Three Days Which Changed My Life
Vanessa Cecil

I was lecturing at a sixth form college when I caught the flu which had laid low most of the students and staff that year. The flu became ME; the months became years. By the time I heard of the Lightning Process I was housebound, weak, woefully underweight and barely getting through each day. The telephone and internet kept me in touch with the outside world and through an ME forum I heard about the LP. A few weeks later I did the "treatment" – strictly speaking a training – and over the space of 3 days my life turned around; within a week I had walked 8 miles up and down 1:4 gradient hills, within a month I was living a busy, active, “normal” life:travelling, dancing, drinking, shopping – lots of shopping, studying. A life that felt anything but normal; it felt extraordinary. And still does.
That initial transformation in my health was rapid and astonishing – I arrived for the training in bed in a camper van, I left taking the train alone, suitcase in hand, relishing tackling the station platform steps. The changes over the following year were less spectacular but just as exciting as my new life took shape. Every few weeks I experienced something new: getting up at 4.30 to catch a fl ight, embarking on new academic courses, planning cycle rides or simply going to a party knowing that I could stay out as late as I wanted.
I had been sceptical when I first heard about the LP. After years trying one therapy after another – roughly 50 in total – I was suspicious of something that not only claimed a greater than 90 % success rate but took only three days. Three days? I set to work investigating it as best I could, reading web sites, fi ring off emails, speaking to people who had done it and marvelling at their stories. Stories to make you weep and laugh. I put to one side my scepticism and my fear that this would be yet another wonder cure which would let me down and I plunged into the training with 100% commitment having taken someone's advice to suspend my disbelief for 3 days. Invaluable advice.
LP was developed from Neuro-linguistic Programming, Gestalt Therapy and other interventions as a way to cut through the cycle that maintains ME's unrelenting symptoms by interrupting the dysfunctional production of adrenaline and cortisol. The theory is that the initial trigger for the illness, a virus for example, causes a stress response and the release of adrenaline. This should normally be a short-term measure but unless the stress is relieved hormone production continues apace and affects important bodily functions, overstimulating some and depressing others, notably the immune system which results in further physiological stress, further release of stress hormones and thus a vicious cycle.
The stresses that maintain the illness after the virus has gone on its way are eliminated by the LP which quickly stops the hormone production and relieves symptoms. Or that is to say, the frequent, regular, and consistent application of the LP technique does so. That is the crux of the training – the client needs motivation and diligence to use the process over and over until ME is a thing of the past. This takes some people longer than others but the process itself is simple and anyone, child or adult, severely or mildly affected, can do it. Nor does the length of the illness seem to matter .
To date there have been no formal studies to substantiate the claims of high success rates nor, as it has not long been available, are there yet any anecdotal reports of long term benefit. However, Professor Findley of the National ME Centre is sufficiently impressed to recommend it to his patients and, with a LP trainer who once worked with him as an OT, is currently involved in a pilot study to evaluate the results.
While training to be an LP practitioner myself I met scores of others who had cleared their ME by using the process. We swapped stories of our transformations, of the eager disposal of our wheelchairs, of stunning our friends and families, of our new lives. Knowing that the complete turnaround in my health and life – my renaissance you could say – is due to my having learnt a simple process, something that I do myself, is highly empowering. And because I now have this skill to use whenever I may need it I know that there is no question of relapse. By day three of the training my ME was gone; rebuilding muscle and stamina took a little longer and every month I would be fitter than the last. Today Hannah, Penny and I and hundreds of others are active and healthy. Life is a great, new, wonderful adventure.