Out of the 80 accounts with a clear outcome; 1 more don’t say how it went.
How it went
Did it last?
- 8 of 81 said the benefit wore off.
- 10 of 81 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 59 | 74% |
| Near-full | 10 | 12% |
| Substantial | 10 | 12% |
| Partial | 0 | 0% |
| Relapsed | 0 | 0% |
| No benefit | 1 | 1% |
| Outcome unclear | 1 | — |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 8 | 88% | |
| Severe | 41 | 88% | |
| Very severe | 24 | 96% |
8 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
26% of these accounts are on pages that sell this treatment or a program around it. Those pages publish their successes; compare the independent row.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Lightning Process, per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 1 | 184 | 5.4 |
| 2010 | 0 | 682 | 0.0 |
| 2011 | 0 | 704 | 0.0 |
| 2012 | 0 | 1,491 | 0.0 |
| 2013 | 2 | 1,708 | 1.2 |
| 2014 | 2 | 2,352 | 0.9 |
| 2015 | 3 | 2,158 | 1.4 |
| 2016 | 1 | 1,431 | 0.7 |
| 2017 | 2 | 3,110 | 0.6 |
| 2018 | 0 | 2,201 | 0.0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1,075 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 2,581 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 2 | 1,867 | 1.1 |
| 2022 | 2 | 1,166 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1,000 | 1.0 |
| 2024 | 1 | 1,237 | 0.8 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1,019 | 4.9 |
| 2026 (so far) | 4 | 840 | 4.8 |
Posts in the forum threads we archived, 26,806 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These threads all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
Side effects and harms people mentioned
Found by scanning the summaries for side-effect language, so this list is incomplete and may include a mention that isn’t about Lightning Process itself. Read the story before drawing conclusions.
- Mood or psychiatric effects
She became bedridden and wheelchair-dependent, unable to turn over in bed on her own, limited to five-minute whispered conversations, and at one point felt suicidal, writing "life had no value to me." Six months after the course she says she exercises two to three times a week and has traveled to the Canary Islands and London, calling herself "pleased as punch" with her life.
- Made symptoms worse
She attributes the change to recognising "destructive patterns" of anticipatory anxiety about worsening — "the anticipation that I would get worse in itself made me worse" — stressing that LP "is not a miracle cure" but demands ongoing work to change those patterns.
- Gut side effects
Symptoms had escalated over two to three years before a severe, bedridden phase lasting about ten months from the start of seventh grade, with headaches, sore throat, ear pain, nausea, vomiting and around 12 hours of sleep nightly.
- Side effects
Tried Kenny De Meirleir's treatment over about eighteen months, low-dose naltrexone (LDN), a self-help course at Aker University Hospital, and was referred to Mette Johnsgård, before eventually taking a Lightning Process course with follow-up support; De Meirleir gave her only two good weeks in eighteen months despite significant cost, and LDN "helped a little at first, but then the effect wore off." She had been ill for about seven years, unwell enough that she eventually had to stop volunteering for the ME association.
All 81 accounts
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I'm 100% Healthy After Long COVID
Credits the Lightning Process. Eleanor was ill 4mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Maintained wellness five years; cross-posted elsewhere.
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits Lightning Process and visualization. Eleanor was ill 1 year (onset Mar 2020) with long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Recovered in 6 months.
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114: 75,000+ People Recovered—Here's How It Works (Dr. Phil Parker)
Credits Lightning Process. Phil had ME/CFS and is listed among the recovery accounts. Lightning Process founder, expert not patient.
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This Is How I Recovered From Long Covid
Credits the Lightning Process and CBT or psychological work. Gill Deacon was ill 20mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Promotes a $1,900 Lightning Process workshop by name.
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Celebrating 1 Year on From the LP Course
Credits the Lightning Process. Hannah had ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Completed a 1.5km swim one year after the course.
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Can Brain Retraining Help Me Recover From Long Covid?
Credits the Lightning Process and brain retraining. Amy was ill 18mo with severe long COVID and reports a substantial improvement. Independent magazine profile of a Recovery Norway subject.
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Monnica
Credits the Lightning Process and brain retraining. Monnica was ill 2y with severe long COVID and is described as almost fully recovered. Describes herself at the 90% end.
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From Long Covid to London Marathon
Credits brain retraining and the Lightning Process. Rachel was ill 15mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Went on to run the London Marathon.
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Overcoming CFS Relapses: Rebuilding and Shifting Perspectives
Credits the Lightning Process, mickel therapy and CBT or psychological work. Katy was ill 10y with severe ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Says recovery is not permanent without maintained habits.
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I'm 100% Healthy After Long Covid
Credits the Lightning Process. Eleanor was ill 4mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Maintained wellness five years per the account.
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How the Lightning Process helped my ME/CFS
Credits the Lightning Process. Natalie had moderate ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. 3-day Lightning Process training; posted on a company blog.
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I am back to myself – fun with family and friends, working in a full-time job that I love!
Took a three-day online Lightning Process course over Zoom, at a cost of £800, after her GP suspected ME/CFS and suggested she might need a wheelchair, and then did the course's mental exercises "around 100 times a day for the first four months." Her Long…
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Instead of feeling guilty and tired out, I feel confident to live my life – I know how to manage my emotions better
Took an online Lightning Process course in November 2021, after a hospital ME/CFS clinic attended for "a couple of years," an unnamed alternative therapy and counselling had not produced a breakthrough. She had cycled through "crash and burn" episodes of…
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A farewell letter to chronic fatigue
Svein Tore Røynestad took a Lightning Process course led by Live Landmark at Easter 2021, after about six years of chronic fatigue (also referred to as ME) that began in autumn 2015. He describes low energy, flu-like feelings, restlessness and poor…
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At the CFS/ME centre they were shocked to see how ill I was. Today I could not be happier with my life
Nina Caspersen took a Lightning Process training course with Live Landmark after several years of severe CFS/ME that developed following cancer treatment (surgery, chemotherapy and radiation) in 2012-13. She became bedridden and wheelchair-dependent, unable…
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I had to work incredibly hard to avoid reverting to the pattern of exhaustion I had been stuck in
Attended a Lightning Process course in December 2017 together with her sister, after a psychologist had lifted her depression but not her fatigue and a hospital ME assessment found nothing. She had been ill since a burnout in November 2012 at a psychiatric…
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My brain maintained my condition by pondering questions such as: 'How am I doing today, which symptoms are the hardest, and consequently; what will I be doing today?'
Minja's recovery centred on gradual "baby steps" increases in activity combined with mindfulness, breathing exercises and progressive relaxation (drawing on teacher Rick Hanson), Brené Brown's podcast "Unlocking Us," and therapy she had previously used for…
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I am no longer afraid of symptoms, or a few days of tiredness, because I know it will pass!
She took a Lightning Process course in January 2016, after going on sick leave in April 2015 with severe fatigue that doctors could not explain and that left her unable to leave home, see friends, exercise or cook; she says even "brushing my teeth felt like…
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I think insight and help to find strategies made all the difference for my daughter
The daughter, then 13, recovered from CFS/ME (triggered by glandular fever) by taking a Lightning Process course with instructor Ingvild Harila Feed in Sandnes. She had been bedridden for 13 months, losing all her energy and unable to continue playing…
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I had long Covid. I have fully recovered
In May, Rachel Whitfield did a three-day Lightning Process training course for long COVID that began with a mild case testing positive in December, followed by boom-bust cycles of "crippling fatigue, covid toes, covid strangle throat, burning back, anxiety,…
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Rachel Whitfield
She used rest, pacing via the spoon-theory method of small weekly activity increases, sleep aids followed by mindfulness-based sleep acceptance, meditation, a hot tub, a COVID-recovery yoga group, and breathing-retraining physiotherapy with a practitioner…
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Journey Out of Long Covid: Living a Fantastic Life Again
Credits the Lightning Process. Marion was ill 15mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. PoTS resolved in 48 hours; resumed choirs and gardening.
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I was an ME patient for 23 years. I was in care. Today I can do anything I want, and I enjoy living my life
In 2017 she took a three-day Lightning Process course with practitioner Live Landmark in Oslo after 23 years of "serious degree" ME (diagnosed by neurologist Harald Nyland in 1996), which by then had left her bedbound, wheelchair-dependent, unable to speak…
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It is incredible to see how the mind and body is connected
She recovered by taking a Lightning Process course, after almost three years of severe, undiagnosed fatigue and progressive weakness that doctors, including her GP, a private doctor, and a doctor at Olympiatoppen, could not explain despite innumerable blood…
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Eight years of sickness is history. My son once again has a mother, my husband has a wife, and I've got a life!
Lotte attended a three-day Lightning Process course with practitioner Live Landmark, learning "basic neurology and about the functioning of the brain" and using the method several times a day, after eight years of ME/CFS requiring 12-18 hours of rest daily…
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Our daughter was 10 years old, and every week mom had to carry her to her GP for help
Her parents credit a Lightning Process course taken in January, after preparing with Live Landmark's book, with their daughter's recovery from severe ME, following an earlier four-week stay at the Catosenteret rehabilitation centre for children and…
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From a nursing patient to a mountain climber: For four years I lay completely helpless and motionless in bed
Jan Even Raastad credits a Lightning Process course run in his home in late 2010 by Live Landmark and a medical student, after years of prednisone, Imurel, Remicade, Nexavir, antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, growth hormones and countless supplements had…
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The best thing I have done is to say: no way will I accept that my daughter will just lie there and suffer indefinitely, without us being able to do anything
Her mother credits a phone consultation and course with Lightning Process coach Live Landmark, alongside a four-week stay, later repeated, at the Catosenteret rehabilitation centre run by Dr Bard Fossli Jensen, for her daughter's recovery from ME. Before…
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To anyone struggling with ME, I want to say that you can get well!
A woman who fell ill with ME at 29 while studying graphic design and working at a coffee shop credits a Lightning Process course, taken after finding hope reading other recovery stories, with her recovery, though the account does not name the instructor or…
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You can recover completely!
Live Landmark credits the Lightning Process, a three-day course she took in London for 15,000 Norwegian kroner, with her recovery from ME, diagnosed by a neurology professor at Haukeland Hospital who told her "there is no cure." She had been ill for about…
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My whole world and understanding of things had been turned upside down, in the best way possible
Alex did a three-day home-visit Lightning Process course with practitioner Kathy Kent, based on Phil Parker's method, after roughly three years of ME/CFS that left him room-bound for about a year, able to reach the bathroom only once a day at his worst, and…
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Since my recovery, I have completed medical school and worked as a doctor – full-time
Thomas Overvik, a medical student, attended a three-day Lightning Process course in London in summer 2011 after about nine months of illness that began roughly eight months into medical school in autumn 2010, bringing repeated infections, headaches,…
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My daughter was ill for eight years, lying in the dark, being fed through a tube. Today she is well
Her father Thomas Overvik credits the Lightning Process, taught by phone and then in a course with Live Landmark in November, for her recovery, after the family had resisted trying it for more than six years. She had been ill for about eight years with…
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Now our daughter will go out and experience happiness and sorrow – just like other teenagers. She has got her life back
She attended a three-day residential Lightning Process course in Lysaker, Oslo in February, after her mother read Live Landmark's book "Wake me up when it's over" with her beforehand. She had been ill for about three years, eventually becoming bedridden and…
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I was a mother with ME and two children sick with ME – There is hope!
Anette completed a three-day Lightning Process course in November 2017 after 13 years of ME/CFS during which she was bedbound 15-20 hours a day with severe pain, cognitive impairment and sound/light sensitivity. Her son (ill 7 years) and daughter Viktoria…
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The best thing I have done is to say: no way will I accept my daughter will suffer
Aftur, the then-14-year-old daughter in this account, had four weeks of intravenous antibiotics, a biopath-prescribed supplement regimen taken three to four times daily, a strict no-sugar, no-carbohydrate diet, and acupuncture, before doing a 3-day Lightning…
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At last, there was somebody who understood. This is why I was on the phone, crying because of the kindness of these strangers
Recovered following a self-owned graded activity plan designed with Hans Petter Fundingsrud, head of department at University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) in Tromso, after the family was connected to him via former footballer Arild Berg and a Swedish…
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From having to sit in a wheelchair, I can now be active again and go training
Recovered through a three-day Lightning Process course in Oslo in May 2019, run by Live Landmark, after an earlier hospital rehabilitation programme had not resolved her illness. Ill for about two years and three months from February 2017, she deteriorated…
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Trial By Error: Joan McParland's Lightning Process Experience
She took a three-day Lightning Process course (10am-2pm daily, costing GBP880), an NLP-based technique using standing on paper circles, affirmations, and rhymes, after ten years of severe ME/CFS. Participants, including her, were instructed to tell…
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Never, never give up hope that you can make progress towards your goal of recovery
Credits the Lightning Process, which he took in 2005 after eight years of illness and many prior approaches including acupuncture, juicing, meditation and yoga, nutritionist-prescribed supplements, herbal medicine, naturopathy, Chinese herbs, functional…
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No magic was involved, no pills or medical stuff. Just my inner power and the power of my brain
Recovered through the Lightning Process, a brain-retraining course she took in London on the first available date after finding it online. She had been ill for about a year from September 2015, seeing immunologists, neurologists and cardiologists who…
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I had a shower stool and a wheelchair, but today I am proud and extremely happy to say that I have recovered
Recovered through a Lightning Process course in August 2018, signing up after a conversation with someone who had recovered via LP overcame her earlier scepticism from what she'd read online. She had collapsed completely at Easter 2017, some time after a…
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My daughter's ME recovery story
A mother describes her daughter's recovery through two Lightning Process courses, the first in Newcastle in January 2009 and a second about a year later with a different instructor, after a stay at Catosenteret rehabilitation centre during which her…
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It has been important for me to feel ownership to my own process. I've been my own coach all the way
Torill Sorkmo credits a self-designed recovery approach combining meditation, mindfulness, visualisation and a focus on positive ("endorphin") thinking, developed after seeing a Gestalt therapist and a psychologist and after Dr Paul Kavli in Oslo diagnosed…
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When school started after the summer holiday, it was as if he'd never been ill
A mother describes her ten-year-old son's recovery through a Lightning Process course, recommended by a doctor who had himself once been an LP instructor, after about eight months of illness beginning with a cold in January 2018. He slept up to 17 hours a…
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Much of what made me ill, was probably the expectation that I would get ill
Eilen Sor-Reime attended a Lightning Process course in Oslo in summer 2017, followed in March 2018 by Dr Bjarte Stubhaug's stress-management clinic in Fitjar, after a Fitline/cell-reset detox treatment earlier that summer; she was formally diagnosed with ME…
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The symptoms often made me feel stressed and worried, as I saw them as a sign that something was wrong with my body
An anonymous woman in her 30s credits a Lightning Process course with Live Landmark, taken after reading one of Landmark's books, following years of worsening exercise-triggered symptoms that eventually cut her functioning by around half; she avoided a…
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If I had believed all the negative things I read on the net, I would not have recovered
Lea attended a three-day Lightning Process course run by Live Landmark after roughly a year of illness that included acupuncture, naprapathy, medical yoga and cutting out gluten and sugar, none of which had helped. Before the course she was diagnosed with…
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Our daughter learnt how to shift her focus away from the illness, and to replace 'sickness thoughts' with 'healthy thoughts'
Celina's parents credit a three-day Lightning Process course, taken in Oslo in June 2018 with her father, for her recovery. She had suffered stomach troubles for about eight years, was diagnosed with coeliac disease in September 2017, and by early 2018 had…
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I was once one of the most severely ill people in Norway: How I recovered from ME
Recovered using the Lightning Process, taught at home over three days by a female LP instructor after Høvern had read English media reports of LP recoveries and the method reached Norway around 2008. She had been ill since a musical overexertion in 1998,…
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I created a situation where the evidence for what I was worried about, was created by the worries themselves
Oda used ANS REWIRE, Dan Neuffer's online video-based nervous-system retraining program, after years of trying vitamins, minerals, probiotics, dietary changes and thyroid medication, and considering but not pursuing the Lightning Process. She had been ill…
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It is hard to put aside principles you have set up because you so desperately want to be believed
She attended a Lightning Process course in February 2018; by the third day she was able to spend "a whole hour going for a walk," which left her "weeping for joy." She had felt unwell for around three years during university, with a breakdown after an exam…
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Emil learnt to control his focus by himself, and then things improved very quickly
Emil did an initial three-day Lightning Process course with a private tutorial, then repeated a second course three months later as an observer, both led by Live Landmark, alongside a parent-led strategy of keeping him engaged in enjoyable activities.…
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My journey into ME
The author, who had years of prior psychotherapy, did a Lightning Process course, which she credits with teaching her to "reprogram" the brain structures behind her illness. She traces her severe ME to a childhood marked by her mother's untreated psychiatric…
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I was one of the most severe cases of ME, but recovered completely
Hanne did a Lightning Process course on 30 July 2008, taught by Live Landmark, Vibeke Hammer and Barbara Harvey. She had been severely ill with ME for about two years from age 13, at her worst bedridden 24 hours a day in a darkened, soundproofed room,…
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Burned out. A journey in and out of exile from life.
Bård attended a three-day Lightning Process course about eight months after falling ill, and says he "declared myself healthy after the first day." He had been unable to work for about a year after his last working day in October 2015, following a burnout…
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I had to move in with my mother to get care, but now I define myself as recovered
Anne Mari did a three-day Lightning Process course in September 2018, which she says gave her "more stable energy and an inner confidence of recovery." She had been ill for about a year after contracting Q-fever in November 2017, diagnosed in April 2018 with…
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For me it was about realising that the mind and body is connected, and learn that I could influence my health through cognitive tools
Recovered through a three-day Lightning Process course, learning "cognitive tools" that he says had "an immediate effect" on his physical and mental health, after care from public and private clinics and multiple doctors and hospital specialists had not…
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What is ME? A spiral down into unwellness
Took a Lightning Process course in late 2005, recommended by a functional medicine doctor, after earlier trying acupuncture and Thought Field Therapy/tapping with practitioner Mats Uldal. She had developed ME after a traumatic accident and surgery in 2001,…
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If I could sleep for a hundred years…
Had psychomotor physiotherapy from early 2017, which gave her "a compass to navigate by," then took a Lightning Process course that included six months of follow-up support. She had experienced fatigue for about ten years, worsening through autumn 2015 until…
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When I read my story today about my illness period, I can hardly believe how bad it was
Attended a three-day Lightning Process course in Oslo in September 2017, after eight hours of municipal cognitive therapy had earlier proved "incredibly effective" and helped her avoid a formal ME/CFS diagnosis. She had been severely ill for about 18 months…
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So, here I am, never better!
Tried Kenny De Meirleir's treatment over about eighteen months, low-dose naltrexone (LDN), a self-help course at Aker University Hospital, and was referred to Mette Johnsgård, before eventually taking a Lightning Process course with follow-up support; De…
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The illness experience, and the tools I learnt, made me an Olympic athlete
Recovered through a three-day Lightning Process course in December 2009 with her father, taught by two newly licensed instructors from the new Norwegian company Aktiv Prosess, after nothing else had helped — not a GP who told her to exercise through the…
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For me it became vital to think that I was well, to say I was well
Recovered using the Lightning Process, taught over two days in her soundproofed bedroom on 11-13 December 2007 by an LP coach who had herself recovered from bedridden ME, after her mother heard about the method and her doctor recommended it having seen other…
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It is awfully demanding when you are seriously ill, but it is well worth the effort!
Took a Lightning Process course in November after seven years of ME/CFS, having initially been advised against it by the ME association. Before the course she was bedridden and able to walk only a few meters, with breathing difficulty, muscle weakness,…
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I was transferred to a nursing home, laid out in darkness, not leaving bed for 15 months. But then my world view changed radically
Took a three-day Lightning Process course from a Welsh LP coach in a Trondheim nursing home in autumn 2007, while still bedridden. He had been diagnosed with ME in 2004 by Professor Harald Nyland at Haukeland Hospital after mononucleosis and pneumonia, and…
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To me ME is no great mystery
Recovered through one-on-one talks with Dr. Arne Stenstrøm, a Bodø physician who had himself recovered from ME, starting in 2009 after twelve years and, he says, over two million kroner spent chasing treatment from doctors in Belgium, Minnesota, Poland,…
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Our daughter felt that she was more in control over her own situation, that she could now play an active part in her own recovery
Took a three-day Lightning Process course with her parents around 2012/13, taught by instructor Live Landmark, about a year after being diagnosed with ME as one of the youngest such cases in Norway at around age eleven. Before the course she had been…
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I want to recover – but how?
Took a three-day Lightning Process course around January 2018, about a year after falling ill, following two ME/CFS diagnoses from a doctor who offered no treatment beyond suggesting a health retreat, and after declining a hospital ME clinic appointment for…
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I got my life back!
Attended a three-day Lightning Process course in 2015, after a physical therapist had suggested her nervous system was misfiring and could be retrained. She had been ill with ME/CFS since 2008 at age 19, eventually needing weekly home care, a shower stool…
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This illness will last for a long time. And why is that? Because I am already prepared to die – inside
Attended a one-on-one Lightning Process course over four days (22-25 April 2014) in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, England, with trainer Heather Thomas, after her mother had already tried acupuncture, natural pills, syrups, oils, restricted diets and herbs…
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At that moment it was absolutely essential that I was there
Took a three-day Lightning Process course at home in Norway at the end of May 2008, taught by two LP trainers, with her husband supporting her through it. She had been severely ill with ME/CFS for about nine years, the last two of them bedridden in a…
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Recovery Story Survey Suggests Some Commonalities
Combined yoga breathing exercises, dietary changes and other selectively chosen natural approaches with a scientific basis, for ME/CFS, while explicitly rejecting the Lightning Process as an option. Illness duration and severity are not detailed in this…
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Fibromyalgia/CFS Recovery Story: Berit Frivold
Credits the Lightning Process. Berit was ill 13y with moderate ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Later became a Lightning Process practitioner herself.
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Long Covid - Neuroplastic and Mind-Body Resources
Credits brain retraining and the Lightning Process. Molly had long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Combined DNRS and Lightning Process; 80% then full by 8 weeks.
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The Joy of Being Well
Credits the Lightning Process. James had ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Listed under the CFS/ME tag archive.
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Change Is Possible for Those With CFS
Credits the Lightning Process. Alastair had ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Listed under the CFS/ME tag archive.
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My Long Covid Solution: I Feel Like a Different Person
Credits the Lightning Process. Charlotte was ill 7mo with severe long COVID and is described as almost fully recovered. Driving, cooking, socialising within 7 weeks post-course.
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Rachel Whitfield, UK
Credits the Lightning Process. Rachel was ill 5mo with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Listed date is a template artifact.
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The Lightning Process - His Last-Ditch Effort for M.E.
Simon's recovery centered on the Lightning Process, alongside earlier CBT and a general multivitamin, mineral and vitamin C regimen; beyond noting it teaches relaxation techniques and is more than self-hypnosis, the page gives no detail on the Lightning…
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I am writing this to give other people hope: yes, it is possible to recover
Credits the Lightning Process. An unnamed patient was ill 13mo with severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. 13-year-old girl, bedbound; published by LP itself.