archive link

Over three days on Zoom, the course taught the ritual that forms the basis of the programme. Every time you experience a symptom or negative thought, you say the word "stop", make a choice to avoid these symptoms and then do a positive visualisation of a time you felt well.

You do this while walking around a piece of paper printed with symbols - a ritual the BBC was told to do as many as 50 times a day.

This costs £1000. Their target market is people who are often far too sick to work, and who have extreme difficulty accessing disability benefits due to the politicized nature of long covid.

In some cases the Lightning Process has encouraged participants to increase their activity levels without medical supervision, against official advice - which could make some more unwell, according to NHS guidelines.

A large proportion of people with long covid, and many of the most severely affected, have ME/CFS, which is a disorder of cellular energy production. People with ME/CFS deteriorate with overexertion, and for most this is irreversible.

The only way to manage this and prevent ongoing decline is pacing, which refers to a practice of monitoring your body for symptoms and restricting activity before it becomes too much. This is exceptionally difficult to practice from a psychological standpoint. It's also the exact opposite of what this process programs people to do.

High quality article on long covid fatigue here for those interested - archive link

The coach on the course stressed the importance of avoiding negative thoughts and words like "pain" and "fatigue", claiming using them can continue symptoms.

When we put these specific claims to Dr Parker [founder of this program], he said our questions seemed to be "informed solely by the rumours and misinformation" circulated by what he called "anti-recovery activists".

I have noticed that people in positions of power who push psychological therapies for neglected physical diseases like ME/CFS often use language like this - they speak of "rabid advocates" who "attack them." In general these types maintain that these patients, who almost without exception are not able to access any medical care for their illness, simply "don't want to get better" because of "secondary gains" (e.g attention, disability benefits) of being sick.