferers with exactly the same set of symptoms and presentation. Over the years, this is one of the difficulties that both medicine and CFS/ME sufferers have faced with this peculiar illness, because without consistent findings, it’s extremely difficult to accurately diagnose.
In the same conversation, another participant told how they had heard about our high success rates but had also noted that there were a small percentage of people who didn’t get much benefit from undertaking the training. They felt sure that they would be bound, somehow, to be the same as the people who didn’t benefit from the training.
So this is the ‘Same and Different Losing Strategy’ – a guaranteed way to make life more difficult and less satisfying. It’s the tragic combination of excluding yourself (different) from the successful group, and aligning yourself (same) with the group who get poor results. It’s something to be avoided at all costs if you want to get maximum value from both the Lightning Process and from life itself.
There is a simple antidote to this strategy – it’s the ‘Same and Different Success Strategy’. Successful people in all fields use it, especially when they’re attempting something new and unfamiliar.
This is where you decide to focus on how similar you are to people who’ve been successful, and how different you are from those who’ve not got the results you want. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the qualities of champions, and one you see in those who make the most rapid change using the Lightning Process.
Are you using the ‘Same and Different Losing Strategy’ or the ‘Same and Different Success Strategy’?
If you aren’t using the ‘Same and Different Success Strategy’, what do you have to do to make sure you do from now on? Write your thoughts down.
Most sufferers, carers, support groups and medical opinion think that CFS/ME is an illness that is relatively unresponsive to treatment. However, both my experience and that of my ex-CFS/ME clients have found things to be quite different. They report that they have recovered rapidly, in many cases within hours or days of starting to use the Lightning Process, and stayed well ever since. If you follow the Lightning Process, and do what they did, then isn’t it reasonable to assume that you should get very similar results too?
Do you find this perspective easy to agree with? If ‘yes’, you can skip the rest of this exercise. If your answer is ‘no’, or ‘maybe’, then it’s vital to answer the following questions.
Do you have any actual proof (apart from your experience that the things you’ve used so far haven’t been right for you) that it’s impossible to get well easily? YES/NO
If you are uncertain whether your issues can be resolved easily, then, considering everything you have read in this book, what do you think the effects of doubting this will be on your ability to make the changes you want, easily?
What do you need to do, think, or research in order to change this reasonable, but unhelpful belief?
This next section is designed to give you an understanding of three of the elements I have noted in my observations of thousands of people suffering from, and recovering from, CFS/ME. I’ve chosen to describe these elements as they will make sense from the ground we’ve already covered. They form a part of the complex body–brain–mind interaction which has a role in maintaining the harmful physiology of CFS/ME. I’d recommend you consider how this applies to you, whether you have CFS/ME or not.
One of the patterns I have observed is the disempowering ‘treatment response cycle’. This is where:
Some elements of this pattern, such as step 6, have been documented by Irving Kirsch23 in his work on ‘response expectancy’. Now that you have read the section on placebos (chapter 3), you will be much more aware of the effect that these disappointing experiences will have on the effectiveness of treatments. You should be all too familiar with the idea that, even the effect of a really strong and powerful drug will be influenced by what we expect is going to happen. As a result, any future treatment (including medical drugs and even surgery) is then bound to be approached with less confidence. This, in turn, is going to make it less effective.
This pattern, discussed earlier (chapter 6), helps enormously to support the sufferers’ and the medical perspective that CFS/ME is a physical illness and not all in the mind. Understanding the physiology of the PER and the Destructive Spiral shows a clear route to how the mind, brain and body interact. This, in my view, and the view of many other experts in the field, is essential to deal with such a multisystem disease as CFS/ME. As Dr Manu, an expert in the field, wrote in the American Journal of Medicine: ‘More than any other issue in contemporary medicine, CFS reflects the unresolved conflict between the mechanistic and biophysical construct of illness24.
My experience is that most of the treatments that CFS/ME sufferers have tried in the past have probably been quite good approaches from dedicated and experienced practitioners, yet the treatment so often fails to make a difference, and, frequently, any improvements just don’t seem to ‘hold’. The problem is that, against this background of internal immune dysfunction, the treatment just hasn’t got a chance of making a big enough difference. It’s like trying to carry water in a leaky bucket; the effects of treatment just won’t last. However, once this and the other important elements of the illness are resolved, the body can recover its own equilibrium and begin the process of self-healing.
If something in this chapter reminds you of your issues, then you should ask yourself, ‘If others have made these changes, then why not me?’
What do you need to let go of in terms of:
Write down your reflections.
Each of the following six chapters focuses on different issues that have responded well to the Lightning Process – and remember, it isn’t important to have these issues in order to learn something from each chapter. So, recalling everything we now know about placebos (chapter 3) and ‘the Same and Different Strategy’, let’s continue on to the next chapter and gather even more evidence, so that you can make a difference where it counts most…